Category: The Bangkok Post

Seven-times champions Thailand will take on arch-rivals Malaysia in an Asean Hyundai Cup Group B fixture at Bangkok’s Rajamangala Stadium on Saturday night, in what promises to be one of the standout ties of the group phase.

The fixture renews one of Southeast Asian football’s fiercest rivalries.

The two sides met at the same venue during the group stage of the 2024 Asean Championship, when Thailand edged Malaysia 1-0, and tonight’s meeting is expected to draw a similarly passionate crowd desperate to see the hosts extend their dominance over their neighbours.

Having eased to a 5-0 win over Laos last weekend, the War Elephants top Group B on goal difference, but know a far sterner test awaits against a Malaysia side that has also started strongly.

Thailand head coach Anthony Hudson and midfielder Kakana Khamyok fronted yesterday’s pre-match press conference, with Hudson warning that Malaysia’s recent form makes them a dangerous opponent.

“It will be a tough match for us. Malaysia have shown real quality over their last two games,” Hudson said. “Our preparation has followed the same pattern as before the Laos match, though we’ve worked on the weaker areas from that performance. Fitness is a real concern given the packed schedule — we travel to the Philippines immediately after this game, just as Malaysia will, so neither side has any great advantage in terms of rest.

“Malaysia have prepared well and, having started the tournament strongly, will want to continue that. They have two or three excellent players at centre-back, on the wings and up front, so we have to respect them as a strong and well-organised side.

“When we played Turkmenistan in March, the crowd gave the players real energy and belief. This is a good squad, and we’d love to see Thai fans fill the stadium again tonight. We’ll be looking to take maximum points and keep our unbeaten start in the group intact.”

Malaysia’s interim coach Tan Cheng Hoe said his side’s confidence had been boosted by a 4-0 win over Laos in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, though he acknowledged the scale of the challenge posed by the hosts.

“We know Thailand have a strong squad and home advantage at Rajamangala Stadium, so we must prepare for a much tougher test,” Tan said. “I think the players learned a lot from the Laos game about working together as a team, and that will be crucial against Thailand.

“I led Malaysia in the 2018 final, and I have good memories of this stadium from our semi-final against Thailand that year — though this will be a very different squad on both sides now. Thailand did well as hosts back then, and we’re hoping for a positive result this time around.”

The match will be broadcast live on the TrueVisions Now app from 8pm.

The official mobile travel guide for Wat Pho is called Insight Wat Pho, a free application that provides audio narration, interactive maps and augmented reality features to explore the Buddhist temple complex in Phra Nakhon district, Bangkok.

A 36-year-old woman was arrested after her 74-year-old mother-in-law was killed and beheaded following a domestic dispute at a house in Muang district of Phuket on Saturday.

Police and forensic investigators rushed to the house in tambon Chalong after being alerted at about 9.15am, said Pol Maj Charuwit Khuncharoen, investigation chief at the Chalong station.

Investigators found the body of the victim, identified only as Chantra, 74, lying in a pool of blood inside the house. She had sustained multiple sharp-force injuries.

A preliminary investigation found that the victim had been alone in the house with her daughter-in-law, identified only as Sriwan, 36, before the two became involved in a heated argument.

Ms Sriwan reportedly assaulted her mother-in-law, causing the elderly woman to fall, before attacking her repeatedly with a knife. The suspect was accused of inflicting multiple wounds to the victim’s body and face before fatally beheading her, according to police.

Neighbours who witnessed the incident alerted police. When officers arrived, they found the suspect hiding in the bathroom of the house and arrested her at the scene.

Investigators, forensic officers and a duty physician conducted an examination of the crime scene and carried out a preliminary post-mortem investigation.

The suspect’s husband, who had been in Bangkok at the time of the incident, was informed about his mother’s death when he arrived at Phuket airport.

He told investigators that his wife had been receiving psychiatric treatment regularly since 2016. The three had lived together in the house for about 10 years.

He said his wife had regularly cared for his mother by preparing meals and helping her change her clothes.

Pol Maj Gen Sinlert Sukhum, commander of Phuket provincial police, said the suspect has been charged with murder and will face legal proceedings.

More than 210,000 people have appealed for an eligibility review under the state welfare card programme following a revision to the vehicle ownership criteria, according to the government.

The new criteria exclude motorcycles aged 15 years or older, and cars, trailers and agricultural vehicles aged 20 years or older from the asset assessment. The change better reflects the actual use of citizens’ assets and makes the eligibility assessment fairer, government spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek said.

Vehicle ownership is one of the criteria used to screen and verify eligibility for the government’s welfare card programme to determine whether registrants genuinely qualify for state assistance.

So far, the appeals have covered approximately 370,000 vehicles nationwide.

The provinces with the highest number of appeals were Nakhon Ratchasima, followed by Chiang Mai, Lampang, Phetchabun and Narathiwat.

The main reasons for the appeals were that vehicles exceeded the specified age threshold, ownership had been transferred informally without updating registration records, or the vehicles were no longer roadworthy or in use.

Ms Rachada said those wishing to appeal can continue submitting their requests until Aug 31, with eligibility to be determined in accordance with the programme’s criteria and conditions.

Meanwhile, a survey released on Friday by the King Prajadhipok’s Institute (KPI) found that while a majority of the 2,000 respondents wanted the state welfare card programme to continue, 31.7% called for higher card limits to maximise the level of state assistance.

According to KPI’s survey, conducted between July 25 and 28, 29.1% of respondents called for more effective data screening, while 15.3% suggested that the welfare card programme should be accompanied by job training and other initiatives to help beneficiaries generate sustainable income.

The survey also found that 24.4% of respondents regarded the previous vehicle ownership rule, which disqualified applicants who owned a car or a motorcycle with an engine capacity below 300cc, as the most problematic eligibility criterion.

Another 15% said the annual income limit of 100,000 baht was the most problematic criterion.

Some respondents said owning a vehicle does not necessarily indicate that a person has sufficient income, particularly when a vehicle is essential for work or for people living in areas where public transportation is unavailable.

Veterinarians are closely monitoring a wild elephant calf rescued from starvation after being stranded near a fast-flowing stream in Sai Yok district for two days.

The male calf, weighing about 40 kilogrammes and estimated to be less than two weeks old, sustained several injuries and was considered in critical condition.

He was found on Thursday in Village 5 of Mae Nam Noi in tambon Sai Yok. Rangers from Sai Yok National Park Protection Unit 5 travelled to the site by local boat, which took about two hours to reach the spot.

Officials initially monitored the calf from a distance while waiting to see whether its herd would return. Throughout the night, the calf was heard crying intermittently for its mother.

The calf was also seen sucking on tree roots and rocks nearby, behaviour believed to indicate it was searching for nutrients. It was able to move only within a radius of about 1.5 metres, close to the stream.

Officials believe the herd crossed the stream and that the calf was swept away by the current. Heavy rainfall over the previous two days had raised the water level, posing a serious danger to the calf.

Officials later fed the calf milk before transferring it on Friday. Veterinarians and park officials faced difficult conditions because the area was at risk of flash flooding and forest runoff.

Officials use a bamboo cage to transport the calf to receive treatment on Friday.

A bamboo cage is used to transport the calf to receive treatment on Friday.

According to the veterinary team, the calf was severely weakened, with abrasions, blisters and multiple mouth ulcers that made it difficult to drink milk.

It was severely dehydrated and had a wound around the umbilical area. Its trunk had blistering and patches of dead tissue. Bee-like insects had gathered around its eyes, causing conjunctivitis.

The calf’s urine was dark yellow to reddish, suggesting a possible infection or severe dehydration, and it was suffering from foul-smelling diarrhoea. Veterinarians described its condition as critical.

The calf was transferred to an office at Sai Yok National Park, where it is receiving intensive treatment.

Authorities expect the results on Saturday of a test for elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV), a potentially fatal disease affecting young elephants.

The Bank of Thailand is introducing daily limits on digital money transfers by young account holders after finding a sharp rise in the use of minors’ bank and e-money accounts as ‘mule accounts’ by fraudsters.

Intelligence gathered in concert with law enforcement agencies showed that criminal networks were increasingly exploiting deposit and e-money accounts held by young people to facilitate financial crimes, according to Chayawadee Chai-anant, assistant governor for corporate relations at the central bank.

She said many young people had become involved unintentionally by opening accounts or allowing others to use them. Such actions constitute a criminal offence under the Emergency Decree on Measures for the Prevention and Suppression of Technology Crimes.

In response, the central bank has worked with the Thai Bankers’ Association and e-money service providers to introduce standardised daily transfer and payment limits based on customer profiling, aiming to reflect typical usage patterns while reducing the risk of youth accounts being misused.

The new standard daily limits are:

Children aged 10-12: transfers or payments from e-money accounts limited to 3,000 baht per day

Youth aged 12-15: bank deposit accounts using digital channels limited to 5,000 baht per day

Youth aged 15-18: bank deposit accounts using digital channels limited to 10,000 baht per day.

To minimise disruption for legitimate users, commercial banks and e-money operators must notify customers before adjusting the limits.

As well, they must provide convenient channels, including mobile applications, call centres and branches, for customers seeking higher limits.

Banks are required to adopt the new limits by September, while e-money providers have until October, said Ms Chayawadee.

The central bank hopes the strengthened measures will help prevent children and teenagers from falling victim to scams or being persuaded to provide accounts for use by criminals.

It is also urging parents to educate their children that opening an account for another person or allowing someone else to use their account is illegal.

Ms Chayawadee said the central bank would continue monitoring developments and adapting its measures as criminal groups change their tactics.

According to BoT data, the number of youth-owned deposit and e-money accounts linked to criminal activity rose from 3,371 in January 2025 to 5,741 accounts in March this year, an increase of 70.3%. The accounts were connected to cases involving total losses of 185 million baht.

Two men wanted in connection with the disappearance of two Russian siblings in Chon Buri have been arrested and reportedly confessed that the pair were killed and buried in a remote area, police said on Friday.

Ex-convict Thana Kerdthong, 43, and Thongchai Srinil, 39, were arrested while hiding in a longan orchard in Wang Sombun district of Sa Kaeo province following a multi-province manhunt. Both were wanted under arrest warrants issued by the Pattaya Provincial Court.

The case centres on the disappearance of Diana Nazimova, 22, and her brother Roman Nazimov, 17, who went missing in the Huai Yai area of Bang Lamung district in Chon Buri on Sunday.

The pair came to Thailand from Russia in 2021 to live with their mother, who had settled to Pattaya three years earlier.

Police had been searching for the siblings for days after discovering their dismantled motorcycle buried near the home of one of the suspects’ relatives.

Investigators also conducted searches around Khao Chi Chan in Sattahip district of Chon Buri and other locations believed to be linked to the suspects.

During questioning, Mr Thongchai reportedly told police that on Sunday morning he was riding pillion on a motorcycle driven by Thana as they followed the Russian siblings.

The pair later stopped on the roadside, where Thana got off and spoke with the victims. He said he did not know what was discussed, but shortly afterwards he heard two gunshots. (Story continues below)

Threatened to comply

Mr Thongchai claimed that after the shooting, Thana ordered him to fetch a spade and dig a hole, threatening him by saying: ‘If you don’t do it, you should know what could happen to your wife and your family.’

He said he felt he had no choice but to comply, admitting that he was under the influence of drugs at the time and ‘not thinking clearly’.

He also acknowledged helping to bury the bodies, and said he would be able to lead investigators to the burial site near Khao Chi Chan, close to where motorcycle parts linked to the victims had earlier been found.

Thana reportedly gave a different account, admitting he shot Roman and fatally beat Diana. ‘The woman fought back, so I punched her,’ Thai Rath Online quoted him as saying.

He insisted there was no sexual assault and claimed the motive was to steal the victims’ motorcycle.

Police said the suspects buried the bodies to conceal the crime before fleeing Chon Buri. They were later tracked through Chanthaburi and eventually located in Sa Kaeo.

Pol Lt Gen Chatchai Surachetphong, the commissioner of Provincial Police Region 2, led the operation that resulted in the arrests on Friday afternoon.

Investigators said they were not yet convinced by the suspects’ statements and would continue questioning them before taking them to identify the burial site and recover the bodies.

Phonlawat ‘Beam’ Sirajindapirom, 17-year-old CEO of RevisionSuccess and co-founder of TuaTueng, says that learning how to use artificial intelligence (AI) and implementing it within Thailand’s education system is critical for the country’s future.

A lacking and underfunded school system underserves intelligent Thai students, Mr Phonlawat said in an interview with the Bangkok Post on July 24, 2026.

‘I know people who spend hundreds of thousands on tutors, but it shouldn’t be like this. And for the people who can’t? How are they supposed to compete?’ he said.

Officially launched on July 18, TuaTueng is RevisionSuccess’s AI-powered learning platform aimed at preparing high school students for the Thai General Aptitude Test (TGAT), which examines English and Thai literacy and comprehension, problem solving and workplace suitability. Performing well on TGAT heavily influences whether universities accept applications.

‘We take the practice questions on these past papers, we train our AI models to build similar questions in similar formats, and then we have a human team factchecking and verifying the accuracy of it to ensure that every question – from the question to the experience of using TuaTueng – is as exam-like as possible,’ said the young entrepreneur.

TuaTueng also provides a personalised AI tutor. The company says that the tutor leads the user step-by-step through the learning process instead of immediately giving them the answer to a question.

As an article on TuaTueng’s website explains, the AI tutor is intended to bolster rather than diminish the user’s cognitive abilities, in response to studies showing heavy use of AI models can lower users’ critical thinking skills.

RevisionSuccess, the EdTech (education technology) startup behind TuaTueng, was founded by students of Chulalongkorn University. In May 2026, the National Innovation Agency (NIA) and Chulalongkorn University invested 1 million baht into the company. This as a part of the Thai government’s continued ventures into the development of AI infrastructure in education.

The NIA-funded AI initiatives are designed to resolve the long-standing issues and inequalities embedded in Thailand’s education system. For example, the 2025 EF English Proficiency Index (EPI) placed Thailand as 116th of 123 countries in terms of English literacy, categorising it as having ‘Very Low Proficiency’.

Notably, more populated, wealthier and urban areas such as Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai achieved results that would place them as ‘Moderate Proficiency’ according to the EF EPI. In contrast, remote, impoverished and rural areas outside of central Thailand scored significantly lower than Thailand’s average EPI score. Thailand’s results from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment for other subjects such as Mathematics follow a similar trend.

Much of the government’s efforts have been focused on creating educational equity for struggling students and overworked teachers. However, as the NIA and Chulangakorn University’s investment into RevisionSuccess indicates, the involvement of AI in Thailand’s educational reform goes beyond supporting those in underprivileged classrooms.

Thailand is likely to be removed from the US Treasury’s Currency Monitoring List in the next review after meeting only one of the three assessment criteria, while the Bank of Thailand continues to manage the exchange rate primarily to maintain orderly market conditions rather than to gain a trade advantage, says Kasikorn Research Center (K-Research).

Thailand’s current account surplus is expected to remain below the US threshold, according to the think tank.

The US Treasury kept Thailand on its list in its latest semi-annual report, unchanged from the previous review. Nine other economies remained on the list: China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland.

Thailand’s assessment improved, only ticking one of the criteria instead of two after its current account surplus dropped below 3% of GDP. The country’s bilateral trade surplus with the US, however, remained above the US benchmark.

K-Research noted the July 2026 report is based on data for the four quarters that ended in December 2025, meaning Thailand’s economic developments this year are not included.

The new report also signals a shift in the US Treasury’s evaluation framework, as the assessment of the Bank of Thailand’s exchange rate policy is largely unchanged, recognising that foreign exchange intervention is intended to preserve orderly market conditions rather than secure a competitive trade advantage, said the think tank.

The report provides substantially greater detail on the policy framework and instruments used to manage the exchange rate, suggesting the Treasury is emphasising the transparency of exchange rate policy, the rationale for intervention and the implementation of policy tools, rather than focusing solely on exchange rate movements.

The document also broadens its discussion of Thailand’s capital flow management and regulatory measures.

Instead of referring only to general policy principles, the report identifies specific measures, including raising the threshold for mandatory repatriation of foreign income by residents from US$1 million to $10 million, prohibiting domestic financial institutions from conducting non-deliverable forward transactions with non-residents, and strengthening oversight of digital platform-based gold trading and reporting requirements for large gold transactions.

While the report does not suggest these measures are intended to create an exchange rate advantage, K-Research said their inclusion indicates the US Treasury is widening its scrutiny beyond direct foreign exchange intervention to encompass a broader range of policy tools that could influence exchange rates and cross-border capital flows.

“The US Treasury no longer focuses solely on whether authorities intervene in the foreign exchange market,” noted the research house. “Instead, it is placing greater emphasis on the transparency of exchange rate policy, the rationale for intervention, and the policy tools and measures that could influence exchange rates and capital flows.”

Looking ahead, K-Research said Thailand has a strong chance of being removed from the Currency Monitoring List if it continues to meet no more than one of the three criteria.

The think tank expects the Treasury’s future assessments to extend beyond foreign exchange intervention to include capital flow management measures, regulatory policies and other instruments that could affect exchange rates, capital flows and the functioning of the foreign exchange market.

Residents living near the Sai River in Mai Sai district have been advised to closely monitor the water level and wait for signals from authorities to move the elderly and patients to higher ground as rains could possibly trigger flash floods.

The Mae Sai Municipality Office’s main concern is four communities in the district town, including Sai Lom Joy located by the Sai River, as the water level looked like it would burst its banks and inundate the area.

People vulnerable to flooding should prepare to move the elderly and patients first and stand ready to move to safe places after the office made an evacuation announcement, it added.

The Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department sent a warning message through mobile phone broadcast on the rising water levels of the river in the district.

Riverside locations in the Mae Sai district town are prone to severe flooding. Authorities have blamed a few structures built into the river, obstructing its flow.

Mae Sai is a trade post between Thailand and Myanmar, separated by the river.

The Meteorological Department on Friday put Chiang Rai among the provinces to be hit the hardest by storms.

Other districts in Chiang Rai with flooding potential include Mae Suai and areas affected by the surging Lao River, according to the Chiang Rai Public Relations Office. Muang district could also be affected because water from the Lao River will flow to the Kok, which passes the city.