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.

  • Sponsored

    Why long-term expats in Thailand say insurance is worth every baht

    Thailand’s warm weather, low cost of living, and good healthcare attract many long-term expats, including retirees and remote workers. Life here feels easy and affordable, but medical costs can be high if something goes wrong. Private hospitals are popular because...

  • Samui charity battles to feed island’s remaining residents | Thaiger

    Samui charity battles to feed island’s remaining residents

    by Ann Carter As around 2,000 Thai workers have reportedly left the island of Koh Samui due to the Covid-19 economic fallout, ‘Sisters on Samui’, the island’s largest charity is changing up the way in which to help feed those remaining residents. Keyt Topcu, co-president of SOS, says the effort involves cutting out bags as the organisation realised that they could save over 500 USD…

  • Asia Pacific’s smartphone market declines by 20% during pandemic | Thaiger

    Asia Pacific’s smartphone market declines by 20% during pandemic

    “The region’s smartphone market was hardest hit in the second quarter when many countries here entered lockdown mode. This was also when we started observing new trends emerging and the corresponding shifts in consumer demand for durable goods.” People are buying fewer smartphones this year. The once robust and thriving industry has been on a downward slope in the Asia…

  • Bankruptcy Court approves Thai Airways debt restructuring plan | Thaiger

    Bankruptcy Court approves Thai Airways debt restructuring plan

    The Central Bankruptcy Court approved Thai Airways International’s debt restructuring plan. An official says the approval is just a “tiny step” in the process estimated to take years. With the approval, the international airline company can now start discussions with debt holders. The 60 year company is reportedly facing its biggest challenge: bankruptcy during a global pandemic with international travel…

  • Parliament to host a ‘safe zone’ forum for students’ demands on September 22 | Thaiger

    Parliament to host a ‘safe zone’ forum for students’ demands on September 22

    A ‘dialogue’ is to be held in a Thai parliamentary setting on September 22. A parliamentary committee is responding to the demands from student and opposition protesters, who are calling for reform of the government, a new constitution, and even reform of the Thai Monarchy – the latter previously considered a ‘no go’ zone. The committee describes the upcoming forum as an…

  • Thailand’s prisons to release thousands monitored with ankle bracelet | Thaiger

    Thailand’s prisons to release thousands monitored with ankle bracelet

    Thailand’s prisons are overcrowded. To fix the problem, they’re sending some of the inmates home and monitoring them with ankle bracelets. Just 39 prisoners have been given the electric monitoring, or EM, ankle bracelets, but the Justice Minister says he expects the bracelets to be used on thousands of convicted criminals to free up space in the prisons. 2 former…

  • Bangkok expo planned to fill 1 million job vacancies | Thaiger

    Bangkok expo planned to fill 1 million job vacancies

    Thailand has a lot of job opportunities. About a million. The Labour Ministry is hosting an expo to connect job seekers, especially recent university graduates, with companies. For recent graduates, a new government initiative co-payment system will take care of half the salary. Job Expo Thailand 2020 will run from September 26 to 28 at Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre,…

  • Tourists flock to Sichon temple, worship a spirit known for granting wishes | Thaiger

    Tourists flock to Sichon temple, worship a spirit known for granting wishes

    Thai tourists destinations have gone quiet due to the pandemic, but one southern Thailand temple is thriving. Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Wat Chedi is known for granting wishes, and apparently many come true (although people don’t tend to talk about the ones that don’t come true). It is packed with visitors not just on the weekends, but every day. Visitors worship Ai Khai, the…

  • 150 million baht makeover for Bangkok klongs | Thaiger

    150 million baht makeover for Bangkok klongs

    Bangkok’s BMA is poised to spend 150 million baht revamping 15 kilometres of canal network in Thon Buri as part of an initiative to revive Bangkok’s reputation as the Venice of the East, a popular tourist phrase of the past referring to Bangkok’s extensive canal (klong) network, now mostly filled in and replaced with roads. The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority is…

  • Lights are out on Ibiza – the world’s party islands go dark | Thaiger

    Lights are out on Ibiza – the world’s party islands go dark

    “The party scene, by its nature, is all about getting together, dancing, celebrating ‘closeness’ and being social – the antithesis of social distancing and staying away from other people in the Covid-era.” Some of the world’s tourist islands are suffering badly from the lack of travel, it’s not just Bali and Phuket. The Spanish party island of Ibiza is also…

  • Tourism chief appeals for patience, but admits things will “never be the same” | Thaiger

    Tourism chief appeals for patience, but admits things will “never be the same”

    “The primary source markets would be Northeast Asia and the ASEAN countries, with a customer target of people in good health and high-purchasing power.” Patience is not only a virtue, but a necessity, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor Yuthasak Supasorn. The TAT chief is appealing to the Thai tourism industry to be “patient, united, and confident in…

  • 3 to 4 years for tourism revenue to recover, research centre says | Thaiger

    3 to 4 years for tourism revenue to recover, research centre says

    It’s going to take years for Thailand’s tourism revenue to recover. A lack of international tourists caused income to drastically drop and it’s going to be at least 3 to 4 years until revenue is back to normal, according to the Krungthai COMPASS Research Centre. Many tourism companies are also changing their marketing approach to stay in business, focusing on a…

  • Phuket health chief supports medical cannabis cultivation | Thaiger

    Phuket health chief supports medical cannabis cultivation

    Phuket’s health chief says he backs the production of medical cannabis and suggests those in the island province should look into growing it for research. The local public health office held a workshop at Phuket’s Rajabhat University discussing cannabis production in Phuket. Right now only state agencies, private universities or state approved farmers can produce medical cannabis. Phuket’s public health…

  • Hunt for wild tiger sighted at maize plantation in northern Thailand | Thaiger

    Hunt for wild tiger sighted at maize plantation in northern Thailand

    A drone has been deployed in the hunt for a wild tiger believed to have wandered outside its natural habitat at the Huey Kha Kheng wildlife sanctuary. The sanctuary, in the northern province of Uthai Thani, has brought in forest rangers in an attempt to track down the tiger, whose footprints were spotted in a nearby maize plantation. PHOTO: Thai…

  • Police bust factories: Used medical gloves resold and painkillers sold as herbal medicine | Thaiger

    Police bust factories: Used medical gloves resold and painkillers sold as herbal medicine

    Police busted 2 factories. The first allegedly produced medicine illegally, selling medicines containing steroids and painkillers as “herbal medicine.” The other was allegedly repackaging used medical gloves, boxing them up and making them look good as new. In the herbal medicine bust, police seized 400,000 packages of what police say is “fake” herbal medicine under the brand name “Jindamanee.” Instead…

  • Kasetsart school bans use of name, logo, at political events on grounds of “neutrality” | Thaiger

    Kasetsart school bans use of name, logo, at political events on grounds of “neutrality”

    A school forming part of Bangkok’s Kasetsart University has banned students from using its name or logo in any political activities. Anti-government protests have been ramping up around the country since mid-July, with a large rally set to take place at Thammasat University in the capital on September 19 (although Thammasat officials have currently denied permission for the demonstration to…

  • 160 million baht project to renovate Pattaya beach set to begin by year end | Thaiger

    160 million baht project to renovate Pattaya beach set to begin by year end

    A 160 million baht project to renovate Pattaya beach looks set to begin by the end of this year. Yet ANOTHER renovation project in a long list of makeovers for the city’s naturally slim beachfronts. Talks on the project have been ongoing since September 2019 and, while movement may have stalled for a while due to the Covid-19 ‘interruption’, it…

  • Thammasat University officials ban September 19 protest | Thaiger

    Thammasat University officials ban September 19 protest

    Thammasat University, once a bastion of democratic voices and student expression, has refused permission for an anti-government protest, set to take place on its Tha Phra Chan campus in Bangkok, on September 19. University officials say they are banning the gathering as organisers have “failed to follow the institution’s guidelines” on hosting political events on campus. Officials are referring to…

  • Teen arrested for allegedly killing school security guard in Pathum Thani | Thaiger

    Teen arrested for allegedly killing school security guard in Pathum Thani

    A teenager at a Pathum Thani school allegedly has killed the duty security guard after an argument about smoking marijuana on the school’s grounds. The body of 36 year old Parinya Unsab was found near a teacher’s house. Police say the man’s skull was fractured. Parinya had called the police early in the morning saying there were teenagers causing a…

  • Phuket police arrest man for using ‘hookah’ pipes | Thaiger

    Phuket police arrest man for using ‘hookah’ pipes

    A 29 year old Isaan resident has been arrested by Phuket police for possessing 6 hookahs… the Middle Eastern water pipes are illegal in Thailand (although not too difficult to find being used in some commercial premises). Krissada Pimchanda, from Khon Kaen, was charged with violating consumer protection laws. The laws prohibit the sale or provision of services for hookahs,…

  • PM ignores opposition calls for him to step down… “I have a job to do” | Thaiger

    PM ignores opposition calls for him to step down… “I have a job to do”

    Calls from opposition parties for Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha to resign have been brushed aside by the Thai leader, who insists he has a job to do. Politicians from the Pheu Thai and Kao Klai parties have called for him to step down, with Jiraporn Sinthuprai from the Pheu Thai Party even going as far as to say she’s prepared…

  • Former mayor gets 2 months detention for indecent act on journalist | Thaiger

    Former mayor gets 2 months detention for indecent act on journalist

    The former mayor who ordered a journalist to strip down to his underwear is now facing 2 months in detention rather than a 2 month prison sentence. The Supreme Court recently commuted his sentence and the former politician Premsak Piayura is requesting a venue for his detention. In 2016, a rumour spread saying that Premsak, a former mayor of Ban…

  • Protest calling on Thai Head of State reform set for September 19 | Thaiger

    Protest calling on Thai Head of State reform set for September 19

    Pro-democracy activists are planning a 2 day protest in Bangkok to call for Thai Monarchy reform and demand democracy. They’re calling it… “September 19: Return the power to civilians” (translated). Activists plan to gather at Thammasat University’s Tha Prachan campus at 2pm on September 19, camp out for the night and then march to the Government House at 8am the…

  • Tourism authority says Thailand must prepare for virus cases as part of re-opening | Thaiger

    Tourism authority says Thailand must prepare for virus cases as part of re-opening

    The Tourism Authority of Thailand says the country must re-open its borders by the last quarter of the year and prepare to manage new Covid-19 cases as a result. TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn says the impact of new cases can be contained with careful risk management. The reality of the situation is now sinking in as Thai officials are now…

  • Source says 3,000 baht handout coming soon, PM says it’s a rumour | Thaiger

    Source says 3,000 baht handout coming soon, PM says it’s a rumour

    Thais are getting some extra cash … Well, maybe. Reports say a 3,000 baht cash handout scheme is in the works to help revive the economy after the pandemic, but PM Prayut Chan-o-cha told the press it’s just a rumour, saying the Thai government “does not plan cash handouts of another 3,000 baht to Thais.” An anonymous source from the…

  • UPDATE: Win motorbike shooter turns himself in | Thaiger

    UPDATE: Win motorbike shooter turns himself in

    A 55 year old motorbike taxi driver turned himself in after an alleged shootout in front of a Samut Prakan Big C. Witnesses say 2 groups of motorbike taxi drivers, known as win, allegedly fired shots at each other in a so-called turf war, according to Thai media. Somjet Pojaroen, a former assistant village headman who runs a motorbike taxi…

  • Thailand is the fourth most searched-for destination for your next holiday | Thaiger

    Thailand is the fourth most searched-for destination for your next holiday

    Since early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has stopped us from taking our holidays, or doing much travelling at all. But as travel restrictions ease, which destinations are coming out on top for our post-lockdown holidays? Official-esta.com has dusted off the calculator and checked the Google Search Volume data for the search terms “Flights to X” and “Holidays in X” to…

  • Not so fast! Phuket’s plans to reopen slow down | Thaiger

    Not so fast! Phuket’s plans to reopen slow down

    “We have to rely on domestic tourism demand for now because we can’t reopen our borders yet. Some people in the area still haven’t accepted the idea… It doesn’t mean that we’re pulling the plug on the plan though.” Phuket is not going to be back up and running as soon as expected. Plans to let international tourists back in…

  • A new flaw detected on Boeing’s 787 as company’s problems mount | Thaiger

    A new flaw detected on Boeing’s 787 as company’s problems mount

    The problems at Boeing are starting to stack up, at a time when few airlines are ordering new planes and going through their current orders to see which order they can cancel. Boeing has now disclosed another problem with the construction of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft that could cause further delays on aircraft deliveries, and provide another headache for the…

  • Rumours of another coup are false, PM says | Thaiger

    Rumours of another coup are false, PM says

    Coup? What coup? Rumours have been floating around about an impending coup d’etat by the army. When asked about a possible coup, PM Prayut Chan-o-cha dismissed it, calling the rumour nonsense and groundless. He then abruptly called the press meeting to an end. Some have been saying the army is preparing for the coup by moving its forces and equipment.…

  • Phuket airport sees increase in domestic arrivals over long weekend | Thaiger

    Phuket airport sees increase in domestic arrivals over long weekend

    The general manager of Phuket airport, Thanee Chuangchoo, says domestic arrivals were on the up over the course of the recent 4 day holiday. The long weekend, from September 4 to 7, was brought in to replace the annual Songkran holiday in April, cancelled this year due to the Covid-19 lockdown. The jump in domestic arrivals will have provided some…