Nate Schenkkan

This week there were new arrests, though interestingly the arrests were reportedly under the section three offence, and not the section one offence. This means the basis of the arrests was not that the arrestees were suspected of obtaining or disclosing protected information prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom. Instead the three arrests this week were on the basis of a suspicion that the arrestees were materially assisting the Chinese intelligence service in carrying out UK-related activities, and that they would know, or should have known, this was what they were doing. The section three offence is framed in broad, fairly elastic terms. It does not require it to be shown that the conduct of the arrestees is prejudicial to the United Kingdom, merely that it would assist (in this case) the Chinese intelligence service, and that the arrestees knew or ought to have known this was the case. There does not even need

NEW

Espionage law on trial

My post at New Statesman on something interesting about the recent arrests for Chinese espionage - that it was the new s.3 offence used for the arrest. This could get interesting.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Kurdish Iranian dissidents in Iraq deny attack plans but say they would join a US invasion of Iran Officials with one of the armed Kurdish Iranian dissident groups based in northern Iraq say they are not planning an imminent cross-border attack on Iran but would join a ground invasion if the U.S. w...

Officials with one of the armed Kurdish Iranian dissident groups based in northern Iraq told @AP they are not planning an imminent cross-border attack on Iran but would join a ground invasion if the U.S. were to launch one

Via Stella Martany

apnews.com/article/kurd...

Not my experience with these parents. "Anti-" and "hesitant" are two very distinct groups. Anti are bad parents who eagerly use their children to signal their commitment to a social group. Their children's pain is a medal signaling their commitment.

So when does the "partial mobilization" begin

Right, I think the movie is very well done and communicates its message clearly. But that doesn't stop other people from stopping at the allure, and ignoring the rest of the story.

When Fight Club came out I thought it was brilliant but I had a much smarter friend who recognized that it actually valorized the perspective it was intended to undermine

How Many Jalens Are in the NBA? Rainey Ovalle’s Viral Song Investigates Why are there so many Jalens in the NBA? Rainey Ovalle ta...

In lighter news, why are there so many Jalens in the NBA? www.complex.com/music/a/mark...

We may, but honestly a lot of it is downstream of federal funding, and the pipeline takes years--so if this administration and Congress don't put money into it, I'm not sure it'll be there in say 2030.

Something similar kind of seems to have happened to Chinese language education.

Kind of seems like a general shut down of interest in anything foreign or internationally oriented.

Qatar warns war will force Gulf to stop energy exports ‘within days’ Gas producer says it will take ‘weeks to months’ to restore deliveries after Iranian drone strike

'Qatar’s energy minister has warned that war in the Middle East could “bring down the economies of the world”, predicting that all Gulf energy exporters would shut down production within days and drive oil to $150 a barrel.' www.ft.com/content/be12...

As Oscar Wilde said, to lose 1,000 jobs in a month is a tragedy, to lose 92,000 jobs is just carelessness

Just what I want to see in a price shock

For a time it looked like something similar might happen with the Middle East, and perhaps we would become smarter and more informed despite it all. Now that seems like another civilization.

US Russian Studies was built in the Cold War, also for instrumental reasons but with some incredible spillovers--generations of Russian-language speakers who studied all kinds of stuff unrelated to geopolitics (I benefited from this legacy enormously).

And now, amidst a war of utter choice on Iran? There is no public much less policy discourse about making sure there are students learning Farsi, or examining Shi'a intellectual traditions, or Iranian/Persian history. There seems to be an acceptance of our intellectual debasement.

It wasn't my primary interest or what I pursued professionally, but I benefited from it indirectly through fellowships (to study Turkish and Uzbek, for instance), and from the broader environment in which resources went to understanding things like Islam in Central Asia.

Had a grim thought last night: post-9/11 there was a massive surge of interest and scholarship on Islam. Yes, there was a lot of tendentious trash, and bigotry, and the motives were in many cases instrumental--but there was also a lot of real learning and research.

Whoa

[millionaire mba guy in a fleece vest pretending to like a $4 burger] mmm yes i love cheesed burgers

After evacuation orders for the huge swathe of territory south of the Litani River in sth Leb (i.e. from Israeli border about 30km north) & Beirut’s southern suburbs, home to 100s of 1000s, Israel orders residents of several towns in Bekaa Valley to leave their homes #Lebanon

This is the moment Donald Trump became president

My first reaction was, he survived the layoffs? And my second was, of course he did.

I know at least three people who are stuck somewhere because they had flights going through Dubai or Doha and now they can’t get home. The vast majority of people connecting between the US, Africa and South Asia go through the Gulf. I wish there was more coverage of that human impact.

But this Claude incident highlights another problem with AI:

My story and the Post's work are carefully written and reported.

We deliberately choose what we can and can't say. Editors review our language and challenge us on facts.

AI summaries throw all that work into a copy blender.🫠

Inside the Trump administration’s scramble to support its own war One State Department official said too few people were read in on war plans.

How long will this war last? A clue in our story: "U.S. Central Command ... is asking the Pentagon to send more military intelligence officers to its headquarters in Tampa, Fla., to support operations against Iran for at least 100 days but likely through September." www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

That's where they're wrong, the book is extremely funny

Maybe it was a strategic hit aimed at endangering the air corridor currently operating over the Caucasus? It's a major path of air traffic btw Europe & Asia right now.

I'm sure AZ territory is backstopping some Israeli and US intelligence work on Iran, because it always is, but stuff like this wouldn't interfere with that in a meaningful way

This seems like a weird thing to spend resources on intentionally