https://aseannow.com/rss/44-thailand-news.xml/National and regional news from all around Thailandenhttps://aseannow.com/thailand-news/chinese-migrants-van-crash-kills-rider-during-mae-sot-chase-r2243/A motorcycle delivery rider was killed during a police pursuit in Mae Sot, Tak province, on 9 June 2026 after a pickup truck carrying four Chinese nationals attempted to evade officers and drove against traffic. Get today's headlines by email The incident occurred on the Mae Sot-Rim Moei Road near the Phattharawit intersection in Tha Sai Luat subdistrict. According to police, the pickup truck, registration from Tak, was being driven by Sakchai Trakulpriyaphong, an ethnic Hmong man from Phop Phra district, who was transporting four Chinese nationals. Police said the driver became alarmed after spotting officers and suddenly turned around before driving the wrong way along the road in an attempt to escape. During the pursuit, the pickup collided with a motorcycle ridden by acting Wisanu Thongprathueang, 35, a delivery rider travelling in the correct direction near a private school. Wisanu was killed instantly at the scene. Police said the driver did not stop following the collision and instead continued fleeing towards Mae Sot municipality. As the chase continued, the suspect allegedly attempted to release the four Chinese passengers along the roadside in an effort to help them evade capture. Officers from Mae Sot Police Station pursued the vehicle and eventually fired at its tyres to prevent further danger to the public. The pursuit ended about seven kilometres from the crash site when the pickup left the road. Police reported that all four tyres had been punctured and that the vehicle had sustained eight bullet impacts to the bonnet. Officers arrested Sakchai at the scene and launched a search for the four Chinese nationals. Three men were later apprehended, while one person remains at large.. Picture courtesy of Daily News Pol Col Rang Daodung, superintendent of Mae Sot Police Station, said the suspect was a Thai national of Hmong ethnicity and was believed to have been transporting illegal migrants for payment. He said the driver panicked when confronted by police and drove against traffic, causing the fatal collision. Daily News reported that the superintendent added that officers considered the use of tyre-deflation gunfire necessary to prevent further harm to members of the public. The suspect and those arrested have been handed over to investigators for legal proceedings, while the search for the remaining fugitive continues. Caution video shows fatal collisionScreenRecording_06-09-2026 15-38-27_1.mp4 Join the discussion? Already a member? Adapted by ASEAN Now Dailynews 10 June 2026Tue, 09 Jun 2026 20:07:52 +0000A motorcycle delivery rider was killed during a police pursuit in Mae Sot, Tak province, on 9 June 2026 after a pickup truck carrying four Chinese nationals attempted to evade officers and drove against traffic. Get today's headlines by email The incident occurred on the Mae Sot-Rim Moei Road near the Phattharawit intersection in Tha Sai Luat subdistrict. According to police, the pickup truck, registration from Tak, was being driven by Sakchai Trakulpriyaphong, an ethnic Hmong man from Phop Phra district, who was transporting four Chinese nationals. Police said the driver became alarmed after spotting officers and suddenly turned around before driving the wrong way along the road in an attempt to escape. During the pursuit, the pickup collided with a motorcycle ridden by acting Wisanu Thongprathueang, 35, a delivery rider travelling in the correct direction near a private school. Wisanu was killed instantly at the scene. Police said the driver did not stop following the collision and instead continued fleeing towards Mae Sot municipality. As the chase continued, the suspect allegedly attempted to release the four Chinese passengers along the roadside in an effort to help them evade capture. Officers from Mae Sot Police Station pursued the vehicle and eventually fired at its tyres to prevent further danger to the public. The pursuit ended about seven kilometres from the crash site when the pickup left the road. Police reported that all four tyres had been punctured and that the vehicle had sustained eight bullet impacts to the bonnet. Officers arrested Sakchai at the scene and launched a search for the four Chinese nationals. Three men were later apprehended, while one person remains at large.. Picture courtesy of Daily News Pol Col Rang Daodung, superintendent of Mae Sot Police Station, said the suspect was a Thai national of Hmong ethnicity and was believed to have been transporting illegal migrants for payment. He said the driver panicked when confronted by police and drove against traffic, causing the fatal collision. Daily News reported that the superintendent added that officers considered the use of tyre-deflation gunfire necessary to prevent further harm to members of the public. The suspect and those arrested have been handed over to investigators for legal proceedings, while the search for the remaining fugitive continues. Caution video shows fatal collisionScreenRecording_06-09-2026 15-38-27_1.mp4 Join the discussion? Already a member? Adapted by ASEAN Now Dailynews 10 June 2026 View full articleTue, 09 Jun 2026 20:07:52 +0000https://aseannow.com/thailand-news/thailand-education-system-fails-poor-pupils-experts-warn-r2242/Thailand’s education system is failing to provide genuinely free and equitable schooling, with experts warning that current policies are deepening inequality and limiting opportunities for disadvantaged children. Get today's headlines by email Speaking at a Nation Visionary Club roundtable on Monday 8 June 2026, education specialists and student representatives said poor families continue to face significant education costs despite nearly 20 years of free education policies. They argued that children from low-income households not only pay more than they can afford but also receive a lower quality of education than wealthier students. Dr Kraiyos Patrawart, managing director of the Equitable Education Fund (EEF), said data collected over nearly two decades shows Thailand’s education system is not truly free. He noted that the Covid-19 pandemic increased the number of economically disadvantaged students, with figures falling briefly before rising again in the post-pandemic period. According to Dr Kraiyos, households in the poorest tenth of the population still spend about 10,000 baht annually on their children’s education. Families in the wealthiest tenth spend around seven and a half times more. He described this as a “two-dimensional inequality”, where poorer families face financial burdens while receiving lower-quality education. The disparity is also reflected in learning outcomes. While Thailand regularly produces world-class students who win gold and silver medals in international academic Olympiads, Dr Kraiyos said roughly two-thirds of the population remains below the OECD baseline standard for learning proficiency. Parit Wacharasindhu of the People’s Party said Thailand would fail if quality education could only be accessed through international schools. He argued that public education is currently neither sufficiently high in quality nor genuinely free, despite substantial government spending on the sector. A major concern raised during the discussion was the Ministry of Education’s per-pupil funding model. Under the system, schools receive funding based on student numbers, leaving many rural schools with insufficient budgets to cover basic operating costs. In some cases, primary schools covering six year levels have fewer than six teachers, requiring one teacher to teach multiple year groups at the same time. Student representative Krai Satarak of Chulalongkorn University said the problem is compounded by a national curriculum that often ignores local needs. Drawing on fieldwork in Nan province, he described students leaving school to help on family greenhouse farms despite possessing valuable agricultural knowledge. He argued that the curriculum prioritises abstract subjects over practical skills relevant to local economies. The Nation reported that Dr Kraiyos urged Thai society to reconsider the purpose of education in a future shaped by artificial intelligence, artificial general intelligence, brain-computer interfaces and quantum computing. He called for debate on future curricula, the role of the National Education Act and whether memorisation-based learning should continue to dominate classrooms. The roundtable concluded that structural reforms are needed within the next decade. Participants called for needs-based funding, greater autonomy for schools and reform of the National Education Act, warning that the gap between well-resourced and under-resourced schools will widen further as technology advances. Picture courtesy of The Nation Join the discussion? Already a member? Adapted by ASEAN Now Nation 10 June 2026Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:54:18 +0000Thailand’s education system is failing to provide genuinely free and equitable schooling, with experts warning that current policies are deepening inequality and limiting opportunities for disadvantaged children. Get today's headlines by email Speaking at a Nation Visionary Club roundtable on Monday 8 June 2026, education specialists and student representatives said poor families continue to face significant education costs despite nearly 20 years of free education policies. They argued that children from low-income households not only pay more than they can afford but also receive a lower quality of education than wealthier students. Dr Kraiyos Patrawart, managing director of the Equitable Education Fund (EEF), said data collected over nearly two decades shows Thailand’s education system is not truly free. He noted that the Covid-19 pandemic increased the number of economically disadvantaged students, with figures falling briefly before rising again in the post-pandemic period. According to Dr Kraiyos, households in the poorest tenth of the population still spend about 10,000 baht annually on their children’s education. Families in the wealthiest tenth spend around seven and a half times more. He described this as a “two-dimensional inequality”, where poorer families face financial burdens while receiving lower-quality education. The disparity is also reflected in learning outcomes. While Thailand regularly produces world-class students who win gold and silver medals in international academic Olympiads, Dr Kraiyos said roughly two-thirds of the population remains below the OECD baseline standard for learning proficiency. Parit Wacharasindhu of the People’s Party said Thailand would fail if quality education could only be accessed through international schools. He argued that public education is currently neither sufficiently high in quality nor genuinely free, despite substantial government spending on the sector. A major concern raised during the discussion was the Ministry of Education’s per-pupil funding model. Under the system, schools receive funding based on student numbers, leaving many rural schools with insufficient budgets to cover basic operating costs. In some cases, primary schools covering six year levels have fewer than six teachers, requiring one teacher to teach multiple year groups at the same time. Student representative Krai Satarak of Chulalongkorn University said the problem is compounded by a national curriculum that often ignores local needs. Drawing on fieldwork in Nan province, he described students leaving school to help on family greenhouse farms despite possessing valuable agricultural knowledge. He argued that the curriculum prioritises abstract subjects over practical skills relevant to local economies. The Nation reported that Dr Kraiyos urged Thai society to reconsider the purpose of education in a future shaped by artificial intelligence, artificial general intelligence, brain-computer interfaces and quantum computing. He called for debate on future curricula, the role of the National Education Act and whether memorisation-based learning should continue to dominate classrooms. The roundtable concluded that structural reforms are needed within the next decade. Participants called for needs-based funding, greater autonomy for schools and reform of the National Education Act, warning that the gap between well-resourced and under-resourced schools will widen further as technology advances. Picture courtesy of The Nation Join the discussion? Already a member? Adapted by ASEAN Now Nation 10 June 2026 View full articleTue, 09 Jun 2026 19:54:18 +0000CardsTue, 09 Jun 2026 19:53:24 +0000Oh, look, the YouTube link machine is up and running again and at full speed, even after hours. As for the bubble, the real story is the collapse of the data center industry. It’s already underway. Microsoft has quietly walked away from dozens of planned data center projects. Some were already partially built. There’s also growing opposition to data centers being built around the world. It’s become a negative topic. Eventually, people will be running their own open source AI models locally on their own computers. When that happens, all these cloud servers and data centers dedicated to AI won’t be needed. Why pay $20 or $30 a month for AI from a commercial provider when you can run an open source model that’s 80% as effective, while also being free and private? Companies that fired thousands of employees a couple of years ago to replace them with AI have already started hiring some of them back. Many found that AI didn’t deliver the expected efficiencies, or that it made too many errors and ended up hurting their business rather than helping it. The bubble is coming. Spending has already started to slow. There won’t be nearly as much demand for all that cloud compute in the future. And a few years from now, if everyone is running their own localized AI, many of these big companies could end up collapsing.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:53:04 +0000TrumpTue, 09 Jun 2026 19:47:32 +0000Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:47:12 +0000Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:45:42 +0000IdiotTue, 09 Jun 2026 19:40:03 +0000Georgette, girlfriend, I am once again struggling to keep up with the magnitude of the issues you are tackling. You started with immigration. Then moved into workplace equality. Then somehow ended up in a late night confrontation with an elderly Italian janitor. A truly remarkable journey. The best part was the dramatic showdown. There he was, worried about a female colleague working alone. There you were, standing in the stairwell after a hard night of mop pumping, locking eyes with him like it was the final scene of a junkyard quality action movie. “What the Fxck do you think I identify as?!” Powerful! I assume he immediately dropped his mop, saluted, and ran off in complete terror. Honestly, darl, I think you are aiming too low. Forget immigration. Forget politics. Forget equality. You should be focusing on the real issue. Why are you the only person brave enough to patrol hospital corridors at 3am while conducting social research, statistical analysis, diary maintenance, toothpaste audits, and floor sanitation all at the same time? That is the story nobody is talking about. And please be careful. If a Karen, the Italian bloke, a ladyboy, a monkey, three sweaty farangs in Chang singlets, and a crowd of marijuana hurling socialists ever join forces, I am not sure even your communication device will save you. Stay safe, sister.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:39:17 +0000Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:34:11 +0000Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:30:04 +0000Speak English. I do not drive a Chinese car. Why, are you in the market for one? Maybe one of those Buicks made in China.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:26:49 +0000The Corvette is a terrible car for the category. Only brought by old divorced geezers in denim shorts and NB sneakers. No one buys these things except Americans. Its made of plastic, with a truck engine, and a leaf spring.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:23:33 +0000Surely, ordering over 100,000 people out of Tyre (including areas previously deemed “safe”) is totally unacceptable? Doing it hours before bombing a dense residential block just underlines this point. Israel may well insist this is a separate campaign from their conflict with Iran, yet these tactics appear to follow their usual game plan: widen the displacement zone; hit civilian infrastructure; then claim Hezbollah was nearby. Meanwhile Lebanon is now sitting on one million displaced people and shelters are overflowing. At some stage the international community needs to stop issuing token statements of concern, and actually say "ENOUGH"! Otherwise, Israel will continue to assume that it can empty entire cities without consequence.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:23:15 +0000In 50 years time, why would a US, that has no interest in imported goods, does not need Arab oil, has divorced itself from any involvement in Europe, have any interest in maintaining an isolated outpost that cannot sustain itself, and which becomes ruinously expensive to maintain (ask the Dutch how expensive sea walls are). As for worrying about China, the US has basically surrendered the entire continent of Africa to China, through the withdrawal of its Soft Power (aka USAid). If America wants to replace all of its imported European cars with American cars, and all of its scotch with some sort of homebrew knockoff, why should it really care what Europe and China get up to? Maybe the EU can get in on the bidding war for the Chagos Islands, along with China and India, given that Trump has now formally acknowledged where sovereignty lies (Mauritius can only sell something it owns). The Louisiana Purchase and Alaska purchase were examples where it made economic sense for an expanding country to have these. The US Virgin Islands; purchased to stop Germany gaining a presence in the Caribbean, and affecting the Panama canal. Not really all that relevant now. Of course, how is the US going to pay for it. Its skint. There are cheaper ways to keep a presence in the Chagos. Be a better friend with the government of Mauritius than China might be a good start, stop pissing off the UK might be another.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:12:07 +0000This is exactly how a traditional lending-group is run in Taiwan. You have the group-head who is responsible for group management, and collecting payments and interest. This head receives payment for starting and managing the group. Then, as you say, members can borrow money from the group. And they bid interest rates to become the next member to borrow from the group. These groups often end in disaster, and lawsuits.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 18:42:44 +0000Only if you wear a Sari.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 18:42:22 +0000VillageTue, 09 Jun 2026 18:42:05 +0000Put the cats IN the atticTue, 09 Jun 2026 18:41:00 +0000Oh please! When my little pet Chihuahua Ralphie was alive he slept in my bed How cruel inhuman you are to have your pet outside!!Tue, 09 Jun 2026 18:40:06 +0000I think you're missing the point. Where I grew up in the south in farm country, guns were everywhere. We hunted, shot targets and yes, some people had handguns too. Guns weren't new. What we didn't have were kids wanting to shoot up schools. That's the part people keep skipping over. If guns alone caused this, then rural areas should have had this problem a long time ago. They didn't. Something changed with the kids, the culture, mental health, broken homes, gangs, social media and people wanting attention. I'm not saying guns don't make an attack worse. Of course they can. But the gun doesn't wake up one day and decide to hurt people. A person does. So maybe we should spend more time asking why so many people are getting to that point instead of acting like the gun is the whole problem.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 18:28:27 +0000They wanted equal rights they got it I had to stop and laugh at everytime I read this comment on Social media Usually it's commented ( by a woman) after an immigrant does something wrong eg robbery , "Where are the men ? Karen asks , "why aren't the white men doing something?? !; I noticed this comment after the attsck in Belfast Where are the men ? Why aren't they doing something!!? Well Karen , the men have given up! I'm sick of women / females etc wanting to be equal but now asking innocent men to get involved in this "war" on immigration. Putting pressure on men to get involved I had a run in with a work colleague recently , a old man colleague who questioned why the female colleague I was working with was working by herself on the nightshift in a different area That's the way it's normally done I told him , she has communication devices eg phone if she needs help Oh but you must make exceptions if it's a female and work with them not in different area No thanks ,women are equal I told him ,stop living in the past !! "But ..but... they are woman ! He said to me sternly in his old Italian accent "they are woman and shouldn't be working alone ! I looked at him ,stared straight into his old eyes "What the Fxck do you think I identify as !!!! "How about you worry about THIS old woman !! I shouted He looked at me shocked like kangaroo with headlights and took off line a bee to its honey Women are equal how about they stop the immigration crime not menTue, 09 Jun 2026 18:25:00 +0000I think you're putting way too much emphasis on the number of guns and not enough on the people using them. If a law-abiding gun owner has 2 guns, 10 guns or 50 guns what difference does that make to public safety if they're never going to use them criminally? The fact that America has 120 guns per 100 people sounds shocking until you realize that doesn't mean 120 different people each have a gun. It means a lot of gun owners own multiple firearms. To me, that's like saying someone with 20 cars is 20 times more likely to drive drunk. The number of cars isn't the issue. The behavior is. What I keep hearing is statistics about the number of guns. What I don't hear is an explanation for why some people choose to commit violence while millions of other gun owners never hurt anyone. That's why I keep coming back to gangs, drugs, mental health, broken homes, repeat offenders and a culture that increasingly glorifies violence. If the number of guns was the main factor, then simply counting guns should predict violence rates pretty accurately. It doesn't. The gun is a tool. The harder question is why we're producing so many people who want to use that tool to hurt others.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 18:23:48 +0000