Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist and US resident, appeared before a federal appeals court in Philadelphia as Trump administration lawyers push to deport him. His case, tied to campus activism at Columbia University, has become a test of free speech and political dissent rights.
After days of cross-border fighting, Pakistan and Afghan Taliban authorities agreed a temporary ceasefire. The clashes have left dozens dead and injured. So, what’s behind the worst violence between the countries in years?
UP here at the Tory Party conference in Manchester, comparisons between Kemi Badenoch and United’s Ruben Amorim write themselves.
Two gaffers tasked with getting a once-formidable colossus back to winning ways — and both finding that nothing they do seems to work.
5
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim share the same struggle – trying to restore former glory to the fallen giantCredit: Getty
5
Manchester United manager Amorin has, like Miss Badenoch, been tackling well-documented woesCredit: Getty
Supporters who long for the glory days of old are solemn, and the dressing room is fast losing faith.
Both watch enviously as their gloating rivals in light blue continue to shine.
Both beg for more time.
After her bullish conference speech yesterday, Badenoch has bought herself that time.
It was well delivered and she hit the right notes on the economy, welfare, crime and immigration.
The North West has been kind to them both, and they appear stronger.
Kemi Badenoch has accused both Labour and Reform UK of practising “identity politics” and sowing “division”
But the crashing thud of reality awaits them back in Westminster, where the mirage of the past fortnight will soon be shattered.
Party conferences are bubbles frozen in time, and it is easy to be suckered into believing a leader has played a blinder just because their own side cheers them to the rafters.
Both Badenoch and Starmer now need to come back down to Earth and confront some home truths.
May’s local elections are almost certain to be bloody, with the party at risk of falling to a humiliating fourth in both Wales and Scotland.
Labour’s conference failed to make a dent, with the party registering “no change” in its position at 20 per cent compared to Reform’s 33 per cent.
If Badenoch also fails to make inroads, the same doubts over her leadership will come flooding back.
May’s local elections are almost certain to be bloody, with the party at risk of falling to a humiliating fourth in both Wales and Scotland.
Badenoch’s allies are setting expectations on the floor — but as one of her Shadow Cabinet tells me: “You can roll the pitch as much as you like, nothing prepares you for the pain until it actually hits.”
5
Keir Starmer may have united his party in Liverpool — but the real test begins when the conference buzz fades back in WestminsterCredit: Splash
5
Rachel Reeves’ upcoming Budget was barely mentioned in both Manchester and Liverpool, but it could turn the fortunes of all parties on their headCredit: Getty
Mass losses would spark a fierce internal debate between those gunning for regicide and those who despair at the thought of the Tories killing off yet another leader.
One prominent donor has been telling friends that he will close his chequebook forever if Badenoch is toppled.
Whereas a Shadow Cabinet minister says: “If she’s not going to be Prime Minister, you might as well get rid of her now.”
Her main rival, Robert Jenrick, is sitting back, but king cobras also sit back before they strike.
While plotters are setting their watches for the May 1 polls, smart Tories are looking towards November 26 to mount a fightback.
The upcoming Budget on that date was barely mentioned in both Manchester and Liverpool, but it could turn the fortunes of all parties on their head.
Last year Chancellor Rachel Reeves claimed her £45billion tax raid was a one-off forced upon her by years of Tory economic recklessness.
Now she is coming back for more in a Budget that risks being even more toxic.
Bond markets have put the Chancellor in fiscal handcuffs, rightly stopping her borrowing even more money on the slate.
Labour MPs have put her in a political straitjacket by vowing to vote down any serious spending cuts, including to the eye-watering benefits bill.
Despite the chaos of Liz Truss, voters on YouGov’s tracker still view the Tories as the most trusted custodians of the public finances.
And growth is so puny that it will barely move the dial, all pointing to taxpayers being rinsed even further to make the sums add up.
Ms Reeves is privately furious with the Office for Budget Responsibility, whose decision to downgrade productivity leaves her with an even bigger black hole — in the region of £30billion.
Perhaps she regrets fawning quite so much over the economic watchdog when it was a thorn in the Tory side.
She is preparing to once again blame the Conservative record, but that is unlikely to wash for a second time, especially if she finds money to lift the two-child benefit cap to placate her own MPs.
A fight on the economy is fertile territory for Badenoch, who spent much of yesterday attacking this “high-tax, low-growth doom loop”.
Shock therapy
Despite the chaos of Liz Truss, voters on YouGov’s tracker still view the Tories as the most trusted custodians of the public finances.
Some at the top of the tree believe economic implosion is the shock therapy needed to get them back in the game.
One Tory Shadow Cabinet minister tells me: “People don’t yet realise how bad things are, but be in no doubt, we are flying into the mountainside. And when we crash, that is our chance to make our case to the country once again.”
Farage will of course give this short shrift, arguing he is not only reaping justified anger from years of immigration failure, but also decades of working people feeling no better off.
It is clear Badenoch still needs to go toe-to-toe on borders to have any hope of winning back voters.
But if a miserable Budget sees voters crying out for economic competence, the Tories might at last have their pitch.
5
Nigel Farage remains the man to beat — his Reform Party still dominates the polls despite Tory and Labour fightbacksCredit: PA
Strictly Come Dancing pro Dianne Buswell is expecting her first child with her boyfriend Joe Sugg, and her co-stars have been showering her with love and support
Dianne Buswell is expecting her first child(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Pregnant Dianne Buswell says she ‘can’t deal’ after her Strictly Come Dancing co-star left her on the verge of tears.
The professional dancer is taking part in the competition this year alongside Neighbours icon Stefan Dennis, and the duo made their competition debut during the opening week last weekend, delivering a Foxtrot to the Neighbours Theme by Barry Crocker.
Following their performance, Stefan acknowledged there had been issues with the routine, but judge Anton Du Beke still praised it as a “brilliant effort”. However, judge Craig Revel Horwood went on the attack, stating that the dance had been “littered with mistakes”.
The actor, renowned for portraying Neighbours’ Paul Robinson for four decades, and defending champion Dianne, who is expecting her first child, delivered an 80s-themed cha cha to Give It Up by KC And The Sunshine Band, earning 17 points.
Last month, Dianne announced that she is expecting her first baby – a boy – with her partner Joe Sugg. The Australian dancer and the YouTuber first crossed paths on Strictly in 2018 when they were partnered together for that series.
The expectant parents shared the news through a charming video, accompanied by Elton John’s ‘Tiny Dancer’, which showed them creating a painting that depicted themselves as stick figures with a smaller one between them to symbolise their baby.
Dianne and Joe have subsequently been inundated with messages of affection, with Dianne also receiving presents whilst working on Strictly at Elstree Studios.
On Saturday, Dianne posted on social media, revealing she had been given a tiny cardigan that was delivered to the studio after her pregnancy reveal.
Accompanying the image, which displayed the miniature piece of handcrafted knitwear, the Australian performer shared a series of tearful face emojis before writing: “This was sent to the studio today and I cannot deal. It’s so small.”
During the latest live programme, she returned to her social media account and alongside a selfie with Strictly colleague Neil Jones, in which she could be seen pouting with an emotional expression, Dianne displayed the gift. Displaying a miniature pair of Adidas trainers, Dianne wrote: “Nah I can’t deal thank you Uncle Jonsey [face holding back tears and heart emojis] @mr_njonesofficial @joe_sugg.”
She also revealed another parcel containing tiny baby socks decorated with teddy bears. “And then these from uncle @ciaranfoley [face holding back tears and heart emojis] @joe_sugg. This lille boy is already so loved and lucky. Thank you [face holding back tears and heart emojis].”
WASHINGTON — Historically, the U.S. military has been an engine for cultural and social change in America. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s vision for the armed forces he leads runs counter to that.
In comments Tuesday to hundreds of military leaders and their chief enlisted advisers, Hegseth made clear he was not interested in a diverse or inclusive force. His address at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, verbalized what Hegseth has been doing as he takes on any program that can be labeled diversity, equity or inclusion, as well as targeting transgender personnel. Separately, the focus on immigration also is sweeping up veterans.
For too long, “the military has been forced by foolish and reckless politicians to focus on the wrong things. In many ways, this speech is about fixing decades of decay, some of it obvious, some of it hidden,” Hegseth said. “Foolish and reckless political leaders set the wrong compass heading, and we lost our way. We became the woke department, but not anymore.”
Hegseth’s actions — and plans for more — are a reversal of the role the military has often played.
“The military has often been ahead of at least some broader social, cultural, political movements,” said Ronit Stahl, associate professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley. ”The desegregation of the armed forces is perhaps the most classic example.”
President Harry S. Truman’s desegregation order in 1948 came six years before the Supreme Court ordered school desegregation in the Brown vs. Board of Education case — and, Stahl said, “that obviously takes a long time to implement, if it ever fully is implemented.”
It has been a circuitous path
Truman’s order was not a short progression through American society. Although the military was one of the few places where there was organizational diversity, the races did not mix in their actual service. Units like the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo Code Talkers and the Buffalo Soldiers, formed in 1866, were segregated until the order opened the door to integrated units.
Women were given full status to serve in 1948 with the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act. There were restrictions on how many could serve and they were generally not allowed to command men or serve in combat. Before then, they had wartime roles and they did not serve in combat, although hundreds of nurses died and women were pilots, including Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs.
The WASPs and Tuskegee Airmen were among the first groups this year to be affected when Hegseth issued his DEI order. The Air Force removed training videos of the airmen along with ones showing the World War II contributions of the WASPs at the basic training base in San Antonio. The videos were restored after widespread bipartisan outcry over their removal.
Other issues over time have included “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the policy that allowed gay and lesbian service members to serve as long as their sexual orientation was not public. That was repealed during the Obama administration. Women were allowed to serve on combat aircraft and combat ships in the early 1990s — then all combat positions after a ban was lifted in 2015.
“The military has always had to confront the question of social change and the question of who would serve, how they would serve and in what capacity they would serve. These are questions that have been long-standing back to the founding in some ways, but certainly in the 20th century,” said David Kieran, distinguished chair in Military History at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. “These are not new questions.”
Generally the answer has come down to what “the military writ large” has concluded. “‘How do we achieve our mission best?’” Kieran said. “And a lot of these things have been really hotly debated.”
Part of a larger, longer debate
Kieran offered one example: changes the Army made in the 1960s when it was dealing with a climate of racism and racial tensions. Without that, he said, “the military can’t fight the war in Vietnam effectively.”
The same considerations were given to how to address the problem of sexual harassment. Part of the answer involved what was morally right, but “the larger issue is: If soldiers are being harassed, can the Army carry out its mission effectively?”
While “it is important to see these actions as part of a longer history and a larger debate,” Kieran said, “it’s certainly also true that the current administration is moving at a far more aggressive and faster pace than we’ve seen in earlier administrations.”
Michael O’Hanlon, director of research in the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution, questioned some of the actions that Trump’s Defense Department has taken, including replacing the chairman of the joint chiefs, Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr.
“He was a fine Air Force officer,” O’Hanlon said. Even if he got the job in part because of his race, “it wouldn’t be disqualifying in my book, unless he was unqualified — and he wasn’t.”
Matthew Delmont, a professor of history at Dartmouth College, said the current attitudes he is seeing toward the military suggest a misunderstanding of the armed forces and why the changes have been made.
“The military, for more than seven decades now, has been more on the leading edge in terms of figuring out how to put together an organization that tries to take advantage of the talents and capacities of all Americans,” Delmont said. Since Truman signed his executive order, “the military has moved faster and farther than almost any other organization in thinking about issues of racial equality, and then later thinking about the issues related to gender and sexuality.”
Delmont said bias, prejudice and racism remain in the military, but the armed services have done more “than a lot of corporations, universities, other organizations to try to address those head-on.”
“I wouldn’t say it was because they were particularly interested in trying to advance the social agenda,” he said. “I think they did it because they recognized you can’t have a unified fighting force if the troops are fighting each other, or if you’re actively turning away people who desire to serve their country.”
AMIR KHAN fears Canelo Alvarez has lost his hunger for boxing – leaving Terence Crawford ready to feast.
Canelo defends his undisputed super-middleweight titles against Crawford on Saturday night – which will be the 68th bout of his iconic career.
3
Amir Khan was knocked out by Canelo Alvarez in 2016Credit: Getty
3
Khan also lost to Terence Crawford in 2019Credit: Reuters
The red-haired boxing hero – who was bullied for his ginger hair earning him the nickname Canelo, which translates to cinnamon in Spanish – turned pro aged just 15.
And now two decades later the 35-year-old is the sport’s top attraction.
He is on course to become a BILLIONAIRE and has world titles in four division’s clogging up his trophy cabinet.
So Khan – who was beaten in his retirement fight against Kell Brook in 2022 – reckons Canelo has lost the same fire which burnt him in their 2016 clash.
Khan, 38, told SunSport: “I think that Crawford takes the fight in my opinion.
“I like Canelo and he’s very respectful but the reason why I think this is because Crawford’s a fresher fighter.
“I’ve just started seeing little things in Canelo in the last couple of fights where he moves more.
“I just don’t think he’s got the fire in the belly like he used to or have that killer instinct like before.
Canelo vs Crawford – All the info
IT’S finally time – one of the biggest boxing matches EVER takes place THIS WEEKEND.
Two of boxing’s GOATs will meet in the ring as they fight for pound-for-pound supremacy and the super-middleweight crown.
CANELO VS CRAWFORD: ALL THE DETAILS YOU NEED AHEAD OF THE FIGHT OF THE CENTURY
“I don’t think he has that killer instinct now. Normally they have that killer instinct where they wanna go for the kill and hurt the guy, but I think he’s calm and he’s a made man.
“I know how that is. Like when I fought against Brook, you don’t have that fire in your belly like you are coming up and you wanna achieve something.
Canelo Alvarez hit me so hard I was KO’d before I even hit the canvas, warns Amir Khan ahead of Terence Crawford fight
“You know when you’ve achieved everything – which Canelo in my opinion has when it comes down to belts, titles, and also weight categories and also financially – that fire in the belly just goes and I know you might say that it might not go, it’s automatically it’s gonna happen.
“Your mind’s a very strong muscle that it just takes over your whole body.”
Khan boxed to an early lead against Canelo almost ten years ago – before a frightening right hand in the sixth robbed him of his momentum and senses.
The former super-lightweight champ was caught so hard he was out for the count well before the he even hit the deck.
Khan said: “I don’t know if he’s got the same kind of power that he had then, but in my opinion, he does hit very, very hard.
“I mean, even before I hit the floor, I was probably knocked out, to be honest with you. That’s how hard he hit me. So that just shows pure power.
“The guy’s very strong and he can definitely hurt someone really badly. But like I said, I don’t know how much power he has left in him now.
“Obviously, as you get older, the power’s not gonna be the same, but I’m sure it’s still very strong.”
Crawford, 37, beat a past-his best Khan in 2019 but the pair reunited as training partners three years later before the Brook grudge bout.
I just don’t think he’s got the fire in the belly like he used to or have that killer instinct like before.
Amir Khan on Canelo
But Khan – who had Crawford in the corner the night he lost to Brook – warned the unbeaten American can hang with the biggest and best of them.
He said: “Crawford is a bigger guy in camp. He’s always a stronger and bigger guy. I’ve seen him take down heavyweights.
“The guy, he’s a good wrestler and also he’s just a very strong guy. He’s got a strong upper body.
“So yeah, I don’t think anyone’s gonna give him any problems, especially Canelo, I don’t think Canelo’s gonna give him any problems.
“Look, you make them wrestle, I guarantee you Crawford will take Canelo down easy. That’s how strong he is.
“He’s a very good strong wrestler as well. But obviously that shows how much strength he has, core strength is solid. He’s a solid guy.”
The pound-for-pound greats meet at the Las Vegas Raiders’ 65,000-seat NFL stadium – streamed live on Netflix.
It has the hallmarks of a bonafide super-fight for the ages – one Khan reckons cannot disappoint.
He said: It’s gonna be a fantastic fight though still regardless because one thing I can say about both fighters is that they’re not gonna sit back and they’re not gonna put on a performance, they’re gonna fight till they die.
“But I just feel that Crawford has that little bit more than Canelo.”
ATLANTA — Rhyne Howard scored 19 points, Brionna Jones had 16 points and 13 rebounds for her 12th double-double of the season, and the Atlanta Dream beat the Sparks 86-75 on Wednesday night to move into sole possession of second place in the WNBA standings.
Atlanta (27-14), which has won five of its last six games, moved a half-game ahead of Las Vegas (26-14) and Phoenix (26-14) with three regular-season games remaining.
The Dream play the Sparks again Friday, followed by a two-game series with Connecticut to end the season. The Sparks have four games remaining, two at home.
Dearica Hamby had 21 points, nine rebounds and four assists for the Sparks. Kelsey Plum had 18 points and seven assists, and Rickea Jackson scored 15.
Naz Hillmon added 15 points and Maya Caldwell scored 14 for Atlanta. Jordin Canada recorded her first double-double this season with 10 points and 10 assists.
The Sparks scored the opening 10 points of the game as Atlanta missed its first seven field goals. But the Dream closed the quarter on a 12-3 run to take a 26-24 lead after one. Atlanta started the second quarter on a 15-3 run to build a 41-27 lead.
Atlanta led 53-41 at the break behind Howard’s 12 points and three three-pointers. The Dream led by at least eight points the entire second half.
Baltic and Nordic leaders in Denmark’s Copenhagen are meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is on a diplomatic drive trying to cement security guarantees for Kyiv in the event of a peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“The heads of state and government will discuss how the Nordic-Baltic countries can ensure further support for Ukraine on the frontline and in the negotiating room,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.
The gathering brings together the leaders of the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) – Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden – with Zelenskyy to discuss Ukraine’s future.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on Tuesday that progress was being made on security guarantees for Ukraine, but he stressed that such measures would only be implemented after a peace agreement is reached.
“We need to coordinate the security arrangements with the United States, which essentially will provide the backstop for this … We’re focusing on these issues with our chiefs of defence, which are drawing the concrete plans of what this type of operation might look like,” Stubb told reporters.
“We’re making progress on this and hopefully we’ll get a solution soon,” he said, while cautioning that he was not optimistic about a ceasefire or peace agreement with Russia in the near term.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen speak at a news conference on July 3, 2025, in Aarhus, Denmark [Martin Sylvest Andersen/Getty Images]
The ‘coalition of the willing’
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said he expected clarity at a summit of Ukraine’s allies on Thursday “or soon after” on what security guarantees Europe can offer Kyiv once the war halts.
“I expect tomorrow, or soon after tomorrow, to have clarity on what collectively we can deliver,” Rutte said at a news conference with Estonian President Alar Karis in Brussels. “That means that we can engage even more intensely, also with the American side, to see what they want to deliver in terms of their participation in security guarantees.”
United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron will co-host Thursday’s mostly virtual meeting of leaders of the so-called “coalition of the willing” – a collection of Western states working on long-term guarantees for Ukraine, and NATO. Zelenskyy moves on to meet Macron tonight in Paris ahead of that summit.
Western officials have said such guarantees are aimed at deterring Russia from launching another war after hostilities end, whether through a ceasefire or a permanent peace deal.
They are expected to centre on continued military support for Kyiv, along with an international force to reassure Ukraine. However, European leaders have made clear that such a force would only be feasible with US participation.
United States President Donald Trump last month promised American involvement, but Washington has yet to spell out what it would contribute. Rutte sought to reassure eastern NATO members that resources for Ukraine’s security guarantees would not come at the expense of the alliance’s own defences.
“We have to prevent spreading our resources too thinly, and this means that we always have to look at what the impact will be on the NATO plans,” he said.
Moscow, meanwhile, rejects the idea of European peacekeeping troops on the ground in Ukraine, and insists that any future settlement must reflect what it calls “new territorial realities”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Indonesia’s Kompas newspaper that regions annexed by Russia – Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson – must be “recognized and formalized in an international legal manner” for peace to last.
Trump has suggested any eventual deal would involve Ukraine ceding some territory, but many analysts believe one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s core demands will be Ukrainian recognition of Moscow’s control over the parts of Donbas still under Kyiv’s authority.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected such concessions, warning that losing any territory would embolden Russia to launch new attacks in the future. The Ukrainian constitution also forbids it.
Russia takes more territory in Kherson
As diplomacy continues behind the scenes, Russia’s assault continues to intensify across eastern Ukraine. Its forces claim to have encircled and now captured “about half” of Kupiansk, a strategic city in the northeastern Kharkiv region. Moscow’s Ministry of Defence also claimed its forces had seized the settlement of Fedorivka in Donetsk.
In the skies, Russia launched a sweeping overnight air campaign, striking targets across nine regions. Ukrainian officials said at least four railway workers were injured, while Poland scrambled defence aircraft as explosions echoed near its border.
Ukraine’s emergency services reported that five people were injured and 28 homes damaged in an attack on the Znamianka community in the Kirovohrad region. In Khmelnytskyi, transport services faced “significant schedule disruptions” after strikes damaged residential buildings and triggered fires.
Local authorities said two people were killed in Russian shelling of Polohivskyi district in Zaporizhia, while separate attacks caused deaths in Kherson, Kyiv region and Donetsk. The independent news outlet Kyiv Independent reported at least five civilians killed across the country in the latest wave of strikes.
Russia said it had shot down 158 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours, while claiming that Ukrainian attacks across its border killed 12 people and wounded nearly 100 in the past week. In the Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a Ukrainian drone strike injured three people in the village of Proletarsky.
The diplomatic manoeuvring comes as Putin seeks to deepen ties with North Korea and China. His meeting on Wednesday with Kim Jong Un in Beijing, alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping at a grand military parade, underscored the growing partnership between Moscow and Pyongyang.
Trump responded by accusing the three leaders of conspiring against the United States – a claim dismissed by the Kremlin.
Sudan’s civil war saw a number of developments on the battlefield as well as in diplomacy and the humanitarian crisis.
Published On 31 Aug 202531 Aug 2025
Sudan’s civil war between the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary has produced the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.
Estimates suggested tens of thousands of people have died from combat and thousands more have perished from disease and hunger brought on by the war, now well into its third year.
There have been many significant military and political developments this month. Here are the key updates:
Fighting and military control
The SAF is consolidating its control over the capital, Khartoum, which it took from the RSF in March. It also holds the central and eastern regions of Sudan, including its wartime capital of Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
The RSF controls most of the sprawling western region of Darfur and much of the Kordofan region to the south.
The RSF continues to besiege North Darfur’s capital, el-Fasher, where the SAF has its last Darfur garrison. If el-Fasher falls, the RSF will rule over a stretch of land roughly the size of France in western Sudan.
The RSF has escalated attacks on el-Fasher and on nearby displacement camps, including the Abu Shouk camp, where 190,000 people from around Darfur have sought shelter.
It has also erected massive sand berms around el-Fasher from the north, west and east, effectively creating a “kill-box,” according to recent satellite imagery obtained by the Yale Humanitarian Research Hub.
The RSF is working to expand its control in Kordofan by working with a new ally, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), headed by Abdelaziz al-Hilu. The two allied in February to counter the SAF on the battlefield.
With the help of the SPLM-N, the RSF retains control over most of West and South Kordofan, giving them cross-border access to South Sudan.
SAF controls the most strategic city in North Kordofan, el-Obeid, which the RSF is besieging. The SAF needs to hold onto el-Obeid to keep the RSF from threatening central Sudan.
A map showing areas under the control of the RSF and SAF in and around the strategic city of el-Obeid in North Kordofan [Interactive/Al Jazeera]
Humanitarian crisis
The RSF has trapped an estimated 260,000 civilians, including 130,000 children, in el-Fasher, turning the city into an “epicentre of child suffering”, according to UNICEF.
Most are surviving on animal fodder known as ambaz – the residue of pressed oil seeds, such as peanuts, sesame, and sunflower – which they grind into a paste; however, even this is running low.
About one-third of the children in Mellit, a city the RSF controls near el-Fasher, are severely malnourished, according to figures obtained by Relief International and shared with Al Jazeera. That is more than double the World Health Organization’s threshold for a malnutrition emergency.
A cholera outbreak is compounding the humanitarian crisis across the vast region of Darfur, according to Adam Rojal, internally displaced people spokesperson in Darfur. On August 30, he said the water-borne disease killed nine people that day and infected a total of 9,143 people, with 382 deaths, since the epidemic first started in June 2025.
Food convoys from the United Nations and other nongovernmental organisations rarely reach the neglected region of Darfur due to road closures and bureaucratic impediments. Human rights groups and local activists accuse both sides of weaponising food.
The World Food Programme told Al Jazeera that it provides electronic cash assistance to vulnerable people in North Darfur, but no food convoys have reached the region for more than a year.
A UN food convoy was hit by a drone strike in North Darfur on Friday, the second aid convoy in three months to be targeted. The RSF and SAF traded blame for the attack.
There is a similar hunger emergency in South Kordofan due to an RSF siege on the cities of Dilling and Kadugli.
Diplomacy and political developments
RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo was reportedly sworn in as president of the parallel “Peace government” on August 31 in South Darfur’s capital, Nyala. SAF hit the city with a drone strike on the same day.
A secret meeting reportedly took place in Switzerland between SAF Commander-in-Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and a United States adviser in mid-August, ostensibly to discuss a plan to end the war, according to Sudan experts and media outlets. The US has not confirmed the talks.
A week after the secret meeting, al-Burhan retired several senior military officers, some of whom reportedly belong to Sudan’s political Islamist movement, which ruled the country for 30 years with former President Omar al-Bashir at the helm. Experts believe al-Burhan is under external pressure to dilute the influence of prominent figures tied to the al-Bashir government.
Kim Jong Un expresses ‘grief’ for failing to save ‘the precious lives’ of his troops killed fighting against Ukraine.
Published On 30 Aug 202530 Aug 2025
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has met again with the families of his soldiers killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine, offering condolences for their “unbearable pain” and promising the bereaved “a beautiful life”, state media reports.
KCNA state news agency reported on Saturday that Kim hosted the families of slain soldiers, and expressed “grief at having failed to save the precious lives” of those who sacrificed their lives to defend the country’s honour.
The meeting was the second reported occasion that Kim met with families of fallen soldiers this month. Pyongyang has not confirmed the number of troops that were killed fighting for Russia, though Seoul estimates about 600, with thousands more wounded.
“I had this meeting arranged as I wanted to meet and console the bereaved families of all the heroes and relieve them of their sorrow and anguish even a little,” Kim said in his speech, according to KCNA.
Kim also pledged to build a monument in the capital, Pyongyang, as well as name a new street for the bereaved families, and the state will give full support to the children of deceased soldiers.
The North Korean leader said his “heart breaks and aches” for the children who lost fathers.
“I, our state and our army will take full responsibility for them and train them admirably as staunch and courageous fighters like their fathers,” he added.
South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have said that Kim sent more than 10,000 soldiers to Russia in 2024 – primarily to the Kursk region – along with North Korean-produced artillery shells, missiles and long-range rocket systems.
At a ceremony with mourning family members and Ukraine war veterans last week, images released by KCNA showed an emotional Kim embracing a returned soldier who appeared overwhelmed, burying his face in the leader’s chest.
The leader was also seen kneeling before a portrait of a fallen soldier to pay his respects and placing medals and flowers beside images of dead troops.
Kim is due to stand alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a military parade in Beijing next week, marking the surrender of Japan in World War II.
SAN DIEGO — When he was finished rounding the bases at Petco Park on Sunday, Shohei Ohtani made a detour on his return to the Dodgers’ bench.
Seated by the visiting dugout was a fan in a San Diego Padres cap and brown Fernando Tatis Jr. jersey. The spectator had spent most of the afternoon reminding Ohtani of how much he’d stunk in the three-game series.
These were like scenes from the good old days, the Dodgers hitting bombs and laughing as they celebrated.
But was this a mirage?
Even after avoiding a sweep by the Padres with an 8-2 victory, even after moving back into a tie with them for the lead in the National League West, the Dodgers continued to be an enigma.
Who were they? The team that trampled the Padres in the series finale? Or the team that rolled over in the two previous games of the series?
“They’re gettable,” said a scout from a rival NL team who was in attendance.
The kind of game the Dodgers played on Sunday, however, prompted the same scout to attach this qualifier: They can’t be counted out.
One of baseball’s worst offensive teams over the last two months, the Dodgers blasted four home runs, including two by Freddie Freeman. The Dodgers claimed the lead on a three-run blast in the seventh inning by Dalton Rushing.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto did his part on the mound, picking up his 11th win by limiting the Padres to two runs over six innings.
The Dodgers have 31 games remaining in the regular season and they expect a number of their injured players to return over that period. The form they take will dramatically affect their chances in October.
Freddie Freeman, right, celebrates with Mookie Betts after hitting a two-run home run in the seventh inning against the Padres on Sunday.
(Derrick Tuskan / Associated Press)
Winning their division could position them to secure a top-two seed in the NL, which would grant them a first-round bye. Failing to do so would subject them to a dangerous best-of-three wild-card series.
Because of the alarming number of injuries they have sustained this season, the Dodgers have already cycled through a variety of identities, from a team without starting pitching to a team without a reliable bullpen to, most recently, a team without a consistent offense.
In their previous two games, the Dodgers scored a combined two runs, leading Roberts and some players to question the team’s collective approach at the plate.
Just a week earlier, the division race looked as if it could be over. The Padres entered a three-game series at Dodger Stadium as the hottest team this side of Milwaukee. The Padres had bolstered their lineup, rotation and top-ranked bullpen at the trade deadline while the Dodgers did almost nothing.
But their inconsistency on offense kept them from protecting the two-game lead they’d built. They inexplicably dropped two of four games against the last-place Colorado Rockies. By Saturday, after their second loss to the Padres in as many days, they were in second place.
Just as the Dodgers looked as if they could be written off, just as they looked as if they could relinquish control of the division to the Padres, they responded with a performance worthy of their $320-million payroll.
“Today was a game we couldn’t drop no matter what,” Yamamoto said in Japanese, “so I went into the game with more focus than usual.”
The hitters also went into the game with a heightened focus, resulting in more extended at-bats that gradually wore down the Padres’ pitchers. The Dodgers scored seven of their runs in the last four innings.
Newsletter
Are you a true-blue fan?
Get our Dodgers Dugout newsletter for insights, news and much more.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
The Dodgers don’t play the Padres again this season but Freeman said his team should be more concerned about their improvement rather than what its division rivals do.
Asked when he would start to scoreboard watch, Freeman replied, “Maybe in mid-September.”
Reminded only 31 games remain in the regular season, Freeman replied, “It is a sprint. I’ll be honest with you there. It’s a sprint now. You can’t worry about other teams if, like the last couple games, we don’t fix our offense, how our at-bats were going the last couple days. We fixed it today, we did better today. If you’re worrying about other things, that’s just not conducive, it’s not going to lead to quality things in the clubhouse. So maybe mid-September. When I turn 36, we’ll start scoreboard watching, all right?”
Freeman’s birthday is on Sept. 12. Will the Dodgers know who they are by then?
President Zelensky said Ukraine would continue to fight for a secure and peaceful future, in an independence day address
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would continue to fight for its freedom in an address to the nation on its independence day.
“We need a just peace, a peace where our future will be decided only by us,” he said, adding that Ukraine would fight back against Russia “while its calls for peace are not heard”.
He continued: “Ukraine has not yet won, but it has certainly not lost.”
Zelensky’s remarks came after Moscow said Ukraine had attacked Russian power and energy facilities overnight, blaming drone attacks for a fire at a nuclear power plant in its western Kursk region.
There were no injuries and the fire was quickly extinguished, the plant’s press service said on messaging app Telegram. It said the attack had damaged a transformer, but radiation levels were within the normal range.
The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was aware of reports regarding the fire, while its director general added that “every nuclear facility must be protected at all times”.
Independence Day celebrations were held in Kyiv, as the country marked its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney took part in the celebrations, and stood beside Zelensky as he addressed the crowd:
“I want to say something very simple and important: Canada will always stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine.”
Also present was US envoy Keith Kellogg – whom Ukrainian media reported was awarded the Order of Merit, first degree by Zelensky during the ceremony.
After Zelensky thanked him and US President Donald Trump for their support, Kellogg could be heard telling Zelensky: “We’re going to make this work”.
EPA
Servicemen raised a Ukrainian flag in the capital Kyiv as independence day celebrations began
Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff, wrote on Telegram early on Sunday: “On this special day – Ukraine’s Independence Day – it is especially important for us to feel the support of our friends. And Canada has always stood by us.”
Meanwhile, Zelensky shared a letter from King Charles sending the people of Ukraine his “warmest and most sincere wishes”.
“I keep feeling the greatest and deepest admiration for the unbreakable spirit of the Ukrainian people,” the King writes. “I remain hopeful that our countries will be able to further work closely together to achieve a just and lasting peace.”
Zelensky said the King’s “kind words are a true inspiration for our people during the difficult time of war”.
The UK government also said Ukrainian flags would appear above Downing Street in recognition of the anniversary.
The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that British military experts will continue to train Ukrainian soldiers until at least the end of 2026, with an extension to Operation Interflex – the codename given to the UK Armed Forces’ training programme for Ukrainian recruits.
Norway announced on Sunday that it would contribute about 7 billion kroner (£514m; $693m) of air defence systems to Ukraine.
“Together with Germany, we are now ensuring that Ukraine receives powerful air defence systems,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said in a statement.
The two nations are funding two Patriot systems, including missiles, with Norway also helping procure air defence radar.
Also on Sunday, Ukraine and Sweden announced they had agreed to joint defence production, with Sweden’s defence minister saying it would “boost Swedish rearmament and meet the needs of Ukraine’s armed forces”.
Pål Jonson wrote on X: “Ukraine will share and provide technology for its factories in Sweden and defence materiel co-produced in Sweden will be exported to Ukraine.”
Reuters
In Ukraine’s Independence Square, people pass a makeshift memorial to Ukrainians killed defending the nation
On Saturday, Russia said its forces in eastern Ukraine had seized two villages in the Donetsk region.
Russian forces have been advancing very slowly, and at great cost, in eastern Ukraine and now control about 20% of Ukraine’s territory.
A full-scale invasion of Ukraine was launched by Russia in February 2022.
There has been intense diplomacy over the war this month, with US President Donald Trump meeting his Russian counterpart President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on 15 August.
The summit was billed as a vital step towards peace in Ukraine. However, despite both leaders claiming the talks were a success, Trump has since shown growing frustration publicly over the lack of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
The US president has said he is considering either hitting Russia with further economic sanctions or walking away from peace talks.
“I’m going to make a decision as to what we do and it’s going to be, it’s going to be a very important decision, and that’s whether or not it’s massive sanctions or massive tariffs or both, or we do nothing and say it’s your fight,” Trump said on Friday.
Zelensky has repeatedly called for an unconditional ceasefire and his European allies have also insisted on a halt in fighting.
He has accused Russia of “doing everything it can” to prevent a meeting with Putin to try to end the war.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Putin was ready to meet Ukraine’s leader “when the agenda is ready for a summit, and this agenda is not ready at all”, accusing Zelensky of saying “no to everything”.
ANCHORAGE — Vladimir Putin is lavishing praise on President Trump ahead of their high-stakes summit in Alaska on Friday, thanking his host for “energetic and sincere efforts to stop the fighting” in Ukraine over three years since the Russian leader attempted to conquer the country.
Trump, at the White House, also expressed optimism ahead of the talks, telling reporters he believes Putin “would like to see a deal” after suffering more than a million Russian casualties on the battlefield.
Yet Russian Foreign Ministry officials said Wednesday that Putin’s war aims remain “unchanged.” And an aggressive Russian advance along the front lines this week provided evidence to military analysts that Moscow has no plans to implement a ceasefire.
It was a day of diplomatic maneuvering ahead of an extraordinary visit from a Russian president to the U.S. homeland, and the first audience Putin has received with a Western leader since the war began.
“It’s going to be very interesting — we’re going to find out where everybody stands,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. “If it’s a bad meeting, it’ll end very quickly. And if it’s a good meeting, we’re going to end up getting peace in the very near future.”
Putin’s positioning ahead of the summit, and Trump’s eagerness for a deal, continue to fuel worries across Europe and in Ukraine that the Alaska negotiations could result in a bilateral agreement designed by Moscow and endorsed by Washington that sidelines Kyiv.
In London, Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday, offering support for Trump’s effort while placing the onus on Putin to “prove he is serious about peace.”
“They agreed there had been a powerful sense of unity and a strong resolve to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” 10 Downing Street said in a statement.
Trump said the Alaska summit, to be held at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, is meant to “set the table” for direct talks between Putin and Zelensky that could include himself and European leaders.
Journalists stand outside Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage on Thursday ahead of Friday’s summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)
But addressing reporters, Trump suggested that denying Putin dominion over all of Ukraine — and allowing him to hold on to the territories he has seized militarily — would be concession enough from Moscow. The president had said in recent days that land “swapping” would be part of an ultimate peace settlement, a statement rejected by Kyiv.
“I think President Putin would like to see a deal,” Trump said. “I think if I weren’t president, he would take over all of Ukraine.”
“I am president, and he’s not going to mess around with me,” he added.
Russian state media reported Thursday that Putin had gathered his advisors to inform them of “how the negotiation process on the Ukrainian crisis is going.”
Trump, “in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the fighting, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict,” Putin said.
But U.S. efforts to get Russia to halt the fighting have proved futile for months, with Moscow pressing forward in an offensive that has secured incremental gains on the battlefield.
“Putin thinks that he is winning this war militarily,” said Frederick Kagan, director of the Critical Threats Project, which collaborates with the Institute for the Study of War to produce daily battlefield assessments on the conflict. “He’s also confident that Western support for Ukraine, and particularly U.S. support, will break, and that when it does, Ukraine will collapse, and he’ll be able to take control of the whole thing.”
“It’s been his theory of victory for a long time,” Kagan said, “and it’s a huge part of the problem, because he’s not going to make any concessions so long as he’s confident that he’s winning.”
Russian incursions along a strategic portion of the front line, near a crucial Ukrainian logistics hub, spooked Ukraine’s supporters earlier this week. While serious, Kagan said that Russia does not hold the territory, and said that the conditions for offensive Russian operations had been set over the course of months.
“The Russians continue to have the initiative, and they continue to make gains,” he added. “The first step in changing Putin’s calculation about the war is to urgently help the Ukrainians stop the gains.”
Zelensky, after meeting with Starmer in London, said that he and the British leader had “discussed expectations for the meeting in Alaska and possible prospects.”
“We also discussed in considerable detail the security guarantees that can make peace truly durable,” Zelensky said, “if the United States succeeds in pressing Russia to stop the killings and engage in genuine, substantive diplomacy.”
Trump and Putin plan on arriving of the U.S. airbase within moments of one another, and are expected to meet on the tarmac before retreating into a private meeting.
Escalating attacks in Cabo Delgado are taking place amid major cuts in international aid.
Nearly 60,000 people have fled Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province in two weeks, a United Nations agency has said, amid a years-long rebellion by fighters affiliated with ISIL (ISIS).
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement on Tuesday that escalating attacks that began on July 20 had displaced 57,034 people, or 13,343 families.
Chiúre was the hardest-hit district, with more than 42,000 people uprooted, more than half of them children, the IOM said.
“So far, around 30,000 displaced people have received food, water, shelter, and essential household items,” Paola Emerson, who heads the Mozambique branch of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the AFP news agency.
Emerson said OCHA was preparing to step up its assistance in the coming days. “The response, however, is not yet at the scale required to meet growing needs,” she said, in a context of cuts to international aid by the United States and other countries.
“Funding cuts mean life-saving aid is being scaled back,” she added. The UN’s 2025 Humanitarian Response Plan for Mozambique has so far received only 19 percent of the pledges requested.
The organisation also stressed that the lack of safety and documentation, and involuntary relocations, were compounding protection risks.
The Southern African nation has been fighting a rebellion by a group known locally as al-Shabab, though with no links to the Somali fighters of a similar name, in the north for at least eight years. Rwandan soldiers have been deployed to help Mozambique fight them.
More than 6,100 people have been killed since the beginning of the insurrection, according to conflict tracker ACLED, including 364 last year, according to data from the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies.
Cabo Delgado has large offshore natural gas reserves, and the fighting caused the suspension of operations by the French company Total Energies in 2021. The French fossil fuel giant has said it hopes to re-ignite the $20bn gas project this summer.
Human Rights Watch last month said the armed group had “ramped up abductions of children”, using them as fighters or for labour or marriage. The group said recruiting or using children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities constitutes a war crime.
Aug. 5 (UPI) — A wildfire that ignited Friday in Southern California has exploded to tens of thousands of acres as nearly 2,000 firefighters work to get the blaze under control.
The Gifford Fire, burning in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, about 90 miles north of Los Angeles, has prompted officials to issue evacuation orders throughout both regions.
“Immediate threat to life. This is a lawful order to LEAVE NOW,” Cal Fire said in an update, adding that several other areas, mostly in San Luis Obispo County, are under evacuation warnings.
Some 1,910 firefighters were on the ground, as the blaze threatened 872 structures, officials said.
As of Monday evening, it had grown to 72,460 acres with only 3% contained, according to Cal Fire.
The Los Padres National Forest said the blaze began shortly before 4 p.m. PDT Friday as multiple wildfires along Highway 166, west of Cuyama. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Highway 166 between Highway 101 and the southern junction of Highway 33 remains closed.
Officials said it is feeding on grass fuels, which are plentiful and susceptible to spotting. Hot, dry weather, combined with the fuels, has contributed to its rapid growth, they said.
The National Weather Service in Los Angeles is warning the public about smoke spewing from the fire, saying it “will impact portions of southwest California.”
An air quality alert has been issued for the Cuyama area by the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District, while an air quality watch has been issued for the rest of Santa Barbara County.
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet (L) and Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai (R) shake hands as Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (C) puts his arms around them following a press conference after talks on a possible ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia in Putrajaya, Malaysia on Monday. EPA/MOHD RASFAN / POOL
July 28 (UPI) — Cambodia and Thailand reached a cease-fire agreement to end fighting over their disputed border after meeting for negotiations in Malaysia on Monday.
The agreement is set to come into effect at midnight local time as Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in a social media post that the two sides “agreed to end their hostilities.”
“I express my sincere appreciation to Thailand and Cambodia for choosing the path of diplomacy, and to President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping for their constructive support in advancing this peace initiative,” Ibrahim said.
The meeting came as fighting had continued between the Asian neighbors and after U.S. President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that they had agreed to “immediately meet and quickly work out a Ceasefire and, ultimately, PEACE.”
He added that China would also be participating.
“The United States applauds the ceasefire declaration between Cambodia and Thailand announced today in Kuala Lumpur,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement on Monday.
“We urge all parities to follow through on their commitments. The United States will remain committed to and engaged in the U.S.-Malaysia organized process to end this conflict.”
According to a Monday statement from the Cambodian Ministry of Defense, more than 134,707 people have been displaced by the fighting and nearly 400,000 Cambodian workers in Thailand have returned to their native country in the past five days.
The leaders of Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to an “unconditional” ceasefire, effective on Monday at midnight, in a bid to bring an end to their deadliest border conflict in more than a decade.
Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai and Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet agreed to put down their arms after five days of fierce fighting that killed at least 36 people.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who hosted the talks in Malaysia’s administrative capital, Putrajaya, said that Thailand and Cambodia had agreed to an “immediate and unconditional” ceasefire.
“This is a vital first step towards de-escalation and the restoration of peace and security,” Anwar declared. A meeting between the military commanders of both nations will follow on Tuesday, he added.
The ceasefire will come into force at midnight (17:00 GMT) as Monday becomes Tuesday.
Thailand and Cambodia have blamed each other for the border conflict that erupted on Thursday, July 24. The latest conflict, which dates back to disagreements over colonial-era maps, has displaced more than 270,000 from both sides of the Thailand-Cambodia 817-km (508-mile) land border.
What did rival leaders say?
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet said: “Today we have a very good meeting and very good results … that hope to stop immediately the fighting that has caused many lives lost, injuries and also caused displacement of people.”
“We hope that the solutions that Prime Minister Anwar just announced will set a condition for moving forward for our bilateral discussion to return to normalcy of the relationship, and as a foundation for future de-escalation of forces,” he added.
Meanwhile, Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who had expressed doubts about Cambodia’s sincerity ahead of negotiations in Malaysia, said Thailand had agreed to a ceasefire that would “be carried out successfully in good faith by both sides”.
In a joint statement issued after the talks had finished, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia said their respective defence ministers “have been instructed to develop a detailed mechanism for the implementation, verification, and reporting of the ceasefire”.
The sides also agreed to move ahead with a meeting of their so-called “General Border Committee” on August 4, in Cambodia.
Cambodians sit on a truck bed as they take refuge in Oddar Meanchey province on Saturday. Thousands of civilians have been displaced from the border regions [Heng Sinith/AP Photo]
Why were the two countries fighting?
The Southeast Asian neighbours have accused each other of starting hostilities last week, before escalating the conflict with heavy artillery bombardments.
Fighting began between the South Asian neighbours on July 24, following weeks of tensions which had been brewing since May, when a Cambodian soldier was killed in an armed confrontation on the border.
In February, a dispute over Prasat Ta Moan Thom, a Khmer temple close to the border in Thailand, intensified when Thai police stopped Cambodian tourists from singing their national anthem near the holy site.
Since the start of the year, Thailand’s Interior Ministry says more than 138,000 people have been evacuated from regions bordering Cambodia. On the other side, more than 20,000 Cambodians have been evacuated, according to local media.
Reporting from Thailand’s border province of Surin on Monday, Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng said the ceasefire announcement is welcome news for many people, especially those living along the border who have been displaced.
“There are so many people who have been affected by this, and they just want to go home so badly,” he said on Monday.
But Cheng also reported that clashes were still occurring on both sides of the border, even as the talks in Malaysia had concluded.
Displaced people take shelter in a gymnasium on the grounds of Surindra Rajabhat University in the Thai border province of Surin on July 25, 2025 [Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP]
What role did the US and China play?
Diplomats from the United States and China were also present at the meeting in Malaysia.
Hun Manet, Cambodia’s PM, said on Monday that the meeting had been “co-organised by the United States and with participation of China”.
China has strong economic links to Thailand and Cambodia, and is a close political ally of the latter.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday welcomed the ceasefire. “The United States applauds the ceasefire declaration between Cambodia and Thailand announced today in Kuala Lumpur,” Rubio said in a statement.
“We urge all parties to follow through on their commitments.”
In separate calls with Phumtham and Hun Manet on Saturday, Trump had threatened that Washington would not reach trade deals with either country as long as fighting continued.
“We’re not going to make a trade deal unless you settle the war,” Trump said on Sunday, adding that both leaders expressed willingness to negotiate after speaking with him directly.
Both Thailand and Cambodia face the prospect of a 36 percent US tariff from August 1.
In their remarks after the meeting, both Phumtham and Hun Manet thanked Anwar and Trump, as well as China, for helping reach the ceasefire.
