SAI THO 10 VILLAGE, Thailand/SAMRAONG, Cambodia – Thousands of families on both sides of the disputed border separating Thailand and Cambodia have fled to escape a bitter new conflict between the two Southeast Asian nations, but some have been forced to stay behind.

Wuttikrai Chimngarm, a Thai security guard who also serves as village head, hunkered down behind a makeshift bunker built from six layers of tires as shelling continued to shake the Thai border province of Buriram.

“I have to stay behind. I’m the head of the village, if not me then who? Who will be safeguarding the houses and belongings of the villagers from looters? I’m the leader, and all the village security guards have to stick together.”

Hundreds of thousands of people have moved into temporary shelters since fighting resumed on Monday, breaking a fragile truce brokered by US President Donald Trump in July.

Mr. Wuttikrai said he was concerned the shelters could also be targeted.

“I am worried and those villagers who evacuated are also worried because they (Cambodia) possess heavy weapons that have a firing range of up to 130 kilometers, according to the news,” he said.

In the Thai border district of Ta Phraya, civilians expressed rage at this week’s fresh outbreak of hostilities, with 65-year-old villager Sopee Kunkem calling for Cambodia’s military capabilities to be “blown to oblivion”.

“They said they would have a ceasefire,” he said. “They signed the agreement, but they didn’t stop firing.”

Both sides accuse the other of reigniting the conflict, and both accuse the other of targeting civilian areas.

At Kaun Kriel, a disputed village about 25 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of the Cambodian city of Samraong, wary residents remembering the five-day July border clash, which killed at least 48 people, began to flee as soon as fighting erupted again on Monday.

“This is my second run because the place I live is very close to the border and was under attack both times,” said Cambodian Marng Sarun, a 31-year-old harvester who left the village with his wife and two children.

Mr. Marng said he and his family were among the last to flee Kaun Kriel, which is close to the 11th-century temple Ta Krabey. He barely had time to grab a sack of rice and a few cooking supplies, and is now trying to feed his family with fish caught in a pond near the refugee site, he added.

He said he never expected Thailand to “attack” Cambodia again, or that he would have to leave Kaun Kriel for a second time.

“I only thought that we may have tensions but it would not reach this far. Especially after US President Donald Trump helped to get the peace agreement, I didn’t think that they would fight again.”— Reuters

PARIS — The Bank of France will slightly raise its economic growth forecasts for France, said central bank governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau, who added that the country’s economy was holding up despite the climate of political uncertainty.

Mr. Villeroy de Galhau was commenting after French lawmakers narrowly approved the 2026 social security budget on Tuesday, handing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu a crucial victory but at enormous political and financial cost that could still threaten his fragile government.

Mr. Lecornu is battling to get a budget approved before the end of this year, as the government tries to find ways to reduce France’s deficits despite opposition over public spending cuts.

Mr. Villeroy de Galhau told CNews TV and Europe 1 radio on Wednesday that the new Bank of France forecasts would be published on December 19.

“We are going to raise our growth forecast slightly for this year and next year. We were at 0.7 percent for this year and 0.9 for next year,” he said.

“We are going to raise our growth forecast slightly,” he added.

The Bank of France published late on Tuesday its latest business sentiment survey, which showed the euro zone’s second-biggest economy was set to grow 0.2% in the fourth quarter.

That would leave France in good stead to achieve, if not surpass, the 0.8% annual growth expected by the government this year as the economy proves relatively resilient in the face of the recurring political instability.

“We are still seeing economic activity, in spite of the uncertainty,” Mr. Villeroy de Galhau told CNews TV.— Reuters

MOSCOW — Russia on Wednesday said it was still awaiting a formal answer from Washington on President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to jointly stick to the last remaining Russian-US arms control treaty, which expires in less than two months.

New START, which runs out on February 5, caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them.

Mr. Putin in September offered to voluntarily maintain for one year the limits on deployed strategic nuclear weapons set out in the treaty, whose initials stand for the (New) Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

Mr. Trump said in October it sounded “like a good idea.”

“We have less than 100 days left before the expiry of New START,” said Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia’s powerful Security Council, which is like a modern-day politburo of Russia’s most powerful officials.

“We are waiting for a response,” Mr. Shoigu told reporters during a visit to Hanoi. He added that Moscow’s proposal was an opportunity to halt the “destructive movement” that currently existed in nuclear arms control.

NUCLEAR ARMS CONTROL IN PERIL
Russia and the US together have more than 10,000 nuclear warheads, or 87% of the global inventory of nuclear weapons. China is the world’s third largest nuclear power with about 600 warheads, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

The arms control treaties between Moscow and Washington were born out of fear of nuclear war after the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Greater transparency about the opponent’s arsenal was intended to reduce the scope for misunderstanding and slow the arms race.

US AND RUSSIA EYE CHINA’S NUCLEAR ARSENAL
Now, with all major nuclear powers seeking to modernize their arsenals, and Russia and the West at strategic loggerheads for over a decade – not least over the enlargement of NATO and Moscow’s war in Ukraine – the treaties have almost all crumbled away. Each side blames the other.

In the new US National Security Strategy, the Trump administration says it wants to “reestablish strategic stability with Russia” – shorthand for reopening discussions on strategic nuclear arms control.

Rose Gottemoeller, who was chief US negotiator for New START, said in an article for The Arms Control Association this month that it would be beneficial for Washington to implement the treaty along with Moscow.

“For the United States, the benefit of this move would be buying more time to decide what to do about the ongoing Chinese buildup without having to worry simultaneously about new Russian deployments,” Ms. Gottemoeller said.— Reuters

WASHINGTON — A US trade agreement reached with Indonesia in July is at risk of collapsing because Jakarta has backtracked on several commitments it made as part of the deal, a US official said on Tuesday.

“They’re reneging on what we agreed to in July,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, giving no details about which specific commitments Indonesia was now questioning.

The two countries in July said Indonesia agreed to eliminate tariffs on more than 99% of US goods and scrap all non-tariff barriers facing American firms, while the US will drop threatened tariffs on Indonesian products to 19% from 32%.

US President Donald Trump first announced the deal on July 15, calling it “a huge win for our Automakers, Tech Companies, Workers, Farmers, Ranchers, and Manufacturers.”

But Indonesian officials have told US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer that Jakarta cannot agree to some binding commitments and wants to reframe them, the official said.

US officials believe that would lead to worse agreements for the United States than recent deals it has struck with two other Southeast Asian countries, Malaysia, and Cambodia, the official said, confirming details first reported earlier on Tuesday by the Financial Times.

The FT reported US officials believe Indonesia is “backsliding” on the elimination of non-tariff barriers on industrial and agricultural exports from the US as well as commitments to take action on digital trade issues.

No comment was immediately available from USTR.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week told a New York Times DealBook event that Indonesia “was getting a little recalcitrant” on its trade deal with the United States, but did not elaborate. Malaysia, by contrast, had proven to be a good actor and had dropped thousands of line tariffs so trade between the US and that country was flowing much better.— Reuters