Hello,
Here are the five things you need to know today:
CHINA. UNITED STATES. Xi smiles benevolently as Nvidia implodes.
INDONESIA. Another Widodo-Prabowo olive branch gets snapped.
IRAN. Talk of a deal is premature amid new attacks.
DR CONGO. Tshisekedi faces a third challenger.
EL SALVADOR. His crypto dreams dashed, Bukele starts new ventures.
Modelled on the Presidential Daily Brief, Geopolitical Dispatch gives you the intelligence that you need in the time that you have, and with zero AI. Subscribe to read all five daily analyses.
CHINA. UNITED STATES. Going to pot
Xi smiles benevolently as Nvidia implodes.
Nvidia plunged a further 8% in after-hours trading after the Wall Street Journal said CEO Jensen Huang would be sacked. The New York Times reported an affair with a second woman. Axios said Howard Lutnick had stalled regulatory probes.
INTELLIGENCE. Huang’s second lover was unlikely a honeytrap, but his mounting indiscretions are hurting America’s biggest firm. In addition to any gains Beijing has already accrued from the mess, the weakening of a rival will be sweetest of all. Yet ahead of his summit next week with Donald Trump, Xi Jinping won’t want to harm his rival too much. Beijing needs the US economy as much as Washington needs China’s. And he won’t want to boost the hawks.
FOR BUSINESS. For all Trump’s bluster on trade, he’s been good for Beijing. While China’s economy has slowed from its property bubble days, it’s been able to gain a technological and military edge thanks to dopey US industrial and strategic policy. Xi won’t want to see the likes of Trump and Lutnick replaced by more competent and less conflicted officials. Then again, the Democrats aren’t angels. Public records show Ro Khanna sold Nvidia perfectly at the top.
INDONESIA. Object lesson
Another Widodo-Prabowo olive branch gets snapped.
President Prabowo Subianto accepted the resignation of Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka over allegations that the son of former president Joko Widodo had faked his high school diploma. Indonesian bond yields hit a six-year high.