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🧵 Today @ShonaLoong and I launch our book:
New Answers to Old Questions: Myanmar Before and After the 2021 Coup d’État.
In it, we question misplaced optimism about the Aung San Suu Kyi government, and challenge the fatalism that followed the 2021 coup. a.co/d/6zKOJE7
New Answers to Old Questions: Myanmar Before and After the 2021 Coup d’État.
In it, we question misplaced optimism about the Aung San Suu Kyi government, and challenge the fatalism that followed the 2021 coup. a.co/d/6zKOJE7
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Wrote about the latest reversal of fortune in Indonesian politics, and how the sometimes bloody rivalry between the army and the police plays into it.
On paper, the resignation of Indonesia’s vice-president was a simple question of eligibility. In practice, however, little is black and white about the latest trouble in a tumultuous year for Indonesian politics economist.com/asia/2026/11/1…
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Aaron Connelly retweeted
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has accepted the resignation of Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, according to people with knowledge of the matter bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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Aaron Connelly retweeted
13 days (!) after Squad Defence Ministers meeting the US, Aus, Japan and Philippines finally issue joint statement. It's got some meat in it: Squad flagging a "Combined Coordination Centre" to "synchronise defence investments" in Phillippines to help it "defend its archipelago"
Still waiting for joint statement from this meeting
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Aaron Connelly retweeted
I think @DesmondShum is absolutely right about Alice Huang's business career.
Nothing seems to suggest she was actually an MSS officer.
But the MSS definitely sees value in those individuals and does make use of them, especially when aiming internationally.
This is why I hate people just saying "spy" because it can mean anyone from an intelligence officer to someone who was exploited, even loosely.
We also need to distinguish what might an intelligence matter from what is someone who is effective at hustling business.
Good input by Desmond and @steveyates
Nothing seems to suggest she was actually an MSS officer.
But the MSS definitely sees value in those individuals and does make use of them, especially when aiming internationally.
This is why I hate people just saying "spy" because it can mean anyone from an intelligence officer to someone who was exploited, even loosely.
We also need to distinguish what might an intelligence matter from what is someone who is effective at hustling business.
Good input by Desmond and @steveyates
Desmond's distinction explained:
Alice Huang looks more like a commercial fixer (掮客) who may also have served as a clean-handed front (白手套) for business interests than like a dedicated Ministry of State Security-style intelligence operative.
That distinction is meaningful in Chinese political-commercial jargon: one emphasizes deal facilitation and possible fronting for private or elite commercial interests; the other would emphasize formal intelligence collection and reporting to the state security apparatus. Both roles can overlap in practice, but they are not the same thing.
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Aaron Connelly retweeted
I think Haley Stevens really needs to get her side of the story out there, and the best way she can do that is by sitting down with an in depth interview with Isaac Chotiner.
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Aaron Connelly retweeted
Heartbreaking: Senator-elect Roy Cooper collides with the inconveniently-placed floating Getty Images sign in the Capitol Building. He is the fourth person this month to bump his knees on the sign, and lawmakers have called for its removal.
Getty Images: Senator-elect Roy Cooper shakes hands with CNN’s Manu Raju
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Aaron Connelly retweeted
For those Australians who were *not* glued to the ABC NZ election live blog (a slightly strangle life choice, but that's OK) here's a summary of where things sit. National in a stronger position to cobble together a government but there's a way to go yet abc.net.au/news/2026-11-0…
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Aaron Connelly retweeted
Has Elon Musk taken another war zone offline? economist.com/asia/2026/11/0…
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Aaron Connelly retweeted
Currently onboard NZ432. Two very distinct passenger groups: political staffers desperate to get to election night functions, and metal fans desperate to get to an Iron Maiden concert.
We can’t land.
Neither group is taking the prospect of defeat particularly well.
We can’t land.
Neither group is taking the prospect of defeat particularly well.
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Aaron Connelly retweeted
Rebels, aid workers and teachers say that some Starlink terminals across Myanmar have been shut down by SpaceX since July. Register for free to learn why this is proving lethal economist.com/asia/2026/11/0…
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Starlink terminals in Myanmar are going dead, and it's getting people killed.
Wrote about the spate of aid workers getting kicked off the Internet, the rumors of a @StateDept "whitelist", and why rebels in Myanmar don't put Starlink terminals on drones like Ukrainians.
Wrote about the spate of aid workers getting kicked off the Internet, the rumors of a @StateDept "whitelist", and why rebels in Myanmar don't put Starlink terminals on drones like Ukrainians.
Myanmar’s democratic government-in-exile uses Starlink to remotely run schools and hospitals in liberated areas. SpaceX’s motives for removing the terminals in the country are obscure economist.com/asia/2026/11/0…
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New Zealand goes to the polls tomorrow.
Qiulae Wong, the polished 38-year-old leader of New Zealand’s Opportunity Party, is pitching a universal basic income of $210 per week. She could become a kingmaker in the country’s general election economist.com/asia/2026/10/2…
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Aaron Connelly retweeted
The United States military announced Wednesday that it has identified the remains of a soldier who belonged to the iconic "Merrill's Marauders" unit during World War II, more than 80 years after his disappearance. cbsn.ws/4sFbmvg
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Aaron Connelly retweeted
No two countries with cheesecake factories have ever gone to war.
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Aaron Connelly retweeted
Qiulae Wong, the polished 38-year-old leader of New Zealand’s Opportunity Party, is pitching a universal basic income of $210 per week. She could become a kingmaker in the country’s general election economist.com/asia/2026/10/2…
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Ahead of tomorrow’s vote, @TheEconomist spoke to Qiulae Wong, the millennial centrist shaking up New Zealand’s election.
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The Opportunity Party has some big ideas, including a 1.5% land tax to fund a $210 USD/month universal basic income. That, they say, will stabilize soaring housing costs. But it won’t be a deal-breaker for them in coalition talks.
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Many voters seem drawn to Opportunity not for its policies but because it stands a strong chance of playing a kingmaker role after the election.
That would give the big parties on the left and right a new potential coalition partner and drag politics back to the centre. Read more here:
economist.com/asia/2026/10/2…
That would give the big parties on the left and right a new potential coalition partner and drag politics back to the centre. Read more here:
economist.com/asia/2026/10/2…
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