Steering the British domestic intelligence service through turbulent times, Ken McCallum finds himself regularly in front of cameras to explain mistakes made by the MI5. Praised for his competence and steadfast commitment, the career spy is said to have ministerial backing. So what might be going wrong at the agency?
Located at the heart of a ‘chip triangle’, the German city will soon welcome thousands of Taiwanese engineers to the factory of semiconductor giant TSMC, which is due to open in 2027. The Taiwanese foreign ministry is also set to establish a cultural centre there. This move will serve as a test for deepening relations with Europe.
The French foreign intelligence service is set to recruit engineers and Master’s graduates with specific qualifications for the first time, through a specialised competitive examination. The specialisms and areas targeted – including less common languages such as Korean and Hebrew – speak volumes regarding foreign intelligence priorities.
France’s DGA defence procurement agency wants several dozen long-endurance surface drones to extend intelligence-gathering operations around French Navy warships. The high turnover threshold required excludes the start-ups that drive the sector.
A reshuffle at the top of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research has begun, only a month after Michael Vance officially took over the reins of the Washington-based intelligence agency.
Published on 25/09/26 at 09:40 GMT: The Baku Security Forum, whose 4th edition was held in the Azerbaijani capital this week, is turning into a key event for master spies across the globe. The summit has become a rare space for these spy chiefs, many of them political foes, to meet one another under the guise of a common fight against terrorism.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief is set to visit the Syrian capital on 29 September, where she is due to have a meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The activities of the woman, who runs a business club for CEOs and senior executives in Paris and Brussels, have caught the attention of a Western intelligence service and are causing concern at the top of European institutions. The Brussels-based Chinese national has managed to infiltrate the small circle of NATO cybersecurity contractors and posed with Bernard Arnault this summer.
The US defence department is looking for a new contractor to run the US base on Diego Garcia. That search is taking place against a backdrop of major strategic upheaval: Washington has signalled its desire to take the island off the hands of its long-standing governor, the United Kingdom.
The geopolitical climate is having an impact on the agreements designed to cement the comprehensive strategic partnership between France and Vietnam.
Saudi Arabia has requested help from its allies, including London, Paris and Washington, to tackle the crisis in Yemen. It is once again recruiting foreign militiamen and delivering arms to Yemen’s internationally recognised government in an attempt to deal with the emergency on the ground.
The company, which has close ties to the Pentagon, is looking to explore investment opportunities in the Caucasus and Central Asia region. This new focus comes as the US government is actively promoting greater private investment in the area.
The anti–Islamic State alliance is set to meet on 1 October in Rome to set out its next priorities. For the past few months, the Trump administration has been trying to align the 90 member-strong alliance with its own new counter-terrorism strategy.
Faced with growing threats to the nuclear submarine partnership between Australia, the US and the UK, Canberra’s security services have stepped up their efforts and are already thwarting manoeuvres attributed to Beijing.
A specialist in strategic affairs who previously worked for France’s DGSE foreign intelligence service, Martin Briens was promoted to secretary general at the foreign ministry in January.
Since Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis tightened their grip on the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait by seizing further Red Sea islands, the European Union and its member states have been scrambling to agree on a suitable response.
Ukraine’s military intelligence has been monitoring the rising capabilities of naval drones operated by Russia’s 50th Varyag Brigade. The drones’ integration into its air capabilities has become increasingly alarming for the Ukrainian units operating on the river and in the Black Sea.
Financial Action Task Force experts recently traveled to Syria to further monitor the country which currently features on the global watchdog’s ‘grey list’. The new government in Damascus is eager to prove that it is making the necessary efforts to be removed from the list.
Lawmakers hope to boost the appeal of careers in cybersecurity by building stronger ties between the Department of Defense cyber operations units and NSA-accredited higher education institutions.
The terms for renewing France’s SURMAR maritime surveillance from space project are currently being negotiated. At the heart of these talks, set to last until the end of the year, are much wider concerns over sovereignty.
UAE entities are coming under increasing pressure to deliver results as the country seeks to build a sovereign defence sector. A newly established body is set to take over from a number of long-standing players.
Officials of the fighter jet joint venture between London, Rome and Tokyo are said to have specifically named the United States in warnings to staff about the dangers of travelling with professional laptops and phones.
Investigators have issued notices to leading crypto platforms instructing them to continue servicing accounts suspected of being part of Iranian sanctions-busting operations.
An Afghan former domestic intelligence officer, who has been in hiding from the Taliban since 2021 and is subject to a fatwa, has had his visa request rejected by the French interior ministry. A French court had earlier ruled in favour of issuing him a long-stay visa, which would open the door to seeking asylum.
Awarding the Legion of Honour or the Order of Merit to foreign spymasters is a long-standing tradition in France. However, the worsening geopolitical situation and the search for new strategic alliances are drastically accelerating the awarding of medals to Paris’s new friends.
Published on 01/10/26 at 07:50 GMT: Mohammed Al Shaibani, a long-term confidante of Dubai’s ruling Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has been accused of using his powerful positions to ensure UK businessman Ryan Cornelius’ continued imprisonment. Last week, Shaibani resigned as chairman of Dubai Islamic Bank, but he also lost almost all his duties in the emirate, Intelligence Online can reveal.
Before leaving Pakistan, former French ambassador Nicolas Galey quietly relaunched an exclusive French club in the city’s diplomatic enclave. The new venue is an iteration of another leisure establishment that was closed down a few years ago over concerns about its excesses.
Dale Bendler, a former CIA Paris station chief who was sentenced to one year in prison in 2025, was released after seven months and has reactivated some of his old contacts.
The secret “police stations” opened by China in Europe were operated by Chinese provincial units and acted without central guidance. Following recent scandals linked to these stations, the Chinese Communist Party has taken steps to bring its apparatus into line through its own channels and is trialling a new model for maintaining contact with overseas Chinese communities.
At the same time as the US’s financial intelligence system is being drastically shorn of powers by its president, the Financial Action Task Force is due to meet in Paris to present its evaluation of that very organisation. Fearful of retaliation, member countries are torn between being diplomatic and critical.
Kyiv’s counter-intelligence services are tracing the networks used by the FSB’s Fifth Directorate to organise acts of sabotage and assassinations in Ukraine and the European Union. Its investigators are, in particular, following a route through Belarus to Poland.
Signaling a diplomatic thaw between the European Parliament and China, Chinese diplomats have been seeking out its representatives in Strasbourg, going as far as offering some all-expenses-paid trips to Beijing. Meanwhile, France has stepped up its counter intelligence efforts in the city.
Secret talks for a new Saudi-Oman infrastructure project were exposed during a TotalEnergies investor presentation last week. Mooted many times previously, but now acquiring more urgency, the scheme is said to be facing financing challenges centring on Riyadh’s intransigence over repayment guarantees.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto appears to be leaning towards Rome to top up his defence procurement after having approached Paris, Ankara, Moscow and Beijing. This trend seems to be consolidating against a backdrop of competing business networks, all wide-eyed at the prospect of these lucrative deals.
Tenders and recruitment are gathering pace following the signing of the new agreement between Washington and Copenhagen on the use of bases in Greenland. Several contractors, including Inuit from Alaska, are working closely with their Danish partners.
A partner of a company which carried out OSINT investigations for Louis Vuitton, has teamed up with a former global head of security for the French luxury brand to carry out similar research. Intelligence Online has details on the steps leading up to this collaboration.
The French military intelligence directorate has focused heavily on ‘top-down’ intelligence in recent years, aiming to provide information to its supervisory authorities. It now wants to provide more intelligence to the French forces directly, which may have felt neglected by the service.
With Pakistan’s backing, the CCP wants to turn the disputed Shaksgam Valley into a route for delivering weapons to Central Asia and Iran. A recent meeting to this end of the previously dormant China-Pakistan Boundary Commission is viewed as a provocation by New Delhi, which appears powerless to act.
The former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, August Hanning, who was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of treason, has worked for multiple corporate intelligence agencies around the world. Their files are now in the hands of the German judicial authorities, who are seeking to establish whether he had links with foreign states.
While most French ministries are having to tighten their belts in the face of dwindling budgets, the intelligence community has been spared cuts. The DGSE foreign intelligence service is being particularly well-funded, but other agencies have also seen their budgets increase.
The creation of a dedicated cyber threat assessment centre has long been called for by the Pentagon’s partners and Congress.
A Pakistani subcontractor for Saudi state-owned defence firm SAMI has just been placed on the US sanctions list. The US Treasury believes this company had supplied arms to Iran.
Partnered with Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund, the major global event organiser is expanding his already extensive network. His aim is to diversify partners and explore new avenues for growth.
While Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing has launched a rehabilitation campaign in Washington – notably giving an interview to Time magazine – his chargés d’affaires in Europe face diplomatic isolation. They are therefore trying to re-establish ties in Westminster and at the European parliament.
Published on 07/10/26 at 14:30 GMT: An investigation by an influential MAGA blogger and social media attacks on this year’s Disinfo conference has led to three key partners, including the EU, dropping out at the last minute. The French foreign ministry is the only main remaining sponsor of this annual gathering of counter-disinformation experts currently being held in the Lithuanian capital.
The former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, August Hanning, was arrested on 6 October on suspicion of treason. Intelligence Online can reveal that the German private investigator Werner Mauss had crafted a dossier on Hanning’s alleged activities with several foreign states and submitted it to German prosecutors.
Manila is considering restructuring the management of the Philippine Coast Guard. Any such development would likely disrupt its command structure and affect diplomatic relations as much as its equipment procurement. Meanwhile, the PCG’s current head is shortly due to step down.
The US Treasury Department has been compelled to impose sanctions on individuals with links to the digital forensics firm Oxygen Forensics, following the arrest in September of two of its executives accused of concealing their ties to Russia.
At the same time as the US’s financial intelligence system is being drastically shorn of powers by its president, the Financial Action Task Force is due to meet in Paris to present its evaluation of that very organisation. Fearful of retaliation, member countries are torn between being diplomatic and critical.
Secret talks for a new Saudi-Oman infrastructure project were exposed during a TotalEnergies investor presentation last week. Mooted many times previously, but now acquiring more urgency, the scheme is said to be facing financing challenges centring on Riyadh’s intransigence over repayment guarantees.
Awarding the Legion of Honour or the Order of Merit to foreign spymasters is a long-standing tradition in France. However, the worsening geopolitical situation and the search for new strategic alliances are drastically accelerating the awarding of medals to Paris’s new friends.
With Pakistan’s backing, the CCP wants to turn the disputed Shaksgam Valley into a route for delivering weapons to Central Asia and Iran. A recent meeting to this end of the previously dormant China-Pakistan Boundary Commission is viewed as a provocation by New Delhi, which appears powerless to act.
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