By Sean Rayment The security of key military sites will be strengthened as Defence personnel are given stronger powers to defeat drones near bases as part of new measures being introduced in the Armed Forces Bill. The move comes as newly confirmed figures demonstrate the growing threat rogue drones are posing to Ministry of Defence sites across the UK. In 2025, there were 266 reported Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle incidents near Defence sites, up from 126 incidents reported in 2024. The legislation will give authorised personnel the power to take out drones deemed to be posing a threat to any Defence…

By Sean Rayment The al-Qaeda terrorist group is now 50 times larger than at the time of the 9/11 attacks in the United States, a United Nations monitoring group has claimed. The figures, drawn from data and intelligence gathered by spy agencies such as MI6, show that there are now 25,000 potential fighters dotted across the globe. At the time of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in September 2001, there were an estimated 500 terrorists. Details of the surge in al-Qaeda membership were revealed at a briefing at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) before…

By Andre Pienaar The attempted assassination of GRU’s operational commander raises urgent questions about institutional continuity, hybrid warfare networks, and the future of Russian covert operations worldwide. The shooting of Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev outside his Moscow apartment on the morning of 6 February 2026 is not merely the latest in a string of targeted killings of Russian military officials. It strikes at the operational nerve centre of Russian military intelligence, the GRU, and carries implications that extend far beyond the war in Ukraine. Alekseyev is not a figurehead. He is the officer who runs covert operations worldwide for the…

By Andre Pienaar A landmark Swedish counter intelligence study maps the largest open-source dataset of espionage convictions in Europe, exposing Russia’s aggression, the evolution of spy typologies, and the alarming silence from some Western capitals. In January 2026, Sweden’s Defence Research Agency (FOI) published what may be the most comprehensive empirical study of espionage in Europe to date. Commissioned by three of Sweden’s principal intelligence agencies, the Security Service (Säkerhetspolisen), the National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA), and the Military Intelligence and Security Service (MUST), the report analyses 70 individuals convicted of espionage across 20 European countries between 2008 and 2024.…

Polish authorities have launched an investigation into whether Jeffrey Epstein acted as a spy for Russia amid suspicions he could have been paid for collecting compromising material on well-connected figures.Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, told a government meeting he was establishing a team to look into the numerous mentions of President Putin and other indications of Russian links in the Epstein files, as well as any impact on Poland.The US Department of Justice’s release of millions of documents related to Epstein has revealed the late financier and sex offender’s ties to many prominent people in politics, business and academia.There…

By Sean Rayment China is planning to build a giant space aircraft carrier capable of deploying unmanned fighter jets that could fire missiles from the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere. Chinese state media has released a concept video of the futuristic Luanniao, described as the world’s largest warship, travelling through space above existing defensive systems. The communist state claimed the carrier could become operational within 20 to 30 years. However, experts were sceptical about the project, with some likening it to a stunt designed to inspire the Chinese public. Resembling a spacecraft from a Star Wars film, the Luanniao is…

By Sean Rayment The Kremlin has announced that Russia would be willing to store Iran’s enriched weapons-grade uranium in a bid to de-escalate tensions between Washington and Tehran. A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said that an offer to process or store Iran’s uranium had been under discussion for some time. Asked whether Russia was discussing with Iran and the United States the possibility of taking Iranian enriched uranium, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “This topic has been on the agenda for a long time.” “Russia has been offering its services for quite a long time as a possible…

By Andre Pienaar UANI report reveals IRGC command and control structure behind Iran’s deadly crackdown on protesters As protests continue to engulf Iran and the European Union (EU) moves to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, a new report from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) has exposed the shadowy command centre coordinating the regime’s brutal crackdown on its own citizens. The report, titled The Tharallah Headquarters unveiled: the hidden infrastructure blocking regime change in Iran, is authored by UANI Senior Advisor Saeid Golkar and Kasra Aarabi. Drawing on leaked internal IRGC documents obtained from inside Iran,…

By Andre Pienaar Executive order establishes secondary-sanctions-style mechanism targeting any country that sells petroleum to Cuba WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday declaring a national emergency with respect to Cuba. The order establishes an unprecedented tariff mechanism designed to sever the island’s access to foreign oil by penalising supplier nations with duties on their US-bound exports. The order, which took effect today, invokes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the National Emergencies Act (NEA) to authorise additional ad valorem tariffs against any country determined to “directly or indirectly” sell or provide oil to…

By Staff Writer The European Union has designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation, increasing pressure on the Islamic Republic over its violent suppression of nationwide protests. The decision was agreed unanimously by the EU’s 27 foreign ministers meeting in Brussels and was accompanied by new sanctions targeting senior Iranian officials and state-linked bodies accused of killings, mass arrests and online repression. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas said the listing reflected the scale of violence used by the authorities against their own population. “Any regime that kills thousands of its own…

By Sean Rayment US President Donald Trump has warned that a “massive armada” of US warships is “moving quickly” towards Iran. The US president threatened to launch a sustained attack against the Islamic regime if Tehran did not agree to a new deal banning nuclear weapons. Mr Trump said: “A massive armada is heading to Iran. It is moving quickly, with great power, enthusiasm and purpose. It is a larger fleet, headed by the great aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, than that sent to Venezuela. “Like with Venezuela, it is ready, willing and able to rapidly fulfil its mission, with speed…

By Andre Pienaar Ukraine’s ministry of defence has unveiled a new secure data environment designed to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence systems capable of autonomously detecting and intercepting Russian unmanned aerial systems. The initiative, known as the Brave1 Dataroom, marks a significant escalation in Kyiv’s technological response to Moscow’s intensifying drone campaign. The platform operates within Ukraine’s government-backed Brave1 defence innovation cluster and uses software infrastructure provided by the US defence technology firm Palantir Technologies. It provides Ukrainian developers with access to structured visual and thermal datasets collected directly from frontline operations, allowing machine learning models to be trained…