Five suspects arrested in Germany for organising illegal exports of goods to the Russian defence industry
On 2 February 2026, German law enforcement agencies conducted a large-scale operation, during which five people were arrested on suspicion of creating a network to circumvent European sanctions and supply goods to Russian defence industry enterprises. According to the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office (Generalbundesanwalt), those detained are German citizens as…
Lord Mandelson passed confidential British economic plans to Epstein
New documents from the so-called ‘Epstein files’ published by the US Department of Justice have caused a huge stir in Britain. According to the documents, Lord Peter Mandelson, former Business Secretary in Gordon Brown’s government and former British Ambassador to the US, passed confidential information about sensitive economic discussions within…
Beijing has officially announced its intention to make the yuan a global reserve currency
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for the Chinese yuan to become one of the world’s leading reserve currencies, according to the Financial Times, citing a publication in the Chinese Communist Party’s theoretical journal Qiushi. An article based on Xi Jinping’s 2024 speech to provincial and ministerial officials emphasises the…
Starmer initiates a reset of UK-EU defence relations
The UK is considering joining the EU’s new defence funding program, Security Action for Europe (SAFE), in its potential second iteration. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that the government is ready to explore the option of participating in an updated version of this multi-billion-pound mechanism. He made this announcement on…
The EU has officially added Russia to its list of countries with a high risk of money laundering and terrorist financing
On January 29, 2026, the European Commission’s decision to add the Russian Federation to its list of countries with a high risk of money laundering and terrorist financing (AML/CFT) came into effect. Russia became the 30th jurisdiction on this EU “blacklist,” which already includes North Korea, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen,…