<p dir="ltr"><em><strong>Update</strong>: At least 60 people have been injured from the explosions at Big C department store and about 100 vehicles have been damaged. The first bomb exploded inside the department store while the second followed about 20 minutes later. According to the Bangkok Post, another suspicious object was found at the Diana department store in Muang district, though nothing dangerous was detected</em></p> <p>Twin bombs have exploded at the Big C department store in Pattani town, injuring about 40 people.</p>

<p dir="ltr">A provincial court has once again refused to release Pai Dao Din, making it impossible for the activist to attend a human rights award ceremony in South Korea.</p> <p dir="ltr">On 8 May 2017, the Provincial Court of Khon Kaen denied a bail request with 700,000 baht surety for Jatuphat ‘Pai’ Boonpattararaksa, a law student and key member of the New Democracy Movement (NDM).</p>

<p>Soldiers have visited an activist calling for an investigation into the junta’s controversial submarine deal with China. &nbsp;</p> <p>On 8 May 2017, soldiers visited the house of Srisuwan Janya, Secretary-General of a political group called the Association to Protect the Thai Constitution (APTC).</p> <p>“At 2:30 pm, [they] missed me and paid a visit,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/thaisgwa/posts/1294882573894534?pnref=story">Srisuwan posted on his Facebook account</a>.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Two&nbsp;belligerent youths have entered Chulalongkorn University to look for Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, a progressive student activist recently elected as the Student Council’s president of Chulalongkorn University . &nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr">At 11 am on 8 May 2017, two individuals rode a motorcycle onto the university’s campus in Bangkok and visited the Political Science Faculty to look for Netiwit.</p> <p dir="ltr">The two reportedly used threatening language to ask for the whereabouts of the student activist.</p>

<p>Political activists have urged the police to release Jatuphat ‘Pai Dao Din’ Boonpattararaksa, saying the court decision to repeatedly reject his bail requests is ‘unconstitutional’. &nbsp;</p> <p>On 5 May 2017, Chalita Bundhuwong, a Kasetsart University lecturer, and Nuttaa Mahattana, an independent political activist, submitted a letter to Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda, Chief of the Royal Thai Police, at the National Police Office in Bangkok.</p>

<div> <div>Facebook has complied with a request from the junta to restrict user access to a video posted by an exiled critic of the monarchy, citing Thailand’s newly amended Computer Crimes Act.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 4 May 2017, the exiled academic Somsak Jeamteerasakul <a href="https://www.facebook.com/somsakjeam/posts/1302945343092075">announced</a> on his Facebook page that he had received an email from Facebook informing him that one of his posts violates Thailand’s <a href="https://prachatai.com/english/node/6785">2007 Computer Crimes Act (CCA)</a>. </div></div>

<p>The Criminal Court has refused to release two detainees accused of lèse majesté for sharing the Facebook post of an academic blacklisted by the junta. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>On 4 May 2017, the Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek Rd., Bangkok,<a href="http://www.tlhr2014.com/th/?p=4194">&nbsp;denied&nbsp;</a>bail requests of 790,000 and 900,000 baht for two detainees accused of violating Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law.</p>

<p>On May Day, labour activists across Thailand assembled to call for a better welfare state and fair working conditions.</p> <p>International Workers’ Day or May Day this year saw the Rangsit and Area Labour Union travel to Pathum Thani to deliver a petition to the provincial governor. The petition mades eight demands: &nbsp;</p>

<p>The Criminal Court has detained six people accused of royal defamation for sharing a Facebook post of an academic in self-imposed exile who the junta has blacklisted. &nbsp;</p> <p>On 3 May 2017, the Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek Rd., Bangkok, granted the police permission to detain six people accused of violating Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law.</p> <p>They were arrested by police and military officers separately in different parts of the country in late April.</p>

<div> <div>After approval of the junta’s controversial media bill by the National Reform Council (NRC), three consumer rights organisations have demanded that the bill be scrapped to protect Thailand’s democratic values.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 2 May 2017, a network of consumer rights organisations consisting of the Foundation for Consumers, the Confederation of Consumer Organisations and the Independent Committee for Consumer Protection issued <a href="http://www.indyconsumers.org/main/media-telecom-151/680-press-02052560-001.html">a statement</a> denouncing the <a href="https://prachata</p> </a></div></div>

<div> <div>The junta has ordered the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) to cancel a panel discussion on the missing plaque commemorating the 1932 Democratic Revolution.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 3 May 2017, the FCCT announced on its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/FCCThailand/?fref=ts">Facebook page</a> that it had received orders from the police to cancel a panel discussion scheduled for this evening on the missing 1932 Revolution plaque. </div></div>

<p>A secret bill has placed five public agencies under the direct control of ‘His Majesty’s will’, granting the monarchy authority unseen since the 1932 revolution.</p> <p>The bill transfers to King Vajiralongkorn what was previously state authority over five agencies responsible for royal affairs and the monarchy’s security.</p> <p>The<a href="http://www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/DATA/PDF/2560/A/048/1.PDF">&nbsp;reforms</a>&nbsp;were finally released publically on 1 May 2017, after being secretly approved by the junta-appointed interim parliament on 20 April.</p>