Bangkok, Dec 10: Clashes intensify between southeast Asian neighbours as Thai F16s bomb Cambodian villages while Cambodia fired rockets on a Thai hospital according to Khmer Times and the Bangkok Post.

Sharing details of the clashes, Khmer Times reported that on Wednesday, Thai military used F-16 fighter jets to drop two bombs on the village of Slor Kram, Slor Kram commune, Svay Chek district, Banteay Meanchey province.

As per Khmer Times, Thai military used several fighter jets to attack places which included Thi Mom Thi, An Ses, Phnom Khak, and Preah Vihear Temple- a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It further mentioned that the Thai military used 1 artillery shell on the Cheyy area, Thma Da commune, Veal Veng district, Pursat province and 2 DK rifles and used drones to drop bombs in the Cheyy area, Thma Da commune, Veal Veng district, Pursat province.

Citing the Second Army Region, Bangkok Post reported that the rockets fired from Cambodia struck Phanom Dong Rak Hospital in Surin province on Wednesday morning. It said that the health facility had been rocket-hit in July.

It mentioned that Cambodia fired six rockets at the hospital and its vicinity in Phanom Dong Rak district at 8.40am (local time), necessitating the evacuation of medical personnel and patients for their safety.

As per Bangkok Post, the Second Army, which supervises the Northeast, said that clashes persisted on Wednesday morning across 12 locations.

The Thai army added that Cambodian forces on Tuesday fired 5,000 rockets and attacked with suicide drones in multiple border areas, especially in Chong An Ma and Chong Bok in Ubon Ratchathani, Thiang Ta Mok area in Si Sa Ket and Chong Khana and Prasat Ta Khwai in Surin, Bangkok Post reported.

Citing the Second Army, it reported that four Thai soldiers were killed and 68 others were injured, while 61 Cambodian soldiers were also reported dead. The regional army had yet to estimate the number of injured Cambodian soldiers.

It further reported that the First Army Region, said its soldiers retrieved an area previously encroached upon by Cambodians in Ban Nong Ya Kaew in Sa Kaeo. Soldiers found Cambodia’s anti-personnel landmines and improvised explosive devices prepared for use in that area.

According to Bangkok Post, the First Army also tried to reclaim another encroached area in Ban Nong Chan in Sa Kaeo but faced resistance. Five Thai soldiers sustained injuries during the operation.

Amid the clashes, US President Donald Trump, while delivering remarks on economy at Pennsylvania, said, “I hate to say this, Cambodia and Thailand started up today. Tomorrow I have to make a phone call…I’m going to make a phone call and stop a war of two very powerful countries, Thailand and Cambodia. They’re going at it again. But I’ll do it. So we’re making peace through strength,” he said.

The fresh clashes come only weeks after Thailand suspended a peace agreement signed in Kuala Lumpur in late October. The pact, witnessed by US President Donald Trump, was presented as a major diplomatic breakthrough. Thailand paused its commitments to the agreement in November after a landmine blast injured two of its soldiers.

The latest escalation also follows Trump’s recent comments in Washington, where he claimed to have settled 8 wars in 10 months because of the rights clearly given to the president of the United States.” Cambodia and Thailand were among them.

Border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia stretch back decades, rooted in disputes over colonial-era maps. The frontier has seen repeated clashes, most recently in July, when fighting involving jets, missiles and ground troops killed dozens and displaced nearly 200,000 people.

Australia, Dec 10: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Wednesday that the social media ban for children under the age of 16 is now in place in Australia, making it the first country in the world to “give it a crack”.

Highlighting the challenges faced by both parents and children from the impact of social media, Albanese said it was a step towards peace of mind for parents and children, allowing them to experience childhood.

In a message, Australian PM Anthony Albanese said, “Across Australia, those under 16 are starting their day a little differently- without social media. It’s a big change and we’re the first country in the world to give it a crack. But it really matters.”

“Algorithms, endless feeds, and pressures no generation before has had to deal with. Today’s change is about supporting you to keep your children safe online. Putting the responsibility right where it belongs- on the social media giants, not on parents”, he said.

“By banning social media for those under 16, we’re giving children a childhood and parents more peace of mind”, the Australian PM added.

In another video message, he said, “This is the day when Australian families are taking back power from these big tech companies and they are asserting the right of kids to be kids and for parents to have greater peace of mind.”

According to UNICEF Australia, as of December 10, “anyone under 16 in Australia won’t be able to keep or make accounts on social media apps like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and more.”

While the rule does not punish young people or their families, it places the onus on social media companies to prevent under-16s from creating accounts or risk serious fines (up to about $50 million).

The decision follows after the Australian Government passed a new law called the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 on November 28 last year.

The law introduces a mandatory minimum age of 16 for accounts on certain social media platforms and parents cannot give their consent to let under-16s use these platforms.

Citing the government, UNICEF Australia highlighted that the social media ban is needed to protect the mental health and well-being of Australian children and teens from the risks posed by social media, such as cyberbullying, harmful content, and online predators, which outweigh the positives.

UNICEF Australia further noted that applications such as Messenger Kids, WhatsApp, Kids Helpline, Google Classroom and YouTube Kids are not expected to be a part of the ban. (ANI)

Washington, Dec 10: The Trump administration’s decision to allow NVIDIA to export its advanced H200 artificial intelligence chips to China drew sharp and coordinated criticism on Capitol Hill, with senior lawmakers from both chambers warning that the move jeopardises US national security, undermines export-control policy, and strengthens Beijing’s technological capabilities at America’s expense.

Congressman Gregory Meeks, the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the decision shows that “under this administration, our national security is for sale.” Calling the move “a unilateral concession to China,” Meeks warned it would “accelerate China’s AI industry, giving away America’s technological edge to the very companies trying to evade US export controls.”

He added, “This decision reeks of corruption. NVIDIA’s CEO has directly lobbied the administration for months and is being rewarded over the objections of Trump’s own national security team. Export control decisions must be made based on national security, not solely on the whims of the president and the offer coming from the highest bidder.”

A group of senior Senate Democrats — including Brian Schatz, Chris Coons, Jeanne Shaheen, Jack Reed, Elizabeth Warren, Andy Kim, Michael Bennet, and Elissa Slotkin — released a joint statement calling the decision “a colossal economic and national security failure.”

“The H200S are vastly more capable than anything China can make and gifting them to Beijing would squander America’s primary advantage in the AI race,” the senators said. They emphasised that access to the chips “would give China’s military transformational technology to make its weapons more lethal, carry out more effective cyberattacks against American businesses and critical infrastructure, and strengthen their economic and manufacturing sector.”

The lawmakers cited Chinese AI company DeepSeek, noting that “as recently as last week”, it said the lack of access to advanced American-designed chips was its “single biggest impediment” to competing with US firms. “With this decision, President Trump is poised to remove that barrier,” they said.

Slotkin, who joined the Senate this year after serving in the House, issued a separate statement with several of the same senators, repeating that the administration’s action “would squander America’s primary advantage in the AI race” and warning that the president “must reverse course and recommit to preserving American dominance in AI.”

Senator Mark Warner, Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a key architect of the bipartisan CHIPS Act, said the administration’s move exposes a deeper strategic vacuum. He argued that the United States must “remain the undisputed leader in AI hardware,” but the White House had adopted “a haphazard and transactional approach to export policy” that “demonstrates that it does not have any sort of coherent strategy for how we will compete with China.”

Warner cautioned that without a long-term plan across “multiple key dimensions of AI innovation,” the administration “risks squandering US AI leadership and deferring to the People’s Republic of China up and down the AI stack.”

Indian American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ranking Member of the House committee examining US–China strategic competition, said allowing exports of H200 chips “would be a profound national security mistake and a gift to our top strategic competitor.” He said advanced GPUs remain “one of the most important advantages we hold in the race for AI, military modernisation, and the jobs of the future.”

“Instead of opening the spigot for H200 sales to China, we should strengthen guardrails, build cutting-edge capacity here in the United States, and ensure that American workers and our national security — not the CCP — benefit from the future of AI,” he said.