THAI.NEWS - Thailand Breaking News

It was supposed to be another balmy evening in Pattaya — lanterns blinking, motos humming and the promise of seafood and sea breeze — but for 45-year-old Mohamed Abdelkaliq Abdalla Khadim Almaazmi, a tourist from the United Arab Emirates, the night turned sticky with the shock of loss. In mid-January, Almaazmi discovered he was lighter by 14,500 baht after an encounter in a quiet alley near the Marine Plaza Hotel that played out like a sleight-of-hand trick gone wrong. The Casual Approach: Conversation as Cover According to the complaint filed at Mueang Pattaya Police Station at about 7 a.m. on January 13, Almaazmi had been standing by the roadside in southern Pattaya talking with a woman when a stranger — one of two foreign men — strolled up, exchanged pleasantries and leaned in like an old friend. The encounter looked harmless: a warm greeting, a brief embrace, a little chat.…

On January 14, three of Thailand’s most prominent conservative parties made a simple, pointed argument: don’t rip up the 2017 constitution. Instead of grand gestures and a costly constitutional reboot, leaders from the Rak Chart Thai Party, Thai Pakdee Party and the United Thai Nation (UTN) urged a more cautious, surgical approach — tweak what’s broken, preserve what works, and avoid political fireworks that could burn more than bridges. Speaking to voters in Nakhon Ratchasima, Rak Chart Thai’s Jade Donavanik didn’t mince words. The idea of drafting an entirely new charter, he said, is as expensive as it is unnecessary. “A complete overhaul would be unjustifiable on financial grounds alone,” Jade told local crowds, arguing that targeted amendments to problematic clauses would save taxpayers money and respect voter expectations. He also noted a surprising wrinkle: during his campaign stops, many constituents were puzzled to hear conservative parties even flirting with…

In what reads like a political thriller with a distinctly Bangkok setting, People’s Party MP candidate Ratchapong “Pond” Soisuwan was arrested on January 14 after cybercrime investigators say they traced money from an online gambling site to his bank account. The Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) carried out a focused raid at Ratchapong’s home in Nuan Chan Village, Nawamin sub-district, Bueng Kum district, at about 5:30 p.m., turning a quiet neighborhood into the latest flashpoint in Thailand’s fight against online gambling and illicit finance. Ratchapong, 32, is running as an MP candidate for Tak province in the upcoming general election and previously served as MP for Constituency 2 in Tak under the Move Forward Party. Authorities allege his account received transfers connected to the gambling platform nakarin789.com. According to investigators, the operation wasn’t clumsy; it involved multiple intermediary accounts and a trail of transactions that ultimately led back to Ratchapong’s…

In a scene that sounds more like a neighbourhood makeover show gone wrong than a police drama, a 36-year-old Myanmar woman was arrested in Nonthaburi on January 14 after officials say she ran an unlicensed hairdressing school for fellow Myanmar nationals in Bang Bua Thong. The operation, according to immigration officers, allegedly crossed Thailand’s labour-law line that reserves certain professions — including hairdressing and beauty instruction — for Thai citizens. The tip-off came not from a disgruntled client or a steaming salon rival, but from video evidence that showed the woman teaching hairstyling techniques at a house in Bua Thong Village, Moo 6, Bang Rak Phatthana subdistrict. Nonthaburi immigration teams, joined by the provincial employment office and district administration officers, staged a coordinated raid at about 1:30pm. What they found was ordinary on the surface — scissors, a flat iron, and four women learning cuts and straightening — but, officials…

When the morning tide left behind a mysterious visitor on a Chanthaburi shoreline on January 13, locals and scientists alike did a double-take: the stranded animal was later confirmed as a Longman’s beaked whale (Indopacetus pacificus) — the first verified record of this elusive deep‑sea cetacean in Thai waters. What might have looked like a sad, solitary beach spectacle quickly became a headline-making clue that Thailand’s offshore waters are home to far more hidden life than we might assume. A first for Thailand — and a rare one at that Marine specialists from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR), led in the announcement by Kongkiat Kittiwatanawong, confirmed the identification after an initial assessment. The animal was a male, roughly five metres long, with a slender profile and a gently curved dorsal fin — classic hallmarks of the beaked whale family Ziphiidae. Scars streaking its body suggested past skirmishes…

A Flash of Red: Rare Red-Headed Krait Spotted in Kaeng Krachan On January 13, a routine patrol in Thailand’s sprawling Kaeng Krachan National Park turned into a quiet wildlife headline when park ranger Busakorn Kantook photographed one of nature’s most striking — and most dangerous — reptiles. Perched on Phanoen Thung Mountain, the snake was unmistakable: a glossy black body capped with a vivid red head and tail. Park chief Mongkhon Chaipakdee confirmed the find and said the species is a red-headed krait, a rare member of the krait family known for its potent neurotoxic venom and eerie, warning-color pattern. What Makes the Red-Headed Krait So Unforgettable? It’s hard to forget a snake that looks like it’s wearing a tiny warning sign. The red-headed krait’s combination of jet-black scales with bright red at both ends gives it a theatrical look. Add a slightly raised, triangular back and you’ve got a…

It was a painfully familiar scene for anyone who’s ever been stuck in Bangkok traffic: a crowded public bus inching along, tempers simmering, and one passenger loudly fed up. A now-viral TikTok clip filmed on January 13 captures exactly that — a tense back-and-forth between two commuters that quickly escalated into a mini soap opera on wheels. The trigger was ordinary enough: major road closures for a new train station had funneled traffic into fewer lanes, forcing buses to take narrow alleys and detours. What should have been an inconvenience turned into a showdown when a woman dressed head-to-toe in black decided to move to the front of the bus and vocalize her frustration. “Why close the road? It causes a traffic jam,” she mumbled. “Take a picture and complain to the officials. You’re driving too slowly. I want to go home.” Her low, persistent complaints — part grumble, part…

When law enforcement from 18 countries gathered at the Royal Thai Police headquarters in Bangkok on January 13, the meeting didn’t feel like your average roundtable. It was a full-throttle pushback against a modern hybrid threat: human trafficking tangled with forced criminality inside overseas call centre cyber scams. Chaired by Police General Thatchai Pitaneelabutr, deputy national police chief and director of the Anti-Human Trafficking Centre, the session aimed to turn scattered intelligence into coordinated action. Who showed up — and why it matters Representatives from a wide swath of nations attended, including South Korea, China, Japan, Nepal, Brunei, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia, India, Indonesia — and of course Thailand. International partners such as the FBI and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) were also present, underscoring how these crimes refuse to respect borders. The common thread discussed…