Thailand blocks tourists from entering Cambodia
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra arrives at Government house in Bangkok on June 23: Thailand and neighboring Cambodia have a border dispute that has strained bilateral ties. © AP
BANGKOK (AP) -- Thailand began imposing land border restrictions Monday including blocking tourists heading into Cambodia as the two countries engage in retaliation in their border dispute.
Relations between the countries have deteriorated following an armed confrontation May 28 in which one Cambodian soldier was killed in a relatively small, contested territory. While the two sides have agreed to de-escalate their dispute, they continue to implement or threaten measures that have kept tensions high.
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The Mainichi
2 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Status of ceasefire unclear after Iranian missile barrage strikes Israel after a first deadline
BEERSHEBA, Israel (AP) -- U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a "complete and total ceasefire" soon after Iran launched a retaliatory limited missile attack on a U.S. military base in Qatar. But the status of a possible ceasefire remained tentative on Tuesday as an Iranian missile barrage struck Israel after a first deadline for the proposal. The Iranian barrages sent Israelis hurrying into bomb shelters as the sun rose, killing at least four people and injuring eight others, Israel's Magen David Adom rescue services said. Israel has yet to acknowledge Trump's proposal, which gives Israel more time to potentially strike back though Iran on its state television announced an overall ceasefire had begun at 7:30 a.m. local time. The barrage damaged at least three densely packed residential buildings in the city of Beersheba, police said. First responders said they retrieved four bodies from one building and were searching for more. Outside, the shells of burned out cars littered the streets. Broken glass and rubble covered the area. Hundreds of emergency workers gathered to search for anyone else trapped in the buildings. Police said some people were injured even while inside their apartments' reinforced safe rooms, which are meant to withstand rockets and shrapnel but not direct hits from ballistic missiles. The direct hit in the largest city in southern Israel came just days after the city's hospital sustained significant damage in a missile strike. The Israeli military said people could leave bomb shelters but cautioned the public to stay close to shelter for the coming hours. Trump says ceasefire is in effect Trump's announcement that Israel and Iran had agreed to a "complete and total ceasefire" came soon after Iran launched a limited missile attack Monday on a U.S. military base in Qatar, retaliating for the American bombing of its nuclear sites. The U.S. was warned by Iran in advance, and there were no casualties. Trump's announcement on Truth Social said the ceasefire beginning about midnight Washington time would bring an "Official END" to the war. Israel doesn't confirm ceasefire but appears to pause strikes Israel did not immediately acknowledge any ceasefire, but there were no reports of Israeli strikes in Iran after 4 a.m. in Tehran. Heavy Israeli strikes continued in Iranian cities until shortly before that time. Under the Trump plan, Israel was to halt its attacks on Iran by 1:30 p.m. Tehran time. There's been no report of Israel launching attacks against Iran since early Tuesday morning. Israel did not immediately acknowledge any ceasefire, but there were no reports of Israeli strikes in Iran after 4 a.m. in Tehran. Heavy Israeli strikes continued in Iranian cities until shortly before that time. The Israeli military declined to comment on Trump's ceasefire statement and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. "As of now, there is NO 'agreement' on any ceasefire or cessation of military operations," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in a post on X. "However, provided that the Israeli regime stops its illegal aggression against the Iranian people no later than 4 am Tehran time, we have no intention to continue our response afterwards." His message was posted at 4:16 a.m. Tehran time. Araghchi added: "The final decision on the cessation of our military operations will be made later." Writing over an hour after the first phase of the tentative ceasefire, which called for Iran to halt its attacks, Trump added: "THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT. PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!" Trump describes conflict as '12 Day War' Trump gave the conflict between Israel and Iran a name: the "12 Day War." That recalls the 1967 Mideast war, known by some as the "Six Day War," in which Israel fought a group of Arab countries including Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Trump's reference carries emotional weight for the Arab world, particularly Palestinians. In the 1967 war, Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria. Though Israel later gave the Sinai back to Egypt, it still holds the other territories. Trump communicated directly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure the ceasefire, according to a senior White House official who insisted on anonymity to discuss the Monday talks. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff communicated with the Iranians through direct and indirect channels. The White House has maintained that the Saturday bombing helped get the Israelis to agree to the ceasefire and that the Qatari government helped to broker the deal. It's unclear what role Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's leader, played in the talks. He said earlier on social media that he would not surrender. Attacks from Iran forces temporary closure of Israel's skies Israel's Airports Authority said Iran's barrage forced them to close the country's airspace to emergency flights for several hours. Some flights were forced to circle over the Mediterranean Sea, according to Israeli media. Israel's airports have been closed since the war with Iran began, but a handful of emergency flights started arriving and departing over the past few days. By early Tuesday, Qatar Airways resumed its flights after Qatar shut down its airspace over the Iranian attack on Al Udeid Air Base. Flight-tracking data showed commercial aircraft again flying in Qatari airspace, signaling Doha believed the threat on the energy-rich nation had passed. Conflict has killed hundreds In Israel, at least 24 people have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded in the war. Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 974 people and wounded 3,458 others, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists. The group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from Iranian unrest such as the protests surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022, said of those killed, it identified 387 civilians and 268 security force personnel. The U.S. has evacuated some 250 American citizens and their immediate family members from Israel by government, military and charter flights that began over the weekend, a State Department official said. There are roughly 700,000 American citizens, most of them dual U.S.-Israeli citizens, believed to be in Israel.
The Mainichi
3 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Trump heads to the NATO summit on the heels of a possible Israel-Iran ceasefire
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump's first appearance at NATO since returning to the White House was supposed to center on how the U.S. secured a historic military spending pledge from others in the defensive alliance -- effectively bending it to its will. But in the spotlight instead now is Trump's decision to strike three nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran that the administration says eroded Tehran's nuclear ambitions as well as the president's sudden announcement that Israel and Iran had reached a "complete and total ceasefire." The sharp U-turn in hostilities just hours before he was set to depart for the summit is sure to dominate the discussions in The Hague, Netherlands. The impact of the strikes had already begun to shape the summit, with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte dancing around the issue even as hundreds of people showed up in The Hague on Sunday to denounce the conflict in a protest that was supposed to be focused on defense spending. Still, other NATO countries have become accustomed to the unpredictable when it comes to Trump, who has made no secret of his disdain for the alliance, which was created as a bulwark against threats from the former Soviet Union. Trump's debut on the NATO stage at the 2017 summit was perhaps most remembered by his shove of Dusko Markovic, the prime minister of Montenegro, as the U.S. president jostled toward the front of the pack of world leaders during a NATO headquarters tour. And he began the 2018 summit by questioning the value of the decades-old military alliance and accusing its members of not contributing enough money for their defense -- themes he has echoed since. In Brussels, Trump floated a 4% target of defense spending as a percentage of a country's gross domestic product, a figure that seemed unthinkable at the time. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will also attend the NATO summit this week. She said if Trump does anything to sow division within the alliance, it would benefit Xi Jinping of China, which NATO countries have accused of enabling Russia as it invades Ukraine. "That does not help America, does not help our national security," Shaheen said in an interview. "What it does is hand a victory to our adversaries, and for an administration that claims to be so concerned about the threat from (China), to behave in that way is hard to understand." Trump heavily telegraphed his attitude toward global alliances during his presidential campaigns. As a candidate in 2016, Trump suggested that he as president would not necessarily heed the alliance's mutual defense guarantees outlined in Article 5 of the NATO treaty. And during a campaign rally in 2024, Trump recounted a conversation with another NATO leader during which Trump said he would "encourage" Russia "to do whatever the hell they want" to members who weren't meeting the alliance's military spending targets. In The Hague, Trump will want to tout -- and take credit for -- the pledge to hike military spending, which requires other NATO countries to invest in their defense at an unprecedented scale. The president went as far as to argue that the U.S. should not have to abide by the 5% spending pledge he wants imposed on the other NATO countries. That 5% is effectively divided into two parts. The first, 3.5%, is meant to be made up of traditional military spending such as tanks, warplanes and air defense. What can comprise the remaining 1.5% is a bit fuzzier, but it can include things like roads and bridges that troops could use to travel. According to NATO, the U.S. was spending about 3.4% of its gross domestic product on defense as of 2024. Most NATO countries -- with Spain as the key holdout -- are preparing to endorse the pledge, motivated not just by Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine to bolster their own defenses but also perhaps appease the United States and its tempestuous leader. "He hasn't said this in a while, but there are still a lot of worries in Europe that maybe the United States will pull out of NATO, maybe the United States won't honor Article 5," said Matthew Kroenig, vice president and senior director of the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a former Pentagon official. "I think there is a real fear among Europeans that we need to deliver for Trump in order to keep the United States engaged in NATO." Kroenig added: "Like it or not, I do think Trump's tougher style does get more results." European allies have taken note of potential signs of a broader U.S. retreat. France and other NATO countries have been concerned that the Trump administration is considering reducing troop levels in Europe and shift them over to the Indo-Pacific, which Cabinet officials have signaled is a higher priority. Still, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker have underscored the U.S.' commitment and have said the Trump administration is only seeking a stronger alliance. "There's sort of -- in some ways -- not a coherent view coming from this administration, the Trump administration, about how it sees NATO," said Max Bergmann, the director of the Europe, Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "And right now, Europeans can kind of see what they want from the United States." The White House has not said which world leaders Trump will meet with at the World Forum in The Hague. It's unclear whether Trump's path will cross with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's; the two leaders were scheduled to meet at the Group of 7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, earlier this month before Trump abruptly cut his trip short and returned to Washington. Rutte has stressed before that Trump's tariff war has no impact on NATO since the alliance doesn't deal with trade. But it will be hard to ignore the issue as the U.S. and the European Union continue to negotiate a trade deal after the U.S. president threatened 50% import taxes on all European goods. Trump has set a July 9 deadline for the U.S. and the 27-country EU to strike a trade deal. But in recent days, he's said the EU had not offered a fair deal as he reiterated his threat to force Europe to "just pay whatever we say they have to pay."
Yomiuri Shimbun
5 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Romanian Lawmakers Vote in Favor of Pro-EU Coalition, Aiming to End Protracted Political Crisis
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romanian lawmakers voted Monday decisively in favor of a new pro-European coalition government led by a center-right prime minister, as the European Union and NATO member nation seeks to end one of its worst political crises in its post-communist history. Parliament approved the new administration in a 301-9 vote in Romania's 464-seat legislature, days after Romania's new President Nicusor Dan nominated Ilie Bolojan of the center-right National Liberal Party, or PNL, to lead a new government. Some lawmakers from nationalist opposition parties were absent from the voting. The coalition is made up of the leftist Social Democratic Party, or PSD, the PNL, the reformist Save Romania Union party, and the small ethnic Hungarian UDMR party, with the support of national minorities. The ministerial positions will be shared among the parties, which will hold a comfortable majority. The prime ministerial position will be rotated in 2027 from Bolojan to a PSD premier as part of a power-sharing agreement. Ahead of the confidence vote on Monday, Bolojan, 56, called it a 'decisive moment' for Romania's future and said among his top priorities would be reducing the large budget deficit and reforming state institutions. 'Despite the challenges we face … Romania deserves a realistic and fair country project,' he said. 'Romania must be stronger and more secure, with an economy that can and must grow … with reformed institutions and respect for citizens.' With one of the highest budget deficits in the 27-nation EU bloc, the new government will face the challenge of introducing fiscal measures that Bolojan acknowledged could prove unpopular, especially ahead of a 2028 general election amid a growing shift toward populist parties. After parliament's approval, the Romanian president held a ceremony to swear in the new government at Cotroceni Palace in the capital, Bucharest. 'Today we begin a new chapter,' President Dan said. 'We must rebuild citizens' trust in the authorities of the Romanian state. It will be a long road, but I'm optimistic that we'll succeed.' Bolojan previously served as acting president earlier this year, until Dan decisively beat a hard-right opponent in a heated presidential election rerun. That vote was held months after the previous election was annulled by a top court, which plunged Romania into a deep political crisis and exposed deep societal divisions in the country. The previous coalition, sworn in last December, collapsed following Marcel Ciolacu's resignation in May, after the joint candidate failed to make the presidential runoff. The current broad coalition is viewed as a tactical partnership to shut out right-wing nationalists, whose voices found fertile ground during Romania's chaotic election cycle, with growing anti-establishment sentiment. Sorin Grindeanu, the PSD leader, said his party 'will be a responsible and honest partner' in the new coalition, which he said is for 'the good of this country and for the good of Romanians.' 'I wish (the coalition) to be strong for the next three and a half years,' he said. 'We are thus leaving the era of unprofitable interims and entering a period of rational and realistic solutions.' George Simion, the leader of the hard-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, who lost the presidency to Dan in the runoff, said he didn't think the coalition would make it through the year.
