The speculation about who may lead a Pheu Thai government comes with the party doing well in opinion polls and after it unveiled a radical and comprehensive economic strategy last week in Bangkok. Positive opinion poll figures are being driven by the possible candidacy of Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra and the latest flag bearer for the Shinawatra political dynasty which, while generating enthusiasm among the party’s grassroots, also runs the risk of precipitating another army coup despite denials by military leaders this week.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/10/17/drugs-crackdown-planned-memories-of-thaksin-2003/

Joseph O' Connor reports from Bangkok.

30-year-old escaped from the local Ko Phangan Hospital on September 14th after he attended there as an outpatient seeking treatment for depression. A missing person report was filed with the police the next day.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/10/16/police-probe-death-of-russian-on-ko-phangan-nikita-grigorev/

Carla Boonkong reports from Ko Phangan.

The speculation about who may lead a Pheu Thai government comes with the party doing well in opinion polls and after it unveiled a radical and comprehensive economic strategy last week in Bangkok. Positive opinion poll figures are being driven by the possible candidacy of Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra and the latest flag bearer for the Shinawatra political dynasty which, while generating enthusiasm among the party’s grassroots, also runs the risk of precipitating another army coup despite denials by military leaders this week.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/10/16/pheu-thai-looking-at-tycoon-srettha-for-pm/

Joseph O' Connor reports from Bangkok.

A heavily armed police unit, acting on a police tip-off, moved in to arrest a murder suspect on foot of a court warrant on Wednesday night in the southern province of Phatthalung. The armed officers broke into a crime scene in which a 31-year-old woman was being systematically beaten to death by a psychotic killer who had already inflicted the same gruesome fate on another woman in Bangkok from June to July this year.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/10/15/mother-wants-serial-killer-executed-thanadej-kaewchuang/

James Morris reports from Phatthalung, Bangkok and Amnat Charoen.

It is understood that Thailand’s leadership is disappointed that US President Joe Biden will not attend the summit in Bangkok due to the planned wedding at the White House on the 19th of November of his granddaughter Naomi Biden. The importance being attached to the international event in Bangkok has meant the declaration of a two-day holiday in the capital and adjacent provinces while speculation mounts that it may be the moment that Prime Minister Prayut Chan ocha decides to dissolve the House of Representatives and call a General Election.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/10/13/chinese-president-xi-to-star-at-apec-summit/

Carla Boonkong reports from Bangkok.

Plans announced by the Bank of Thailand to issue guidance to financial institutions in the opening quarter of 2023 on reining in excessive consumer lending for foreign holidays and expensive smartphones to tackle Thailand’s ฿15 trillion in household debt, 35% of which is credit card borrowing.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/10/12/former-minister-queries-export-growth-data-kobsak-pootrakool/

Joseph O' Connor reports from Bangkok.

Tensions and feelings are running high over the kingdom’s worst mass massacre. A senior police officer was summarily removed from his post on Monday after giving an interview during which he appeared to laugh and behave in a jocular manner while fielding questions on a case which has traumatised Thailand.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/10/10/cnn-reporters-fly-out-cleared-of-trespass-anna-coren-daniel-hodge/

James Morris reports from Nong Bua Lamphu.

Policy platform presentation on Sunday and the latest opinion poll in the northeast comes as the nation is still preoccupied with the tragic aftermath of the mass murder in Nong Bua Lamphu. During proceedings, on Sunday, Pheu Thai Party leader Dr Cholnan Srikaew also promised that, if elected, the party would bring back its controversial war on drugs which he said would be recalibrated for modern times. It comes as drug policy and the threat posed by drugs, already a growing issue before the atrocity in the Na Klang District of Nong Bua Lamphu last Thursday, has been jettisoned front and centre in the runup to the next General Election.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/10/09/pheu-thai-promises-new-secure-society-paetongtarn-shinawatra/

Carla Boonkong reports from Bangkok.

King spoke movingly to parents of the bereaved gathered on Friday night on the first floor of Nong Bua Lamphu Hospital, the day after Thailand’s worst mass murder by a former policeman due in court on Friday facing drug charges and who earlier that day was the subject of a domestic incident reported to police.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/10/08/king-queen-support-families-of-atrocity-nong-bua-lamphu/

James Morris reports from Nong Bua Lamphu.

Background to this case raises serious questions which are bound to grow louder as horrendous details of the carnage emerge including the plight of two to four-year-olds murdered as they slept and the gratuitous murder of a pregnant school teacher among the dozens killed by the mad man who attacked some children with a meat cleaver. It appears that 34-year-old Police Corporal Panya Khamrab had, for some time, exhibited severe anti-social behaviour and a drug addiction problem before he was eventually confronted in the middle of last year and subsequently arrested in an internal police investigation in January 2022 for possession of drugs.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/10/07/slaughter-of-innocents-by-crazed-ex-policeman-panda-khamrab/

Carla Boonkong reports from Nong Bua Lamphu.