Category: 2. World

Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” after five days of fighting at their border killed at least 33 people and displaced tens of thousands.

“This is a vital first step to a de-escalation and a restoration of peace and security,” said Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, flanked by his Thai and Cambodian counterparts, as he announced that hostilities would end at midnight.

Thailand initially rebuffed his offer to mediate but agreed after US President Donald Trump said tariff negotiations would not proceed until “fighting STOPS”.

Tensions over the century-old border dispute had ramped up in May after a Cambodian soldier was killed in a clash.

Thailand imposed restrictions on citizens and tourists heading into Cambodia via land, while Cambodia banned some imports from Thailand, including fruits, power and internet services. Local Cambodian outlets reported that hundreds of thousands of workers had returned from Thailand since May.

The situation escalated last week, after a Thai soldier lost his leg in a landmine explosion. Thailand closed some of its border crossings with Cambodia, expelled their ambassador and recalled its own.

Both sides exchanged gunfire early last Thursday, with each claiming the other had triggered the conflict.

Many of the casualties on the Thai side have been civilians in villages hit by rockets, according to Thailand’s army. Cambodia said 13 people had been killed so far on its side, including eight civilians.

Shells and rockets continued to land in both countries even as the peace talks were under way in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

Anwar said Malaysia and other members of the regional bloc, Association of South East Asian Nations, or Asean, were on hand to help monitor the ceasefire.

Both sides will need to agree to pull their armies, which have now been greatly reinforced, back from the border, and to accept some kind of independent monitoring, to prevent further clashes.

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet described it as a very good meeting that he hoped would immediately stop the fighting. Cambodia has been pushing for a ceasefire since Friday, as its outgunned forces have been driven back by the Thai military.

Acting Thai PM Phumtham Wechayachai spoke briefly, promising to honour the ceasefire.

The situation on the front lines, which are accessible only to the two armies, is still unclear.

Thailand claims to have taken control of a number of Cambodian-held hills, and kept up a sustained artillery barrage from its much larger arsenal of heavy guns, as well as hitting Cambodian positions from the air.

The Thai government was reluctant to join peace talks, saying that a ceasefire could only follow a dialogue between the two countries and “sincere intentions” from Cambodia, by which it meant an end to the rocket barrages which have killed at least 14 Thai civilians.

While Malaysia brokered the talks, the credit probably belongs in Washington, with President Trump. His ultimatum on Saturday night, threatening to stop all negotiations on reducing US tariffs unless the two countries agreed to stop fighting, was almost certainly what forced them to accept the ceasefire.

Both are heavily dependent on exports to the US and both face a 36% tariff on exports without a deal. That would put their manufacturers at a big disadvantage to those in neighbouring countries like Vietnam and Indonesia, which have already done deals to reduce their tariffs to 20% or less.

But maintaining the ceasefire will be hard, given that there is now deep mistrust between the two armies, and a lot of powerful nationalist sentiments have been stirred up.

Thailand is especially aggrieved by the sudden use of multiple rocket launchers on Thursday that caused most of the civilian casualties, and dramatically escalated what until then had been small-scale skirmishes between their soldiers.

Older evacuees near the Thai border who had lived through bombardments during the Cambodian Civil War of the 1980s told the BBC last week that this is the worst they had experienced.

The Thai military had said on Sunday that nearly 140,000 civilians had been evacuated to shelters across seven provinces.

In Cambodia, where the press is severely restricted, the pro-state Khmer Times quoted a defence ministry spokesperson who said about 135,000 people along the border were relocated on Sunday.

A 75-year-old Cambodian woman who was evacuated to a shelter told the BBC earlier on Monday that she still did not feel safe because she could hear Thai drones fly over the tents.

She said she wanted to “see the war stop this evening”.

Two leading human rights organisations based in Israel, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, say Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the country’s western allies have a legal and moral duty to stop it.

In reports published on Monday, the two groups said Israel had targeted civilians in Gaza only because of their identity as Palestinians over nearly two years of war, causing severe and in some cases irreparable damage to Palestinian society.

A number of international and Palestinian groups have already described the war as genocidal, but reports from two of Israel-Palestine’s most respected human rights organisations, who have for decades documented systemic abuses, is likely to add to pressure for action.

The reports detailed crimes including the killing of tens of thousands of women, children and elderly people, mass forced displacement and starvation, and the destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure that have deprived Palestinians of healthcare, education and other basic rights.

“What we see is a clear, intentional attack on civilians in order to destroy a group,” said Yuli Novak, the director of B’Tselem, calling for urgent action. “I think every human being has to ask himself: what do you do in the face of genocide?”

It is vital to recognise that a genocide is under way even without a ruling in the case before the international court of justice, she said. “Genocide is not just a legal crime. It’s a social and political phenomenon.”

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) focuses in its report on a detailed chronological account of the assault on Gaza’s health system, with many details documented directly by the group’s own team, which worked regularly in Gaza before 7 October 2023.

The destruction of the healthcare system alone makes the war genocidal under article 2c of the genocide convention, which prohibits deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy a group “in whole or part”, said its director, Guy Shalev.

“You don’t have to have all five articles of the genocide convention to be fulfilled in order for something to be genocide,” he said, although the report also details other genocidal aspects of Israel’s war.

Both B’Tselem and PHR said Israel’s western allies were enabling the genocidal campaign, and shared responsibility for suffering in Gaza. “It couldn’t happen without the support of the western world,” Novak said. “Any leader that is not doing whatever they can to stop it is part of this horror.”

The US and European countries have a legal responsibility to take stronger action than they have done so far, Shalev said. “Every tool in the toolbox should be used. This is not what we think, this is what the genocide convention calls for.”

Israel denies is it carrying out a genocide, and says the war in Gaza is one of self-defence after cross-border attacks by Hamas on 7 October 2023 killed 1,200 people, the majority civilians. More than 250 others were kidnapped and taken to Gaza, where 50 remain held hostage, with 20 of them believed to still be alive.

On Monday a spokesperson for the Israeli government called the allegation made by the rights groups “baseless”. “There is no intent, [which is] key for the charge of genocide … It simply doesn’t make sense for a country to send in 1.9m tons of aid, most of that being food, if there is an intent of genocide,” said spokesperson David Mencer.

A key element to the crime of genocide, as defined by the international convention, is showing intent by a state to destroy a target group in whole or part.

Genocidal statements from politicians and military leaders, and a chronology of well-documented impacts on civilians after nearly two years of war are proof of that intent, even without a paper trail of orders from the top, both PHR and B’Tselem say.

The PHR report details how “genocidal intent may be inferred from the pattern of conduct”, citing legal precedent from the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda.

The extensive documentation, by medics, media and human rights organisations over a long period of time, meant Israel’s government could not claim it did not understand the impact of its actions, Shalev said. “There were enough times and enough opportunities for Israel to stop this gradual systematic attack.”

Incitement to genocide has been recorded since the start of the war. It is one of two issues on which the Israeli judge hearing the case at the international court of justice voted with the majority when ordering emergency measures for the protection of Palestinians from the plausible risk of genocide.

“We don’t need to guess what Israel is doing and what the Israeli army is doing, because from the first day of this attack, Israeli leaders, the highest leadership, political leadership, including the prime minister, the minister of defence, the president of Israel said exactly that,” Novak said.

“They talked about human animals. They talked about the fact that there are no civilians in Gaza or that there is an entire nation responsible for 7 October.”

“If the leadership of Israel, whether the army leadership and the political leadership, knows about the consequences of this policy and keep going, it is very clear that is intentional.”

The destruction of health infrastructure, two years without medical care and the killing of medical workers also meant the toll from the genocide would continue to mount even after any ceasefire halts fighting, Shalev said.

“For example, there have been no MRI machines in Gaza for months now, so what about all the illnesses and diseases that were not diagnosed all that time. There are all the malnutrition and chronic diseases that went untreated, we’re going to see the effects of that for months and years to come.”

While medication can be brought in within days, there is no easy way to replace medical workers who have been killed, including specialists who took decades to train, he said.

“Looking at the conditions of life opens this kind of temporal scale that is frightening if we want to believe in a future where … the people of Gaza somehow get to live their lives safely and in good health. It’s very hard to see that.”

The death toll in Gaza from the war is approaching 60,000, or more than 2.5% of the prewar population. Some of those who defend Israel’s war argue that is too low for the campaign to be considered genocide.

That is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the crime of genocide, which the convention defines as targeting a group “in whole or in part”, Novak said. “It doesn’t mean that you need to kill each and every person.”

A genocide targeting Palestinians as a group was possible only because Israel for decades dehumanised Palestinians and denied their rights, Novak said. Collective trauma was exploited by far-right politicians to accelerate an agenda they had been pursuing for years.

“[7 October ] was a shocking moment and a turning point for Israelis because it instilled a real sincere feeling of existential threat. That was the moment that pushed a whole system and how it operates in Gaza from a policy of control and oppression into one of destruction and extermination.”

Now Israel had launched a genocidal campaign in Gaza, there was an urgent risk that it could spread to target other Palestinians, the B’Tselem report warned.

“The Israeli regime now has a new tool that they didn’t use before – genocide. And the fact that that this tool or this policy used in Gaza is not yet [deployed] in other areas is not something that we can count on for long,” Novak said.

The West Bank is a particular concern, with almost 1,000 Palestinians killed and more than 40,000 displaced from communities including Jenin and Tulkarem, in a campaign of escalating attacks and ethnic cleansing since 7 October 2023.

“What we see is basically the same regime with the same logic, the same army, usually the same commanders and even the same soldiers who just fought in Gaza. They are now in the West Bank where violence is on the rise,” Novak said.

“What we worry about and want to warn about is the fact that any small trigger might make the genocide spill over from Gaza into the West Bank.”

The Handala, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was carrying vital humanitarian aid to Gaza, along with 21 peaceful activists committed to human rights and international solidarity.

Among those unlawfully detained are several trade unionists:

• Hatem Laouini, Tunisian trade unionist from the UGTT and representative of UNI Global Union in the Arab region.
• Christian Smalls, founder of the Amazon Labor Union in the United States.
• Santiago González Vallejo, Spanish economist and retired trade unionist attached to the USO International Action Secretariat.

This unjustified detention constitutes a grave violation of international law, an assault on the peaceful defence of human rights, and a direct threat to trade unionists’ right to engage in international solidarity.

The presence of respected union leaders on this mission underscores the global labour movement’s unwavering commitment to peace, human rights and solidarity with the Palestinian people.

ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle said: “We are witnessing ever-escalating series of atrocities in Gaza. Since late May, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed trying to access food. The entire population in Gaza is facing starvation under Israel’s illegal blockade.”

“While the international community is knowingly standing by and watching the mass killing and starvation unfold, these courageous activists undertook brave action to deliver critical humanitarian aid directly to Palestinians in Gaza, including baby milk formula, nappies, food and medicine. The world is in a moral crisis. These people should not be arrested but immediately released. Humanitarian aid should not be blocked, but allowed to reach Gaza without obstruction and the people of Gaza must be able to peacefully access these supplies.”

The ITUC urgently calls for:

• The immediate and unconditional release of all those detained, including our trade union colleagues.
• International condemnation of Israel’s obstruction of a peaceful, humanitarian mission.
• Robust protection for trade unionists and other activists engaging in solidarity action to uphold fundamental human rights and international law.

The ITUC stands in full solidarity with the Handala mission and all those on board. We reaffirm our unwavering support for the Palestinian people and the right of workers everywhere to engage in peaceful activism.

Getty Images

Trump – winner

US consumers – loser

Markets – winner

European solidarity – loser

Carmakers in Germany – loser

Carmakers in the US – winner

EU pharmaceuticals – loser

US energy – winner

Aviation industry in EU and US – winner

The United States and the European Union have reached a wide-ranging trade agreement, ending a months-long standoff and averting a full-blown trade war just days before President Donald Trump’s deadline to impose steep tariffs.

The EU will pay 15 percent tariffs on most goods, including cars. The tariff rate is half the 30 percent Trump had threatened to implement starting on Friday. Brussels also agreed on Sunday to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on US weaponry and energy products on top of existing expenditures.

Speaking to reporters at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, Trump hailed the agreement as the “biggest deal ever made”. “I think it’s going to be great for both parties. It’s going to bring us closer together,” he added.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the agreement would “bring stability” and “bring predictability that’s very important for our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic”.

Von der Leyen defended the deal, saying the aim was to rebalance a trade surplus with the US. Trump has made no secret of using tariffs to try to trim US trade deficits.

Sunday’s agreement capped off months of often tense shuttle diplomacy between Brussels and Washington although neither side disclosed the full details of the pact or released any written materials.

It follows preliminary trade pacts the US signed with Japan, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines and a 90-day trade truce with China.

So how will the deal impact the two sides, which account for almost a third of global trade, and will it end the threats of a tariff war?

What was agreed?

At a news event at Trump’s golf resort, von der Leyen said a 15 percent tariff would apply to European cars, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors – all important products for Europe’s economy.

For his part, Trump said US levies on steel and aluminium, which he has set at 50 percent on many countries, would not be cut for EU products, dashing the hopes of industry in the bloc. Elsewhere, aerospace tariffs will remain at zero for now.

In exchange for the 15 percent tariff rate on EU goods, Trump said the bloc would be “opening up their countries at zero tariff” for American exports.

In addition, he said the EU would spend an extra $750bn on US energy products, invest $600bn in the US and buy military equipment worth “hundreds of billions of dollars”.

Von der Leyen confirmed that the EU would seek to buy an extra $250bn of US energy products each year from now until 2027.

“With this deal, we are securing access to our largest export market,” she said.

At the same time, she acknowledged that the 15 percent tariffs would be “a challenge for some” European industries.

The EU is the US’s largest trading partner with two-way trade in goods and services last year reaching nearly $2 trillion.

How have European leaders responded?

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the agreement, saying it avoids “an unnecessary escalation in transatlantic trade relations”.

He said a trade war “would have hit Germany’s export-oriented economy hard”, pointing out that the German car industry would see US tariffs lowered from 27.5 percent to 15 percent.

But French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou called the deal a “dark day” for Europe, saying the bloc had caved in to the US president with an unbalanced deal that spares US imports from any immediate European retaliation.

“It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, brought together to affirm their common values and to defend their common interests, resigns itself to submission,” Bayrou wrote on X of what he called the “von der Leyen-Trump deal”.

Wolfgang Niedermark, a board member of the Federation of German Industries trade body, called the deal “an inadequate compromise” with the EU “accepting painful tariffs”.

A 15 percent tariff rate “will have a huge negative impact on Germany’s export-oriented industry”, he said.

Earlier, Benjamin Haddad, France’s European affairs minister, said: “The trade agreement … will bring temporary stability to economic actors threatened by the escalation of American tariffs, but it is unbalanced.”

Echoing that sentiment, Dutch Foreign Trade Minister Hanneke Boerma said the deal was “not ideal” and called on the commission to continue negotiations with Washington.

The European Commission is responsible for negotiating trade deals for the entire bloc.

EU ambassadors will be discussing the agreement with the commission this week.

How was trade conducted before the deal?

On July 12, Trump threatened to impose 30 percent tariffs on EU goods if the two sides couldn’t reach a deal before this Friday, the day a suspension expires on the implementation of what Trump calls his “reciprocal tariffs”, which he placed on nearly all countries in the world.

Those “reciprocal tariffs” are due to come into effect in addition to the 25 percent tariffs on cars and car parts and the 50 percent levy on steel and aluminium products Trump already put in place.

On the European side, it is understood that Brussels would have pushed ahead with a retaliatory tariffs package on 90 billion euros ($109bn) of US goods, including car parts and bourbon, if talks had broken down.

The EU had been a frequent target of escalating trade rhetoric by Trump, who accused the bloc of “ripping off” the US.

In 2024, the US ran a $235.6bn goods deficit with the EU. Pharmaceuticals, car parts and industrial chemicals were among Europe’s largest exports to the US, according to EU data.

How will the deal impact the US and EU?

Bloomberg Economics estimated that a no-deal outcome would have raised the effective US tariff rate on European goods to nearly 18 percent on Friday.

The new deal brings that number down to 16 percent, offering a small reprieve to European exporting firms. Still, current trade barriers are much higher than before Trump took office in 2025.

According to Bruegel, a research group, the average US tariff rate on EU exports was just 1.5 percent at the end of 2024.

William Lee, chief economist at the Milken Institute, told Al Jazeera: “I think the [Trump] strategy has been clear from the very beginning. … It’s brinkmanship. … Either partner with the US or face high tariffs.”

Meanwhile, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said: “President Trump just unlocked one of the biggest economies in the world. The European Union is going to open its $20 trillion market and completely accept our auto and industrial standards for the first time ever.”