Thailand-Cambodia Clash: Deaths Reach 32, UN Holds Closed-Door Meet

BANGKOK, July 26: Tens of thousands of people sought refuge as border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia entered its third day Saturday, heightening fears of an extended conflict with the total death count reaching 32.

The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting behind closed doors late Friday in New York, while Malaysia, which chairs the 10-nation regional bloc that includes both countries, called for an end to hostilities and offered to mediate.

The council did not issue a statement but a council diplomat said all 15 members called on the parties to deescalate, show restraint and resolve the dispute peacefully. The council also urged the regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations known as ASEAN, to help resolve the border fighting, the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private.

Cambodia's UN Ambassador Chhea Keo told reporters afterward that his country, which called for the emergency meeting, "asked for immediate ceasefires, unconditionally, and we also call for the peaceful solution to the dispute."

He responded to accusations that Cambodia attacked Thailand asking how a small country with no air force could attack a much larger country with an army three times its size, stressing, "We do not do that."

Keo said the Security Council called for both sides to exercise "maximum restraint and resort to diplomatic solution" which is what Cambodia is calling for as well.

Asked what he expects next, the ambassador said: "Let's see how the call can be heard by all the members there."

Thailand's UN ambassador left the meeting without stopping to talk to reporters.

Thailand Declares Martial Law In Areas Bordering Cambodia After Deadly Clashes

BANGKOK, July 25: Thailand's acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai warned Friday that cross-border clashes with Cambodia that have uprooted more than 130,000 people "could develop into war", as the countries traded deadly strikes for a second day.

A long-running border dispute erupted into intense fighting with jets, artillery, tanks and ground troops on Thursday, and the UN Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis later Friday.

On Friday evening, a Thailand military border commander declared martial law in eight districts on the frontier with Cambodia, citing "Cambodia's use of force to enter Thai territory".

A steady thump of artillery strikes could be heard from the Cambodian side of the border Friday, where the province of Oddar Meanchey reported one civilian -- a 70-year-old man -- had been killed and five more wounded.

More than 138,000 people have been evacuated from Thailand's border regions, its health ministry said, reporting 15 fatalities -- 14 civilians and a soldier -- with a further 46 wounded, including 15 troops.

"We have tried to compromise as we are neighbours, but we have now instructed the Thai military to act immediately in case of urgency," said Phumtham.

"If the situation escalates, it could develop into war -- though for now, it remains limited to clashes," he told reporters in Bangkok.

Fighting resumed in three areas around 4:00 am on Friday (2100 GMT Thursday), the Thai army said, with Cambodian forces firing heavy weapons, field artillery, and BM-21 rocket systems, and Thai troops responding "with appropriate supporting fire".

The fighting marks a dramatic escalation in a long-running dispute between the neighbours -- both popular destinations for millions of foreign tourists -- over their shared 800-kilometre (500-mile) frontier.

Dozens of kilometres in several areas are contested and fighting broke out between 2008 and 2011, leaving at least 28 people dead and tens of thousands displaced.

A UN court ruling in 2013 settled the matter for over a decade, but the current crisis erupted in May when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a new clash.

US To Pull Out Of UNESCO Citing Anti-Israel Bias 2 Years After Rejoining

WASHINGTON, July 22: The United States announced Tuesday it will again pull out of the U.N.'s educational, scientific and cultural agency because it believes that its involvement is not in the country's national interest, and that the agency promotes anti-Israel speech.

This decision comes only two years after the United States rejoined UNESCO after leaving in 2018, during U.S. President Donald Trump's first administration.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the withdrawal was linked to UNESCO's perceived agenda to "advance divisive social and cultural causes."

She added in a statement that UNESCO's decision "to admit the 'State of Palestine' as a Member State is highly problematic, contrary to U.S. policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization."

The decision, first reported by the New York Post, will take effect at the end of December 2026.

This will be the third time that the United States has left UNESCO, which is based in Paris, and the second time during a Trump administration. It last rejoined the agency in 2023, under the Biden administration.

UNESCO's Director General Audrey Azoulay said she "deeply" regrets the U.S. decision but insisted that it was expected, and that the agency "has prepared for it." She also denied accusations of anti-Israel bias.

"These claims ... contradict the reality of UNESCO's efforts, particularly in the field of Holocaust education and the fight against antisemitism," she said.

The Trump administration in 2017 announced that the U.S. would withdraw from UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias. That decision took effect a year later. The U.S. and Israel stopped financing UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member state in 2011.

"The reasons put forward by the United States of America are the same as seven years ago, even though the situation has changed profoundly, political tensions have receded, and UNESCO today constitutes a rare forum for consensus on concrete and action-oriented multilateralism," Azoulay added.

The decision came as no surprise to UNESCO officials, who had anticipated such a move following the specific review ordered by the Trump administration earlier this year. They also expected that Trump would pull out again since the return of the US in 2023 had been promoted by a political rival, former President Joe Biden.

The U.S withdrawal is likely to affect UNESCO because the U.S. provides a notable share of the agency's budget. But the organization should be able to cope. UNESCO has diversified its funding sources in recent years and the US contribution has decreased, representing only 8% of the agency's total budget.

Azoulay pledged that UNESCO will carry out its missions despite "inevitably reduced resources." The agency is not considering any staff layoffs at this stage.

"UNESCO's purpose is to welcome all the nations of the world, and the United States of America is and always will be welcome," she said. "We will continue to work hand in hand with all our American partners in the private sector, academia and non-profit organizations, and will pursue our political dialogue with the U.S. administration and Congress."

The United States previously pulled out of UNESCO under the Reagan administration in 1984 because it viewed the agency as mismanaged, corrupt and used to advance the interests of the Soviet Union. It rejoined in 2003 during George W. Bush's presidency.

798 Palestinians killed while trying to get food, water aid, says UN

GENEVA, July 11: The U.N. human rights office said on Friday that it had recorded at least 798 killings both at aid points run by the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and near humanitarian convoys run by other relief groups, including the U.N.

The GHF uses private U.S. security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a U.N.-led system that Israel says had let militants divert aid.

The United Nations has called the plan "inherently unsafe" and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules.

"Up until the seventh of July, we've recorded now 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys," OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May and has repeatedly denied that incidents had occurred at its sites.

U.N. Pulls Nuclear Inspectors Out of Iran for Safety Reasons

TEHRAN, July 4: The United Nations atomic agency is pulling its inspectors out of Iran over safety concerns, severing the link between the agency and Tehran, which earlier this week suspended cooperation with the international monitor, according to people familiar with the matter.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s team of inspectors were driven by road out of Iran on Friday despite international departures from Iran’s main airports resuming normal operations in the wake of a 12-day conflict with Israel, two of the people said.

Iran has ratcheted up years-old rhetoric against the agency since then and there have been death threats against IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi from lawmakers and regime-tied media.