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Here are the five things you need to know today:
CHINA. UNITED STATES. Jensen flies, but the hawks aren’t finished.
IRAN. Hormuz operations remain stuck in the doldrums.
UKRAINE. RUSSIA. Putin permits Witkoff and Kushner to genuflect.
SPAIN. Sanchez finds the silver lining in a generational strike.
MEXICO. Trump’s threats over migrants are a prelude to a TACO.
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CHINA. UNITED STATES. Sack overflow
Jensen flies, but the hawks aren’t finished.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned as Reuters said he had an affair with a second employee. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s future was in doubt as the Senate’s Banking Committee asked him and Huang to testify on chip sales.
INTELLIGENCE. Just as Watergate wasn’t about a break-in, the Nvidia scandal isn’t about an affair (or three). While the Justice Department has said it has not determined if Huang slept with a Chinese spy, it’s clear that Nvidia sold a lot of chips to entities that funnelled them to China and other adversaries. Allegations that Lutnick helped cover things up, meanwhile, suggest a renewed struggle between policy hawks and doves ahead of Trump’s visit to China.
FOR BUSINESS. Lutnick may have survived the Epstein sex scandal, but he may not survive Huang’s. This would be a win for the administration’s “prioritizers”, who see China as a foe, not a friend, yet it’s unclear if Trump, who flipped on TikTok and other national security issues, will be persuaded, particularly as he prepares to travel to Shenzhen next week. Beijing, meanwhile, is denying any involvement, while staging unannounced military drills off Taiwan’s coast.
IRAN. Not coming home for Christmas
Hormuz operations remain stuck in the doldrums.
Oil futures jumped after Iran said it had hit a US radar site in Bahrain and Yemen's Houthis said they had struck a pumping station along Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline. Trump admonished JD Vance on Iran, saying "we don't need a deal."