Global News Podcast - Thailand launches air strikes on Cambodia

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

Tensions escalate again between Thailand and Cambodia after violent clashes on the border. The Thai military says it is hitting military targets to suppress attacks by Cambodian forces. Both accuse each other of breaching a ceasefire agreement brokered by President Trump just two months ago. Also: as Syria marks the first year anniversary of the fall of the Assad regime, our International Editor, Jeremy Bowen, looks at how Syrians are dealing with challenges after the civil war. An attempted coup in Benin is thwarted with the help of Nigeria and other West African countries; Lando Norris is the new Formula One champion after a dramatic race in Dubai - his mentor Trevor Carlin tells us all about him; and the British documentary photographer Martin Parr - known for his humour and capturing the quirkiness of British life - has died.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Pete Ross and in the early hours of Monday the 8th of December, these are our main stories. Tensions escalate once again between Thailand and Cambodia after violent clashes on the border. Syria celebrates the one-year anniversary of the fall of the Assad regime and an attempted coup in Benin is thwarted

with the help of Nigeria and other West Africa. African countries. Also in this podcast... He's obviously not my son, but he's as close as possible as you can get, and very, very proud. And hopefully it's the first of many championships for him. We get the inside track on Landau Norris, the new Formula One champion. We begin in Southeast Asia,

where a fragile piece between Thailand and Cambodia appears to be under further strain. The two countries have fought a five-day war in July, the latest flayed up in a century-old territorial dispute. And while a ceasefire brokered with the help of Donald Trump appeared to ease tensions, each side had accused the other of breaking it. Now the Thai military says one of its soldiers has been killed in a fresh wave of border clashes, and it's launched airstrikes at Cambodian forces in response. Panisha and Moshe gave me this update from Bangkok. The whole news rounds of fighting between Thailand and Cambodia began on Sunday, and it has been expanded today.

About 20 minutes ago, I've talked to one of the civilians who still live in the border area from the Thai side, and they've said that they still hear the opening shot at each other. Both sides are still accusing each other of firing's opening shot. As we already mentioned, that one Thai soldiers has been dead and four are wounded. And at the moment from the Thai side, almost 400,000 civilians across full border district are now being evacuated. Have we had any response from Cambodia on all this? The Cambodian Defence Ministry also accused Thailand of launching itself at two locations after what is called day of provocative action and said that Cambodian troops had not retaliated. Tensions have been bubbling away for quite some time.

And this is, of course, something that stretches back, you know, many decades. as much as a century. So what do we expect next? Is this a serious escalation? Actually, after the seed fire agreement, this has been one of the most serious fightings between the two countries because people are now have to evacuate its officials. And I've already mentioned this, we are talking about 400,000 alone in Thai side. One could imagine that it would be almost severe as well for the Cambodian side. And along the way, after the agreement on the ceasefire, we have seen incident of landmiles, but not to this levels of fighting, and both sides are still

fighting each other. The Thai side, the Thai military, said that they're already deploying aircraft to strike Cambodian military position in Zerov's area, but they mentioned that it's according to the rule of engagement just to suppress the continued attacks. Panisha Amosha from BBC Thai. Syria is marking the first year anniversary of the fall of the Assad regime. Bashar al-Assad had ruled the country since the year. year 2000, taking over from his father who'd been in power since 1971. He was overthrown in a lightning offensive by Islamist-led rebels and fled to Russia. Syria's new president, Ahmed al-Shara, a former rebel with links to al-Qaeda, has the support of the White

House. But after years of civil war, unifying and rebuilding a fractured and shattered Syria is particularly challenging, as our international editor, Jeremy Bowen, reports. Their fireworks, though it sounds a bit like the war that used to shake the city when rebels who held the suburbs were trying to break into the centre of Damascus. They're celebrating because it's exactly a year since the fall of Bashar al-Assah, the man who broke Syria to try to save the regime he inherited from his father. I've been to Duma, one of those suburbs, when the regime, helped by the Russians, finally forced the surrender of the rebels

in the suburbs in 2018. it looked as if Assad was winning. Akbar Ashara, who overthrew him 12 months ago, had other ideas. Just walking around this area, it's still immensely badly damaged. You know, it's been years since there were estrikes here, but very little's been done to fix it up.

You can see signs. People have moved into some flats. There are little brick walls that have been built. Walls made a breeze blocks to block up, shell, holes. Signs of progress, there's so much they have to do. We drove south from Damascus to Dera, the town on the border with Jordan, where the uprising against the Assad regime started in 2011. A few enterprising families have clearly been rebuilding their homes, but the vast majority of

houses here are still absolutely destroyed, just concrete scallops. One of Syria's biggest problems, the government says it, the UN says it, is the fact the economy is in such a bad state collapsed. It's hard to get economic activity going again in places like this if there are unexploded bombs and exploded munitions around them in the ruins, in the concrete. So that's another reason, apart from just purely safety, why it's important to try and clean these places up. My name is Piers Brecker. I'm the location manager for the Halo Trust here. Just across the road from us, there are a combination of sub-munitions, anti-personal mines and anti-tank mines. Next to that, we found a 122-millimeter Grad Rockets warhead.

Pretty much you name it, it's here. You name it, it's here. To get rid of it, they place a small, explosive charge, and from a safe distance, blow it up. A local man has seen the demining team here and he said there are some very suspicious objects at his property so we're going to check it out. So the shepherd here, Sulema Kana, he's got his three boys

and they are all bearing the marks of war. They've all at different times been heard. he was shot and he's showing me a huge scar on his leg where he was shot through the right calf and the boys themselves they're all bearing marks

of where they've been injured by explosions and also one of them Ali is coughing badly his lungs have been damaged I think by smokies inhaled from munitions that they were burning off

The boy's father was relieved that the lethal litter left behind by the wall was finally being cleared. Life is very, very difficult. There is no mercy and comfort in it. My kids were burned twice by gunpowder. This one's face was burned. Look, this one's legs were burned. Every stop in Syria illustrates another challenge to the new government.

Beijing, a village in the footholes of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where the problem is Israel. It's in the area Israel is demanding, is demilitarized, where the IDF seized more Syrian land after Assad fell. We were in Beijing three days after the IDF killed 13 residents of the village, and a raid Israel said was an arrest operation. The Damascus government calls it a war crime. Six IDF soldiers were wounded when local men fought back, forcing a hasty retreat.

So this is from the attack, right? He's pointing up at a damage building full of bullet holes. We're being given a tour of Beijing by Hamid Kamal. He describes himself as a 38-year-old shepherd, like a lot of the guys around here. He wears

sort of olive car. khaki type clothing. This village, Beijing, is right under the eyes of the Israeli observation posts in the Golan Heights. These people have lived very close to the IDF for many, many years, actually. A car pulled up. Halil Abu Daha was in the passenger seat, his arm in plaster, coming home from the hospital where he'd been treated since the IDF reign. I was in my house with my children. We were trying to find a safe. safe place. They shot at my two daughters. One was hit and the other died instantly. When I picked her up, I was shut in the hand. At their home, Houda, age nine, was lying under a blanket

recovering from a bullet wound. Her sister, Hibah, 17, was shot dead. Their mother, Umm Muhammad, is in despair. We want to live in our homes and we want a clinic and medical stuff because we don't have one. Our children are living in hell here. There is no safety for them. We go to sleep and wake up afraid. In the village, neighbours and VIPs were arriving to offer their sympathy and express anger at Israel. It's three days after the Israeli attack, a significant day in the morning process. It seems to me these are people, these are villages who have just been buffeted and trapped by circumstances, the uprising against Assad, the war,

unable to control their own lives, and a year on from the fall of Assad, that hasn't changed. It's simply that the forces gripping their lives have changed. The reality of how they live hasn't. Our international editor, Jeremy Bowen, military groups have seized power in several West African countries in recent years. And on Sunday, there was an attempted coup in Benin. Troops and planes from Nigeria and other West African nations were deployed to stop soldiers from a group called the Military

Committee for Re-Foundation taking over the country. The soldiers announced on state television that Parliament had been dissolved. But hours later, President Patrice Talon confirmed in an address to the nation that he is still in power. Our correspondent Thomas Nadi told me how events unfolded. A group of soldiers stormed the state. TV and then announced that they had ousted President Patrice Talon and dissolved all state

institutions and suspended the constitution. But we do know that Benin itself has been facing some form of political tensions ahead of elections in April next year. Some key opposition figures have been excluded and then some

imprisoned in the country. So that has created some form of attention. But the co-leader The Lieutenant Colonel Pascal's degree, they did indicate that the reason why they decided to take this bold move was because of mismanagement by the government and also the worsening security situation in the north of the country. We know that Al-Qaeda-linked Genie militants have inflicted severe casualties within the military. The soldiers have not really been happy about it, and it's also one of the reasons why they decided. to attempt the coup. Now, Thomas, as we understand it, order has been restored,

but that wasn't without the help of some of Benin's neighbours, including Nigeria. Yes, order has now been restored. President Talon on Sunday evening addressed the nation and said that everything is now completely under control and then vowed to punish perpetrators of this particular coup attempt. He also did indicate that there were still some hostages being held by fleeing soldiers and then some fatalities were recorded, but he didn't indicate the exact number of people who died in the coup attempt.

But it is instructive to note that late Sunday afternoon, there were heavy explosions in the capital, which suggested airstrikes. Later in Nigerian presidency statement confirmed that his ground troops and air force were in action in Benin. They had helped the soldiers in Benet to flash out the coup plotters from the state TV and then also a military base where they had regrouped. We also know that regional bloc ECOWAS has said it was deploying troops to Benin with immediate effect to secure the country. Quite a serious response then from some of Benin's neighbours.

Is this the sort of usual practice? There have been a series of queues in West Africa recently. The response to this particular coup was very swift and effective, unlike the previous coup that took place in countries like Niger, where ECOWAS had threatened to intervene in Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, and then more recently in Guinea-Bissau. And so it's just a way of setting a very strong message that this time around, the regional block, ECOWAS, and also neighboring countries were taking the issue of cool. seriously because West Africa is already grappling with a very bloody jihadist insurgency.

They are trying to do everything to ensure that they protect a democracy in the region as a credible form of government. Thomas Nadi. Later in the podcast, All I'm doing is seeing the things that I think are interesting. Sometimes they're funny too. And people are funny. So how can the work not be funny? at some point in their production.

We look back at the life of British photographer Martin Pard, who's died at the age of 73. Supply chain disruption. Everyone talks about it, but not everyone truly understands the nature of the problem. Disruption is blindness. You cannot see what is happening in your value chain, and you cannot see.

surface data to address it. I'm Vijay Sharma, special host to Resolient Edge, a business vitality podcast paid and presented by Deloitte. I talked to two guests with deep expertise in supply chains. Sophia Mendelsohn from SAP cuts through the noise. You've got to get down to the field level. It is time to get down to the plant level. Go from estimates to actuals because otherwise it will always sound like greenwashing.

John Lennahan from Esri has been watching this transformation. When you think of what we've been doing in a geospatial industry for years, it's creating a digital twin of the world. The ability to see everything, everywhere, all at once. And here's the part that changes everything. It isn't just about sustainability. It's about control. And we can call it circular and we can call it responsible.

We can call it closed loop. But ultimately, we're going to call it control. This is the control economy. So where do you start? Well, the first thing is start. Start small and begin kind of mapping. and visualizing what you know. From hidden vulnerabilities to competitive advantage,

the full conversation reveals how leading companies are using geospational intelligence, AI, and ERP systems to build what we call the control economy. All of that and more on this special episode of Resilient Edge. Find us wherever you listen to podcasts. It's 5.23 p.m.

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thousand murders were recorded in South Africa last year, with the majority concentrated in urban areas. South Africa rejects the claim of genocide, but the White House's intervention has cast dividing lines throughout the Africana community. As Africa eyes, Claire Moisa reports. Just to note, you may hear some distressing content here. Sat amidst the rolling grasslands of the Heifeld Plateau, Martinez's farm feels ice A few other lonely farmsteads dot the horizon around us. He earns a decent living, but he no longer believes his family has a future here. I always have that thing in my mind that when they can come and kill us or torture us.

He's applied for refugee status in America, concerned that his wife and children could one day fall victim to a farm murder. It's a fear grounded in personal tragedy. They came into my grandpa's bedroom, and then he hammered that shotgun on my grandfather's face. My grandfather stand up again, and then he shot him two times, and he said. Brutal, often high-profile murders of white farmers have fueled the belief that the killing of Afrikaners amounts to genocide. It's a genocide that's taking place that you people don't want to write about, but it's a terrible thing. thing that's taking place and farmers are being killed. They happen to be white, but whether they're white or black makes no difference to me. Black people were forced off their land by the

government under a bar date. Decades after its end, white South Africans still own the majority of privately owned farmland. But Donald Trump's claim of genocide has proven divisive, even amongst those his offering to protect. See, there the fence is complete, there's been cut. that's another clear sign that there's somebody in here right now as we speak. We join Morgan Barrett on a nighttime patrol of his farm. Like many white farm owners, Morgan employs black South African security guards and black workers are frequently amongst the victims of farm attacks. I think the people who are calling it white genocide have no real understanding

what a genocide is. If they thought that the black guy had 20,000 ran sitting in a safe, they'd attack him just as quickly as they'd attack the white guy with 20,000 in the safe. Morgan tells us he has no intention of leaving, but even if the claims of genocide

are ill-founded, the chance at a new life in America remains tempting. Carlene and her children relocated after their farm was burgled. She's been unemployed for 10 years. Now Donald Trump's offer could see her family divided. She's determined to go, but her daughter

Wilma wishes to stay. Every morning when they go to school, I worry, I worry, is something happening. My biggest challenge is to find a decent job, but I don't have to fight every day for my income. Older generation, white people still feel that race thing, like they're scared of black people, black people constantly need to show less and I'm safe. I have high hopes for the younger generation. We'll make it work. Colleen submitted her application and has been advised to complete more paperwork. Back in the high felt, Martinez and his family have had their application approved.

They now prepare to leave their home as recognized refugees. Claire Mawisa. Step aside, Lewis Hamilton and Max Rastappen. Formula One has a... a brand new world champion. Britain's Landau Norris clinched the title on Sunday after coming third in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the final race of the season.

Trevor Carlin from Junior Motor Racing Team Carlin Motorsport spotted Landau's talent, helping to nurture him at the beginning of his career. He told my colleague Rebecca Kesbby more about the potential he saw in the new world champion early on. He was known as the next British Wonder Kid, as they're called. Basically, you look at their results and what they've done in the past

and who they've raced for and what they've done and you just see the ones that are on the crest of a wave and if they drive for good teams they tend to stay on the crest of the wave and keep going and going and going so basically you look for winners that's what Lando was what makes a winner though

I mean what's in the personality and the ability that allowed him to be like that so early on they've got to have a real great feel for their environment and what's going on then how to adapt it mentally and then have the work ethic to keep going and keep going and keep going. I mean, Lando's been driving some sort of vehicle

since he was probably four or five years old and he's still doing it every day and he's working hard. So it's that work ethic and the natural talent that goes with it. And when you get those two things together, it's hard to beat. You talk about the mentality, the need to be mentally strong there because Formula One drivers come under a lot of pressure, don't they? Obviously there's the big team behind. But on the day, they're the ones out there alone driving.

There may be 1,400 people behind Lando at the McLaren factory and in the pits and everything. But the one person that can make the difference on the day is that driver. And if something goes wrong, the driver makes a mistake, you've got millions and millions of people watching them and do it on live TV. And then the commentators are questioning everything they do and stuff like this. So the pressure is immense. But the great thing about top professional racing drivers is they can compartmentalise. They can put things in little boxes and they don't think about anything else apart from driving the car when they're driving.

So it's a great mental skill and I think it's underestimated what these kids do. And as you say, every move is scrutinised and trawled over in the press. How would you describe Lando's personality in terms of his ability to deal with all of that? It's very difficult for him because he's a very shy, quiet young man. actually but you know he's grown a confidence to deal with the circumstances and he coats very very well with it but he's very introverted when he'd finished working with the guys then he'd just sit in the back of the truck and put his hoodie up and just sit there on his phone like other kids and keep himself to himself so he's a quiet young man he's had to adapt to the world he's now in

which is high profile high media expectations and I think he's done an amazing job of coping with it to be honest with you he's obviously not my son but he's as close as possible as you can get. I've followed his whole journey and very, very proud. And hopefully it's the first of many championships for him and first of many great memories for me to watch. Trevor Carlin giving the inside track on Lando Norris to Rebecca Kesby. The British photographer Martin Parr has died of cancer

at the age of 73. For more than 50 years, Martin Parr took quirky and often humorous photographs of working class people doing everyday things like queuing for ice cream, sunbathing on the beach or camping. Here he is talking about his work. One of the good things about Britain is that we do have a good sense of humour. All I'm doing is seeing the things that I think are interesting, sometimes they're funny too, and people are funny.

So how can the work not be funny at some point in their production? But I don't think of myself as being a humorous photographer. It's just naturally, you know, life is strange and life is funny. Our arts correspondent David Silato knew Martin Parr, and he told my colleague Julia McFarlane what he loves about the photographs. If you want somebody who evokes Britishness and real Britishness, go to his photographs of New Brighton,

the poor people there who are sunburned in Siegel-strewn chip shop disarray, trying to have fun in what looks to be the bleakest of environments. But there is humour and there is joy, and there is that bright, vibrant colour. It is utter, utter, working class, Britishness. And it had such an impact because it was the first time he used colour, colour photography, and it just looks like a snap, you know, serious photography is black and white.

And it's got earnest people with lots of shadows and all sorts of things. This is bright light in your face. And you look at it and you go, oh, that feels a bit uncomfortable, but it's also funny and it's moving all at the same time. And there was an awful lot of reactions like that to his pictures when, especially those New Brighton ones. Some people laughed at them. Some people saw a social provocation.

And lots of others felt quite uncomfortable. Was it cruel? Was it mockery that was going on here? I think none of that. I mean, I met Martin several times over the years. And he was this strange, unassuming man. I mean, he could walk into a room. Some people have presents, you know they're immediately there. He could be there for an hour and you wouldn't spot he was there.

He had this sort of, I wouldn't want to call it anti-charisma, but, you know, he never drew attention to himself. And he'd take a few snaps and he'd have caught something and you'd see what he photographed. And he went, oh, that's what you saw. It would be the little detail. One of my favorite ones is from a fate, a church fate. And it's a picture of a cellophane wrapped cucumber and cheese.

sandwich. You cannot think of anything more British, more unappealing. But just by the side of it, there's a little bowl and it goes, each person's allowed one cherry tomato each with their sandwich. And you go, I've been to that church fate. That's what he did. And there's a fantastic piece of footage of him at a book signing in France. And there's this huge queue of people. I mean, he was treated as a real serious artist. There are enormous numbers of exhibitions of his work because somehow to the rest of the world, that is Britain. It's not a Britain that maybe Britain feels entirely comfortable with, but my goodness, when you see it, you recognise it, you go, oh yeah, I've been there.

Absolutely wonderful. And, you know, you mentioned his colour. His pictures were very vivid. And it was perhaps for him a way to differentiate him from some of the more rather po-faced, serious photography of the black and white. How did he use colour in his photographs? Whenever you see the pictures, I think the whole thing about the colour

was that it felt real. It felt a realness. It wasn't art he was creating. There is a sort of self-consciousness about black and white that you're creating a visual image. You're taking the real world and elevating it. And documentary photography in particular has lots of sort of heroic poses.

There are always the people you go, oh, yes, their struggle going on. on in the, amongst the down-trodden or here is the great hero in the war, this was simply just an observation of everyday life. David Silato. And that's all from us now, but there will be another edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is Global Podcast at BBC.co.uk.

You can also find us on X at BBC World. World Service. Use the hashtag Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Simon Nunn and produced by Stephen Jensen and Wendy Urquart. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Pete Ross. Until next time, goodbye.