Top diplomats of China, Cambodia and Thailand meet as Beijing seeks to strengthen role in dispute

TRUMP WAS NOWHERE AROUND

By AP

Dec 29, 2025




In this photo released by Agence Kampuchea Press (AKP), Cambodia's Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, left, Thai counterpart Sihasak Phuangketkeow, right, and Chinese counterpart Wang Yi pose in Yunnan province, China, Dec. 29. AP-Yonhap

HONG KONG (AP) — Foreign ministers from Cambodia and Thailand convened with their Chinese counterpart on Monday as the Beijing government, building on its expanding presence in the world diplomatic arena, sought to play a stronger mediating role in the violent border dispute between the two Southeast Asian countries.

The trilateral meeting, held in a southwestern Chinese province north of the contested border, came two days after Thailand and Cambodia signed a fresh ceasefire agreement to end weeks of fighting that killed more than 100 people and forced hundreds of thousands to be evacuated on both sides of the border.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for joint efforts to promote regional peace, stability and development, which is language typical for China in such situations.


“Allowing the flames of war to be reignited is absolutely not what the people of the two countries want, and not what China, as your friend, wants to see. Therefore, we should resolutely look ahead and move forward,” Wang said during the meeting Monday in Yunnan province.

It was noteworthy that the meeting was held there, nearer to the dispute and to Southeast Asia, rather than in Beijing, the Chinese capital and seat of government about 1,300 miles (2,500 kilometers) northeast.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said he believed the latest ceasefire would last and would create an environment for both countries to work on their relations and resume the previously agreed-upon ways to settle their differences, according to a Chinese interpreter.

Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow also expressed hopes for peace with neighboring countries, the interpreter said.

The Thai Foreign Ministry later said in a statement that China volunteered to be a platform to support peace between the two countries and Thailand reiterated that adjustments of ties should be conducted “on a step-by-step basis.”


“The Thai side will consider the release of 18 soldiers after the 72 hours ceasefire observation period and requests that Cambodia facilitate the return of Thais along the border,” the ministry said.



This handout photo taken and released by Agence Kampuchea Press (AKP) shows China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, center, speaking as Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister Prak Sokhonn, left, who is also the country's Foreign Minister, and Thailand's Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow listen during a meeting in China's Yunnan province, Dec. 29. AFP-Yonhap

A day after the fresh pact was signed, Sihasak and Prak Sokhonn held separate meetings with Wang on Sunday, the first day of the two-day gathering.

The meetings represented China's latest efforts to strengthen its role as an international mediator and, in particular, its influence in Asian regional crises. As China grows and becomes more of an economic and political force regionally and globally, Beijing has spent the past decade and more working in various ways to increase its voice as a third party in diplomatic matters.

The two Southeast Asian countries originally reached a ceasefire in July. It was brokered by Malaysia and pushed through under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened to withhold trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed. The preliminary pact was followed by a more detailed October agreement .

But Thailand and Cambodia carried on a bitter propaganda war, with minor, cross-border violence continuing. The tensions erupted into heavy fighting in early December.

The Saturday agreement calls for Thailand, after the ceasefire has held for 72 hours, to repatriate 18 Cambodian soldiers who have been held prisoner since the earlier fighting in July. Their release has been a major demand of the Cambodian side.

The agreement also calls on both sides to adhere to international agreements against deploying land mines , a major concern of Thailand.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet on Monday issued a statement to all Cambodian combatants along the border with Thailand.

“Even though we can still fight," he said, “as a small country we still have nothing to gain from prolonging the fighting for a long time.”

China urges Thailand, Cambodia to continue talks, rebuild ties, mutual trust amid ceasefire

Top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi hosts his Cambodian, Thai counterparts in Yunnan province in southwestern China

Anadolu staff |29.12.2025 

Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Seiha (left) and Thai Defence Minister Natthaphon Narkphanit (right) at the General Border Committee Meeting in Chanthaburi Province, Thailand, on December 27, 2025.

ANKARA

China on Monday urged Thailand and Cambodia to sustain dialogue, restore mutual trust, and rebuild their ties amid the ceasefire agreement following recent border tensions.

The statement came after China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted his Cambodian and Thai counterparts, Prak Sokhonn, and Sihasak Phuangketkeow, alongside military representatives from all three countries in Yuxi city of Yunnan province in southwestern China.

During the trilateral meeting, Wang Yi highlighted China’s active mediation since the outbreak of the border conflict, citing multiple phone calls, four special envoy visits, and ongoing diplomatic and military consultations.

“With the joint efforts of all parties, the Cambodian and Thai militaries recently reached a ceasefire agreement, which China finds gratifying,” he said.

He added that both sides demonstrated a positive and open attitude, showed commitment to easing and de-escalating tensions, and expressed willingness to improve bilateral relations on the basis of the ceasefire.

"We must look forward and move forward together," Wang said.

The Chinese minister emphasized the need for continued communication, gradual restoration of bilateral relations, and rebuilding of mutual trust.

He noted that the conflict had caused a loss of confidence, but stressed that Cambodia and Thailand, as eternal neighbors, should work to heal wounds and remove barriers to reconciliation.

China pledged support in ceasefire monitoring, humanitarian aid, and demining cooperation.

Both Cambodian and Thai top diplomats also expressed gratitude for China’s role, underscoring the importance of peace and their commitment to implementing the ceasefire.

Cambodia and Thailand signed a ceasefire agreement on Saturday, ending nearly 20 days of clashes that killed dozens and displaced nearly 1 million civilians along their disputed border.

Under the arrangement, both sides agreed to halt all armed hostilities and avoid unprovoked fire, troop advances, or movements toward each other’s positions.

The ceasefire applies along the entire border and covers military targets, civilians, and infrastructure, with Thailand set to return 18 Cambodian soldiers after the truce is fully maintained for 72 hours, ending at noon on Tuesday.

Around 99 people were killed in clashes that resumed on Dec. 8, a day after a border skirmish wounded two Thai soldiers.

Much Talk, Little Outcome: Peace Efforts Yield No Breakthrough on Ukraine

December 29, 2025
NOVITIATE

US President Donald Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not accepted the idea of a ceasefire during a possible Ukrainian referendum on a proposed peace plan. Trump made the comments at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following their meeting, after Trump had spoken by phone with Putin in advance.

Asked directly whether Putin had agreed to halt the fighting during a referendum, Trump replied that there was no such agreement. He explained that Putin’s position was based on concerns that stopping hostilities and then potentially resuming them could put Russia at a disadvantage. Trump said he understood that logic but added that discussions were ongoing on how to address the issue.

Trump also claimed that, if the war ends, Russia would take part in Ukraine’s reconstruction. He said Moscow supposedly wants to see Ukraine succeed, although he acknowledged that this might sound contradictory. At the same time, Trump complained that unnamed “bad people” had spread false narratives that, in his view, had obstructed efforts by Washington and Moscow to reach agreements.

Earlier, on 23 December, Zelensky said Ukraine was preparing a 20 point peace plan that could either be approved by parliament or put to a nationwide referendum. He noted that such a referendum would require at least 60 days and would only be possible under a full ceasefire during that period. On 28 December, Zelensky and Trump met in Florida and later held a video conference with European leaders. Trump said ahead of that meeting that he had a “good and very productive” conversation with Putin. Putin’s aide, Yuri Ushakov, later stated that both leaders had agreed a temporary ceasefire under the pretext of a referendum would only prolong the conflict.

European leaders responded positively to the Florida talks and the subsequent video call. According to statements cited by Interfax Ukraine, they stressed the importance of joint efforts to secure a just and lasting peace and to keep pressure on Russia. The video conference followed closed door talks between Ukrainian and US delegations at Trump’s Mar a Lago residence.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb confirmed that the call included French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish President Karol Nawrocki, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Stubb said the discussion lasted more than an hour and focused on concrete steps to end the war.

Polish President Nawrocki underlined strong US engagement in the peace process and highlighted Poland’s role, noting that Rzeszów Jasionka airport has handled more than 90 percent of aid deliveries to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full scale invasion. He said Poland’s position would be crucial in any peace agreement and stressed that regional security decisions must involve all stakeholders. According to his statement, US determination combined with European unity offered a real chance to end the war.

Von der Leyen also described the talks as productive and said significant progress had been made. Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin welcomed what he called progress in the peace discussions and said he hoped it would soon lead to a ceasefire. Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said positive signals from Washington must now be matched by concrete steps from Moscow, adding that the Netherlands would continue supporting Ukraine.

European foreign ministers echoed these messages. Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke van der Linde spoke about next steps in the talks and stressed the need to further increase pressure on Russia. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský described the outcome of the Zelensky Trump meeting as optimistic, saying Ukraine wants peace and that Russia must be pushed towards it through sanctions and a strong Ukrainian defence.

In a separate statement, von der Leyen said a one hour call with Trump, Zelensky and several European leaders had produced “good progress”. She added that Europe was ready to continue working with Ukraine and the United States to build on these results, stressing that strong security guarantees from the very beginning were essential.

Trump and Zelensky also outlined how work on the peace plan would continue. Trump said the US working group would include Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and others. Zelensky said the Ukrainian team would involve National Security and Defence Council Secretary Rustem Umierov, First Deputy Foreign Minister Serhii Kyslytsia and General Staff Chief Andrii Hnatov. Zelensky said he hoped decisions on six key documents could be reached in January. Trump added that these groups would also engage with Russia, saying talks limited to one side would not solve the conflict.

When asked about timelines, Trump said a deal could take a few weeks if progress was smooth, but warned that talks could also collapse over unresolved issues. Zelensky said the teams would meet again in the coming weeks and that Trump had agreed to host further talks in Washington in January.

Trump also addressed the possibility of visiting Ukraine. He said there were no immediate plans but he would be willing to go if it helped secure peace. While he did not see such a visit as necessary at this stage, he said he would consider it if it could help save lives. Zelensky confirmed that Ukraine had invited Trump to address parliament.

The talks did not resolve the issue of Donbas. Trump said progress was being made but acknowledged it remained a major obstacle. He said Russia continued to demand the entire region and that this would need to be worked out, adding he believed the issue could be resolved in the coming months. Zelensky described Donbas as a very difficult matter, stressing Ukraine’s legal position and respect for the territory it controls. He said a referendum was one possible mechanism, alongside a parliamentary vote, depending on legal requirements.

Zelensky later said that Ukraine and the United States had finalised several documents within the broader peace package. He said the 20 point plan was about 90 percent agreed, US Ukraine security guarantees were fully agreed, US Europe Ukraine guarantees were close to completion, and the military dimension was settled. He added that work was continuing on a prosperity plan and on sequencing the next steps. Both leaders agreed that security guarantees were central to achieving lasting peace and confirmed that negotiations would continue.

Thorny questions remain despite positive meeting reports from Trump and Zelensky

Issued on: 29/12/2025 -FRANCE24


US President Donald Turmp and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky both reported progress on two of the most contentious issues regarding a peace deal in Ukraine: security guarantees for the country and the division of the eastern Donbas region, which Russia is trying to capture. But thorny questions remain. David Smith, Washington Bureau Chief for The Guardian, told us more.

'It's insane': Expert makes stunning claim about Trump's chat with Zelenskyy

Robert Davis
December 28, 2025 

RAW STORY

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy upon his arrival for meetings at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., December 28, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Erns

A military expert revealed on Sunday that President Donald Trump is taking an "insane" approach to ending the war in Ukraine.

Trump held another round of peace talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday, where the two leaders discussed the current 20-point peace plan that is on the table. Ahead of Trump's chat with Zelenskyy, the president said he had a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin following a night of heavy bombing by Russian forces against Ukrainian civilians.

Tom Nichols, a staff writer for The Atlantic, said in an interview on MS NOW's "Alex Witt Reports" that Trump appears to be trying to play the intermediary between Putin and Zelenskyy, a strategy that he said shows either that Trump doesn't understand the conflict or that he is lying about his efforts to end it.


"From the point of diplomatic practice, it's insane," Nicols said. You don't check in with the aggressor when you're talking to a putative friend and ally, and you don't report in afterwards. You talk with your friends, with your allies, with Ukraine, and then you tell the Russians, 'Here's the offer. Here's what you need to do.'"

"And instead, it's almost like Trump is acting like an intermediary, trying to express Putin's wishes to Zelenskyy and to the world, which is what he did after the Alaska summit," Nichols continued. "It's what he does every time he gets off the phone with Putin. The fact is, Vladimir Putin has this hold over Donald Trump that makes Trump and the American government into basically a de facto ally of Russia."

Peace President? Yeah, Right.





by Thomas Knapp | Dec 29, 2025 
ANTIWAR.COM

On December 17, surrounded by festive holiday decorations, US president Donald Trump delivered an upbeat — one might even say manic — address to the nation, preempting — and enraging fans of — network TV shows such as Survivor, The Floor, and Christmas in Nashville.

While many expected something weighty (perhaps announcement of further military escalation versus Venezuela), what they got was laundry list of Trump’s “accomplishments” since his inauguration in January.

Most of those “accomplishments” — ruinous tariffs on American consumers, immoral and economically damaging immigration raids, etc. — were things we already knew about from watching our bank balances draw inexorably down.

One, however, stood out to me as the most risible. “For the first time in 3,000 years,” Trump said, he’s brought “peace to the Middle East.”

He said that, with as close to a straight face as he ever shows, hours after saluting the flag-draped caskets of two US National Guard members and a civilian interpreter killed in Syria the previous week.

He said that as thousands of Saudi-backed (and therefore US-backed) forces massed on the Yemeni border, preparing for an offensive against one of that country’s dueling political/military factions.

He said that as (US-backed) Israeli forces continued to conduct deadly strikes in Gaza and Lebanon, and raids in Palestine’s occupied West Bank, despite supposed “ceasefires.”

Words can mean more than one thing, but only in the Newspeak Dictionary from George Orwell’s 1984 might we expect to find any of the above defined as “peace” — or Donald Trump described as a “peace president.”

In his first term as president, Trump escalated every war he inherited and re-started the previous war in Somalia. He “surged” troops into Afghanistan and Syria.

In Syria, he dectupled the US military presence, had Marines fire more artillery rounds than were used in the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, briefly feinted toward withdrawing, then decided to stay to “keep the oil.”

In Afghanistan, he eventually negotiated a US withdrawal … but then failed to complete that withdrawal, leaving it to his successor and complaining bitterly about it.

He reneged on the US government’s obligations under the “Iran nuclear deal,” and ordered an Iranian general assassinated while on a diplomatic mission in Iraq.

In Yemen, he ordered the murder of eight-year-old American girl Nawar Anwar al-Awlaki by US Navy SEALs.

The list goes on and on.

In his second term, he’s continued the war in Somalia and on Venezuela (to name but two), while failing on his promise to negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war “in 24 hours” (or, to date, at all).

As Christmas approaches, I’m all in favor of “on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” But I find Trump’s claims and promises on that subject less believable than stories about Santa Claus.


Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism, publisher of Rational Review News Digest, and moderator of Antiwar.com’s commenting/discussion community.

‘Fast and decisive!’ Trump praises himself over debunked claim to have ended ‘eight wars’

Alexander Willis
December 28, 2025 
RAW STORY


President Donald Trump lavished praise on himself Sunday in a self-congratulatory social media post boasting about his “fast and decisive” action in supposedly ending a conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, while also repeating the debunked claim that he had “settled and stopped” eight conflicts during his second term.

“I am pleased to announce that the breakout fighting between Thailand and Cambodia will stop momentarily, and they will go back to living in PEACE, as per our recently agreed to original Treaty,” Trump wrote Sunday on his social media platform Truth Social.

“It was FAST & DECISIVE, as all of these situations should be! The United States of America, as always, was proud to help! With all of the wars and conflicts I have settled and stopped over the last eleven months, EIGHT, perhaps the United States has become the REAL United Nations, which has been of very little assistance or help in any of them, including the disaster currently going on between Russia and Ukraine.”

Thailand launched airstrikes toward Cambodia on Saturday in just the latest flare up of the long-running territorial dispute between the two countries. A ceasefire between the two countries was brokered by Malaysia in July, with Trump claiming he helped facilitate the deal by threatening to revoke trade privileges unless both sides agreed to halt the fighting.

As to Trump’s repeated claim to have ended eight wars, experts have called it a significant exaggeration, with some pointing to two disputes “that weren’t actually wars,” and “one war that is still running,” CNN reported.

“The United Nations must start getting active and involved in WORLD PEACE!” Trump wrote.

This brazen cruelty bodes ill for victims of the Trump regime — and for every American too

Robert Reich
December 28, 2025 

RAW STORY

Donald Trump visits a migrant detention center in Ochopee, Florida. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

According to the Washington Post, the Trump regime plans to renovate industrial warehouses to hold more than 80,000 immigrant detainees at a time.

The plan is for newly arrested detainees to be funneled — let me remind you, with no due process, or independent magistrate or judge checking on whether they are in fact in the United States illegally — into one of seven large-scale warehouses holding 5,000 to 10,000 people each, where they would be “staged” for deportation.

The large warehouses would be located close to major logistics hubs in Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, Georgia and Missouri. Sixteen smaller warehouses would hold up to 1,500 people each.

America’s immigrant detention system is already the largest in the world.

With the $45 billion Congress appropriated for locking up immigrants, the regime has revived dormant prisons, repurposed sections of military bases, and partnered with Republican governors to build immigrant tent encampments in remote regions.

“We need to get better at treating this like a business,” ICE acting director Todd M. Lyons said at a border security conference in April, according to the Arizona Mirror.

The administration’s goal, he said, was to deport immigrants as efficiently as Amazon moves packages: “Like Prime, but with human beings.”

The logistical problems of converting warehouses into detention camps are significant. Warehouses are designed for storage and shipping of things, not people. They are often poorly ventilated and without precise temperature controls, and they lack access to the plumbing and sanitation systems needed to support thousands of full-time residents.

Beyond logistics is the dehumanization.

Ninety-three years ago, in March 1933, the Nazis established their first concentration camp in what is now Dachau, Poland. Other camps were soon established in Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen.

Initially, the Nazi’s put into these camps Communists, Social Democrats, trade unionists, and others deemed a threat to the Nazi regime.

After the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, approximately 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to these camps in a mass, large-scale action that targeted them for being Jewish. The systematic mass murder of Jews in camps designed as extermination camps did not begin until late 1941 and early 1942, as part of the “Final Solution.”

The U.S. began forcibly moving Japanese Americans into America’s own camps in early 1942, following President Roosevelt's signing of Executive Order 9066 of Feb. 19, 1942, which authorized military exclusion zones. Initial roundups of Japanese Americans, deemed "enemy aliens," started immediately after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941.

Around 120,000 people of Japanese descent, mostly U.S. citizens from the West Coast, were incarcerated in ten camps in remote inland states and temporary Assembly Centers. Hundreds more were imprisoned in Hawaii.

Once dehumanization begins, it’s hard to end.


As I noted, ICE is arresting, imprisoning, and deporting people it accuses of being in the United States illegally — but there is no due process, no third-party validation of ICE’s accusations.

ICE now holds more than 68,000 people in detention facilities, according to agency data. Nearly half — 48 percent — have no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges, ICE data shows.

ICE’s biggest current facility is a tent encampment at the Fort Bliss U.S. Army base in Texas, which now holds around 3,000 people but was expected to have a capacity of 5,000 by year’s end.


The largest proposed ICE warehouse would hold up to 10,000 detainees in Stafford, Virginia. Another with capacity for up to 9,500 is planned for Hutchins, near Dallas. A third, with space for 9,000, in Hammond, east of Baton Rouge.

There is no place in a civilized society for the warehousing of people.

There is no justification in a society putatively organized under the rule of law to imprison people without due process.


There is no decency in removing hardworking members of our communities from their families and neighbors and imprisoning them and then deporting them to other countries, some of which are brutal dictatorships.

When the history of this cruel era is written, the shame should be no less than the shame we now feel about the roundups and detention of Japanese Americans in World War II.

Hopefully, the dehumanization of the people that the Trump regime aims to warehouse will not result in the sadistic cruelties of the Nazi’s starting 93 years ago.

Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.

Robert Reich's new memoir, Coming Up Short, can be found wherever you buy books. You can also support local bookstores nationally by ordering the book at bookshop.org

'Classic Trump hyperbole': Analyst raises concern over president's economic plans

Ewan Gleadow
December 29, 2025

RAW STORY


FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order on tariffs on aluminum imports in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., February 10, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque//File Photo

Projected economic plans from Donald Trump are "classic hyperbole" from the president, according to an analyst warning of future economic strife.

A claim made by the president that the stock market will contribute a massive growth boost to the economy has been debunked by CNN analyst David Goldman, who says that a direct impact from the stock market on the economy will not work. Trump's hope for lower interest rates from the new Federal Reserve chair were made clear by the president earlier this year.

Trump posted to Truth Social, "I want my new Fed Chairman to lower Interest Rates if the Market is doing well, not destroy the Market for no reason whatsoever."

Goldman has since explained the new Fed chair, while possibly on Trump's side when it comes to economic projections, will struggle with the "Trump hyperbole" dominating the economic discussion.

He wrote, "Trump claimed that a strong stock market could boost economic growth by up to 20% a year. That’s classic Trump hyperbole – the US economy has never grown by even 9% in a single year, and the fastest growth of the past four decades took place in 2021 – Biden’s first term – when the economy bounced back from the pandemic to surge 6.1%."

"That’s also not how the economy works: The stock market itself doesn’t contribute much to economic growth – it boosts wealthier Americans’ net worth, but the market is more a reflection of investors’ predictions about where the economy is headed than an economic engine in its own right."

Trump's "general sentiment" was described as true by Goldman, though he did warn the Federal Reserve "doesn't operate in the way Trump describes."

Criticism of Trump's administration and their handling of the economy has been frequent, with the Wall Street Journal sounding the alarm on impending economic trouble.

“You’re going to see a lot of wait and see,” chief executive of staffing company Kelly Services Chris Layden told the Journal. “Some of the looming uncertainty will mean that we’re going to continue to see an investment in capital over people.”

According to the report, “66 percent of leaders surveyed” at a recent gathering in Midtown Manhattan “said they planned to either fire workers or maintain the size of their existing teams next year. Only a third indicated they planned to hire.” This comes as the “unemployment rate those to 4.6 percent in November, its highest in four years.”

“We’re close to zero job growth. That’s not a healthy labor market,” Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller said at the gathering. “When I go around and talk to CEOs around the country, everybody’s telling me, ‘Look, we’re not hiring because we’re waiting to try to figure out what happens with AI. What jobs can we replace? What jobs do we don’t?’”

Bardot: from defending sheep to flirting with the far right

By AFP
December 28, 2025


Bardot inspired a representation of the French republic by artist Alain Aslan - Copyright AFP/File Vincent AMALVY

Laure Fillon

Film legend Brigitte Bardot in her later decades raised eyebrows calling far-right leader Marine Le Pen a modern “Joan of Arc,” but she always maintained she was merely doing what was best for animals.

Bardot, who died on Sunday aged 91, argued she was unfairly labelled as a supporter of the anti-immigration far right after she made explosive remarks in the late 1990s about Muslims slaughtering sheep.

“I never asked anyone to be racist and I don’t think I fuel any racial hatred,” she wrote in her 2018 book “Larmes de Combat,” translated into English under the title “Tears of Battle.”

But the Paris-born star of around 50 films, who walked away from cinema to defend animal rights, was repeatedly convicted for hate speech — mostly against members of the Islamic faith after migration from France’s former colonies.

And she actively backed far-right presidential contender Marine Le Pen when she ran in 2012 and 2017.

“I wish for her to save France. She’s the Joan of Arc of the 21st century,” she told Paris Match in 2014, referring to the legendary teenager who repelled the English in the Hundred Years War in the 15th century.

“She’s the only woman… who has balls,” she later added of Le Pen, who also vied for president in 2022.

– ‘We’ll be slaughtered too’ –

Le Pen may be barred from a fourth run for the Elysee in 2027 due to a graft conviction, but her National Rally party feels its best chance ever to win the presidency in the upcoming polls, with Emmanuel Macron stepping down after two consecutive terms.

Le Pen on Sunday mourned Bardot, calling her “incredibly French: free, untameable, whole”, while her lieutenant Jordan Bardella — who could run instead of Le Pen — described her as an “ardent patriot,” adding French people had lost “the Marianne they so loved.”

France’s republic is traditionally represented by a female figure called Marianne, and Bardot in the 1960s posed for such a statue by artist Alain Aslan.

Macron also alluded to “the face that became Marianne” in his tribute to a woman he called a “legend” of the 20th century.

But he made no mention of her comments leading to convictions for hate speech.

In 1997, Bardot argued against the ritual killing of sheep for the celebration of Eid al-Adha, saying the practice would “stain the soil of France.”

“They’re slitting the throats of women and children, our monks, our civil servants, our tourists, and our sheep. One day we’ll be slaughtered too,” she wrote, appearing to conflate violent Islamists with ordinary Muslims, and warning against “a Muslim France with a North African Marianne.”

In 1996, Islamist insurgents killed French monks in France’s former colony Algeria during the civil war.

Bardot declared herself “against the Islamisation of France” in a 2003 book, arguing “our ancestors, our grandfathers, our fathers have for centuries given their lives to push out successive invaders.”

But in 2018 the former actor told Le Monde newspaper her concerns surrounding Eid al-Adha had been misunderstood, and she was “simply requesting the animals be stunned” to avoid suffering.

– ‘Wild hopes’ in the far right –

In her final book, “Mon BBcedaire” (“My BB Alphabet”), she said right-wing politicians were “the only urgent remedy to France’s agony.”

The animal activist, who has criticised the #Metoo movement, also made derogatory comments about gay and transgender people.

Her fourth husband, Bernard d’Ormale, was an advisor of late French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, whose daughter Marine took over the party.

In 1996, Bardot described Jean-Marie Le Pen as a “charming” man also worried about the “terrifying rise of immigration.”

He later invoked Bardot to argue Muslim women should not be allowed to wear burkinis in public.

“French beaches are those of Bardot and Vadim,” he said, in an apparent reference to Roger Vadim’s 1956 film “And God created Woman,” featuring the actor dancing with her skirt slit up to her waist.

Often a guest at the Elysee palace, Bardot said French presidents — including Macron — did not do enough to protect animal rights.

“I had wild hopes when the National Front (now called the National Rally) put forward concrete proposals to reduce animal suffering,” she told Le Monde.

But she claimed she also reached out to hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, “congratulating him for being a vegetarian,” and said that if a communist took up her proposals, she would vote for them.

DESPITE TARIFFS 

China’s BYD poised to overtake Tesla in 2025 EV sales


By AFP
December 29, 2025


Chinese automaker BYD has been looking to expand overseas sales of its electric vehicles - Copyright AFP Ina FASSBENDER

Elodie Mazein and AFP correspondents in Beijing

Growing Chinese auto giant BYD stands poised to officially surpass Tesla as the world’s biggest electric vehicle company in annual sales.

The two groups are expected soon to publish their final figures for 2025, and based on sales data so far this year, there is almost no chance the American company led by Elon Musk will retain its leadership position.

At the end of November, Shenzhen-based BYD, which also produces hybrid vehicles, had sold 2.07 million EVs so far in 2025.

Tesla, for its part, had sold 1.22 million by the end of September.

Tesla’s September figures included a one-time boost in sales, to nearly half-a-million vehicles in a three-month period, before the expiration of a US tax credit for buyers of electric vehicles — which ended under legislation backed by President Donald Trump, a climate change skeptic.

But Tesla’s sales in the coming quarter are expected to fall to 449,000, according to a FactSet analysis consensus. That would give Tesla about 1.65 million sales for all of 2025, a drop of 7.7 percent and well below the level BYD had attained by end November.

Deutsche Bank, which projects just 405,000 Tesla EV sales during the fourth quarter, sees the company’s sales down by around one-third in both North America and Europe, and by one-tenth in China.

– Transition period –

Industry watchers say it will take time for EV demand to reach a level of equilibrium in the United States following the elimination of the $7,500 US tax credit at the end of September 2025.

Even prior to that, Tesla had seen sales struggle in key markets over CEO Musk’s political support of Trump and other far-right politicians. Tesla has also faced rising EV competition from BYD and other Chinese companies and from European giants.

“We believe Tesla will see some weakness on deliveries” in the fourth quarter, said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.

Sales of 420,000 would be “good enough to show stable demand,” with Wall Street “laser focused on the autonomous chapter kicking off in 2026,” Ives added, referring to plans for self-driving vehicles.

Even as it has grown quickly, BYD has faced challenges in its home market.

With profitability in China weighed down by price-wary consumers, the company has sought to strengthen its foothold in foreign markets.

BYD is “one of the pioneers to establish overseas production capacity and supply chains for EVs,” Jing Yang, Director of Asia-Pacific Corporate Ratings at Fitch Ratings, told AFP.

“Going forward, its geographical diversification is likely to help it to navigate an increasingly complicated global tariff environment,” said Yang.

Overseas rivals to BYD have balked at Chinese state subsidies and other state supports that have allowed the company to sell vehicles cheaply.

Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden imposed 100 percent tariffs on Chinese EV imports that could potentially go even higher under Trump. Europe has also imposed tariffs on Chinese imports, but BYD is building manufacturing capacity in Hungary.

While the chance of Tesla reclaiming its global leadership in EVs looks uncertain, the American company is also potentially positioned for growth.

Michaeli of TD Cowen sees autonomous technology playing an increasingly important role for Tesla, with breakthroughs in its “full self-driving” or “FSD” offerings potentially boosting sales.

“As Tesla really begins to roll out eyes-off features and expand FSDs capability, if they do that successfully, that should generate more demand for their vehicles,” Michaeli said.

Musk has said the Cybercab, an autonomous robotaxi model, will begin production in April 2026. The company has also unveiled lower-priced versions of the Models 3 and Y that could boost sales.

New year brings new mayor for New York City


By AFP
December 29, 2025



Raphaëlle PELTIER

New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is set to become the US city’s first Muslim mayor, and the youthful optimism of his Democratic Socialist platform will be put to the test as he takes office Thursday for a four-year term that faces high expectations.

– Festive swearing in –

Just after the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, New York Attorney General Letitia James — friend to Mamdani, foe to President Donald Trump — will swear in the new mayor. In a high-stakes tit-for-tat, James recently sued Trump, and he tried to have her indicted in return.

At midday, left-wing icon and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will preside over a ceremony outside City Hall.

The future mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani enters office January 1. — © AFP/File CHARLY TRIBALLEAU

At a neighborhood celebration, festivities will echo “one of his core messages… that this is a great city, and we like living here,” said Lincoln Mitchell, a Columbia University political science professor.

– Policy agenda –

The mayor-elect, an avowed socialist, campaigned on addressing the prohibitive cost of living in the metropolis of 8.5 million.

One of his key proposals is freezing rent on more than a million apartments, but it’s unclear if the city board that handles rent control — packed with appointees of outgoing Mayor Eric Adams — will be supportive.

Details of Mamdani’s other campaign promises — the construction of 200,000 units of affordable housing, universal access to childcare, publicly owned supermarkets and free buses — have yet to be spelled out.

But Mamdani has one ace in his pocket: an excellent relationship with New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who approves measures like the tax hikes he seeks.

Once an election is over, “symbolism only goes so far with voters. Results begin to matter a whole lot more,” New York University lecturer John Kane said.

– Opposition to Trump –

Despite expectations to the contrary, the late November Oval Office meeting between Trump and Mamdani was cordial and calm.

Mamdani “wisely sought a point of common ground with Trump: wanting to make New York City a better place to live,” Kane said.

Trump can “be surprisingly gregarious toward those that he perceives to have little leverage over,” Kane added.

Federal immigration officers are increasingly active in New York, which could become a flashpoint.

– Reassuring the public –

At 34, Mamdani is one of New York’s youngest mayors and his political resume is short — he’s held office once previously, as a local representative in the State Assembly.

New Yorkers have taken note of Mamdani’s enthusiastic support of his wife, Rama Duwaji.— © AFP

To compensate, he is surrounding himself with seasoned aides, recruited from past mayor’s offices and former president Joe Biden’s administration.

Mamdani has also already opened dialogue with business leaders, some of whom predicted a massive exodus of wealthy New Yorkers if he won. Real estate sector leaders debunked those claims in recent weeks.

As a defender of Palestinian rights, the mayor — Muslim and of Indian origin — will also have to reassure the Jewish community of his inclusive leadership style.

Recently, one of his hires resigned after it was revealed she had posted antisemitic tweets years ago.

– ‘Cultural figure’ –

“The mayor of New York is always a cultural figure,” Mitchell said.

Mamdani has already captured some of his generation’s cultural trappings with his brief forays into rap music, improv classes in Manhattan, and wearing what the New York Times called “the quintessential entry-level suit for a 30-something striving to be taken seriously.”

New Yorkers have also noted his enthusiastic support of his wife, Syrian-born artist Rama Duwaji, with approval.

Her Instagram account has gained more than a million followers since November, according to Social Blade statistics.

And on the cover of The Cut, New York magazine’s revered fashion and culture publication, she recently marked her own path — the hallmark of every young generation of city dwellers striving to make it there.

“At the end of the day, I’m not a politician. I’m here to be a support system for Z and to use the role in the best way that I can as an artist,” she said.

UK

What does Andrea Egan’s election as the new Unison general secretary mean for workers and Labour?

Olivia Barber 

Today

Left Foot Forward

While Egan's election has been branded a blow to Labour, it also reflects workers' desire for more vocal, strike-ready union representation.

Left-wing challenger Andrea Egan defeated the incumbent Christina McAnea in the Unison general secretary election on 17 December. The trade unionist and social worker from Bolton, who was expelled from Labour in 2022 for sharing articles from Socialist Appeal and has expressed support for Your Party, will take over leadership of Britain’s largest union in January. What does this mean for the Labour movement and the workers it represents?

In a post on X, Labour MP Clive Lewis called her election “a turning point for the Labour party” and politics in the UK.

Lewis added: “She’s calling time on Reform, Thatcherism and those that support its bastardised form, 40 years on.

“A rallying cry to get behind.”

Egan’s challenge to anti-union politics

These comments came after Egan published an op-ed in the Guardian last Friday, saying Unison will not prop up politicians who are hostile to unions. Egan vowed that she will bring support for “the destructive right wing of the Labour party to an end”. She was critical of Wes Streeting’s handling of the resident doctor dispute, saying it was “simply unacceptable for a Labour politician to describe striking workers as morally reprehensible”.

She also suggested that it is likely that Labour will hold a leadership election in 2026, and that “swapping Starmer out for Streeting or anyone else from the right wing of the party would be no solution to the gigantic challenges facing the country”.

A new approach to leadership

McAnea, an ally of Keir Starmer, had been more critical of the government in recent months, but she has never said she would reconsider Unison’s relationship with Labour. Before McAnea took over as the health union’s general secretary in 2021, Dave Prentis held the position for 19 years. While membership grew to 1.3 million members during his leadership, and he advocated for a real living wage and fought against Private Finance Initiatives and the privatisation of the NHS, critics viewed his leadership as being somewhat cautious and risk-averse.

Even before Egan has taken up her new role, she has made clear she is willing to upend that approach, calling for an end to what she has described as Unison’s “subservience” and “blank cheques” to Labour.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has also previously suggested the union could withdraw its support for Labour.

Speaking at the Durham Miners’ Gala in July, Graham said Unite could “leave” or disaffiliate from the party, adding that the union would “forge a new vehicle for our class” and be “an authentic voice for the working class”.

Reviewing Unison’s relationship with Labour

For Unison to disaffiliate, the union would need to pass a rule change. This would require a resolution to be passed at a National Delegate Conference with at least a two thirds majority of delegates voting in favour of the change. While Egan was elected as the new Unison general secretary on 60% of the vote, the turnout in the election was only 7%.

While Egan may be minded to push for Unison to disaffiliate from Labour, that would need the backing of the membership. For now, she has said she will review Unison’s relationship with Labour and the role of Labour Link, which manages how subscription fees are spent on Labour campaigns, to “examine how we can get value for money”. She has also said she will oppose giving funding to Labour MPs and candidates “who fail to stand against welfare cuts and other attacks on our members’ living standards”.

Workers’ frustrations

In addition, although Egan’s win has been portrayed as a blow to Keir Starmer and the Labour leadership, her victory also reflects broader frustrations among workers dealing with the cost-of-living crisis and their deteriorating pay and working conditions.

Egan is the first “lay member” to become general secretary and described herself as “straight talking” and “working class” in her campaign. A core argument of the social worker’s campaign was that, while Unison is the largest union in the NHS, “recently it hasn’t felt like it”. She argued that while Unison has an annual subscription income of £200 million, the current general secretary, McAnea, has failed to raise the profile of Unison, meaning it has “too often” not delivered on pay, safer staffing levels and violence at work.

To deliver better pay and conditions for workers, Egan wants to make Unison more ‘strike-ready’. Her manifesto stated this will involve her studying how other unions run successful industrial action and ensuring branches are ready to run ballots and strikes. Egan will also review why Unison does not currently run multiple ballots at once and will reassess the amount of strike pay the union provides.

While Egan’s win may signal opposition to the Labour leadership, it also reflects members’ desire for a more vocal, strike-ready union. For those frustrated with risk-averse or conservative leadership within unions, Egan looks set to deliver a very different approach.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

Blondeness as a Form of Sacrifice

ByClaire Biddles

TRIBUNE

12.29.2025

A timely new book published this year by the cultural critic Philippa Snow observes how the female celebrity magnifies the experiences of her everyday civilian counterparts, using examples from Pamela Anderson to Amy Winehouse.

There’s a meme I think about all the time: a grainy picture of a huge vertical brush, the kind you see in a drive-through car wash, first stationary and drooping, then spinning and puffed-up. ‘To be a woman is to perform’, it reads — an absurd medium reflecting the absurdity of the feminine act of performance.

Cultural critic Philippa Snow’s book It’s Terrible the Things I Have to Do to Be Me: On Femininity and Fame is a more serious, but no less entertaining or essentially true, look at this phenomenon. Through a series of interlinked essays, Snow examines seven pairs of twentieth- and twenty-first-century British and American female celebrities — singers, models, actresses, and multi-hyphenates — to interrogate the tensions between femininity and fame. Crucially, she also shows how much the performance(s) of womanhood cost us all, arguing that the female celebrity’s experiences and attributes are ‘much like those of her civilian counterparts, but magnified into something stranger, more bombastic, and far easier to see from a distance’.

Snow has long been a fascinating voice on contemporary celebrity culture, offering thoughtful and well-researched takes on the Hiltons and Kardashians of this world. Her 2024 book Trophy Lives: On the Celebrity as an Art Object positioned the celebrity as a self-made art object, taking the fame-entangled works of Richard Prince and Urs Fischer to their logical extreme end points. It’s Terrible the Things I Have to Do to Be Me arrives amid an overhaul of 2000s celebrity culture, with books like Sophie Gilbert’s Girl on Girl and Britney Spears’s The Woman in Me exposing the misogyny of the era and arguing for a humane reassessment of the women caught up in it.

Many of Snow’s subjects are from this particularly cursed era, but her pairings illustrate the culture’s stubborn roots in the twentieth-century star system. Lindsay Lohan’s narrative of child star to untamed woman is traced back to the trajectory of Liz Taylor. Anna Nicole Smith’s particular brand of bleach-blonde tragedy is a mirror of her idol Marilyn Monroe’s ‘blondeness as a form of sacrifice’ (Snow argues that Monroe married ‘the abstract idea of heterosexual masculinity the way a nun might be said to marry Christ’). Amy Winehouse takes artistic inspiration from Billie Holiday but also shares her ultimately fatal hunger for extreme hedonism. Kristen Stewart’s refusal to conform to industry standards is compared to the silent film icon — and fellow queer artist — Louise Brooks.

In an essay on Britney Spears and the R&B singer Aaliyah, Snow shows empathy for both women, while demonstrating the stark difference in public support, respectively, for white and black victims of abusive men. While Spears was (eventually) freed from her father’s conservatorship, Aaliyah never lived to see R. Kelly — who controlled her career and married her when she was 15 — face the consequences for his systematic abuse of young black girls.

It’s Terrible… is rigorous but also intensely readable. Snow is a great storyteller, pulling from a kaleidoscope of often unexpected sources and references. Lindsay Lohan’s life plays out as a Powell and Pressburger film: a psycho-sexual melodrama in tabloid technicolour. Snow takes Werner Herzog’s admitted enjoyment of Anna Nicole Smith’s MTV reality show as a prompt for framing Smith as a Herzogian protagonist, embodying the kind of exaggerated, grotesque ‘ecstatic truth’ the great director’s work aims towards. She compares Smith to the titular character of Herzog’s The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser: ‘a feral foundling … rescued by a rich older man, made into a celebrity, then eventually destroyed’. Her references to art and cinema aren’t just novel, but consistent with Snow’s treatment of the audience as people who — like Herzog — see so-called high- and lowbrow art as part of the same continuum, worthy of the same serious consideration. As it should, her thesis laughs in the face of ‘guilty pleasures’.

The only exception comes in the chapter on Louise Brooks and Kristen Stewart, a generational talent who found fame in the 2008–12 franchise Twilight. Snow admits that Stewart’s talent was underestimated at this time, but her belittling of the franchise as a whole — and her dismissal of the first instalment’s director, Catherine Hardwicke — is surprising considering her generous attitude elsewhere. Snow’s description of Stewart’s early rejection of a traditional star image doesn’t necessarily reckon with the image that she currently occupies. It would have been exciting to read Snow’s take on the tension between this ‘rejection’ and her status as the face of Chanel, or as arguably the contemporary face of female queerness — which, despite her considerable talent and charms, is still one of whiteness and thinness.

Similarly, I wanted to read more of Snow’s thoughts about Pamela Anderson’s current makeup-free look — only touched upon in her chapter — and the arguably constructed authenticity of her present-day vegan earth mother persona. However, these further explorations would probably require a much longer book. Several essays beg to be expanded: the chapter on Amy Winehouse and Billie Holiday is a kind of Matryoshka doll, a meta-analysis of the star through her influences and her depictions onscreen that begs a follow-up concentrating on celebrity biopics.

Snow’s most consistent theme is the death drive that she views as inherent to female celebrity, such as the compulsion to kill the ordinary self to become the star and the death wish that comes with the torture of fame. The face of Lindsay Lohan betrays a woman ‘equally afraid of life and death’; Liz Taylor’s portrait by Andy Warhol is interpreted as a death mask; Kristen Stewart has an affair with a married man in order to ‘dramatically explore her life, which she believes intends to kill her via gradual suffocation’.

How to survive an industry — or a world — that consistently drives you into the ground? An answer for Snow is suggested by both Pamela Anderson and the British model Tula, aka Caroline Cossey, often cited as the first mainstream transgender model. Both women stay in control by constructing a dazzling, glamorous public self while keeping hold of it as a construction, distancing themselves from it on their own terms. ‘To survive as a professional babe in a world that both wants you and wants to destroy you,’ Snow states, ‘it is necessary to know how and when to — as if by simply saying abracadabra — make yourself disappear’.

It’s Terrible the Things I Have to Do to Be Me: On Femininity and Fame by Philippa Snow is published by Virago Press.
Contributors

Claire Biddles is a freelance music writer and radio host.