Spy, possibly shirtless, faces international 'scandal' (11)
I believe the answer is:
investigate
'spy' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with communicating as well as being verbs in their base form.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'shirtless faces international scandal' is the wordplay.
'shirtless faces' becomes 'invest' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'international' becomes 'i' (abbreviation eg in IMF).
'scandal' becomes 'gate' (as in Watergate and other formations).
'invest'+'i'+'gate'='INVESTIGATE'
'possibly' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for investigate that I've seen before include "Look into" , "check out" , "Search" , "Examine" , "Enquire into" .)