BANGKOK: Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn has endorsed Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s new cabinet, the Royal Gazette showed on Wednesday, with 12 new faces in the 36-member lineup.
Paetongtarn’s Pheu Thai Party, which together with its previous incarnations has led multiple governments since 2001, dominates the new cabinet and has retained current Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira and Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa, the gazette showed.
Deputy premier Phumtham Wechayachai takes on the defense portfolio and has been replaced as commerce minister by top Pheu Thai adviser and former energy minister Pichai Naripthaphan.
Pheu Thai has 17 of the cabinet positions, which include ministers and deputy ministers, with the remaining 19 posts divided among its coalition partners. Paetongtarn, 38, was elected by parliament last month to become Thailand’s youngest premier and its second woman in the job, after the shock removal of predecessor Srettha Thavisin by a court, which said he had violated ethics in a cabinet appointment.
Paetongtarn is the youngest daughter of the influential ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who is still seen as wielding power behind the scenes. She is the fourth member of her family to hold the post, with the other three removed by coups or in court decisions.
Thai king endorses PM Paetongtarn’s new cabinet
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Thai king endorses PM Paetongtarn’s new cabinet
- Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai Party, which together with its previous incarnations has led multiple governments since 2001
- Paetongtarn is the youngest daughter of the influential ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who is still seen as wielding power behind the scenes
Three Afghan migrants die of cold while trying to cross into Iran
- More than 1.8 million Afghans were forced to return to Afghanistan by the Iranian authorities between January and the end of November 2025
AFGHANISTAN: Three Afghans died from exposure in freezing temperatures in the western province of Herat while trying to illegally enter Iran, a local army official said on Saturday.
“Three people who wanted to illegally cross the Iran-Afghanistan border have died because of the cold weather,” the Afghan army official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He added that a shepherd was also found dead in the mountainous area of Kohsan from the cold.
The migrants were part of a group that attempted to cross into Iran on Wednesday and was stopped by Afghan border forces.
“Searches took place on Wednesday night, but the bodies were only found on Thursday,” the army official said.
More than 1.8 million Afghans were forced to return to Afghanistan by the Iranian authorities between January and the end of November 2025, according to the latest figures from the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), which said that the majority were “forced and coerced returns.”
“These mass returns in adverse circumstances have strained Afghanistan’s already overstretched resources and services” which leads to “risks of onward and new displacement, including return movements back into Pakistan and Iran and onward,” UNHCR posted on its site dedicated to Afghanistan’s situation.
This week, Amnesty International called on countries to stop forcibly returning people to Afghanistan, citing a “real risk of serious harm for returnees.”
Hit by two major earthquakes in recent months and highly vulnerable to climate change, Afghanistan faces multiple challenges.
It is subject to international sanctions particularly due to the exclusion of women from many jobs and public places, described by the UN as “gender apartheid.”
More than 17 million people in the country are facing acute food insecurity, the UN World Food Programme said Tuesday.
