National

France
French senators prepare business intelligence bill

After completing their economic intelligence report, French senators are now working on a cross-party bill on the subject. It should be tabled for debate in September.

Europe, Finland, United States
Finland takes lead in European strategic space industry

Having abandoned its neutrality in the face of Russia's war on Ukraine, Finland is making its mark in intelligence and space technology. After the rise to prominence of ICEYE, a second Finnish geospatial intelligence company, Kuva Space, is entering orbit.

Russia, Ukraine, United States
Free Russia Foundation, a shadowy Washington group at the heart of a network of anti-Russia activism

Working in tandem with a largely invisible sister entity, the Foundation seeks to pave the way for a "post-Putin" era and opposes Russia's war in Ukraine. Citing security, the group keeps its grantees confidential.

Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom
Saudi Arabian spy school drains British intelligence brains

A growing number of British intelligence officers are working to develop Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's top secret spy school, and there are starting to be concerns about the intelligence brain drain this is creating back home.

The Tech Times
Tesseract Intelligence in UAE, DARPA's underwater acoustic sensors, Skyral Defence

From SIGINT to GEOINT and OSINT with a dose of cyber, every Thursday we report on the events big and small that matter in the community of technical intelligence providers.

Abu DhabiBulgaria's Tesseract Intelligence sets sights on UAE via Pegasus

United StatesDARPA seeking to develop new acoustic sensor for deep-sea surveillance

LondonNOIA Capital makes adjustments at new firm specialised in VR training platforms

Saudi Arabia
Al Jaber and Al Ibrahim brothers' legal battle exposes their defence connections

Saudi-Austrian real estate tycoon Mohamed bin Issa Al Jaber on one side, and his former partners Waleed bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim and Majid bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim on the other, are piling up legal action against each other in a dispute over a $30m payment made in 2002.

France, Switzerland
Orange Cyberdefense gets closer to UN agencies through SCRT

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has recently renewed information security contracts with three firms including the freshly-acquired Swiss subsidiary of Orange Cyberdefense.

United Kingdom
Hakluyt attempts to unlock mysteries of Investment Security Unit

London-based corporate intelligence firm Hakluyt is quietly getting to grips with the UK parliament's Sub-Committee on National Security and Investment.

Spotlight | Europe, United States
NATO's operational plans on Vilnius summit agenda

Along with the highly political subjects to be addressed at the Vilnius summit starting tomorrow, behind the scenes, NATO will also be poring over new drafts of its regional crisis plans whose general outline has already been agreed by the alliance's military wing.

France
French military planning law: parliament and government go head-to-head over intelligence amendments

A meeting between MPs and senators will take place today in a bid to reach a compromise over the LPM military planning law. Central to the discussions are intelligence checks and arms exports.

The Intelligence Gazette
Protecting state secrets, Rosatom facing DNI, Hakan Fidan and Syria, French DPR and foreign interference

Appointments, reforms and the issues at stake: every Monday, Intelligence Online serves up snippets big and small from the global intelligence community, from Moscow to Washington via Ankara and Paris.

RussiaSergey Alpatov gets greater state secrets privileges

United States/RussiaRosatom in DNI's crosshairs

Turkey/SyriaEx-spymaster Hakan Fidan keeps lead on Syria discussions

FranceDPR examining foreign interference

China
Xi Jinping launches new military-industrial 'clique' to take over from Communist Youth League of China

Under the aegis of vice premier Zhang Guoqing, the Chinese Communist Party is laying the foundations for a new generation of leaders, with experience in both the defence industry and politics.

China
China's new banking regulator enforces ideological controls

Imposing a new system of "one bank, one administration, one commission", China's new banking super-regulator SAFR seeks to take financial and political control of national banks on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.

Brazil, China, India, Russia, South Africa
BRICS constellation caught between technical deficiencies and an impossible political balancing act

The BRICS countries' vast earth observation cooperation programme is intended to be a counterweight to the US' big plans for the QUAD alliance. Although it is politically attractive, close analysis of the capacities so far put in the common pot show intrinsic weaknesses and an inevitable over-dependence on Chinese sensing devices.

United States
Heritage Foundation's hire of Alex Velez-Green as foreign policy expert shows conservative think tanks aligning with Trump

After four years with GOP Senator Josh Hawley, Velez-Green will continue to push for reduced aid to Ukraine and a hawkish stance towards China in his new role at one of Washington's most pedigreed think tanks.