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Intrigue

Daily flyovers

Latest news for 21 January 2026

Quick hits of consequential news from all corners of the world.

  1. 01

    PERU

    Part of the problem?

    Just months into his interim term, President Jerí is now facing corruption allegations as prosecutors probe his off-calendar meetings with a foreign investor. (Reuters)

    Comment: Peru (12% of global copper supply) has been in a rolling political crisis since ~2016, but the malaise goes deeper: the only presidents among the 11 since 1990 to avoid serious legal trouble have been three brief placeholders.

  2. 02

    CHINA

    Red stamped.

    After years of delays and deliberation, London has now approved China’s new mega embassy despite voter pushback and security concerns. (BBC)

    Comment: We explored this one here, but it was striking how much this became a Rorschach test for the UK’s approach to China — now agree with the outcome or not, at least it’s over. Moving forward, we often mention that every country spies if it can, and uses its embassy to do so if it can. But keep in mind also that capitals spy back on embassies, and it’s much easier to recruit a PRC official abroad than in Beijing.

  3. 03

    DENMARK

    Sell America?

    Amid ongoing fear around US plans for Greenland, Denmark’s pension fund has announced it’s offloading $100M in US bonds by the end of the month. (CNBC)

    Comment: The volume is small and (as we foreshadowed) most of Europe’s bondholders are private. But the fund’s unintentionally funny clarification (this isn’t about the US threatening to take our land, but just “poor [US] government finances”) is one heck of a sign of the times. Speaking of pension funds, one of Australia’s giants (ART) just revealed it’s not offloading US assets, but rather increasing its currency hedging to reduce exposure to a weakening dollar — ie, the fund likes US assets, but no longer expects the US dollar to act as a counter-cyclical safe-haven).

  4. 04

    INDONESIA

    Revoked.

    Indonesian authorities have revoked 28 mining permits after connecting the firms to last December’s Sumatra floods, which left over a thousand dead. (Bloomberg)

    Comment: This also plays to President Prabowo’s interventionist instincts in the economy, having already brought nickel, coal, and palm assets under state control.

  5. 05

    VENEZUELA

    Get your bag.

    The acting president (and former veep under Maduro), Delcy Rodriguez, has reported receiving the first $300M for Venezuelan oil President Trump said the US would sell on world markets. (Reuters)

    Comment: Reuters reporting from last week suggests these dollars will recapitalise local banks with the foreign exchange that crumbling local firms need for inputs.

  6. 06

    MALAWI

    That’s gonna cost you.

    Malawi’s energy regulator has raised fuel prices by over 40% for the second time in four months, as President Mutharika seeks to balance his country’s books en route to more support from the International Monetary Fund. (BBC)

    Comment: He might take heart that Nigeria’s Tinubu similarly ditched costly fuel subsidies and managed to ride out the unrest, but Malawi is no Nigeria: its deeper poverty, higher inflation, and weaker fiscal buffers all make this move worth tracking.