INTRIGUE’S LATEST
The global affairs briefing you’ll actually look forward to reading.
The US and Iran lay out their ceasefire demands
Before we could get clarity on who was lying about the existence (or not) of US-Iran peace talks, the two foes started publicly trading conditions amongst the missiles. So… what is each side now demanding? America’s mooted 15-point plan is now circulating among newsrooms after reportedly getting delivered to the Iranians via Pakistan. The White […]
Trump issues Iran ultimatum, as 2,000 marines close in
It’s been a busy weekend on the Iran front, so here are the four numbers you need to know, starting with… That’s when President Trump’s latest Iran ultimatum to re-open the Strait of Hormuz expires later tonight (Monday) DC time, or else the US starts hitting Iran’s power plants. That’s 11.44pm in London, 3.14am Tuesday […]
Spy chiefs take the hot seat
DC’s intelligence chiefs have stepped out of the shadows and into the congressional spotlight for their annual grilling this week. Sure, it’s all tied to the unclassified Annual Threat Assessment, and spooks love to defer spicy answers to the off-camera closed-door briefings, but it’s still pretty revealing. So here are the week’s top five spymaster […]
Latest Articles
Can you bomb the Hormuz Strait open?
Come Monday morning, Asian and European leaders had a clear message for the White House: after getting labelled freeloaders and cowards, then blindsided by this new war, they won’t now rush their navies through a wartime Strait of Hormuz. Weird, huh? But the US president still insists “numerous countries” are on their way, so it’s […]
Iran grabs headlines, but China’s tech push marchs on
This is the first time we’ve ever focused nine consecutive briefings on the same topic (Iran) and, while that war keeps shaping history, the rest of the world ain’t slowing down. So let’s catch you up on three other stories worth your attention this week. Spoiler upfront — they all involve China: China’s annual political-legislative […]
China Two Sessions and more
This is the first time we’ve ever focused nine consecutive briefings on the same topic (Iran) and, while that war keeps shaping history, the rest of the world ain’t slowing down. So let’s catch you up on three other stories worth your attention this week: China’s annual political-legislative Two Sessions (lianghui in Mandarin 💅) just […]
Iran is targeting US radars, is the strategy paying off?
Here’s what’s happened in the 24 hours since Intrigue last cannon-balled into your inbox: The war: The markets: And the miscellaneous: As for this briefing’s quick focus? US radar systems. There’s little surprising about the US/Israeli ability to fry most of the regime’s military. What’s maybe surprising is the regime’s ability to land big hits […]
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Geopolitics
Spy chiefs take the hot seat
DC’s intelligence chiefs have stepped out of the shadows and into the congressional spotlight for their annual grilling this week. Sure, it’s all tied to the unclassified Annual Threat Assessment, and spooks love to defer spicy answers to the off-camera closed-door briefings, but it’s still pretty revealing. So here are the week’s top five spymaster […]
More Articles
Why world leaders think the world is “under destruction”
Gone are the days when big thinktank events like the Munich Security Conference (MSC) were the exclusive preserve of tweed-clad IR nerds arguing about great power theory. This is 2026, darn it: the MSC’s Wolfgang Ischinger kicked things off Friday rocking Macron’s trademark aviators, before unleashing a weekend of panels and speeches he branded “Under […]
Three surprising election results
We got three electoral surprises Sunday, so let’s explore why each matters, starting in… Newish conservative PM Sanae Takaichi was always going to win, but she’s now got i) a standalone supermajority, after ii) Japan’s biggest single-party victory in post-war history. So… why does this matter? So… what next? Takaichi not only wants to continue […]
The geopolitics of the Winter Olympics
Italy’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony kicks off in just a few hours, meaning we’ll soon burn our evenings watching snowboarders called ‘Tanner’ and ‘Yui’ pull sick Frontside Double Cork 1080 Lien-to-Melon Reverts. But it also means that, as with any event bringing the world together, geopolitics is now in the air (doing a sick Frontside […]
The geopolitics of Epstein 2.0
Some 42 days after they were due, the US justice department finally shared the latest Epstein files on Friday, featuring three million pages, 180,000 images, and 2,000 videos. While it all pours more sordid pressure on familiar US figures (Trump, Clinton, Gates, Musk, Summers, Lutnick and beyond), it’s also reverberating around the world, starting in… […]
ECONOMICS
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 […]
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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 […]
A moron premium in the US?
We’ve been writing about bonds before they were the flavour of the week. And events now dictate that we revisit bonds again. Who are we to argue with events, dear Intriguer? Typically if US stocks tank, spooked investors will shift their cash over into bonds — the ultimate safe-haven. Why? When you buy bonds (loan the US government money), […]
Did Trump just blink?
Just after our last edition hit your inbox, Donald Trump decided to: Of course, markets breathed a semi-sigh of relief. But… did Trump blink? Here are the three main arguments you need to know: Treasury Secretary Bessent argues this was all part of Trump’s successful strategy, with 75 countries now reportedly lining up to negotiate […]
Trump and Xi play chicken
We’ve already explored Trump’s tariffs, but it’s worth a quick recap of his rationale before we tour today’s wild ripple effects: And while he’s now slapped tariffs on everyone (otherwise he says China just reroutes via third countries), the big kahuna tariffs are now really on China. Building on earlier tariff rounds during Trump 1.0 and Biden… The […]
Technology
Spy chiefs take the hot seat
DC’s intelligence chiefs have stepped out of the shadows and into the congressional spotlight for their annual grilling this week. Sure, it’s all tied to the unclassified Annual Threat Assessment, and spooks love to defer spicy answers to the off-camera closed-door briefings, but it’s still pretty revealing. So here are the week’s top five spymaster […]
More Articles
The fight tearing AI and defense apart
News recently broke that the Pentagon had used Anthropic’s Claude AI tool to capture Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. Cue the memes about Secretary Hegseth prompting AI with something like “hey Claude, go seize Maduro without US casualties, make no mistakes”. But this was all apparently news to Anthropic itself, which reportedly sought clarification. The AI firm […]
The massive supply chain shortage you didn’t know about
You’d think 2026 already had enough on, but no — someone has gone out and helpfully coined an entirely new genre of Armageddon: not nuclear, not biblical, but supply chain: So what’s driving this impending RAMageddon? Intrigue’s hard-core nerds will forgive us when we casually split chips into three families: First there are the compute […]
Should all countries launch their own LLMs?
While you might know beautiful Chile for its copper, its wines, its pisco-fight with Peru, or its ridiculously long and skinny profile like it’s spooning Argentina (nena, wake up), there’s now a new reason: Chile just launched Latin America’s own large language model. Creatively named LatAm-GPT, the idea is to “develop capabilities in the region […]
Behold… Pax Silica!
For those who didn’t blow a decade learning Latin so you can use the Vatican’s famous Latin-language ATMs, pax means peace and silica is the mineral throughout the Earth’s crust, like sand — refine it enough and you get the foundation of modern tech: silicon. The State Department just launched Pax Silica as a US-led […]