INTRIGUE’S LATEST
The global affairs briefing you’ll actually look forward to reading.
Why the IMF might be done and dusted… or not
It was a week ago that International Monetary Fund (IMF) head Kristalina Georgieva kicked off the Fund’s DC ‘spring meetings’ with an ominous note — “trade policy uncertainty is off the charts”. You could feel it in the DC air, with Intrigue sources confirming delegations from every corner of the globe were scrambling for meetings with […]
Will India and Pakistan go nuclear?
Everyone from diplomats (Russians included) to PhDs, plus the world’s top UN watchdog, and energy executives, all crammed into a DC nuclear conference this week. Hosted by the elite Carnegie Foundation, panels featured the conversations of the day — Iran, US nuclear talks, South Korea’s growing arsenal and Poland’s pledge to build nuclear plants. And […]
The central bank war for independence
US stocks and the US dollar plunged again on Monday after the president colourfully called on Jerome Powell, the Fed Chair, to cut rates. Anyway, while this monetary soap opera plays out on the world stage, it’s reignited a debate that everyone thought was resolved decades ago: the notion that central banks must be independent from politics. Why? The […]
Latest Articles
The pope’s geopolitical legacy
For centuries, popes hardly ventured beyond Rome, with the occasional epic exception like Pius VII, who only left town because Napoleon abducted him! But the jet era — and a 1929 treaty establishing Vatican statehood — changed all that. Enter Pope Francis. With a 2013 arrival full of pope-firsts (the first Jesuit, the first from […]
What the WTO’s trade numbers tell us
WASHINGTON — Now that The Great Tariff Showdown of 2025™ is on and the markets have gone wild, the number-crunchers at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have decided to lob their latest ‘Global Trade Outlook’ into the mix. And it’s timely because: Of course, everyone wants to know what’s next So, what does this WTO […]
Is Russia seeking an airbase in Indonesia?
First it’s all the cars out front during inspection times. Then the new neighbours move in, dump some auto parts on the front lawn (which they immediately stop mowing), and yell at Premier League matches kicking off at 3am. The bad neighbours have arrived. We’ve all experienced something like that. Heck, Seth Rogen and Zac Efron […]
This is how LatAm is approaching Trump 2.0
Love him or not, there’s been no recent US president like Donald Trump. And that puts world leaders in a bind — how do you respond? So let’s take a quick regional tour across Latin America: El Salvador’s president read the room — he saw the returning US president was both a) more transactional, and b) more focused on […]
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Geopolitics
The pope’s geopolitical legacy
For centuries, popes hardly ventured beyond Rome, with the occasional epic exception like Pius VII, who only left town because Napoleon abducted him! But the jet era — and a 1929 treaty establishing Vatican statehood — changed all that. Enter Pope Francis. With a 2013 arrival full of pope-firsts (the first Jesuit, the first from […]
More Articles
What the WTO’s trade numbers tell us
WASHINGTON — Now that The Great Tariff Showdown of 2025™ is on and the markets have gone wild, the number-crunchers at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have decided to lob their latest ‘Global Trade Outlook’ into the mix. And it’s timely because: Of course, everyone wants to know what’s next So, what does this WTO […]
Here’s what’s next for TikTok
As markets stubbed their toe on Trump’s high-stakes tariff reveal this week, it was almost possible to forget about that pesky April 5 (tomorrow) deadline for TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell up or face a painful US ban. And while Trump extended that deadline on his first day back in office, it now looks […]
The defence industry in four numbers
There are all kinds of wild metrics to help track international security — take the famous Pentagon Pizza Index, which monitors spikes in Domino’s and Papa John’s orders as a proxy for Pentagon folks pulling late nighters when something is brewing. Well, here are four less tasty but equally intriguing numbers Intriguers should know: That’s […]
Canada’s new PM takes flight
Canada’s new PM, Mark Carney, just took office facing economic turmoil, U.S. tariffs, and Trump’s talk of a 51st state. His first move? Looking beyond America. Carney, the highly regarded former central banker for Canada (and England!), secured the ruling Liberal Party’s leadership and formally took the reins from Justin Trudeau on Friday. He now […]
ECONOMICS
Is the US getting a sovereign wealth fund?
For any Intriguers who’ve dabbled in the television world of Succession, you’ll recall a memorable scene where the tycoon father, surely inspired by Rupert Murdoch, sends his son (Roman) to the Middle East to secure emergency cash from sovereign wealth funds. “No strings, and dry powder”, is how the media mogul describes the cash [yes, he uttered […]
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Trump’s tariffs, viewed from four cities
Just as he swore to do, Donald Trump signed new executive actions on Saturday, slapping 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and 10% on China. Energy exports from Canada seem to be the sole major carve-out, copping a 10% tariff instead. Now, before we dive in, here’s a sweet term to slip into conversation: strategic empathy. It’s what […]
Four global lessons from earnings week
Earnings calls used to be the exclusive domain of cigar-chomping capitalists, perhaps yelling “sell” at some quivering underling off-camera while an old-school ticker-tape hums. But we can confirm cigar-chomping diplomats also now follow this stuff — or should. If you’re willing to sift through the euphemisms and spin, these corporate events are full of insights into how […]
What went down at Davos 2025
Another year, another Davos Summit, another Intrigue recap. First, a quick fun fact: there are brands that spend an absolute fortune to be at Davos each year, but not Intrigue — our very own Helen is an invited speaker! Anyway, around 50 world leaders also attended, including the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen and Argentina’s Javier […]
What our leaders fear most
The World Economic Forum (WEF) crams epic wealth and power into the tiny Swiss ski resort of Davos each January, leaving it open to some truly cracking conspiracy theories — personally as Simpsons fans, we love to imagine Davos rigging every Oscars night. But we’ve been to Davos before (and will be back again from Monday), […]
Technology
Here’s what’s next for TikTok
As markets stubbed their toe on Trump’s high-stakes tariff reveal this week, it was almost possible to forget about that pesky April 5 (tomorrow) deadline for TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell up or face a painful US ban. And while Trump extended that deadline on his first day back in office, it now looks […]
More Articles
The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite frenzy is here
We’re not a finance newsletter (we don’t own enough Patagucci vests to qualify), but we do enjoy scrolling through stock tickers. That’s how we noticed some recent movements around Eutelsat, a Franco-British Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite operator that’s in talks with the EU to ramp up its presence in Ukraine. Over the past four days, the […]
Paris AI Summit hangs in the balance
Shrugging off some winter showers, France’s Emmanuel Macron (co-hosting with India’s Narendra Modi) has rolled out the red carpet for heads of state, executives (hi Jamie Dimon), and AI power players at the latest AI Action Summit, which wraps today (Tuesday). And a quick glance at the headlines might suggest that oh, Macron is announcing $110B in […]
Congo conflict flares amid critical minerals race
As we foreshadowed yesterday, Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have now seized the eastern Congolese trade hub of Goma in a lightning advance. It’s a conflict with ties to Big Tech, world history, and Western unease, so let’s take a look: A quick glance at a map might make you wonder how Rwanda could possibly be a […]
Did China just dethrone OpenAI?
OpenAI dropped the world’s first-ever ‘reasoning’ AI chatbot back in September, called ‘o1’. The Silicon Valley-based pioneer spent vast amounts of cash and time to release this AI bot that can ‘reason’ its way through more complex problems. And notwithstanding OpenAI’s name and founding philosophy, it again kept its coding secret. But last week, China-based […]
