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Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond.
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Sponsored 9 most common health issues covered by insurance for expats in Thailand
Thailand is a popular destination for expats due to its affordable lifestyle and excellent healthcare system. However, settling in a new country often brings health concerns. To ensure you’re covered for the most common medical needs, understanding what expat health...
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Thai TikTok star detained at Singapore airport over huge amount of cash
A Thai TikTok star ran into trouble at a Singapore airport for not declaring that he was carrying a huge amount of cash. The star, whose TikTok name is Sungstarwin, has 2.4 million followers on TikTok, and two million subscribers on Youtube. Sungstarwin was detained at Changi Airport on September 10 for carrying 610,000 baht, or 23,254 Singapore dollars. The…
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Kanchanaburi school director found dead in canal
Rescue divers discovered the body of a Kanchanaburi school director in a canal in Tha Muang district yesterday. The woman, 45 year old Nipaporn Wongwilai, was the director of the Ban Nong Ya Plong School in Makham Tia district. The divers started a search yesterday morning after locals found the front bumper and license plate of a car beside the…
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Small children in Pattaya learn to get help when locked in hot cars
After a tragic incident last month where a child died in a school van in Chon Buri, Pattaya police are taking measures to prevent similar incidents. Two police lieutenants visited a Pattaya school on September 21 to train preschoolers two to four years old on what to do if they get locked in a hot car. The school was Pattaya…
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Heavy rains collapse part of Chiang Mai’s ancient city wall
With continued heavy rainfall, part of the ancient city wall of Chiang Mai collapsed. A section of the wall near the Chang Phuak Gate partially crumbled in last night’s storm. The ancient wall stood in Chiang Mai for about 750 years before collapsing in the rain. The Chiang Mai municipality was joined by authorities from the Fine Arts Department who…
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Pattaya official urges mayor to expand legal nightlife zone
A Pattaya official proposed that Mayor Poramase Ngampiches expand the city’s legal nightlife zone. Pattaya City Council member Damrongkiat Pinitkan made the proposal in a meeting on Friday. Damrongkiat argued that current zones, which have not changed since 2002, are archaic. Damrongkiat noted that rules only allow operators to run entertainment venues on the right side of Pattaya Third Road…
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Earthquake in Indonesia felt throughout southern Thailand
An earthquake in Indonesia was felt as far away as southern Thailand. The quake, which had its epicentre on Sumatra Island, measured 6.2 on the Richter scale and took place yesterday morning. People reported feeling the tremors in Phuket, Phang Nga, and Songkhla provinces in Thailand, some 500 to 550 kilometres away. The earthquake struck at 3.52am yesterday and was…
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Foreign women rescued from rip current in Patong
Jet ski operators and lifeguards rescued three foreign women from a rip current off Patong Beach on Friday night. The women were seen in the water calling for help. Fortunately, some jet ski operators and lifeguards were still at the beach at the time, and the women were taken safely back to shore on a jet ski. The Patong Surf…
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Woman smashes up her 1.5 million baht car over feud with Ford Thailand
A woman who smashed up her Ford Everest with a crowbar in Korat, northeast Thailand, on Thursday says she wants “justice, not attention.” The 42 year old businesswoman, Runghathai (surname withheld), resorted to clambering on her bonnet and smashing her windscreen because of an ongoing feud between her and Ford Thailand which began in March. Runghathai says that she drove…
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Carnival Magic theme park opens in Phuket to fanfare
After launching on Tuesday, the bright and energetic new theme park Carnival Magic has attracted local Thais and international tourists flooding to Phuket. The park is the first of several scheduled to open throughout the country in the next few months as tourists return to Thailand and companies race to provide exciting new attractions for them. Safari World is the…
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Ask the Thais | Stereotypes, Racial Profiling, and Discrimination
Click the link to watch a video: https://youtu.be/MEBGOF9Ht4c In this episode of Ask The Thais, Natty Warisa asks about topics on discrimination, stereotyping, and racial profiling in Thailand and abroad 3 guests – Parin, Arina, and Ab. Is it true that foreigners are the only people who get ripped off by taxis? Do Thai people get discriminated against in foreign…
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Thailand watching BQ.1.1 variant as Covid rules ease
As Thailand prepares to eliminate the last of the Covid-19 protections for the country, a new highly contagious variant of Omicron has been put on the country’s watch list. The BQ.1.1 variant was first confirmed in the UK last month and has so far only infected a meagre 78 people, but those cases have been spread throughout 10 different countries…
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Military conscription in Russia could benefit Thailand’s economy
Thailand could be an attractive and realistic option for men fleeing military conscription in Russia. Reports say that men are fleeing Russia after President Vladimir Putin announced a plan to conscript 300,000 civilians into military service in Ukraine. Several European countries such as Lithuania have already closed their doors to Russian citizens, citing widespread support for Putin’s unprovoked invasion of…
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Nine people hospitalised by chemical leak in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand
UPDATE Police say that nine people are being treated in hospital as a result of the chemical leak at the Indorama Polyester Industries factory in Nakhon Pathom in central Thailand on Thursday morning. The leak caused a “foul, burning stench” which impacted three districts of the province, forcing the temporary closure of several schools. Deputy Commander of the Nakhon Pathom…
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Scams in Thailand – Common scams in Thailand to watch out for!
Scams in Thailand The most common scams in Thailand Like anywhere in the world that’s popular with tourists, there are scams in Thailand. Nobody likes being played for a fool, and being scammed leaves you bitter and, for some people, broke. Fortunately, most Thailand scams are easy to avoid and not all that common either. Here are the ones you’re…
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Beauty queen seeking asylum will not be sent to Myanmar
Amid confusion over the status of the Burmese beauty queen in limbo at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, she can at least take solace that she will not be sent back to Myanmar where she faces arrest. Han Lay, the 23 year old beauty queen, has been held upon arrival in Thailand on Wednesday with reports first saying she had been arrested,…
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Tropical Storm Noru is about to hit Thailand
Tropical Storm Noru has been brewing in the Pacific Ocean and is on its way to Thailand, according to the Meteorological Department. Noru is expected to cause isolated and heavy rainfall in northern and northeastern Thailand from Tuesday to Thursday (September 27-29). A tropical depression just east of the Philippines intensified into a tropical storm on Friday at around 1pm.…
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Schoolgirl raped in a school dormitory in front of friends
A 17 year old girl was raped in front of her friends by a 15 year old boy while she was in a Covid-19 quarantine dormitory at Rajaprajanugroh 57 School in the central province of Phetchabun. When the teenager filed a complaint to the school’s director, he allegedly told her to accept compensation, agree the sex was consensual, and move…
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New cancer treatment sees results in UK
A new form of cancer treatment being used in the UK is seeing positive results. The drug, RP2, is a weakened form of the cold sore virus, herpes simplex. It has been modified to kill tumours. One man who used the drug had been on end-of-life care. The man, 39 year old Krzystof, had cancer in his salivary glands, near…
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Chinese lost at sea reported to have been trafficked
The Chinese nationals lost at sea off the coast of Cambodia are believed to have been illegally trafficked. A Cambodian government official today reported that 23 Chinese nationals are missing after the boat overturned carrying 41 alleged illegal immigrants. Government official Kheang Phearom announced that the boat carrying 41 Chinese people got into trouble near Sihanoukville yesterday and only 18…
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Another push for helmet use in Phuket
Officials once again pushed for more motorcycle riders to wear helmets in Thailand, this time in Phuket. The push is part of another of Thailand’s many road safety campaigns. Local officials handed out helmets to students and other community members in the Wichit area of Phuket’s main city district on Wednesday. The officials also finished painting a crosswalk in front…
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Over 1000 people evacuated after Thailand’s Mun river bursts its banks
The Mun river burst its banks in the early hours of this morning causing flash floods in Ubon Ratchathani province in northeast Thailand. A total of 1,015 people were evacuated from their homes. The river, a tributary of the Mekong, finally overflowed after a steady rise in water levels in recent months. The floods forced the evacuation of 51 communities in…
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Wallaya Villas is back with its new pool villas in Phuket
The first established real estate developer in Phuket’s Kamala neighbourhood is Wallaya Villas. They have more than 17 years of experience in the local real estate industry. They have worked on a variety of projects, including The Nest and The Harmony Phase II, as well as in hotels, commercials, and residential properties. As a result, Wallaya Villas is one of…
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Artists create sci-fi versions of Bangkok
Several artists are creating sci-fi versions of Bangkok in their work. Two filmmakers, a painter, and illustrators are imagining Bangkok with ghosts, AI, and snow in Bangkok. One filmmaker, Stephan Zlotescu, has produced a film about an AI robot falling in love with a woman in Bangkok. The AI takes over a man’s body to pursue the woman. The film,…
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Thai transwoman climbs down building to escape Hong Kong cops
A video of a Thai transwoman in a sexy dress climbing down the outside of a building in Hong Kong like Spiderman to escape the clutches of law has gone viral. The woman, wearing a sexy see-through pink dress, climbed out onto the window ledge of a third floor building to escape the cops, and was witnessed by dozens of…
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Pro vaping group calls on govt to legalise e-cigarettes
The director of a pro-e-cigarette group in Thailand believes legalizing the activity would not only lead to more control over vaping amongst the kingdom’s youth but make it safer than the dreaded cancer stick. A survey conducted by the National Statistical Office of Thailand last year found more than half of the kingdom’s 80,000 e-cigarette smokers were people aged between…
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Chon Buri blaze kills disabled man and his dogs
Another tragic fire broke out in Thailand this week, this time in the eastern Chon Buri province, in the main city district. The blaze hit three houses on Wednesday, killing a 52 year old man named Suriya Eimsawad, who was reportedly disabled. Suriya was not the only one to perish in the devastating fire. His two dogs also died as…
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BMTA bus driver brawls with motorcycle rider in Bangkok
A bus driver and a motorcycle rider got into a brawl on Phetchaburi Road in Bangkok last week after the former honked his horn at him. A video of the scrap between the driver from the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) and the motorcycle rider started circulating on Thai social media last Tuesday, September 20. The video shows a male…
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US Navy scammer arrested in Venezuela over scandal in Asia
An alleged United States Navy military contractor has been arrested in Venezuela after fleeing house arrest in the US. The man fled his home country just weeks before being sentenced for his role in a corruption scandal in Thailand and other parts of Asia. The man, Leonard Gleen Francis, known as “Fat Leonard,” had fled from his California home and…
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At least 31 dead as Iranian security forces crack down on civilians protesting woman’s death
At least 31 civilians have been reported dead after Iranian security forces cracked down on protests over a young woman’s death. The woman, Mahsa Amini, 22, was visiting Tehran with her family last week when the morality police arrested her for violating Iran’s strict dress code for women. The code has been in place since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, in…
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Japan to welcome visa-free tourists from October 11
Japan announced it will resume visa-free entry for all travellers from October 11 and scrap the arrival cap of 50,000 visitors per day. Before the pandemic Japan allowed travellers from 69 countries to enter without visas and visitors could stay between 15 to 90 days, according to the conditions of each country. Japan had over 32 million arrivals in 2019…
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