🌍 NATO looks towards Asia

🗺️ AROUND THE WORLD

1. 🇭🇰 Hong Kong: Only 19% of representatives on Hong Kong’s local district councils will continue to be elected directly, according to reforms announced on Tuesday. That’s down from around 90% currently.

2. 🇧🇾 Belarus: A court sentenced journalist Raman Pratasevich to prison yesterday (Wednesday) on charges of organising unrest. Belarus arrested him in 2021 after forcing his RyanAir flight to divert to Minsk.

3. 🇺🇸 United States: Washington will soon deploy 1,500 soldiers to the US border with Mexico. Officials expect migrant arrivals to double when a pandemic-era law, authorising the expulsion of undocumented migrants on health grounds, expires next week.

4. 🇰🇪 Kenya: Anti-government protests in Kenya have resumed this week after opposition leader Raila Odinga initially agreed to suspend them last month. Grievances include the high cost of food, fuel and electricity.

5. 🇲🇲 Myanmar: The ruling junta pardoned more than 2,000 political prisoners yesterday (Wednesday) as a humanitarian gesture. The last time it released so many prisoners at once was in July 2021.

🎖️ NATO | GEOPOLITICS

NATO is opening its first office in Asia

Briefly: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will open a liaison office in Japan, boosting contact with its four ‘partners’ in the region (Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand). It’ll be NATO’s first office in Asia.

The Western military alliance has been around for 74 years and has plenty of liaison offices already. This latest office, containing one official, won’t open until next year (photocopiers can be a real pain to install). So what’s the big deal?

NATO’s critics (like Russia, China and North Korea) say NATO:

• is reaching its “tentacles” into Asia

• is raising the risk of confrontation, and

• should just stick to its own turf (NATO’s eastern-most member is Turkey, located almost exactly on the opposite side of the world)

For its part, NATO says the new office:

• continues decades of cooperation with its four partners in Asia

• reciprocates those partners’ appointments of reps to NATO, and

• reflects today’s reality that “security is global. What happens in Europe matters for Asia” (and vice versa).

Intrigue’s take: Want to get a sense of how quickly history is moving? Look at NATO’s ‘Strategic Concepts’ (basically its evolving strategy) over the years:

• NATO started out as a bulwark against communism in post-WWII Europe

• Then after the Cold War, it focused more on challenges like terrorism

• In 2010 it didn’t even mention China, and wanted a “partner” in Russia

• Then in 2022, NATO said China’s “coercive policies” and “opaque military build-up” made it a top security challenge, while post-invasion Russia was now a “direct threat”

The times, they are a changin’.

Also worth noting:

• NATO’s Article 5 commits its members to defend one another against attack. It’s been invoked once, after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the US.

• According to NATO’s Article 10, only European countries are eligible to become members.

Today’s briefing is sponsored by World Politics Review

🕵️ QATAR | ESPIONAGE

Qatar accuses Indian nationals of spying for Israel

Briefly: Eight veterans of the Indian Navy are due to stand trial in Qatar on charges they spied for Israel. The men were arrested last year and could face the death penalty if convicted.

The accused were employed by an Indian technology and consulting firm helping Doha develop submarines designed to evade radar detection. Both Israel and India would theoretically have an interest in hampering Qatar’s navy:

• 🇮🇱 Israel wants to retain its US-backed military edge in the region (especially since Qatar is aligned with Iran, its top adversary), and

• 🇮🇳 India is wary of Qatar’s military partnership with Pakistan (India’s own top adversary).

Intrigue’s take: Submarines, so hot right now. Their stealth, mobility, and element of surprise render them a hot item for militaries everywhere. So it’s no shock that counter-intelligence operatives everywhere are on high alert, too.

Also worth noting:

• Last year, a US court sentenced a US naval engineer and his wife to prison for attempting to sell submarine secrets to Brazil.

• India says Qatar hasn’t yet revealed the charges against its nationals. India’s opposition has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of failing to lobby for their release.

👀 EXTRA INTRIGUE

Here’s what we’re reading about the evolving media landscape after World Press Freedom Day yesterday (Wednesday).

• Digital media’s original sin

• For news about the podcasting world, we read Podcast Review: a newsletter bringing you the week’s best podcast episodes. Enjoyed by 10,000+ subscribers, including staff from NPR & The New Yorker.

• The exhausted majority is demanding positive journalism

• Journalists should treat AI as an existential threat

• Threats against reporters are growing

📸 PHOTO OF THE DAY

That’s right! Intrigue attended Saturday’s annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner along with 2000+ VIPs like POTUS (whose remarks were amusingly self-deprecating).

Comedian Roy Wood Jr headlined the event, which also included cameos from Arnie and our very own co-founder, Helen ‘nodding audience member’ Zhang (yes, that’s a blurry Helen nodding in the video background 😁).

🗳️ POLL TIME!

Yesterday’s poll: If you could live comfortably in any city in the world, which city would you choose?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🇬🇧 London (22%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇨🇳 Shanghai (0.5%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇦🇪 Dubai (3%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇫🇷 Paris (13%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇯🇵 Tokyo (9%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇧🇷 Rio De Janeiro (4%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇺🇸 New York (12%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🇦🇺 Sydney (16%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ ✍️ Other (write in!) (21%)

Your two cents:

• ✍️ O.G: “Why would I leave the farm?”

• Honourable mentions from our readers include: Barcelona, Yerevan, Ho Chi Minh City, Edinburgh, Montevideo and so many more!