THAI.NEWS - Thailand Breaking News

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…