Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host, Jason Palmo.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Dozens of people have been killed in the past 10 days as Russia has intensified its bombing

in Idlib, Syria's last rebel stronghold. Russia's campaign has often proved brutal, but

it feels it's won an important victory in Syria, and has emerged from the conflict more

confident and more influential in the Middle East.

And our correspondent drops in on a poetry group in Guinea-Bissau. I made a tangle of languages

she finds that some of the most prolific authors are heartened military men.

Stopped though. It was built as a return to democracy. In March the people of Thailand

voted in a general election for the first time since a military coup in 2014, but it

seems that the generals who seized power back then have done their level best to keep

hold of it.

So it's been an exceptionally busy week in Thailand, and on Saturday it was the start of three

days of celebrations for King Mahar, which are along Korn's coronation.

Miranda Johnson is our Southeast Asia correspondent.

The really busy time was on Sunday when I camped out for hours in this weltering heat with

thousands of other Thai people all wearing yellow, as that is the royal colour, to see the

world procession go past. It was all extremely regal, and it was amazing to see how dedicated

people were to being there despite the extraordinary heat.

And if that weren't enough for the start of the new reign, it has also got off to a fairly

explosive beginning, politically, because in recent days the full results of a general

election held in March were released. And the election was a bit of a sham. It was stage

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