By Andre Pienaar The world is at war. The number of active cross-border conflicts now exceeds anything seen since 1945, with more than seventy-eight countries entangled in conflicts beyond their own borders. A “world at war” is at risk of becoming a “world war.” The war in Ukraine is linked to the conflict with Iran through the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty signed between Moscow and Tehran in 2025. That treaty enables the transfer of weapons and advanced technology, the sharing of intelligence, and the coordination of hybrid operations between two states with overlapping grievances against the West. Russia and Iran…

The Iranian military has achieved unprecedented accuracy levels in its drone and missile capabilities by relying on Chinese and Russian-made guidance chips linked to satellite systems. Exploiting a technology invented in the UK almost half a century ago has allowed Iran to use imported satellite chips to gain a significant advantage for its missiles and drones. The development marks a major shift in Tehran’s strike capabilities, with experts warning that the Iran war demonstrated a level of accuracy not previously associated with the country’s arsenal. Western security sources also told The National that there is a “high probability” that Iranian…

The UK’s cyber security authority has announced that passkeys should now replace passwords as the default way consumers sign in to online services, marking a significant shift in long-standing digital security practice. Guidance published during Day Two of CYBERUK in Glasgow by the National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, states that passkeys are ready for widespread adoption and should become the preferred login method wherever available. The decision reflects growing concern among cyber security officials that passwords are no longer sufficiently resilient against modern cyber threats. Passkeys allow users to authenticate access to accounts through their device, typically using biometrics or a secure unlock…

By Andre Pienaar A pattern has taken shape on the streets of north-west London that British counter-terrorism policing can no longer describe as opportunistic antisemitism. In the space of roughly five weeks, synagogues, Jewish charities, a Jewish emergency medical service, Iranian dissident media, and the perimeter of the Israeli Embassy have all been struck, reconnoitred or threatened. Every significant attack has been claimed by the same previously unheard-of group: Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, the “Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right”, abbreviated as HAYI. British officials now openly treat it as a line of inquiry into Iranian state sponsorship.…

By Ben Farmer Sudan’s three-year-long war is being rapidly transformed by the use of drone warfare technology, as strikes kill hundreds of people. Both the Sudanese army and its paramilitary enemy, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), are increasingly using remote-controlled aircraft to carry out long-range attacks deep into enemy-held territory. Around 700 people have been killed by drones so far in 2026 alone, and use of the weapons is expected to allow the enemies to keep fighting through the coming rainy season, which usually heralds a slowing down in operations. Sudan’s catastrophic civil war is the latest conflict to be…

By Andre Pienaar In a rare joint statement issued on 20 April 2026, the Mossad, the Shin Bet and the Israel Defense Forces disclosed the existence, structure and leadership of Unit 4000, a covert directorate of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organisation (IO) responsible for assassination, sabotage and targeted kinetic attacks on Israeli, Jewish and Western targets around the world. The disclosure set out, in unusual public detail, how the unit’s senior leadership was identified, mapped and systematically eliminated during Operation Rising Lion, the Israeli component of the joint US–Israeli campaign against Iran known in Washington as Operation…

A majority of intelligence agencies across the Five Eyes alliance are now led by women for the first time, according to the second annual Top 50 Women in National Security list published by National Security News. The NSN Top 50 Women in National Security 2026 recognises women whose leadership across government, military, intelligence, technology and policy is shaping national and international security at one of the most volatile moments in recent geopolitical history. Building on the inaugural list published in 2024, this year’s edition documents the deepening influence of women at the highest levels of power, from the prosecution of…

This article by Gen. David H. Petraeus was first published by Kyiv Post. The original version can be read here. The most highly lauded living military officer in the United States, Gen. David Petraeus, shares his admiration for an awe-inspiring generation of Ukrainians forged by Russia’s brutal war. Editor’s note: The following is the transcript of a talk given in Kyiv on April 3, 2026. Well good afternoon to you all, and thank you for the kind introduction and warm welcome. It is wonderful to be back in Kyiv, especially with spring arriving! And I thank former Prime Minister Yatsenyuk…

North Korea has begun a “very serious increase” in its nuclear weapon production, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has warned. The isolated totalitarian state is believed to operate multiple facilities for enriching uranium, a key step in making nuclear warheads, South Korea’s spy agency has said. The bases include one at the Yongbyon nuclear site, which Pyongyang purportedly decommissioned after talks but later reactivated in 2021. The Communist regime is now thought to have assembled around 50 nuclear warheads. “In our periodic assessments, we have been able to confirm that there’s a rapid increase in the…

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is one of the most powerful and feared organisations in Iran, playing central roles in the country’s projection of power, internal security and economy. Among the organisation’s many prominent military duties, the corps operated what was Iran’s formidable ballistic missile arsenal. The IRGC also oversaw the Quds Force, an expeditionary arm that partners with Iran’s various regional affiliates, including Hamas and Hezbollah. Billions of dollars have been channelled through the IRGC to fund proxies in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Gaza, known as the Axis of Resistance, which have carried out attacks against the US…

The US and Iran agreed to a two-week conditional ceasefire on Tuesday evening, which included a temporary reopening of the strait of Hormuz.The breakthrough came after a last-minute diplomatic intervention led by Pakistan, canceling an ultimatum from Donald Trump for Iran to surrender or face widespread destruction.Trump’s announcement of the ceasefire agreement came less than two hours before the US president’s self-imposed 8pm Eastern time deadline to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges in a move that legal scholars, as well as officials from numerous countries and the pope, had warned could constitute war crimes.Just hours earlier, Trump had written…

US President Donald Trump has issued a stark warning ahead of his self-imposed deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, declaring that “a whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if Tehran does not comply. Posting on Truth Social Tuesday, Trump framed the coming hours as potentially decisive for both Iran and the wider international order. “A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” he wrote. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” He added that the situation could still shift rapidly if political change occurs inside…