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Our Top Briefings
Xi and Trump talk for the first time
Sometimes, the shortest press releases generate the most headlines. Take Thursday’s press release from China’s state broadcaster: “Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday held phone talks with U.S. President Donald Trump at the latter’s request.” As you’d expect, given the feverish geopolitical climate of today, those 18 words were enough to trigger a visceral reaction in any US-China […]
Latest Stories
China Spying on Russia? Parsing the NYT’s Scoop
The folks at The New York Times dropped an intriguing little nugget over the weekend, reporting they’d received an internal Russian intelligence memo warning that Beijing is a) spying on Russia’s war in Ukraine, b) spying on Russia’s presence in the Arctic, and c) covertly recruiting Russian academics, journalists, researchers, arms-makers, and beyond. So first… where might this report have come from? The NYT notes it […]
Can the US and Iran reach a deal?
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, criticized key elements of the latest US nuclear proposal yesterday, questioning why Tehran should become “dependent on others” for its nuclear program when Washington maintains its own nuclear arsenal. His comments come after five rounds of talks that began in April. If you’re just catching up, here’s what US Special Envoy Steve […]
Meet South Korea’s new president
It’s been a tumultuous six months for South Korea. One failed martial law declaration, one impeachment, and three acting presidents later, and South Koreans finally have a permanent president again. Opposition candidate Lee Jae-myung from the left-leaning Democratic Party of Korea won yesterday’s election with 49% of the vote, defeating Kim Moon-soo from the ruling People […]
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Meet the Team
The only briefing designed by former diplomats

John
Former diplomat in Beijing and Shanghai. Mandarin speaker. Helen constantly says my jokes are ‘drier than dust’, but she’ll have to do better than that to stop me.

Helen
Former diplomat in Tel Aviv and Hong Kong. Better Mandarin speaker than John, who reminds me that just because I went to Harvard doesn’t mean I’m always right.

Jeremy
Former diplomat in Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Lima. Spanish speaker. Awarded Peru’s Presidential Medal for Distinguished Service for… well, distinguished service.