BANGKOK — Paetongtarn Shinawatra was endorsed as prime minister by Thailand’s king on Sunday, two days after parliament elected her, paving the way for her to form a cabinet in the coming weeks.

Ms. Paetongtarn, 37, becomes Thailand’s youngest prime minister just days after ally Srettha Thavisin was dismissed as premier by the Constitutional Court, a judiciary central to Thailand’s two decades of intermittent political turmoil.

Daughter of divisive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Ms. Paetongtarn won by nearly two-thirds in a house vote on Friday to become Thailand’s second female prime minister and the third Shinawatra to take the office, following Thaksin and her aunt Yingluck Shinawatra.

The approval by King Maha Vajiralongkorn, a formality, was read out by House of Representatives Secretary Apat Sukhanand at a ceremony in Bangkok on Sunday.

Dressed in official uniform, Paetongtarn knelt in homage to a portrait of the king before giving a short speech thanking the king and the people’s representatives for endorsing her as prime minister.

“As head of the executive branch, I will do my duty together with the legislators with an open heart,” she said. “I will listen to all opinions so together we can take the country forward with stability,” she said.

Ms. Paetongtarn, who has not served in government previously, faces challenges on multiple fronts, with the economy floundering and the popularity of her Pheu Thai party dwindling, having yet to deliver on its flagship digital wallet cash handout program worth 500 billion baht ($15 billion).

After accepting the royal endorsement, Ms. Paetongtarn hugged her father Mr. Thaksin and other family members.

In her first press conference, Ms. Paetongtarn said she will continue with all policies of her predecessor Mr. Srettha, including “major” economic stimulus and reform, tackling illegal drugs, improving the country’s universal healthcare system and promoting gender diversity.

She said the government will not abandon its flagship digital wallet policy but will seek to “study and listen to additional options” to make sure the scheme is fiscally responsible.

“The goal is to stimulate the economy so this intention remains,” Ms. Paetongtarn said.

The prime minister said she has no plans to appoint her father Thaksin to any government position but will seek his advice.

Ms. Paetongtarn said details of her government policies will be presented to parliament next month.

The fall of her predecessor Mr. Srettha after less than a year in office is a reminder of the risk for Ms. Paetongtarn with Thailand trapped in a tumultuous cycle of coups and court rulings that have disbanded political parties and toppled multiple governments and prime ministers.

Also at stake is the legacy and political future of the billionaire Shinawatra family, whose once unstoppable populist juggernaut suffered its first election defeat in over two decades last year and had to make a deal with its bitter enemies in the military to form a government.

The upheaval of recent days indicates a breakdown in a fragile truce struck between Mr. Thaksin and his rivals in the royalist establishment, which had enabled the tycoon’s dramatic return from 15 years of self-exile in 2023 and ally Srettha to become premier the same day.

More than a week ago, the court that dismissed Mr. Srettha over a cabinet appointment dissolved the anti-establishment Move Forward Party — the 2023 election winner — over a campaign to amend a royal insult law that the court said risked undermining the constitutional monarchy.

The hugely popular opposition, Pheu Thai’s biggest challenger, has since regrouped under a new vehicle, the People’s Party. — Reuters

SAFETY at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is deteriorating following a drone strike that hit a perimeter access road on Saturday, according to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Rafael Mariano Grossi.

The Russian management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant said a Ukraine drone dropped an explosive charge on a road used by staff, the TASS news agency reported earlier.

Russia has been in control of the Zaporizhzhia site, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, since soon after it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The plant is dormant as Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of trying to sabotage its operations and endangering safety around the plant.

“Yet again we see an escalation of the nuclear safety and security dangers facing the … power plant,” Mr. Grossi said.

“I remain extremely concerned and reiterate my call for maximum restraint from all sides and for strict observance of the five concrete principles established for the protection of the plant.”

The impact site was close to the essential cooling water sprinkler ponds and about 100 meters from the Dniprovska power line, the only remaining 750 kilovolt line providing a power supply to the plant, the IAEA said.

An IAEA team visited the area on Saturday and reported that the damage seemed to have been caused by a drone equipped with an explosive payload.

The report said there were no casualties and no impact on any nuclear power plant equipment. However, there was an impact to the road between the two main gates of the plant.

The attack comes as Ukraine continues an incursion into Russia, claiming to have taken control of 82 settlements over an area of 1,150 square kilometers (444 square miles) in the Kursk region since Aug. 6.

Moscow wants to discuss the attack on the Zaporizhzhia plant with the IAEA, Russia’s RIA news agency reported, citing Roman Ustinov, the acting Russian representative in Vienna. — Reuters

BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wisconsin  — David Mattison, a retired postal worker, had spent nearly all of his life in this remote corner of Wisconsin, watching family farms fail and small businesses go under with the hollowing out of the rural economy.

So he had approached this year’s presidential election with a sense of detachment, not yet convinced either the Democratic or Republican candidates spoke to his concerns as a voter in rural America — until Minnesota Governor Tim Walz joined the Democratic ticket as Kamala Harris’  running mate.

Mr. Mattison, who has voted for Republicans and Democrats, would have been open to a more conservative candidate. But he said he did not like Republican contender Donald Trump’s divisiveness. And, while Mr. Mattison admitted he was unfamiliar with Mr. Walz’s policies, he identified with the governor’s background as a Midwesterner who was also raised in farm country.

“He’s kind of a homegrown boy,” Mr. Mattison, 68, told Reuters outside of a Walmart Supercenter in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, a city with a population of around 3,500 about 60 miles (97 km) from the Minnesota state border.

Ms. Harris’ campaign officials are betting Mr. Walz’s folksy style, Midwestern roots and life story as a former farmer, teacher and National Guard member, will appeal to some of the white men in rural areas who voted for Mr. Trump by huge margins in the last two elections — and help deliver the battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania for the Democrats.

But that is a tall order, especially in the Midwestern states where the electorate skews older, whiter and more blue collar: Mr. Trump’s strongest demographic.

Reuters interviewed about 40 voters in northwest Wisconsin, one of the most closely fought areas of the state, about the candidates and their running mates, speaking to Democratic, Republican and undecided voters.

Many of those voters said they had made up their minds before Ms. Harris tapped Mr. Walz as her running mate.

But Mr. Mattison and one other independent voter said Ms. Harris’ choice of Mr. Walz has pushed them toward the Democratic ticket this year. One former Trump voter had a favorable view of Mr. Walz but wasn’t sure how he would vote. Another handful said they remained undecided.

Such incremental movements could be decisive in battleground states. Modest gains in a few segments of the electorate — such as white, working class voters — could make all the difference, said Chris Borick, a pollster and professor at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania.

President Joseph R. Biden secured his 2020 election victory over Mr. Trump in part because he outperformed Hillary Clinton’s 2016 performance among white, working class voters.

Mr. Biden still lost the segment overall, Mr. Borick said, “but he was able to nudge the dial up a few points and that made a big difference.”

‘DESTROYED MINNESOTA’
Still, it remains difficult for the Harris campaign to galvanize skeptical voters, even those who dislike Trump.

Kevin Dunning, 65, a Republican voter who previously owned a commercial painting company, told Reuters that he has never cast a vote for Mr. Trump and never would.

But he disliked Mr. Walz’s actions as governor during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he ordered the temporary closures of dine-in restaurants, fitness centers and other businesses.

“Walz has destroyed Minnesota,” Mr. Dunning said.

Instead, Mr. Dunning plans to write in his own name and that of his niece for president and vice president, while casting votes for candidates in other races.

The majority of states sway solidly Republican or Democrat, leaving the presidential race to be decided by a handful of battleground states that are legitimately up for grabs.

While Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump are largely tied in national opinion polls, they draw from very different demographics.

Ms. Harris significantly leads Mr. Trump among voters with college degrees, as well as Black and young voters, polls show.

Mr. Trump has an outsize advantage among white voters who didn’t go to college, leading Ms. Harris 59% to 29% in July, according to an analysis of four Reuters/Ipsos polls.

That also gives him an edge in former industrial states Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which are older and whiter than the rest of the country.

While campaign officials expect Ms. Harris to drive up energy and turnout in diverse cities like Philadelphia and Detroit and reproduce Mr. Biden’s huge margins in the suburbs, early polls show she faces more skepticism than Mr. Biden among white, working class voters.

On the Republican ticket, US Senator JD Vance from Ohio shares Mr. Trump’s political beliefs, which mix isolationism and economic populism. Though Mr. Vance may help boost the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania and Michigan, his conservative views may be a turn-off for less extreme voters.

Mr. Walz learned how to sell the Democratic Party’s liberal policies to skeptical white working-class voters when he was first elected to Congress in a conservative district in 2006.

In 2010, Mr. Walz was re-elected to Congress against a Republican landslide that sunk many other Democrats. Six years later he escaped with a win despite Mr. Trump’s 15-point victory over Ms. Clinton.

Mr. Walz’s performance against the backdrop of Republican landslides drew Ms. Harris advisers’ attention when vetting vice presidential candidates, according to two sources familiar with the process.

Mr. Walz’s district flipped to the Republican Party immediately after he left to run for governor in 2018.

Mary Brown, 69 and a job coach in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, was the second voter Reuters spoke with who swayed toward Ms. Harris after Mr. Walz joined the ticket.

‘ALWAYS APPEARS TO BE NORMAL’
She said she would never vote for Mr. Trump and had been leaning toward voting Democratic in the presidential race. But she had been waiting to see Ms. Harris’ choice as vice president; Ms. Brown liked that Mr. Walz, like her, was a former teacher.

In other races, Ms. Brown will vote based on the candidate instead of along party lines, she said.

Peter Norvold, a 68-year-old retiree with Democratic views, said he was “fan enough” of Ms. Harris, but appreciated Mr. Walz’s steady demeanor.

Mr. Norvold’s hometown of Hudson, Wisconsin is separated from Minnesota by the St. Croix River, and he said he had seen Mr. Walz on television.

“He just always appears to be normal,” Mr. Norvold said. “He just seems calm and secure, not worried. Doesn’t seem to me to get angry, it doesn’t look like.” — Reuters