Hot News
Thailand hot news, breaking stories, crime, politics, tourism, and business—stay updated with in-depth reports and exclusive interviews on the latest events across the country. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted Thailand news source.
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‘Big Joke’ goes back to school to hunt visa crooks
As Big Joke leads his investigation into Chinese gangs operating in Bangkok, the probe is expanding so fast that it is only a matter of time before the cops are investigating every business in the nation’s capital. There are no untouchables as criminal Chinese businesses appear to have pervaded almost every corner of Thai life from the scum floating at…
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Disruptive Phuket-bound passenger thrown off flight in Karachi
A disruptive Phuket-bound passenger on a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul was thrown off the aircraft yesterday and arrested after the flight diverted to Pakistan’s Jinnah International Airport in Karachi. After the passenger was taken into custody by local law enforcement, the flight continued to Phuket. Turkish Airlines flight TK-172 on an Airbus A330 diverted to Karachi three hours into the…
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Air Canada’s Vancouver-Bangkok flight touches down Thailand
Air Canada’s Vancouver-Bangkok flight touched down in the Kingdom of Thailand early this morning and, for the first time in 10 years, there is a nonstop flight between North America and Thailand. On December 1 at 11pm local time, the Air Canada Boeing 787 Dreamliner AC65 took off from Vancouver International Airport to begin its 15-hour and 55-minute journey to…
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Anutin responds to photo of cannabis smoking kids on Pattaya Beach
Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul has responded after photos of a group of 10 year olds smoking cannabis from a bamboo bong on Pattaya Beach went viral on social media. The legalisation of cannabis came with very little regulation, but a prohibition on sales or consumption by anyone under 20 years old was put in place almost immediately. Anutin has been…
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Phuket welcomes 6,730 flights in December
High season has arrived in Phuket, as the airport schedule lists 6,730 flights this month. The average number of flights per day throughout the month of December will reach 217, up from about 200 in November. (The busiest day in November saw 219 flight land with 10,467 passengers arriving.) Some 3,000 of those flights are international arrivals, while 3,730 flights…
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Thailand tourism predicted at 80% of pre-Covid in 2023
Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor Yuthasak Supasorn just predicted that next year, revenue from tourism will hit 80% of the level it was before the Covid-19 pandemic. He made the bold prediction at the 22nd World Travel and Tourism Council Global Summit, being held in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh. At that summit, the TAT was invited to take…
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Bangkok airport expansion prepares for bidding war
Bidding will open next year on Bangkok’s airport expansion at Suvarnabhumi International and Don Mueang International, according to Thailand’s transport minister Saksayam Chidchob. The expansions are needed to meet rising demand since Thailand dropped COVID entry restrictions on October 1 this year. Some 3 million passengers used Thai airports in October, compared with average monthly traffic of about 1.2 million…
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Child Protection Foundation leader faces child labour charges
Authorities in Thailand are claiming there’s a fine line between protecting children and exploiting them. Amphawa District Police in the Samut Songkhram province filed human trafficking charges against the Secretary-General of the Child Protection Foundation. The foundation has protected the rights of children, but charges accuse them of using those children as labour in a resort owned by Secretary-General Montri…
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Phuket flight cancellation due to earlier cancelled flight, runway maintenance
After pandemonium at Phuket International Airport on Thursday night with a flight cancellation stranding 300 passengers overnight, airport and tourism authorities say they’re more prepared and it won’t happen again. It all started when budget airline Thai VietJet cancelled a flight from Phuket to Bangkok minutes before take-off last night because staff couldn’t find a seat for one passenger. But…
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Pheu Thai Party under fire as Tuhao-Shinawatra connection exposed
Opposition Pheu Thai Party is under fire after police found that many houses connected to suspected Chinese gangster Chaiyanat “Tuhao” Kornchayanant were built by a company owned by the Shinawatra family. The Pheu Thai Party is the third incarnation of the party founded by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2007. On Wednesday, the Royal Thai Police raided 11 locations…
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Bullets-in-bag Israeli given 18 months in Thailand
The bullets-in-bag Israeli police officer was handed an 18-month jail sentence on Friday for arriving in Thailand with a deadly cargo of live ammunition. Gal Shmuel Farjun was arrested in October at Phuket Airport with two loaded magazines in his suitcase. The 29 year old claimed to have left the bullets in his bag “by accident.” The Israeli Foreign Ministry…
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Thai baht soars to six-month high against US dollar
The Thai baht opened at 34.78 against the US dollar today, strengthening from yesterday’s close of 35 to a six-month high. The baht’s sudden rise is down to the Bank of Thailand’s (BOT) hiking the policy rate by a quarter point earlier this week. The BOT remains committed to a gradual monetary tightening policy, raising the policy rate from 1%…
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Over 100 tonnes of garbage estimated near Phuket Fishing Port
Over 100 tonnes of garbage are estimated to have accumulated in a village near Phuket Fishing Port in Ratsada. The garbage has been building up for over 20 years and was recently brought to light through social media posts. The director-general of the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR), Atthaphon Charoenchansa, visited the village yesterday. Attaphon spoke to villagers…
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Thai Vietjet plans new routes to China, India, Japan, Vietnam
Thai Vietjet has big plans for next year with new routes in the pipeline to destinations in China, India, Japan, and Vietnam. Woranate Laprabang, chief executive of TVJ said… “We want to be driving the Thai economy by bringing in more foreign tourists.” Domestic flights accounted for about a third of flights operated by the airline this year. At the…
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Police arrest weight loss pill executive for causing 4 deaths in Thailand
A dietary supplement executive was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, yesterday after four people died from taking his company’s weight loss pills. Police arrested 50 year old Nuttawat outside a condo in the Huai Kwang district under an arrest warrant issued by Kanchanaburi Provincial Court on January 18, 2022, for, “secretly adding a substance to food, medicine or other edible products…
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Thai AirAsia Melbourne and Sydney connections take to the air
Australians can expect cheaper flights to Thailand, thanks to the arrival of a Thai AirAsia X on the busy Melbourne and Sydney routes. For the first time since the pandemic began, a non-stop Melbourne to Bangkok flight took off yesterday afternoon from Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport. The budget airline’s first flight on its new Sydney to Bangkok route departed today. Thai…
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Thailand’s top cheesemaker toasts his own success
When Thailand’s top cheesemaker Jarutat Snidwongse Na Ayuthaya decided to make cheese for a living, he didn’t find much support. His family and friends doubted that was a market for Chiang Mai cheese. Thailand’s unique cuisine doesn’t find much space for dairy. Sixteen years on, and things could hardly be better in the small but perfectly formed Thai cheese cottage…
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New details unfolding over alleged assault by Pattaya loan sharks
UPDATE New details are unfolding around a Pattaya woman who on Monday, November 28 alleged that loan sharks had abducted and assaulted her. The woman, 21 year old Tasneeporn Youngram, said that four loan sharks forced her into a car on Soi Paniad Chang in Bang Lamung. She said they then brought her to a deserted road, where they beat…
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Family of man who died after a hair transplant warns others to avoid cowboy clinics
The family of an Indian man who died from a hair transplant (HT) urges others to avoid cowboy clinics offering too good-to-be-true low-cost procedures. Balding Indian television executive Athar Rasheed decided to get an HT last year only for it to end fatally. The 30 year old wanted to improve his appearance, boost his confidence, and look younger, as many…
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Ladyboys steal Russian tourist’s gold necklace in Pattaya, Thailand
In a tale as old as time, another foreign tourist had their gold necklace stolen by ladyboys in Pattaya, Chon Buri province, eastern Thailand, in the dead of night. At 3am today, 24 year old Artem [surname withheld] of Russian nationality sought help from officers at Pattaya City Police Station. He said two ladyboys molested him and untied his gold…
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Tourists flock to famous market in Koh Samui
Tourists are flocking to a famous market in Koh Samui for its mouthwatering food. The vice president of the Tourism Council of Thailand said the tourists are loving the Pad Thai, papaya salad (Somtam), and grilled chicken at The Wharf Samui. The market opens every Wednesday and Friday from the late afternoon until late night. Tourism Council Vice President Wiwat Chuenban…
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9 year olds smoke cannabis on Pattaya Beach in Thailand
Netizens are concerned about the safety of children after pictures of a group of 9 and 10 year olds smoking cannabis from a bamboo bong on Pattaya Beach in Chon Buri province, eastern Thailand, went viral on social media. Thailand delisted cannabis as an illicit narcotic in June to allow the public to utilise the plant’s medicinal properties. But without…
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Woman allegedly steals winning lottery ticket from friend
The wife who ran off with her lover and 6 million baht lottery winnings belonging to her husband is not the only lottery ticket scandal in Thailand. A lottery winner in the central province of Chachoengsao filed a complaint against her friend saying she stole her 20,000 baht prize-winning lottery ticket. The lottery winner, 54 year old Paradee Chanwat, told…
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Thailand’s Board of Investment unveils transformation plans
Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI) has come up with new ways to attract more investment into Thailand. The board’s target is an easy-to-swallow group of companies dubbed “smart and sustainable” according to Bangkok Post. The government’s effort to create a “new” economy in Thailand is focused, like almost every other Asian nation, on buzzwords. The board’s chosen buzzwords are “innovation”…
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China’s great firewall breached as zero-Covid policy protesters access Twitter, Telegram
China’s great firewall has been breached as zero-Covid policy protesters are accessing Twitter and Telegram in record numbers. According to SensorTower, Twitter’s downloads increased from 150th rank to ninth rank among all the free iOS apps in China at the end of November. As the nation’s zero-Covid restrictions sparked a rare uproar among residents, the government’s censors have largely silenced…
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Driving licence point deductions starting next year in Thailand
Driving licence point deductions will start next year in Thailand to help curb traffic violations and dangerous driving. Starting January 9, 2023, the Royal Thai Police and Land Transport Department will enforce the demerit point system. Each driving license holder will be given 12 points to start with but will be deducted for each violation they are caught committing. The…
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US singer Kanye West sparks outrage after saying he loves Nazis and admires Hitler
During a Livestream with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, US singer Kanye West sparked outrage after saying he loves Nazis and admires Hitler. West, who is now known as Ye, joined Jones’ Infowars wearing a black mask that covered his whole face. He then proceeded to rant about pornography, sin and the devil. “I like Hitler.” According to Bangkok Post, West…
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Big Joke seizes Tuhao’s private jet in Hua Hin
A private jet is the latest addition to the Thai police’s shiny collection of assets seized from Tuhao the notorious Chinese gangster. Thai police – led by Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn – seized Tuhao’s private jet at Bo Fai Airport in Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan province, western Thailand, yesterday. Police found that the “HS-HAO” plane was owned by Modern…
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Body of missing woman found tied to water pump in western Thailand
Police launched a murder investigation after finding the body of a missing woman tied to a water pump inside a lake in Prachuap Khiri Khan province in western Thailand. Last night, police found the body of a woman estimated to be around 30 years old submerged in a lake in Moo 4, Ang Thong subdistrict, Thap Sakae district. Her body…
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Chinese gangs in Thailand take another hit as “Tony” falls
Chinese gangs in Thailand are in more trouble as police arrested another suspected gang boss in Bangkok Wednesday. Teams of police raided 34 locations in eight provinces, at the behest of deputy national police chief Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn. Big Joke, as Surachate is playfully known, said that in Samut Prakan, a company was identified as owning a private aircraft…
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