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Intrigue

Daily flyovers

Latest news for 25 June 2026

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

  1. 01

    VENEZUELA

    Devastation.

    A rare ‘doublet’ earthquake of 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude has rocked the capital of Caracas plus its key nearby port of La Guaira overnight, leaving entire blocks collapsed and swathes of the country without power. The US Geological Survey is already flagging a possible death toll into the tens of thousands. (Independent)

    Comment: Decades of institutional decay have left Venezuela doubly vulnerable: less resilient when a disaster hits, and less able to mount an effective response in the aftermath. The US realistically now bears more of a moral and practical responsibility to help after toppling Maduro in January — Marco Rubio has already announced (along with Spain and others) search-and-rescue, medical, and aid resources. If you’d like to help, DirectRelief has already mobilised an appeal.

  2. 02

    JAPAN

    Yolo.

    Shares in KIOXIA (Toshiba’s former memory arm) soared as much as 15% after America’s Micron memory chipmaker crushed its latest earnings. Capitalising on the AI boom, KIOXIA has also announced plans to offer US depositary shares next year. (Bloomberg $)

    Comment: Micron is more focused on DRAM (feeding data to AI trainers at blistering speeds), but the firm also reported bumper results for NAND (longer-term storage for resulting AI datasets, where KIOXIA is #3). Investors saw it as evidence this chip super-cycle still has plenty of legs, with enough gravy for both DRAM and NAND.

  3. 03

    GERMANY

    Frigate fiasco.

    Shares in local defence giant Rheinmetall have plunged as much as 19% after Berlin cancelled Germany’s troubled F126 program, which would’ve delivered six of the world’s largest naval frigates in history. The defence minister (Pistorius) says the Germans are instead pivoting to eight smaller, proven frigates from ThyssenKrupp. (Naval News)

    Comment: It might be a signal for how Merz wants to handle Germany’s historic Zeitenwende (turning point), leaning more towards speed, cost control, and off-the-shelf German designs rather than riskier mega-projects.

  4. 04

    CHINA

    We’ll see you in (your) court.

    China-based e-commerce giant Alibaba has filed suit in California, objecting to the Pentagon’s “arbitrary and capricious” blacklisting of Jack Ma’s firm over alleged PLA links. (Al Jazeera)

    Comment: That original US blacklisting of China’s consumer-facing tech giants like Alibaba was really DC targeting Beijing’s broader ‘civil-military fusion’ strategy — ie, hitting those firms feeding (willingly or not) the PLA’s modernisation. Of course, the whole situation is thick with irony for those US firms that’ve gone decades being blocked or squeezed in China’s own market with little real recourse.

  5. 05

    UNITED STATES

    Props & flattery.

    Reminding everyone why the former Dutch leader is dubbed The Trump Whisperer, NATO boss Mark Rutte has appeared in the White House armed with novelty-sized charts and posters to highlight $1.2T in extra European defence spending since 2017, supporting a reported 200k US jobs. The US president still voiced disappointment over a lack of support on Iran. (EuroNews)

    Comment: You can safely ignore the hyperventilating about Rutte leaving his dignity at the door — he's doing his job (keeping the US on-side) ahead of next month's critical NATO summit in Turkey. On the substance, a key hurdle now might not be European slow-walking so much as US delivery bottlenecks — PwC research suggests the five main US defence primes had a $1.4T backlog last year, up 24% from 2024!

  6. 06

    BELARUS

    Capitulation?

    After Ukraine's Zelensky gave the Belarusian dictator (Lukashenko) a week to deactivate the drone relay stations Putin uses to attack Ukraine, those Russian outposts are reportedly now silent. Meanwhile in Moscow, a top Putin propagandist (Solovyov) has used his primetime slot to warn "there's no money" for defensive barriers, asking "how is this possible?" (Kyiv Post)

    Comment: While the Crimea chaos and Solovyov meltdown are eye-catching, the quieter Belarus story might be the most significant — if Putin’s outposts really are now offline, it hints at ascendant leverage for Zelensky. As for Putin, the fact he’s now having to pull air defences back to Moscow suggests things might only get worse for him elsewhere.