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BANGKOK (AP) A massive explosion at a chemical factory on the outskirts of Bangkok early Monday killed at least one person, injured dozens more and damaged scores of homes, while prompting the evacuation of a wide area over fears of poisonous fumes and the possibility of additional denotations.

Dense clouds of black smoke continued to billow from the site late in the day. Winds shifted and started blowing toward the citys center, and evacuation centers were set up in a school and a government office for those forced from their homes.

The fire broke out at around 3 a.m. at a foam and plastic pellet manufacturing factory just outside Bangkok near Suvarnabhumi Airport, with the explosion blowing out windows of surrounding homes and sending debris raining from the air.

The blast could be heard for kilometers (miles) and surveillance video from a nearby house captured the bright flash and boom, followed by damage to the home and the one next door from the shockwaves.

The main blaze at the Ming Dih Chemical factory had been brought under control by mid-morning, but an enormous tank containing the chemical styrene monomer continued to burn, said local disaster prevention official Chailit Suwannakitpong. Officials said many tons of styrene monomer were stored on the site.

Helicopters tried to navigate close enough through the thick black smoke to dump fire retardant onto the fire, with little apparent success.

The Prime Ministers Office ordered that rain clouds be seeded if possible in the hope that a downpour would help bring the pollutants out of the sky, then reversed the command over concerns it would lead to toxic chemicals contaminating the citys rivers and canals.

Authorities said 62 people had been injured, including 12 involved in firefighting and rescue efforts, and one person had been confirmed dead.

Styrene monomer, a hazardous liquid chemical used in the production of disposable foam plates, cups and other products, can produce poisonous fumes when ignited. Chailit said officials were trying to move all people out of the area, including doctors and patients from the neighborhoods main hospital where many of the casualties were initially treated, over fear of the fumes and the possibility of more explosions.

The chemical itself also emits styrene gas, a neurotoxin, which can immobilize people within minutes of inhalation and can be fatal at high concentrations. Last year in the Indian city of Visakhapatnam, a leak of styrene gas from a chemical factory killed 12 people and sickened more than 1,000.

Authorities were carefully monitoring the air in the area around the fire, and Pollution Control Department official Thalerngsak Petchsuwan urged anyone remaining in the vicinity to close their doors and windows to avoid inhaling any fumes.

Those who breathe it in can get dizzy and vomit and it might cause cancer in the long term, he said.

Authorities ordered the evacuation of an area 5 kilometers (3 miles) around the scene.

Firefighters could be seen in photos from Thai media climbing through the twisted steel wreckage of the complexs warehouses to get their hoses close enough to the flames as they fought to control the blaze. The badly charred body of the only known fatality identified by officials as an 18-year-old volunteer firefighter lay face down among the wreckage, his head resting on his right forearm.

The area around the factory is a mixture of older industrial complexes and newer housing developments that were built after the opening of the airport in 2006.

Jaruwan Chamsopa, who lives about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the factory, said the loud explosion in the middle of the night broke her houses windows, damaged the roof and caused parts of the ceiling to tumble down. She said the windows of every house on her road were broken as well.

I was shocked when the explosion took place, she told The Associated Press. I came out and saw a big fire in the sky.

She said she and her husband and mother didnt evacuate until 8 a.m.

I didnt realize that it would be such a dangerous chemical that I have to evacuate, she said. I am worried because the black smoke reached my house.

There was no immediate word on what might have caused the fire in Bang Phli district, and the company was not reachable by phone.

The initial explosion shook the terminal building at Suvarnabhumi, Bangkoks main international airport, setting off alarms.

Airport officials said no flights had been canceled but they were continuing to monitor the situation and were prepared to put in place contingency plans in case of emergency.

___

Associated Press writers Chris Blake, Tassanee Vejpongsa and Chalida Ekvittayavechnukul contributed to this report.

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Evacuations ordered after Thai chemical factory explodes - The Associated Press

In 2015, artist David Butler helped curate a group exhibition at the Elijah Pierce Gallery dubbed Forceful Perceptions, which centered itself on the violence enacted on the Black community and included Butlers painting of Trayvon Martin, who was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in 2012 at age 17.

Forceful was all about us talking about violence and the things happening to Black people, Butler said. Its number one purpose was to talk about the violence against the Black body, putting it on display, so that it was front and center.

For Whiteland, which opens at the Vanderelli Room on Friday, July 2, Butler wanted to explore similar issues of race, but without again centering Black pain, or being forced to educate a white audience on the Black experience innavigating tragedy. I didnt want someone coming in just because someone had died two months before the show, said Butler, who solicited contributions for 'Whiteland' from artists who previously displayed in Forceful Perceptions, along with a few new faces. As of press time, Butler said he expected at least eight or nine artists to show work, including Lisa McLymont, Lance Johnson and April Sunami, among others.

In conceiving the show, Butler decided he wanted toexplore the concept of whiteness, as well as how that idea plays into the larger societal contract and the continued repression of communities of color.

If we want to get into the underbelly of the real issue, its whiteness, he said. The issue is white people not wanting to come to the grips with the fact that whether youre rich or poor, well-to-do or rural Appalachian, or you just got here from Europe or Canada because of the color of your skin, youhave benefited from thesystem that has been created. And if you buy into that on any level, it becomes a problem for people who look like me.

This idea of the white populace not wanting to examine its own role in preserving systemic racism is one that is currently playing out in the conversation around critical race theory, an academic framework created four decades ago by legal scholars to explore how racism is embedded in Americas laws and institutions that has recently become the target of an intense right-wing disinformation campaign. (No, theyre not teaching critical race theory in your kids public school.)

Butlerstarted brainstorming ideas for the show by writing out a list of things that angered him, including the reality that Black people continue to be shot and killed by the police, as well asthe political personalities who are continually granted a media platform to sell white supremacist talking points to a national audience.

And I started asking, How can I talk about how all of these people still exist, and they look just like you? Butler said.

Going in, Butler said he knew he didnt want to paint portraits of individuals like Jason Meade, the sheriffs deputy who shot and killed Casey Goodson, or Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown. So instead he started to collect photos of these types, largely grouped into three categories: police officers who had killed Black citizens (Derek Chauvin, Meade, Wilson); politicians who regularlyespoused white supremacist ideologies (Donald Trump, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan); and their female equivalents in the worlds of politics and the media (Tomi Lahren, Ann Coulter, Marjorie Taylor Green).

Butler then fed these photos into Artbreeder, a website where users can create an account and upload up to eight parent photos, which are then used to producea composite child. The artist then painted a portrait of each of these unique digital spawns, none of whom exists in real life.

But it was freaky, because it felt like you knew the people. These are all people I could walk by in the Short North today, and thats creepy, Butler said of his initial reaction to seeing thecomputer-generated images. Then it becomes a metaphor for how you never know which person could do you harm. And it also brings up the idea that these children, these digital children birthed of these parents, [represent] the ways that racism reverberates through generations.

While Butler had zero interest in painting portraits of people like Meade, he said the digital amalgamations offered him a needed distance from the source material, describing the works as just data, and thats how I see them. I still havent painted a real white person in 10 years, he said, and laughed.

The trio of portraits by Butler will be flanked on the gallery walls by myriad complex pieces crafted by contemporariesincluding Lance Johnson, a graffiti artist Butler labeled an abstract gra-futurist. I was born and raised in New York City, so coming out of that bubble, it was a little disconcerting, said Johnson, who, in addition to a handful of pieces gracing the walls of the Vanderelli Room, also painted a mural on the exterior of the building. I call [the mural] We the People because America … should be a celebration of diversity. Weve come a long way, but theres a lot more to do.

Butler said that he hopes the work on display in Whiteland angers people, and forces them to confront a system that too many live comfortably within. And Im not saying you have to stop being white. You cant stop being white just like I cant stop being Black, he said. No, what you have to give up is the social construct that gives you power over my life. … And thats all anybody in this show is asking folks to do, is to remember that all of this (Butler gestures at the three composite portraits) creates dead Black people in the streets, the white-washing of histories and laws that are structured to preserve white supremacy.

Regardless of how this message is received, the artist said this group exhibit would likely be his last venture into this realm, serving as a bookend to a drive that started with paintings he started to create even prior to Forceful Perceptions.

This is my last hurrah with this type of [work], Butler said. After this show, Im only painting beautiful Black people and flowers. I want to be able to paint a landscape, or to do something surrealist that doesnt necessarily have race at its core, but that celebrates a more positive, joyful [aspect] of Blackness. And thats what Im going to do from here on out.

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David Butler tackles the other end of the racial spectrum in stunning Whiteland - Columbus Alive

'Boys n the Hood' - John Singleton

Often, to get the whole scope of a cultural problem, more than documentaries or news pieces, it is the work of fiction from those who live within the issue that is able to shed the most light. Initially developed as a requirement for an application to film school in 1986, John Singletons Boyz n the Hood would become a cultural phenomenon, voicing the issues of capitalism on the effect of black families living in poverty-stricken areas of Los Angeles.

Selling his work to Columbia Pictures upon Singletons graduation in 1990, his script drew inspiration from his own life as well the lives of those he grew up alongside in LA. I think I was living this film before I ever thought about making it, Singleton stated, whilst taking considerable inspiration from Rob Reiners 1986 coming-of-age film Stand by Me in crafting his own tragic tale of the adolescent transition.

Putting actors Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr., Morris Chestnut, and Nia Long on the cultural map, Singletons film follows the lives of three males (Ice Cube, Gooding Jr. and Chestnut) living in the Crenshaw ghetto of Los Angeles, weighing up their future prospects as they avoid the troubles that are inflating around them. Dissecting questions of race, class and violence, it is remarkable how relevant John Singletons groundbreaking script remains, typified by one scene in which Laurence Fishburne, father of Cuba Gooding Jrs Tre Styles, lectures a group of people on the effects of gentrification in their local community.

Its called gentrification. Its what happens when the property value of a certain area is brought down, he explains. They bring the property value down. They can buy the land cheaper. Then they move the people out, raise the value and sell it at a profit. The themes and issues of Boyz n the Hood can be reduced into Fishburnes gripping two-minute speech which goes onto question the reason for drugs, guns and violence in the future, concluding his monologue by saying you have to think young brother, about your future.

Though, the characters of Singletons film, and indeed the lives of many black individuals across the USA, are caught within a systemic web of oppression and prejudice, causing violence, fear and in-fighting. Unfortunately, much of what is explored in the film remains equally pertinent in modern-day society, particularly evident following the Black Lives Matter movement that emerged in 2012 following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin.

Speaking of the films legacy, Singleton states: Its really of its time but its also timeless because the conditions and things that people are going through still exist, the director comments, elaborating, Whether thats those in urban environments living under a police state, prevalent black-on-black crime, or the nihilistic view of the world that young people have when they dont see anything else. Continuing, the director rightfully points out that neighbourhoods have changed and evolved but many things remain the same and as long as thats the case then things wont change.

At its heart, Boyz n the Hood is a tragic fable and coming-of-age tale, situated within the context of the prominent issues that disturb the everyday lives of the black community. Nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the 64th Academy awards, Singleton became the youngest person, and the first African-Amcieran to be nominated for Best Director, demonstrating just how far-reaching the effects of the 1991 classic stretched, transcending cultures and generations in the process.

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Revisiting John Singletons classic Boyz n the Hood 30 years later - Far Out Magazine

The European Union (EU) is a group of 27 nations in Europe, formed in the aftermath of World War II. The first batch of countries joined in 1957, including Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands. In 1973, Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom joined. Greece joined in 1981, followed by Spain and Portugal in 1986 and Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995. In 2004, nine countries were added, two more in 2007, and finally Croatia in 2013 to bring the total to 28. On June 23, 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU.

Nineteen of the EU countries are also part of the Eurozone, a union of countries that have adopted the Euro as their official currency.

The Schengen Area includes 22 of the 27 EU countries and entitles citizens of participating nations to travel freely between them. It also includes a few non-EU nations: Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. The area operates as a single nation with a uniform visa policy for purposes of international travel.

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List of Countries in the European Union

Tempers were flaring at a recent summit of the European Union when Mark Rutte, prime minister of the Netherlands, looked straight at Viktor Orban, his Hungarian counterpart, and saidwhat everybody was thinking: If you dont share our values, you should take Hungary out of the EU.

Ruttes unsubtle nudge to make a member state exit the club was also a reminder about one of the EUs biggest design flaws. It has no mechanism to expel countries. This raises the question: When exactly should a bloc, club or organization be able to throw members out?

In the Hungarian case, Orbans latest affront was a law that curbs sex education in a way that crudely stigmatizes homosexuality, in effect equating it with pedophilia. But Orban has been scorning the EUs values for years. With many small cuts, hes whittled away at the rule of law, minority rights and press and academic freedoms.

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Another member state, Poland, is almost as bad as Hungary in disdaining everything from gay rights to judicial independence. With their illiberal cynicism, these two governments threaten to hollow out the EUs identity as a club of democratic, tolerant and open societies.

And yet the tools available to discipline errant members are weak. The main one is a process stipulated in Article 7 of the EUs treaties, which Brussels has initiated against both Poland and Hungary. It allows the bloc to strip a country of its voting rights if all the other states identify a serious and persistent breach to EUvalues. That unanimity requirement, however, means that Hungary and Poland can have each others back and neednt worry.

Another mechanism to tie funding to observance of the rule of law was added last year, but it is vague, messy and slow. The reality is that the EU, which subjects countries to onerous standards while theyre applying for membership, can do almost nothing to sanction them once theyre in, and certainly cant kick anybody out.

A similar dilemma often keeps the brass at NATO awake. In the alliances early years, the U.S. and other allies feared that some members, such as Italy, might become communist and serve asTrojan horses for the Soviets. More recently, the bogey has been Turkey, which has scorned democratic norms, menaced allies such as Greece and even bought an air-defense system from Russia that could enable that adversary to sabotage NATO equipment. But NATO also cant kick members out.

In this sense, the EU and NATO differ from most other types of association in this world. The United Nations, for example, is also a club of nation states but does have a way of expelling members. So does the Council of Europe, a human-rights organization with 47 member states, including all 27 EU countries.

The ability to expel is also the default in organizations whose members are individuals. The Catholic church can and does excommunicate people for apostasy or other alleged sins. The U.S. Congress, like most parliaments, can kick out members (and has done so 20 times), as can political parties, country clubs, schools and most other institutions.

This implicit prerogative to expel members is philosophically baked into the liberal tradition as a natural extension of the right of the people peaceably to assemble. In ancient Athens, the worlds first experiment in democracy, citizens regularly gathered to write the names of individuals on shards of pottery called ostraka. Anybody who received enough votes was ostracized in the original sense that is, exiled.

As usual in life, however, it gets complicated. Everybody can agree that, for example, a Jewish organization should be able to throw out a member who shows up with a swastika and shouts Heil Hitler. But what about an organization that trains young leaders and wants to keep out women? Or a labor union that wants to terminate members for their political activities? Or the Boy Scouts if they want to expel a member just because hes gay?

The latter three were actual cases before U.S. courts that illustrate the philosophical and ethical conflicts involved. In the first, judges ruled that the organization cannot exclude women; in the second, that the labor union cannot kick out members; but in the third, that the Boy Scouts thanks to the First Amendment did have the right to expel a member for being gay.

Im not about to re-litigate these cases. Im simply acknowledging that freedom cuts both ways. Sometimes it requires protecting groups from individuals. Most of the time, though, it means protecting individuals from groups, and from being arbitrarily and unfairly excluded. That even applies to countries.

The power to expel is therefore nothing to trifle with. It should be used only in extreme circumstances and with an overwhelming consensus among members that its necessary. Even then, expulsion should always be reversible, so that the member in question has the chance and the incentive to make amends.

The EU needs to get this balance right. This means tweaking its treaties to make sure that expulsion is rare but possible. While that effort gets underway, Orban will have plenty of time to ponder how much further up his populist tree he wants to climb. And Hungarians who still have votes, after all can decide if theyd rather swap out leaders and stay in a club they like.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:Andreas Kluth at akluth1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:Howard Chua-Eoan at hchuaeoan@bloomberg.net

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The European Union Should Be Able to Kick Out Hungary - Bloomberg