Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the arrests of two U.S. Navy sailors for giving military secrets to China, India’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, and Ukraine’s first strike against a Russian commercial port.

Chinese espionage tactics are once again at the forefront of U.S. military concerns. On Thursday, the U.S. Justice Department announced the arrests of two U.S. Navy sailors in southern California for providing Chinese intelligence officers with military secrets and other sensitive information.

Jinchao Wei, 22, has been charged under the Espionage Act for providing information on U.S. warships’ defense and weapons capabilities as well as vulnerabilities. He also allegedly received $5,000 for giving his handler 30 technical and mechanical ship manuals via encrypted communications platforms. Wei, a naturalized U.S. citizen, began spying for China in 2022, according to the indictment. He served as an engineer aboard USS Essex, an amphibious assault ship part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. He could face life in prison if convicted.

Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, was charged with accepting almost $15,000 in bribes for providing sensitive information to a Chinese intelligence officer posing as a maritime economics researcher. Among the classified information allegedly given, Zhao is said to have sent diagrams and blueprints of a radar system stationed on a U.S. base in Japan as well as plans for large-scale military exercises in the broader region. These plans detailed the location and timing of troop movements, among other operations. Zhao worked out of Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, California, and is believed to have provided documents starting in August 2021 to May of this year. He faces 20 years in prison if convicted.

The last year has seen an uptick in high-profile Chinese spying incidents against the United States, as Washington beefs up its influence in the Indo-Pacific through AUKUS summits and greater aid deliveries to Taiwan. In January, Beijing’s espionage efforts grabbed Americans’ attention when a spy balloon was spotted over Montana and eventually shot down along the United States’ east coast. Then came the arrest of two men operating a fake police station that targeted Chinese dissidents in New York City in April. And in June, U.S. officials acknowledged that China has been operating a spy base in Cuba since at least 2019.

“These arrests are a reminder of the relentless, aggressive efforts of the People’s Republic of China to undermine our democracy and threaten those who defend it,” Assistant Director Suzanne Turner of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division said on Thursday when announcing the latest charges.

But, of course, the spying goes both ways. “We would all do better—both Americans and Chinese—by dropping the pretense that only one side or the other, depending on one’s loyalties, gets up close and personal in collecting the other side’s electronic signals and other information,” wrote FP columnist Howard W. French. “In great-power competition, there has never been such a thing as minding one’s own business. It has never existed, and it is dangerous to pretend that we expect it to.”

• Ukraine Has a Breakthrough Problem by Barry R. Posen
• Who Benefits From Niger’s Coup? by Samuel Ramani
• Trump’s Trials Are America’s Stress Test by Michael Hirsh

Back in the game. After months of legal battles, India’s Supreme Court suspended the defamation conviction of opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday. The ruling allows Gandhi to return to Parliament and run in national elections next year.

In March, a lawmaker in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Purnesh Modi, filed a criminal defamation case against Gandhi for making a joke about the prime minister and others with the same surname at a 2019 political rally. “Why do all these thieves have Modi as their surname?” Gandhi asked before listing businessman Nirav Modi, who has been charged with embezzlement and money laundering, among other crimes; businessman Lalit Modi, who has been charged with fraud; and the prime minister. Gandhi was sentenced to two years in prison, disqualifying him from serving in Parliament, but had his jail term placed on hold.

Port wars. Ukrainian drones attacked a major Russian port on Friday, halting maritime traffic for hours and damaging a Russian naval vessel. This is the first time Kyiv has targeted a commercial Russian port since Moscow’s invasion nearly 18 months ago, though the Kremlin has authorized numerous attacks on Ukrainian shipping hubs. Since July 17, Russia has severely damaged at least 26 Ukrainian port facilities, including destroying nearly 40,000 metric tons of grain on Wednesday when it assaulted a key port along the Danube River.

Change in command. The Islamic State announced on Thursday that leader Abu al-Husayn al-Qurayshi was killed during clashes with rival militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in northwestern Syria. The date of his death is unknown, but Turkish officials first reported that Qurayshi was killed in April and that he died by setting off his suicide vest once he realized he was about to be captured by Turkish operatives. Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi has since been named his successor.

Israel’s Supreme Court heard a petition on Thursday against a law that protects Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from being removed from office over what?

A. Conflict of interest with his ongoing corruption trial
B. Acting unilaterally to appoint and dismiss justices
C. Mental incapacitation or illness
D. Signing backdoor weapons deals

Ever watch an elite athlete compete and think, “Pssh, I bet I could do that”? Well, it turns out you probably couldn’t. That’s what 20-year-old Nasra Abukar Ali of Somalia discovered this week when she tried to compete in the World University Games in China. The apparently untrained sprinter took more than 20 seconds to complete the 100-meter dash, lagging so far behind the other runners that video of her poor performance went viral and caused a national scandal. On Wednesday, Somalia’s sports minister publicly apologized for the incident and instructed the national athletics federation chairwoman, Khadija Aden Dahir, to resign after allegations emerged that Abukar was related to her and only given a chance to compete because of it. Still, you have to give Abukar points for gumption.

A. Conflict of interest with his ongoing corruption trial

Israel’s courts cannot be timid in the face of confrontation with the government,
or else they risk Netanyahu turning the country into a sham democracy—as Viktor Orban did in Hungary, Garvan Walshe argues.

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