The Interior Trade Department under the Commerce Ministry is stepping up fruit management for 2025 by partnering with agricultural market hubs to speed up distribution of southern fruits, especially durian, mangosteen, and longong coming to market in August. The department is coordinating with modern retail chains to add sales channels and boost consumption, targeting absorption of at least 10,000 tonnes while reducing the risk of oversupply and price crashes.

Chanthapath Panjamanon, Deputy Director-General of the Interior Trade Department, explained that large volumes of southern fruits are set to arrive in August, and if they all hit the market at once, oversupply and price pressure could result. The department is therefore using three agricultural market hubs—Thai Market, Four Corners Market, and Emerald Market—as key mechanisms to collect, link, and distribute produce from farms to market. This is paired with partnerships involving six modern retail networks: Makro, Lotus, Big C, GO Wholesale, Tops, and The Mall, covering over 200 branches nationwide.

The campaign operates under the concept "Thailand: The Land of Tropical Fruits" and the initiative "Thai Helping Thai Plus: Delicious, Confident Thai Quality Fruits" to drive consumption and build consumer confidence. The department is also running influencer and celebrity promotions, live streaming across online platforms, and organizing a caravan to deliver southern fruits to Bangkok, surrounding areas, and other provinces.

The operation targets moving at least 10,000 tonnes of southern fruit through expanded market channels and consumption stimulus, with market hubs as the primary mechanism linking farmer output to buyers. Around 5,000 tonnes are expected to move through promotion and sales activities, while another 5,000 tonnes should come from sustained demand creation and broader consumer engagement. Consumers can support Thai farmers by purchasing quality Thai fruits from now through September 2025 at the three agricultural market hubs and over 200 partner retail branches nationwide.

Chama Asset Company announced its organic Thai herbal brand Chama Herbs is repositioning toward a "Lifestyle Wellness" concept with the new slogan "Everyday Wellness With Chama Herbs," responding to evolving consumer demands and positioning the brand as a Thai herbal expert supporting daily health and quality of life. Managing Director Prinda Tangpiruttam explained that while herbs were once seen merely as medicine for illness, consumers now embrace preventive health care and self-care from a younger age, making Thai herbs part of a modern lifestyle rather than just treatment. "Chama Herbs wants to be part of every moment in modern life—after work, after exercise, and in family health care—offering safe, quality organic Thai herbal products that are easy to access," she said. Over 10 years, the company developed organic Thai herbal quality from source to shelf, managing a 50-rai farm with international standards (IFOAM, EU, USDA, COR) through farming, harvesting, and processing in certified facilities. The brand's concrete success includes continuous Premium Herbal Products certification in the Global Premium category from the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine since 2566. Since then, 12 products have earned certification: in 2566 three products received approval including herbal balm with lemongrass oil and mahogany oil, and lemongrass liquid herbal paste; in 2567 one herbal balm stick with lemongrass oil was added; and in 2568 four more products were certified, including mixed herbal balms, mixed oils with yanang leaves under the Chama and Chama Herbs brands, and yellow herbal oil under the Chama brand.

The Criminal Court on August 19 scheduled a hearing on the preliminary investigation ruling in the defamation case brought by Suchart Chomklin, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, against Ice Ruckchonok Srinork, a Pheu Thai party list MP, on charges of defamation through advertising.

The case involves shared posts by Hathairat Phaholtap, editor of The Isaan Record, presenting allegations that Thai officials and politicians solicited bribes from a company managing berry-picking workers in Finland. The court analyzed evidence presented by the plaintiff and found that the defendant used her public Facebook account with 1.7 million followers to post messages and share content on February 10, 2569, with numerous comments from the public suggesting the plaintiff was involved in corruption. The posts implied the plaintiff—a member of parliament and labour minister—committed offenses by accepting bribes and collecting 36 million baht in head fees, and that the Special Investigation Department had referred the matter to the National Anti-Corruption Commission for investigation.

However, the plaintiff stated he neither collected head fees from workers nor faced investigation by either agency. The court found sufficient grounds under Criminal Code sections 326 and 328 to accept the defamation suit. A second count involves posts from February 12 where the defendant questioned the plaintiff's involvement in the high-priced SKYY9 building purchase, land valuation irregularities in Chachoengsao, toxic waste smuggling, and electoral irregularities in a provincial election. Photos of the plaintiff accompanied these posts, leading the public to believe he profited from corruption. The court determined the posts constituted factual accusations rather than mere opinion or speculation, meeting the requirements for a defamation charge under Criminal Code section 326.

Thai woman held in Taiwan over swallowing 72 heroin capsulesLegacyA Thai woman has been arrested at Kaohsiung International Airport in Taiwan after allegedly swallowing 72 heroin capsules in an attempt to smuggle the drug into the country, according to Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration. The Kaohsiung Criminal Investigation Team had received a tip-off that foreign nationals were attempting to smuggle drugs into Taiwan by concealing them in luggage or inside their bodies. Acting on the information, officers intercepted and arrested the woman on April 6, accusing her of trafficking heroin, a category 1 controlled substance under Taiwanese law. Investigators said the accused had swallowed 72 oval-shaped heroin capsules with a combined weight of 289.1 grammes and an estimated value of NT$3.6 million (approx. 3.72 million baht). Each capsule was wrapped in plastic and tightly sealed. Officers noted that if the outer wrapping had degraded in stomach acid, the leaked contents could have proven fatal, describing it as an extremely high-risk method of smuggling. The woman was taken to hospital, where she was given medication to help pass the capsules naturally. The process took 10 days before all the capsules had cleared her system. Radio Taiwan noted that she also works as a Muay Thai instructor, which required round-the-clock monitoring throughout her treatment. She has been referred for prosecution under Taiwan’s narcotics prevention law. The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office is preparing to file the case in court, and a court has ordered her detained pending further proceedings. More recently, around 11 French nationals, who were arrested in Thailand with cannabis in their luggage, claimed they were deceived into carrying “locked bags” in exchange for free holidays. According to the victims’ families, criminal gangs offered travellers free holidays in Thailand in exchange for bringing luggage back to France. The travellers were allegedly told that the bags contained mobile phones, but the luggage instead contained large quantities of cannabis. The story Thai woman held in Taiwan over swallowing 72 heroin capsules as seen on Thaiger News.

At parliament on August 19, 2024, at 2 p.m., Nithikorn Bunyakulgajarng, an adviser to the opposition leader and subcommittee member on enhancing Thailand's digital competitiveness, discussed the Ministry of Digital Economy for Society opening registration for the TH-AI Passport program. He expressed concern that the initial registration domain de.aipass.net used a .net extension, which anyone can easily register. He demonstrated this by showing he had paid 600 baht that morning to register a similar .net domain with additional letters added. He recommended the government should use a .go.th domain instead when handling personal data requests. He noted that the domain has since been updated to .go.th.

Nithikorn stated that registration is currently underway and the program will launch on August 31, with two-factor authentication using the ThaID app and government apps providing stronger security than previous username and password systems. However, additional information is being requested, such as job title and salary, so he urged the government to protect the data carefully. The program aims to register 5 million people; currently about 500,000 have registered.

When asked about concerns regarding data theft or scammers, Nithikorn warned that similar domains can still be easily registered, and it is unknown whether others have registered variations with added letters like AA or SS. He recommended the government pre-register similar domain names to prevent impersonation and block counterfeit websites that may emerge in the future. He also advised the public to be cautious and question any excessive data requests.

Regarding parliamentary oversight, Nithikorn said the budget tracking committee has requested key documents, including bidding documents from three bidders, to verify whether past processes were legitimate. He emphasized the importance of receiving these documents to answer questions about previous concerns regarding specifications and bidding timelines. He urged relevant agencies to submit the information as quickly as possible.