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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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    Is private health insurance in Thailand worth it? Real costs vs risks explained

    Thailand has a strong healthcare system with both public and private options. Public hospitals offer affordable care, but many people, including expats, choose private health insurance for faster service, modern facilities, and more treatment choices. To decide if private health...

  • F35 fighter jets head RTAF wish list

    F35 fighter jets head RTAF wish list

    The Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) is keen to buy two shiny black F35 fighter jets from the United States. Despite outcry from opposition parties, F35 fighter jets head RTAF’s wish list. The decision now rests with the US Congress which is yet to confirm whether Thailand is a good enough friend to receive such sought-after toys. The plane’s technology…

  • Murdered transwoman thrown into canal ‘still alive’ in central Thailand

    Murdered transwoman thrown into canal ‘still alive’ in central Thailand

    The court has denied bail to the delivery driver suspected of murdering the transwoman whose body was found floating in a canal in Pathum Thani province just north of Bangkok in central Thailand on Wednesday. The killer picked up 29 year old Piyada “Goya” Sorrakun in his Mazda 2 from Lumpini Park on Tuesday night. In the car, he threatened…

  • Hua Hin International Jazz Festival coming up

    Hua Hin International Jazz Festival coming up

    The Hua Hin International Jazz Festival is coming up, with more than 30 artists from around the world en route to perform at the renowned tourism hotspot. Several local artists and bands will also be performing. The festival will be held from December 2-3 on Suan Son Pradit beach, in front of the Seapine Recreation Centre. Musicians will perform from…

  • Tour operators reluctant to fund staff training

    Tour operators reluctant to fund staff training

    Around a quarter of tourism businesses want to increase their workforces, but tour operators are reluctant to fund staff training, concerned about volatile demand. Bosses want taxpayers to pay their training expenses for them, according to the National Institute of Development Administration. Tourism is perhaps the biggest driver of the Thai economy. Employers who can afford to say they want…

  • Mainland researcher writes that Chinese created Egyptian civilisations and then deletes it after backlash

    Mainland researcher writes that Chinese created Egyptian civilisations and then deletes it after backlash

    A Chinese mainland researcher is garnering backlash after penning an article stating that his country created Egyptian civilisations. The article has caused an online backlash, prompting him to delete it amid triggering a formal investigation. Senior researcher, Yu Ruijun, at the Culture and Tourism Bureau of Zhangjiakou city in Hebei province, claimed that there was “a great deal of evidence…

  • Media members ask for investigation after police allegedly injure photojournalists at APEC

    Media members ask for investigation after police allegedly injure photojournalists at APEC

    Members of the media are asking Thailand’s House Committee to investigate police conduct after alleging that they were injured during a clash at the APEC summit. A representative of four photojournalists says they were injured in a clash between anti-government protesters and riot police at last week’s summit in Bangkok. The senior editor of online news outlet The Matter, Pongpiphat Banchanont,…

  • Wanted murderer arrested in Thailand after 11 years on the run

    Wanted murderer arrested in Thailand after 11 years on the run

    A man wanted for the murder of his former mother-in-law has been arrested by police in Nakhon Ratchasima province in northeast Thailand after 11 years on the run. After shooting dead his mother-in-law, he physically assaulted his ex-wife until she was seriously injured and kidnapped their two year old before dumping the young child in the middle of the road.…

  • Greenpeace join fishers’ campaign to save Thailand’s mackerel

    Greenpeace join fishers’ campaign to save Thailand’s mackerel

    Greenpeace has joined a campaign to save Thailand’s mackerel from extinction. The Canadian-based independent campaigning group reported that Thai mackerel today is not as abundant and cheap as it was before because of years of unregulated overfishing. As a consequence, the fish sold in the markets are getting smaller, most of it is imported from other countries, and many believe…

  • High-risk drivers to get full access to Tesla’s driver assistance system

    High-risk drivers to get full access to Tesla’s driver assistance system

    High-risk drivers in North America are now allowed full access to Tesla’s controversial driver-assistance system in a move that has some questioning the company’s intentions. Previously, the feature was only approved for buyers who were considered safe drivers, whatever that means, in North America, but now it is available to all. CEO Elon Musk says the Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta…

  • Tuhao refused bail as celebrity wife enters equation

    Tuhao refused bail as celebrity wife enters equation

    Alleged gangster ‘Tuhao” was refused bail yesterday in Bangkok. The nickname “Tuhao” – Chinese for a rich guy – tells us a lot about Chaiyanat Kornchayanant, a supposedly respectable businessman, known among other rich guys as “rich guy.” What can that possibly mean? In many places, this kind of nickname would mean “broke guy,” but Chaiyanat appears to be anything…

  • Polish tourist killed in Phuket vehicle crash

    Polish tourist killed in Phuket vehicle crash

    A Polish tourist was tragically killed in a vehicle crash in Phuket’s town of Kamala yesterday. The 69 year old man crashed his motorbike into a taxi car on Patong Road. Rescuers dashed to the scene to find the man lying on the road, having sustained severe head injuries. The taxi car and the motorbike were both damaged. The taxi…

  • Cheating husband says he ‘didn’t mean to’ shoot wife in head in southern Thailand

    Cheating husband says he ‘didn’t mean to’ shoot wife in head in southern Thailand

    UPDATE Southern Thailand gangster Mack Tung Jin told police that he “never intended” to shoot his wife in the head in Nakhon Si Thammarat province on Sunday. He said it was an accident. Police arrested 30 year old Mack the next day at a resort in Krabi province, accompanied by a 17 year old girl, and detained him for questioning.…

  • Tourists and seagulls flock to each other at a sandbar in central Thailand

    Tourists and seagulls flock to each other at a sandbar in central Thailand

    Tourists and seagulls are flocking to each other at a sandbar in central Thailand. At Don Hoi Lot, a sandbar in Samut Songkhram province, crowds of excited tourists are gathering to feed the birds fried chicken and pork skins from 5pm until sunset. Hundreds of seagulls arrived at Don Hoi Lot late last month, according to locals. Tourists are excited…

  • Another Tinder crypto-scammer arrested

    Another Tinder crypto-scammer arrested

    Police have arrested another Tinder crypto-scammer, the seventh member of a gang of fraudsters who allegedly dupe people into investing in a fake cryptocurrency scheme using fake profiles on dating apps. Chinese national Baoxun Zhan, 35 years old, was arrested outside the government complex on Chaeng Wattana Road in Thung Song Hong on Wednesday. Zhan will face charges of collusion…

  • 3 children aged 8 escape a school kidnapping plot in Thailand

    3 children aged 8 escape a school kidnapping plot in Thailand

    Three children in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat escaped a school kidnapping plot. Two suspects, a man and a woman, entered a schoolyard in the Thung Song district of Nakhon Si Thammarat in southern Thailand and tried to snatch three eight year old children. The children, one girl and two boys, told the police and their parents that…

  • Thai police arrest drug smugglers with 1.6 million meth pills, 1 suspect still on the loose

    Thai police arrest drug smugglers with 1.6 million meth pills, 1 suspect still on the loose

    Police arrested five drug smugglers in Thailand’s northern Kamphaeng Phet province yesterday. Officers from the Narcotics Suppression Division seized 1.6 million meth pills from the suspects. The suspects had been driving from Chiang Rai to Bangkok to deliver the pills. The police then apprehended them at a gas station. The pills were spread into 16 backpacks and were hidden in…

  • CCTV across Phuket to be integrated as part of “Phuket Crime-Free”

    CCTV across Phuket to be integrated as part of “Phuket Crime-Free”

    Phuket Governor Narong launched a new initiative earlier this week called “Phuket Crime-Free.” As part of the initiative, Phuket officials are making some innovations on the island province’s CCTV networks. CCTV networks across Phuket will now be integrated into one system. On Tuesday, there was a mass signing of an MoU between agencies and government offices involved. This included 12…

  • Dead body of unidentified transwoman found in canal near Bangkok

    Dead body of unidentified transwoman found in canal near Bangkok

    A local fisherman found the dead body of a transwoman floating in a canal in Pathum Thani province near Bangkok. Her identity is unknown. Officers from Klong Luang Police Station were notified of the dead body in Song Canal in the Klong Luang district of Pathum Thani yesterday at 2pm. The body was spotted floating under a wooden house along…

  • Walmart manager commits deadly shooting in US

    Walmart manager commits deadly shooting in US

    A Walmart manager committed a deadly shooting in the US. The gunman, 31 year old Andre Bing, shot and killed six people and injured six others on Tuesday before turning the gun on himself. The incident happened in the break room of a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia. Survivors said the gunman walked into a break room and opened fire. One…

  • Thailand bans recreational use of cannabis inside cafes

    Thailand bans recreational use of cannabis inside cafes

    Cannabis shops and cafes in Thailand are no longer allowed to let customers smoke the plant recreationally on the premises anymore. On-site consumption of cannabis for medical purposes is still permitted if the cannabis is sold by a medical practitioner. The announcement was made in the Royal Gazette yesterday and is effective immediately. The announcement states that the Ministry of…

  • Elon Musk sees net worth plummet by US0 billion after Tesla shares hit record low

    Elon Musk sees net worth plummet by US$100 billion after Tesla shares hit record low

    Elon Musk has reportedly seen his fortune cut by over US$100 billion this year, but he is still the richest person in the world. According to Fortune, the CEO of Tesla has a net worth of between US$170 billion to $182 billion, edging him slightly ahead of Bernard Arnault, the founder of luxury goods giant LVMH. Arnault reportedly has a…

  • Ukraine accuses Russia of ‘terror and murder’ after missile strike kills newborn baby

    Ukraine accuses Russia of ‘terror and murder’ after missile strike kills newborn baby

    Ukraine’s president is accusing his Russian counterpart of bringing “terror and murder” to his country after an alleged Russian missile strike killed a newborn baby. The missile hit a maternity unit in the Ukrainian town of Vilnyansk in the country’s southern Zaporizhzhia region. The only woman in the facility was the baby’s mother who was rescued from the building along…

  • Thailand’s Public Health Minister vows to keep weed legal if he stays in office

    Thailand’s Public Health Minister vows to keep weed legal if he stays in office

    Thailand’s Public Health Minister is vowing to keep weed free and legal so long as he stays in office. Anutin Charnvirakul told advocates for the plant that the possibility of cannabis being re-criminalised would not be possible if he is voted into office again. Anutin has been credited with starting the weed revolution in Thailand, and he continues to support…

  • One-third of adult Thai citizens applied for welfare

    One-third of adult Thai citizens applied for welfare

    Applications for welfare have seen a huge jump, with 22 million Thai people requesting a state welfare card in the latest round of registration. That massive figure equates to about one-third of the entire adult population of Thailand. It is a huge jump from the current 13.5 million people now carrying welfare cards in the country. The figures come after…

  • Hotel loan program extended through June 2023

    Hotel loan program extended through June 2023

    Hotels trying to recover from closing down for the Covid-19 pandemic are getting a little extra financial help. The Thai Cabinet has decided to extend low-interest soft loans until June 2023. The loans were created to help hotels address property repairs after many opted to close when customers dried up because the borders closed amid the pandemic. The announcement was…

  • Police go after transgender sex workers, urge them not to damage Pattaya’s tourism image

    Police go after transgender sex workers, urge them not to damage Pattaya’s tourism image

    Police are going after Pattaya’s transgender sex workers. Last night, a team of Pattaya Police and Tourist Police inspected Beach Road, arrested 36 suspected transgender sex workers, and took them to the station for identity recording. The inspection’s leader, Police Lieutenant Colonel Pitchaya Khiaoplueng, stressed to the suspects that they could not loiter on the beach and offer sexual services…

  • Alleged Chinese drug tycoon married to Thai policewoman surrenders to police

    Alleged Chinese drug tycoon married to Thai policewoman surrenders to police

    Chinese businessman “Tuhao,” wanted on drug charges in Thailand, surrendered to police today after they raided his mansion in Bangkok this morning. The accused is married to a high-ranking Thai police officer who works for the foreign affairs division. Yesterday, Southern Bangkok Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Chaiyanat “Tuhao” Kornchayanant for “conspiring to commit drug offences and possessing…

  • Brazil’s far-right president challenges election results

    Brazil’s far-right president challenges election results

    Brazil’s far-right president is challenging the country’s election results, which saw him lose in October. President Jair Bolsonaro’s party, the Liberal Party, has argued that ballots from some machines were compromised during the second round and that the electoral court should reject them. Several news outlets reported today that Brazil’s supreme court justice has now given the party 24 hours…

  • Free of toxic assets, Manchester United goes on sale

    Free of toxic assets, Manchester United goes on sale

    Manchester United is finally free of its most toxic asset, Cristiano Ronaldo, and may soon be free of the club’s widely-hated American owners. The club is on sale. Shares up 17% on the news, adding almost US$400 million (14.5 billion baht) to the club’s value and Glazer’s investment. The Glazer family, American owners of the club, will listen to offers…

  • Police arrest transgender Thai women for filming and disseminating child porn online

    Police arrest transgender Thai women for filming and disseminating child porn online

    On Monday, Thai police arrested a transgender woman in Bangkok for filming and disseminating child pornography on the LINE and OnlyFans platforms. Thailand’s Anti-Trafficking In Persons Division announced the results of their investigation today. Officers from Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau arrested 29 year old transgender woman named Saranrak – aka “Bee” – who filmed herself having sex with minors and…