2025 – Page 1213 – Texas Weekly Online

Fifty years after fall of Phnom Penh, history weighs on Cambodian politics

Fifty years after the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge rebel army, the events of April 17, 1975 continue to cast a long shadow over Cambodia and its political system. Emerging from the bloodshed and chaos of the spreading war in neighbouring Vietnam, Pol Pot’s radical peasant movement rose up and defeated the United States-backed regime of General Lon Nol. The war culminated five decades ago on Thursday, with Pol Pot’s forces sweeping into Cambodia’s capital and ordering the city’s more than two million people into the countryside with little more than the belongings they could carry. With Cambodia’s urban centres abandoned, the Khmer Rouge embarked on rebuilding the country from “Year Zero”, transforming it into an agrarian, classless society. In less than four years under Pol Pot’s rule, between 1.5 and three million people were dead. They would also almost wipe out Cambodia’s rich cultural history and religion. Many Cambodians were brutally killed in the Khmer Rouge’s “killing fields”, but far more died of starvation, disease and exhaustion labouring on collective farms to build the Communist regime’s rural utopia. Advertisement In late December 1978, Vietnam invaded alongside Cambodian defectors, toppling the Khmer Rouge from power on January 7, 1979. It is from this point onwards that popular knowledge of Cambodia’s contemporary tragic history typically ends, picking up in the mid-2000s with the start of the United Nations-backed war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, where former regime leaders were put on trial. For many Cambodians, however, rather than being relegated to history books, the 1975 fall of Phnom Penh and the toppling of the Khmer Rouge in 1979 remain alive and well, embedded in the Cambodian political system. That tumultuous Khmer Rouge period is still used to justify the long-running rule of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) under varying forms since 1979, and the personal rule of CPP leader Hun Sen and his family since 1985, according to analysts. It was the now ageing senior leadership of the CPP who joined with Vietnamese forces to oust Pol Pot in 1979. While memories of those times are fading, the CPP’s grip on power is as firm as ever in the decades since the late 1970s. ‘The making of a political system’ The ruling CPP see “themselves as the saviour and the guardian of the country”, said Aun Chhengpor, a policy researcher at the Future Forum think tank in Phnom Penh. “It explains the making of a political system as it is today,” he said, noting that the CPP has long done what it required to “ensure that they are still there at the helm … at any cost”. Most Cambodians have now accepted a system where peace and stability matter above all else. Advertisement “There seems to be an unwritten social contract between the ruling establishment and the population that, as long as the CPP provides relative peace and a stable economy, the population will leave governance and politics to the CPP,” Aun Chhengpor said. “The bigger picture is how the CPP perceives itself and its historic role in modern Cambodia. It’s not that different from how the palace-military establishment in Thailand or the Communist Party in Vietnam see their roles in their respective countries,” he said. A Cambodian student looks at a poster of former Khmer Rouge leaders during an educational outreach programme [File: Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP] The CPP headed a Vietnamese-backed regime for a decade, from 1979 to 1989, bringing relative order back to Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge, even as fighting persisted in many parts of the country as Pol Pot’s fighters tried to reassert control. With support dwindling from the Soviet Union in the last days of the Cold War and an economically and militarily exhausted Vietnam withdrawing from Cambodia, Hun Sen, by then the leader of the country, agreed to hold elections as part of a settlement to end his country’s civil war. From 1991 to 1993, Cambodia was administered by the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). The Cambodian monarchy was formally re-established, and elections were held for the first time in decades in 1993. The last Khmer Rouge soldiers surrendered in 1999, symbolically closing a chapter on one of the 20th century’s bloodiest conflicts. Advertisement Despite a bumpy road forward, there were initial hopes for Cambodian democracy. The royalist National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia Party – better known by its acronym FUNCINPEC – won the UN-administered elections in 1993. Faced with defeat, the CPP refused to cede power. The late King Norodom Sihanouk stepped in to broker an agreement between both sides that preserved the hard-won peace and made the election a relative success. The international community breathed a sigh of relief as the UNTAC mission in Cambodia had been the largest and costliest at that time for the world body, and UN member states were desperate to declare their investment in nation rebuilding a success. Ruling jointly under a power-sharing agreement with CPP and FUNCINPEC co-prime ministers, the unsteady alliance of former enemies held for four years until ending in a swift and bloody coup by Hun Sen in 1997. Mu Sochua, an exiled opposition leader who now heads the nonprofit Khmer Movement for Democracy, told Al Jazeera that the CPP’s resistance to a democratic transfer of power in 1993 continues to reverberate throughout Cambodia today. “The failure of the transfer of power in 1993 and the deal the King made at the time … was a bad deal. And the UN went along because the UN wanted to close shop,” she told Al Jazeera from the US, where she lives in exile after being forced to flee the CPP’s intensifying authoritarianism at home. “The transitional period, the transfer of power … which was the will of the people, never happened,” Mu Sochua said. Advertisement End of warfare does not mean the beginning of peace Following the coup in 1997, the CPP did not come close to losing power again until 2013, when they

Indian Army used this unique tactic during war with Pakistan in 1971, ordered thousands of condoms due to…

During the 1971 war between India and Pakistan, the Indian Navy came up with a creative and unexpected idea-ordering hundreds of condoms to help in their mission to destroy Pakistani ships

‘Maryland man’ Kilmar Abrego Garcia exposed in police records as ‘violent’ repeat wife beater

A now-deported illegal alien accused of being an MS-13 gang member that was living illegally in Maryland has a record of being a “violent” repeat wife beater, according to court records filed in a Prince George’s County, Maryland, district court by his wife. Fox News obtained the written domestic violence allegations filed in court against 29-year-old Kilmar Abrego Garcia by his wife, Jennifer Vasquez, in 2021. In the filing, written in Vasquez’s own handwriting, she alleges Abrego Garcia repeatedly beat her, writing: “At this point, I am afraid to be close to him. I have multiple photos/videos of how violent he can be and all the bruises he [has] left me.” Vasquez alleged that Abrego Garcia punched and scratched her on her eye, leaving her bleeding. He also allegedly threw her laptop on the floor. WE DON’T WANT KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA BACK, SAYS AG PAM BONDI She wrote that on another day, Abrego Garcia got angry again, started yelling, and ripped her shirt and shorts off before grabbing her arm and leaving marks. Vasquez recalled two times in 2020 that Abrego Garcia hit her. “In November 2020, he hit me with his work boot,” she wrote. “In August 2020, he hit me in the eye leaving a purple eye.” Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released court documents regarding Abrego Garcia, which cast further doubt on the Democrats’ narrative about his innocence. DHS released new documents this week, which it says definitively proves Abrego Garcia, who was deported to the El Salvadoran mega prison “Terrorism Confinement Center” (CECOT) last month, is a member of the notorious MS-13 gang. According to a Prince George’s County Police Department interview sheet shared with Fox News by DHS, local police discovered Abrego Garcia during a murder investigation. Police found him loitering in a Home Depot parking lot with other known MS-13 gang members in possession of illicit drugs in 2019. LIBERAL SENATOR SAYS HE IS FLYING TO VISIT DEPORTED MIGRANT IN PRISON, OTHER DEMS PLANNING TRIPS The police department’s Gang Unit MS-13 Intelligence Squad conducted an interview with Abrego Garcia and contacted a “past proven and reliable source” who identified him as an active member of MS-13 with the “Westerns” clique, with the rank of “Chequeo” and the moniker of “Chele.” The news comes as Democrats clamor for the return of Abrego Garcia, who they say was “wrongly deported” to a maximum-security prison in his home country as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on illegal migrant crime. Last week, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision ordering the Trump administration to arrange Abrego Garcia’s return. The court required the “government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” The Trump administration agreed to clear any administrative obstacles keeping Abrego Garcia from returning to the U.S., but Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that returning him is “up to El Salvador. If they want to return him. That’s not up to us.” KRISTI NOEM CRITICIZES ‘LIBERAL LEFT’ FOR TURNING ACCUSED GANG MEMBER INTO ‘MEDIA DARLING’ This has caused outrage among Democrats, many of whom have begun referring to him as a “Maryland man” who was wrongly deported. Some have even suggested he was kidnapped by the Trump administration. “Kilmar Abrego Garcia was wrongly deported to El Salvador as part of the Trump Administration’s government-funded kidnapping rampage,” Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., posted on X. “He is rotting away in a foreign prison where his life is in danger. We need to go there now to make sure he’s okay.” On Wednesday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., flew to El Salvador to visit Abrego Garcia in prison and work to secure his release. His trip has been criticized by many, including the mother of Rachel Morrin, a 39-year-old Maryland mother who was raped and murdered by a Salvadoran illegal immigrant in 2023. “To have a senator from Maryland who didn’t even acknowledge, or barely acknowledge, my daughter and the brutal death that she endured, leaving her five children without a mother and now a grandbaby without a grandmother so that he can use my taxpayer money to fly to El Salvador to bring back someone that’s not even an American citizen. Why does that person have more rights than I do, or my daughter, or my grandchildren? I don’t understand this,” she said. BONDI DEFIANT, SAYS ABREGO GARCIA WILL STAY IN EL SALVADOR ‘END OF THE STORY’ On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security doubled down, saying Abrego Garcia has a “history of violence and was not the upstanding ‘Maryland Man’ the media has portrayed him as.” DHS shared court filings in which Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez, sought a domestic violence restraining order against him, claiming he “punched, scratched, and ripped off her shirt.” And a 2019 DHS interview document shared with Fox News shows Abrego Garcia admitted to being in the U.S. illegally and claimed to have “walked across the desert for many days entering illegally into the United States near McAllen, Texas on or about March 25, 2012.” As a result, Abrego Garcia was marked as eligible for deportation in 2019. CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE Through it all, the Trump administration continues to maintain it was right to deport Abrego Garcia to CECOT. A federal immigration court in Baltimore further determined Abrego Garcia was not eligible for release because he “failed to meet his burden of demonstrating that his release from custody would not pose a danger to others, as the evidence shows that he is a verified member of MS-13.” The court held that “the fact that a ‘past, proven, and reliable source of infonnation [sic]’ verified the Respondent’s gang membership, rank, and gang name is sufficient to support that the Respondent is a gang member” and that Abrego had “failed to present evidence to rebut that assertion.” “Kilmar Abrego

Police records destroy media narrative about ‘wrongly deported’ Maryland migrant

The Department of Homeland Security has released court records it says definitively prove Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a member of the infamous MS-13 gang. This comes as Democrats clamor for the return of Abrego Garcia, who they say was “wrongly deported” to a maximum-security prison in his home country as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on illegal migrant crime. According to a Prince George’s County, Maryland, Police Department interview sheet shared with Fox News by DHS, local police discovered Abrego Garcia during a murder investigation. Police found him loitering in a Home Depot parking lot with other known MS-13 gang members in possession of illicit drugs in 2019. Prince George’s County Gang Unit MS-13 Intelligence Squad conducted an interview with Abrego Garcia and contacted a “past proven and reliable source” who identified him as an active member of MS-13 with the “Westerns” clique, with the rank of “Chequeo” and the moniker of “Chele.” Additionally, publicly available court records filed against Abrego Garcia cast further doubt on the Democrats’ narrative about his innocence. WE DON’T WANT KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA BACK, SAYS AG PAM BONDI Abrego Garcia, 29, was deported to a controversial mega prison, the Terrorist Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador, in March along with several hundred other alleged gang members living in the U.S. Though he was deported for being an alleged MS-13 gang member, his attorneys maintain he was living in the U.S. legally and does not have any gang ties. Last week, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision ordering the Trump administration to arrange Abrego Garcia’s return. The court required the “government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” The Trump administration agreed to clear any administrative obstacles keeping Abrego Garcia from returning to the U.S., but Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that returning him is “up to El Salvador. If they want to return him. That’s not up to us.” This has caused outrage among Democrats, many of whom have begun referring to him as a “Maryland man” who was wrongly deported. Some have even suggested he was kidnapped by the Trump administration. LIBERAL SENATOR SAYS HE IS FLYING TO VISIT DEPORTED MIGRANT IN PRISON, OTHER DEMS PLANNING TRIPS “Kilmar Abrego Garcia was wrongly deported to El Salvador as part of the Trump Administration’s government-funded kidnapping rampage,” Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., posted on X. “He is rotting away in a foreign prison where his life is in danger. We need to go there now to make sure he’s okay.” On Wednesday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., flew to El Salvador to visit Abrego Garcia in prison and work to secure his release. His trip has been criticized by many, including the mother of Rachel Morrin, a 39-year-old Maryland mother who was raped and murdered by a Salvadoran illegal immigrant in 2023. “To have a senator from Maryland who didn’t even acknowledge, or barely acknowledge, my daughter and the brutal death that she endured, leaving her five children without a mother and now a grandbaby without a grandmother so that he can use my taxpayer money to fly to El Salvador to bring back someone that’s not even an American citizen. Why does that person have more rights than I do, or my daughter, or my grandchildren? I don’t understand this,” she said. Through it all, the Trump administration continues to maintain it was right to deport Abrego Garcia to CECOT. KRISTI NOEM CRITICIZES ‘LIBERAL LEFT’ FOR TURNING ACCUSED GANG MEMBER INTO ‘MEDIA DARLING’ On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security doubled down, saying Abrego Garcia has a “history of violence and was not the upstanding ‘Maryland Man’ the media has portrayed him as.” DHS shared court filings in which Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez, sought a domestic violence restraining order against him, claiming he “punched, scratched, and ripped off her shirt.” And a 2019 DHS interview document shared with Fox News shows Abrego Garcia admitted to being in the U.S. illegally and claimed to have “walked across the desert for many days entering illegally into the United States near McAllen, Texas on or about March 25, 2012.” As a result, Abrego Garcia was marked as eligible for deportation in 2019. A federal immigration court in Baltimore further determined Abrego Garcia was not eligible for release because he “failed to meet his burden of demonstrating that his release from custody would not pose a danger to others, as the evidence shows that he is a verified member of MS-13.” BONDI DEFIANT, SAYS ABREGO GARCIA WILL STAY IN EL SALVADOR ‘END OF THE STORY’ The court held that “the fact that a ‘past, proven, and reliable source of infonnation [sic]’ verified the Respondent’s gang membership, rank, and gang name is sufficient to support that the Respondent is a gang member” and that Abrego had “failed to present evidence to rebut that assertion.” “Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not a ‘Maryland Man’—he is an MS-13 gang member involved in human trafficking who entered the United States illegally,” DHS posted on X. “His deportation to El Salvador was always going to be the end result.” DHS bashed Van Hollen for advocating Abrego Garcia’s release, saying the senator “has done more to bring a MS-13 gang member, human trafficker and illegal alien back to Maryland than he has to help keep his American constituents safe or advocate for the victims of these vicious gangs like MS-13.” CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE “While Sen. Van Hollen and the mainstream media peddle a sob story about a brutal MS-13 gang member, Secretary Noem stands with the victims of illegal alien crime,” said DHS. “We hear far too much about the gang members and criminals’ sob stories and not enough about their victims.” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted some more details about his arrest, saying, in addition to

Former congresswoman turned VA gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger accused of ethics violation

Former Democratic Congresswoman from Virginia Abigail Spanberger is being accused by her GOP opponent in the upcoming Virginia governor’s race of failing to include her role as a trustee in financial disclosure reports while she was a member of Congress. The campaign for Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who is aiming to replace incumbent GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin, is calling the incomplete disclosures “a calculated lie,” not an “accident.” But, according to Spanberger’s campaign, the only asset contained in the trust is Spanberger’s personal residence, which is not required to be disclosed. In 2017, according to local real estate records, Spanberger and her husband updated their will and, as part of that process, transferred ownership of their home into a trust that listed the pair’s kids as the beneficiaries. They bought it for roughly half-a-million dollars, and it is now worth close to one-million. DOJ ASKS TO DISMISS VIRGINIA CASE AGAINST SALVADORAN ACCUSED MS-13 LEADER SET TO BE DEPORTED After opening the trust, Spanberger did not include it in any of her annual financial disclosure reports that are mandated by Congress while serving in the House of Representatives .Nor did she include it in a “Virginia Economic Interest Statement” filed last month. “Personal residences that do not earn income are not required to be disclosed, so Abigail did not disclose her family’s only home — as doing so would make their home address publicly available,” the Spanberger campaign told Fox News Digital. “Abigail filed her disclosures in accordance with House Ethics rules, which do not require her to disclose her role as a trustee of a living trust holding only her family’s home.” However, the Earle-Sears campaign says that Spanberger’s explanations of privacy and wanting to keep her family safe fall short. “Abigail Spanberger got caught hiding a trust — and not just any trust, but one holding nearly a million dollars in assets,” Earle-Sears campaign press secretary Peyton Vogel said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “That’s not an accident — that’s a calculated lie. Disclosure forms don’t require anyone to put their families at risk — only honesty. If she’s willing to lie about something this serious, Virginians just can’t trust her.” VIRGINIA SCHOOL PUTS UP CONTROVERSIAL ABCS DISPLAY ON WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH, STARTING WITH ‘A IS FOR ABORTION’ Additionally, the Earle-Sears campaign has pointed to Congress’ House Ethics Manual requirement that members of Congress “must disclose any nongovernmental positions, whether or not compensated, that they currently hold,” including the position of “trustee.” Spanberger joined Congress representing a district in the northern part of Virginia in 2018, and was reelected in two subsequent election cycles — 2020 and 2022. Spanberger did not seek reelection in 2024, but is now running to replace Youngkin after he is term-limited later this year. Earle-Sears was elected lieutenant governor in 2021, cementing herself in the history books as the first woman of color elected to statewide office in Virginia. Both candidates have been tapped by their respective parties to be their candidate in the upcoming November general election, according to local media reports. Cook-political report currently labels the race as a toss-up.

Fox News Politics Newsletter: Boasberg V. Trump

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump administration, Capitol Hill and more Fox News politics content. Here’s what’s happening… -Third top DOD staffer Collin Carroll on administrative leave -New bipartisan tax proposal could give your family more money -Grassley, Johnson press DOJ IG to respond on whether ‘untasked’ undercover agents were present on Jan. 6 A federal judge said Wednesday that he has found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in contempt for failing to return two planes deporting migrants to El Salvador last month, a major update that comes as tensions between the Trump administration and the judiciary have reached a fever pitch. In a 48-page order, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said that the court had determined that the Trump administration had demonstrated a “willful disregard” for his March 15 emergency order, which temporarily halted all deportation flights to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime immigration law, to allow the court to better consider the merits of the case. Boasberg had also ordered all planes bound for El Salvador to be “immediately” returned to U.S. soil — which did not happen. Hundreds of migrants arrived in El Salvador later that evening, where the individuals were detained in a sprawling, maximum-security Salvadorian prison…Read more DUFFY ON DRONES: Duffy contrasts Biden-era ‘drone fiasco’ with Trump admin’s ‘radical transparency’ after FAA announces testing ECONOMIC PRIORITIES: JD Vance gears up to talk economic priorities during trips to Italy, India SEWAGE CRISIS: EPA chief takes on Mexican ‘sewage crisis’ flowing into US waters where Navy SEALs train TRUMP VS COURTS: Bondi defiant, says Abrego Garcia will stay in El Salvador ‘end of the story’ NEW YORK STATE OF MIND: Elise Stefanik considering bid for NY gov HEATING UP: Kentucky senate race heats up as signs point to Andy Barr joining the field CARTEL CRACKDOWN: Inside House Republicans’ new task force to battle criminal Mexican cartels TERROR ‘DETERRENCE’: Bipartisan senators push tougher penalties for foreign-backed crimes on US soil ‘KICK CORPORATE A–‘: Senate Republican DOGE leader Joni Ernst faces first Democratic challenger in 2026 race RESISTING TRUMP: Bernie Sanders, AOC and other anti-Trump progressives haul in big bucks for 2026 midterms TARGETING VANCE: Dem rising star eyes Vance as key long-term threat: ‘Needs to be defeated’ MUSK-PROOF’: Colorado Dems move to divert $4M in taxpayer dollars to fight Trump admin in court ‘FORK IN THE ROAD’: HUD reveals how many staffers packed their bags and took deferred resignation offer MIAMI ICE: ICE partnership will build ‘public trust,’ vice mayor of town with large Venezuelan community says MARKET MANIPULATION?: Longtime Trump foe Letitia James reviewing possible insider trading over president’s tariff pause ‘APPALLING AND DISTURBING’: Illegal immigrant arrested for incest with teenager, released by Va. jail captured by ICE Get the latest updates on the Trump administration and Congress, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

Trump admin asks IRS to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status

The Trump administration has asked the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status, sources within the Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed to Fox News. The Ivy League school’s failure to address antisemitism on campus is grounds for losing its 501(c)(3) status, Fox News’ sources said. The IRS is expected to make a final decision soon on Harvard’s tax exemption, according to CNN, which was first to report the story. In a recent social media post, President Donald Trump claimed that Harvard had “lost its way” and didn’t deserve federal funding. STEFANIK SHREDS HARVARD OVER ‘COMPLETE MORAL FAILURE’ AFTER ALLOWING CLAUDINE GAY TO REMAIN PRESIDENT “Harvard has been hiring almost all woke, Radical Left, idiots and ‘birdbrains’ who are only capable of teaching FAILURE to students and so-called ‘future leaders,’” Trump wrote. “Look just to the recent past at their plagiarizing President, who so greatly embarrassed Harvard before the United States Congress.” “Many others, like these Leftist dopes, are teaching at Harvard, and because of that, Harvard can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning, and should not be considered on any list of the World’s Great Universities or Colleges,” he continued. “Harvard is a JOKE, teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds.” TRUMP ANNOUNCES PLAN TO CHOP DOWN MAGNOLIA TREE PURPORTEDLY PLANTED BY ANDREW JACKSON: ‘MUST COME TO AN END’ The developments come less than three weeks after the Justice Department announced a “comprehensive review” of federal contracts and government-funded grants at Harvard University. Citing an ambition to eliminate antisemitism on campuses, and coming on the heels of a similar move against Columbia University, the Department of Education said that over $255.6 million in contracts between Harvard, its affiliates and the federal government would be reviewed, plus nearly $9 billion worth of grants. “Harvard has served as a symbol of the American Dream for generations — the pinnacle aspiration for students all over the world to work hard and earn admission to the storied institution,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said at the time. “Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic [sic] discrimination — all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry — has put its reputation in serious jeopardy.”

Year: 2025