The day's intelligence for close-protection and security professionals, in brief.
Hormuz, no way through. Two weeks on from the 7 July tanker attacks that collapsed the truce, the Strait of Hormuz stays closed to compliant traffic. Iran declared it shut on 12 July and struck five Gulf states the next day. The US has run successive nightly strikes on Iran, reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports, and reports disabling a non-compliant tanker with Hellfire missiles. Both the sea lane and the Gulf airspace are hostile. (Al Jazeera, 12 and 16 Jul.)
War-risk is now a standing cost. Hull war-risk cover for a Hormuz transit runs at 3 to 10 per cent of vessel value, against about 0.25 per cent before the war, which is 3 to 10 million dollars on a 100 million dollar tanker. Around 6,000 seafarers are stranded in the region per an IMO update on 8 July. Maritime security and crisis-response demand tracks these numbers. (The National, 17 Jul.)
Haiti under the microscope. The US House Foreign Affairs Committee holds a hearing today on the Gang Suppression Force. Gangs still control around 90 per cent of Port-au-Prince per UN reporting, with more than 2,300 killed in the first half of 2026 and about 1.5 million displaced. The force has a base and early wins but is far short of its 5,550 mandate. Haiti stays a no-go for routine work. (Legis1, 15 Jul; UN News, 16 Jun.)
Mali's fuel siege grinds on. JNIM's blockade of fuel imports, running since September 2025, still chokes Bamako. Roughly 95 per cent of fuel comes by road from Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire, more than 300 tankers have been torched, and the junta moves fuel by armed convoy under Russian and Turkish support. Bamako and its overland routes are high-risk. (The Rio Times, 15 Jun.)
Protection goes digital. Crisis24 has launched a service extending executive protection to a principal's personal devices, home network and family, including data-broker removal and dark-web monitoring, on the view that personal channels are now the leading attack vector against senior leaders. The exposure that gets a principal hurt increasingly starts online. (Crisis24, 16 Jul.)
Regulation watch. Martyn's Law duties are commencing, the SIA is standing up as regulator, and the tiers are fixed at 200 to 799 for standard and 800-plus for enhanced. Final section 12 guidance is due in autumn 2026 and full enforcement in spring 2027. The window to get premises ready is now. (GOV.UK, updated 17 Jul.)
