While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, July 26, 2025
Neighbours Cambodia and Thailand traded deadly strikes for a second day on July 25.
Cambodia calls for ceasefire with Thailand: UN envoy
Cambodia wants an 'immediate ceasefire' with Thailand, the country's envoy to the United Nations said on July 25, after the neighbours traded deadly strikes for a second day.
A long-running border dispute erupted into intense fighting with jets, artillery, tanks and ground troops on July 24, prompting the Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis on June 25.
'Cambodia asked for an immediate ceasefire – unconditionally – and we also call for the peaceful solution of the dispute,' said Cambodia's ambassador, Mr Chhea Keo, following a closed meeting of the Council attended by Cambodia and Thailand.
The envoy questioned how Thailand, a regional military heavyweight, could accuse Cambodia, its smaller neighbour, of attacking it.
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Trump arrives in Scotland for golf and trade talks
PHOTO: REUTERS
US President Donald Trump, dogged by questions about his ties to disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, arrived in Scotland on July 25 for some golf and bilateral talks that could yield a trade deal with the European Union.
Mr Trump told reporters before leaving the US that he will visit his two golf properties in Scotland and meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Scottish leader John Swinney.
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Mr Trump said he and Mr Starmer would discuss the US-British trade deal and perhaps even 'improve' it, but gave no details.
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Ukraine facing fierce fighting around Pokrovsk
PHOTO: REUTERS
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on July 25 that Ukrainian forces were facing fierce fighting around the city of Pokrovsk in the east, a logistics hub near which Russia has been announcing the capture of villages on an almost daily basis.
Mr Zelensky, speaking in his nightly video address, said Ukraine's top commander, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, told a meeting of senior officials that the situation around Pokrovsk was the current focal point of its attention in the war, which began when Russia invaded in February 2022.
'All operational directions were covered, with particular focus on Pokrovsk. It receives the most attention,' Mr Zelensky said.
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UK MPs urge Starmer to recognise Palestinian state
PHOTO: AFP
More than 220 British MPs, including dozens from the ruling Labour party, demanded on July 25 that the UK government formally recognise a Palestinian state, further increasing pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The call, in a letter signed by lawmakers from nine UK political parties, came less than 24 hours after French President Emmanuel Macron said that his country would formally recognise a Palestinian state at a UN meeting in September.
France would be the first Group of 7 country – and the most powerful European nation to date – to make the move, already drawing condemnation from Israel and the United States.
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Two teens jailed in UK over murder of 14-year-old
PHOTO: METROPOLITAN POLICE
A British judge on July 25 sentenced two teenagers to life in prison, with a minimum term of 15 years, for stabbing to death a 14-year-old boy on a London bus earlier this year.
The attack in January reignited debates around gang violence and the ongoing problem of knife crime that has plagued the British capital and other UK cities for years.
On Jan 7, Kelyan Bokassa was stabbed 27 times with machetes on the bus in Woolwich in south-east London.
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Find out what's new on ST website and app. FILE PHOTO: An Indian security force personnel uses binoculars as he stands on a rooftop, following the Pahalgam attack in south Kashmir, in Srinagar, May 5, 2025. REUTERS/Sharafat Ali/File Photo NEW DELHI - Indian forces have killed three "terrorists" involved in the April attack on Hindu tourists in Jammu and Kashmir federal territory in which 26 men were killed and led to a military conflict with Pakistan, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday. The attackers, who New Delhi said were Pakistani nationals backed by Islamabad, had opened fire in a valley popular with tourists in Kashmir's scenic, mountainous region of Pahalgam, before fleeing into the surrounding pine forests. Islamist Pakistan had denied involvement in the attack - the worst assault on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks - and sought an independent investigation. The four-day fighting between the nuclear-armed rivals was their worst in decades. REUTERS
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US senator wants Elon Musk to block use of Starlink by financial fraud groups in Southeast Asia, World News
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Thailand-Cambodia border calm as military commanders hold talks
[BANGKOK] Military commanders from Thailand and Cambodia held talks on Tuesday (Jul 29), as calm return to their disputed border and displaced residents began trickling back, following the South-east Asian neighbours announcing a truce to end five days of fighting. Thai and Cambodian leaders met in Malaysia on Monday and agreed to a ceasefire deal to halt their deadliest conflict in more than a decade that has killed at least 40 people, mostly civilians, and displaced over 300,000 in both countries. Although Thailand's military said that there had been attacks by Cambodian troops in at least five locations early on Tuesday, violating the ceasefire that had come into effect from midnight, commanders from both sides met and held talks, a Thai army spokesman said. This includes negotiations between the general leading Thailand's 2nd region army, which oversees the stretch of the frontier that has seen the heaviest fighting during the conflict, and his Cambodian counterpart, Thai Major Gen Winthai Suvaree told reporters. The commanders, who met at the border, agreed to maintain the ceasefire, stop any troop movement, and facilitate the return of the wounded and dead bodies, he said. 'Each side will establish a coordinating team of four to resolve any problems,' Winthai said. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 8.30 am Asean Business Business insights centering on South-east Asia's fast-growing economies. Sign Up Sign Up In Bangkok, Thailand's acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who travelled to the Malaysian capital to secure the truce deal, said he had spoken to Cambodia's defence minister and calm had returned to border area. 'There is no escalation,' Phumtham told reporters. 'Right now things are calm.' Maly Socheata, a spokesperson for the Cambodian Defence Ministry, said at a briefing on Tuesday that there had been no new fighting along the border. Vehicular traffic and daily activity resumed in the Kantharalak district of Thailand's Sisaket province on Tuesday, about 30 km from the frontlines, where Thai and Cambodian troops remain amassed. Chaiya Phumjaroen, 51, said he returned to town to reopen his shop early on Tuesday, after hearing of the ceasefire deal on the news. 'I am very happy that a ceasefire happened,' he said. 'If they continue to fight, we have no opportunity to make money.' In Cambodia's Oddar Meanchey province, 63-year-old Ly Kim Eng sat in front of a makeshift tarpaulin shelter, waiting for directions after hearing of the ceasefire deal. 'So, if the authorities announce it is safe for all of the refugees to return home, I would immediately return,' he said. The South-east Asian neighbours have wrangled for decades over their disputed frontier and have been on a conflict footing since the killing of a Cambodian soldier in a skirmish late in May, which led to a troop buildup on both sides and a full-blown diplomatic crisis. Monday's peace talks came after a sustained push by Malaysian Premier Anwar Ibrahim and US President Donald Trump, with the latter warning Thai and Cambodian leaders that trade negotiations would not progress if fighting continued. Thailand and Cambodia face a tariff of 36 per cent on their goods in the US, their biggest export market, unless a reduction can be negotiated. After the ceasefire deal was reached, Trump said he had spoken to both leaders and had instructed his trade team to restart tariff talks. Pichai Chunhavajira, Thailand's finance minister, said on Tuesday that trade talks with Washington are expected to be concluded before August 1, and that US tariffs on the country are not expected to be as high as 36 per cent. The ceasefire deal reflected a rare convergence of interest between the US and China, which also pushed for the talks, but the agreement itself remained fragile and third-party monitoring was essential to keep it in place, said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. 'The ceasefire agreement has to be enforced,' he said. 'It cannot be left to Thailand and Cambodia to implement because the hostilities are running so deep now.' REUTERS
