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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 retirees in Thailand are choosing long-term health insurance over quick fixes
Retirees in Thailand are increasingly seeing the importance of health insurance in protecting their well-being during retirement. With insurance requirements for retirement visas and rising healthcare costs, many are moving away from short-term plans and choosing long-term coverage. Long-term health...
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Chiang Mai hotel reduces room rate to 1 baht per night to stimulate tourism
If you’re looking to travel northern Thailand on a budget, book this week and get a room for just 1 baht at Harmonize Hotel in Chiang Mai province. The room must be booked before August 7 for a stay anytime before October 31. Not only does the room cost a mere 1 baht – or US$0.028 – but the hotel…
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First monkeypox death in Asia occurs this week in India
The first confirmed death due to monkeypox in Asia occurred on Monday in the state of Kerala in India. It is only the fourth death confirmed worldwide in the current monkeypox outbreak, after two fatalities in Spain last week and one in Brazil. Monkeypox has spread around the world in recent months, while previous outbreaks had been endemic to Africa,…
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Shiitake happened to nearly 2,000 victims in Thailand who lost over 1 million baht in a mushroom farm scam
Shiitake happened to about 2000 people who invested in a mushroom farm in the Isaan province of Sakhon Nakhon after scammers without good morels said thank you very mush to more than 1 million baht of their cash. The media reported that Turtle Farm in Sakhon Nakhon invited people from all over Thailand to invest and become shareholders in the…
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Flash flood warning due to heavy rains in 38 provinces
Heavy rains have been battering various parts of Thailand and are expected to continue into August. The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation announced today that 38 provinces in the kingdom are under flash flood warnings all this week. The flash flood warnings from heavy rains are in effect in the North, Northeast, Central, East, and South regions of the…
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Thailand’s Nok Air relaunches Chiang Mai – Korat route
After four years, Nok Air has relaunched the airline’s route between Chiang Mai in northern Thailand and Nakhon Ratchasima – also known as Korat – in northeast Thailand. The route’s inaugural flight took off from Chiang Mai International Airport at 8.45pm yesterday and landed in Korat at 10.15pm. The route will serve two flights per week. The outbound service from…
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New Bangkok tunnel closed on opening day due to flood
You couldn’t make this up. Finally, after 13 years of construction, the new Fai Chai Tunnel in Bangkok officially opened yesterday only to close due to a flood. Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt last month visited the unfinished Fai Chai Tunnel to talk with the Director of the Public Work Department, Taiwut Khankaew, about the project’s delay. Chadchart made a few…
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Nok Air explains shoddy evacuation of runaway plane in northern Thailand
Nok Air has made a public statement apologising to passengers who sat on a Boeing 737-800 for over an hour after it skidded off Chiang Rai International Airport’s runway on Saturday evening. Several passengers have expressed dissatisfaction with the evacuation procedure. Nok Air said the safety of passengers was the airline’s “highest priority.” The airline said the reason it took…
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Thailand to import smallpox vaccines from US this month
Thailand expects 1,000 doses of the smallpox vaccine to arrive in the kingdom from the US by the end of this month. But the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) said that the vaccines would be made available to only the most vulnerable groups of people in Thailand. The Director-General of the Disease Control Department, Opas Karnkawinpong, yesterday said that monkeypox…
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Homeless Thai man turns to crime so he can get food in jail
With no prospects of a job, no home, and no money to buy food, an old man from Chon Buri turned to a life of crime so he could get fed and have a roof over his head… in prison. The 60 year old man called Pichit was arrested in the Sattahip district, Chon Buri province, at about 3.30pm on…
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Malaysia detains 3 Thais who tested positive for cannabis
Three Thais travelling to Malaysia for the long weekend were imprisoned for three days and fined the equivalent of 50,000 baht after they tested positive for cannabis, reported Amarin TV on Friday. The tourists crossed over the border into Malaysia via the Wang Prachan checkpoint in Satun province and were asked to provide a urine sample on arrival in Weng…
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Woman urges people to beware of air-con scam in Thailand
A Thai woman warned people to be careful after she was scammed into buying two second-hand air conditioning units with a secret top-up installment plan. The woman posted her story on Facebook, under the moniker June Smile, of how she was conned into buying two air-con units with an extra 900 baht a month top-up plan despite believing she had…
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House in central Thailand collapses & kills 88 year old woman
An 88 year old woman died yesterday after her house in Ang Thong province in central Thailand collapsed on top of her. The heavy rain was too much for the 100 year old construction, located in the Bang Chak sub-district, Wiset Chai Chan District, in Ang Thong, and the roof literally fell in. The house was built in a traditional…
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Grandparents chain 11 year old to a pole in northeast Thailand
A couple from Buriram province, northeast Thailand, have admitted to chaining up their 11 year old granddaughter to a pole and beating her with a stick. Social services went to investigate at the couple’s house in Lam Plai Mat district today after a local man posted a video of the child, tied up in chains, on social media out of…
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3 tourists from Thailand die in Laos road accident
Three tourists from Thailand were among six people killed and 18 injured in a road accident on a road in the Savannakhet province of Laos last night. The bus driver and two tour guides also died in the crash. The bus was bringing Thai tourists back from a four-day trip to Vietnam when it collided with an 18-wheel truck at…
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Thai man beset by Black Magic faces jail for stealing holy relic
A Thai druggie obsessed with Black Magic faces five years in jail and a 100,000 baht fine after stealing a holy statue from some military premises. Habitual drug taker Thongchai Saengtrakarn was arrested yesterday after stealing the holy statute from the entrance of the Defence Technology Institute in Nontha Buri province near Bangkok on Thursday, July 28. The 38 year…
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Toll gate collapses in central Thailand
A toll gate in Chachoengsao province, central Thailand, collapsed at 10.34am today during heavy rain and strong winds. No injuries have been reported. The roof above toll booth 1 at Bang Pakong Toll Gate on Highway 7 heading towards Pattaya completely caved in this morning during adverse weather conditions. No injuries, deaths, or vehicle damage was reported. The toll booth was…
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Phuket security guard shoots raging bar customer holding a sword
An early-morning scuffle outside of a karaoke bar in Phuket town ended when a security guard shot a Thai customer who was wielding a half-metre-long sword. The pre-dawn incident took place at Nai Mueang Sot Phuket pub and karaoke bar on Phuket Road, with police responding to a call at around 5.50am. Upon arrival, they discovered a 27 year old…
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Bangkok chief says 300 water pumps need changing to fix floods
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt called upon the city’s private sector to help solve the capital’s age-old flooding conundrum. The 56 year old chief said he is determined to sort out Bangkok’s perpetual drainage system. He revealed that, after a thorough investigation, the city needs to replace about 300 water pumps that are over 15 years old. Last Friday, Chadchart inspected…
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Lightning strike kills seven cows in Nakhon Ratchasima
Deadly lightning struck a forest during a rain storm in the Bua Yai district of Nakhon Ratchasima, killing seven cows instantly. The unusual occurrence happened yesterday and was reported by the Hook 31 Rescue Unit. That unit was called to investigate in the northeastern province in response to the incident that took place at around 12.10pm. The unit hurried to…
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Covid-19 preventing LAAB immunisations available from August 1
In August, public health centres in Thailand will make available Long Acting Antibody (LAAB) immunisations to help people get continued protection against Covid-19. The LAAB injections will first be made available to those with weekend or compromised immune systems and should provide protection against Covid for up to six months. The deputy government spokesperson explained that today, August 1, public…
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Political activists demand Thai PM quits at the end of his tenure
Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha may have survived the vote of no confidence just over a week ago but the pressure is still on for him to stand down after a political activist group cranked up more opposition to his tenure. PM Prayut and 10 other cabinet ministers rode the political storm at the censure debate between July 19 and…
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Vietnamese mother and daughter drown at Phuket beach
At Naithon Beach in the Thalang district of Phuket, a Vietnamese woman and her daughter drowned while swimming yesterday. The waters off the coast were rough with high waves caused by strong winds, and red flags were set up to warn tourists of the dangers of swimming in those conditions. The two women drowned early yesterday morning with police being…
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Japanese documentary producer arrested in Myanmar
A Japanese documentary producer was imprisoned with two protesters after joining an anti-government protest in Yangon last Tuesday. The media reported that Toru Kubota, a 26 year old male photographer and documentary filmmaker, was arrested at a protest in the South Dagon Township in the southeastern area of Yangon on July 30. The report said he was arrested while gathering…
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VIDEO: Rama II U-turn bridge collapses near Bangkok, killing 2
A U-turn bridge over the Rama II Road heading toward Bangkok collapsed yesterday at 8pm, falling onto four vehicles and killing two people. One passenger died at the scene and a construction worker who fell from the bridge later died in hospital from their injuries. Two more people were injured. The incident happened in front of Vibharam Hospital in Samut…
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Bangkok learning centre to host award ceremony for board game competition
One Bangkok learning centre plans to host an awards ceremony for a recent competition it held. The ceremony will be held at TK Park, located on the eighth floor of Central World Bangkok on Rama I Road, from August 6-7. It will last from 10.30am to 5.30pm. TK Park, or The Knowledge Park, has libraries but it also has interactive…
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Meth bust in northeast Thailand, pills worth about 20 million baht
There was another meth bust in northeast Thailand last night, this time in Nakhon Phanom province. Rangers had been patrolling the Mekong River when they noticed a group of men on a long-tail boat. The men took a sack out of the boat and left it on the riverbank before they sped off in their boat. In the sack, the…
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Lucky American wins US$1.3 billion in lottery, identity still unknown
One lucky American bought the winning lottery ticket at a convenience store outside Chicago in a draw on Friday and landed a US$1.3 billion jackpot. The lucky winner hasn’t been identified yet but, whoever it is, they have scooped the third biggest lottery jackpot in US history. The winning numbers were 13, 36, 45, 57, and 67, plus the mega…
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Army man rents 12 luxury cars, then sells them to used car dealers
A former army sergeant came up with a creative – and illegal – way to pay off some debt. He allegedly rented 12 luxury cars and then forged paperwork to sell the borrowed vehicle to car dealers. The sergeant has now been arrested by the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) yesterday and faces charges of fraud, counterfeiting, and using counterfeit official…
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Chiang Rai runway closed after Nok Air plane skids off runway
In Chiang Rai, a Nok Air plane slid off the runway while landing due to heavy rains that resulted in slippery ground conditions. The accident took place last night, as a landing Boeing 737-800 skidded off the runway at Mae Fah Luang International Airport in the northern province. No one was injured in the crash, but it did force the…
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Bangkok officials working to prevent river overflows
Bangkok officials are working to prevent overflows from the Chao Phraya River. This news comes after the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation warned last week that Bangkok and the other 10 provinces along the river needed to prepare for floods from July 28 until August 1 (tomorrow). Now, Bangkok’s governor Chadchart Sittipunt says the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration is working…
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