Mystery of the day

Who crashed that Bentley in Sydney?

Chinese-language social media is awash with speculation over the identity of a mysterious 23-year-old woman who crashed her Tiffany-Blue Bentley in a ritzy corner of Sydney, Australia. Her reported wealth, bodyguards, and scrubbed online profile are fuelling speculation she’s related to China’s leadership, with rumours ranging from her being a great-granddaughter of former president Yang Shangkun, to a niece of Xi Jinping himself.

T-minus 24 hours until Alaska

When news broke that Presidents Trump and Putin were ironing out the details on an Alaska summit (likely at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson), Europe’s initial response was wtf. 

But there’s no feeling of strategic exclusion that jumping on a quick Zoom call can’t fix, so that’s what President Trump did with his counterparts from Ukraine and Europe yesterday. 

Here are the top five quotes you need to know:

1. “They thanked President Trump for his efforts in bringing Putin to the table in pursuit of a ceasefire to end to the ongoing bloodshed” — Keir Starmer, Prime Minister, UK 🇬🇧

The interesting thing about this British statement is what it reveals about Europe’s entire approach to the Alaska summit: a tightrope. They’re obviously alarmed that no European leader, let alone Ukraine’s own president, is invited to a summit about Europe’s future.

But the Brits are also reportedly urging the Europeans to tone down any public demands, fearing they could just end up annoying the US president. And interestingly, Trump himself has toned down his messaging on Alaska, framing it more as a “listening exercise”.

2. “Trump was very clear on the fact that the US wants to obtain a ceasefire at this meeting in Alaska” — Emmanuel Macron, President, France 🇫🇷

All the European leaders noted their understanding President Trump wants a ceasefire tomorrow, but the president himself then hosed that down at the Kennedy Center an hour later, telling reporters any ceasefire might need a second meeting including Zelensky.

3. “If there is no movement on the Russian side in Alaska, then the United States and we Europeans should and must increase the pressure” — Friedrich Merz, Chancellor, Germany 🇩🇪

Now lest you think this was just wishful thinking, Merz went on to claim “President Trump is aware of this position and largely shares it.” And lest you think this was wishful thinking, the president himself went on to reiterate his Putin doubts to reporters: “I’ve had a lot of good conversations with him, then I go home and see a rocket hit a nursing home.”

The president then (again) warned of “very severe consequences” if Putin’s not serious.

4. “Take it from us… Putin has no intention to stop his expansionist pursuit" — Elina Valtonen, Foreign Minister, Finland 🇫🇮

That ‘take it from us’ is a reference to Russia’s century-long rule over Finland until 1917, plus the Finns then stunning the world by somehow fending off 26 of Stalin’s divisions — he ended up with 10% of Finland, rather than the full annexation he wanted.

That kind of history explains why Finland and others bordering Russia tend to be the least starry-eyed in the room, seeing Putin’s peace overtures as more stalling and misdirection.

5. “Pressure on Russia works” — Volodymyr Zelensky, President, Ukraine 🇺🇦

Zelensky has long held firm to the same basic principle: nothing about us without us. So it was interesting to then see him (after the Zoom chat) call for more allied investments in Ukraine’s industry, particularly drones.

The message there is that he’s realistic about the prospects of peace with Putin, so is doubling down on Ukraine’s ability to keep defending itself.

Intrigue’s Take

Our sense is President Trump has genuinely eased some of his hard-line positions towards Europe, and that’s partly thanks to Europe itself:

• NATO members (ex-Spain) have now endorsed his 5% spending target

• Europeans have bank-rolled more of Ukraine’s self-defence, and

• The Financial Times just compiled some remarkable data suggesting a historic tripling in the pace of Europe’s rearmament is now underway.

So any freeloading might be receding into the rear-view, while Zelensky’s methodical gratitude for every ounce of support blunts any (Kremlin-fanned) claims of insouciance.

But the other comment that grabbed our attention came from the US president himself, voicing irritation at claims tomorrow’s Alaska summit is shaping up as a Putin win. All of that, combined with Trump reframing Friday as a listening exercise, leaves us wondering if we’re more headed towards the kind of anti-climax Europe and Ukraine can live with.

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Meanwhile, elsewhere…

Extra Intrigue

In other worlds…

• Tech: Anthropic, the Amazon-backed AI company, is offering its products to US lawmakers for the low low price of one dollar.

• Space: The US is mulling a plan to build a nuclear reactor on the Moon, joining the likes of Moscow and Beijing who’ve already been brainstorming.

• Sports: The State Department has granted a Venezuelan little league team a permit to visit the US for a Little World Series, where it’s beaten Puerto Rico 5-0.

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Video of the day

Every so often, there’s a combination of words you feel pretty safe declaring has never before been uttered in human history.

For example: “Please watch this stunning drone video of a rubber tyre rolling down one of the tallest sand dunes in Chile’s Atacama Desert for three minutes set to Enya’s ‘On Time’.”

Enjoy (and yes, they collected the tyre afterwards).

Oh, and they say never read the comments, but we must give a shout out to the quality puns (“wheely good”) and unbridled exuberance (“we need more tyres rolled”).

Fun fact: if you think this looks like Mars, you’re right — those similarities are why NASA uses the Atacama Desert for testing instruments ahead of Mars.

Today’s poll

Yesterday’s poll: What do you think about this new US deal with Nvidia?

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤝 It's the art of the deal (16%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 😦 It sets an alarming precedent (81%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ✍️ Other (write us!) (3%)

Your two cents:

• 😦 R.B: “An illegal shakedown that proves if you pay enough money the country’s secrets are for sale.”

• 🤝 M.M: “Governments do this around the world all the time — think mining royalties (or even ownership stakes in a mine itself). This just seems shocking because it’s not happened in the US tech sector before.”

• ✍️ J.M: “If this money is used to pay down our debt it could be significant as interest rates fall.”