GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ENDS AS HOUSE VOTES TO FUND PENTAGON, EDUCATION; DHS FUNDING BATTLE PUNTED TO FEB 13 • SOFTWARE STOCKS COLLAPSE IN SIXTH STRAIGHT SESSION: SERVICENOW, SALESFORCE, ADOBE HIT 52-WEEK LOWS • SILVER PRICE WHIPSAW: CRASHED FROM $120/OZ TO $89/OZ IN DAYS AFTER HITTING RECORD HIGHS IN LATE JANUARY • AI LAYOFF WAVE ACCELERATES: 25,000 TECH JOBS CUT IN JANUARY AS ORACLE PLANS 30,000 MORE; 44% BLAME AI • DISNEY NAMES JOSH D'AMARO AS NEXT CEO; NOVO NORDISK FORECASTS 5-13% SALES DECLINE AMID WEIGHT-LOSS DRUG WARS • AMAZON ANNOUNCES 16,000 ADDITIONAL LAYOFFS; META CUTS 1,500 FROM REALITY LABS (10% OF DIVISION) • SECRETARY RUBIO CONVENES EMERGENCY CRITICAL MINERALS SUMMIT IN EARLY FEBRUARY AMID CHINA SUPPLY DOMINANCE • NEW START NUCLEAR TREATY EXPIRES THIS MONTH AS US-RUSSIA ARMS CONTROL ARCHITECTURE COLLAPSES ENTIRELY • PEPSICO CUTS CHIP PRICES THIS WEEK AS SNACK VOLUMES DECLINE; STOCK DOWN DESPITE BEATING Q4 ESTIMATES • GOLD FUNDS RALLY 5%+ AS PRECIOUS METALS REBOUND; SILVER TRUST SURGES 9% AFTER WORST WEEK ON RECORD

All Geopolitics & Trade Articles

How states weaponize interdependence. Who controls access, what leverage is being deployed, and how supply chains are being rewired.

12 articles

Trump Tariffs Target NATO Allies Over Greenland
Geopolitics

Trump Tariffs Target NATO Allies Over Greenland

President Trump announced 10% tariffs on Denmark, Germany, France, the UK, and four other NATO members starting February 1, escalating to 25% by June unless the US acquires Greenland. The move follows Operation Arctic Endurance, a Danish-led military exercise that deployed European troops to the Arctic territory this week, marking the first instance of a NATO ally threatening punitive economic measures against partners for collective defense activities.

STATE
Gold Displaces Dollar as Central Banks Shift Reserves
Geopolitics

Gold Displaces Dollar as Central Banks Shift Reserves

Gold's 65 percent rally in 2025—the strongest annual performance since 1979—reflects a fundamental reorganization of global monetary reserves as central banks pursue sustained diversification away from dollar-denominated assets. The milestone crossing of Treasury holdings validates a multi-year structural shift, even as record prices create demand destruction in consumer markets that historically absorbed 40 percent of physical gold consumption.

STATE
Tokyo and Seoul Deepen Alignment as China Tensions Rise
Geopolitics

Tokyo and Seoul Deepen Alignment as China Tensions Rise

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung agreed Tuesday to expand cooperation across economic security, defense, and technology sectors, marking their second bilateral summit in three months. The Nara meeting advances strategic alignment between Asia's most capable middle powers as China's rare earth restrictions against Japan intensify and North Korea's nuclear threat persists. Both leaders committed to semiconductor supply chain resilience, critical minerals diversification, and closer trilateral coordination with the United States.

STATE
New York Sues Over Interior Department’s Offshore Wind Pause
Geopolitics

New York Sues Over Interior Department’s Offshore Wind Pause

New York filed suit against the U.S. Department of the Interior, arguing that its pause on offshore wind leasing timelines unlawfully suspends approvals and imperils projects—most immediately Equinor’s Empire Wind—by freezing commercial decisions, raising financing risks, and reopening regulatory uncertainty at a critical moment for the clean-energy transition.

STATE
Loudest Claim, Flimsiest Logic
Geopolitics

Loudest Claim, Flimsiest Logic

The renewed American push to acquire Greenland clarifies nothing strategically while creating diplomatic friction where cooperation once existed. What masquerades as security doctrine reveals itself as territorial theater—undermining NATO cohesion, accelerating Greenlandic independence sentiment, and handing Moscow a propaganda victory in the one region where Western unity remains essential.

STATE
Designing Confidence: Moore Threads Launches AI Chips in China Amid Global Chip Wars
Geopolitics

Designing Confidence: Moore Threads Launches AI Chips in China Amid Global Chip Wars

Moore Threads unveils its AI chips in China as a new inflection point in the semiconductor tempest: export controls tighten on one side, domestic IPO euphoria on the other, and a global market hungry for speed, efficiency, and plausible deniability about supply chains.

PLATFORM
Designing Europe’s Michelangelo Dome: Leonardo’s Anti-Drone Shield for a Sovereign Red
Geopolitics

Designing Europe’s Michelangelo Dome: Leonardo’s Anti-Drone Shield for a Sovereign Red

From the ateliers of strategic defense to the boardrooms of risk, Europe’s nascent anti-drone architecture presses a single question: how to arm a continent’s airspace with precision, speed, and sovereign control without surrendering moral or economic latitude?

PLATFORM
The New King of Megacities: Jakarta's Stunning Rise
Geopolitics

The New King of Megacities: Jakarta's Stunning Rise

Jakarta has claimed the crown as Earth's most populous city with 42 million residents, dethroning Tokyo after a quarter-century. But this is more than one city's story—it's a window into how megacities explode into existence, from São Paulo's coffee-fueled boom to Tokyo's post-war resurrection, and what the age of urban giants means for our species.

LABOR
Antennae in the White North: How the China-Arctic Space Race Reshapes the Cold War Frontier
Geopolitics

Antennae in the White North: How the China-Arctic Space Race Reshapes the Cold War Frontier

As Washington and Beijing sharpen their gaze northward, Arctic antenna farms proliferate at a pace that would have startled previous generations. The race isn’t about missiles so much as multiplexed signals: weather, astronomy, space-domain awareness, satellite communications—the infrastructure of a new era where the edge of the world becomes a control room for global power.

STATE
Systemic Scandal: The $100 Million Golden Toilet and the Ukraine Donor Dilemma
Geopolitics

Systemic Scandal: The $100 Million Golden Toilet and the Ukraine Donor Dilemma

A $100 million corruption scandal tied to Ukraine's nuclear agency sends shockwaves through European donors and strategic supporters. Kickbacks allegedly underwrote luxury items, from gilded fixtures to high-end indulgences, threatening the credibility of critical military aid and the cohesion of allied oversight.

STATE
Entropy-Choreographed Defense: Nokia, NestAI and the Quiet €100M Convergence
Geopolitics

Entropy-Choreographed Defense: Nokia, NestAI and the Quiet €100M Convergence

A quiet alliance folds telecom pedigree into battlefield imagination. Nokia partners with NestAI for a €100 million defense AI initiative, signaling a deliberate convergence of 5G/telecom networks with autonomous, AI-enabled defense operations. The move hints at a broader reallocation of European defense spending toward networked, resilient infrastructure—and it offers a fresh lens on where capital, risk, and competitive advantage coalesce.

CAPITAL
Weaponized Interdependence: How Chip Export Controls Rewire Global Tech
Geopolitics

Weaponized Interdependence: How Chip Export Controls Rewire Global Tech

A high-stakes game unfolds where policy throttles silicon, and silicon responds with entropy-driven diversification. This is not merely geopolitics; it’s a laboratory in which supply chains, innovation curves, and national interests collide. The friction between the US and China over chip exports, spurred by warnings from Applied Materials, illustrates weaponized interdependence. The intended dampening of a rival’s innovation curve may, paradoxically, widen variance in local production and push the world toward a bifurcated technology ecosystem.

STATE