Are Thai women truly equal? Interviews with farmers often show that many women see themselves as equal partners in household and farm decisions. Unlike in some parts of the world, there is little open resistance to women pursuing education, careers, or leadership roles. Much of the way gender equality is measured today reflects what might be called formal equality. But until lived equality catches up with formal equality, the question remains: Are we truly equal or just empowered?

Retail borrowers have begun to benefit from a series of policy rate cuts over several months. Slow adjustmentIn the policy rate transmission process, bank lending rates typically decline by about half of the total policy rate cut. For example, when the policy rate is reduced by 0.25 percentage points, lending rates may fall by 0.125 percentage points. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the new loan rate declined by 0.1 percentage points, while the effective interest rate dropped by 0.68 percentage points. For corporate borrowers, new loan rates fell by 1.35 percentage points and effective interest rates by 0.72 percentage points.

More than 6,000 waiting for all-clear but determined not to sail until it is safeMany Philippine sailors are still waiting for the green light to pass through the now-deadly shipping lane. A series of Iranian strikes have effectively closed the strait, which carries 20% of world oil and gas supplies, plunging the global energy economy into crisis. “Those whose contracts are about to end… they really want to go home,” he said of his fellow sailors. Judy Domingo, president of the 50,000-strong United Filipino Seafarers union, told AFP she had taken hundreds of calls from concerned sailors bottled up in the strait, with food supplies one of the immediate concerns. “Let’s just pray this US-Iran war ends soon so every ship trapped here is able to get out safe.”

Public alerted to influenza risk as cases expected to rise in 2026A woman is given a free influenza jab at a municipality-sponsored event in Nonthaburi in January 2026. (Photo: Pattarapong Chatpattarasill)Public health authorities have alerted the public to stay vigilant against influenza as more than 130,000 cases have been reported since January, with the total this year expected to rise from last year. The three age groups with the highest cases were: 5-9 (26,806 cases), 0-4 (16,992 cases) and 10-14 (20,812 cases). He said influenza cases typically increase early in the year and peak around mid‑year, following seasonal patterns. In 2025, Thailand recorded 1,194,342 cases and 129 deaths, and current surveillance suggests that influenza cases in 2026 may surpass last year’s numbers, Dr Montien said.

Built To Build rules out price hikes despite soaring oil costsMr Sutee says the company can manage the impact of rising oil prices on housing development. However, if prices rise above $120 per barrel and persist for more than three months, home construction prices may need to be revised. "Higher oil prices could raise construction costs by 5-7%, which would translate into an increase of roughly 3% in house prices," he said. The group expects to generate 900 million baht in sales this year, up from 800 million baht in 2025, which declined from 900 million in 2024. Of total sales last year, half came from houses priced between 2-9 million baht, while units priced 10-20 million baht comprised 20%, with the remainder homes priced 20 million baht and above.

Chat commerce gains groundMs Prae says Thailand and the Philippines are the first two countries in which Meta is introducing Business AI on Messenger. Meta recently introduced Business AI on Messenger in Thailand, an AI agent that helps businesses engage with customers and build stronger relationships. Business AI is aimed to become its new revenue source, apart from online ads. On Tuesday, Line Thailand introduced its chat package for SMEs to enable them to leverage chat commerce. Instead of sounding like a robotic script in a chatbot, Meta Business AI learns and adopts the specific style and tone of voice of individual brands, said Ms Prae.

Pol Maj Gen Choengron Rimpadee (centre), spokesman for the Immigration Bureau, discusses the presence of Israelis in Thailand during a briefing at Immigration Division 2 in Samut Prakan province on Thursday. (Immigration Bureau photo)Immigration police have come forward to rebut claims circulating on social media that hundreds of thousands of Israelis have settled in Thailand. There are no irregularities with verified arrival and departure figures for Israeli nationals, Immigration Bureau officials said on Thursday. “Regarding the arrivals and departures, there have not been any abnormal stays,” Pol Maj Gen Choengron said. Last year Thai authorities stepped in to combat anti-Israeli backlash in Pai in Mae Hong Son, a favourite destination of Israeli travellers.

Thai Airways to raise ticket prices by 10-15%Thai Airways International will raise ticket prices by 10% to 15% to offset surging fuel costs. Most of the carrier’s flights to Europe this month reached about 90% of seat capacity, the airline said on Wednesday. THAI will raise the fuel surcharge further if oil prices continue to climb, the chief financial officer said. “Passengers planning to travel should secure their tickets as soon as possible before fares rise further,” she said. Carriers have responded by raising fares and fuel surcharges, testing travellers’ willingness to absorb higher ticket prices even as international travel demand remains resilient.

Beijing-Pyongyang train service resumes after six yearsA passenger train from Beijing is seen arriving at the Pyongyang railway station in 2014. (Photo: Clay Gilliland via Wikimedia Commons)BEIJING - The first passenger train service between Beijing and Pyongyang ​was set to leave ‌China’s capital on Thursday, ending a six-year gap, as China moves to shore up cross-border infrastructure and rebuild ties with its neighbour. China and North Korea are “friendly neighbours” and a cross-border passenger train service facilitates people-to-people exchanges, a foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters on Thursday. Restricted ticketsThe service linking the capitals will operate four ​days ‌a week in both directions, running on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, China’s railways said in a notice. Tickets, restricted to ​business ⁠visa holders, were sold out for Thursday’s trip, but those for March 18 were still available, a ⁠Beijing travel agency said.

A nominee to a criminal is still a criminalA Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) officer talks to a man during a raid at a coconut-processing company in Ratchaburi province on Saturday. (Photo: Royal Thai Police)Operators originating from China artificially suppressing coconut prices for Thai farmers have put the spotlight back on Thailand’s complicated relationship with Chinese entrepreneurs in recent weeks. These are all reasonable concerns, especially since many of these cases involve so-called “grey money” tied to explicitly criminal activities. What was being dealt with by the raids was the fact that the “practice excluded Thai farmers from normal trade systems and caused coconut prices at plantations nationwide to plunge”. Despite the nationwide interest in the case and the many implications of criminal activity, little seems to have happened as far as the three Thais are concerned.

Thailand sends 40,000 stranded tourists homeStranded travelers receive drinking water at Suvarnabhumi airport in Samut Prakan province on March 1. She said the agency contacted CAAT to relay tour companies' difficulties in sending charter flights to Thailand due to regulations that prohibit charter flights from selling one‑way tickets to tourists. The tour company purchased tickets for the tourists to travel to Bangkok, then board a charter flight back to Warsaw. Another case involved 315 tourists from Nordic countries that were stranded for more than a week across several destinations in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. However, it remains difficult to determine the actual number of tourists still stranded in Thailand, as some are individual travellers without agents and have not contacted hotels or authorities for help.

Phuket hard-landing incident ‘affected 18,000 travellers’The damaged nose landing gear of the Air India Express Boeing 737-700 is seen after a hard landing at Phuket International Airport on Wednesday. (Photo: Phuket airport management)PHUKET - A seven-hour runway closure that followed a hard landing incident on Wednesday at Phuket International airport affected dozens of flights and about 18,000 travellers, airport management said. Monchai Tanode, general manager of the airport, said 100 international and domestic flights that were scheduled to transport about 18,000 people had to be either rerouted or delayed after the incident involving an Air India Express Boeing 737-300. The incident occurred just before noon on Wednesday as the Air India Express plane arriving at Phuket from Hyderabad was coming in to land a few minutes ahead of schedule and experienced a landing gear problem. The plane’s nose scraped the runway but none of the 133 passengers and seven crew members on board were hurt.

The conflict has spread across the Middle East and prompted plans for a record release of strategic oil reserves to dampen one of the worst ​fuel shocks since the 1970s. Trump said the IEA decision “will substantially reduce oil prices as we end this threat to America and the world”. Trump said US forces had knocked out 58 Iranian naval ships and that Iran was “pretty much at the ⁠end of the line”. An Israeli military official said the military still had an extensive list of targets to hit in Iran, including ballistic missile and nuclear-related sites. With pump prices surging, oil prices have ​become an increasingly urgent element in the calculations behind the war.

Budget disbursement to be expeditedFinance Minister Ekniti NitithanprapasCaretaker finance minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas has instructed government agencies and state enterprises to accelerate budget disbursement to help support the economy during this difficult period. Mr Ekniti said he instructed the Comptroller-General's Department to look into problems related to certain budget disbursements that remain stalled and cannot be released as planned. In the fourth quarter of last year, investment budget disbursement by the government and state enterprises expanded by 13% year-on-year. Together with the Quick Big Win measures, this helped the economy grow by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. The third group targets tourism and tourism-related businesses, offering loans of up to 2 million baht for operators to lift liquidity and working capital.

Real Madrid batter Man City, PSG sink Chelsea in Champions LeagueFederico Valverde (second from left) scored all thre goals as Real Madrid took control of their Champions League tie against Manchester City. (Photo: AFP)PARIS - Federico Valverde scored an unlikely hat-trick as Real Madrid trounced Manchester City 3-0 in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie Wednesday, while holders Paris Saint-Germain beat Chelsea 5-2. PSG have one foot in the quarter-finals after two late goals from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia at the Parc des Princes. Bradley Barcola fired PSG in front but Malo Gusto’s scruffy effort skipped past Matfei Safonov to bring Chelsea level. We need to step on the gas next week.”Bodo/Glimt enjoyed another remarkable Champions League night as they swept Portugal’s Sporting aside 3-0 to register their fifth win in a row in the competition.