- Politics News
Thai pro-democracy body calls on UN to investigate ‘military government in disguise’
PHOTOS: Facebook: Jaran Ditapichai/Kritsada Akkhapracha Jaran Ditapichai, the president of the Association of Thai Democrats without Borders’ has written to the UN yesterday asking the international body to investigate the government of Thai PM General Prayut Chan-o-cha. The Nation reports that Jaran personally dropped the submission at a letterbox near the UN headquarters in New York and recorded the action with…
- Transport News
Shake-up at the top in Thai state enterprises – Transport Minister
PHOTO: BTS station – YouTube In a major management shakeup in Thai state enterprises, the transport minister has now appointed a new chairmen to the boards of the Port Authority of Thailand, the State Railway of Thailand (SRT), the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA) and the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMA). The list of new chairmen has been…
- Politics News
Prayut meets up with Thai expats in New York ahead of UN meetings today
PHOTOS: ศ.ดร.นฤมล ภิญโญสินวัฒน์ Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha has been meeting Thai expats in New York before his attending the UN Climate Summit and other meetings this week. Prayut and his entourage, including Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai, arrived at the Plaza Athenee Hotel on the 64th street yesterday around midday on a sunny New York day. Prayut was welcomed by Nipon…
- Events
The youth are revolting. ‘Millions’ protest in kid-power global climate strike
PHOTO: Greta Thunberg leads kids and adults from 150 countries in massive climate strike today – Sarah Silbiger by Peter Hutchison “We are the future and we deserve better,” 12 year old Lilly Satidtanasarn, known as “Thailand’s Greta” for her campaign against plastic bags in malls. Masses of children skipped school to join a global strike against climate change that teen…
- Economy News
Finance Ministry launches 100 billion stimulus package to kickstart sagging economy
PHOTO: thailandshoppingdining.com The Government is kicking off a new stimulus package valued at 100 billion baht to “stimulate the grassroots economy”. Prasong Poontaneat, permanent secretary of the Finance Ministry reported that the government is preparing a brand-new stimulus package. “The Finance Ministry and related agencies will spend more than 100 billion baht on approximately 30 million low-income households nationwide.” The…
- Politics News
Thai MP rich list
PHOTO: The Nation The National Anti-Corruption Commission has published a who’s who list of Thailand’s richest politicians. The NACC has reported the personal finances of 80 MPs. The personal finances report is an addition to the NACC’s previous report of 415 MPs who had earlier submitted their asset lists in July. Notable MPs whose assets and debts have been revealed…
- Crime News
More arrest warrants issued over Bangkok’s August bomb attacks
PHOTO: Voice of America The Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for five more suspects yesterday over their alleged involvement in the simultaneous bomb and arson attacks in Bangkok back on August 2. Police presented evidence against them to the court yesterday to obtain warrants for their arrest. They are accused of being members of an unlawful syndicate and collaborating to carry…
- World News
Prayut heading to New York for six day trip, including attending UN
Thai PM General Prayut Chan-o-cha and his entourage is leaving for New York to attend the 74th United Nations General Assembly tomorrow. But the PM isn’t travelling alone. The six day trip to the US will also be made by Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai and Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa (and half a plane of ‘others’). According to…
- Bangkok News
Bangkok shophouse partially collapses in the rain
An abandoned shophouse in Bangkok’s Bang Plat district partially collapsed last night. No one was injured as the three-unit shop house, spread over four floors on Soi Charansanitwong 96/2 in Bang Or subdistrict, had been empty for a while. Officials said the fourth and third floors collapsed onto the lower floors, causing glasses and pieces of wood, and concrete, to fall…
- Tourism News
New branding for the old town – tweaking Phuket’s Old Town
PHOTO: Many renovated buildings and putting the crappy overhead cabling underground is bringing the old town alive Though Phuket remains among the world’s most popular tourist destinations, injecting some 477 billion baht to the Thai economy, with its “Pearl of the Andaman Sea” branding, its future status is being questioned due to competition from Indonesia and Vietnam. In response, Phuket…
- Crime News
2.5 million methamphetamine pills seized near Myanmar border
PHOTO: The Nation Another big delivery of methamphetamine pills has been intercepted in Chiang Mai. This time the couriers were both female. Rangers from the Pha Muang Task Force intercepted 2.5 million methamphetamine pills and arrested two females in a pick-up truck that broke through a checkpoint in the Mae Ai district early yesterday. The arrest followed a tip-off that…
- Politics News
Thammanat Prompao misses cabinet meeting today, calls in sick
Controversy-prone deputy agriculture minister for the Prayut government, Thammanat Prompao, isn’t feeling well today and has called in sick. He’s even provided a photo of himself in bed as proof of his need for a day off. After weathering a week of questions about his dodgy degrees and heroin-trafficking days back in Sydney in the 90s, he’s now succumbed to…
- World News
Hong Kong train derails during morning peak
“The cause of the derailment was still under investigation but there was no immediate suggestion of foul play…” A passenger train has derailed during the morning peak hour in Hong Kong. Three people were injured in the incident. Images from the scene showed three carriages had left the tracks and were zigzagged across the rails near Hung Hom station in…
- Northern Thailand News
Thai PM insists government flood victims aren’t being ignored
PHOTO: A dog tries to keep dry on a flooded street in Thailand’s northeastern province of Ubon Ratchathani – Krit Phromsakla Na Sakolnakorn – AFP Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha says he attaches great importance to relief operations designed to alleviate the suffering of flood victims and the government has procedures to compensate them. A government spokeswoman Naruemol Pinyosinwat was taken aback…
- Chiang Mai News
30,000 uni students take the long and winding road up Doi Suthep
PHOTOS: The Nation Some 30,000 students, past and present, and staff from the Chiang Mai University headed up Thailand’s holiest mountain yesterday on the university’s annual trek to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. It’s the university’s 55th anniversary of the annual climb. Freshmen from 20 faculties from two of the CMU campuses trekked up the winding 14 kilometre road from…
- Thailand Weather Updates
Warnings out for bad weather in central and southern provinces
PHOTO: The Nation The Thai Meteorological Department says people in the lower Northeast, the Central region, including Bangkok and its vicinity, the East and the South (Andaman coast) should brace for more heavy rains and dangers from accumulated rainfalls today. The warning comes as five northeastern provinces remain submerged and 42 rural roads remain impassable due to floods. The department…
- Thailand News
Pope Francis confirms his ‘pilgrim of peace’ visit to Thailand in November
PHOTO: Father Joseph Anucha Chaiyadej, director of the Catholic Social Communications of Thailand, along with deputy secretary-general Monsignor Dr Vissanu Thanya-anan and Dr Chainarong Monthienvichienchai, counsellor for the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, speak to the media yesterday – The Nation It’s official, the Pope is coming to Thailand. Rumoured earlier but now officially announced. His Excellency Paul Tschang In-Nam,…
- Transport News
FAIL! One in seven public transport vehicles didn’t pass safety tests
One in seven public transport vehicles failed safety checks in the first week of a new program Vehicles failed the tests mostly because of a low-quality brake systems and excessive black smoke emissions In better news, only three of 10,236 drivers failed the exam About one in seven public Thai transport vehicles have failed safety checks in the first week…
- Northern Thailand News
Five killed in Sa Kaew passenger van crash
PHOTOS: Thai Rath A Thai van driver has been killed along with four Cambodian passengers after a car veered across a traffic median and crashed head-on into them. The accident occurred at 10.30am yesterday on the Aranyaprathet-bound Suwansorn road in Wattana Nakhon district of Sa Kaew, on the Cambodian border, east of Bangkok. Police report that a Cambodian girl and…
- Environment News
Can we defeat dengue? Mosquito trials raise hopes.
“We have seen a remarkable reduction of dengue cases after the release.” by Jenny Vaughan If you’ve ever experienced a bout of Dengue Fever, this will be welcome news. And if you live and work in the tropics in south east Asia, Dengue looms as a constant threat. Hundreds dead in the Philippines; a threefold increase of cases in Vietnam;…
- Tourism News
Uptick in Thai tourism – August arrivals up 5.6%
Foreign tourists arrivals in Thailand rose 5.6% last month compared to a year earlier, with Chinese visitor numbers rebounding strongly, according to audited numbers published by the tourism and sports ministry. (Percentages rounded up to the nearest .1) Revenue from the 3.41 million foreign arrivals in August was 170 billion baht, up 7.1% year-on-year. The number of Chinese tourists, Thailand’s largest…
- Transport News
Three-airport high-speed train project stumbles forward
One of the delayed Thai high-speed rail projects is now closer to being inked by the State Railway of Thailand and CP Holding’s joint venture, once an agreement on some key details of the public-private partnership project are reached. The new railway service will connect Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang international airports, with U-Tapao in Rayong, serving Pattaya and the…
- Chiang Mai News
Foreign tourists stop to help Chiang Dao local after motorcycle incident
Thai social media in the northern city has been full of praise for a foreign man and woman who responded to an incident in Chiang Dao, north of Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai News reports that the couple got out of their vehicle and helped with first aid before emergency teams and the police arrived on the scene and helped get…
- Politics News
Thai Government fails to properly address flood victims – Thanathorn
FILE PHOTO Embattled Future Forward Party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit has slammed the government for its handling of the current flood situation in the north-east and central Thailand. Speaking in a panel debate on amendment of the Constitution at Khon Kaen University on Sunday, he said he had visited people in Yasothon and Roi Et provinces in past days. He found…
- Politics News
Government not tackling Thailand’s economic woes – poll
Most people regard the government of Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha as lacking the capacity to tackle economic woes – this, the latest results from yesterday’s NIDA poll. The NIDA Poll, prepared by the National Institute of Development Administration, asked 1,260 respondents nationwide about their opinions on the current state of political play. The Nida Poll found that 46.7%t of the…
- Environment News
Old Thai habits die hard: Businesses are trying but shoppers remain stubborn
GRAPHICS: The Nation Thailand is now abuzz over the issue of plastic pollution. This topic is now being widely discussed among Thai netizens, who have been suggesting many measures, including controlling the use of plastic bags at supermarkets and convenience stores. But so much of daily Thai life still revolves around single-use plastics it is taking radical changes in behaviour and…
- Bangkok News
Dengue fever in Thailand: 3 dead in Bangkok since January 2019
PHOTO: Tripsavvy.com Bangkok Metropolitan Administration governor Aswin Kwanmuang says 4,903 residents have been infected with the dengue virus so far this year, with 3 deaths. In 2011, there were 10 deaths, with 8,699 having contracted the virus, so while there has been noticeable improvement, the current rate of infection is still worrying. Governor Aswin says that the areas which have…
- Tourism News
Hundreds of Pattaya tour guides rounded up in crackdown
PHOTOS: Sophon Cable TV A crackdown by the tourist police in Pattaya had resulted in 475 tour guides being fined for disregarding regulations related to tour company business, since the start of 2019. Sophon Cable TV report that local tourist police chief Lt-Col Piyapong Ensarn says eighteen illegal tour guides face a year in prison or fines up to 100,000…
- World News
Foreign companies looking to relocate factories in Vietnam
At this stage in the US-China trade wars, Vietnam is one of the key economic winners from the ongoing fallout. Many companies are shifting their factories to Vietnam, underlining the potential for the strong development of industrial real estate, as reported in Viet Nam News. Savills Vietnam, a property agent, has released its white paper on Vietnam’s industrial real estate…
- World News
Hurricane Dorian downgraded to Category 1 storm
“Dorian should remain a powerful hurricane as the eye of the storm moves near or along the coast of North Carolina.” Hurricane Dorian has weakened to a Category 1 storm this morning as it approached the coast of North Carolina, according to US meteorologists. At the same time, the death toll rises during the mop-up in the Bahamas which felt…
