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Peter Ungphakorn

@coppetainpu.bsky.social

4.6K followers 780 following 1.6K posts

In 🇨🇭, from all over. Mainly trade. Journalist. WTO Secretariat 1996-2015. Usual disclaimers. Member: http://fmg-geneva.org. Web: https://tradebetablog.wordpress.com/ (follow for alerts)

fmg-geneva.org.

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 29d

Farewell Rick Davies

youtu.be/i9DcQtpfwAk?...

Supertramp - From Now On (Audio)

YouTube video by Supertramp Official

youtu.be

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 6h

Streaming services are now required to turn the dial down on commercial advertisements that blare louder than providers’ content under legislation signed into law Monday by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Los Angeles Times @latimes.com · 6h

Relief from ear-splitting commercials on streamers with new California law

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law legislation that will prohibit commercials louder than TV and film content on streaming services.

www.latimes.com

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Reposted by Peter Ungphakorn

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

Due to the Chatham House Rule, nobody can report that I’m the one in the back of every meeting who yells “It’s not Chatham House Rules! There’s only one rule!” and causes everyone to groan

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 1d

Tis pumpkin time

www.swissinfo.ch/eng/search/P...

Photo of a crowd looking at 3 massive pumpkins. Caption: At 766kg, Florian Isler’s pumpkin was the heaviest on show at the Swiss Pumpkin Weighing Championships on Saturday in Jona, canton St Gallen.

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 2d

I can just about accept CDs are "old-timey technology". But digital cameras? Just because they are separate from a phone? That's not technology. It's packaging. Digital cameras use bang up-to-date technology.

The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 2d

Meet the teens and twenty-somethings resurrecting CDs, digital cameras and other old-timey technology.

Young People Are Falling in Love With Old Technology

Driven by a feeling they’ve lost control to screens, twenty-somethings are resurrecting CDs, flip phones and digital cameras

on.wsj.com

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 2d

🧵 ⬇️ on claimed benefits of Brexit

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 2d

OK, let's take this seriously. I had an odd half an hour and via Apple Books had a quick look at the three claims I knew most about - two re the post-Brexit bilateral preferential trade agreements replicated from the EU versions and one about cheaper bananas. All are wrong or wildly implausible. 1/n

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 2d

Liverpool have seriously under-invested in the Women's team and they sold their best player for a record fee without making any attempt to fill the gap

Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 2d

Yaxley-Lennon/Robinson’s media platform, Urban Scoop, appears to have buried a long text it published online in 2022 under the title: “Tommy’s Statement: The Jewish Question”.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

UK Jewish groups condemn Israeli minister’s invite to Tommy Robinson

Far-right activist described as ‘thug who represents worst of Britain’ after invitation to Israel sparks outrage

www.theguardian.com

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 2d

The trouble these days is selling the "C" and the "D"

Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 3d

Here's a bit more detail

www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Badenoch says her migration plan ‘credible’, but won’t say where 150,000 people a year being removed will go – UK politics live

Conservative leader grilled over her removals proposal ahead of party conference opening later today

www.theguardian.com

Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 3d

😎

Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 3d

Good idea. Few have heard of the OECD, let alone know what it does. This would drag it into the national conversation and give it the higher profile it deserves.

Ciaran Martin @ciaranm.bsky.social · 3d

Going to launch a campaign for
British withdrawal from the OECD, just for a laugh

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 3d

That too. Simple.

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 3d

We have the answer

bsky.app/profile/adam...

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 3d

Kemi Badenoch asked where she would send the 150,000 people she says she would deport every year, replies that it's an "irrelevant question".

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 3d

Aside from all the other comments, where would they be deported to?

Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 3d

Batshit.

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 3d

Sad, sad news. Dr Ammar was not well-known outside Thailand except among specialists eg @ifpri.org, but he was a major influence on my career: ag and rice economics, even GATT and the Uruguay Round, and much more. I owe him so much.

world.thaipbs.or.th/detail/respe...

Respected economist Ammar Siamwalla passes away at 86

Ammar Siamwalla, one of the country’s most prominent and respected economists, who specialised in agricultural and development economics, passed away today at the age of 86.

world.thaipbs.or.th

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Reposted by Peter Ungphakorn

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 3d

What an admirably clear statement from the Jewish Leadership Council, especially when all of those involved must surely have been dealing with so many other urgent challenges in safety, security and grief + shock today before having this further divisive and distracting intervention to address too.

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 3d

Yes. I think we were just saying it would look better if the World Service were funded by the Foreign Office than by the Defence Ministry, without getting into the question of how it would budgeted.

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 3d

Sure. Wherever the money comes from -- defence, ODA, FCDO, culture, or anything -- would mean a change in budgeting.

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 4d

Yes and better than using the defence budget.

Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 4d

It was on Have I Got News For You last night

PoliticsHome @politicshome.bsky.social · 4d

Both the government and the company, Multiverse, have confirmed the claim is false

PoliticsHome understands that the government is looking to ramp up its communication around the digital ID scheme to combat misinformation

@zoecrowther.bsky.social reports

BBC Apologises For Airing Fake Claim About Digital ID Scheme

The BBC has apologised for airing a false claim about Tony Blair's son's company being awarded a government contract to produce the new mandatory d...

www.politicshome.com

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 4d

Yes, the Foreign Office used to pay for it.

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 4d

So ICE did not know "Opium" was a perfume.

As if people go around carrying drugs in labelled containers.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Arkansas man, arrested over perfume bottle police mistook for ‘opium’, seeks to restore visa

Police thought bottle contained drugs and arrested Kapil Raghu, who was then taken into custody by Ice

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Peter Ungphakorn

Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · 5d

This is outrageous.
Pretty sure those aggressive men - who after being challenged in Stirchley came back and defaced the shutters of a cafe which had objected to the bloody flags going up - do not have permission to do this, so are committing an offence while the police protect them!

Unreal

(1) A person who, without either the consent of the highway authority for the highway in question or an authorisation given by or under an enactment or a reasonable excuse, paints or otherwise inscribes or affixes any picture, letter, sign or other mark upon the surface of a highway or upon any tree, structure or works on or in a highway is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding [F1level 4 on the standard scale].

Highways Act 1980 Part IX Damage to highways, streets...Section 132
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/66/section/132

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Reposted by Peter Ungphakorn

David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 4d

I realise that there are lots of erudite and entirely correct reasons against leaving the ECHR, but surely the main one to be repeated ad nauseam is "from the people who told you Brexit would solve all of your problems - how did that work out for you?"

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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 4d

Wow. Ouch!

dag @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 4d

This letter is worth reading carefully.

Victoria Derbyshire @vicderbyshire.bsky.social · 5d

Baroness Mone hits out at Kemi Badenoch over PPE VIP lanes:

‘I acted no differently than Matt Hancock who referred 4 companies…
And let’s not forget Michael Gove & his referral of 4 contracts to his friend David Meller’

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