Latest news for 15 December 2025

CHILE

New president, who dis?

As widely expected, arch-conservative José Antonio Kast has comfortably won Chile’s presidency, beating the ruling left-coalition’s Communist Party candidate with pledges to get tough on crime and immigration. (BBC)

UKRAINE

NATO drop.

As peace talks continue, President Zelensky has flagged an openness to dropping Ukraine’s NATO ambitions in exchange for binding Western security guarantees. (Japan Times)

Comment: It’s a big concession, not just because Ukraine’s NATO ambitions are enshrined in its constitution, but because Putin’s invasion is itself a reminder of the last time Western partners failed to uphold security pledges. Meanwhile, European diplomats are still haggling over using frozen Russian assets to back Ukraine, ahead of Thursday’s pivotal European Summit in Brussels. There’s been some fascinating debate on that among several of the international lawyers in our exclusive WhatsApp group (free to join by referring friends to Intrigue using your unique link down below!).

UNITED STATES

Pax Silica.

The US has launched a new ‘Pax Silica’ initiative aimed at curbing “coercive dependencies” (ie, relying too much on China) along the entire chips supply chain. The founding participants include Japan, Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the UK, Israel, the UAE, and Australia. (Politico)

Comment: Intriguers will notice the above list includes two of the three main chip players: there’s the US (leading in design) and the Netherlands (dominating lithography). The missing third? Taiwan, which dominates final fabrication. We’re guessing DC didn’t need another spat with Beijing right now, though Taiwan still scored a quiet guest invite alongside the EU, the OECD, and Canada.

HONG KONG

Pro-democracy party disbands.

The city’s last real opposition party has voted to disband after years of pressure, threats, and isolation from Beijing’s ruling Communist Party. Meanwhile, a court has convicted pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai on charges he lobbied foreign governments to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and China. (Guardian)

BELARUS

123 prisoners freed.

Moscow-aligned Belarus has freed more political prisoners (including Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski) in exchange for the US lifting certain sanctions. (Al Jazeera)

Comment: We wrote about why the US might want to defrost its Belarus ties here.

Switzerland

Cryptic tweet.

Famously neutral Switzerland dropped an intriguing tweet last week, noting that “in light of the deteriorating security situation, the Swiss government is realigning Switzerland's security policy.” (X/Twitter)

Comment: It’s generally not a good sign when even the Swiss are rattled.

IRAN

US raids ship headed for Iran.

It turns out US special forces raided a ship in the middle of the Indian Ocean last month, seizing a shipment of military-related goods from China to Iran. The US says it’s aiming to stop Iran from rebuilding its military. (WSJ $)

Comment: These mid-sea interdictions will be more common as cross-border trust collapses, and global public goods like maritime sea lanes become more contested.