BANGKOK: Thai and Cambodian soldiers fired at each other in multiple contested border areas Thursday, injuring three civilians, after the nations downgraded their diplomatic relations in a rapidly escalating dispute.
A livestream video from Thailand’s side showed people running from their homes and hiding in a concrete bunker Thursday morning as explosions sounded periodically. Clashes appeared to be ongoing in several areas.
The first clash Thursday morning happened in an area where the ancient Prasat Ta Moan Thom temple stands along the border of Thailand’s Surin province and Cambodia Oddar Meanchey province. Both Thailand and Cambodia accused each other of opening fire first.
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet said Thailand attacked Cambodian army positions at Prasat Ta Moan Thom and Prasat Ta Krabey in Oddar Meanchey province and expanded to the area along Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province and Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani province.
“Cambodia has always maintained a position of peaceful resolution of problems, but in this case, we have no choice but to respond with armed force against armed aggression,” said the Prime Minister.
The Thai army said three civilians in Surin province were injured when Cambodia fired artillery shells into a residential area. It said residents in the area had been evacuated afterward.
Earlier Thursday, Cambodia said it was downgrading diplomatic relations with Thailand to their lowest level, expelling the Thai ambassador and recalling all Cambodian staff from its embassy in Bangkok. That was in response to Thailand closing its northeastern border crossings with Cambodia, withdrawing its ambassador and expelling the Cambodian ambassador Wednesday to protest a land mine blast that wounded five Thai soldiers.
Relations between the Southeast Asian neighbors have deteriorated sharply since May when a Cambodian soldier was killed in an armed confrontation in another of the several small patches of land both countries claim as their own territory.
The Thai army said of Thursday’s initial clash that its forces heard an unmanned aerial vehicle before seeing six armed Cambodian soldiers moving closer to Thailand’s station. It said Thai soldiers tried to shout at them to defuse the situation but the Cambodian side started to open fire.
Cambodia’s Defense Ministry said Thailand started the armed clash and Cambodia “acted strictly within the bounds of self-defense, responding to an unprovoked incursion by Thai troops that violated our territorial integrity.”
Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen posted on his Facebook page, urging people not to panic and have faith in their government and the military.
The Thai embassy in Phnom Penh posted on Facebook that there were clashes at several border areas that could continue to escalate. It urged Thai nationals in Cambodia to leave the country if they could and advised others not to travel to Cambodia unless absolutely necessary.
On Wednesday, a land mine blast near the border wounded five Thai soldiers, one of whom lost a leg. A week earlier, a land mine in a different contested area exploded and wounded three Thai soldiers when one of them stepped on it and lost a foot.
Thai authorities have alleged the mines were newly laid along paths that by mutual agreement were supposed to be safe. They said the mines were Russian-made and not of a type employed by Thailand’s military. Cambodia rejected Thailand’s account as “baseless accusations,” pointing out that many unexploded mines and other ordnance are a legacy of 20th century wars and unrest.
Nationalist passions on both sides have further inflamed the situation, and Thailand’s prime minister was suspended from office on July 1 to be investigated for possible ethics violations over her handling of the border dispute.
Border disputes are longstanding issues that have caused periodic tensions between the countries. The most prominent and violent conflicts have been around the 1,000-year-old Preah Vihear temple.
In 1962, the International Court of Justice awarded sovereignty over the temple area to Cambodia and that became a major irritant in the relations of both countries.
Cambodia went back to the court in 2011, following several clashes between its army and Thai forces which killed about 20 people and displaced thousands. The court reaffirmed the ruling in 2013, a decision that still rattled Thailand.
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Thai and Cambodian soldiers fire at each other in disputed border area, injuring 3
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Thai and Cambodian soldiers fire at each other in disputed border area, injuring 3
- Thai and Cambodian soldiers have fired at each other in multiple contested border areas after the nations downgraded their diplomatic relations in a rapidly escalating dispute
Trump enters election year with big wins — and bigger political headwinds
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump stormed back into office with a shock-and-awe policy blitz that expanded presidential power and reshaped America’s relations with the world. But it has come at a steep cost: as he enters the New Year and midterm elections loom, his once unshakeable hold on Republicans is slipping, say historians and analysts.
Back in January, as Trump triumphantly returned to the White House for a second term, he vowed to remake the economy, the federal bureaucracy, immigration policy and much of US cultural life. He delivered on much of that agenda, becoming one of the most powerful presidents in modern US history.
Like all US presidents who cannot seek another term, Trump faces the inevitable waning of power in his second year. But he also begins the New Year with an erosion in political support.
Some Republican lawmakers are rebelling, and opinion polls show a growing number of voters are unhappy with the high cost of living, an aggressive immigration crackdown and a sense that Trump has pushed the boundaries of presidential power too far.
Trump’s approval rating slipped to 39 percent in recent days to nearly its lowest level of his current term as Republican voters soured on his handling of the economy, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Now, Republicans are in danger of losing control of Congress in the November elections, threatening Trump’s domestic agenda and raising the specter of a third impeachment by Democrats if they win control of the House of Representatives.
Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said lowering inflation — which he blamed on former Democratic President Joe Biden — has been a priority for Trump since his first day back in office.
“Much work remains,” Desai said, adding that Trump and his administration will continue to focus on the issue.
MOST POWERFUL PRESIDENT SINCE 1930s
In his first year back in the White House, Trump has cut the size of the federal civilian workforce, dismantled and closed government agencies, slashed humanitarian aid to foreign countries, ordered sweeping immigration raids and deportations, and sent National Guard troops into Democratic-run cities.
He has also triggered trade wars by imposing tariffs on goods from most countries, passed a massive tax-and-spending-cut bill, prosecuted political enemies, canceled or restricted access to some vaccines, and attacked universities, law firms and media outlets.
Despite promising to end the Ukraine war on the first day he was in office, Trump has made little progress toward a peace deal, while asserting he has ended eight wars, a claim widely disputed given ongoing conflicts in several of those hotspots.
All modern presidents have sought to expand their presidential power, but this year Trump has increased executive might at a rate rarely seen before, historians and analysts say. He has done this through executive orders and emergency declarations that have shifted decision-making away from Congress and to the White House.
The conservative majority on the US Supreme Court have mostly sided with Trump, and the Republican-controlled Congress has done little to stand in his way. And unlike his first term, Trump has total control over his cabinet, which is packed with loyalists.
“Donald Trump has wielded power with fewer restraints in the last 11 months than any president since Franklin Roosevelt,” said presidential historian Timothy Naftali.
In the first few years of his 1933-1945 White House tenure, Roosevelt, a Democratic president, enjoyed large majorities in Congress, which passed most of his domestic agenda to expand government with little resistance. He also enjoyed significant public support for his efforts to tackle the Great Depression and faced a fractured Republican opposition.
Analysts and party strategists say Trump’s difficulty in convincing voters that he understands their struggles with rising living costs could prompt some Republican lawmakers to distance themselves in an effort to protect their seats in November.
Trump hit the road this month to promote his economic agenda and kick off what aides say will be multiple speeches next year to try to convince voters he has a plan to reduce high prices, even though he is not on the ballot in November.
But his meandering 90-minute address to supporters in Pennsylvania earlier this month — in which he riffed on a range of subjects unrelated to the economy and derided the issue of “affordability” as a Democratic “hoax” — alarmed some Republican strategists.
A Republican with close ties to the White House conceded that Trump faces headwinds on the economy heading into the New Year and the public mood on the rising cost of living has “become a persistent drag.”
“We have to remind voters they need to give the president a full four years,” said the Republican, speaking on condition of anonymity to more freely discuss internal discussions.
Back in January, as Trump triumphantly returned to the White House for a second term, he vowed to remake the economy, the federal bureaucracy, immigration policy and much of US cultural life. He delivered on much of that agenda, becoming one of the most powerful presidents in modern US history.
Like all US presidents who cannot seek another term, Trump faces the inevitable waning of power in his second year. But he also begins the New Year with an erosion in political support.
Some Republican lawmakers are rebelling, and opinion polls show a growing number of voters are unhappy with the high cost of living, an aggressive immigration crackdown and a sense that Trump has pushed the boundaries of presidential power too far.
Trump’s approval rating slipped to 39 percent in recent days to nearly its lowest level of his current term as Republican voters soured on his handling of the economy, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Now, Republicans are in danger of losing control of Congress in the November elections, threatening Trump’s domestic agenda and raising the specter of a third impeachment by Democrats if they win control of the House of Representatives.
Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said lowering inflation — which he blamed on former Democratic President Joe Biden — has been a priority for Trump since his first day back in office.
“Much work remains,” Desai said, adding that Trump and his administration will continue to focus on the issue.
MOST POWERFUL PRESIDENT SINCE 1930s
In his first year back in the White House, Trump has cut the size of the federal civilian workforce, dismantled and closed government agencies, slashed humanitarian aid to foreign countries, ordered sweeping immigration raids and deportations, and sent National Guard troops into Democratic-run cities.
He has also triggered trade wars by imposing tariffs on goods from most countries, passed a massive tax-and-spending-cut bill, prosecuted political enemies, canceled or restricted access to some vaccines, and attacked universities, law firms and media outlets.
Despite promising to end the Ukraine war on the first day he was in office, Trump has made little progress toward a peace deal, while asserting he has ended eight wars, a claim widely disputed given ongoing conflicts in several of those hotspots.
All modern presidents have sought to expand their presidential power, but this year Trump has increased executive might at a rate rarely seen before, historians and analysts say. He has done this through executive orders and emergency declarations that have shifted decision-making away from Congress and to the White House.
The conservative majority on the US Supreme Court have mostly sided with Trump, and the Republican-controlled Congress has done little to stand in his way. And unlike his first term, Trump has total control over his cabinet, which is packed with loyalists.
“Donald Trump has wielded power with fewer restraints in the last 11 months than any president since Franklin Roosevelt,” said presidential historian Timothy Naftali.
In the first few years of his 1933-1945 White House tenure, Roosevelt, a Democratic president, enjoyed large majorities in Congress, which passed most of his domestic agenda to expand government with little resistance. He also enjoyed significant public support for his efforts to tackle the Great Depression and faced a fractured Republican opposition.
Analysts and party strategists say Trump’s difficulty in convincing voters that he understands their struggles with rising living costs could prompt some Republican lawmakers to distance themselves in an effort to protect their seats in November.
Trump hit the road this month to promote his economic agenda and kick off what aides say will be multiple speeches next year to try to convince voters he has a plan to reduce high prices, even though he is not on the ballot in November.
But his meandering 90-minute address to supporters in Pennsylvania earlier this month — in which he riffed on a range of subjects unrelated to the economy and derided the issue of “affordability” as a Democratic “hoax” — alarmed some Republican strategists.
A Republican with close ties to the White House conceded that Trump faces headwinds on the economy heading into the New Year and the public mood on the rising cost of living has “become a persistent drag.”
“We have to remind voters they need to give the president a full four years,” said the Republican, speaking on condition of anonymity to more freely discuss internal discussions.
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