19 Aug 24 Monday Briefing

Oh to be a star…

News Roundup

Last week was a good week to be the scion of a Hakka Chinese political dynasty in Thailand! I imagine this was Old Man Thaksin’s plan all along, for Pheu Thai to gain control of the country, install a caretaker puppet for a year, edge him out on a very convenient charge, and put Favourite Daughter Paetongtarn in power the very same day he is royally pardoned. None of this is terribly surprising for Southeast Asian watchers, especially when you realise just how many notable Chinese political figures are of Hakka origin – think Deng Xiaoping, Sun Yat-sen, Lee Kuan Yew, Thaksin Shinawatra, Ne Win, Penny Wong and how could we forget that Brother of Jesus nutcase.

No one could’ve predicted how Gaia herself would wreak mouldy havoc on an untreated Austrian spruce building in the tropics, in a tale of architectural hubris as old as time. I’m shocked, I tell you. Shocked. (h/t my lovely partner)

Singapore’s health minister Ong Ye Kung thinks Mpox is “very worrying”, which is a signal that the authorities are probably more worried than they’re letting on, and coming hot on the heels of that is a report that a Filipino with no travel history outside the Philippines has been diagnosed as its first case of Mpox.

Gold rallies to a record high, which is generally not a good signal of confidence in the USD.

Watch/Scroll

So, this is how a Thai PM is sworn in – obeisance to the crown.

One thing Kishore Mahbubani is right about is that we’re living in an era of exceptional change. *buckles seatbelt* Worth watching in full.

Read

GLP-1 receptor agonist medications, a mouthful for a class of brand-name medications like Ozempic, seem to work on a lot more conditions than just obesity – Scott Alexander of Astral Codex Ten delves into this fascinating rabbit hole of GLP-1 drugs’ side effects.

The love story between a “95-year old diamond heiress” and a “much younger gender-fluid reality star” getting fae on TikTok is the sort of cursed headline I can’t look away from.

Ponder

Not a very good look for one’s chief of staff to quit just days before you’re about to go stumping for relevance outside your usual circuses of Hollywood and London (although the Duchess of Sussex speaking Spanish in Colombia seemed to have charmed audiences). What is the “Sussex Meat Grinder” and why can’t we seem to get enough of people who now have to work for a living? Schadenfreude? Free entertainment?