Cambodia, Thailand Reaffirm Ceasefire Agreement in Border Talks
A meeting of senior security officials from the two nations held in Kuala Lumpur approved a set of measures to strictly enforce the truce and ease border tensions. The so-called General Border Committee meeting also agreed not to move or reinforce troops and weapons along the disputed border. It also endorsed monitoring of the ceasefire by an interim team of Asean defense attaches led by Malaysia, Thai officials said at a briefing.
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Nagasaki commemorates 80th anniversary of atomic bomb drop as mayor urges against nuclear weapons
A minute of silence was observed today in Nagasaki, precisely at the time of the atomic bomb explosion which was dropped by an American bomber on the Japanese city eighty years ago, while the restored bell tower of the city's church rang — for the first time since then. On 9 August 1945, at 11:02, just three days after Hiroshima, Nagasaki was struck by the horror of a nuclear attack. Some 74,000 people lost their lives in the city, a major port in the south-western part of the archipelago, adding to the 140,000 deaths of Hiroshima. 'Eighty years have passed, and who would have imagined the world would come to this? Stop armed conflicts immediately!' urged Shiro Suzuki, mayor of the martyred city, during the ceremony attended by representatives from over a hundred nations. 'Conflicts are escalating across various regions due to the vicious cycle of strife and division. A crisis capable of threatening the very survival of humanity itself — such as nuclear war — looms over all who inhabit this planet,' he added, shortly after the heavy rain which had fallen throughout the morning eased, just before the minute's silence was observed. International participation — a record turnout — was notably marked by the presence of Russia, which had not attended the anniversary since its military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Israel, whose ambassador was excluded last year in protest at the conflict in Gaza — prompting a boycott by other G7 ambassadors — was present this time. That explosion feels as though it happened 'in ancient times, but for those who lived through it, it is as fresh as yesterday. We must keep alive the memory of these real events,' said Atsuko Higuchi, a 50-year-old Nagasaki resident, at the Peace Park. A symbol of this memorial is the cathedral bell, destroyed by the atomic bomb: it was restored in the spring by American Christians and placed beside the existing bell before ringing once more on the anniversary, for the first time in eighty years. The striking red-brick Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception stands atop a hill. Rebuilt in 1959, the building was almost obliterated when the bomb exploded just a few hundred metres away. Related Hundreds protest nuclear weapons at Hiroshima ceremony Hiroshima remembers victims on 80th anniversary of atomic bombing Only one of the two bells was recovered from the ruins. For the church's priest, Kenichi Yamamura, the restoration 'demonstrates the grandeur of the human spirit' and is 'proof that those belonging to one side of a conflict that struck another may one day seek to make amends.' The aim is not 'to forget the wounds of the past, but to acknowledge them and work to heal, to rebuild, and thereby labour together for peace,' Mr Yamamura told the French Press Agency. The priest wished to send a message to a world shaken by multiple armed conflicts and caught up in a frantic arms race. 'We must not respond to violence with violence, but rather show through the way we live and pray just how irrational it is to take another's life,' he added. An American university professor, whose grandfather had been involved in the Manhattan Project — the development of the first nuclear weapons used in the Second World War — led the restoration project for the bell. James Nolan, a sociology professor in Massachusetts, raised approximately €107,200 from American Catholics for the endeavour. At the unveiling of the restored bell in spring, 'there were people who literally wept,' recalled Mr Nolan. Many American Catholics he met were unaware of the painful history of Nagasaki's Christians. Converted to Christianity in the 16th century by European missionaries, they endured persecution by the Japanese shoguns; practising and spreading their faith in secret for over 250 years. This story was recounted in the novel Silence by Japanese Catholic author Shūsaku Endō — adapted for the big screen by Martin Scorsese in 2016. 'We are talking about centuries of martyrdom, torture, illegality, mockery and persecution because of their faith,' Mr Nolan emphasised, referring to the Japanese Catholics. American Catholics were inspired by 'their willingness to forgive and rebuild, and their devotion to prayer,' he added. The atomic bombings dealt the final blow to the Japanese empire, which surrendered on 15 August 1945, bringing the Second World War to a close. Yet historians continue to debate whether and to what extent these bombings hastened the end of the war and saved lives, given the suffering endured by the hibakusha — the survivors — who, among other hardships, faced lifelong discrimination and were at a very high risk of developing certain types of cancer.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
The New Nuclear Generation
It was a sweltering day last August when Valentina Urtan, a 30-year-old from Ukraine, sat in an auditorium in Nagasaki, Japan, listening to a survivor of the atomic bomb. The man flipped through black-and-white photographs from eight decades ago showing wrecked buildings and charred bodies. Some 70,000 people died from a single bomb, dropped by the United States on Aug. 9, 1945. The photographs felt familiar to Ms. Urtan. They reminded her of cities in Ukraine that had been leveled by Russian warplanes and missiles. She wanted to get out of her chair, she said, and show images of that destruction to the people around her. The proof was right on her phone, in photos of her home region, Borodyanka, and alerts of air raids that had been flashing across its screen all morning. These were reminders of a war in which President Vladimir Putin of Russia has repeatedly used the threat of a nuclear strike to try to cow the West. 'It's not the past for me,' Ms. Urtan wanted to tell them. 'It's actually happening right now.' Today, nuclear war is mostly thought to be the stuff of history books: gruesome, uncomfortable and firmly in the past. But as nations' nuclear stockpiles expand and the risk of a strike rises, a generation of young people like Ms. Urtan is waking up to the threat. In the halls of New England prep schools, students are gathering to re-energize the antinuclear movement. Medical students are learning to use their knowledge to educate the public about the growing danger. Young Japanese activists are questioning their lawmakers' commitment to global disarmament, and the descendants of nuclear test survivors in places including the Marshall Islands and Kazakhstan are fighting for recognition — and to make sure testing never happens again. And if not them, who? The adults who were children at the dawn of the atomic era are nearing the end of their lives, and there are now fewer than 100,000 officially recognized hibakusha, as Japanese A-bomb survivors are known, alive today. Last fall, when the grass-roots survivor movement Nihon Hidankyo won the Nobel Peace Prize for its struggle against the bomb, the hibakusha made a plea: When we are gone, they said, the next generation must carry on their fight. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
Trump's Caucasus Gambit to Open New East-West Trade Corridor
Along a mountainous stretch of the South Caucasus lies a potentially important trade route—one that straddles a series of geopolitical flashpoints that have set off countless conflicts over the centuries, right up into recent years. And it's about to be named after Donald Trump.
