<p>PM2.5 has gained wide public awareness amongst Thais for nearly a decade. Many probably have questioned how much longer we need to live with the health crisis brought on by the annual recurrent problem of ultra-fine dust particles which the World Health Organization (WHO) claimed causes 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide each year. &nbsp;</p>

<p>In Thailand, efforts to control Aedes mosquitoes and dengue fever have produced uneven results.&nbsp;Over the past few decades, the toll of the disease has diminished in some areas. In others, mosquito-borne infections remain high. To improve the situation, control measures are being reconsidered.</p>

<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>The rainy season comes and goes, leaving behind hundreds of thousands dengue fever patients. Each year, hundreds die of the disease. The recurring outbreak was bad enough before. Now mosquitoes have developed improved resistance to control measures, creating a new challenge for public health officials.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p>When the Mekong River changes,&nbsp; a way of life does too. Listen to the reflections of two generations of &ldquo;Mekong people&rdquo; from Pho Sai District, Ubon Ratchathani Province, who are facing dead plants, disappearing fish, falling incomes, and diminished tourism &ndash;&nbsp;because of upstream dams in China.</p>

<p>For a third year, Prachatai has opened all budget documents to add up all the expenses related to the monarchy that are scattered among various agencies.</p>

<p>Since 2017, King Rama X has issued at least 112 royal edicts appointing and demoting royal officials and the royal consort, bestowing royal decorations, appointing monks to the Sangha Supreme Council and expressing political views, which raises questions over accountability under the King Can Do No Wrong principle.</p>

<p>The approximately 4-metre-tall concrete monument located near the Lak Si roundabout disappeared without trace on 28 Dec 2018, even though it was situated in front of Bangkhen Police Station. However, no one has been able to answer &ndash; how did the monument disappear even when 5 months earlier it had been registered as a National Historic Site in the Royal Gazette?</p>

<p>The aridity of the Thung Kula Ronghai region&rsquo;s alkaline soil is behind the Hom Mali rice strain&rsquo;s popularity as a world-renowned export. The rice farmers and the special care they put into their production method have succeeded in turning their despair at the unpredictability of the rain cycle into assets. While quite a number of Isaan (northeastern Thai) people prefer sticky rice to regular rice for everyday consumption, the jasmine or &lsquo;Hom Mali 105&rsquo; variety has been grown in Isaan for 70 years. How did the popularity of this particular rice variety come about?</p>

<p>Two myths created by the media caused misunderstandings. One is that Chiang Mai faced the most severe problem, and the second is that this problem is likely to increase in severity every year. Statistics over the past 24 years indicate otherwise.</p>

<p>In news reports less than 10 years ago, the new problem of PM2.5 dust was added to news items in the Thai media of forest fires and the problem of haze caused by forest fires and crop burning. This has led to a clear concrete policy shift, since it has a direct impact on the lives of the middle class in the country&rsquo;s large cities, especially major centres like Bangkok and tourist spots like Chiang Mai Province. With an unidentifiable origin, smog, forest fires and PM2.5 have by implication become the same thing.</p>

<p>After being forcibly evacuated from their ancestral homeland in the Kaeng Krachan forest twice, the Bang Kloi indigenous Karen community has been facing community rights issues, which remain unresolved. The community is now at risk of another forced evacuation, while Thailand still has no legislation protecting indigenous rights.</p>

<p>On the banks of the Mun River in northeastern Thailand, communities are still struggling with the impact of a dam that was built almost 30 years ago. After calls for the decommission of the dam were left unheeded, local activists are shifting the focus on the recovery of their livelihoods.</p>