Thailand

Move Forward Party leader and prime ministerial candidate Pita Limjaroenrat gives a press conference at the party headquarters in Bangkok on May 14 after polls closed in Thailand's general election.

World News

Early returns show opposition parties are poised for victory in Thai elections

3:11pm May 14, 2023

by Michael Sullivan

The Pheu Thai party and the progressive Move Forward Party made a strong showing, in a repudiation to the military-backed government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.

In this photo provided by Cambodia's Fresh News, smoke rises as a fire burns Thursday through the Grand Diamond City Casino and Hotel near a Cambodia-Thai international border gate in Poipet, Cambodia.

World News

A massive fire at Cambodia hotel and casino kills at least 19 people

9:30am December 29, 2022

by The Associated Press

Neighboring Thailand sent firetrucks and emergency workers to help cope with the 12-hour inferno in a bustling border town. Some victims are believed to still be under debris or in locked rooms.

Thai business tycoon and transgender activist Chakrapong "Anne" Chakrajutathib poses for a photo after a news conference Thursday in Bangkok.

A Thai media mogul and transgender activist has bought the Miss Universe competition

10:07am October 27, 2022

by The Associated Press

Chakrapong "Anne" Chakrajutathib, who controls JKN Global Group, purchased the organization for $20 million. She's a celebrity in Thailand who is outspoken about being a transgender woman.

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, air force and naval aviation corps of the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) fly planes at an unspecified location in China on Aug. 4.

World News

China is sending fighter jets to Thailand for joint exercises

1:42pm August 13, 2022

by The Associated Press

The training will include strikes on ground targets and troop deployment, the Chinese Defense Ministry said. China's expanding military activities have alarmed the U.S. and its allies.

Major fire damage fills the interior at the Mountain B pub in the Sattahip district of Chonburi province, about 100 miles southeast of Bangkok, Thailand.

World News

A fire at a music pub in eastern Thailand kills at least 13

2:57am August 05, 2022

by The Associated Press

Video circulating on social media showed people fleeing the pub while thick black smoke billowed from the door and then the entrance through which people were escaping was suddenly engulfed in flames.

The first customer of the day, Rittipomng Bachkul celebrates after buying legal marijuana at the Highland Cafe in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, June 9, 2022.

Thailand decriminalizes marijuana, but not the strong stuff

2:42am June 09, 2022

by The Associated Press

Thailand's government says it is promoting cannabis for medical use only, warning that lighting up recreationally in public could still considered to be a nuisance subject to a potential fines.

A tourist strolls along the white sand of Maya Beach in Thailand. The destination was once overrun by visitors, but thanks in part to the pandemic, its ecosystem has had time to recover.

World News

In Thailand, the pandemic helped a famous beach recover from an onslaught of tourists

6:00am March 19, 2022

by Michael Sullivan

The Leonardo DiCaprio film The Beach helped put Maya Bay on the "must see" list of every visitor to Thailand. But that proved too much for its delicate ecosystem. The pandemic helped change that.

M. dances at a go-go bar. She was working as a topless dancer — and also as a sex worker — in the tourist city of Pattaya, Thailand, until the bar closed down in January. She decided to return to her hometown to look for work in a different sector.

Whatever Happened To ... The Thai Sex Worker Trying To Rebuild Her Life In A Pandemic?

6:30pm September 08, 2021

When we interviewed her in September 2020, she was hoping the pandemic would end soon so tourists could return to Thailand. But the COVID crisis has only worsened in the country.

Above: N., a sex worker at a bar in Pattaya, Thailand. The sex trade has offered good-paying jobs for many people from rural areas who were facing a life of tending rice paddies and digging up cassava roots.

Health & Safety

How The Pandemic Has Upended The Lives Of Thailand's Sex Workers

12:56pm February 03, 2021

Many of them left rural areas to earn their living in the sex trade and send money home to help their families. COVID-19 restrictions have changed all that.

Riot police use water cannons to disperse pro-democracy protesters during an anti-government rally in Bangkok on Friday.

World News

Police In Bangkok Use Water Cannon To Break Up Anti-Government Protests

5:00pm October 16, 2020

by Scott Neuman

Riot police in Thailand sought to disperse thousands of protesters, a day after the government officially banned demonstrations calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.