The United States, Japan, and South Korea held talks in Seoul to discuss measures to counter cyber threats posed by North Korea, the U.S. State Department said.

At the third meeting of the Trilateral Diplomatic Working Group, officials from the three countries reviewed the “substantial progress” made in deepening trilateral collaboration to disrupt Pyongyang’s ability to generate and launder revenue through malicious cyber activity.

The meeting was held in the wake of a warning issued by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about teams of North Korean hackers aggressively attempting to infiltrate cryptocurrency businesses and platforms by using malware to steal funds.

The meeting was led by Lee Jun-il, director general for Korean Peninsula policy at Seoul’s foreign ministry, U.S. Deputy Special Representative for North Korea Seth Bailey and Japanese Ambassador in charge of Cyber Policy Naoki Kumagai.The working group included participants from nearly 20 US, South Korean and Japanese government departments, ministries, and agencies.

“Through the working group, the United States, the Republic of Korea, and Japan will continue to coordinate on a wide range of trilateral actions, underscoring the historic cooperation established at the Camp David Summit, including efforts to prevent DPRK cryptocurrency heists, disrupt IT worker networks, engage partners on the DPRK cyber threat, and develop trilateral capacity building assistance efforts,” the State Department stated.

“The group reviewed the substantial progress made in deepening trilateral collaboration to disrupt the DPRK’s ability to generate and launder revenue through malicious cyber activity, IT workers, and third-party facilitators, which it uses to fund its unlawful WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and ballistic missile programs,” it said.

The three sides also discussed their approach to autonomous sanctions and the importance of private industry efforts to address North Korea’s cyber issues, the U.S. State Department said. Earlier this week, the FBI issued a warning about teams of North Korean hackers aggressively attempting to infiltrate cryptocurrency businesses and platforms by using malware to steal funds.

The FBI stated that crypto exchanges, decentralised finance (DeFi) platforms, and companies tied to cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are primary targets. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said that North Korean social engineering schemes as complex and elaborate, often compromising victims with sophisticated technical acumen.

Given the scale and persistence of this malicious activity, even those well versed in cybersecurity practices can be vulnerable to North Korea’s determination to compromise networks connected to cryptocurrency assets, the FBI stated.

According to the FBI, these actors conduct extensive background checks on potential victims, including their social media activity and professional networking profiles.

Using the information they gathered, they construct individualised, highly believable scenarios that appeal specifically to the victim’s background, skills, and interests. These approaches often include employment offers, corporate investments, or other attractive and legitimate opportunities, it added.

Washington:

 Any Iranian transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia would mark a sharp escalation in the Ukraine war, the United States said on Friday, following reports that the two countries had deepened ties in recent weeks with such an arms transfer.

Reuters reported in August that Russia was expecting the imminent delivery of hundreds of Fath-360 close-range ballistic missiles from Iran and that dozens of Russian military personnel were being trained in Iran on the satellite-guided weapons for eventual use in the war in Ukraine.

Short-range missiles have now been delivered to Russia by Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing an unnamed U.S. official.

“We have been warning of the deepening security partnership between Russia and Iran since the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and are alarmed by these reports,” said White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett.

“Any transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia would represent a dramatic escalation in Iran’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”

Another U.S. official told Reuters they were watching the potential Iranian-Russian missile transfers closely.

The potential moves come after the United States and partners, including in Europe, warned that such a step by Iran could meet with consequences. The Western countries have been watching Iran and Russia’s deepening ties in recent months with increasing concern.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York said on Friday that Tehran’s position on the Ukraine conflict was unchanged.

“Iran considers the provision of military assistance to the parties engaged in the conflict – which leads to increased human casualties, destruction of infrastructure, and a distancing from ceasefire negotiations – to be inhumane,” it said.

“Thus, not only does Iran abstain from engaging in such actions itself, but it also calls upon other countries to cease the supply of weapons to the sides involved in the conflict,” the mission said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

A Pakistani man living in Canada has been arrested on charges of plotting to carry out an attack on Jews in New York City, the US Justice Department said Friday.

Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, was arrested on Wednesday on charges filed in the United States, the department said.

“The defendant is alleged to have planned a terrorist attack in New York City around October 7 of this year with the stated goal of slaughtering, in the name of (the Islamic State), as many Jewish people as possible,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

“Thanks to the investigative work of the FBI, and the quick action of our Canadian law enforcement partners, the defendant was taken into custody,” he said.

According to the criminal complaint, Khan planned to travel to New York and carry out a mass shooting in support of IS at a Jewish center in Brooklyn on the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

He revealed his plans in conversations with conspirators who were actually undercover law enforcement officers, it said.

Khan was taken into custody by Canadian authorities in the town of Ormstown some 12 miles (19 kilometers) from the US-Canada border.

The Justice Department said it will seek his extradition from Canada.

Khan is charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A 14-year-old boy has been chargedwithshootingfour people dead at a US high school, authorities said Thursday, adding that their investigation into the country’s latest outburst of gun violence is ongoing.

The teen faces four felony murder counts after allegedly killing two fellow pupils, also aged 14, as well as two teachers at Apalachee High School in the southern state of Georgia on Wednesday.

Citing unnamed sources, CNN reported that the gun used in the shooting — which it described as an AR 15-style assault rifle — had been purchased for the teenager by his father as a holiday gift.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation had said the suspect would be charged as an adult. It said that he would appear in court on Friday, and that additional charges are expected.

“The investigation into the shooting at Apalachee HS is still active & ongoing,” the agency said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“This is day 2 of a very complex investigation & the integrity of the case is paramount,” it continued, adding that all four victims would be autopsied on Thursday.

School shootings are a shockingly regular occurrence in the United States, where guns outnumber people and regulations on purchasing even powerful military-style rifles are lax.

Parental responsibility in mass shootings, particularly by minors, has come increasingly under the spotlight in recent months.

“How could you have an assault rifle, a weapon in a house, not locked up and knowing your kid knows where it is?” lamented President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters in Wisconsin on Thursday.

“You’ve got to hold parents accountable if they let their child have access to these guns.”

In April, the parents of a teenager who killed four people in a school shooting in Michigan were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison, in an unprecedented and closely watched case.

Jennifer Crumbley, 46, and her husband James, 47, were the first parents of a school shooter convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the United States for the actions of their child.

Polls show a majority of voters favor stricter controls on the use and purchase of firearms, but a powerful gun ownership lobby is opposed to additional restrictions and lawmakers have repeatedly failed to act.

Washington:

The United States said Thursday it had secured the release of 135 political prisoners from Nicaragua, the latest mass transfer by President Daniel Ortega’s increasingly authoritarian government.

The White House said that the prisoners included members of faith organizations, students and others viewed by Ortega and his team as a “threat to their authoritarian rule.”

The freed prisoners arrived Thursday in nearby Guatemala, whose reformist President Bernardo Arevalo has worked closely with Washington on the key issue of migration, the State Department said.

They will have the opportunity to seek to move to the United States.

“We urge the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Nicaragua,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. 

“The Nicaraguan people want and deserve a restored democracy where all can exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms, free from fear of persecution or reprisal.”

The latest move follows the mass release of more than 200 prisoners in February 2023 who were flown to the United States.

The former prisoners have largely welcomed being able to leave, although some human rights activists view Ortega’s move cynically, seeing him as trying to get rid of perceived opponents while at least attempting to curry favor with Washington.

The latest release includes 13 members of Mountain Gateway, an evangelical Christian group based in Texas, the White House said.

Nicaraguan authorities earlier this year accused members of the group, which conducts mass gospel campaigns as well as humanitarian work, of money laundering and organized crime.

Mountain Gateway strongly denied the charges, saying that Nicaraguan authorities were able to review its budgeting.

Ortega, a 78-year-old former leftist guerrilla who battled US-backed forces in the 1980s, returned to power in 2007 and initially had been seen as more moderate.

But he has since lifted presidential term limits, seized control of all branches of government and led a sweeping crackdown on groups including the Catholic Church and NGOs seen as threats to his rule.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Winder:

The perpetrator of a shooting at a US high school on Wednesday was a 14-year-old student and two of the four people killed were fellow pupils, authorities said.

“Of those that are deceased, two were students and two were teachers here at the school,” said Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. “The shooter is in custody… He is a fourteen year old student here at the high school.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Los Angeles:

 A California doctor and a woman charged with illegally supplying the drug ketamine to “Friends” star Matthew Perry before his overdose death will face trial in March, according to court documents released on Tuesday.

Dr. Salvador Plasencia, and Jasveen Sangha, whom authorities said was a drug dealer known to customers as the “ketamine queen,” have pleaded not guilty to charges related to the October 2023 death of Perry.

An autopsy determined that the 54-year-old died from “acute effects” of ketamine and other factors that caused him to lose consciousness and drown in his hot tub.

Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties, sometimes prescribed to treat depression and anxiety but also abused by recreational users.

Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including during the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s television sitcom “Friends.”

Plasencia and Sangha are scheduled be tried together in federal court in Los Angeles starting on March 4.

Three other defendants have agreed to plead guilty in connection with Perry’s death.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

The United States has charged leaders of the armed Palestinian group Hamas with a raft of “terrorism” offenses, federal court documents unsealed on Tuesday revealed.

Six men — including Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and late political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in late July in Tehran — were named in the charging document dated February 1, accused of “conspiracy to provide material support for acts of terrorism resulting in death” along with six other counts.

The document also contained a request for the arrest of the individuals.

Hamas, which is designated a “terrorist organization” by Washington, launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering the brutal ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the Palestinian group.

“The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas’s operations. These actions will not be our last,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

“Yahya Sinwar and the other senior leaders of Hamas are charged today with orchestrating this terrorist organization’s decades-long campaign of mass violence and terror — including on October 7th.”

Israel’s campaign against Hamas has so far killed at least 40,819 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

The October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians and including hostages killed in captivity, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Los Angeles:

A controversial biopic of Donald Trump that depicts the former president raping his wife and which has drawn legal threats from his attorneys will hit US theaters this October, it was reported Friday.

Tiny indie studio Briarcliff Entertainment plans to release “The Apprentice” for US audiences less than a month before Trump takes on Kamala Harris in the country’s razor-tight presidential election, the Hollywood Reporter said.

Representatives for Briarcliff did not immediately respond to AFP queries.

The explosive film about Trump’s younger years caused shockwaves at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Its most talked about scene shows Trump raping his first wife, Ivana, after she belittles him for growing fat and bald.

In real life, Ivana accused Trump of raping her during divorce proceedings but later rescinded the allegation. She died in 2022.

The movie also shows Trump suffering erectile dysfunction, and undergoing liposuction and surgery for hair loss.

Just hours after “The Apprentice” premiered in May, Trump’s lawyers vowed to sue the producers, calling the film “garbage” and “pure malicious defamation.”

Further complicating the film’s prospects for US release is that one of its early financial backers was pro-Trump billionaire Dan Snyder, who was reportedly displeased with its depiction of Trump and sought to block the movie.

He has now been bought out of his financial stake in the movie, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film is set to be released in US theaters October 11, the Los Angeles Times said.

Sebastian Stan’s lead performance as young New York property tycoon Trump received largely positive reviews at Cannes.

The film’s screenplay was written by Gabriel Sherman, a journalist who covered real estate for the New York Observer and regularly spoke to Trump.

Far from a simple hatchet job, the film depicts Trump as an ambitious but naive social climber desperately trying to navigate the cutthroat world of Manhattan property deals and politics.

The Times of London argued it would “make you feel sympathy for Trump.”

But Trump’s decency is gradually eroded as he learns the dark arts of dealmaking and power from his mentor Roy Cohn, played by “Succession” star Jeremy Strong.

Film director Ali Abbasi told AFP he included the rape scene to show how Trump distanced himself from “human relationships that define him and that hold him in check as a human being.”

Stan, best known from the Marvel superhero movies, added that Trump’s early behavior “is much more relatable than we want to admit.”

Briarcliff Entertainment launched in the late 2010s. Its founder Tom Ortenberg previously helped steer Oscar campaigns for best picture winners “Spotlight” and “Crash.”

He is expected to promote “The Apprentice” in Hollywood’s upcoming award season.

The news comes on the same day “Reagan,” another biopic of a former Republican president, Ronald Reagan, hits US theaters.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The US-India defence relationship is rapidly expanding, adapting to evolving regional and global security demands. This includes safeguarding supply chains, advancing critical and emerging technologies, and enhancing cooperation in cyber, space, and new dimensions of battlespace dominance. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to the US from August 23-26 highlighted these shifts, aiming to bridge bilateral gaps in these critical areas. The visit underscored a clear trend: while major defence deals continue to strengthen traditional security ties, both nations are increasingly emphasising emerging strategic elements to integrate the security partnership with a purposive intent towards making the Indo-Pacific region free and open.

Issues central to joint India-US interests in the Indian Ocean and the security of the Indo-Pacific are being prioritised. India’s increasing role in shaping regional security by ensuring freedom of navigation, now especially as a member of the Combined Maritime Force (CMF), was acknowledged. With India assuming leadership in the Combined Task Force 150 in 2025, stakes for an expanded regional security role have increased for New Delhi.

The Indo-Pacific Arena

As the Indo-Pacific remains central to regional and global security, enhancing partnership in this region is key to shaping a regionally favourable security architecture. Towards this, the visit provided an opportunity for steps in increasing supply chain security as well as enhancing maritime security in the Indian Ocean. Among the highlights was a new agreement to expand and strengthen operational coordination between India and the US by placing Indian liaison officers at US commands. The agreement is a step up for regional security coordination and domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific for India, complementing an earlier initiative to host US officers at the Information Fusion Centre (IFC-IOR) in India. It also overcomes the capacity limitations of India, indeed any country, to solely monitor the vast expanse of the Indo-Pacific on a real-time basis. Beyond the Indo-Pacific, placing Indian liaison officers at the other 10 Combatant Commands could usher new vistas in information sharing.

At the heart of the visit were steps to strengthen the Major Defence Partnership (MDP) and provide fresh momentum to joint production, including the reigniting of the Defense Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI). Under the US-India Roadmap for Defense Industrial Cooperation, an agreement to jointly produce jet engines, unmanned platforms, munitions, and ground mobility systems was signed. Leading up to the third summit of the India-U.S. Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) to be held in September in the US, discussions to expand cooperation in the areas of undersea and space-related collaborations were timely.

What Is SOSA

One of the most significant outcomes of the visit was the signing of the Security of Supply Arrangement (SOSA), which makes India the 18th country to enter into this agreement with the US. It reflects a shared long-term vision to seamlessly integrate the defence industrial ecosystems of both nations while safeguarding supply chains from future disruptions. SOSA complements the Major Defense Partnership (MDP) and the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI). Notably, the visit aimed to reinvigorate the DTTI, a co-production initiative launched with high expectations, but that had lost momentum. The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment will host a DTTI meeting in the coming months, bringing together government and private stakeholders from both countries’ defence industries. The DTTI’s primary goal is to integrate the defence industrial bases of the US and India, promoting bilateral co-development, co-production, and co-sustainment efforts.

SOSA strengthens the partnership by establishing guardrails for supply chains between the two countries’ defence industries, which are poised to grow with new co-production and co-development opportunities. Guided by the US Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS), the arrangement provides structural and institutional assurances for defense supplies. India, in turn, is expected to develop a common code of conduct for government and industry stakeholders, prioritizing critical supplies to the US on a voluntary basis. With SOSA in place, working groups will have the framework to communicate more frequently and take proactive steps to ensure supply chain stability in both peacetime and crisis situations.

Diaspora As A ‘Living Bridge’

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s reference to the Indian diaspora in the US as a ‘living bridge’ now resonates within the context of the growing India-US defence relationship. This June marked the first anniversary of the US-India INDUS-X Initiative, which aims to build a defence innovation bridge between the two countries under the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET). By connecting researchers, investors, and defence tech companies from both nations, INDUS-X outlines a strategy to harness private capital for defence innovation.

India and the US are swiftly adapting to the evolving global security landscape, responding to new threat perceptions with increased innovation and cooperation in advanced domains. The second US-India Advanced Domains Defense Dialogue (AD3) held this year underscored the importance of coordination in emerging defence areas, including space, cyber, and artificial intelligence, while identifying critical sub-sectors for potential industrial collaboration.

The Next Goals

The Defence Minister also visited the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Memphis, accompanied by a delegation from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), signalling a potential pathway for co-learning and development. In a boost to India’s Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) capabilities, India secured the purchase of sonobuoys from the US in the lead-up to the visit. The acquisition and co-production of General Atomics’ MQ-9B remotely piloted aircraft systems and the joint production of GE F414 jet engines in India are the next major goals for both nations.

Rajnath Singh’s visit managed to underline once again that defence is the main driver when it comes to shaping the trajectory of US-India bilateral engagement.

(Harsh V Pant is Vice President for Studies at ORF and Professor at King’s College London. Vivek Mishra is Fellow, Americas, at ORF.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the authors