Girlfriend told Pattaya Police that she had not heard from her boyfriend since he arrived in Thailand and headed straight to Pattaya to begin his holiday in the kingdom. Officers are awaiting a post-mortem being conducted in Bangkok.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/07/16/remains-canadian-man-glenn-vernon-found-in-pattaya/

Carla Boonkong reports from Pattaya.

Top Thai bank official Dr Daranee Saeju this week assured reporters that Thailand’s strong financial position made it impervious to speculation and was quite unlike the position in 1940 and 1997. It comes as the baht hit a new 16-year low on Friday amid concerns about second-half GDP growth and the performance of the economy with deeply disturbing reports from Beijing as the western world grapples with inflation and the fallout of the Ukraine war which the World Bank has predicted will lead to a return of 1970s era stagflation.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/07/15/central-bank-assurances-as-the-baht-slips/

Joseph O' Connor reports from Bangkok.

The mother of the child identified by police as Ms Chantra has pointed the finger at a 33-year-old man who was also arrested on Tuesday, as the mastermind behind the criminal enterprise which saw her make pornographic videos for sale online.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/07/13/young-mother-who-pimped-her-child-arrested/

Carla Boonkong reports from Saraburi and Bangkok.

Thailand’s position has moved strikingly from its stance in 2018 when General Prayut Chan ocha told Time Magazine that the kingdom’s key strategic partner was China. As China’s impatience begins to show concerning the stalled high-speed rail link connection between Thailand and China’s southern provinces via Laos, the kingdom has moved closer to the United States and also, of key significance, Japan.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/07/12/roiling-us-chinese-tensions-in-asia-a-trial/

Joseph O' Connor reports from Bangkok.

The leading figure in modern Japanese politics had lately been campaigning extensively against the danger of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Ill health had plagued Mr Abe leading to his first resignation in 2007 and played a part in his resignation in 2020 when his scandal-plagued government was overwhelmed by the pandemic public health crisis.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/07/10/shinzo-abe-legacy-efforts-to-awaken-japan-to-china/

James Morris reports from Nara and Bangkok.

The bombshell announcement this week is bound to generate antipathy and concern among foreigners both inside and without Thailand. It goes against all principles of modern customer service as well as international business practices and will ultimately undermine the goal of the government which is to assist the full recovery of Thailand’s foreign tourism sector which the World Bank predicts will not fully recover until 2026 but which has been improving in recent months with an easing of regulations imposed on it by the government, moves which had generated renewed optimism and confidence.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/07/08/plan-to-charge-foreigners-more-at-hotels/

Joseph O' Connor reports from Bangkok.

The significant and heavy impact of the war in Ukraine is hitting Thailand hard as it also challenges economies across the world as inflation bites the less well off with anaemic growth. All eyes over the coming months will be on Thailand’s current account after it posted a larger deficit of $3.7 billion for May ahead of a $3.1 billion shortfall in April. The problem for the kingdom is elevated import costs driven by oil prices in excess of $100 a barrel and a foreign tourism industry that, at best this year, will only see 25% of the numbers seen in 2019 crippling the country’s already limited prospects for significant growth.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/07/07/thai-economy-caught-in-a-stagflation-spiral/

Joseph O' Connor reports from Bangkok.

The comments come as the Thai baht depreciates against the US dollar and is about to pass the ฿36 to the dollar mark as the kingdom still struggles to recover its lost foreign tourism industry even though momentum is rising. The World Bank estimates that it will be 2026 before a full recovery is achieved in the sector while the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is only aiming for 50% occupancy this year for reopened hotels and is aiming for just over 50% of former foreign tourist numbers next year with 22 million visitors projected.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/07/05/anutin-halt-foreign-tourism-price-deals-premium-louis-vuitton/

Carla Boonkong reports from Bangkok.

Myanmar is now effectively in a state of all-out civil conflict with a deadly war of attrition between swelling rebel groups and a military fighting for its life and holding on through air power. The disruption and damage caused in Tak province this week as well as the incursion into Thailand’s air space by a Mig 19 fighter of Myanmar’s Air Force highlight the growing crisis in Thailand’s neighbouring country to the West and the challenge it may pose to authorities here if it spirals out of control. Local Thai military units in Tak were placed on high alert, last week, in response to the situation by the National Security Council. Earlier this year, in March, the US-based organisation Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) estimated that some 12,000 people in Myanmar had, at that point, died in the uprising.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/07/04/intense-warfare-in-myanmar-near-tak-eases/

Joseph O' Connor reports from Bangkok and Tak province.

This is the second death sentence handed down to the notorious former Deputy Minister of Commerce, Banyin Tangpakorn, a former police officer and criminal mastermind, who has also been convicted of murdering a businessman in 2015 and covering up the act in a staged car accident, forgery, fraud and trying to engineer an audacious prison escape in June 2020. Police also looked at the death of his wife in 1991 in another, strikingly similar, car accident.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/07/02/2008-pheu-thai-minister-banyin-sentenced-to-death/

James Morris reports from Bangkok and Nakhon Sawan.