Benjamin Hunt

CAMBODIAN 🇰🇭 #Asian. former engineer. small business owner

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

The greatest privilege of my life is being able to work with incredible people to create amazing products

[Bloomberg @business]

Cambodia is drawing interest from LNG exporters including the US, Canada and Australia, as well as Middle East and Southeast Asian nations ahead of its first plant coming online by next year https://t.co/5kLupKoGE9

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

(Former) Trillionaire

[Bloomberg @business]

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet has pledged to step up a crackdown on transnational online scam networks.

Online scam centers have proliferated across Southeast Asia since the pandemic, turning Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos into hubs for criminal enterprises. More from his interview with @avrilhongTV: https://t.co/B8Pl2rl0nx

[Jacob in Cambodia 🇺🇸 🇰🇭 @jacobincambodia]

Hun Manet Tells Bloomberg There's No Evidence Any Cambodian SEZ Is Covering for Scams

Hun Manet gave Bloomberg's Avril Hong an interview that aired Thursday, a day after he received FBI Director Kash Patel at the Peace Palace. Asked about a UN report on criminal groups operating through special economic zone concessions, he said he has given strict instructions that none of Cambodia's dozens of SEZs be used to cover for scam operations. Any zone found to be doing so "will be liable just to the law, just like any others." So far, he said, "we don't have any evidence."

On US sanctions against senators Ly Yong Phat and Kok An, he called the designations "a personal matter" and said both men have engaged legal teams to clear their names. Pressed on whether the sanctions were fair, he answered that "we'll see the result after the court."

He said authorities have shut down more than 670 scam operations and that the networks have become "more complex," with technology allowing them "to work in a decentralized manner." Cambodia has removed a three-star, a two-star and a one-star general found linked to scams, he said, dismissed provincial governors and police commissioners who failed to act, and will host an international conference on online scams with participation from China and the FBI. "We will make Cambodia become an area that's not easy or worth to stay for scams."

https://t.co/7WbTp8Tx8i

[Jacob in Cambodia 🇺🇸 🇰🇭 @jacobincambodia]

Hun Manet used his World AI Conference speech in Shanghai to pitch Cambodia as neutral ground, AI as “a bridge for global cooperation rather than a fault line for geopolitical divisions.” He called the approach “inclusive neutrality,” open and multi-aligned.

In the same speech he praised China’s Global AI Governance Initiative and Action Plan by name, pledged to work shoulder-to-shoulder with China, and put Cambodia among the first to sign onto the new World AI Cooperation Organization, the China-proposed body headquartered in Shanghai that 29 mostly developing countries joined last week.

[dilemma @actuallyimthe]

Argentina just beat Spain at the 2026 World Cup final, 3-2.

[Jacob in Cambodia 🇺🇸 🇰🇭 @jacobincambodia]

In Phnom Penh for a few days and finally checked out Chaktomuk Walk Street yesterday. Pleasantly surprised by all of it. Clean, good variety, and relaxing to not have to dodge cars and motos for once. Great idea, and something I’d love to see in Kampot.

This morning I walked around Toul Tom Pong, my old stomping grounds when I first moved to Cambodia back in 2010. Nostalgic and fun to meet up with old sellers, landlords, and my favorite smoothie lady.

[Jacob in Cambodia 🇺🇸 🇰🇭 @jacobincambodia]

$500 gets you this small but modern apartment in Phnom Penh, brand new with a rooftop pool, gym, and sky bar. Looks great on day one, but new buildings live or die on management Anyone in Phnom Penh know if this is still a good deal? https://t.co/ToHCy2I1Yl

[Jacob in Cambodia 🇺🇸 🇰🇭 @jacobincambodia]

The US and Cambodia signed their first bilateral air transport agreement this week, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and civil aviation chief Mao Havannall putting Cambodia into the roughly 140-country Open Skies network. Buried in the State Department note is the part worth reading twice. The agreement grants seventh-freedom all-cargo rights, letting US cargo carriers fly between Cambodia and a third country with no operational link back to the US.

State ties it directly to the DFC board's recent approval of financing for the new Techo International Airport in Phnom Penh, calling it part of a growing US-Cambodia commercial relationship.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

I love the incredible people of SpaceX beyond words

[Lamborghini @Lamborghini]

Some forms of beauty are cultivated.
Others are engineered.
Lamborghini Revuelto.

#USNationalRedRoseDay

[Jacob in Cambodia 🇺🇸 🇰🇭 @jacobincambodia]

First Cambodian Ever to Graduate from West Point

Hun Manet at his commissioning, May 1999. One of just seven foreign cadets in his class.

Every cadet works through 24 required courses spanning calculus, chemistry, physics, history, philosophy, economics, and military leadership, alongside a three-course engineering sequence and four years of military training. They commission as Army officers at the end. Manet majored in economics.

He’d entered the academy in 1995, the same year he joined the Cambodian military at 17. He was 21 in this photo. NYU master’s came next, then a PhD at Bristol.

[SMX 🇺🇸 @iam_smx]

One Man, Elon Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter, walked in carrying a sink, and fired 75% of the staff within a week, yet the company kept running

He renamed it 𝕏, rewrote its content rules, and reinstated 65,000 banned accounts in 30 days

No one had a plan
It worked anyway

[Jacob in Cambodia 🇺🇸 🇰🇭 @jacobincambodia]

Walking back from picking up my new passport, I stumbled on what artists are calling "Art for Peace." 72 artists came together and painted a 35-metre mural in front of Wat Botum, depicting the border conflict in full. The emotions, the toll on livelihoods, the tension of fighting.

You've got to hand it to the Khmer people. They've always been incredibly expressive and creative, and this exhibit is a perfect example.

Kevin even made it onto the mural, with a special spot right near the containers with the Cambodian flag on his back. For those who don't know, he's a British citizen who's become well-known among Cambodians for speaking out about the conflict in a pretty bold way. Recently he grabbed a lot of attention after going up to Thmor Da and spray painting the word “ចោរ” (thief) on containers that Thai forces have placed inside Cambodian territory. Interestingly, "ចោរ" didn't seem to make the mural.

[Jacob in Cambodia 🇺🇸 🇰🇭 @jacobincambodia]

Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior launched the NoDrug app, a mobile platform that lets citizens report drug activity directly to authorities. Over 60,000 users, 2,920 cases generated. Community policing in action.

So why not build something similar for scam compound activity? Anonymous reporting, photo submissions, GPS coordinates, firsthand observations. People living near these sites often know exactly where they are and what’s happening inside. The infrastructure and willingness to build these tools clearly exists.

[Jacob in Cambodia 🇺🇸 🇰🇭 @jacobincambodia]

【VannDa】From shaving coconuts to millionaire rapper

VannDa is now worth millions, but he started out helping his family shave coconuts at a market stall in Sihanoukville. He taught himself to produce music on FL Studio at local internet cafes.

By 2021, his track "Time to Rise" with chapei legend Master Kong Nay became the first Khmer music video to cross 100 million YouTube views. Three years later he was performing at the Paris Olympics Closing Ceremony, the first Southeast Asian artist to do so. Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia. Ranked sixth best rapper on the continent. Nearly five million YouTube subscribers and brand deals across the region.

His mom survived the Khmer Rouge. He grew up in its shadow. Now he's putting Cambodia on the global music map while building a scene behind him. A trajectory that almost doesn't make sense.