Thailand News
Thailand news, politics, business, crime, and lifestyle—get breaking updates from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond. Stay informed on Thai society, economy, tourism, and expat life with The Thaiger.
-
Thai pro-democracy body calls on UN to investigate ‘military government in disguise’
PHOTOS: Facebook: Jaran Ditapichai/Kritsada Akkhapracha Jaran Ditapichai, the president of the Association of Thai Democrats without Borders’ has written to the UN yesterday asking the international body to investigate the government of Thai PM General Prayut Chan-o-cha. The Nation reports that Jaran personally dropped the submission at a letterbox near the UN headquarters in New York and recorded the action with…
-
Shake-up at the top in Thai state enterprises – Transport Minister
PHOTO: BTS station – YouTube In a major management shakeup in Thai state enterprises, the transport minister has now appointed a new chairmen to the boards of the Port Authority of Thailand, the State Railway of Thailand (SRT), the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA) and the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMA). The list of new chairmen has been…
-
Prayut meets up with Thai expats in New York ahead of UN meetings today
PHOTOS: ศ.ดร.นฤมล ภิญโญสินวัฒน์ Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha has been meeting Thai expats in New York before his attending the UN Climate Summit and other meetings this week. Prayut and his entourage, including Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai, arrived at the Plaza Athenee Hotel on the 64th street yesterday around midday on a sunny New York day. Prayut was welcomed by Nipon…
-
UK travel giant Thomas Cook collapses leaving 150,000 holiday-makers stranded
PHOTO: Bye bye Thomas Cook – The Independent Thomas Cook, the iconic British travel and airline company, has collapsed after last-minute negotiations failed to find a solution for the debt-ridden company. The tour operator’s failure affects 22,000 jobs worldwide, including 9,000 in the UK alone. Thomas Cook had been operating for 178 years. The company is now bankrupt. The collapse…
-
Significant developments in cannabis farming in Thailand
PHOTO: www.growbarato.net In what’s thought to be the first-ever industrial scale manufacturing facility for medical cannabis within the Asean Region, Maejo University in Chiang Mai has planted 12,000 cannabis sprouts – the largest lot in the country. It’s hoped the result will eventually be 1 million bottles, each containing 5ml of cannabis oil, by February. Senior officials from the Ministry…
-
Overturned truck was carrying 450 kilos of crystal meth
PHOTO: Thai PBS World Police have seized about 450 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine (ice), with a street valued around 225 million baht – a major shipment of the illicit drug. The seizure followed a ten-wheel truck ending up on its side after crashing into a traffic island in Phetchaburi province on Friday night. The truck driver, 45 year old Adinan Laeha, and…
-
Finance Ministry launches 100 billion stimulus package to kickstart sagging economy
PHOTO: thailandshoppingdining.com The Government is kicking off a new stimulus package valued at 100 billion baht to “stimulate the grassroots economy”. Prasong Poontaneat, permanent secretary of the Finance Ministry reported that the government is preparing a brand-new stimulus package. “The Finance Ministry and related agencies will spend more than 100 billion baht on approximately 30 million low-income households nationwide.” The…
-
Thai MP rich list
PHOTO: The Nation The National Anti-Corruption Commission has published a who’s who list of Thailand’s richest politicians. The NACC has reported the personal finances of 80 MPs. The personal finances report is an addition to the NACC’s previous report of 415 MPs who had earlier submitted their asset lists in July. Notable MPs whose assets and debts have been revealed…
-
Thailand’s August exports fall further than expected
Some more lumpy economic news for Thialand as the focus is on the monthly customs clearances to provide a compass for the country’s economy. Customs-cleared exports dropped in August 4% compared to the same month a year earlier. Exports unexpectedly rose in July, according to the commerce ministry today. The decline in August has shown itself to be greater than…
-
New traffic laws come into force for Thailand today
PHOTO: ThaiVisa From today, an amendment to the Land Transport Act means traffic police can no longer confiscate driving licences. Police can still record the details of a driver’s licence but must then return it. The new system will also remove the risk of licences being lost while in the care of the police, as has happened in the past.…
-
Future Forward secretary-general floats idea of another debate
PHOTO: Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, Party leader of Future Forward Party – AFP Future Forward secretary-general Piyabutr Saengkanokkul says the Opposition will consider the option of holding another parliamentary debate over the next 3 months. His statement comes after what was generally considered an unsatisfactory response from the PM and other cabinet members during Wednesday’s debate. Piyabutr is not ready to let the matter…
-
Immigration overhaul – TM6 disappearing and TM30 App being launched
“We made the decision last Friday. Within two to three months, life will be much easier for foreign tourists and expats.” In what appears to be a major overhaul of immigration procedures, dare we say ‘modernisation’, foreign visitors will soon no longer have to fill out the “TM6” arrival forms. The white and blue form has been a source of…
-
Thai Minister Manunya a lone voice to have 3 herbicides banned
PHOTO: The Thaiger Deputy Agriculture Minister Manunya Thaiseth (the OTHER deputy, not the embattled Thannamat Prompeo) is complaining that she appears to be a lone voice amongst the bureaucrats and politicians to have three toxic agricultural chemicals – paraquat, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos – banned within this year, as promised. She says that she’s not receiving any cooperation from the Agricultural…
-
Damp in the south, drier in the north – Thailand’s fickle weather
There is a reasonably high chance of rain in many of the country’s busiest locations, over the next five days (forecasts below). According to the TMD (Thai Meteorological Department), there will be an increased chance of rain in the south but less in the north and north-east, where many areas are still recovering from extensive flooding. “The monsoon trough lies…
-
Stop Fake News seminar run by LINE and Digital Economy ministry
The Minister of a Digital Economy and Society, Puttipong Punnakanta, opened a Stop Fake News seminar to promote online media literacy and discretion before sharing information and news with other Thai youth, to prevent the spread of misinformation. The seminar was run in conjunction with Thailand’s most popular messaging App, ‘LINE’. Apart from representatives from LINE, the seminar also involved communication…
-
More industry groups line up calling for TM30 abolishment
More industry and NGO groups are lining up with criticism or calls for abolishment of the embattled TM30 and TM28 immigration forms. Most of the criticisms focus on the draconian nature of the forms, confusion around interpretation and the problems with inconsistent implementation. Trade and commerce organisations are saying it flies in the face of the government’s wishes for Thailand…
-
No impact on PTT’s imports from Saudi oil refinery attack: Thai minister
Thai energy minister Sontirat Sontijirawong claims that last Saturday’s attacks on two major oil-processing facilities run by the Saudi-owned company Aramco will not affect oil imports of the Thai petro-chemical giant PTT group. He added that he had learnt from Aramco and related parties that the situation there was under control and the damage was being assessed. The incident would…
-
Wissanu admits Thammanat Prompeo’s educational credentials were not checked
Deputy PM Wissanu Krea-ngarm admits that the Office of the Secretary-General of the Cabinet had not vetted the educational background of Captain Thammanat Prompao, before he was appointed deputy agriculture minister, because the vetting process might have delayed the appointment of the cabinet. But he says the embattled deputy agriculture minister might be replaced “if there is an ethics problem”.…
-
Tour company owner arrested over non-delivery of discount luxury airline tickets
PHOTO: Sanook Again, if it sounds too goof to be true, it probably is, especially when it comes to airline ticket scams. The Thai Crime Suppression Division Police have arrested a tour company owner wanted over 6 arrest warrants. Her tour company was selling fake plane tickets to victims claiming that the company was able to source extremely cheap tickets…
-
Industry group calls for further cut in Thai policy interest rate
“Thai private sector, recently adjusted downward the export growth projection for this year to 2.9 – 3%.” The Federation of Thai Industries have their hopes set on the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Thailand making another cut in the policy interest rate, currently set at 1.5%. With the US Fed looking to drop its interest rate this week,…
-
Warnings out for bad weather in central and southern provinces
PHOTO: The Nation The Thai Meteorological Department says people in the lower Northeast, the Central region, including Bangkok and its vicinity, the East and the South (Andaman coast) should brace for more heavy rains and dangers from accumulated rainfalls today. The warning comes as five northeastern provinces remain submerged and 42 rural roads remain impassable due to floods. The department…
-
“The fake university degree is irrelevant if Thammanat has a genuine BA degree” – Wissanu
PHOTO: Thai PBS World “Wissanu refused to give a direct answer to a reporter’s question about whether Thammanat would still be considered qualified if the higher-level degrees were proven to be fake.” Key leaders of the coalition continue to back the embattled deputy agriculture minister Thammanat Prompao despite a week were his drug past has been revealed in a Sydney…
-
More than half of the tigers moved from the Tiger Temple have died
“The tigers became weak from stress from living in captivity and their conditions steadily deteriorated until they succumbed to their death.” 86 out of a total of 147 tigers kept at two wildlife breeding stations in Ratchaburi province, after they were confiscated from the infamous Tiger Temple in Thailand’s western province of Kanchanaburi about three years ago, have died from…
-
Large Thai business feeling the effects of US-China trade war, rise of the baht
So what do Thailand’s big banks say? The ongoing US-China trade war and the appreciation of the Thai baht against other currencies is now starting to impact larger corporates in Thailand. Wasin Saiyawan, senior executive vice president and chief of wholesale banking at Siam Commercial Bank says, that although large businesses are resilient to any impact and their ability to…
-
Historic discovery of earliest sound films shot in Thailand
PHOTO: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation / University of South Carolina “Film historian Dome Sukhawong discovered the films in 2018, in the University of South Carolina archives.” Four films made nearly 100 years ago are believed to be the first sound films recorded in Thailand. The films were screened at the Thai Film Archive for the first time on Monday. Film…
-
Embattled Thammanat Prompao considers 100 defamation lawsuits against accusers
PHOTO: Reuters The high-profile deputy Agriculture Minister, and government ‘fixer’, Thammanat Prompao says he will file about 100 defamation lawsuits against individuals and organisations who have dug up his criminal past, including his reported heroin-trafficking past in Australia, including a four year jail term, and people questioning his educational credentials. He claims they are all a plot to discredit him.…
-
Proposal: New law that will allow six cannabis plants per Thai household
PHOTO: Campaign posters before the last election for the Bhumjaithai Party who continue to push further legalisation of cannabis The Bhumjaithai Party, a party in Thailand’s coalition government, is now proposing a law that would allow Thais to grow a limited amount of cannabis at home. This takes laws, passed less than a year ago that legalised the drug for…
-
Pope Francis confirms his ‘pilgrim of peace’ visit to Thailand in November
PHOTO: Father Joseph Anucha Chaiyadej, director of the Catholic Social Communications of Thailand, along with deputy secretary-general Monsignor Dr Vissanu Thanya-anan and Dr Chainarong Monthienvichienchai, counsellor for the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, speak to the media yesterday – The Nation It’s official, the Pope is coming to Thailand. Rumoured earlier but now officially announced. His Excellency Paul Tschang In-Nam,…
-
Government loses another MP as member heads to prison
Another blow to the ruling Palang Pracharath party and coalition after the MP for Kamphaeng Phet province, Pol Lt-Col Waipote Arpornrat, lost his Member of Parliament status after the Supreme Court upheld the 4 year prison sentence handed down by the Appeals Court for his involvement in the disruption of the ASEAN Summit in Pattaya back in 2009. As the…
-
MP formally breaks away from the coalition over Thammanat Prompao remarks
PHOTO: “Hello?! Did someone ask me something? Mr. Pichet Sathirachavan, leader of Prachatham Thai party, has formally announced they have decided to break away from the governing coalition to join the independent opposition camp with the New Civilized party. Yesterday PM Prayut Chan-o-cha covered one of his ears with his hand as he pretended not to hear one of many…
Don't forget to check out some other things to do in Thailand - get help starting a business or finding a job in Thailand, buy Thailand property, rent a yacht or book a medical procedure worldwide.