By EILEEN NG

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Thailand and Cambodia agreed Thursday to establish interim observer teams to monitor a fragile ceasefire that ended five days of of deadly armed border clashes, even as the fate of 18 Cambodian soldiers captured by Thailand remains unresolved.

Related Articles

Japan deploys its first F-35B fighter jets to bolster defenses in the south

Israel is weighing its options in Gaza. Here are 4 scenarios for where things may be heading

Great Barrier Reef records largest annual coral loss in 39 years

Toyota reports a 37% drop in profit, cuts its forecast due to Trump’s tariffs

South Korea, US militaries will stage large-scale drills this month to address North Korean threats

The first meeting of the General Border Committee concluded after four days of talks in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, with a focus on ensuring the full implementation of the ceasefire brokered by Malaysia on July 28.

Dozens of people were killed and over 260,000 displaced on both sides of the Thai-Cambodian border, when fighting began after a land mine explosion along the border wounded five Thai soldiers.

According to a joint statement from the committee, each country will set up its own interim observer team comprising defense officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and coordinated by the bloc’s annual chair Malaysia, pending the deployment of a formal ASEAN observer mission. The interim teams will operate within their respective borders and work closely with local military authorities.

The main meeting Thursday was chaired by Cambodian Defense Minister Gen. Tea Seiha and Thailand’s Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Natthaphon Nakpanit. Malaysian Defense Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin, along with representatives from the U.S. and China, attended as observers.

Thai Deputy Defence Minister Nattaphon Narkphanit speaks at a news conference after a meeting of the Extraordinary General Border Committee (GBC) to discuss the border dispute between Thailand and Cambodian, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. (Hasnoor Hussain/Pool Photo via AP)

U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia Edgard D. Kagan said after the meeting that the outcome was an important milestone.

“The U.S. believes this is an important step. However it’s important to recognize this is only a step. The goal here is a durable sustainable ceasefire, one that is able to be accepted and enforced by both sides,” he told reporters. He said the U.S. would work closely with Malaysia and ASEAN to monitor the truce.

The July 28 ceasefire followed economic pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who had warned the warring nations that the U.S. would not conclude trade deals with them if the fighting persisted. Washington lowered tariffs on goods from the two countries from 36% to 19% on Aug. 1.

However, tensions persisted as each country accused the other of violating the agreements and organized tours of the former battle areas for foreign diplomats and other observers to highlight damage allegedly caused by the other side.

The two countries also continued to accuse each other of having violated international humanitarian laws with attacks on civilians and the use of illegal weapons.

While both sides reaffirmed commitments to halt hostilities, freeze troop movement and avoid provocations, the issue of the 18 Cambodian soldiers captured just hours after the ceasefire took effect remains a sticking point. The joint statement did not directly mention them but it noted that the captives should be “immediately released and repatriated after the cessation of active hostilities.” It didn’t clarify iwhether this refers to a formal end to the conflict.

Cambodia had accused Thailand of mistreating the captured men. Two wounded members of the 20-man Cambodian group were repatriated on Friday.

Thai authorities, however, called the group “prisoners of war” and said they would only be freed and repatriated following an end to the conflict.

The Thai foreign ministry said in a separate statement Thursday that the 18 prisoners have been treated in full compliance with international humanitarian law. It said members of the International Committee of the Red Cross had visited them on Tuesday at their detention facility, and that the men were in good health and without any injury.

Cambodia and Thailand have clashed in the past over their 500-mile border. Tensions had been growing since May when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a confrontation that created a diplomatic rift and roiled Thailand’s domestic politics.

Associated Press reporter Grant Peck in Bangkok and Sopheng Cheang in Cambodia contributed to this report.

A Republican state committeewoman and the reigning winner of the Miss United States beauty pageant has accused Central Florida U.S. Rep. Cory Mills of threatening to release nude videos of her after the two ended their relationship, according to a police report.

Lindsey Langston, 25, filed a report with the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office on July 14, alleging that the Republican congressman threatened to harm any future romantic interest of hers after they broke up in February.

“Cory has contacted Lindsey numerous times on numerous different accounts threatening to release nude images and videos of her, to include recorded videos of her and Cory engaging in sexual acts,” the report states.

The matter was referred to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which would handle any investigation, said Sgt. Steven Khachigan, a spokesman for North Florida’s Columbia County Sheriff’s Office. Casey Smith, an FDLE spokesman, said the agency received the report but does not comment on active inquiries or investigations.

In a statement released to Politico, Mills, 45, said he was unaware of the report and denied wrongdoing. He has not been charged with any crime. His team did not respond to requests for comment from the Orlando Sentinel.

“These claims are false and misrepresent the nature of my interactions,” Mills told Politico. “I have always conducted myself with integrity, both personally and in service to Florida’s 7th District.”

Blaze Media and Drop Site News first reported the incident.

The police report does not list a potential criminal offense and is labeled as an “information/intelligence report.” Anthony Sabatini, a Lake County attorney who said he is representing Langston, told the Sentinel that Florida has an extortion law he thinks could apply to this case.

Sabatini, who is also a Lake County commissioner and former state representative, lost to Mills in the 2022 GOP congressional primary for District 7.

Related Articles

Trump’s planned 100% computer chip tariff sparks confusion among businesses and trading partners

Chronically ill? In Kennedy’s view, it might be your own fault

Harvard scientists say research could be set back years after funding freeze

Vice President JD Vance to visit Indiana as Trump pressures GOP states to redistrict

Trump seeks to change how census collects data and wants to exclude immigrants in US illegally

Langston, who could not be reached for comment, told officers she started a romantic relationship with Mills in November 2021 and lived with him at his New Smyrna Beach home, according to the report.

Though Mills was married, she told officers Mills said he separated from his wife. The status of Mills’ marriage is unclear. In March, he told The Floridian news website he had been working through divorce proceedings for the past two years.

Langston told officers she broke off the relationship in February, when an incident made headlines involving the congressman and another woman.

That month, the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department opened a probe of Mills following a report of an alleged assault at Mills’ penthouse apartment near the Capitol.

Mills, 45, vehemently denied any physical altercation occurred. Sarah Raviani, the 27-year-old woman listed as the victim by police, also denied she was assaulted in a statement to the Orlando Sentinel and other media outlets.

Police sent an arrest warrant to the U.S. Attorney’s office for consideration, but that investigation was closed after it was returned unsigned, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

Mills, who joined Congress in 2023, represents Seminole County and portions of Volusia County. He’s faced a firestorm of controversy this year, and Democrats are targeting his seat in next year’s election.

Last month, his D.C. landlord filed a lawsuit seeking to evict him from his $20,833-a-month luxury penthouse. Bozzuto Management Co. alleged he owed about $85,000 in missed rental payments.

Mills blamed a faulty payment system for the back rent. The property management company voluntarily dismissed the suit on Monday. The court filing does not specify how much Mills paid or if he’ll remain a tenant.

The House Ethics Committee is also scrutinizing Mills’ business dealings and financial disclosure statements, including whether Mills benefited from federal contracts while serving in Congress.

By MARI YAMAGUCHI

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s first three F-35B stealth fighter jets arrived Thursday at an air base in the south of the country, its latest move to fortify defenses as tensions in the region grow.

Related Articles

Israel is weighing its options in Gaza. Here are 4 scenarios for where things may be heading

Great Barrier Reef records largest annual coral loss in 39 years

Toyota reports a 37% drop in profit, cuts its forecast due to Trump’s tariffs

South Korea, US militaries will stage large-scale drills this month to address North Korean threats

Putin says he hopes to meet with Trump as the White House presses for a Ukraine peace deal

The new arrivals are three of the four F-35Bs scheduled for deployment at the Nyutabaru Air Base in the Miyazaki prefecture. The fourth jet is set to arrive at a later date, the Air Self-Defense Force said.

The jets, which have short take-off and vertical landing functions, are to operate from two Japanese helicopter carriers, the Izumo and the Kaga, that were modified to accommodate the F-35B.

The Defense Ministry has said four more F-35Bs will be delivered to Nyutabaru by the end of March 2026.

Japan considers China as a regional threat and has accelerated its military buildup on remote islands in the southwest.

One of Japan’s first three F-35B stealth fighter jets is seen after they arrived at the Nyutabaru Air Base of the Air Self-Defense Force in Shintomi, southern Japan, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. (Takumi Sato/Kyodo News via AP)

Separately on Thursday, a F-2A single-seater fighter jet crashed in the Pacific off Japan’s eastern coast during a training flight, but the pilot was rescued alive after he ejected himself in an emergency, according to the ASDF. It said that training flights for the aircraft have been suspended for safety checks.

Japan is currently constructing a runway on a new air base on the island of Mageshima, 100 miles south of the Nyutabaru base, for F-35B flight exercises. However, the drills will have to be conducted at Nyutabaru until around 2030 due to construction delays, triggering protests from local residents concerned about aircraft noise.

Japan plans to deploy a total of 42 Lockheed Martin F-35Bs and 105 of the conventional take-off and landing, or CTOL, F-35As, making the country the biggest F-35 user outside of the United States.

Even lifelong Texans may not have heard of my hometown of Lindale. With just under 5,000 people while I lived there, Lindale sits roughly 90 miles east of Dallas and bears many hallmarks of a small Texas town: more than three churches per square mile, roads dominated by trucks, and packed football stadiums on Friday nights. It’s also overwhelmingly white. On paper, Lindale might seem an unlikely home for an Indian-American kid. In reality, it was great to me.

Whether playing basketball nearby or attending a debate tournament out of town, my friends’ parents looked after me like I was their own—including by scolding me when needed. Teachers occasionally drove me home after late practice for a math or band competition—teachers who were as impressive as they were kind. My debate coach could easily help me with a speech or Algebra 2 homework; my calculus teacher excelled at explaining differential equations and coaching soccer.

My path to medicine began in Lindale, too. I went to college at the University of Texas at Austin (hook ‘em), but my interest in becoming a doctor developed through working with clinicians at Lindale Medical Clinic and hospitals in nearby Tyler. I never dreamed these experiences would take me to Harvard Medical School. But my teachers did. After I competed in a debate tournament at Harvard University, one joked, “You could end up in school there; just be a smart, well-rounded, hard-working liberal.” The joke did not surprise me—Lindale sits in Smith County, a deep-red county in East Texas where more than 70 percent of voters backed Donald Trump in the last election. Politics aside, the people of Lindale saw Harvard as an incredible place to learn. They were right. Their belief helped propel me to the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program.

(City of Lindale)

This rigorous program bridges clinical medicine and research. Students complete the first two years of medical school, earn a PhD, then finish the final two years of medical school. Most often, graduates continue to hospital residency and careers at academic medical centers, where they care for patients while pursuing new cures, treatments, and diagnostic tools. In the process, they improve the health of individual patients and the future of medicine itself. 

To enable this mission, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds 57 MD-PhD programs through its Medical Scientist Training Program. These grants, which totaled $4 million for the current academic year, come with strict requirements to ensure that spending aligns with the NIH’s ultimate goal of improving human health through science.

On May 15, 2025, both NIH grants that support the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program were terminated as part of a broader attempt by the federal government to terminate direct NIH funding to Harvard Medical School. Thirty-two students who spent countless hours applying for and earning NIH F30 fellowships saw their awards vanish. These decisions affect not just the archetypal Harvard student many imagine—they affect people who grew up in Lindale, people whose parents are not doctors or scientists, people who attended public schools their entire lives, people who tirelessly pursued a career in service of others, and people who often decline lucrative private practice and dedicate their lives to life-saving research.

My classmates are among the hardest-working people I know. Publishing a peer-reviewed biomedical research paper routinely demands years of perseverance and troubleshooting. In 2024 alone, the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program’s 208 students co-authored more than 180 peer-reviewed publications. Those students regularly work more than 12 hours a day conducting and repeating experiments in laboratories followed by continued reading, writing, and coding at home. Instead of halting this work, the government should support it—it’s an investment in our collective health as a country.

Consider Dr. Arlene Sharpe and Dr. Vijay Sankaran. Sharpe, who obtained her MD and PhD from Harvard Medical School, made discoveries critical to the development of cancer immunotherapy drugs that have redefined cancer treatment. Sankaran, while still a student in the program, contributed to a discovery that led to the first FDA-approved CRISPR/Cas9 gene therapy for sickle cell disease. Such life-changing research takes time. More than a decade passed between each discovery and drug approval. And not every story ends in success. Research can fail, scientists’ hypotheses can turn out to be wrong, and a discovery’s long-term importance may not immediately be clear.  Yet, losing patience or faith in the research process risks failing to provide improved treatments for patients everywhere.

Whether a biomarker can improve the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, a genetic mutation affects a person’s risk of Alzheimer’s disease, or a molecule kills an antibiotic-resistant superbug is not political. My classmates and I are working on each of these problems and countless others.

Our mentors apply for and win government grants that fund this research for the benefit of all Americans. Terminating those grants threatens our ability to do this research and, with it, the promise of making discoveries that will one day improve and save lives.

The post I Came from Rural Texas to Harvard’s MD-PhD program. Now, Trump Defunded that Program. appeared first on The Texas Observer.