Thailand is gearing up to host the 45th annual Cobra Gold military exercise from February 24 to March 6, a large-scale multinational event that will bring together more than 8,000 personnel from 30 countries. Co-hosted by the Royal Thai Armed Forces and the United States Indo-Pacific Command (US INDOPACOM), Cobra Gold has grown into one of the region’s most important drills — part training ground, part diplomatic handshake, and part high-stakes logistical ballet. Five domains, one big rehearsal This year’s edition will emphasize integrated operations across five domains: land, sea, air, space, and cyber. That’s not military-speak for “we’re doing more stuff” — it’s a recognition that modern security challenges don’t respect old boundaries. Expect to see amphibious landings, maritime strike planning, air-defence drills, satellite and space coordination, and cyber-defence exercises running in parallel as units practice operating together in a complex battlespace. Who’s playing Seven countries are listed as…
Posts published in “Thailand”
Shortly after midnight on Thursday, January 22, Bangkok police and rescue teams were called to a grim scene beneath the BTS Phahon Yothin 24 station after a man believed to be in his twenties fell from a great height and died at the site. The incident, which occurred around 12:30 a.m. on the outbound side of Phahon Yothin Road heading toward the Ratchayothin intersection in Chatuchak district, has left investigators piecing together the final hours of a young life. The scene and emergency response Police Lieutenant Nipon Sakulphet-aram, the duty officer at Phahonyothin Police Station, was among the first to respond after an emergency call. Officers arriving at the scene found the man unconscious and critically injured on the road beneath the BTS station. He was dressed in a grey long-sleeved shirt and white shorts. Erawan rescue workers immediately performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for roughly 40 minutes, but despite their…
The quiet routine of a Soi Nawamin 70 neighborhood in Bangkok’s Bueng Kum district turned into a grim mystery that has police racing across provinces and borders. Neighbors discovered 79-year-old Somsawat “Mhoo” Songsamphan, a retired teacher from Phra Khanong, brutally attacked inside her home — and suspicion quickly fell on her 25-year-old Laotian housemaid, Bua Sihawong, who fled the country the next day. It was the kind of alarm that begins with nothing more dramatic than a neighbor’s worry. Fifty-four-year-old Sumalee Chaikong told officers she normally heard the lights click on at dawn when Somsawat rose for the day. When the house stayed dark and calls went unanswered, Sumalee peered through a window and saw Somsawat motionless on the floor. She called Bueng Kum Police Station, and responding officers found a scene that suggested a violent struggle: severe bruising and multiple cut wounds to the face, neck, body and ankles.…
On 22 January, Bangkok’s political air briefly turned from campaign slogans to eyebrow-raising social-media fireworks when Ruangkrai Leekitwattana, a parliamentary candidate for the Palang Pracharath Party in Bangkok Constituency 4, asked the Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) to investigate a provocative campaign proposal from New Alternative Party figure Mongkolkit Suksintharanon. The post that stopped scrolls The kerfuffle began with a Facebook post by Mongkolkit on 13 January that suggested a new take on gender equality: women should be allowed to have up to four husbands — a reversal of the polygamous allowances commonly associated with some interpretations of Islamic law. The post quickly went viral, drawing a mix of bewilderment, amusement and genuine concern across Thai social media. When a follower asked whether the proposal was a joke or serious, Mongkolkit replied simply, “Serious.” That one-word confirmation turned a curious thought experiment into a matter of public record — and…
What started as a dazzling winter escape to Harbin turned into a textbook travel horror story for one Thai family. According to a viral Facebook post by one of the travellers, 16 members of the family paid a staggering 700,000 baht for a supposedly all-inclusive, week-long tour from December 28 to January 2 — flights, four-star hotel, transport, entrance fees, insurance and even a New Year countdown programme. Instead, they got missed flights, empty promises and improvised first aid. The moment everything unraveled The trouble began at Suvarnabhumi International Airport. The travel agency owner — identified only as Frame — allegedly told the family that there was a mistake: “no tickets could be found.” Facing the nightmare scenario of a holiday gone before it’d begun, the organiser, Chonchanok, reportedly paid more than 200,000 baht out of pocket to purchase new Bangkok-to-Beijing tickets. Frame promised a refund within three days. But…
Thailand has quietly flipped a switch on how money moves. With 107.24 million registered mobile banking accounts—more accounts than people—the country’s payment landscape looks less like a developing market and more like a fintech playground. This proliferation didn’t happen by accident. It was driven by hungry consumers, bold public policy and a national obsession with convenience: 88% of Thais now prefer merchants who accept instant payments over the old plastic card routine. The PromptPay effect: small app, huge impact At the center of the transformation is PromptPay, Thailand’s real-time national payment platform. Think of it as the country’s financial nervous system—fast, low-cost and relentlessly integrated into everyday life. PromptPay registrations climbed by 14% to over 90 million users, and the system now handles more than 74 million transactions daily. The result: a rapid march toward a cashless society so decisive that the Bank of Thailand has even pared back the…
The 2025 Thailand–Cambodia Border Shock: How Communities and Commerce Were Brought Back from the Brink When the 2025 border clashes between Thailand and Cambodia erupted, the human and economic fallout was immediate and stark. Thousands of residents across seven Thai provinces were forced from their homes, cross-border trade lanes fell silent, and factories that quietly plug into global supply chains hit an abrupt, costly pause. What followed was a mix of emergency compassion, rapid policy pivots, and a surprising display of private-sector ingenuity — all aimed at keeping livelihoods afloat and the wheels of commerce turning. A Fast-Acting Lifeline for Families In the early days of the crisis, the Thai government zeroed in on two urgent goals: prevent a humanitarian disaster and stabilise social order. The Thai Cabinet approved a targeted compensation package with a budget framework of 2.33 billion baht, designed to reach 467,128 households across the seven affected…
In the early hours of January 21, a peaceful stretch of Pattaya Beach was shattered by a violent confrontation that left a 22-year-old transgender woman with a serious hand injury. The victim, identified as Sila from Khon Kaen province, was attacked at around 1:50 a.m. when a man — described by witnesses as muscular and of unknown nationality — allegedly turned a disagreement into a brutal assault using a broken glass bottle. According to the account given to Pattaya City Police, Sila and several friends were standing along the beachfront offering companionship services when the man approached and began questioning why they were there. What started as a tense negotiation about fees quickly escalated. The man allegedly walked away after failing to agree, only to return moments later carrying a roughly two-metre wooden stick. He chased the group, smashed a bottle and used the jagged glass shard to slash Sila’s…
In a scene that sounds like it was lifted straight from a low-budget crime caper — shirtless stranger, tousled hair, bare feet and a government-issued police ID flashing the rank of Police Captain — Prawet Police Station officers found themselves scratching their heads during a routine patrol along a motorway frontage road in Bangkok’s Prawet district on January 20. Officers initially thought they’d encountered a homeless man. He looked the part: unkempt, barefoot and wandering in a community area where people often pass through without drawing much attention. But when they asked for identification, the situation flipped from ordinary to eyebrow-raising. The man calmly produced what appeared to be an official police ID card proclaiming him a commissioned officer at the rank of Police Captain. With almost cinematic confidence he told the officers he wasn’t homeless at all but an undercover cop on a secret assignment, out to gather local…
Phuket’s city centre turned into a quiet stage for an international manhunt this week when immigration officers arrested a Russian national listed on an Interpol warrant. The arrest, reported as taking place yesterday, January 29, was confirmed by the Phuket Provincial Immigration Office after authorities received an alert from the Foreign Affairs Division. The suspect’s name has not been released, but the story behind the capture reads like a short thriller with a decidedly bureaucratic twist. According to immigration police, the man — described as a construction contractor — fled Russia and slipped into Thailand to avoid prosecution. He was allegedly involved in collusion related to a construction project that resulted in financial damage exceeding 100 million baht. That’s no small sum, and once his name hit Interpol’s radar, Thai authorities moved quickly to follow the trail. Investigators traced the fugitive to an accommodation in central Phuket after piecing together…