INTRIGUE’S LATEST
The global affairs briefing you’ll actually look forward to reading.
Israel strikes Iran
Thought you could have a nice, relaxed, geopolitics-free weekend? Perhaps pop down to Home Depot if you get time? Wrong. Following a day of mysterious security alerts for US and Israeli diplomats in the Middle East (suggesting they had intel something was up), Israel has now struck targets in Iran. The dust is still settling, […]
What’s up with European bonds
Move aside US Treasuries, it’s European bonds getting all the attention right now. You see, it turns out Japan offloaded $13B worth of German bonds back in April, even after Friedrich Merz looked set to restore Berlin’s political stability and fiscal sustainability. Who cares? One’s care-factor might depend on what drove Japan’s decision to sell: It also […]
Why the world is having fewer babies
Why are a bunch of ex-diplomats talking about babies and birth rates? Sure, it’s like a mango sorbet palate-cleanser amid all the war and rumours of war. But natality is also one of those slow-moving forces that can completely transform our world. How? Last century, the dominant narrative was that populations were too big, with leaders in China, Vietnam […]
Latest Articles
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 […]
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 […]
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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Geopolitics
Why the world is having fewer babies
Why are a bunch of ex-diplomats talking about babies and birth rates? Sure, it’s like a mango sorbet palate-cleanser amid all the war and rumours of war. But natality is also one of those slow-moving forces that can completely transform our world. How? Last century, the dominant narrative was that populations were too big, with leaders in China, Vietnam […]
More Articles
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 […]
The five spiciest quotes from this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue
It’s finally June, and you know what that means! Summer’s The Shangri-La Dialogue is finally back, bringing together generals, leaders, security folks, and academics from 47 countries. Here are five of the most intriguing quotes from this year’s summit: In keeping with the tone of Trump 2.0, Hegseth’s keynote speech was anything but low-key. In this instance, […]
Help! The world is impacting our bottom line
When Wall Street woke up to check its Bloomberg terminals yesterday, they’ll have seen a headline that JP Morgan Chase now has its own ‘Center for Geopolitics’. That’s America’s biggest bank launching something that sounds like a tweed-clad think-tank, led by Derek Chollet — a former Pentagon, State, and White House official. And for anyone who’s been […]
Xi and Putin need each other more than ever
Vladimir Putin is hosting world leaders in Moscow for WWII victory celebrations today. Why does this matter? But there are a couple other signals on display. One inadvertent signal is the fact that this annual military parade is now less than half its pre-war size, reflecting the degree to which all Putin’s chips really are […]
ECONOMICS
The world digests Trump’s tariff reveal
In a packed Rose Garden, Donald Trump has unveiled his long-awaited reciprocal tariffs, which the 47th president is dubbing “kind reciprocal”, because they work out at roughly half what he says the world is charging the US. Here’s a quick snapshot of the new tariffs, including: That “virtually” is doing some heavy lifting, as a few names are missing from Trump’s list: One […]
More Articles
Shots fired! The ‘Great Trade War’ is back
And so The Great Trade War™ is on. You’ve probably already heard endless hot takes from folks dressed in shirts with collars more rigid than your uncle Rob on the dance floor, so let’s keep this one short (and our collars in an effortless kind of linen ruffle). Here’s what you need to know. Trump’s […]
Is China’s communist party getting business-friendly?
After China’s Deepseek AI bot rocked the world’s markets and capitals last month, China’s private sector is now throwing the kind of party you just can’t ignore. How big? A $1.3 trillion rally. Big enough to attract the VVVVVVVIP himself, China’s leader, Xi Jinping. Xi hosted China’s top business leaders at a forum in Beijing yesterday (Monday), and the […]
Trump’s latest tariffs, from four cities
Brave that deja vu, because Donald Trump has now signed another executive order imposing 25% levies on all aluminium and steel imports, effective 12 March. So to make tariffs seem not-boring, let’s take a quick musical tour of four capitals… Notwithstanding the buzz or shock, these US tariffs aren’t new. The president imposed broadly similar levies back during Trump 1.0, before […]
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 […]
Technology
Will Jensen Huang re-shape our world?
In the upper wings of the Taipei Music Center yesterday (Monday), two elderly locals watched as their son, Nvidia’s founder Jensen Huang, announced he’s doubling down on Taiwan. And while folks were there for the Computex trade show, they saw something else: Huang emerging as the kind of 21st century CEO with more clout than many world leaders. […]
More Articles
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 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 […]
