PHNOM PENH —  When 24-year-old Indonesian migrant worker Petri (name protected)  boarded a flight on 17 July 2025, she believed she was traveling to Cambodia for a customer service job. The opportunity had been advertised on Facebook by an Indonesian-run agency. Petri said she met the local Indonesian recruiter in person, and the agency arranged and paid for her flight to Cambodia. The job promised between US$800 and US$1,200 a month and involved making phone calls. Instead, she says, her...

In late December 2025, renewed fighting along the Thailand–Cambodia border created the first major shock to Cambodia’s compound-linked ecosystem. Armed clashes erupted again near Poipet and O’Smach after a temporary pause in hostilities, with artillery fire, air strikes, and ground engagements affecting border towns on both sides. International reports confirmed that commercial and residential areas close to the frontier were hit or placed at risk, prompting evacuations and triggering...

For more than a year, 赵俊成 (Zhao Juncheng)  was a familiar name on Chinese social media. He did not become known through fame, controversy, or media interviews, but through repetition. His father appeared again and again on Douyin, publicly calling out his son’s name, pleading for information, asking strangers to remember him. Video after video, the same message, the same fear, the same unresolved absence. Over time, this persistence turned Zhao into a semi-famous individual online — not by...