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Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond.
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Sponsored Why health insurance costs more each year and how expats in Thailand can save more money
Each year, many expats living in Thailand see their health insurance premiums go up and often without a clear reason. This can be frustrating, especially when you're trying to plan your budget. But by understanding why prices rise and learning...
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Shooting after comedy show in central Thailand, 1 seriously injured
A comedy show has turned into a not-so-funny night. A shooting has been reported after a comedy show at a bar in central Thailand. One customer was shot and rushed to a local hospital seriously injured. The shooting happened in the early hours of Thursday morning in the main city district of Ratchaburi province. The bar had hosted two famous…
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UPDATE: Woman who allegedly abused a soldier is a police officer
UPDATE The employer who allegedly abused a female soldier and claimed to be a senator’s wife is actually a police officer. According to one media source, the woman is the mistress of a senator, not his wife. The Spokesperson of the Royal Thai Armed Forces, Teerapong Pattamasing Na Ayutthaya, confirmed yesterday that the victim was a real soldier. Teerapong said…
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Police shoot and kill major drug trafficker in Kanchanaburi
Police have shot and killed a major drug trafficker in the western province of Kanchanaburi, Thai media reported yesterday. The trafficker, a 30 year old man known as ‘Mot Daodam’ had been a major distributor of narcotics in Kanchanaburi, as well as Ratchaburi. Ratchaburi police found out about Mot Daodam through small-time dealers they had arrested. A team of Ratchaburi…
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RTN’s ocean conservation activity accused of spoiling ecosystem
A Royal Thai Navy marine conservation activity day has set social media on fire. Thai netizens heavily criticised RTN’s activity day, which charged people money to take part, saying it did not improve the environment or create environmental awareness, but it destroyed the ecosystem. The RTN and the Royal Thai Marine Corps came under fire after their conservation activity day…
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Angry tourists demand refunds from tour operators in Thailand
Dozens of angry tourists are demanding refunds from Thai tour companies after they were denied entry into South Korea. The Thai Tourism Department acknowledged they had received complaints from 67 Thai travellers between August 5 and August 17 saying they had not been compensated by Thai tour companies to the tune of 1.4 million baht. The department’s deputy director-general, Jaturon…
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Motorbike taxi driver saves teenager from suicide in eastern Thailand
A motorbike taxi driver stopped an 18 year old woman from jumping off an overpass in Sriracha, Chon Buri province, on Tuesday. “Ked” recently discovered she was pregnant and said that her boyfriend forced her to take abortion medication before dumping her on the side of the road while she was heavily bleeding. The motorbike taxi driver, 60 year old Noppadol…
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UPDATE: BRN insurgents admits to Deep South bombings
UPDATE The insurgent group Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu Patani (BRN) announced on its Facebook page that they were behind this week’s bomb explosions in the Deep South provinces. The BRN group said it was an act against capitalism that affected local businesses. Yesterday, the official Facebook page of the group expressed condolences for the death and loss. They said group…
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Alleged kidnapper arrested, girl reunited with parents after months
A man who allegedly kidnapped a young girl in Phuket in February was arrested in South Thailand on Tuesday. The victim, a 13 year old girl, has been reunited with her parents. The suspect, 33 year old Somsak, allegedly kidnapped the girl on Rawai Beach in the main city district of Phuket, where she had been selling flowers. The girl’s…
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Father tragically drowns while fishing in Chon Buri pond
A Chon Buri woman tragically lost her father, after he drowned in a deserted pond in the main city district yesterday. The woman, 22 year old Maneemol, went to look for her father, 54 year old Kwanjai after she noticed he had been out fishing for an unusually long time. Maneemol arrived at the pond to find her father’s bucket…
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South African’s life sentence reduced to 33 years for drug trafficking in Thailand
Koh Samui Court decided to reduce 23 year old Ashley Oosthuizen’s life sentence to 33.4 years at a hearing on Wednesday. Ashley, from South Africa, is behind bars in Nakhon Si Thammarat province in southern Thailand for signing for a package containing MDMA at a restaurant in Koh Samui in late 2020. She was found guilty of international drug trafficking.…
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PM’s office is one of Thailand’s top advertising spenders
Thai netizens are curious as to why the Office of the Thai PM has spent so much money on advertisements after a recent poll by Nielsen ranked it in 13th place for the most money spent on advertising in Thailand. New York City-based Nielsen is a US information, data, and market measurement firm with clients in over 100 countries around…
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Health dept’s reply to rising food costs: ‘let them eat curry & rice’
The Health Department’s “Let them eat curry and rice” response to Thailand’s cost of living crisis is not quite Marie Antoinette’s ‘Let them eat cake’ quip to the starving peasants of France in the 17th century, but it’s not far off. The Thai Health Department urged people to buckle their belts and accept the fact that consumer products are more…
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Two Indians stopped for taking restricted goods to Bangkok
Delhi Air Customs arrested two people at Indira Gandhi International Airport yesterday for carrying restricted goods. The couple, Indian nationals, were on their way to Bangkok when they were stopped and had their luggage checked. Customs officers found cash in two currencies, US$19,200 and 15,700 euros, in bangle boxes. Delhi Customs reported the pair had been detained and were helping…
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‘Win’ motorbike taxi drivers protest against GrabBike in Bangkok, Thailand
In Bangkok, “Win” motorbike taxi drivers in orange jackets have monopolised the streets for years, whipping customers from place to place in record time, until the arrival of the Grab. Today at 12.30pm, more than 150 Win drivers honked their horns outside the Ministry of Transport in Bangkok to demand the removal of Grab’s GrabBike feature, which they say is…
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China not cod-ing about its zero Covid policy as it tests fish
China was not cod-ing when it said it remains committed to its zero Covid-19 policy. This week fish caught off the coast of Xiamen, in southeastern Fujian province, were given nucleic acid tests alongside the fishermen who hauled in the catch. China’s overzealous zero Covid strategy was made fun of by a Chinese media outlet, Sohu (搜狐新闻), who posted a video on…
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Female soldier seeks help after being abused by senator’s wife
A soldier appealed to a Thai influencer for help after revealing she was almost driven to suicide after years of physical and mental abuse by the wife of a senator. The woman contacted Guntouch “Gun” Pongpaiboonwet, aka Gun Jom Palang, to share her story. In turn, Gun spread the news on Facebook and said helped her file a complaint against…
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Monkeypox victims told to avoid animals after pet dog is infected
The World Health Organisation appealed to those infected with monkeypox to avoid exposing animals to the disease after the first reported case of a human-to-dog transmission emerged. The British-based medical journal, the Lancet, last week reported an Italian greyhound, living with two men in Paris, had caught monkeypox. Rosamund Lewis, the WHO’s technical lead for monkeypox made it known that…
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Elephant rips mahout’s body in half in southern Thailand
An elephant ripped its mahout in half with its tusks yesterday morning at a rubber plantation in southern Thailand’s Phang Nga province. Police think the elephant was annoyed at its owner for making it haul rubberwood in the hot weather. At 11.30am, officers from Takua Thung Police Station were informed that a mahout had been killed by a 20 year…
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2 men on a motorcycle rob a gas station in Chon Buri
Police are on the lookout for two opportunist thieves who robbed a gas station in Chon Buri yesterday. The two men arrived at the PTT gas station. No. 114/22, Village No. 2, Nong Samsak Sub-district, in the Ban Bueng subdistrict on a motorbike wearing full-face helmets and robbed about 6,000 baht in cash before fleeing the scene. Pol. Lt. Col. Ekachai Pakwat,…
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PM Prayut suggests studying Buddhism to cope with rising electricity bills in Thailand
Thailand’s electricity authorities approved record high electricity prices on Monday to offset the rising prices of imported gas. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s suggestion of studying Buddhism to cope with expensive bills is a slap in the face to Thailand’s poorest people, who will disproportionately suffer the most due to the price hike. “Go and study the Dharma. Study the Four…
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Thai man faces prison for growing & selling corals online
A Thai man faces up to ten years in jail after being arrested for selling coral online via Facebook. Police seized more than 300 types of corals from the man’s residence. The 31 year old man, Thitipong, was arrested today at his home in Soi Suwinthawong 13, Saen Saeb sub-district, Min Buri district, Bangkok. Thitipong turned his home into a…
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‘Real owner’ of Mountain B nightclub released on bail for 1 million baht cash
Pattaya Provincial Court released the “real owner” of Mountain B nightclub on bail for one million baht in cash yesterday afternoon. Police say Somyot “Sia Yot” Panprasong is the prime investor and mastermind behind the illegal nightclub, which went up in flames on August 5, claiming the lives of 19 people. Police put out an arrest warrant for 55 year…
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UPDATE: 21 year old man found dead after Deep South bombing
UPDATE Following the bomb explosions in three Deep South provinces on August 16, officers found one man dead inside a 7-Eleven shop in the Su-ngai Golok district of Narathiwas province. Yesterday, officers from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal investigated a 7-Eleven store inside a petrol station that was bombed as part of the attack and found the charred body of a…
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Thai govt open to cannabis recreation, not pot-smoking tourists
Thailand’s Public Health Minister made contradictory statements yesterday regarding the recreational use of cannabis. In one statement Anutin Charnvirakul said he was open to the further liberalisation of the drug and in another, he said pot-smoking tourists are not welcome in Thailand. “We don’t welcome those kinds of tourists,” said The 55 year old Bhumjaithai Party leader at a “Meet…
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Thai neitzens angry at SUV driver using a siren just to use toilet
Thai netizens made it known there were outraged by the owner of a black SUV car that traveled at high speed and used a siren – just to use a toilet. Dashcam footage of the SUV was posted on the Facebook page Let Me Know If You Want to Be Famous Return Part 3. The video was posted on August…
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New poll says people from Thailand more relaxed about Covid-19
A survey conducted by the Department of Health Service Support revealed that Thai people are not as vigilant as they once were about Covid-19 safety measures. The survey revealed that Thai people were about 4.3% more likely to engage in higher-risk activities than previously while there is an 11.06% decline in mask-wearing awareness. These results came from comparing the data…
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Rama 2 Road guilty of being a repeat accident offender
Another accident was reported on the Rama 2 Road where the U-turn bridge collapsed two weeks ago. Yesterday, an iron bar fell from a truck onto the road and almost hit a car. On July 30, at 8pm, the U-turn bridge over the Rama 2 Road collapsed onto four vehicles. One female passenger was killed at the scene by a…
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Body of one teacher found in double suicide pact in SE Thailand
The body of one of the two teachers who jumped off a bridge in Muang district in a double suicide pact has been recovered. A member of the public Anon Boonsert revealed that he saw two women sitting inside a Honda car parked on the Bang Phra Bridge, connecting Wang Krachae subdistrict and Nong Khan Song subdistrict, in Trat Province,…
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Mystery 911 emergency service call turns out to be a monkey
American police officers responded to a 911 (emergency) call in a remote area three and a half hours north of Los Angeles only to find an unlikely caller – a monkey in a zoo. The incident took place at Zoo to You, a wildlife conservation park in the quaint town of Paso Robles, California, known for its wineries and military…
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Hot gran bowled over by Shane Warne before he died in Thailand
The world’s self-proclaimed “hottest grandma” revealed she was secretly dating cricket legend Shane Warne before his death in Thailand earlier this year. Australia OnlyFans star Gina Stewart claimed she first met Warne in 2018 at the Gold Coast, Queensland. The 51 year old model revealed she has gone public about their relationship because she says she’s still finding it hard…
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