Latest news for 9 June 2026

UNITED STATES

OpenAI joins the IPO party.

Following rivals like Anthropic and SpaceX, OpenAI (of ChatGPT fame) has finally filed its confidential IPO paperwork. No pricing or timeline yet, but the street is already pricing in a late 2026 debut, with a valuation north of $1T. (OpenAI)

Comment: We wrote about this year’s monster IPOs here.

CHINA

Sell abroad.

China’s domestic car sales plunged 22% (yoy) last month, while its auto exports soared ~75% the same month. (CNBC)

NETHERLANDS

ICC prosecutor suspended.

The Hague’s International Criminal Court (ICC) has suspended its own chief prosecutor (the UK’s Karim Khan) with immediate effect, pending a final decision by the ICC’s ~125 member states. Khan argues the UN investigation into his alleged misconduct towards a female aide is politically motivated. (Guardian)

Comment: Khan has been on a victory lap claiming exoneration by the UN probe, but the reality is the investigation just summarised the allegations against him plus his own denials, without making a finding either way.

PAKISTAN

Something’s brewing.

The details are murky amid an internet blackout, but violent clashes between police and protestors have left at least a dozen dead in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, ahead of a planned rally by a banned group demanding reforms. (AP)

Comment: Islamabad is already juggling an economic crisis, IMF talks, and evolving security challenges. Fresh police brutality in Kashmir risks further eroding the government’s legitimacy in a region symbolically vital to Pakistani nationalism.

UNITED KINGDOM

Outed.

British security services have discovered a secret ceiling camera inside a sensitive Whitehall building used by officials who approved China’s controversial new mega-embassy in London. (The Times $)

Comment: Nothing says “we have a counter-intelligence problem” like mini cameras in Whitehall, but the more intriguing question for us is who leaked this discovery, and why: it could just be the opposition scoring points, or hawks pressuring the UK’s mega-embassy approval for China, now going through British court appeals later this month.

FRANCE

Sonic bust.

France and Germany have finally abandoned their long-troubled joint Future Combat Air System (FCAS) after years of deadlock between France’s Dassault and the Germany-based Airbus defence arm. Meanwhile, the Swiss are reportedly now eyeing a Franco-Italian alternative to America’s delayed Patriot air defences. (AA)

Comment: That FCAS news, while unsurprising, hints that national industrial interests can still trump European solidarity, and that the continent’s genuine strategic autonomy is still as much a slogan as any emerging reality.

RUSSIA

Where’s Elvira?

Putin’s long-serving central bank chief (Nabiullina) has dropped off the speaker list for today’s NAUFOR securities conference in Moscow, after disappearing from last week’s St Petersburg forum line-up. The official reason is sick leave. (Interfax 🇷🇺)

Comment: One of the last genuinely competent and semi-independent technocrats atop the Russian system, Nabiullina has long been Putin’s public face of economic stability. So maybe she’s just sick! But her rate-rises to stabilise the ruble have made no shortage of oligarch enemies, and her demise (for whatever reason) would augur more bad news for Putin.