The Wire - July 24, 2025

//The Wire//2300Z July 24, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: CONFLICT ERUPTS BETWEEN THAILAND AND CAMBODIA. GLOBAL STARLINK OUTAGE OBSERVED THIS AFTERNOON.//

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-International Events-

Southeast Asia: Tensions between Cambodia and Thailand have flared up again, and both nations have escalated sporadic border clashes into more direct hostilities. Yesterday, a Thai soldier stepped on a landmine in the disputed border region and from there, the situation deteriorated rapidly. Overnight, Thailand conducted several airstrikes in Cambodia, bombing unknown targets in the contested regions along the border. Some reports claim that one Thai F-16 dropped two bombs on an unoccupied road, whereas other reports claim that military targets were hit by several aircraft. Regardless of the uncertainty of what was struck initially, Cambodian forces have begun the deployment of armored columns to the border to attempt to maneuver through the extremely rugged terrain throughout the contested areas. Rocket attacks have been carried out by both sides throughout the day, also with unknown targets or effects, and most of the border between the two nations is currently host to sporadic fighting, artillery strikes, and small arms skirmishes.

-HomeFront-

USA: This afternoon an outage was reported on the Starlink network, which resulted in all Starlink terminals being down around the world for several hours.

Analyst Comment: So far no cause for the outage has been reported, and there are already many points of speculation as to what caused such a substantial outage. Yesterday T-Mobile and Starlink announced the rollout of their direct-to-cell service project. This also comes a few days after the Microsoft SharePoint vulnerability continues to wreak havoc on various commercial and government entities, so it's always possible that some little known exploit related to that was involved in the outage. However, until Starlink issues a statement regarding what caused the disruption, it could be anything.

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Analyst Comments: In Washington D.C. various political moves continue as before, not much of which is helpful for discerning the truth at the moment. The Epstein scandal remains pertinent as the White House continues sheepish behavior on the subject, and a federal judge blocks the DoJ from releasing certain documents pertaining to the case. Separately, the White House and Director of National Intelligence have made statements pertaining to the Obama Presidency, and the actions undertaken at that time to target President Trump. No real "smoking gun" details have been released on that topic (beyond what everyone already knows), and the timing of this bombshell report is interesting. Nevertheless the weaponization of various intelligence agencies for political gain over the past few years is a serious topic that at this point is too big to ignore. As such, the truth coming to light is of utmost importance if there is to be any hope of trust in the intelligence community ever again.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
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