🌍 Reports of a Chinese spy base in Cuba

Hi there Intriguer. It’s been a big few days for former world leaders: one’s been hospitalised in Italy, another’s been indicted in the US, a third has abruptly quit parliament in the UK, and a fourth in New Zealand has signed a huge book deal (after being knighted last week). And this is all before the milk splashed your Monday morning cheerios.

Today’s briefing is a 5 min read:

• 🇨🇺 A mysterious Chinese spy station in Cuba.

• 🌍 The clock ticks for the latest cyber-ransom victims.

• ➕ Plus: Norway loves EVs, how the papers are covering the Sunak-Biden meeting, and Apple takes its ducking time.

1. 🇹🇲 Turkmenistan: The US will work with Turkmenistan to help cut its methane emissions. The methane leaks from two Turkmen gas fields alone are greater than the UK’s annual carbon emissions.

2. 🇮🇹 Italy: Rome has agreed to a major overhaul of EU migration policy. Under the new deal, states will choose between accepting a certain number of asylum seekers or helping build migration facilities elsewhere.

3. 🇧🇩 Bangladesh: Officials have closed thousands of schools in response to the country’s worst heat wave in decades. The high temperatures are also leading to unprecedented electricity cuts.

4. 🇭🇳 Honduras: President Xiomara Castro arrived in China on Friday (9 June) for her first visit since switching Honduran recognition from Taiwan in March. Castro is seeking to attract Chinese investment for Honduras.

5. 🇮🇷 Iran: US and Iranian officials have denied reports they’re moving towards a deal to limit Iran’s uranium enrichment in exchange for US sanctions relief. Israel says it won’t be bound by any US-Iran agreement.

🇨🇺 Cuba | Intelligence & security

Reports of a Chinese spy base in Cuba

China and Cuba have reportedly agreed to build a secret “eavesdropping facility” in Cuba to intercept US communications, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

But the word “reportedly” is doing a fair bit of heavy lifting in that sentence. Both Cuba and China were quick to deny the report, which is hardly surprising. But then US officials started denying it, too. So what’s going on here?

First, there’s nothing new about spies in Cuba:

• 🇷🇺 Russia ran its largest signals intel facility in Lourdes until 2001

• 🇮🇷 Iran once used Cuba to jam critical broadcasts out of the US

• 🇨🇺 A US spook just did two decades in jail for spying for Cuba, and

• 🇺🇸 The US has intel capabilities on its Guantanamo base there

But there’s not even much new about China’s spies in Cuba:

• 📡 It’s long had access to an intel facility at Santiago de Cuba, and

• 🏗️ It was already rumoured to be upgrading another one at Bejucal

So then… what’s the big deal?

• First, it’s China: America’s top “strategic competitor”

• Second, it’s Cuba: the last time a strategic competitor aimed something at the US from so close, we almost had a nuclear war

• And third, the WSJ said China was building an entirely new base

Things got a little clearer over the weekend: a US official clarified that China upgraded its intel facilities in Cuba back in 2019. So it’s possible the WSJ report was referring to this 2019 renovation.

Intrigue’s take: Just as we were recovering from balloon-gate, this story breaks. And while it seems maybe there’s no new Chinese intel facility in Cuba after all, there’s a bigger picture here.

Like the spy balloon saga, this latest story is a reminder that Washington’s rivalry with Beijing is no longer limited to the far side of the Pacific Ocean.

Whether it’s floating 22km above the US mainland, or sitting 160km off the Florida coast, or steaming through the South China Sea… US-China competition is global.

Also worth noting:

• China is now Cuba’s main trade partner and tech provider, and Cuban President Diaz met Chinese President Xi in Beijing last year.

• The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution every year since 1992 calling for the end of the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

📰 How newspapers covered…

The meeting between UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden:

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🌍 Global | Cybersecurity

Russia-based cyber gang claims massive hack

A notorious Russia-based cybercrime gang (‘Clop’) is threatening to publish data stolen from “hundreds” of organisations this Wednesday (14 June), unless the victims start ransom negotiations beforehand.

For its attack, Clop (again) exploited a vulnerability in a popular file transfer platform.

So its list of victims is long and getting longer. It includes the BBC, British Airways, Canada’s Nova Scotia province, the US state of Illinois, and more.

Intrigue’s take: Meanwhile, the list of options for victims is grimly short:

• Refuse to pay, and watch reams of your data go public, or

• Pay the ransom, but embolden cyber criminals in the process.

For everyone else, the lesson is clear and getting clearer: yes, cybersecurity is expensive. But not having it is even costlier.

Also worth noting:

• Clop issued instructions to victims via a blog post. It’s possible the sheer number of victims made individual ransom emails impractical.

• Clop conducted its attack over the Memorial Day weekend. Hackers often attack during holidays when staffing is reduced.

🎧 Today on Intrigue Outloud

What does a 2,700km ‘wall of sand’ have to do with a decades long territorial dispute?

➕ Extra Intrigue

Your weekly roundup of the world’s more extravagant news:

• Japan’s opposition politicians served beer out of backpacks during a Democratic Party for the People fundraising rally.

• Three Brits were rescued after their giant inflatable duck (nicknamed Quackers) drifted out to sea.

• A cocker spaniel in Scotland broke a Guinness World Record by dropping 23 coins into a piggy bank in 1 minute.

• Three giant seagulls charged unsuspecting passers-by in Singapore and even gate-crashed a job interview (they were operated by Australian puppeteers).

• Apple will finally stop autocorrecting ‘ducking’ (about ducking time).

🗳️ Poll time!

📊 Chart of the day

Nobody loves electric vehicles more than Norway. The Nordic country has been topping the charts for years when it comes to EV sales per capita. China and the US rank 15th and 17th, respectively.

Thursday’s poll: Do you think China's GDP growth rates have peaked?

🟩🟩🟩⬜️⬜️ 💸 Yes, the 10% growth rates of the 2010s are a thing of the past (77%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🙏 No, have a little faith (22%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ✍️ Other, write in! (1%)

Your two cents:

• 💸 N.B: “China has major demographic problems that can not be corrected. Their economy will not continue to grow at rates seen over the last decade or two.”

• 🙏M.G: “[China] continues to show prescient forethought about emerging technologies. They appear to be ready to dominate EVs for the next 20+ years, which will lead their economy into the latter 21st century.”

• ✍️ C.M: “You can't trust the numbers coming out of China, so saying whether something has peaked or not is not possible.”