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Intrigue

Daily flyovers

Latest news for 23 September 2026

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

  1. 01

    SAUDI ARABIA

    Grand reopening.

    The critical East-West oil pipeline out to the Red Sea is now partly back up and running, a week after drone strikes sent it offline. The news has helped ease oil prices back under $100, their lowest since 8 September. (Reuters)

    Comment: We wrote about what the Houthis mean for global oil here.

  2. 02

    UNITED STATES

    Wearer of many hats.

    Treasury Secretary Bessent is reportedly emerging as the lead candidate to double as President Trump’s new ‘AI Tsar’, after David Sacks returned to Silicon Valley. (AA)

    Comment: Bessent is already running Treasury, co-leading on trade, acting as IRS chief, and driving talks with China. Throwing AI into the mix could just reflect Bessent’s cred with Trump, but probably also reflects the administration’s hard-nosed AI philosophy mixing national security, trade leverage, and systemic financial risk.

  3. 03

    UNITED STATES

    FBI hack!?

    Ransomware hacker group ShinyHunters is claiming to have breached FBI protocols and stolen vast amounts of data on current and past employees, in response to the FBI’s targeting of ShinyHunters earlier this year. (CNBC)

    Comment: Details are still emerging, but this alleged breach could have profound ramifications and expose agency staffers to all kinds of dangers, like blackmail, blown cover, and beyond.

  4. 04

    EUROPEAN UNION

    (un)sanctioned.

    Europe has agreed to remove Russian billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the bloc’s sanctions list, which is otherwise now being extended for another three years on the 3,000 remaining targets. (EuroNews)

    Comment: Paris is only giving vague natsec explanations, but likely pushed to shield Usmanov as part of a delicate prisoner swap with Azerbaijan. That swap only makes sense to us (if at all) if the jailed Frenchman was with the DGSE, or if the DGSE managed to flip Usmanov. The Luxembourg story seems more obvious: the guy they wanted exempt is suing the grand duchy for $16B over frozen assets. Anyway, unanimity rules make for strange compromises, and this all risks undermining Western unity via a slippery new precedent in front of an expansionist Russia. On the bright side, it also suggests these sanctions really do hurt.

  5. 05

    CHINA

    New chip in town.

    Alibaba has unveiled its new in-house AI accelerator, billing the Zhenwu V900 as China’s most powerful chip, with 3x the performance of its predecessor. (Bloomberg $)

    Comment: Alibaba still relies on China’s local SMIC chipmaker which — amid US sanctions — still relies on older Deep Ultraviolet (DUV) tech rather than the better Extreme Ultraviolet lithography. Alibaba isn’t revealing its new specs, but SMIC is maxing out at the 5nm process node (versus the 2nm Taiwan’s TSMC is now shipping), and even at 5nm, the older DUV tech means brutally low yields and massive production costs. Crucially, however, this new chip does potentially outperform America’s slower Nvidia chips specifically authorised for sale in China, a potential tipping point to drive more revenue and R&D for China’s chip-sovereignty push. The announcement is probably timed to fill President Xi’s sails ahead of Thursday’s big Trump summit (Xi arrives Wed night) — we’re still expecting a trade-truce extension and some photos, not a treaty.

  6. 06

    AUSTRALIA

    How did those get there?

    Australia’s defence minister is downplaying the missing F-35 fighter jet parts that somehow got diverted to — then lost in — Hong Kong, arguing the components that departed Australia weren’t particularly sensitive. US outlets are taking a different line, flagging that the shipment actually included a special radar-absorbent canopy. (Guardian)

    Comment: Absent further details on what (if anything) is going on, it’s another awkward lesson in allied supply chains, just as these two allies plough on with their ambitious AUKUS submarine plans.

  7. 07

    URUGUAY

    Latin American paradise.

    Silicon Valley-backed venture Praxis says it’s reached a deal to build its first physical “crypto/AI” city for 10,000 tech elites in Uruguay. (NYT $)

    Comment: The venture is one thing (founded by a professional surfer and backed by tech luminaries like Altman), but we’re more interested in their selected location: Uruguay offers stability, proximity, a digital-native demographic, and digital-nomad tax perks; but these utopian ideas still eventually tend to hit some familiar brick walls — zoning, politics, and the uncomfortable reality that there’s a limit to how much any sovereign nation is willing to tolerate a sovereign tech-bro enclave within its borders.