Libya leads today. The head of the UN mission told the Security Council on 18 August that the country's political roadmap is moving, but power and water cuts have hit hundreds of thousands of people across July and August, the Libyan National Army's director of military intelligence has been assassinated in a reported car bombing, and armed groups have clashed on the western coast. The FCDO advises against all travel to most of Libya. Plan around it, not into it.
In the Gulf, the FCDO removed its advice against all but essential travel to Kuwait on 20 August. It is a cautious step back towards normal after an understanding between the United States and Iran in June, but the Foreign Office still warns of further strikes and possible airspace closures across the region. Read the Gulf country by country.
At home, the UK terrorism threat level remains severe, which means an attack is highly likely, and the level for Northern Ireland related terrorism remains substantial. Neither has changed.
The standing hostile-area picture holds. FCDO all-travel bans remain in force across South Sudan, Sudan, Yemen and much of the wider conflict belt covered this week. For protective teams the working rule is unchanged: treat any all-travel country as a plan-around, and build duty of care and extraction into every tasking that goes near one.
