Thailand Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to remain in power following Parliament vote

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s incumbent Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul won a vote in Parliament on Thursday to remain in office, according to an official tally.

The leader of the Bhumjaithai Party garnered 293 votes, exceeding the required majority of the 498 members who attended the session in the House of Representatives.

Anutin is expected to take office a few days after obtaining a formal appointment from King Maha Vajiralongkorn and the new cabinet is expected to be appointed in the following weeks.

Anutin’s Bhumjaithai Party won 191 seats in February's general election, according to official results, and has since built a coalition with several other parties to form a governing majority. Among those partners is the populist Pheu Thai Party, which placed third with 74 seats.

The progressive People’s Party, which finished second with 120 seats, has said it will not join the Bhumjaithai-led government. Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut received 119 votes after being nominated in what the party said was only a symbolic contest.

Anutin and Natthaphong were among the 86 lawmakers who abstained from voting Thursday.

Anutin, 59, became prime minister only in September after serving in the Cabinet of his immediate predecessor, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was forced out of office for an ethics violation regarding mishandling relations with Cambodia. Anutin dissolved Parliament in December to call an early election after he was threatened with a no-confidence vote.

He has since seen a surge in popularity following his self-presentation as a defender of the nation during the Thailand-Cambodia border conflict, which strengthened nationalist sentiment among voters.

Thailand fought with Cambodia twice last year over competing territorial claims along their border.

The incoming government is expected to face immediate challenges. A war in the Middle East that broke out in February has driven up global energy prices, increasing the cost of goods and raising concerns about a potential oil shortage.

Another political uncertainty also arose after the Constitutional Court said Wednesday it would rule whether last month’s election should be invalidated.

The case stems from a petition filed by the Ombudsman’s Office against the Election Commission, alleging the inclusion of barcodes and QR codes on ballot papers could compromise voter anonymity in violation of election laws requiring a secret ballot.

Thailand's Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul arrives at the parliament in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, March 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Pheu Thai party leader Julapun Amornvivat, center, gesture as he arrives at the parliament in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, March 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Yodchanun Wongsawat from Pheu Thai Party arrives at the parliament in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, March 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A worker cleans the desk for Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul at the parliament in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, March 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

HELSINKI (AP) — Heavy social media use contributes to a stark decline in well-being among young people, with the effects particularly worrying in teenage girls in English-speaking countries and Western Europe, according to the World Happiness Report 2026 published Thursday.

The annual report, published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, also found that Finland is the happiest land in the world for the ninth year in a row, with other Nordic countries such as Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway ranking among the top 10 countries.

It highlighted how life evaluations among under 25-year-olds in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have dropped significantly over the past decade, and suggested that long hours spent scrolling through social media is a key factor in that trend.

A new entry to the top five on the list is Costa Rica, which climbed to fourth place this year after rising through the ranks from 23rd place in 2023.

The report attributes that to well-being boosts from family bonds and other social connections.

“We think it’s because of the quality of their social lives and the stability that they currently enjoy,” said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, an Oxford economics professor who directs the Wellbeing Research Centre and co-edits the World Happiness Report.

“Latin America more generally has strong family ties, strong social ties, a great level of social capital, as a sociologist would call it, more so than in other places,” he added.

The report said Finland and the other Northern European countries’ steady ranking on top is related to a combination of wealth, its equal distribution, having a welfare state that protects people from the risks of recessions, and a healthy life expectancy.

As in previous years, nations in or near zones of major conflict remain at the foot of the rankings. Afghanistan is ranked as the unhappiest country again, followed by Sierra Leone and Malawi in Africa.

Country rankings were based on answers given by around 100,000 people in 140 countries and territories who were asked to rate their own lives. The study was done in partnership with the analytics firm Gallup and the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

In most countries, approximately 1,000 people are contacted by telephone or face-to-face each year.

Respondents were asked to evaluate their lives on a scale from 0 to 10. Among under-25s in English-speaking and Western European countries, that score dropped by almost one point over the past decade.

The report said the negative correlation between well-being and extensive social media use is particularly concerning among teenage girls. For example, it said that 15-year-old girls who use social media for five hours or more reported a drop in life satisfaction, compared to others who use it less.

Young people who use social media for less than one hour per day report the highest levels of well-being, researchers said, higher than those who do not use social media at all. But adolescents are spending an estimated average of 2.5 hours a day on social media.

“It is clear that we should look as much as possible to put the ‘social’ back into social media,” De Neve said.

Researchers noted that in some parts of the world, such as the Middle East and South America, the links between social media use and well-being are more positive — and youth well-being has not fallen despite heavy social media use.

The report said this is due to many factors that differ between continents, but concluded that heavy social media use in some countries is an important contributing factor to the decline in youth well-being.

It said the most problematic platforms are those with algorithmic feeds, feature influencers and where the main material is visual, because they encourage social comparisons. Those who use platforms that mainly facilitate communication do better.

The 2026 rankings mark the second year in a row that none of the English-speaking countries appear in the top 10. The United States is at 23rd place, Canada is at 25th and Britain at 29th.

The report, with its focus on social media, comes at a time when more and more countries have banned or are considering bans of social media for minors.

Grieshaber reported from Berlin.

FILE - Young people use their phones to view social media in Sydney, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)

FILE - A young girl uses her phone while sitting on a bench in Sydney, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)

FILE - Outdoor swimming pools are seen in a harbor of Helsinki, May 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)

FILE - People spend time outside after using the sauna of the public bath in Helsinki, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)

FILE - A woman walks past the Helsinki Cathedral in Helsinki, May 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)