The following is our weekly feature in which we highlight the top local stories in our area of Phuket from the past week. The number of stories differs from week to week.

These are chosen and curated by our editorial team and are designed for our readers to get a quick “catch-up” of important stories they may have missed. We publish many stories daily and it is easy to lose track of important events or changes in our area. We do national recaps in a separate article, this is only the top local stories in Phuket.

They are in no particular order of importance but roughly in order of publishing. These are from Monday, February 12th to Sunday February 18th, 2024.

1. The famous Freedom Beach is now cleared of beach bed umbrellas in preparation for being declared a ‘Recreation Forest’.

Freedom Beach is now in the process of preparing to become a ‘Recreation Forest’ area. The idea of the Recreation Forest area is to essentially see the beach in its natural environment and enjoy it as nature intended it, without restaurants, beach chairs, alcohol, or other aspects of civilization.

2. An unlicensed lion cub found at a café in Rassada belongs to a Chinese national, say Thai police.

She was unable to present the lion’s legal license and there were also disputes over required microchip paperwork. The cub was seized by Thai officials.

3. An intoxicated driver was arrested after driving on a central reservation and crashing into many vehicles in Thalang.

The pickup truck driver was driving from the Baan Kean Intersection in the Thep Krasattri sub-district and crashed with many vehicles along the way on the southbound lane.

4. A wanted Pakistani man was arrested in Phuket for using a Thai Identification card.

This is not the first issue of Pakistani nationals having fake or illegal ID cards in Thailand.

5. A bar manager was arrested with four sets of Baraku, also known as Shisha, at a bar in Cherng Talay.

Many foreign customers were found using Baraku. Shisha, or Baraku, is illegal in Thailand.