Thailand’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been sent back to prison after the country’s Supreme Court ruled that his extended hospitalisation following his return from self-imposed exile was unjustified, Reuters reported.

The court found that both Thaksin and his doctors had colluded to avoid serving his sentence behind bars.

The 76-year-old billionaire and political powerbroker was returned to prison on Tuesday, marking the latest chapter in a turbulent political career that has dominated Thai politics for over two decades.

His re-incarceration comes amid a wave of political turmoil, just days after the collapse of the latest government led by his daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra.

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Thaksin had returned to Thailand in August 2023 after 15 years abroad and was sentenced to eight years for corruption and abuse of power during his 2001–2006 premiership.

The sentence was later commuted to one year by royal pardon. However, he spent only a few hours in prison before being moved to a hospital, citing heart issues and chest pain.

He remained there for six months until his release on parole.

The Supreme Court found that Thaksin’s hospital stay was unwarranted and that minor surgeries were performed to extend his time outside prison.

“The defendant knew the facts or was aware the situation was not a critical emergency.

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“The defendant only had a chronic condition that could be treated as an outpatient and did not require hospitalisation,” the court said in its ruling.

According to Reuters, television footage showed Thaksin being escorted by corrections officers and arriving at a Bangkok jail shortly after the court’s decision.

The images gripped the nation as yet another chapter closed for the Shinawatra family, which has produced six premiers either removed by coup or court order.

Despite the setback, Thaksin expressed no regret. “I may no longer have freedom, but have freedom of thought to create benefit for the country and people,” he said on social media.

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He also stated that he was proud of his public service, noting his efforts to uplift living standards and shift the political landscape.

Thaksin’s daughter, Paetongtarn, who was removed from office on August 29, was visibly emotional outside the court. “Me and my family are concerned,” she told reporters, adding, “This is quite heavy.”

Anutin Charnvirakul, the incoming prime minister and a former member of Thaksin’s party, expressed sympathy.

“I am saddened, I sympathise with him.

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“For someone who has governed the country, I don’t want him to face something like this,” Anutin said.

Thaksin remains a divisive figure in Thailand. Once a police officer who became a telecom magnate, he won the loyalty of rural and working-class voters with populist policies such as cash handouts, healthcare reforms, and farm subsidies.

However, his rise angered Thailand’s conservative elite, including the military and judiciary, leading to repeated clashes and his eventual ousting in a 2006 coup.

Thaksin is the first former Thai prime minister to be jailed. Whether this signals the end of his political career or yet another chapter remains to be seen.

The newly appointed health minister in Sweden, Elisabet Lann, collapsed during a press conference on Tuesday at the start of the new parliamentary year of 2025-2026.

The minister, a municipal councillor in Gothenburg, was announced as health minister on Tuesday after her predecessor, Acko Ankarberg Johansson, suddenly resigned the day before.

Lann, who is from the Christian Democratic Congress, was accompanied by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and other officials when she suddenly collapsed on the stage, hitting her head on the lectern in the process.

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The party leader Ebba Busch and other officials present quickly stepped in to help the minister, who received proper attention from security personnel before being led out of the room.

Lann returned to the event room shortly after saying, “This was not exactly a normal Tuesday, and this is what can happen when you have a blood sugar drop.”

However, it was not clear to the people present at the event whether Lann required any medical treatment, though she did not appear to be injured. The press conference was abruptly cancelled.

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According to Euractiv, it was reported that Lann told reporters that the country’s healthcare system is of high quality, but the long queues need to be addressed.

“Swedish healthcare is of high quality; the main issue is the long waiting times. We must transition to equitable healthcare. It is clear that we must strengthen government control. It is not worthy of a welfare state that so many people are waiting for healthcare,” She added.

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A constant stream of Palestinians fled in tractors, carts and overloaded vans down a coastal road in the central Gaza Strip, the latest mass displacement as Israel intensified its assault on the territory’s main city.

Those escaping the offensive on Gaza City left behind them a scene of utter devastation, where smoke from the aftermath of Israeli strikes wafted behind buildings that had already been reduced to rubble.

The United Nations estimates that nearly a million people live in Gaza City and its surroundings — the Palestinian territory’s largest urban centre, which the Israeli military is gearing up to seize.

The army on Tuesday told all residents to leave immediately and head southwards, saying it would act with “great force” in the city.

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“We were forcibly displaced to the southern Gaza Strip under intensified shelling,” said Saeb al-Mobayed, who was fleeing Gaza City along the coastal road.

“Many buildings have been destroyed,” he told AFP. “Mosques near areas sheltering displaced people were also targeted, forcing us to leave.”

Israel has come under mounting international pressure to end its offensive in Gaza, where the vast majority of the population has been displaced at least once in nearly two years of war.

Some of those forced into their latest move travelled on trucks and tractor-pulled trailers piled high with people and household furniture, while others had little choice but to push heavy carts by hand.

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Ahmed Shamlakh, who had also been displaced from Gaza City, pleaded for an end to the war and for crossings into the Palestinian territory to be opened.

“Allow life to return to normal as it was before — it’s enough,” he said.

The Israeli military is telling Palestinians to head to a “humanitarian zone” in the southern coastal area of Al-Mawasi, where it says aid, medical care and humanitarian infrastructure will be provided.

Israel first declared the area a safe zone early in the war, but has carried out repeated strikes on it since then, saying it is targeting Hamas.

Gazans have said the journey south is prohibitively expensive and that there is no more space to pitch tents in the designated zones.

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The spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, told AFP on Tuesday that even in central and southern areas of the territory, “there are no necessities for life — no shelter, no space for tents, no food, and no drinking water.”

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

In Gaza City on Tuesday, Israeli army leaflets rained down on Palestinians, ordering them to evacuate.

“I ask Israel: where are we supposed to go?” said 36-year-old Khaled Khuwaiter, who had already fled from Gaza City’s Zeitun neighbourhood.

“People who fled from Gaza City to the Al-Mawasi area… found no place to stay — no tents, no water, no food,” he added.

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“Bombing and killings are everywhere. We have only God, because the world watches our slaughter and does nothing.”

Mirvat Abu Muammar, 30, said she had already fled once with her husband and three children and that they now had no basic supplies.

“Evacuation is humiliating,” she said.

“We will wait and see. For two years, we have not known a moment of peace or sleep — only killing, destruction, and despair.”

Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,522 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.