Thailand and Cambodia agree to a 72-hour ceasefire

Today's headlines: Despite tensions with Washington, India continues to invest in AI data centres; Record number of foreigners in South Korea; Attack in Syria targets Alawite mosque.

THAILAND – CAMBODIA

Today, Bangkok and Phnom Penh announced an immediate 72-hour ceasefire after weeks of fighting along the disputed border. Both sides agreed to freeze all troop movements and allow civilians living in border areas to return home. Over 40 people have died in the clashes and one million people have been displaced. Under the agreement, 18 Cambodian soldiers detained by Thailand will also be released in the coming days.

INDIA – USA

Despite recent diplomatic tensions between Delhi and Washington, investments by large American technology companies in India continue to boom: in particular, Microsoft, Amazon and Google have announced a series of multi-billion dollar projects to develop the data centres needed to run artificial intelligence. India produces about 20% of the world's data, but has only 3% of the storage capacity.

SOUTH KOREA

The number of foreigners staying in South Korea for 90 days or more for work or study exceeded 1.6 million in November, the Ministry of Justice reported. The figure has been rising since 2021, with an 8% increase over last year. More than half of the foreigners live in the Seoul metropolitan area. Based on citizenship of origin, 29.8% are Chinese, followed by 18.4% from Vietnam, 5.5% from Nepal, 4.3% from Uzbekistan and 4.1% from Cambodia.

JAPAN

While the Japanese government has approved a defence budget of 9 trillion yen (equivalent to 58 billion dollars), a local research institute has pointed out that during 2025, the prices of more than 20,000 food and beverage products have increased due to the rise in the cost of raw materials such as coffee, cocoa and rice.

SYRIA

Yesterday, eight people were killed in a terrorist attack on an Alawite mosque in Homs claimed by Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah, the same group that carried out an attack on the Mar Elias church in Damascus in June. Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah is an extremist militia formed in opposition to the current Syrian government. The explosion occurred during midday prayers. According to the Syrian Ministry of Health, another 18 people were injured, but the figures are not definitive, indicating that the death toll could rise in the coming hours.

RUSSIA

Russian neo-Nazi militant Aleksey Milčakov gave a “lesson in courage” at a technical institute in St Petersburg, as reported on the Telegram channel of the ultra-nationalist group Rusič, complete with an award given by the headmaster as a token of gratitude. The post indicates that this was not the first such meeting with students, who are forced to spend hours of military training and wrestling instead of regular lessons.

KAZAKHSTAN

In Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, the editor-in-chief of the news agency KazTag, Amir Kasenov, was arrested on charges of “spreading false information” following a complaint by the company Freedom Finance, controlled by Russian-Kazakh billionaire Timur Timurov, about whom he had published an investigation into money laundering. His lawyers speak of “legal chaos” on the part of the Kazakh judiciary.

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