Thailand News
Discover the most recent and relevant news from across Thailand on The Thaiger’s National News page. Covering a wide range of topics, including politics, business, crime, and lifestyle, our dedicated team brings you breaking news, in-depth analysis, and exclusive stories from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond.
Stay informed about the latest developments in Thai society, economy, and culture, as well as updates on travel, tourism, and expat life. With The Thaiger, you’ll never miss out on the essential news that matters to you.
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Moving to Thailand offers plenty of excitement and adventure, but the local healthcare system can be complex to navigate as an expat. From unique health risks to high costs at private hospitals, having a comprehensive health insurance plan is essential....
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Thailand’s caretaker PM caught sleeping on the job
Caretaker Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan was caught sleeping on the job this afternoon. The 77 year old was in Krabi province today overseeing a joint meeting with several water and land use agencies to discuss water management issues when he dozed off. The image quickly went viral on Thai social media and drew a number of cheeky comments. Suthaporn Suriyakarn…
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Thailand to apply alcohol tax to non-alcoholic beer
Not only is Thailand planning on increasing existing tax on all types of alcohol, but it also plans on applying alcohol tax to non-alcoholic beer, according to Director-General of the Revenue Department Ekniti Nitithanprapas. Ekniti said that the department will increase tax on all types of alcohol, in the fiscal year 2023, to help combat alcoholism among Thailand’s youth. More…
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Cabinet approves 1.6 billion baht to solve Thai flood problems
The Thai Cabinet yesterday approved a budget of almost 1.6 billion to deal with Thailand’s perpetual flood problems. Some 912 million baht has been set aside for water management during the rainy and drought seasons while 664 million baht has been allocated for new water pumps. Prime Minister Office spokesperson Anucha Burapachaisi told an assembled Thai press conference yesterday that…
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Horny monk sexually harasses former OnlyFans actor
A former gay OnlyFans actor claims he was sexually harassed yesterday by a randy monk in his clothing store in a shopping mall in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima, or Korat. The former OnlyFans actor, who goes by the name of Graf, posted a video of the alleged horny monk on his TikTok account @graf19. The video caption said……
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Small hotels call for looser regulations to allow them to be legal
Hot on the heels of the Ministry of Interior proposing to loosen laws that would let small hotels operate more simply as homestays, a coalition of hotel associations is calling for a relaxation of building guidelines that have made 20,000 small hotels illegal. The group of 10 hotel and tourism associations submitted a letter on June 29 to the prime…
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Thailand importing 2nd gen vaccines, producing 3 domestically
Next month should see the start of procurement of the second generation of Covid-19 vaccines, as the Ministry of Public Health plans to import them to Thailand. The National Vaccine Institute (NVI) will convene to discuss the plan sometime in October, according to the Deputy Director-General of the Department of Disease Control. Up for debate is how many vaccines are…
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Hate traffic tickets? Traffic court may replace them
Not getting a ticket when you get pulled over by police in Thailand sounds nice, but not if it’s replaced with a traffic court date instead. The Cabinet Committee approved a motion yesterday under the Traffic Case Draft Act to create a Traffic Law Enforcement Department which would make being cited for a violation a more formal process that could…
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2nd of 3 statements to court may support PM Prayut until 2025
The ongoing saga continues of whether suspended Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha will be able to extend his tenure more than the eight years he has already served, with speculation rife about a court document suggesting his constitutional eight years ends in 2025. The Constitutional Court is currently considering a pitch by Prayut himself as well as documents from two legal…
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Locals pray to blue snake in northeast Thailand
On Sunday, villagers in Nakhon Ratchasima in northeast Thailand spotted a blue snake in a tree that has never been seen before in Thailand. Villagers lit incense and prayed to the snake, believing it is sure to bring them good luck. Isaan is brimming with snakes, but no one has ever reported seeing this kind of snake before. The bright…
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New MRT Pink Line causes flood to local school & community
The director of a school in Nonthaburi province near Bangkok said a flood to her school and nearby community is because of construction work to a new train station for the MRT Pink Line. The school director filed a complaint with the police and urged the construction company to take responsibility. The provincial governor demanded that the water is drained…
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‘Fish sauce’ leaking through ceiling turns out to be corpse fluid in central Thailand
Last night, a 49 year old teacher living in Nonthaburi province, central Thailand, told her apartment manager that fermented fish sauce was leaking through her ceiling and dripping down her wall. Pornphimon went away for the weekend and when she returned yesterday at 8pm, she noticed a putrid smell in her apartment. She said, “black water” was coming through the…
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Opening day of 2022 welfare sees 1.86 million people register
Yesterday marked the opening date for registration for state welfare for 2022, and people flooded the registration process both online and in person. By 3pm on the opening day, officials reported that 1.86 million people across Thailand had already registered for the state welfare card project. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance, who also serves as the director-general of…
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Woman bitten by cockroach suffers allergic reaction in Thailand
A Burmese woman suffered a serious allergic reaction to being bitten by a cockroach while she slept in Kanchanaburi province, in the central part of Thailand. The 40 year old Burmese woman, Minor, woke with a start, nudging her sleeping husband saying she felt as if she had been bitten. He husband switched on the light to find a big…
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Proposal would allow small hotels to operate as a homestay
The Ministry of Interior’s proposal for relaxing regulations on small homestay hotels has been met with opposition from the Thai Hotels Association. The plan would expand a “homestay” exemption in the Hotel Act for small businesses with no more than 20 guests in no more than four rooms, increasing the maximum size and occupancy to 10 rooms and 30 guests.…
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Truck carrying elephant overturns in northern Thailand
UPDATE The 50 year old male elephant who was badly injured in a road accident in Chiang Mai yesterday finally made it to the elephant hospital in Lampang province, 20 hours later. At around 9am yesterday, the truck transporting “Pooh Kham” from Mae Chaem to an elephant camp in Mae Wang overturned on the windy roads. At first, Pooh Kham…
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Hike on traffic fines delayed, but ticket prices will be consistant
Writing news in Thailand frequently means announcing something and then the next day announcing the opposite. And true to form, the new major hike in penalty fines for traffic violations announced before the weekend and scheduled to go into effect yesterday… have been retracted. But when they do go into effect, repeat offenders will be further penalised, and a new…
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Sweary tuk tuk driver tries to rip off tourists in Bangkok
A sweary Thai tuk tuk driver who tried to rip off a Singaporean couple on holiday in Bangkok has been fined by police and ordered to take a good driving awareness programme. The tuk tuk driver, Thongkham Cherdchai, picked up John Chen and his girlfriend on Sunday at about 2.45pm at Central World. The couple wanted to go to their…
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Thailand’s caretaker PM caught sleeping on the job
Caretaker Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan was caught sleeping on the job this afternoon. The 77 year old was in Krabi province today overseeing a joint meeting with several water and land use agencies to discuss water management issues when he dozed off. The image quickly went viral on Thai social media and drew a number of cheeky comments. Suthaporn Suriyakarn…
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Constitutional Court may make prime minister decision Thursday
The decision on Prayut Chan-o-cha’s future and the prime ministership may be decided this week as the Constitutional Court scheduled a special meeting on Thursday to discuss it. Last Thursday his legal team submitted a 30-page document that lays out his defence against all the arguments regarding his term limits to the Constitutional Court. The court will review this document,…
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Truck carrying elephant overturns in northern Thailand
A rescue mission has been launched for a badly injured elephant after the truck transporting it overturned in Chiang Mai province, northern Thailand, this morning. The elephant could not get up due to its injuries. At 10.23am today, Thai Elephant Alliance posted a picture of the injured elephant, named ‘Pooh Kham’ on its Facebook page. Thai Elephant Alliance said they…
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Royalists in Thailand target one-man German activist
Police are under pressure from royalists to prosecute the German activist who staged a one-man protest against the government of Thailand. The founder and leader of the King Protection Group, Songchai Nienhorm, filed a complaint against the activist, Moritz Pfoh, at Nua Khlong police station in Nua Khlong district of Krabi on Saturday. Songchai is urging police to take action…
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Thailand provides over 600,000 free cancer treatments in 9 months
Under the universal healthcare ‘Gold Card’ scheme, the government of Thailand provided 603,060 free cancer treatments in nine months. The free cancer treatments were provided by the National Health Security Office between October 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022, according to Deputy Spokesperson Ratchada Thanadirek. The number exceeded the government’s expectations by almost double. The government initially predicted that the…
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Corrections Dept. to sue Thai talk show for creating fake news
A female talk show host faces up to a year in prison after insulting the Department of Corrections and spreading fake news about Thai prisons. On August 31, the Thai talk show, Unfold a Secret or Chae (แฉ), invited a female influencer, Leena Jangjanja, to host a discussion about the Forex-3D scam involving a leading Thai actress, Savika “Pinky” Chaiyadej.…
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Bridge over troubled waters for Thailand-bound Russian snowbird tourists
Russian travellers have ritually sought out islands in the tropical sun since the demolition of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Hellbent on escaping bitterly cold winters, these snowbirds in the lead-up years to the pandemic became the second largest international source market for Phuket’s mass market tourism surge. Now, coming out of the pandemic in the age of a return…
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Phuket hotels team up with HSMAI for digital tourism and travel marketing workshop
Phuket’s tourism industry continues to wait and wonder when Mainland Chinese will be allowed to travel overseas, in the wake of China’s zero-Covid policy. As Thailand’s leading resort island moves towards the high season, hoteliers are looking to bridge the China gap and look to new markets to replace the expected lower volume of travel-challenged Russian tourists. Addressing these challenges is…
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Machine invented to replace monkeys climbing coconut trees
Monkeys climbing coconut trees have been an icon in Thailand for years, but have also drawn the ire of animal rights groups like People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Now the Agriculture Department has invented a machine that can help farmers climb coconut trees themselves, eliminating the need to train and use monkeys to harvest coconuts. PETA released…
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Thai officials warn of fake news and financial schemes on social media
Thai officials are warning the public that several fake news reports, including about financial schemes, are still going viral on social media. The Digital Economy and Society Ministry said today that from August 26 to September 1, it examined 266 social media posts. Of those posts, 141 contained fake news. Even though fake news on Covid-19 has dropped off the…
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Ice Woman: Interview with the world’s first Thai Wim Hof Method instructor
Kam Waritsara, aka ‘Thai Ice Woman,’ is the first Thai-certified Wim Hof Method (WHM) instructor in the world. Once Kam tried and tested the WHM, it became such an important part of her life that she vowed to make the technique accessible to Thai people. The WHM – discovered by Dutch extreme athlete Wim Hof – comprises three pillars: breathwork,…
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Hopefuls assess and prepare to run for prime minister
While the Constitutional Court is mulling over when Prayut Chan-o-cha’s term as prime minister officially ends, with the suspended PM submitting his defence on Thursday, several hopefuls eyeing the premiership have assessed their chances and taken steps in preparation. The Sang Anakhot Thai Party (translating to “Building Thailand’s Future”) intends to nominate former Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak and has…
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Maid abuse case shines light on layers of corruption
On the surface, the policewoman who beat her maid is appalling enough, but as details unfold, they uncover multi-layered rotten corruption laying bare countless cases of abuse of power all the way to the top and connected to the acting prime minister. Not only did the maid endure the abuse in exchange for a pass into the Royal Thai Army,…
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