While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, July 16
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Two Americans of Vietnamese descent and four Vietnamese nationals were found dead at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
6 found dead in Bangkok hotel; Thai PM orders probe
Six people were found dead at an upmarket hotel in Bangkok on July 16, the Thai government said, as Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin ordered a swift investigation to stem any damage to the tourism sector.
Two of the dead were Americans of Vietnamese descent and four were Vietnamese nationals, according to Mr Srettha.
“From the preliminary examination of the scene, it was assumed that they had been poisoned,” said Major-General Theeradej Thumsuthee, chief investigator of the Metropolitan Police Bureau.
He added that there were signs that all six, before they died, drank coffee or tea. A preliminary autopsy did not find any injuries, he said.
Four in five Americans fear country sliding into chaos
Americans fear their country is spiralling out of control following an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, with worries growing that the Nov 5 election could spark more political violence, a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on July 16 found.
The two-day poll found Republican presidential candidate Trump opening a marginal lead among registered voters - 43 per cent to 41 per cent - over Democratic US President Joe Biden, an advantage that was within the poll’s 3 percentage point margin of error, suggesting the attempt on Trump’s life had not sparked a major shift in voter sentiment.
But 80 per cent of voters - including similar shares of Democrats and Republicans - said they agreed with a statement that “the country is spiralling out of the control.”
US received intel of Iranian plot to assassinate Trump
EPA-EFE
The United States received intelligence in recent weeks about an Iranian plot to assassinate former president Donald Trump, CNN said on July 16, and a US official said the Secret Service shared details of an increased threat with the Trump campaign.
The White House declined to comment, but said there were no indications that the suspected shooter in the July 13 attempted assassination of Trump had any foreign or domestic accomplices.
Iran said the accusations against it were “unsubstantiated and malicious.”
Russia mocked as it leads UN meeting on ‘a more just’ world
Ukraine and dozens of other nations accused Russia of hypocrisy on July 16 as it presided over a United Nations meeting on how countries can work together to make the world a more just place.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and routinely attacks civilian targets as it wages war on its pro-Western neighbour, holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council in July.
On July 16, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov led a debate entitled “Multilateral cooperation in the interest of a more just, democratic and sustainable world order.”
Air pollution warning for Paris Olympic village
REUTERS
A French charity warned on July 16 about air pollution problems at the athletes’ village for the Paris Olympics which is set to welcome the first of thousands of competitors later this week.
Respire, which released a report into air quality problems at sports fields around the French capital, said that its results showed that “almost all” of the worst polluted sites were close to the Paris ring road.
The Olympic village in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Ouen sits just beside the eight-lane highway, which is visible from many of the apartments.
