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Sponsored Digital nomading in Chiang Mai? What US$1,000 a month really gets you
Chiang Mai has become a popular destination for digital nomads due to its low living costs, rich culture, and active remote work community. The city offers affordable housing, tasty food, reliable internet, and many co-working spaces, making it a great...
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German election: Pakistani-origin female politician eyes Bundestag seat
Misbah Khan, a Green party candidate for the German federal parliament, talks to DW about her journey in German politics as a young female politician with a migration background. SOURCE: DW News
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Covid-19 UPDATE: Provincial totals, vaccinations and more
Today, the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration reported 12,697 new Covid-19 cases and 132 coronavirus-related deaths. In Thailand’s latest wave of the virus, which was first recorded on April 1, the CCSA has reported a total of 1,508,447 confirmed Covid-19 infections. In the 24-hour period since the last count, the CCSA reported 13,540 recoveries. There are now 127,392 patients in…
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German election: Which chancellor hopeful does the EU want?
EU heads of government haven’t made any official statements about the upcoming German election. But think tanks and insiders have speculated which chancellor candidate each country might prefer. In the running are Angela Merkel’s current finance minister, Olaf Scholz, of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD); Merkel’s favorite, Armin Laschet, from her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU); and Annalena Baerbock, the…
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UN General Assembly: Germany struggles to define its place in the world
It’s morning at the German mission to the United Nations and diplomats are buzzing around the lobby, getting set for one of the many “side events” that flank the UN General Assembly (UNGA). Germany is hosting a meeting on the Libyan peace process, an attempt to keep the country on track to holding democratic elections for the first time ever…
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Tackling malnutrition in Ghana
Nurses in Pelungu, eastern Ghana teach pregnant mothers how to cook food to retain maximum nutrition. Malnutrition and anemia are prevalent among rural Ghanaians despite an abundance of fresh food. SOURCE: DW News
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CCSA approves reopening delay, state of emergency extension
The state of emergency in Thailand has been extended and the reopening of the country postpone following approval by the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration. The CCSA subcommittee met yesterday to approve the extension proposal and discuss reopening. Chairman of the subcommittee National Security Council Secretary-General Natthapon Nakpanich approved the proposal that keeps Thailand in a state of emergency and…
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Video of feet on bread appears to be from India, not Thailand
A video and news story that sent an uproar through the Thai community of workers at a bread factory putting their feet on the bread before packaging has been revealed to have not taken place in Thailand. The Immigration Bureau had ordered a far-reaching check on breadmaking factories across Thailand and particularly in Bangkok to try to uncover the source…
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Phuket Covid-19: 3 new deaths, 322 released from medical care
Phuket had 228 new infections and 3 new Covid-19 deaths yesterday, bringing the total to 64 since the start of the third wave of the pandemic in Thailand, with 16 of those deaths occurring over the last week and 44 of them happening in the month of September. The death toll stood at 20 as this month began, and has…
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Weather warning issued as tropical storm Dianmu approaches
The Thai Meteorological Department has issued a warning for the North, Northeast, East and Central regions, as it monitors tropical storm Dianmu, which is expected to be downgraded to a tropical depression. The TMD says the storm made landfall over the central Vietnamese province of Quang this morning and is about 260 kilometres southeast of Amnat Charoen province, in north-east…
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Education ministry to accelerate vaccination of over 200,000 teachers
All vocational and secondary school students should be fully vaccinated by November 15 and the vaccination of 210,000 teachers is being accelerated ahead of schools re-opening. So says Suphat Champatong from the Education Ministry, adding that the government has taken delivery of 3 vaccine types – viral vector, live attenuated, and inactivated. In a Bangkok Post report, Suphat says the…
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US judge orders Facebook to disclose anti-Rohingya content as part of international case against Myanmar
A court in the US has ruled that Facebook must disclose posts it removed from its network on the grounds that they were inciting violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. The move comes as a number of countries take action against Myanmar in the International Court of Justice. The Bangkok Post reports that Judge Zia Faruqui has criticised Facebook for…
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Tourism operators slam government as re-opening postponed to November
Tourism operators have expressed frustration as Thailand’s re-opening is pushed back a month, primarily due to inadequate vaccination levels. The re-opening of Bangkok, Chon Buri, Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, and Phetchaburi has been postponed from October 1 to November 1. According to a Bangkok Post report, this is the third time the re-opening of Pattaya, Chiang Mai, and Hua Hin…
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Partitions to be added to 3,000 taxis to fight Covid-19
A pilot project is underway, launched by the Department of Land Transport, to install 3,000 partitions in taxis for Covid-19 safety throughout the month of October. The Minister of Transport Saksayam Chidchob stated they hope the move instils confidence in hired transportation services and increases public safety against the spread of Covid-19. The acrylic partitions will be installed in taxies…
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Police warn against OnlyFans creators dressing as sexy police
After police arrested a popular Thai OnlyFans creator a few days ago and subsequently warned the people of Thailand that posting explicit content on OnlyFans or similar sites is illegal in Thailand, the Royal Thai Police have issued an additional warning for a specific subset of adult content creators they intend to crack down on. The police threatened that they are seeking…
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Anutin: US donation offer of 1 million vaccines never received
Apparently citing chain of command technicalities, Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul denied a report that Thailand didn’t respond to the US offering a donation of 1 million free Pfizer vaccines. He said no official formal notice of an offer to donate vaccines was received by his ministry. Anutin explained that the chain of command for vaccine donations involves the…
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Quarantine shortening proposed for certain situations
In an attempt to boost the economy, the National Communicable Disease Committee is proposing a shortening of quarantine periods for travellers under certain circumstances. The proposal was made in a meeting today of the committee with Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul chairing the meeting and vowing to pass on the plan to the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration. The…
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Opinion: Small-scale farmers must control our food system
The Food Systems Summit in New York is supposed to come up with a global strategy to fight hunger and feed a rapidly growing world population. But it’s focused too much on the big agro industry. Corporate interests are taking center stage and expanding their influence in the UN system to an alarming extent, undermining democratic decisions. The concerns of…
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Togolese fitness coach fights obesity
Mercy Tchawalla from Lome, Togo helps women regain confidence by leading fitness classes. SOURCE: DW News
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Bang Sue Station begins 150k vaccine booster shots tomorrow
Bang Sue Grand Station will begin the rollout of Thailand’s booster shot program, a third vaccine to bolster the effectiveness of those that received 2 Sinovac vaccines previously. The director of the Bang Sue central vaccination centre confirmed the rollout will begin at 11 am tomorrow. The first round of injections will be for 150,000 people who initially were vaccinated…
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PM Prayut announces a 5-point plan for the future economy
In an online meeting hosted by the National Economic and Social Development Council, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha announced his intention to revise Thailand’s economic and production outlook and methods. The plan looks towards future trends and the increasingly ubiquitous digital economy and aims to get Thailand in line for growing the economy now and in new sectors. The goals would…
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14 Burmese migrant workers arrested for allegedly illegally crossing the border
14 Burmese migrant workers were arrested in western Thailand’s Kanchanaburi province this morning. The Bangkok Post says they were found hiding in the forest by army patrol and police. The group was mostly men, and none had travel documents on them. When the workers were questioned, they told officials that they had been walking on natural trails from Dawei, a…
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Cyclist unable to take steep hill plunges to his death in Chiang Mai ravine
A cyclist riding in Chiang Mai, a northern Thai province, was unable to steer his bike down a downhill road yesterday morning and plummeted about 30 metres down a ravine to his death. Police learned of the incident, which occurred on a steep section of the Mae Rim-Mae Sai tourist road in front of the Pongyang Jungle Coaster & Zipline…
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Thursday Covid Update: 13,256 new cases; provincial totals
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration reported 131 coronavirus-related deaths and 13,256 new Covid-19 cases today. In the 24-hour period since the last count, the CCSA recorded 13,829 recoveries. There are now 128,367 patients being treated for Covid-19. Since the start of the pandemic last year, the CCSA has reported a total of 1,524,613 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 15,884 coronavirus-related fatalities. The…
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Pattaya Man goes looking for food, later found dead in graveyard
A man went looking for food and was later found dead in a Pattaya graveyard earlier this week. The 35-year-old man’s family says he wasn’t suffering from any illnesses prior to his death. Nongrue Police were alerted to the above-ground corpse residing at the new graveyard, which was built by the Sawang Boriboon Thammasathan Foundation. The police and local news…
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Grenade attack kills ranger in Pattani
A ranger was killed last night during a grenade assault on his station in Pattani, a Deep South Thai province near the Malaysian border, a region that frequently witnesses violent episodes owing to the ongoing religious separatist insurgency. The assailants had thrown 3 hand grenades just before 7:30pm at the security booth that Chanachai Yodthong was stationed at. Chanachai died…
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Reopening Pattaya: Will it happen next week or not?
Depending on which government officials you are listening to and what statement they make on which day, it would be easy to believe that Thailand’s reopening is continuing on October 1, or October 15, or possibly November 1. And Pattaya is perhaps reopening in just over a week or perhaps delaying for weeks or months. So where does the reopening…
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5 police kiosks set on fire in Bangkok, no injuries reported
At least 5 police kiosks were set ablaze early this morning in Bangkok. The Metropolitan Police have opened an investigation to determine the cause of the fires. Police discovered the kiosks had been set on fire sometime during last night’s curfew. The Central Police Forensic Division sent teams to the various kiosks, which had already had their fires put out…
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Pattaya restaurant busted selling alcohol, 15 arrested
15 people were arrested at a restaurant in Bang Lamung, accused of drinking illegally in violation of Covid-19 restrictions in Pattaya. Last night, Pattaya City Police raided an unnamed restaurant in Jomtien that was suspected of selling alcohol. Officers arrived at the restaurant early in the evening to discover 9 foreigners and 5 Thai nationals plus the person running the…
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Lawyer and shaman duo demand police investigate Kanchanaburi temple rehab that allegedly tortured patients
Following yesterday’s news that a temple in Kanchanaburi, a western Thai province, that served as drug rehab and was allegedly abusing patients, including feeding them usually only once a day, forcing them to live in squalid conditions and torturing them; a lawyer and a shaman have requested the Crime Suppression Division police investigate and prosecute those responsible for the alleged…
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Phuket Covid-19: 1 new death, hospital occupancy rates fell
With over 200 people being released from Covid-19 medical care in Phuket and 76 hospital beds freed up, the hospital occupancy rates fell to just over 82%, down from a peak around 90%. Today saw 239 new infections, a slight drop from yesterday, and one new death. The death was of a 47 year old man who smoked. He had…
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