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.
Georgian intelligence has for months been caught up in a vast game of musical chairs, amid timely anti-corruption probes and counter-espionage proceedings. Anzor Chubinidze, the only security chief in his job since the start of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s rule, ensures the leader’s grip on security circles.
Kyiv’s military intelligence is tracking down Russian instructors from the Rubicon unit who are distributing Geran kamikaze drone user manuals in Phnom Penh and Pyongyang. Such drones have been used extensively against Ukraine.
Aqua1 Foundation, which is the largest known token investor in Trump’s World Liberty Financial crypto firm, has accused UK-registered Palm Global Technologies of owing more than $6m related to a perplexing business deal.
Locked in a power tussle with the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Public Security keeps gaining ground, especially over economic and industrial capabilities. It has just scored another victory, this time in the space sector.
The French strategic communications firm led by Matthieu Creux is hiring in its London Office. The new recruits will join experienced investigator Charles Carr.
Over the past year, Taiwan’s diplomatic service has made decisive progress in its relations with Europe by forging numerous partnerships in cutting-edge sectors. That momentum has been driven behind-the-scenes by Taiwan’s Vice-President Hsiao Bi-khim, who coordinates defence and foreign affairs.
Several European intelligence services are currently testing an AI tool that runs on a dataset from Bauman University, the Russian military intelligence academy. This tool could enable spy agencies to accurately identify potential recruits within Moscow’s intelligence apparatus.
As the country emerges as a fresh gold mine for the private security sector, Damascus’s new rulers are reorganising the sector to their liking. A man who acts as a conduit between Western security companies and the authorities appears to be playing a central role in this overhaul.
Top jobs at Chinese financial institutions are now being filled based on political criteria, as recent hirings at the country’s leading investment bank’s research arm demonstrate. This reshuffle has been accompanied by disciplinary investigations and new governance rules.
At odds over nuclear proliferation but united in the fight against terrorism, Western intelligence agencies have long had a bumpy relationship with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). For some this has come at a very personal cost. Intelligence Online reveals one of the most dramatic and mysterious episodes involving France’s DGSE and the CIA in Pakistan.
Top British lawyer Lord Pannick provided services to China National Gold, a state owned mining concern involved in multi-billion dollar arbitration.
The Philippines’ patience is wearing thin as it waits to receive vertical-launch missiles intended for two frigates it acquired from South Korea last year. European missile manufacturer MBDA’s reputation in the region is at stake, at a time when it is bidding for other contracts there.
A Chinese private equity group has quietly moved in on the first floor of Oman’s sovereign wealth fund’s headquarter building, following financing deals with OIA in the energy and tech sectors.
Pakistan’s ruthless Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has mastered the art of putting pressure on the declared representatives of Western intelligence services. From expulsions and blown covers to skilful honey traps and the occasional slap, the ISI stops at nothing.
Published on 13/10/26 at 13:25 GMT: The withdrawal of all its military forces engaged in Iraq means that Paris is now able to redeploy its capacity to the Gulf. High on Macron’s agenda are new anti-aircraft defence deployments to support the five Gulf countries he plans to visit next week.
After establishing a new political platform in which the more powerful ethnic armed forces are most prominent, the Burmese resistance is now focusing on intelligence. Covert operations have shifted to building networks of informants and a joint intelligence framework is being set up.
Recent upheavals within the US administration are now impacting the private sector, contributing to the emergence of consultancy services offering support to governments and businesses in tackling information manipulation.
At least eight naval drones from the British company Kraken have been deployed to Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency, Intelligence Online can reveal. These platforms, which were used in strikes on Sochi in September, are being tested in the Black Sea with the support of UK operators.
The death of a research scientist in Irkutsk in early October forced the FSB to operate out in the open where it usually prefers to remain undetected. Over the last few years, the security service has seen its role strengthened in the fight against epidemics, high-risk laboratories and international cooperation over the plague and other pathogens handled by the deceased researcher.
The owner of Aqua1 Foundation, the company that invested $100m in World Liberty Financial, was a member of the 48 Group, a London-based club suspected of having links to the Chinese government.
Formidable to foreign intelligence services and their spies stationed in Pakistan, the ISI is also feared within the country’s own intelligence apparatus. As all-powerful military chief Asim Munir’s enforcement arm, the agency has asserted itself as the only one able to safeguard national security.
South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean’s contract with the Royal Thai Navy for its future frigate is under serious threat due to budgetary constraints and looming legal risks.
All-powerful at home, closer than ever to Washington, and still an ally of Beijing, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence appears to be riding high. A favourable context for the country’s strongman Asim Munir to turn his full attention to the enduring existential threat from neighbouring India.
This week, Intelligence Online paid a visit to Le Président, an iconic Chinese restaurant in the Belleville neighbourhood of Paris.
A high-level Indonesian defence delegation is expected to visit the French capital in early November, providing an opportunity for France to revive sluggish bilateral contracts between both countries.
The recent resignation of influential US ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle, who was close to Donald Trump, has taken place as Washington continues to push two important energy deals in southeastern Europe. Her ousting is likely to play in favour of her counterpart in Ankara.
The aircraft manufacturer, which has taken over the French cybersecurity firm, hopes to persuade its government clients to make greater use of its audit and reverse engineering services, which are grouped under the QLabs brand.
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.
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.
At least eight naval drones from the British company Kraken have been deployed to Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency, Intelligence Online can reveal. These platforms, which were used in strikes on Sochi in September, are being tested in the Black Sea with the support of UK operators.
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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