Clip shows Thai shop hit by rocket strike, not 'Cambodian military positions'
"At least two Cambodian military positions were destroyed including Brigade HQ in airstrikes by Royal Thai Airforce," reads the English-language caption of a Facebook reel shared on July 24, 2025.
The video shows a single-storey building covered in dark smoke.
It emerged as Cambodia fired rockets and artillery shells into Thailand and the Thai military scrambled F-16 jets to carry out air strikes in a dramatic escalation in a long-standing dispute over contested ancient temples situated along their 800-kilometre (500-mile) border (archived link).
Both sides blamed the other for starting the fighting, which erupted near two temples on the border.
The countries agreed a truce starting July 29, following five days of intense clashes that killed at least 43 people and displaced more than 300,000 (archived link).
The same clip was also shared in similar Facebook and X posts.
But it does not show the result of a Thai military strike in Cambodia.
Petrol station attack
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared clip led to the same footage posted on the Facebook page of Thailand's Second Army Region on the same day (archived link).
Its Thai-language caption reads: "BM-21 rockets from the Cambodian side hit a PTT gas station in Ban Phue, Kantharalak district, Sisaket province. Many students and civilians were injured."
A similar clip was posted on Facebook by Chatchak Ratsamikaeo, a 25-year-old farmer in Sisaket province (archived link).
"I was just about to turn my car into the station when the 7-Eleven was hit," Ratsamikaeo said. "I was terrified -- my hands and feet went numb."
Google Street View imagery of the convenience store attached to the petrol station matches the falsely shared video (archived link).
Moreover, AFP journalists who visited the site on July 25 confirmed it shows the PTT petrol station, located 12 kilometres from the Cambodian border (archived link).
Images taken by AFP photographer Lillian Suwanrumpha on July 25 show the damage caused to the store.
According to a report by Thai newspaper The Nation, eight people were killed in the rocket strike (archived link).
AFP has debunked other misinformation about the Thailand-Cambodia conflict.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Exclusive New Details on Prince Andrew's Thai Orgies Expose His Corrupt Abuse of Power for Sex
My friend Andrew Lownie's new book about Prince Andrew, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, has been four years in the making, and it landed on the pages of the Daily Mail this weekend with an almighty bang. Lownie believes that, ultimately, Andrew will be brought down by financial—not sexual—wrongdoing, but predictably, perhaps, it is Andrew's callous sexual behavior that has captured the headlines. His long friendship with predator Jeffrey Epstein is, of course, well known—the prince, after all, told the BBC he didn't regret the association one bit. Factor in Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and President Donald Trump, who once boasted he was so famous he could grab women 'by the p---y,' and you have a truly toxic brew of power and abuse. However, it is the prince's lurid sexual escapades in Thailand, which are discussed in Lownie's new biography, that may well prove to be the final nail in the coffin of Andrew's reputation. Of all the revolting stories that have dogged Andrew's disgraced career, Lownie's account of a rolling hotel-room orgy while on official royal duty stands out for its brazenness and its symbolism. Lownie—and the Mail—are to be congratulated for finally running this story, which has long circulated among the royal press pack. Andrew, the queen's son, travelled to Thailand in 2006, representing the Crown at the King of Thailand's diamond jubilee. And what was he doing? (I have some sources in Thailand myself, thanks to several years of reporting on the Thai monarchy.) According to Lownie, he was ordering women to his hotel suite in such numbers that even the staff of a luxury Bangkok hotel—who really have seen it all—were stunned. According to Lownie's sources, more than 40 women were brought to his room during the course of a weekend stay. 'Often, as soon as one left, another would arrive,' a witness told Lownie. My sources have confirmed Lownie's account of Andrew's industrial-scale sexual consumption, carried out under the auspices of royal diplomacy with the full apparatus of the British state behind him. Indeed, one source told me that rumors abounded among the Thai demimonde that Andrew and another foreign dignitary—who also regarded access to a revolving door of female bodies as part of the perks of office—were sending girls to each other via luxury car services in a horrific power play masquerading as a twisted mark of respect. The symbolism is grotesque. If you want to read more about my Thai sources' corroboration and amplification of this story, please head on over to The Royalist's new Substack, where I will be bringing my readers even more royal scoops and scandals. The British media used to dismiss Andrew's sexual exploitation of his position as 'Randy Andy' grabbing a quick leg-over. That all changed with Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre's allegations. Giuffre was a damaged and fragile person who, I believe, invented some of her wilder stories, such as being forced to have sex with Alan Dershowitz. But Giuffre, who was clearly traumatized by the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of Epstein, was the first person to crack open Andrew's shell of privilege. What the Thai orgy shows is how Andrew used his position in a sinister and cynical fashion to methodically exploit women sexually. This wasn't a dinner party fumble or a cheeky pinch of the bum—it was a sustained parade of women into a taxpayer-funded royal suite on an official trip under the banner of the Union Jack. My sources' accounts of this sordid episode also give a chilling insight into Andrew's sense of invincibility. Drunk on his power, he made no attempt to hide his behavior or be discreet (I feel in my bones that a sex tape is part of Andrew's future). Andrew has always behaved as if the rules simply don't apply to him, and for decades, he was right. That same delusion of impunity is echoed in Epstein's reported comment that Andrew was the only man he'd ever met more obsessed with sex than he was. Andrew's defenders will doubtless argue that no laws were broken in Thailand, that the prostitutes servicing him were all consenting adults. Legality is not the point. This is a man who used his role as royal envoy not to serve his country but to gorge himself sexually. Andrew once reminisced about a 'straightforward shooting weekend.' Well, the conversion of a royal diplomatic suite into a brothel is the straightforward abuse of status. Prince George's mac attack A cute story in the Daily Mail this weekend hints that when Prince William, Princess Kate, and their kids were cruising in the Aegean last month, a speedboat was dispatched to the island of Zakynthos to grab Prince George a Big Mac. A source told the Mail: 'George required a specific dietary item which led to the tender going ashore in Zakynthos to purchase it. Nothing extravagant, just something particular.' Locals note that Zakynthos is one of only a handful of Greek islands that boasts a McDonald's restaurant. The store manager told the Mail he wouldn't comment.


Newsweek
3 hours ago
- Newsweek
How Eliminating Capital Gains on Home Sales Could Impact Housing Market
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. President Donald Trump said he's "thinking about" eliminating the federal capital gains tax on home sales, in a move that experts are welcoming while warning that it would favor wealthier homeowners more than anyone else. "We are thinking tax on capital gains on houses," Trump told the press on July 22, showing support for a proposal that was first floated by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. While it is not yet clear whether any real change would come out of either Greene's bill—the "No Tax on Home Sales Act"—or Trump's suggestion, experts already estimate that the change would benefit wealthy American homeowners over low-to-mid-earning buyers, exacerbating existing inequality in the U.S. housing market. Even so, most agree that a revision of the current capital gains tax system is urgently needed to address the current housing affordability issues. What Is the Capital Gains Tax on Home Sales? Homeowners who sell a home on which they have realized a significant capital gain, meaning that they are now selling it for more than they originally purchased it for themselves, are likely to pay a federal capital gains tax on part of that gain. This is true for long-term homeowners, while those offloading a property within a year of buying it won't have to pay capital gains on the sale. Homeowners who have lived in a home as their primary residence for at least 24 months in the five years before the sale receive an exemption on the first $250,000 of gains for individuals and $500,000 for married couples filing jointly. President Donald Trump speaks at the White House on July 30, 2025. President Donald Trump speaks at the White House on July 30, 2025. JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images "Put simply, the number of homeowners who pay capital gains taxes on a sale is limited due to these exclusions, but there's a big catch," Chief Economist Danielle Hale said in a statement shared with Newsweek. "This exclusion was put into place in 1997 and was not indexed for inflation. If it had merely been indexed for inflation when originally enacted, those exclusions would be more than twice as large as they are today ($506k and $1.13M)," she said. "And home price increases have outpaced inflation in many of those years, further eroding the value of the exclusions." As it is, Hale said, "the cap is most likely to be a problem for homeowners in high-cost states where home prices have appreciated sharply, like California and Massachusetts. "It may also be an issue for those with above-median priced homes in lower cost states, especially in areas where home prices have increased rapidly and if the homeowners have lived in their homes for an extended period of time, which is more common for older homeowners," she added. But as property values have skyrocketed since the pandemic homebuying frenzy, more and more homeowners across the country are finding themselves realizing high capital gains, whether they are in expensive areas of the U.S. or not. How Would Its Elimination Impact the U.S. Housing Market? Shannon McGahn, executive vice president and chief advocacy officer at the National Association of Realtors (NAR), told Newsweek that her group welcomes any proposal addressing "the outdated capital gains thresholds hurting American homeowners." According to McGahn, "this is no longer just a concern for high-end properties," but one that is likely to affect more and more American homeowners in the near future. NAR's research has found that nearly 29 million homeowners, roughly one-third of the market, already face potential capital gains taxes if they sell, "and that number is expected to climb sharply over the next decade," McGahn said. By 2035, nearly 70 percent of homeowners could exceed the $250,000 cap, according to NAR, "including many middle-class families who've simply owned their homes for a long time in fast-growing markets," McGahn said. "These tax burdens create a 'lock-in effect,' especially for seniors, discouraging people from selling and keeping much-needed homes off the market," she said. Increasing the exclusion or eliminating the capital gains tax for home sellers "could enable those who would otherwise face a steep tax bill to sell and downsize or relocate, potentially opening up housing inventory in some of the highest-cost housing markets," Hale said. "Otherwise, the current tax structure actually incentivizes homeowners who may be facing a large capital gains tax bill to stay in their homes until they die—even if the home is no longer a good fit for their needs," she added. "This is because when a homeowner passes away, the home receives what's called a stepped-up basis—the amount used to calculate capital gains is reset to the current market value, essentially eliminating any outstanding capital gains liability for individuals with a similar but more nuanced result for surviving spouses." According to McGahn, eliminating capital gains on home sales is about fairness. "A homeowner shouldn't be taxed like an investor," she said. "This is about protecting equity and helping the entire market function more efficiently. President Trump's comments reflect growing momentum for reform, and we're encouraged to see this issue gaining attention at the highest levels." But other experts are skeptical of the impact that eliminating capital gains on home sales could have on American homeowners right now. "Long-term homeowners in markets that rapidly appreciated over the last 5+ years may feel an additional burden, which could discourage them from selling. However, these taxes generally apply to a relatively small subset of sellers, and are not likely influencing the broader market too severely," Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at previously told Newsweek. "For sellers in low-to-mid priced markets, the current exclusion is sufficient. The national median listing price was $441,000 in June, which is less than the $500,000 joint exclusion, meaning the typical U.S. home seller is not subject to capital gains tax if filing jointly," she said. There are also some potential downsides to consider that may follow a potential abolition of the federal capital gains tax on home sales. "Ongoing affordability issues could be exacerbated by abolishing this tax as it could fuel demand and lead to a more competitive housing market, especially where supply is constrained," Jones said. "Removing this tax would favor wealthy owners which could worsen equity inequality and make the market even more challenging for low-to-mid earning buyers."


Bloomberg
3 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Suspended Thai PM Hopes for Fair Court Ruling in Ethics Case
Suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra is seeking a fair hearing from a court probing allegations of ethical misconduct related to her handling of a border dispute with Cambodia, an official said. As the nation's leader, Paetongtarn's phone conversation with Cambodia's former leader Hun Sen was made in good faith with a sincere intention to promote peace between the two countries, Prommin Lertsuridej, secretary-general to the prime minister, told reporters. She submitted her defense statement on Monday, meeting the deadline set by the Constitutional Court, he said.