Marcos offers Philippine support amid Cambodia-Thailand border conflict
In a statement, Marcos called on both Southeast Asian neighbors to pursue a peaceful resolution.
The Philippines views with concern the ongoing conflict between our two fellow ASEAN Member States and urges them to resolve the dispute in accordance with international law and the peaceful settlement of disputes,' the President said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) also released a separate statement, echoing the call for de-escalation and urging both countries to cease hostilities.
Clashes erupted on July 24 near the disputed Ta Muen Thom temple, involving artillery exchanges, rocket fire, and Thai F-16 airstrikes on Cambodian military positions.
The violence was reportedly triggered by a landmine explosion that injured Thai soldiers. Thailand accused Cambodia of laying new mines, an allegation denied by Phnom Penh, which in turn accused Bangkok of breaching agreed patrol boundaries.
As of July 26, at least 32 people, including military personnel and civilians, have been killed, while over 130 others were wounded.
More than 120,000 residents have fled the conflict zones, prompting school closures and the suspension of hospital services in affected areas.
Cambodian forces reportedly hold key border positions, while Thai authorities have placed eight districts under martial law to maintain order and security.
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Middle East Eye
9 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Canada never stopped arming Israel despite pledge to halt new permits, report says
The Canadian government misled the public when it said it was pausing all new weapons export permits to Israel last year, a new report published on Tuesday says. Commercially available data has shown shipments not only continued but were actually fast-tracked - and sometimes via indirect routes such as through the US. The findings, compiled by an all-volunteer team from the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and the groups World Beyond War and Arms Embargo Now, point to efforts by Ottawa to placate an electorate that has expressed growing dissatisfaction with how the Liberal Party has responded to Israel's war on Gaza - but without actually reversing its policy of unconditional support for Israel, as it publicly pledged. "Shipments of arms to Israel were allowed to proceed under hundreds of previously approved permits. This communications ploy allowed Canadian companies to continue to profit from Israel's genocide while the Federal government misled Canadians into believing they were no longer arming the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza," the authors wrote in the report. The 58-page document entitled "Exposing Canadian Military Exports to Israel" cites more than 390 shipments from 21 Canadian manufacturers in six cities that included more than 420,000 bullets, 735 cartridge parts (ammunition sets for firearms), F-35 jet parts such as navigation sensors, radar systems, and dual-use items like GPS antennas. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The deadliest weapons and military support systems came from General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, Stelia Aerospace North America, and Pratt & Whitney, among others, which delivered support systems such as surveillance and tracking technology, as well as landing gear for aircraft. The authors say they used two complementary methodologies for the first time to track Canadian arms exports: commercial shipping data crosschecked with Israeli Tax Authority import data from October 2023 to May 2025. "[The report] exposes a vastly different reality than government claims: a continuous, massive pipeline of Canadian weapons flowing directly to Israel," the authors said. Canada's Mark Carney derided online for vision of 'Zionist Palestinian state' Read More » "By continuing to send arms transfers to Israel, Canada is violating both domestic law and its commitments under international law," they continued. Middle East Eye reached out to Global Affairs Canada, the foreign ministry, but was not given a response by the time of publication. Israel has killed over 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza since the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023. And since March, it has imposed a crippling siege on the enclave that has led to a declaration of famine by the world's top food and aid bodies. "Canada must urgently impose a full two-way arms embargo on Israel. This requires canceling all active arms export permits, closing loopholes for US transfers, banning surveillance and dual-use technology, and canceling all contracts and planned purchases of military goods from Israel," the report urged. The F-35 programme A key finding in the report is that parts made in Canada by three main companies routinely make up at least $2.1m of every F-35 fighter jet - the most sophisticated and highly sought-after fifth-generation fighter jet, designed in the US by Lockheed Martin. Beyond its Nato and G7 partners and Australia, no other country in the world has access to these stealth aircraft except Israel. "Canadian components, we've known for a long time, are critical in constructing the F-35," Yara Shoufani, a PYM organiser, told MEE. The three named manufacturers in Canada are Stelia, which makes composite panels and precision structural parts for the jets; CMC, which makes Doppler Velocity Sensors for target precision; and Nexeya, which supplies Modular Product Testers to ensure jets are combat-ready, the report showed. Almost all these parts ended up at Elbit Systems. 'Elbit, as a weapons manufacturer, has really come to be seen across the world as synonymous with genocide' - Yara Shoufani, Palestinian Youth Movement "This is really concerning when you think about the fact that Elbit, as a weapons manufacturer, has really come to be seen across the world as synonymous with genocide," Shoufani said. "For the Canadian government to be allowing for these manufacturers based in Canada to be sending weapon components to Israel's largest weapon manufacturer is something that should really raise alarms." On 13 July 2024, Israel deployed an F-35 fighter jet to drop three 2,000-pound bombs on al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, an area of southern Gaza it had explicitly designated a 'safe zone'. At least 90 Palestinians were killed, and another 300 were wounded in the attack. The report cited the bombing as an example of the damage only this particular fighter jet is capable of doing. While the F-35's "ongoing operability relies on a complex international supply chain," the report said, "the F-35 cannot conduct air strikes without Canadian parts". How do the weapons get to Israel? Canadian weapons exports were traced by the authors to major Israeli firms such as Elta Systems and Snunit Aviation, in addition to the main recipient, Elbit Systems. The Canadian minister of foreign affairs is ultimately responsible for signing off on the export permits to any foreign entity, and they are typically valid for at least two to three years from the date of approval, the report showed. The authors of the report wrote that the flow of military goods between Canada and Israel operates in two ways: direct commercial exports from Canadian companies to Israel, and indirect exports where Canadian arms are shipped to Israel through transfers via the United States. The latter allows Canada to exploit a loophole that exempts it from its permitting requirements, which stipulate that no military support can be provided to countries potentially involved in war crimes. Palestine Action 'shut down' Elbit Systems HQ and subcontractor Read More » Shoufani added that out of the 100 direct shipments that they were able to identify, there were 67 times where military cargo was loaded onto passenger planes. "So here we're talking about major airlines like Lufthansa, Air France, Air Canada, Air Transat, where essentially components are being loaded onto planes that have passengers headed to holiday destinations," Shoufani said. Among the airlines involved in carrying Canadian-made weapons and support parts to Israel since 7 October 2023 is Etihad Airways, based in Abu Dhabi. The report identified at least four such flights by Etihad. Canada also imports Israeli military technology and hardware, the report pointed out, including weapons that have been deployed against Palestinians and are in turn marketed to the government of Canada as 'battle-tested' and 'combat-proven". A survey commissioned by the National Council of Canadian Muslims in March, a year and a half into the war on Gaza that scholars and human rights groups have now termed a genocide, showed that 55 percent of respondents want to see arms transfers to Israel suspended. There was a similar amount of support for backing the International Criminal Court and arresting officials with outstanding warrants if they come to Canada, namely Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
Gulf Today
12 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Billions for arms, rather than troops, won't make us safer
William D. Hartung, Tribune News Service The Pentagon got a whopping $150 billion increase in the budget bill passed by Congress and signed by the president July 4. That will push next year's proposed Pentagon budget to more than $1 trillion. Most of that enormous amount will go to weapons manufacturers. A new report by the Quincy Institute and the Costs of War Project at Brown University found that for the period from 2020 to 2024, more than half of the Pentagon budget — 54% — went to private companies. That figure has climbed considerably since the immediate post-Cold War period of the 1990s, when the contractor share was 41%. The surge of spending on the Pentagon and its primary weapons suppliers won't necessarily make us safer. It may just enrich military companies while subsidising overpriced, underperforming weapons systems, even as it promotes an accelerated arms race with China. While weapons firms will fare well if the new budget goes through as planned, military personnel and the veterans who have fought in America's wars in this century will not. The Donald Trump administration is seeking deep cuts in personnel, facilities and research at the Veterans Affairs, and tens of thousands of military families have to use food stamps, a program cut by 20% in the budget bill, to make ends meet. The $150 billion in add-ons for the Pentagon include tens of billions for the Trump administration's all-but-impossible dream of a leak-proof Golden Dome missile defense system, a goal that has been pursued for more than 40 years without success. Other big winners include the new F-47 combat aircraft, and the military shipbuilding industry, which is slated for a huge infusion of new funding. The question of how to allocate the Pentagon's orgy of weapons spending is complicated by the fact that there are now two powerful factions within the arms industry fighting over the department's budget, the traditional Big Five, composed of Lockheed Martin, RTX (formerly Raytheon), Boeing, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, and emerging military tech firms such as SpaceX, Palantir and Anduril. The Big Five currently get the bulk of Pentagon weapons spending, but the emerging tech firms are catching up, winning lucrative contracts for military-wide communications systems and antidrone technology. And there will be more such contracts. Even after the public falling out between Elon Musk and the president, the emerging tech firms have a decided advantage, with advocates such as Vice President JD Vance, who maintains close ties with his mentor and political supporter Peter Thiel of Palantir, and dozens of staff members from military tech firms who are now embedded in the national security and budget bureaucracies of the Trump administration. Meanwhile, the tech sector's promises of a new, revolutionary era of defense made possible by artificial-intelligence-driven weapons and other technologies are almost certainly overstated. If past practice tells us anything, it is that new, complex high-tech weapons will not save us. The history of Pentagon procurement is littered with 'miracle weapons,' from the electronic battlefield in Vietnam to Ronald Reagan's 'impenetrable' Star Wars missile shield to networked warfare and precision-guided bombs used in the Iraq and Afghan wars. When push came to shove, these highly touted systems either failed to work as advertised, or were irrelevant to the kinds of wars they were being used in. Just one example: Despite the fact that the Pentagon spent well over $10 billion to find a system that could neutralise improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan, only modest progress was made. Even after the new technology was deployed, 40% of could not be cleared. Technology is a tool, but it is not the decisive factor in winning wars or deterring adversaries. An effective military should be based on well-trained, well-compensated and highly motivated troops. That means taking some of that 54% of the Pentagon budget that goes to contractors and investing in supporting the people who are actually tasked with fighting America's wars.
Filipino Times
13 hours ago
- Filipino Times
Houthi Rebels Holding 9 Filipino Crew from MV Eternity C — DMW Confirms
The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) confirmed on Tuesday, July 21, that nine Filipino seafarers remain in the custody of Yemen's Houthi rebels following the Red Sea attack on the bulk carrier MV Eternity C earlier this month. The confirmation came after the Houthi group released a video on Monday showing what they claimed were rescued crew members from the ill-fated vessel. DMW Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said they already had knowledge of the situation prior to the video's release, but were awaiting identity confirmation from the families involved. 'This confirms what we have already known, pending family verification,' Cacdac said in a press briefing. He emphasized that the Philippine government, in coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), is currently seeking help from allied nations to secure the release of the detained Filipinos. Out of the 22 crew aboard the Eternity C, 21 were Filipinos. According to the DMW, eight have already been repatriated, three were confirmed dead, and one remains missing. 'The remaining nine seafarers are confirmed to be in Houthi custody,' Cacdac stated, adding that the government is providing ongoing support to the affected families, including regular updates and psychosocial assistance.
