Reforms. The king has approved thursdays coup, but protests continue. You have been there many times. How extreme is this . I havent been there in recent weeks, but this time, it appears different from the outside looking at it ondemically, and carrying conversations with people inside thailand. The fear and what you saw over the weekend is that there is a ratcheting up of tensions, this as protesters become increasingly agitated with the way this coup is unfolding and the level of power that the , theal Prayuth ChanochaArmy Commander and effective head of government, is commanding. Yesterday, he dissolved the thai senate. That removes the last Democratic Institution in the country. It is one of the reasons why you saw protesters out on the streets in force. The good news is, despite 2000 protesters moving towards victory monument, the military, even though there were many, there were no major clashes from what we understand. There were protests in a northern city, as well. It will be a busy week ahead. H dissolving the senate, effectively allowing the military to create new laws. A stern warning from a military spokesman, warning the public to follow orders. All bets are off in terms of the military using restraint. This was a veiled warning that the military will do what it has to do to maintain public order. A new constitution is said to be revealed this week. Isay, general prayuth expected to receive the kings endorsement, formalizing his status as the head of the thai government. Political reform and next steps for the emerging government what are they . Protesters have been calling for reforms. In some ways, they got what they wanted, a nondemocratic government. That is what thailand has. It is run by the military. However, the new constitution, what will it say . The premier that will be named today. Then the legislative body, expected to be appointed later this week. You can bet that all the members of this body will reflect, of course, the ideas and aspirations of the military, the bangkok elite, the yellow shirts, as they are known inside of thailand, those who are loyal to the monarchy. We should note that the king has given his blessing to thursdays coup. This has royal approval. Tourism is arguably the most important import. How has it been impacted by this . Anecdotally, you hear of hotels empty. Group tours that would be really full to places like chang mai, practically empty. Tourism is a big element of thailands economy, 10 of gdp from the tourism sector. The beaches in the south all the way to the mountains in the north. Ands a big country, bangkok, of course, is where much most people launch their tours. At chinese new year, nearly 700 million lost revenue in terms of Chinese Tourists staying away to to the unrest. If you extrapolate that to the full year, it has a big impact. In the First Quarter alone, the tourism numbers down around 7 . The king improving the coup, that is an interesting development. Junta may find it hard to suppress public protests. Lets have a look at the role social media is plain and thailands longrunning standoff. Our guest joins us from a social Media Consultancy in bangkok. 438,000 followers on twitter. Thank you for joining us. I must ask you, what is the sort of mood you are seeing on your social media platforms . It is absolutely exploding. Up 20,000bably picked followers in the past week or so just because i am aggregating content from everything that is going on in thailand and trying to push it out there as fast as possible. About 23 hours every sunday of tweeting. You are working pretty hard. What is your message to them . How are you rallying this . Well, i feel that social media is very important and what is going on and everything going on in thailand right now because it gives everybody a voice. It makes everybody a journalist. While facebook is the dominant platform, i think twitter is more important, and it is the most important platform coming out, because it is instant, immediate. More often than not, you hear reports on news channels, as reported on twitter, blah, blah, blah. It is very important. When you see these large protest not only doring, you get 200300 people in the streets, but you can get tens of thousands of people following it live on social media. It literally makes the protests of 10 times bigger. Usesbelieve that bangkok facebook the most, arguably, in the world. 9 million users in bangkok alone. What will this ban on broadcasting do you suspect them to ban it or not . It is a highly controversial thing. I think it will make things 10 times worse. I personally dont think it could happen. Up theire they set own facebook page, and they are communicating on a daily basis. I think they gathered 300,000 fans just a few hours after they set up their own facebook page, the current june to junta. It is important, and i think they recognize how important it is. I think that it would hurt a lot worse if they did ban the internet. I kind of understand the tv, but banning internet would serve no purpose. Do you receive any personal threats about this or not . Pardon me. I couldnt hear the last question. Do you get any sort of heat, any personal threats . You have been one of the key voices on twitter. Do you see of any pressure . Never once, partially because i dont make harsh comments. I stay on the middle ground. I would rather be a content provider rather than be harsh and force my opinions and take one side or the other, which i absolutely refuse to do. Never once have i had that. Weekstt, in the next few or days ahead, how will this think . M be used, do you what is the best way, if you are in bangkok, scared, what is the best way to use the social platforms . Listen, you need to logon. It you need to be active. You need to jump in conversations. You need to be online if you want to be informed correctly. If you are just sitting down i am from the states, and when my friends watch any form of themchannel, and they see showing a picture of somebody getting shot or a tank rolling through, immediately, they view the situation as being horrible when, in fact, life goes on. Everything is normal. You go on with your business, your holidays, whatever it is. Life goes on. Use it proactively. Dont use it to bash something. How will they be used in the next few weeks in regard to dealing with the situation . Think it is very important, and it is very critical. I dont think anybody has that clear answer. In my opinion, they probably should have done this coup six months ago, because it was inevitable, and everybody knew it was inevitable. Unfortunately, it is a necessary evil. Nobody can answer that question. All we can do is stay proactive with it and just go full force. Thank you for, joining us. 438,000 followers on twitter. Out 140 thousand tweets himself. He spends 23 hours every sunday working on it. Stay safe. Ukraine has held its selection on who will become the next president , and the chocolate billionaire is currently claiming victory. With moreshenko won than 55 of the vote. That therefore avoids the need for a runoff. He was foreign minister and economic minister in previous governments. Officials say the turnout was about 50 , albee of far lower in the separatist east. He says he wants early talks with russia. Create theier we agenda, the better we will be it will be for the people of russia. Russian people now pay a huge price for the crimea adventure. Protest parties are surging in eu elections and underlined the growing antieu mood. Well in theoups did u k, france, and greece. Initial results across the 28 nations shows strong support for parties but do blame you for the economy. The antieuro, antiimmigration front finish on top in france, the first time it has won an election nationwide. Sworn inmodi will be today as indias new promised her. His mission is to bridge years of mistrust in the region. The area accounts for almost one quarter of the worlds population but only 2 of global trade. That is according to figures from the r. B. I back in 2009. Up next, banned no more. Sony gets ready to bring the playstation to china. We will have the details when on the move returns. Welcome back. It is monday, may 26. The markets in error and asia are currently towards a sixmonth high. A very good morning. We are at about a sixmonth high if you take a look at the regional benchmark. It is the third day of gains we are seeing across the region, not so surprising given we did get a rather good end to the week last week on wall street. This is the picture right now. The nikkei 225 is leading the gains, 7 10 of 1 . 18 minutes or so away from the open in manila. That is the overall picture. I want to show you a few stocks we are following in japan for various reasons. There we go. Some changes in terms of analysts. Credit suisse are cutting cannon to underperform. ¥3000 is their target price. , up 5 . That was raised to neutral by credit suisse, as well. Sanrio, cut to neutral from neutral plus. The median price target, keep in mind, if you look across 11 of those analysts that cover the stock, we are looking at about 4066 in 12 months time. If you do the math, that is 1400 49 of the upside. 3. 4 . This one will be buying sasebo, value that 8 valued at 8 . These shares will become delisted. Thing moreuctural than anything else. That is all we have. Sony, the story here, more on this in just a bit. Perhaps if you are in china, you could be the playstation will be made available for you. You have a joint Venture Production in the free trade zone, and perhaps, they will be selling that. No timetable given. I will send it back to you. David, thank you for that. Sonys global fight with microsoft is moving to a new battleground, china. Xbox arend the fighting once again to take on china. Mia saini is following this. Up by 8 . Im now going to be talking to you about sunny, although my stock pick did win. You know what . Im going to talk to about sunny. To give you a sense of white is moving in the tokyo trading session. David alluded to this. They are looking to make an entry into china, the worlds most populous country. They have finally lifted their 14year ban on video game consoles. The ban was put in place in 2000 because the Chinese Government had the view that videogame content was inappropriate for young children. That view no longer holds. Sony, following secretively after microsoft announced their local partnership with the std. Sony, also going the local route in terms of forming this joint venture with shanghai oriental partners to make and sell playstation gaming consoles. As of april, to give you a outsold Microsoft Xbox one, extending its gain for a fourth month in a row. This allows the company to be in a position where they can tap into the growing Chinese Consumer who has little bit more income, but also the growing Chinese Consumer who cares about the industry. The big question is, whoever wins china can actually win the console wars it is an enormous part of the pie. Youre absolutely right. Because bps for his winning right now, that doesnt mean the league is going to hold in china becomes fair game for both players. Both of these companies will be selling later on in the fall. In terms of we know the figures around the chinese market. According to Price Waterhouse coopers, chinas videogame industry could be worth 10 billion in sales by the end of 2015. Currently, pc games dominate the market, about two thirds of the markets. The other one third is what you can play on your smart phone. Consoles really could be the game changer in this industry. You dont need to win all of china. You just need to get a couple hundred million. If you can get that, you can really win this game. 1. 3 billion people in this country. Sony needs it. T, a lot of their business isnt working so well. If you take a look at the stars in sonys portfolio, consistently number one it is the gaming unit, and number two, the entertainment unit. The entertainment unit has some ups and downs. We always talk about he mayoint executive divest that unit. It is hit or miss. 2 has been doing well, but we know it is not always a sure bet. Ps4, almost always a sure bet. Thank you for that. Mia saini on the battle in china. South koreas largest mobile messaging service is about to get even bigger. The calico pollution is set to merge. Donaldson company will be the resulting company will be created in october. The two companies are set to formally announce a deal later this afternoon. Still to come, the fx headlines or next. We will check the euro after the common currency saw its biggest threeweek drop in months. This is on the move. Im david inglis and hong kong. It is may 26. Lets start things off at the era. It is falling further this morning after it had its steepest threeweek drop since last year. A three and a half month low for the common currency. That takes it below its 200day moving average. Recent Economic Data from europe suggests that the ecb may need to follow through on recent signals of possible action. New zealand released its latest trade numbers this morning, and we saw slowdown in activity in exports and imports. It came in less than forecast for april. That brought down the trade surplus to 534 million. That is about 100 million short of the median estimate. The president of the philippine thek exchange expects if political crisis and talent continues, that may prompt Fund Managers to look at places like the philippines. Over 1. 1 billion over the past 15 weeks. Bit,ll track the peso in a but i want to show you what we are seeing as far as the kiwi dollar. It is a concern. The trait number came out around 6 30 in hong kong. You do see immediately the drop. 8539. ,. 9236. Ie dollar it does look fairly big, but it is just a oneday figure. Heres the peso. 4371 is what a dollar buys you 43. 71 is what a dollar buys you. A look now at some stories were following this week. Ng results. I jumping jaguar sales helped tata motors Beat Estimates the last time around. The question is, can indias biggest automaker do it again this corner . Analysts are forecasting a 17 increase in profit. Riggs a security will be in the spotlight on friday. Japans Prime Minister is set to give a keynote address to an audience of defense officials from the asiapacific, europe, and the u. S. Rising tensions in the South China Sea are set to be on the agenda at the threeday meeting. Japan will also be in the news on friday when we get Consumer Prices for the month of april. The data will reflect the impacts from the sales tax hike that came into effect at the beginning of that month. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg Ducey prices having risen more than 2 onvia. Lots more to come, including the latest from thailand where protesters clash with the army as the king backs the coup. The markets in hong kong and shanghai are underway very shortly on this monday. Well have the opening numbers right after this short break. The king supports taiwans coup thailands coup. Asian tech stocks be to their u. S. Counterparts. Back to the nba. Reports suggesting yelm and may be looking at the l. A. Clippers. Arelands military rulers said to an imminent or merrily an intermediary parliament until popular protests are growing. Demonstrators are defined have been on street protests. Paul allen has the story. Restoring peace and order was one of the reasons given by thailands military for staging its latest coup, but these protesters have seen enough soldiers on the streets. We need to those. We need to choose who we want. We cannot live like this. Gatherings of more than five people have been banned by the army. That didnt stop a defined rally of about 500 protesters from making their voices heard. Some yelled at the military to go to the countrys south. A long, smoldering muslim insurgency flared over the weekend. A series of bombs exploded in coordinated attacks, killing three people. It is not clear whether or not the bombings were linked to the coup or if insurgents are sadly taking advantage of the recent chaos. Thailands military will need to move cautiously. These public demonstrations were small by recent standards, but if protesters become emboldened, numbers could grow, for they are raising further raising the tension. Paul allen, bloomberg. A quick look at the implications for all of this. Andrew davis joins us now in the studio. You are busy between ukraine and thailand. Over the weekend, again, not as much violence as perhaps some thought, but the king approves the coup. The military is obtusely tightening their grip. They disbanded the senate yesterday. We have seen protests. The martial law and coup canned gatherings banned gatherings of more than five people at a time. There is talk of another demonstration this afternoon. These are the progovernment forces posing a direct challenge to the coup. Hopefully, it wont turn violent. The tension is there. The next steps for the military government . The army chief is meeting with the king today. We should hear more about his plan. He is going to address the nation. It isnt clear if you will name the Prime Minister and council today, but he should give an idea of the type of reforms he is talking about. Whether that is going to be looking at the electoral system, because that is the real thing they need to change if they want to change the status quo if forcesa is to prevent from gaining power again, they need to do something about the voting process. They have enough support probably to continue winning elections. It is alarming of the words being used. Also, the fact that it was martial law, a guaranteed coup in two days. Clearly, the impact on the economy is quite severe. They are concerned about, this could be far more intense than in the past. Clearly. Beenural voters have emboldened. It is going to be hard to put the genie back into the bottle, whether you have a military government running the country or not. How do you take away that sense of empowerment from people . They want to vote. They want a say in their destiny. It is really hard unless you rig the system so they are disempowered or disenfranchised. It is going to be hard to change that. Theyve gotten a taste of electoral empowerment. Where they go from here and how they resolve this, it took a year before their elections last time, and it didnt really change anything. The texan forces won again, and their support base may have shrunk a little bit, but they still want a pretty considerable victory. They were thrown out again. How they resolve this fundamentally is very unclear. It is all very unclear. Andrew davis joining us on the latest from thailand. Of course, we have markets opening right now. Shanghai and also hong kong. Guess what . David has the openi