INTRIGUE’S LATEST
The global affairs briefing you’ll actually look forward to reading.
Jensen Huang’s winning week
World’s happiest country? That’s easy. Finland has won that title for eight straight years. But what about world’s happiest CEO? You might nominate Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who’s probably still in his Sanchez honeymoon phase and just filed to sell $1.5B more in shares. But we’ll venture another candidate: Nvidia’s Jensen Huang. And it’s not just because […]
Trump threatens 50% tariffs on Brazil. It won’t end well.
This article is a cross publication from The Brazilian Report. After months of fear and anticipation, US President Donald Trump announced additional 50% tariffs on all Brazilian exports to the United States, to be enforced on Aug. 1. The letter to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil stood out among the batch Trump […]
China’s waging war on price wars
We’ve talked about hot wars, cold wars, and trade wars. But now it’s time to talk about another type of war: price wars. For the past year, Communist Party figures have referred periodically to China’s concept of neijuan: that Mandarin word’s characters translate literally as “rolling” and “inside“. It’s like spinning your wheels — lots […]
Latest Articles
IS AUKUS dead?
The historic AUKUS (Aus, UK, US) defence tech pact is in the news again, with Aussie outlets flagging the Trump administration might revise the deal, years after the ink dried. Revealed via a shock 2021 announcement, the trilateral deal pledges varying defence tech cooperation, but the kicker was to help Australia get nuclear-powered (not armed) […]
China accused of training laser on German plane
Just when you thought the Red Sea probably had enough drama, two surprise cast members make a shock cameo, triggering a whole new side-plot. That’s because Berlin just accused China of aiming a laser at a German-operated surveillance plane in the EU’s Operation Aspides. So that’s the situation, but it raises a few other interesting […]
The geopolitics of Amazon
The weather’s getting unbearably hot, and we’re getting targeted with ads urging us to seize a limited 345% discount to nab that rubber chicken handbag and pack of bacon bandages you’ve always wanted. It can only mean one thing: Amazon Prime Day is here. For those unfamiliar, it’s like Black Friday for the world’s biggest […]
Another coup in Thailand?
You’re chatting away on the phone after a crappy few weeks at work: yep, Jenny from accounts is at it again, and don’t even get us started on Barry from marketing. So you vent, throw a little shade, maybe sprinkle in some spice — it’s a private call. You do you, right? Wrong. Thailand’s prime […]
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Geopolitics
Labubu, geopolitics and culture
It’s time to take a quick break from all the trade wars and actual wars, and go back in time to pitch you a few quirky business ideas. But they all lean into culture, so bring your thick-rimmed glasses, turtle-neck, and beret, okay? As for the first pitch, we’re taking you to… Hear us out. […]
More Articles
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 […]
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 […]
ECONOMICS
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 […]
More Articles
Did Trump just trigger Black Monday 2.0?
While you might’ve spent your Sunday night watching an epic finale of The White Lotus, traders were glued to something just as wild playing out on their terminals: S&P 500, Nasdaq, and commodity futures allplunged again while folks traded a record 100 million options contracts (a classic hedge), spooking markets across Asia and Europe. That’s all because whether […]
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 […]
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 […]
Technology
Jensen Huang’s winning week
World’s happiest country? That’s easy. Finland has won that title for eight straight years. But what about world’s happiest CEO? You might nominate Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who’s probably still in his Sanchez honeymoon phase and just filed to sell $1.5B more in shares. But we’ll venture another candidate: Nvidia’s Jensen Huang. And it’s not just because […]
More Articles
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. […]
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 […]