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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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    Top 10 reasons for expats to get a comprehensive health insurance in Thailand

    Moving to Thailand offers a prospect full of excitement and adventure, but in the same vein, if any injuries were to occur (and god forbid it does), the local healthcare system can be confusing at first glance for many expats...

  • Baby Shark makes history with 10 billion YouTube views | Thaiger

    Baby Shark makes history with 10 billion YouTube views

    Quick, what’s the most popular song of all time? According to YouTube statistics, you might not be familiar with it if you don’t have a child or haven’t been around a child for the last 6 years. The maddeningly inescapable children’s song Baby Shark (that you’ll now be humming to yourself for the rest of the day, sorry) made history…

  • Poll: majority favour new draft bill that regulates NGOs | Thaiger

    Poll: majority favour new draft bill that regulates NGOs

    In a new NIDA poll, questions about a controversial draft bill aimed at regulating NGOs operating in Thailand showed that people generally support the regulation. The poll, conducted by the National Institute of Development Administration, asked people a variety of questions about how non-governmental organisations operate within Thailand. The topic has been controversial with many activists and some human rights…

  • Covid-19 infection rate, totals in international travellers surging | Thaiger

    Covid-19 infection rate, totals in international travellers surging

    While the government suspended the Test & Go scheme in order to curb the spread of the Omicron variant last month, people who are already approved are still trickling in, and many have come as part of the Sandbox programme. Despite throttling the influx of international travellers, the number of Covid-19 infections brought in from abroad has been steadily rising,…

  • Pork, petrol and noodles – inflation impacting prices in Thailand | Thaiger

    Pork, petrol and noodles – inflation impacting prices in Thailand

    Heading into 2022, the ‘I’ word is spooking economists around the world as they look at tools to try and control rampant inflation. Even in Thailand there has been big rises in staples, making headlines this week, particularly in the pork industry. Meat and produce prices have been sneaking up and now impacting the cost of living for everyone living…

  • Woman stole 59b of food, stabbed Mini Big-C staff to escape | Thaiger

    Woman stole 59b of food, stabbed Mini Big-C staff to escape

    A woman was caught when she stole 59 baht worth of snack items at a Mini Big C in Nontha Buri, but things escalated quickly when she stabbed the employee that caught her to make her escape. The sad story took place on December 29, but after a warrant was issued for her arrest, police just managed to track the…

  • Thailand Pass scam: Authorities warn not to pay third party | Thaiger

    Thailand Pass scam: Authorities warn not to pay third party

    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs put out a warning today via their spokesperson urging people not to be taken in by any scam attempting to charge you for registering for the Thailand Pass. The announcement came on the heels of the Covid-19 task force investigating reports of people claiming to have paid registration fees in order to apply for the…

  • Artificial intelligence intended to prevent abuse of state welfare | Thaiger

    Artificial intelligence intended to prevent abuse of state welfare

    As a new round of registration is set to commence, the Ministry of Finance is planning to use artificial intelligence to ensure that the state welfare cards issued this year are given only to eligible low-income earners. The Ministry plans to implement new technology to cut down on fraud and to keep urgent financial assistance money from going to those…

  • Narcotics Control Board clarifies cannabis laws after Health Minister’s statements | Thaiger

    Narcotics Control Board clarifies cannabis laws after Health Minister’s statements

    While Thailand’s pro-cannabis Public Health Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, just insisted to Thai media that cannabis is not narcotic and even asked authorities to let residents grow and sell cannabis as it is another way for people to earn more income, the Narcotics Control Board just held a press conference yesterday saying that yes, it is still a narcotic. And only…

  • No cut-off date announced for Test & Go entry with pre-approved Thailand Pass | Thaiger

    No cut-off date announced for Test & Go entry with pre-approved Thailand Pass

    The Foreign Ministry has confirmed there is currently no cut-off entry date for Test & Go travellers who’ve already received their Thailand Pass. Test & Go has been suspended since December 22 as the Thai government responded to the rapid global spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant. You would need a Test & Go program approval, and QR code, before…

  • Major tourism operator calls on government to restart Test & Go | Thaiger

    Major tourism operator calls on government to restart Test & Go

    The board chairman of Minor International has called on the Thai government to reinstate the suspended Test & Go entry scheme. Failing that, William Heinecke says they should expand the number of sandbox destinations, according to a Bangkok Post report. Minor International is based in Bangkok and its businesses include Minor Hotels, which operates 530 properties, including the Anantara, Four…

  • Thailand continues pushing for tourism revenue despite Covid-19 | Thaiger

    Thailand continues pushing for tourism revenue despite Covid-19

    PM Prayut Chan-o-cha has urged all government agencies to get behind the “Amazing Thailand New Chapter” tourism campaign being readied for launch by the end of January. According to a government spokesperson, the administration is pushing forward with tourism plans that the floundering economy so desperately needs, despite the growing spread of the Omicron variant and Covid-19 infections across the…

  • NBT Twitter account retweets pornographic dick pic | Thaiger

    NBT Twitter account retweets pornographic dick pic

    The National Broadcasting Services of Thailand, the state-run TV and radio station, had a bit of a cock-up today on their social media. Though it’s unclear exactly how it happened, earlier today the official Twitter account of the NBT, which acts as the media arm of the Government Public Relations Department, retweeted a pornographic picture of a man sitting with…

  • PM Prayut orders a higher fence around Government House | Thaiger

    PM Prayut orders a higher fence around Government House

    In a move sure to inspire the impression of an open government fighting for the interests of the people, PM Prayut Chan-o-cha has instructed the relevant government departments that the border fence must be raised around Government House. The order was put in place saying that over the years the roads around the government building have been resurfaced multiple times,…

  • Bail extended for pro-democracy activist and protest leader Panusaya | Thaiger

    Bail extended for pro-democracy activist and protest leader Panusaya

    The pro-democracy activist and anti-government protest leader, Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul, has had her bail extended, according to a Thai PBS World report. Yesterday, the Bangkok South Criminal Court ruled to extend bail for Panusaya, as well as lifting conditions that had prohibited the young student from leaving her home. Panusaya, one of the leaders of the pro-democracy Ratsadon group, has…

  • Tourists with mild symptoms can have Covid treatment covered by Thai insurance | Thaiger

    Tourists with mild symptoms can have Covid treatment covered by Thai insurance

    The government has decided to allow Thai insurance firms to offer new Covid-19 treatment packages to foreign tourists, according to a Nation Thailand report. In addition, Tares Krassanairawiwong from the Department of Health Services Support says more hotel isolation facilities, the so-called “hospitels”, will be made available to tourists with mild symptoms. Tares says that many infected tourists struggle with…

  • Tourism operators call on government to delay introduction of 300-baht entry fee | Thaiger

    Tourism operators call on government to delay introduction of 300-baht entry fee

    Tourism operators are calling on the Thai government to delay the introduction of a 300-baht tourism fee to give the sector time to recover. The fee is due to take effect from April, with the Bangkok Post reporting that it will apply to foreigners arriving in the kingdom by land, sea, and air. Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi from the Thai Hotels…

  • Another 300 hotel quarantine rooms set aside for infected tourists in Phuket | Thaiger

    Another 300 hotel quarantine rooms set aside for infected tourists in Phuket

    As Covid-19 infections continue to rise in Phuket, the southern island is creating more self-isolation facilities for infected foreign tourists. According to a Nation Thailand report, cases are surging on the island, with new infection numbers rising from 238 last Wednesday to 742 on Sunday. Most infections are cases of local transmission, but infections are being reported in sandbox tourists…

  • Applicants for Thai citizenship must pass new Thai language test | Thaiger

    Applicants for Thai citizenship must pass new Thai language test

    The Thai government has introduced new regulations that require those who apply for Thai citizenship to pass a new Thai language test. According to a Bangkok Post report, government representative Rachada Dhnadirek says the fees for citizenship have also doubled. Up until now, Thai citizenship was based on regulations in place since 1967, which required applicants to speak and understand…

  • Phuket seeing healthy tourism demand, with 4,000 Thailand Pass applications a day | Thaiger

    Phuket seeing healthy tourism demand, with 4,000 Thailand Pass applications a day

    The president of the Phuket Tourism Association says the island is proving popular with foreign tourists, receiving 4,000 applications a day through the Thailand Pass system. Bhummikitti Ruktaengam says most of those visitors are from Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and France. Bhummikitti credits the success of the island’s Covid-19 measures for inspiring confidence among foreign…

  • Rejuvenated Maya Bay open for business | Thaiger

    Rejuvenated Maya Bay open for business

    Maya Bay, the tropical island cove of Hollywood acclaim in Krabi province, finally reopened for tourism on January 1, after 3-and-a-half years of closure in a bid to restore its damaged white-sand beach and decimated marine ecosystem. Officials temporarily closed the bay in June 2018 to clean the beach and restore the area’s coral reefs. Originally planned as a 4…

  • Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok denies data breach after post lists patient records for sale | Thaiger

    Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok denies data breach after post lists patient records for sale

    In what appeared to be the latest breach of the country’s public health sector, around 39 million patient records from Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok have been listed for sale on an internet database-sharing platform, raidforums.com. The hospital is now denying that its database was hacked. The Bangkok Post reported that the Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital of Mahidol University, which…

  • Man arrested for tricking a 12 year old into sending sexual videos on Free Fire | Thaiger

    Man arrested for tricking a 12 year old into sending sexual videos on Free Fire

    Thai police arrested a 24 year old man for allegedly deceiving a 12 year old girl into sending sexually explicit videos of herself through Thailand’s popular online survivor shooter game Free Fire, which is played on a smartphone. He allegedly used the photos to blackmail the girl’s parents. The child’s parents filed a complaint with local police in November and…

  • Methamphetamine seized from truck in Northern Thailand | Thaiger

    Methamphetamine seized from truck in Northern Thailand

    A man in Northern Thailand was arrested for allegedly transporting illicit drugs in his truck from Chiang Rai to Phrae. Police say they seized 5.6 million amphetamine pills and more than 20 kilograms of methamphetamine at a checkpoint in Phrae. The driver was passing through the checkpoint and reportedly claimed that he wasn’t carrying any cargo or goods in the…

  • Police apprehend man who killed 2, injured 3 at Phuket market | Thaiger

    Police apprehend man who killed 2, injured 3 at Phuket market

    After a shooting on Friday at the Phuket City Municipality Fresh Market 1 that left 3 injured and 2 dead, police announced today that they have apprehended the suspect they hold responsible for the shootout. Investigators have been tracking his escape after he fled the scene of the crime and managed to pick him up this morning. He allegedly confessed…

  • France Saturday: 105,000 protest vaccine, 303,669 get Covid-19 | Thaiger

    France Saturday: 105,000 protest vaccine, 303,669 get Covid-19

    French President Emmanuel Macron made waves recently when he came out hard against unvaccinated people saying that he would make life harder for them and “piss off” those who refused inoculation as it hurts the society as a whole. Yesterday, over 100,000 people came out to protest the government restricting the rights of people who refuse a vaccine all across…

  • 6 European tourists found who disappeared after positive Covid-19 test | Thaiger

    6 European tourists found who disappeared after positive Covid-19 test

    After a brief hunt, 6 European tourists who were tested for Covid-19 and left their hotel before the results were returned, test results which came back positive, have now all been located and moved to the hospital. Authorities rounded up 2 French tourists, 2 Polish tourists, a Swiss tourist, and a Norwegian tourist. The 6 tourists had all come to…

  • Phuket to 8 foreign reps: your citizens must obey Covid-19 rules | Thaiger

    Phuket to 8 foreign reps: your citizens must obey Covid-19 rules

    When children in class misbehave, teachers contact the parents and tell them to keep their kids in line. But what do you do when foreign tourists are misbehaving in your country? Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew met today with Consul Generals and Honorary Consuls from 8 countries to ask them to warn their citizens to follow the rules – especially Covid-19…

  • Police searching Coconut Island for fresh market shooter | Thaiger

    Police searching Coconut Island for fresh market shooter

    After a shooting spree at a fresh market in Phuket Town that left 2 people dead and 3 injured, the gunman phoned the police and announced his intention to confess to the crimes and turn himself in. But Maneenop Meethong, the 47-year old seafood vendor at the Phuket City Municipality Fresh Market 1, did not surrender to police and is…

  • 6 more Covid-19 infected tourist on the run from Koh Chang | Thaiger

    6 more Covid-19 infected tourist on the run from Koh Chang

    Apparently the 2,000 baht fine for the first tourist to ditch out of his hotel while waiting for RT-PCR test results was not as big a deterrent as Thai authorities thought as there now been a number of copycat runners that authorities have had to hunt down. Just 2 days ago, officials were able to track down 2 Indian tourists…

  • Police officer accused of leaking sex video of lover on Twitter | Thaiger

    Police officer accused of leaking sex video of lover on Twitter

    In the past few months, The Thaiger has covered multiple stories of the police busting women selling sex videos on OnlyFans and social media like Twitter and the LINE app, and even a special warning against dressing up as sexy police officers when making adult material on OnlyFans, but today’s story of sex, police, and the internet, has a different…