The British Prime Minister has condemned as “reckless and deeply concerning” the firing of warning shots by a Russian warship near a British yacht in the English Channel, as Moscow insisted its crew had acted only to prevent a collision. Sir Keir Starmer said the incident, involving the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich and the British-flagged yacht Bright Future, “shouldn’t have happened” and warned that it came against a backdrop of escalating Russian aggression towards Britain and its allies. Speaking from the G7 summit in France, Starmer said: “It is reckless, and the couple on the yacht must be terrified. I…

The United States and Iran have announced a framework agreement aimed at ending the war. The memorandum of understanding, expected to be signed in Switzerland later this week, includes plans to halt military operations, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin talks on regional security and Iran’s nuclear programme. Countries across the Middle East and Western allies welcomed the agreement and urged both sides to follow through on commitments. The UAE has called for “an immediate and comprehensive cessation of hostilities in the region” and stressed the importance of protecting shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz. Abu Dhabi praised…

The United States has launched a series of military strikes against Iranian targets after President Donald Trump accused Tehran of shooting down a US Army Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. The move has rapidly escalated tensions across the Middle East casting fresh doubt over fragile peace negotiations. The latest crisis erupted after an AH-64 Apache helicopter was brought down during a patrol mission near the strategically vital shipping route.  Both crew members survived and were rescued and US officials blamed Iran for the attack. “The United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack,” President Trump said, adding…

Britain, France and Germany pledged to increase support for Ukraine after talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in London. The meeting came as Kyiv reported its strongest run of territorial gains in more than two years. Separately, the European Union released nearly €2.8 billion in new financing for Ukraine under its Ukraine Facility programme. Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at Downing Street for talks on air defence, long-range weapons, security guarantees and any future ceasefire with Russia. The four leaders reiterated their “unwavering support” for Ukraine and discussed “next steps in…

Governments across Europe and North America are accelerating efforts to reduce their dependence on China for critical minerals amid growing concern that Beijing’s dominance of global supply chains could leave key industries exposed to disruption.The European Commission is considering legislation that would require companies operating in strategically important sectors to diversify their supply chains and reduce reliance on single suppliers, particularly China. The proposal would require businesses to source critical inputs from at least three suppliers, according to Maroš Šefčovič, the European trade commissioner.Speaking at a conference in Brussels last week, Šefčovič said the measures formed part of a broader…

IronNet, once a darling of the cybersecurity sector, collapsed as a public company in 2023 following its listing on the New York Stock Exchange through a SPAC transaction in August 2021. Given the company’s high profile and widely respected founder, General Keith Alexander, the former Director of the US National Security Agency (NSA), alongside a board that included figures such as Ted Schlein, a partner at Kleiner Perkins who led the firm’s cybersecurity investments, and Don Dixon, founder of one of the world’s largest cybersecurity funds, news of the company’s difficulties prompted some critics to portray IronNet as an example…

The FBI is deploying an anti-drone task force to protect World Cup fans amid fears terrorists could be planning a spectacular attack on US soil. Security chiefs fear extremists may target stadiums packed with thousands of fans with swarms of suicide drones capable of causing mass casualties live on global television. FBI agents and police officers are being trained to detect and disable drones similar to those causing devastation in Ukraine. The FIFA World Cup starts in less than four weeks, with millions of visitors expected to travel across 11 US cities. The tournament is also being played in Mexico…

Why we built Collective Defence to protect the innocent civilians the new wars are designed to kill. By Andre Pienaar A few hundred dollars. That is roughly the cost of the first-person-view drone now used to hunt human beings street by street. A Shahed loitering munition costs a little more, but not much, and it can fly hundreds of kilometres before destroying a substation, a hospital, or a block of flats where families are asleep. This is the central, brutal fact of contemporary conflict: the price of taking a life has collapsed, while the cost of protecting one has not.…

Britain must prioritise defence spending over welfare or risk leaving the country dangerously exposed to Russia and other hostile states, a former defence chief has warned. General Sir Richard, one of the authors of last year’s Strategic Defence Review, said the government had spent a year struggling to fund its own defence promises and now faced a stark choice between cutting other areas of public spending. The retired four-star general suggested more money should be spent on defence and less on welfare. He said: “We spend five times as much on ourselves in welfare as we do on defence. “We…

Yuriko Backes did not take a conventional route into defence. Born in Kobe, Japan, and raised between Japan and Germany before studying in London and Bruges, Luxembourg’s first female Defence Minister built her career across diplomacy, European affairs and finance long before moving into defence in 2023, as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine forces European governments to rethink deterrence, resilience and military preparedness. Growing up between cultures, Backes says, continues to shape how she approaches diplomacy and security. “Attending international schools throughout my school years and growing up in Japan has given me a unique perspective on different cultures and…

By Ben Farmer West Africa has become the global epicentre of Islamist jihadism, with fighters linked to the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda now strong enough to threaten local states, a new analysis warns. The expansion has been made possible by increasingly sophisticated weapons and tactics, including the use of drones for attacks, reconnaissance and propaganda, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (Acled). Some 86 per cent of all Islamic State activity in early 2026 took place in Africa, as the continent became the group’s main focus, according to Acled, which monitors war and political violence. Taken…

Businessman Ovik Mkrtchyan and his company, Gor Investment, have filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against corporate intelligence firm Straife, its chief executive Joseph Fleming, and Washington lobbyist Stephen Payne, alleging that former advisers helped damage his reputation, interfere with major business projects in Uzbekistan and cause losses exceeding $1 billion. The complaint brings claims including defamation, tortious interference, injurious falsehood and civil conspiracy. The defendants will have the opportunity to contest the allegations in court. In a statement, Mkrtchyan said: “I stand behind the lawsuit and there is nothing I wish…

Iran and North Korea are using artificial intelligence to avoid sanctions allowing hostile states to run complex financing schemes with little human involvement, according to a new report by the Royal United Services Institute. The report called, Algorithms of Evasion: The Rise of AI-Enabled Proliferation Financing, says countries under sanction could use AI to help move money through shell companies, fake documents, cryptocurrency transfers and hidden third-country intermediaries, making it harder for banks and governments to detect illicit payments. The report warns that AI could “radically increase the scale” of proliferation financing and sanctions evasion, threatening to overwhelm existing detection…

By Isabella Egerton Western governments and NATO allies remain dangerously exposed because cyber security, counter-drone operations and missile defence are still being treated separately, despite modern warfare increasingly merging all three domains, a new report has warned. The report, entitled Converging Defences, argues that the war in Ukraine and the ongoing war between Iran, Israel and the United States have exposed how cyber-attacks, drones and missile strikes are being used together to overwhelm both military and civilian infrastructure. Published by the defence and security company Collective Defence, the report states: “The electromagnetic spectrum is now a battlefield. Jamming a Starlink terminal, spoofing…

By Ben Farmer The escalating Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could last for months, health officials have warned, with a vaccine still some way off. Scientists say a rare strain of the deadly haemorrhagic fever had been spreading undetected for weeks before a growing outbreak was finally confirmed on 15 May. The delay is thought to have allowed extensive spread and, only a week later, the outbreak had already become the third largest on record, with 177 suspected deaths out of 750 suspected cases, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Those figures are thought…

US and Iranian officials are continuing indirect negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear programme and regional security after a ceasefire halted weeks of military exchanges between the two countries earlier this year. The White House has increased pressure on Tehran by imposing fresh sanctions on Iranian financial networks and oil shipments, while President Trump warned that military action remained possible if talks failed. The US Treasury announced measures targeting Amin Exchange, an Iranian currency network, and 19 vessels accused of helping Iran bypass existing sanctions. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration intended to dismantle Iran’s “shadow banking system and shadow fleet”.…

The Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe opened its doors in Harare this morning under the weight of a question that strikes at the very heart of what Zimbabwe was built to be: can a sitting President use the machinery of government to extend his own time in power? The case — Reuben Zulu + 5 vs The President of the Republic of Zimbabwe N.O. & The Attorney General of Zimbabwe (CCZ 8/26) — began this morning, 20 May 2026. It is one of the most consequential constitutional cases the country has seen in a generation, and both Zimbabweans and international observers…

The British government is expected to announce its major defence spending plan, which will cover equipment purchases for the next decade.The long-awaited defence investment plan (DIP) is expected to contain an £18 billion increase in spending as Prime Minister Keir Starmer seeks a legacy for his beleaguered premiership.Defence experts have claimed the DIP is unlikely to contain the radical defence spending to purchase the modern equipment – such as drone swarms and missile interceptors – that Britain’s armed forces desperately need.“Our capability basket at the moment is pretty threadbare,” defence specialist Francis Tusa claimed. “To start with, there is no…

A terrorist organisation responsible for a series of arson attacks targeting the Jewish community in Britain and across Europe has been officially identified as a proxy of the Iranian state. US Department of Justice (DoJ) documents reveal how Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (Hayi), believed to be behind nearly 20 attacks across Europe in less than three months, was allegedly operated by a senior Iranian operative. US justice officials said Hayi was directly linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hezbollah and Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia operating in Iraq. Hayi has been linked to around half a dozen arson…

The torching of a Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3 billboard in Chinhoyi has added a volatile new dimension to Zimbabwe’s deepening constitutional dispute, signalling that public opposition to the proposed changes is no longer confined to legal experts, opposition parties, civil society groups or internal ZANU-PF factions. The destruction of the billboard, reportedly followed by a swift and heavy-handed security response against informal vendors in the area, has sharpened concerns that any attempt to rush the amendment through Parliament could inflame public anger and turn a constitutional dispute into a wider domestic and regional stability crisis. CAB3 has become the…

By Andre Pienaar The Kingdom of Bahrain announced on 09 May 2026 the dismantling of an Iranian-directed network of 41 operatives inside the country, with a further 11 handlers identified in Iran serving as the conduit between the cell and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The Interior Ministry’s statement the following day, 10 May, was striking for its specificity: the network was rooted in the residue of the dissolved Islamic Scholars Council (ISC) and its followers, and was charged with forming a terrorist group, financing terrorism, spying for Iran, contacting terrorist organisations in Iraq and Lebanon, and receiving military…

Earlier this month, on 03 May, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa made a private visit to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Precabe Farm in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe, sharpening regional attention on the country’s deepening constitutional dispute amid concerns that proposed changes to Zimbabwe’s founding rules could trigger instability well beyond Harare. While both governments have since publicly framed the meeting as a routine bilateral engagement, its timing has made that explanation difficult to sustain. Zimbabwe’s Parliament is expected to consider Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3 before the end of May, a measure that would extend presidential and parliamentary terms from five to seven…

The British government has sanctioned nine people and three organisations accused of hostile activities for Iran. The Foreign Office issued travel bans, asset freezes and director disqualification orders to nine people and three entities linked to “Iranian backed hostile activity”.The move comes just days before the UK is expected to introduce new anti terror laws to ban state threats such as Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in the next parliamentary session.National Security News (NSN) understands that the new powers will be included in the government’s plans for legislation, which will be set out in the King’s Speech on 13…

The Trump administration’s new counterterrorism strategy formally integrates offensive cyber operations into the United States’ broader campaign against terrorist groups, cartels, and hostile state actors, marking one of the clearest public acknowledgements yet that cyber capabilities are now considered a core pillar of modern counter-terror operations. The strategy states that counter-terror activities against hostile states “include offensive cyber operations against those planning to kill Americans or who support those plotting to do so”, alongside kinetic, intelligence, diplomatic and covert measures. The document expands the range of actors Washington now considers legitimate counter-terror targets. In addition to ISIS and al Qaeda,…