New Tempo cover depicts Pope Francis eating cup noodles on a commercial flight like an Indonesian everyman. There’s a small plane out the window - a reference to Jokowi’s son Kaesang’s widely criticised trip to the US on a private jet abc.net.au/news/2024-08-2…

I’m in East Timor now and cant’t emphasize how *next level* the preparations for Pope Francis’s visit are. This is Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao sweeping the streets yesterday. And he was doing it for hours. Photo by ulet ifansasti

This week marks a sad anniversary: Retired Uyghur doctor Gulshan Abbas has now spent 6 years in prison on indefensible and politically motivated charges. We repeat our call for the PRC to release her and all those Uyghur and Muslim minorities being held unjustly in Xinjiang.

Important talks in Beijing. The standoff at Sabina (Escoda) Shoal has the potential to become a major flashpoint. If the Philippines and China can negotiate a deescalation, as Lazaro did around Second Thomas Shoal in July, it would be a big diplomatic achievement.

Kurt Campbell in [checks notes] Lithuania and Iceland this week, to talk Indo-Pacific: state.gov/deputy-secreta…

In my latest, for @ussc, I spotlight the shifting military balance in the Indian Ocean. China will soon be able to exercise sea denial - an unprecedented threat to India (& its partners, Aus & US). How is India responding? (1/4) ussc.edu.au/engaging-with-…

The ICRC must recognize the undeniable reality, as its recent meeting with the junta boss in Naypyitaw signals a dangerous normalization of a regime responsible for systematic human rights abuses. Engaging with a military that routinely blocks aid, targets civilians, and

“Designating politicians as a protected class against cyber-bullying” is novel way of suppressing dissent.

General Giang is likely to be the only speaker at Xiangshan Forum with experience in combat against the PLA. He was a signalman on Vietnam’s northern border in January 1979.

"Perhaps doing is a messy business that must be lived in the halls of power and slogged through in interminable meetings that only occasionally refer to thoughts." substack.com/profile/185786…

“As always on this issue, the question is whether the United States is adopting Council reform positions merely in response to shifting geopolitical currents or whether it has, as a policy matter, actually decided to help unstick the process.”

“The enclosure of 36 buildings includes office towers, a shopping mall, dormitories and luxury villas reserved for the criminal ringleaders. Police rescued more than 800 people when they raided the site in March.”

Philippine Coast Guard says a replacement vessel is on the way to Sabina Shoal. If that is so, why didn’t it relieve BRP Teresa Magbanua earlier? Something is amiss.