Former head of German intelligence arrested for treason

The arrest, which took place yesterday, could bring to light one of the most serious intelligence leaks Germany has experienced since the end of the Cold War. According to the German Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, August Hanning is strongly suspected of espionage. For around a dozen years, up until 2022, an alleged paid informant, who held a senior position within the German intelligence agency (BND), is said to have passed on nearly 2,000 documents to him, a significant proportion of which were classified.

This informant served as August Hanning’s chief of staff, before holding the same position under several of his successors, from March 2012 to March 2026. The documents he provided were used to prepare the BND leadership for regular meetings at the Chancellery, and he is now being prosecuted for complicity in attempted treason and espionage.

According to prosecutors, the former head of intelligence is alleged to have exploited this information to enrich himself as a private consultant. In at least one instance, he is alleged to have drafted an analysis based on classified data for an employee of a foreign intelligence service. He is also alleged to have maintained an “intensive exchange” for several years with a member of another foreign intelligence service, fuelled in part by documents from the source. A German intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, has stated that neither Russia nor China is involved (suspicions are focused on Azerbaijan).

The day before the arrest, the current head of the BND, Martin Jäger, warned MPs that Germany risked being drawn into a “violent conflict” with Russia, and promised “a new BND”. He stated yesterday that there could be “no compromise” on internal security. Many are already wondering how a leak on such a scale could have gone unnoticed for over a decade. Politico

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia - 🇾🇪 Yemen • Fighting is intensifying in Yemen between the pro-Iranian Houthis and government forces backed by Saudi Arabia, with more than 330 fighters killed since Monday, according to military sources on both sides. The Houthis targeted Aden airport, where a missile struck near the runway shortly before a flight from Cairo was due to land, and have claimed to have fired further missiles at Riyadh airport, where the Saudi authorities say they intercepted several missiles. Government forces, backed by the Saudi air force, have launched a counter-offensive around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the town of Mokha, which were captured by the Houthis in September, but no major developments have been confirmed on the ground. More than 200,000 people have been displaced since the conflict resumed in July, and Turkey and Pakistan have announced the deployment of forces to the kingdom under a defence agreement.

🇮🇱 Israel - 🇵🇸 Palestine • On Wednesday, Israel marked the third anniversary of the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 – which left 1,221 people dead according to an AFP tally – with a minute’s silence at the Nova festival site. For the first time, no hostages, dead or alive, are being held in Gaza. The tribute is taking place in the midst of the campaign for the 27 October general election, which many see as a vote for or against Benjamin Netanyahu, whom his opponents accuse of refusing to allow an independent commission of inquiry. In Gaza, where the Israeli offensive has claimed more than 74,000 lives according to local authorities, air strikes have killed at least two more people today.

🇵🇸 Palestine • In the occupied West Bank, Jaafar Ashtiyeh, a 58-year-old Palestinian photographer working for AFP, was beaten on Tuesday by Israeli settlers who also fired shots in his direction, near Aqraba, where he was covering the olive harvest. Suffering injuries to his head and torso, he was hospitalised in Nablus. AFP, RSF and the Foreign Press Association have condemned the attack, which took place in full view of Israeli soldiers who failed to intervene.

🇺🇸 United States - 🇮🇷 Iran • US Vice-President J.D. Vance believes that Iran will have to “significantly” reduce its uranium enrichment capacity to end the war, insisting that Washington will not trade “words for deeds”. Donald Trump has rejected Tehran’s latest offer and warned that military operations could intensify after the mid-term elections.

🇷🇺 Russia – 🇺🇦 Ukraine • Russia launched one of its most “heinous” attacks overnight, according to Volodymyr Zelensky, using 70 missiles – including numerous ballistic missiles – and 130 drones. At least 24 people were killed, including 18 in a block of flats in Pryluky, in the north, where four children were among the victims and around 50 people were injured. Further deaths have been reported in Kyiv, Oleksandriya and Kremenchuk. Kyiv has received 1.2 billion euros from the European Union for defence procurement, and the EU has adopted new sanctions targeting nearly 1,600 entities and individuals linked to the war.

🇧🇬 Bulgaria • A Togolese-flagged cargo ship, the Alfa Watan, sank yesterday following an attack by aerial and maritime drones in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea – the first such incident in these waters. Its crew remain missing, and a second vessel, the Able, was set alight, though its 18 sailors were rescued. Prime Minister Roumen Radev condemned the attack as “absolutely unacceptable”, which Kyiv attributes to Russia. The day before, another cargo ship had sunk off the coast of Romania following a similar strike.

🇷🇺 Russia • The death last week of a 28-year-old laboratory technician at the Irkutsk Institute for Plague Control in Siberia has sparked growing calls for transparency. Moscow has assured the WHO that no cases of plague have been recorded, citing pneumonia of “undetermined” origin and asserting that there is “no risk of an epidemic”, as monitoring of over 90 per cent of close contacts has been completed. However, the United States has officially requested further information, as have the WHO and the European Union, and Donald Trump says he intends to discuss the matter “soon” with Vladimir Putin. The WHO assesses the risk as “low” for Russia and “very low” for Europe, but says it does not have a “complete picture” of the situation. Mongolia has ordered surveillance at its border.

🇩🇪 Germany • The far right secured the presidency of the Saxony-Anhalt regional parliament yesterday, a first since 1945. The AfD (far-right) candidate, Tobias Rausch, secured 48 out of 82 votes – four more than expected – fuelling suspicions of defections amongst the conservatives in the CDU. The vote sets the tone ahead of the December election for the head of the regional executive.

🇪🇸 Spain • Nearly nine years after fleeing to Belgium, Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont is free to return to Spain, after the Supreme Court yesterday lifted the arrest warrant against him under the amnesty law. The decision comes at the start of the campaign for the snap general election on 29 November, in which the Socialist Pedro Sánchez – in power since 2018 and weakened by scandals involving his close associates – is tipped to lose to the Conservative Alberto Núñez Feijóo. However, Feijóo would be unable to govern without the support of Vox, Santiago Abascal’s far-right party, which is gaining significant ground and is already setting out its conditions.

🇽🇰 Kosovo • On Wednesday, the Kosovar Parliament elected economist Justina Shiroka Pula as president – a largely ceremonial role – just before the constitutional deadline expired, thereby avoiding early elections. She secured 81 votes, one more than the required number, following an agreement between Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s party and the Democratic Party of Kosovo.

🇺🇸 United States – 🇬🇷 Greece – 🇮🇸 Iceland • On a tour of Europe, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday described Iceland, which has no army, as a “crucial outpost” for security in the North Atlantic, a few weeks after the controversy sparked by a map produced by Donald Trump that included the island. Speaking in Athens today, he announced an agreement on information-sharing to combat drug trafficking and terrorism, and praised Greece’s role in the energy sector.

🇵🇱 Poland - 🇸🇪 Sweden • Sweden is sending a Patriot air defence system to protect Rzeszów, a city in eastern Poland situated some 50 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, which serves as a logistics hub for aid destined for Kyiv in the face of Russian aggression.

🇨🇳 China - 🇪🇺 European Union • The European Commissioner for Trade, Maros Sefcovic, is travelling to Beijing to try to reduce the EU’s trade deficit with China, which exceeds one billion euros a day. Brussels wants to secure “tangible results” ahead of the European summit on 15 and 16 October, and is pressing Beijing to cap certain exports, particularly cars, as imports of Chinese plug-in hybrids have surged by 86 per cent over nine months.

🇪🇺 European Union • Industry representatives are stepping up their efforts in Brussels to secure as many exemptions as possible ahead of the draft legislation expected in early 2027 on PFAS – those ‘forever chemicals’ that the Commission has promised to ban from everyday consumer products. Environmental NGOs are criticising an imbalance in resources, with the European Environmental Bureau having a budget of €8.7 million compared to €47.3 million for Cefic, the chemicals industry lobby.

🇯🇵 Japan • US military personnel stationed in Okinawa are subject to a one-month curfew, a ban on alcohol and a disciplinary course following the arrest of a 20-year-old Marine suspected of strangling a 39-year-old woman in a hotel in Naha and stealing her wallet. He denies the allegations. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi condemned the crime as “extremely brutal and heinous” and lodged a protest with Washington.

🇰🇵 North Korea • Pyongyang has criticised US military support for Taiwan, accusing the US of fuelling tensions and warning against a “head-on confrontation” with China. In a birthday message to Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un also pledged to continue supporting Russia, convinced that its “sacred and just war” will lead to victory. North Korea is reported to have sent between 14,000 and 15,000 soldiers to fight alongside Moscow.

🇮🇳 India • Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was briefly detained yesterday in New Delhi during a march against the Electoral Commission, which is accused of wrongfully striking millions of voters off the electoral roll, particularly Muslims. The electoral roll revision launched in November 2025 has resulted in around 130 million people being struck off the roll. Narendra Modi’s party defends the operation, and the Supreme Court has asked the government for an explanation.

🇧🇩 Bangladesh • Bangladesh is preparing to commission its first nuclear power station, in Rooppur, built in partnership with Russia’s Rosatom at a cost of around 13 billion dollars. Its two reactors are set to generate 2.4 gigawatts, more than 10 per cent of the country’s demand; Bangladesh imports 95 per cent of its oil and gas and has been rationing energy since the war in the Middle East.

🇧🇴 Bolivia • Bolivia’s Attorney General, Roger Mariaca, has been remanded in custody for six months on suspicion of money laundering, drug trafficking and organised crime. Arrested alongside three other prosecutors, his US visa had been revoked a few days earlier, with Washington accusing him of accepting bribes to facilitate drug trafficking. Parliament has appointed an interim replacement, against a backdrop of a power struggle.

🇨🇦 Canada • Quebec’s future pro-independence Prime Minister, Paul Saint-Pierre-Plamondon, has announced that he will not pledge allegiance to King Charles III at his inauguration and that he will seek to exclude the Lieutenant-Governor from the ceremony. His Parti Québécois, which came to power on Monday with around 28 per cent of the vote but without an absolute majority, is promising a new referendum on independence after Donald Trump’s term in office ends.

🇨🇺 Cuba • The Cuban government is gradually replacing the “libreta”, the ration book introduced in 1963, with “neighbourhood markets” where around twenty basic goods must be sold at prices 10 to 15 per cent lower than in the private sector. Residents are disappointed that prices are barely any lower, in a country where 66 per cent of the population is said to live in poverty, according to independent researchers.

🇺🇸 United States • Paramount Skydance finalised the acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery on Tuesday for 110 billion dollars, creating a new group called Skydance, which includes HBO Max, CNN, CBS and Paramount+. The deal, financed by nearly $52 billion in debt, has raised fears of job cuts, as the group aims to achieve annual savings of $6 billion, as well as an editorial shift at CNN.

🇳🇬 Nigeria • The crash of a military aircraft on Monday in a marshy area of Ondo State, in the south of the country, has left 25 people dead, including military personnel and their family members, according to a revised death toll. “No survivors have been found,” said the air force, which has launched an investigation. President Bola Tinubu has declared three days of national mourning.

🇰🇪 Kenya – 🇨🇩 DRC • On Monday, Kenya recorded its first case and first death from the Ebola virus: a 40-year-old Kenyan businessman who was living in the DRC and had flown to Nairobi from Kampala whilst already showing symptoms.

🇪🇹 Ethiopia • At Ayder Hospital in Mekele, the capital of Tigray – which was recaptured from the TPLF by the federal army on Saturday without a fight – the wounded have been pouring in since hostilities resumed at the end of September. Thirty-four people, including 23 children, have been admitted there in recent days, having been hit by artillery, drones or explosives, and some have required amputations. Medical staff are running short of anaesthetics and blood bags, and fear a resumption of fighting.

🇲🇱 Mali • The Malian army, supported by Russian paramilitaries from Africa Corps, recaptured the strategic town of Kidal yesterday without a fight, after it had been abandoned by the Tuareg rebels of the FLA, who claim to be carrying out a “strategic withdrawal”. The town, largely emptied of its inhabitants, had fallen in April to the FLA and its jihadist allies, the JNIM, during coordinated attacks across the country.