Alex and Jay are back with another lively roundup of the stories making waves across Thailand and Southeast Asia. From flood relief packages and controversial government decisions to tense maritime face-offs and the occasional bizarre accident, this episode serves up a little bit of everything — equal parts serious news and eyebrow-raising moments. Cabinet ditches extra long weekends for 2026 In a move that will please some and frustrate others, Thailand’s Cabinet has dropped its plan to introduce extra public holidays for 2026. Officials said the idea clashed with economic and administrative needs — especially in industries that rely on steady workflow and in public services where sudden extra days off could create bottlenecks. Supporters of more long weekends were hoping for extra mini-vacations, but voices in business and government warned that productivity and essential services could suffer. The Cabinet ultimately decided to stick with the current holiday calendar and…
Posts published in “Thailand”
In a case that could be pulled straight from an international crime drama, Thailand’s Immigration Bureau announced the arrest of six foreign nationals this week on charges ranging from large‑scale financial fraud and people‑trafficking to major narcotics smuggling. Deputy Commissioner Police Major General Panthana Nuchanart revealed the sweeping operation, which saw suspects nabbed across Bangkok and Chon Buri as investigators closed in on alleged cross‑border criminal networks. The first name on the list is Pan, a 41‑year‑old Chinese national wanted back home for allegedly defrauding banks of a staggering 560 million yuan — roughly 2.8 billion baht. Authorities say Pan falsified business information to secure loans and siphoned off more than 80 million yuan for illicit gains. He entered Thailand on a tourist visa in May of last year and reportedly overstayed, settling at a salon in Chon Buri where officers eventually tracked him down and made the arrest. Next…
Bangkok woke up under a gray blanket this morning. The Bangkok Air Quality Information Centre’s 07:00 update on December 3 shows a sharp slip in air quality — the city’s average PM2.5 is 47.1 μg/m³, comfortably above the national safety threshold of 37.5 μg/m³. In plain terms: the air is cranky, and it’s asking for special treatment. Some pockets of the city are worse off than others. Twelve districts are ringing particularly loud alarm bells with readings that move from “unpleasant” toward “concerning”: Bang Rak: 59.4 μg/m³ Sathorn: 58.8 μg/m³ Lat Krabang: 56.2 μg/m³ Min Buri: 53.5 μg/m³ Bang Kho Laem: 53.5 μg/m³ Nong Khaem: 53.4 μg/m³ Khlong Sam Wa: 53.3 μg/m³ Prawet: 53.1 μg/m³ Pathum Wan: 52.4 μg/m³ Bang Khen: 52.1 μg/m³ Bang Na: 51.4 μg/m³ Khlong San: 50.5 μg/m³ Southern Bangkok — and especially Bang Rak and Sathorn — tops the list with the highest numbers, so residents…
The Justice Ministry is turning up the volume on equality. In a spirited forum alongside the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) and the People’s Movement to Eliminate Discrimination (MovED), officials and activists gathered to refine a draft anti-discrimination bill that, if approved, would reshape how Thailand confronts bias — from Bangkok’s boulevards to remote provincial offices. Pol Lt Gen Rutthapon Naowarat, the Minister of Justice, set the tone in his opening remarks by anchoring the draft in Thailand’s own constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The message was simple but bold: discrimination isn’t a niche legal problem — it’s a national one. With the ministry now preparing the draft for Cabinet review, the conversation has shifted from theory to a tangible legal pathway. ThaiHealth manager Pongthep Wongwatcharapaiboon brought data to the forum, citing collaborative research from the Urban Studies Institute Foundation (USI) and Thammasat University’s faculty of learning…
The lanterns and krathongs of Loy Krathong were still bobbing in ponds and gutters when a quiet worry began to grow in a Udon Thani household. On the evening of November 5, a British man — a husband and dog-owner who has been described only as a 60-year-old foreigner — slipped out of the house on an electric tricycle with the couple’s pet dog, Archie, and never returned. His wife, 56-year-old Phavika Hutchinsan, turned that worry into action on December 1, lodging a missing person report at Mueang Udon Thani Police Station at 1:30 p.m. After filing the report, she went to local media with a simple plea: help us find him. Phavika told reporters her husband didn’t say where he was going that Loy Krathong night — only that he was leaving with Archie on the tricycle — and that their relationship had been mostly calm during the two…
The quiet of a Tuesday morning on Rattanathibet Road was shattered by shouts, a scuffle — and ultimately a gunshot. What began as a conventional road-rage spat at Bang Plu Intersection on December 1 quickly escalated into a criminal case after a 65-year-old local lawyer association president shot a 36-year-old motorcyclist, leaving bystanders stunned and police sorting through competing stories. A roadside confrontation turns violent Rescue workers from the Ruam Katanyu Foundation and police arrived at the scene around 9:00 a.m. to find 36-year-old Bordin seated beside his silver-bronze Honda CB500X, clutching his left arm where a bullet wound had landed. Parked next to the motorcycle was a silver-bronze Toyota Altis — the car belonging to 65-year-old Natchanodom Haengwong-ngam, who remained at the scene and surrendered to officers. Natchanodom, who identified himself as the president of a provincial lawyer association, told police he had been signalling to turn left when…
Official Update: Southern Thailand Flood Toll Rises to 179 as Officials Push Back Against 1,000-Death Rumour The Ministry of Public Health quietly updated the official figures for the devastating southern Thailand floods on December 1, confirming what rescuers and recovery teams already suspected: the death toll has climbed slightly, from 170 to 179. The news came with an equally important clarification — persistent online claims that fatalities had exceeded 1,000 are false, and officials are urging calm and caution in how the public shares information. Hat Yai remains the hardest-hit district Songkhla’s Hat Yai district has borne the brunt of the disaster. According to Deputy Permanent Secretary Sakda Alapach, medical teams on the ground tallied 140 deaths in Hat Yai alone. That total breaks down into 65 people who died in hospital and 75 who were found deceased outside medical facilities. Of the bodies recovered, officials have officially identified 104,…
The air in Bangkok—and a staggering 47 other provinces—has turned from merely hazy to outright hazardous as ultrafine particulate matter (PM2.5) rose across the kingdom over the past 24 hours. Government guidelines peg a safe PM2.5 level at 37.5 microgrammes per cubic metre (µg/m³). As of 3pm on 30 November, the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (Gistda) found readings that pushed well beyond that limit, ranging from 38.3 to 60.7 µg/m³ in Bangkok and the affected provinces. Nong Khai in the northeast wore the dubious crown yesterday with the highest recorded concentration at 60.7 µg/m³. Bangkok’s citywide average was an uncomfortable 49.1 µg/m³, with all 50 districts flagged as unsafe. Nong Khaem district topped the capital’s list at 53.4 µg/m³—proof that the smog blanket is being felt across wards, sois, and skyline alike. Outside the capital, the worst-hit provinces read like a geography lesson in alarm: Bung Kan (northeast),…
Tragedy struck a four-storey building in Samut Sakhon on the afternoon of November 30 when a fast-moving fire reduced a family’s life to ash and heartbreak. What began as routine midday quiet for a family who worked nights ended in the worst of outcomes: 33-year-old Thanya Hankla and her two young children—seven-year-old Thawatchai Sarathongpim and four-year-old Nyathida Sarathongpim—were found dead, embracing one another in a bedroom on the building’s second floor. Krathum Baen Police Station received the first frantic report at 12:50pm. Firefighters were mobilised immediately, with more than ten fire engines arriving from Om Noi City Municipality, Suan Luang Subdistrict Municipality, Tha Mai Subdistrict Administrative Organisation and nearby areas. When crews reached the scene, flames were already erupting from the ground floor and licking up the exterior, racing toward the upper levels with alarming speed. The building housed eight people at the time of the blaze. Five occupants managed…
Bag by the Road, Bust in the Northeast: How a Tourist Sign Helped Stop 208,000 Meth Pills What looked like an abandoned travel bag at a roadside tourist sign on Highway 2376 turned out to be a very bad day for one alleged drug courier — and a rare stroke of luck for Thai law enforcement. On November 29, a tip-off set off a chain reaction: the Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB) Unit 24, the 2nd Army Region, and the Surasak Montri Task Force coordinated with the Sakon Nakhon River Peacekeeping Unit to investigate a black bag suspected of holding narcotics. The result? A suspect arrested and 208,000 methamphetamine pills seized. The location was unglamorous: a tourist sign between Na Yung district in Udon Thani province and Sangkhom district in Nong Khai province. But the setting mattered. Highway 2376 sits along a corridor often used to move contraband from the northeastern…