La princesa Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol de Tailandia, abogada y primogénita del rey Maha Vajiralongkorn, murió a los 47 años, según comunicó la Oficina de la Casa Real. El deceso se produjo el jueves por la noche en un hospital de Bangkok, donde permanecía internada desde hacía tres años tras perder el conocimiento a causa de una enfermedad.

Bajrakitiyabha destacó por su labor en la reforma judicial y por el impulso del proyecto Kamlangjai (“Inspirar”), orientado a la rehabilitación de mujeres encarceladas en Tailandia antes de su liberación. La princesa fue hospitalizada en diciembre de 2022 tras desvanecerse mientras entrenaba perros para una exhibición militar. El palacio informó que padecía una infección por micoplasma, bacteria asociada habitualmente a la neumonía.

La tarjeta de Año Nuevo de su padre para 2023, donde el rey Maha Vajiralongkorn y la reina Suthida aparecían vestidos de negro, fue interpretada por muchos tailandeses como un indicio de la gravedad del estado de salud de la princesa. La información sobre su evolución fue limitada y los escasos comunicados oficiales sugerían un deterioro progresivo.

Bajrakitiyabha nació el 7 de diciembre de 1978, hija del entonces príncipe heredero y de la princesa Soamsawali. En actos de Estado, también era conocida como Bajrakitiyabha Narendira Debyavati. El príncipe Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, hijo menor del rey, es el heredero presunto, dado que la legislación tailandesa otorga prioridad a los varones en la sucesión al trono. La sólida trayectoria de Bajrakitiyabha en el servicio público alimentó, no obstante, especulaciones sobre un eventual papel relevante en el futuro, incluso como posible regente.

Estudió derecho en la Universidad de Thammasat y obtuvo una maestría y un doctorado en derecho en la Universidad de Cornell, en el estado de Nueva York, donde presentó una tesis sobre la protección de los derechos de los acusados. En su honor, se crearon becas y un programa de intercambio académico entre Tailandia y Cornell.

Tras un breve paso por la Misión de Tailandia ante la ONU en Nueva York, regresó a su país para ejercer como fiscal y, más tarde, fue diplomática, desempeñándose como embajadora en Austria entre 2012 y 2014. De regreso en Tailandia, se abocó a cuestiones de justicia penal y, en 2017, fue nombrada embajadora de buena voluntad de la Oficina de las Naciones Unidas contra la Droga y el Delito.

Además de su trabajo en la rehabilitación de mujeres privadas de libertad, desarrolló campañas para mejorar sus condiciones de vida y para prevenir la violencia contra las mujeres, como embajadora honoraria de la ONU Mujeres. Gracias a su impulso, la Asamblea General de la ONU adoptó las “Reglas de Bangkok” sobre el trato a mujeres reclusas.

“La sociedad no puede crecer si hay inestabilidad e injusticia”, declaró Bajrakitiyabha en una entrevista con Associated Press en 2013. “Sin el estado de derecho, sin un buen sistema de justicia, siempre reina el caos. Creo que el estado de derecho es un pilar fundamental para el desarrollo, el crecimiento económico y, por supuesto, los derechos humanos”, agregó.

Como princesa, Bajrakitiyabha ocupó un papel ceremonial de relevancia en la sociedad tailandesa, donde la familia real se sitúa en la cúspide institucional. Se la consideraba especialmente cercana a su padre y, un año antes de su hospitalización, fue designada para un alto cargo en la unidad de guardaespaldas reales.

El rey Maha Vajiralongkorn tiene siete hijos de cuatro matrimonios distintos y aún no anunció de manera oficial a su heredero, aunque las normas de sucesión en Tailandia otorgan preferencia a los varones.

La familia real tailandesa está protegida por estrictas leyes de lesa majestad, que establecen penas de hasta 15 años de prisión por cada cargo y regulan de forma rígida lo que puede decirse públicamente sobre los miembros de la monarquía.

(Con información de Associated Press y AFP)

President Donald Trump wants Congress to supercharge military funding and pass stalled voter ID and citizenship verification legislation in one fell swoop, but many Republicans aren’t sold on the plan. 

Trump on Wednesday called on congressional Republicans to steer around Democrats’ opposition again and «immediately» pass a third budget reconciliation package, including $350 billion in defense spending coupled with the stalled Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act. 

«This is a GENERATIONAL Investment in our Military, even bigger than President Reagan’s! Recon 3.0 is the ONLY path to the full $1.5 TRILLION DOLLAR Military Budget our Warriors need in order to build THE ARSENAL OF FREEDOM,» Trump said on Truth Social. 

TRUMP’S SAVE AMERICA ACT SHOWS SIGNS OF LIFE IN THE SENATE DESPITE REPUBLICAN REVOLT

The president’s request came just hours after he signed Republicans’ second budget reconciliation bill into law that would fund immigration enforcement through the rest of his presidency for $70 billion. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act was also passed through budget reconciliation.

But many Republicans are lukewarm at best to the idea of restarting the budget reconciliation process, which would require strict party unity amid a dwindling calendar of legislative days heading into the November midterm elections. 

The GOP has also yet to fully come around to Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense spending request, and some lawmakers have voiced concern about circumventing the normal appropriations process to boost defense spending.

Trump’s plea for a third bite at the apple comes as he and congressional Republicans are increasingly at odds over policy decisions that have made passing legislation on the Hill all the more difficult.

TRUMP SCORES VICTORY DESPITE GROWING GOP DIVIDE AFTER SENATE PASSES $70B ICE, BORDER PATROL FUNDING PACKAGE

Some Republicans who have pushed for a third attempt at the party-line process have acknowledged that it’s unlikely to work. Further, Congress is unlikely to pass any other bills before the midterm elections in November because of Democratic opposition. 

«I think it’s a very, very long shot that anything passes between now and the midterms,» Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said. «It gives me heartburn to say that, but I think that’s political reality.» 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., didn’t completely close the door on another reconciliation bill, but he noted that there is skepticism among Republicans on moving forward.

«You’ve got to have something that you can win on,» Thune said. «And you’ve heard some of our folks already express their views on another reconciliation bill.»

Earlier in the week, during a contentious Senate Appropriations hearing, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., both agreed that another reconciliation bill was unlikely to happen, particularly as a dumping ground for billions in additional defense spending. 

TRUMP LOCKS IN ICE FUNDING THROUGH END OF PRESIDENCY AFTER HOUSE PASSES $70B PACKAGE

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks to members of the media at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 10, 2026. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said, «Reconciliation is not the best approach.»

«It would be very difficult to get the reconciliation bill approved,» Collins said. 

Discussions on a third reconciliation package were underway in the House prior to Trump’s public endorsement. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has voiced confidence that his chamber will clear a third budget bill by the August recess.

But some GOP lawmakers have questioned its viability amid Republicans’ slim majority and the potential lack of a unifying policy idea to keep the conference together.

«I haven’t quite heard enough policy proposals that lead me to think it’s going to gel, but I’m certainly open-minded,» Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

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Rep. Kevin Kiley, I-Calif., a Republican-turned-independent who voted against Trump’s $70 billion immigration enforcement measure, indicated he isn’t likely to support a third attempt.

«We have now gotten to this habit of one party takes power, they do reconciliation bills and the other party does it, and this cycle hasn’t been good,» the California lawmaker told Fox News Digital. «It’s one of the things that fed the cycles of dysfunction that we have around here.»

A day after Graham Platner became the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, a woman took to social media to allege that she briefly dated Platner in 2021, recounting stories of having met him on the Tinder dating app, his infidelity and how Platner’s story about his infamous chest tattoo had changed over time.

«I am stepping forward as a person who has experienced lying and manipulation by his hand to lend my voice to what is a growing number of women who have been wronged by this man in one way or another,» a woman with the X handle, 420mercymain69, wrote in a long X statement on Thursday.

«It is hideous,» the woman, who claimed she was attracted to Platner’s Tinder profile because he was «hot and he was a leftist,» said in her X statement.

The new details add another layer to Platner’s allegedly deceptive conduct towards romantic partners and grows the pile of scandals that have trailed his campaign.

SENATE CANDIDATE GRAHAM PLATNER SENT EXPLICIT TEXTS TO MULTIPLE WOMEN WHILE MARRIED, WIFE SAYS: REPORT

Platner, who officially became the Democratic nominee to challenge incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, earlier this week, has grappled with his resurfaced past — receiving criticism for making off-color remarks on sexual abuse, race and terror and allegedly threatening behavior toward women.

According to 420mercymain69, a native of the Maryland area, the two of them started talking on Tinder in Feb. 2021 and started dating until mid-July 2021.

When approached about his Totenkopf tattoo, a symbol used by the Nazi SS, the author claims Platner said that he had gotten it in ignorance but that he had kept it as a reminder that the U.S. was viewed as «the bad guys» in many parts of the world.

«A sob story of monumental proportions that only further solidified my perception of his ideology,» the author remembered.

«But surprisingly enough not the one he gave to the people of Maine,» she continued. «And I do mean genuinely surprising because from the moment he announced his campaign, that is exactly what I expected to hear when the truth inevitably came out.»

DEMOCRATIC MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE GRAHAM PLATNER CONFRONTED BY MS NOW HOST ABOUT TATTOO CONTROVERSY

Graham Platner with his wife Amy Gertner earlier this month. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

When the tattoo surfaced late last year, he had said he wasn’t familiar with its Nazi associations.

«Graham’s repeatedly said he picked a skull-and-crossbones tattoo off a wall in Croatia to commemorate surviving Ramadi and his friends who were killed there,» a spokesperson from the Platner campaign told Fox News. «Graham has also since covered up the tattoo, and answered countless questions about it.»

«Unlike Susan Collins, who refuses to take questions on her disastrous vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, gut rural hospitals, and supported every foreign war of the last thirty years,» the spokesperson continued.

Aside from the tattoo, 420mercymain69 also accused Platner of several instances of relational infidelity.

Platner and the post’s author parted ways after she discovered from a mutual friend that he was allegedly seeing someone else while the two were still dating.

«He was talking about a woman he had blown it with, saying she was ‘the love of his life.’ I was naïve and probably a little too starry-eyed from my own good, but as a person who had only been on a handful of dates with him and f—– around a bit, I was smart enough to know he wasn’t talking about me,» the woman claimed..

«I took the hint,» she continued.

She claimed that, after leaving the relationship, she discovered Platner had been engaged to a woman named «Jen» when the two began conversing.

She was also told that Platner was allegedly cheating on her with a third woman.

«She had walked in on him having sex with another person at a wedding they were at in D.C. That mutual friend also advised that he was trying to repair things with this woman and asked me if I was going to seek her out to tell her,» she said on X.

In summarizing her experience, which was reportedly confirmed by the New York Post, the author said she did not intend to derail Platner’s campaign, but that she shared concerns about his character. Fox News Digital could not independently confirm the claims from the alleged ex-girlfriend.

PLATNER SUPPORTER KHANNA CALLS SENATE HOPEFUL’S PAST RELATIONSHIPS ‘TOXIC,’ BUT SAYS HE DESERVES ‘REDEMPTION’

Graham Platner addresses the crowd at a YMCA in Blue Hill, Maine, on June 9, 2026, after winning the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. He will face Republican Sen. Susan Collins in the election. (Matthew Symons for Fox News Digital)

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«There will be more information that comes out,» she claimed.

«If I were a Maine voter seeing the things I’m seeing, I wouldn’t have voted for him, personal experience notwithstanding, because I do not trust him. Why, after all that has come out, would I?»