130+ feeds, tiered and named.
The value of an aggregator lives in the source list. Intel Desk is built on a layered mix of breaking squawk, mainstream wire, OSINT Telegram, specialist analysts, government releases and market data. Here is an honest map of the categories we pull from, with representative names.
Full source list is not published source-by-source, for two reasons. First, some OSINT accounts rely on a low profile to stay useful. Second, the mix shifts as channels go dark or new ones become reliable. What is stable is the shape of the sourcing: the categories below, and the tiering rules described in the methodology.
I.Tier-1 squawk and breaking wire
Pure speed. When something hits the desk, this is almost always where it files first. These feeds get the shortest latency budget and are allowed to trigger critical alerts on a single source.
- FinancialJuice. The fastest English-language squawk for FX, commodities and geopolitical headlines.
- ForexLive / InvestingLive. Squawk + short commentary. Reliable same-minute confirmation.
- ZeroHedge headline feed. Fast but polarised. Used as a speed signal, scored accordingly.
- Reuters urgent / Bloomberg headline desk. The professional benchmark for confirmed wire copy.
II.Mainstream wire services
Slower than squawk but heavier on verification. Used to confirm tier-1 bursts and to capture stories that surface only once a full desk has them.
- AP, AFP, Reuters, BBC, Al Jazeera, CNBC. Standard English-language wires across Middle East, Europe and US beats.
- Regional wires. Tasnim (Iran), IRNA (Iran), TASS (Russia), Xinhua (China), Anadolu (Türkiye). Used for direct reading of state-linked sources, always labelled as such.
- National broadcasters. France 24, Deutsche Welle, NHK, RTÉ, used for Europe / Asia-Pacific context beats.
III.OSINT Telegram channels (auto-translated)
Where the early-warning edge lives. Many of the most significant conflict stories surface on Telegram hours before they touch an English wire. These feeds are treated as Tier 3, allowed on the desk, never allowed to trigger a critical alert on their own.
- Ukrainian front. DeepState, ZSU Ukraine, Operatyvnyi ZSU and similar channels, auto-translated from Ukrainian.
- Russian-language military commentators. Used to read the other side of the Russia–Ukraine front, auto-translated from Russian and labelled.
- Middle East channels. A mix of Farsi and Arabic channels covering Iran / IRGC, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and the Gulf. Auto-translated, source label preserved.
- Specialist OSINT threads. Accounts that track maritime incidents, airstrikes and sanctions movement. Surfaced on the desk with a clear badge.
IV.Think tanks and specialist analysts
Slower, heavier, context-rich. Not used for speed, used for interpretation and for the shape of the week.
- Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Daily Iran and Russia campaign assessments.
- Critical Threats Project. Iran- and IRGC-focused analysis, complementary to ISW.
- RUSI, IISS, CSIS, Chatham House. Long-form analysis on defence, sanctions and macro risk.
- Independent specialist analysts. A short list of X / Substack voices with a track record on conflict-to-market reasoning.
V.Energy, shipping and commodities press
Commodity-specific desks that the general wires routinely miss. Critical for traders whose portfolios sit in Brent, WTI, LNG, refining or tanker exposure.
- OilPrice, Rigzone, Natural Gas Intel. Daily energy-beat reporting and commentary.
- TradeWinds, Lloyd's List. Shipping and tanker market coverage.
- S&P Global Platts, Argus (public feeds). Price and assessment reporting where public.
VI.Government, central bank and official releases
Primary sources, used as soon as they publish.
- US Treasury / OFAC. Sanctions designations and SDN list updates (drives the onboard vessel screening).
- US EIA, OPEC, IEA. Oil demand and supply data, inventory reports, OPEC calendars.
- Central banks. Fed, ECB, BoE, BoJ, PBoC release calendars and statements.
- MoDs and defence agencies. UK MoD, Pentagon, IDF, NATO press releases where published.
VII.Prediction markets and market data
- Polymarket. Live odds on geopolitical tripwires (e.g. "Strait of Hormuz closed in 2026"), integrated directly into the desk.
- Finnhub. Sub-second tick data for Brent, WTI, Gold, DXY, energy equities and defence primes.
- Seeking Alpha ratings. Integrated quant ratings and analyst consensus for cross-reference.
- GDELT. Event monitor indexing 100K+ global sources; used as a long-tail catch-net.
VIII.Vessel, aircraft and sanctions screening feeds
- AISStream.io. Live AIS bounding boxes for the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Oman, Bab el-Mandeb, Suez and Bosphorus. Drives the Hormuz vessel map.
- ADS-B aircraft feeds. Military aircraft track data used for sortie-rate analysis.
- OFAC SDN list. Continuously matched against vessels in tracked areas to flag sanctioned ships.
Read the methodology for how these sources are tiered, verified, translated and scored, or see all of this applied to a single large event on the Trump / Iran / Brent case file.