Asia diplomatic editor and senior Asia correspondent, @TheEconomist.
Singapore
Joined March 2009
- Tweets37.7K
- Following5.1K
- Followers31.1K
- Likes66K
Pinned Tweet
In @TheEconomist today, we ask how President Prabowo Subianto will respond to crashing approval ratings, which are nearing record lows.
Aaron Connelly retweeted
Tokyo’s efforts here have failed - Myanmar remains on the blacklist. FATF cites the “extensive fraud and scam activities emanating from the country”.
Japan is pushing to get Myanmar taken off the FATF blacklist to make it easier to do business there - the latest sign of countries jostling to normalize relations with the military-backed government.
reuters.com/world/asia-pacif…
Aaron Connelly retweeted
“NZ First has published its defence policy, proposing to cancel the purchase of new British or Japanese frigates to replace the ageing Anzac-class […]This makes unexpected bedfellows out of NZ First & the Greens who also want to torpedo the procurement” newsroom.co.nz/2026/10/29/nz…
These gestures will do little to address the scale of the humanitarian disaster that the Tatmadaw has caused in Shan. But they allow the chair the illusion of progress on the 5PC. And they give the Tatmadaw international legitimacy in front of ethnic minorities.
The faces of those lined up receive the aid are quite revealing.
I led an ASEAN Monitoring Team (AMT) Mission of the AHA Centre yesterday in Taunggyi, Southern Shan State, Myanmar, and was joined by representatives from the Embassies of ASEAN Member States and Japan. The Mission distributed bags of rice, family kits, and personal hygiene kits to internally displaced persons. The mission also marked the start of a month-long humanitarian operation that will reach more than 11,000 households in Kayin and northern Shan States, focusing on communities in areas not previously reached by the AHA Centre.
Aaron Connelly retweeted
"...not only did Ms. Peltola’s team work with people trying to recruit Mr. Sullivan to run for Senate, but the effort was much broader. The group worked to coax other would-be spoilers into the race, to dilute the incumbent’s support and help catapult the Democrat to victory." nytimes.com/2026/10/28/us/po…
Aaron Connelly retweeted
“You burn with us” scenes from the ongoing Indonesia protests against forest fires and other Prabowo’s policies
Aaron Connelly retweeted
A few Pacific estimates snippets. Senior @dfat official Liz Peak gives a rather decorous response when asked about the High Commissioner's leaked text messages re Solomon Islands treaty. She won't comment until it's signed (this is widely expected to happen on November 25 in Aus)
Aaron Connelly retweeted
This is obviously a bad faith question, Israel has been the singular obsession of Stephens’ charmed career as a conservative diversity hire, but if the interior minister of Japan regularly cranked out videos celebrating his own cruelty and racism I think we’d know their name.
Aaron Connelly retweeted
The Washington Post editorial board asks why ICE is detaining Hong Kong rights advocates who are here lawfully. Good question.
In 2021, then-Senator @marcorubio said the US should “open our doors” to Hongkongers who stood up to the CCP, and wrote a bill to do it. The people being arrested now are the ones he meant: screened by the State Department, admitted on US visas, protected under a directive both administrations have honored since 2021. Secretary Rubio can still make good on that.
So can Congress. The Hong Konger Promise of Refuge Act (S. 5606 / H.R. 10685) would let this closed group apply for green cards before their protection ends on February 5. It needs cosponsors from both parties.
@PostOpinions
washingtonpost.com/opinions/…
My colleague Simon Long covered Indonesia for many years. He says Indonesia is not at a crossroads, but a roundabout. economist.com/asia/2026/10/2…
Aaron Connelly retweeted
My colleague Sam Beal writes on Nixonmaxxing.
"In embracing Nixon, young right-wingers are also rejecting their elders’ worship of Ronald Reagan. The Gipper’s faith in free markets and internationalism is at odds with the MAGA worldview."
economist.com/united-states/…
Aaron Connelly retweeted
"Ultimately, though, a majority of voters appears to have heeded Mr. Lula’s warnings about handing power to another Bolsonaro, just four years after former President Jair Bolsonaro orchestrated a plan to hold onto the presidency and inspired supporters to storm Brazil’s halls of power. Last year, the elder Mr. Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for trying to stage a coup after the 2022 election, in a plot that included plans to assassinate Mr. Lula, Mr. Lula’s running mate and a Supreme Court justice."
nytimes.com/2026/10/25/world…
Aaron Connelly retweeted
I confess I always wondered why Justice O’Connor served on the Iraq Study Group in 2006, but clearly I am wrong here. Secretary Gates describes her incredible value add: (Gates, Duty, p. 31)
Aaron Connelly retweeted
"Our nation is a nation that honors contracts, rules," Indonesia's energy minister Bahlil said. "So don't teach Indonesia on how to honor contracts." The gas cut to Singapore was still within the limits set in the contract, Bahlil said. reuters.com/business/energy/…
Aaron Connelly retweeted
Iran has been Myanmar's primary supplier of jet fuel - enabling the airstrikes that have killed thousands of people, many civilians, per the UN. @Reuters @JusticeMyanmar reveal how Myanmar secretly disguised imports of sanctioned Iranian jet fuel.
reuters.com/business/energy/…
Aaron Connelly retweeted
As any cyclist, hiker or runner here knows, Taiwan's mountains are massive strength-sapping beasts
Aaron Connelly retweeted
The Rohingya, yet again, become a geo-political football to be kicked.
The first Trump admin held off declaring genocide because of fear of pushing Myanmar toward China, now the second admin threatens the ICJ fearing what a ruling in favor of the Rohingya could mean for Israel.
ICJ ad hoc "judge" Navi Pillay is tipping the scales on the ICJ’s current proceedings on Myanmar, intending to lower the legal threshold for proving genocide so that weakened and false standard can later be weaponized against American and allied soldiers whenever they raise a finger against terrorists that hide behind civilians. Pillay: We see your agenda and we'll be watching the ICJ’s handling of these proceedings very closely. As our actions against the ICC demonstrate, we will not allow globalist, faux-judges to weaponize the law against our troops, undermine our sovereignty, or put American lives at risk.
The Nobel Committee has disgraced itself by awarding the Peace Prize to Pillay. What a shameful choice to "honor" someone who represents an "international community" with a leftist, globalist, antisemitic agenda.
President Trump is showing a better way, by actually ENDING WARS, bringing hostages HOME, and making PEACE.