Washington: Iran was behind a recent hack targeting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, US security agencies said Monday, accusing Tehran of seeking to influence the 2024 election.
The statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) confirmed the Trump campaign claim from earlier this month that it had been targeted, potentially by Iran.
“We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, specifically involving influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting presidential campaigns,” the security agencies said.
“This includes the recently reported activities to compromise former president Trump’s campaign, which the (intelligence community) attributes to Iran,” they said.
In response, Iran’s mission to the United Nations denied the country’s role in the hack and challenged Washington to release evidence for the claim.
“Such allegations are unsubstantiated and devoid of any standing,” the mission said in a statement.
“As we have previously announced, the Islamic Republic of Iran harbors neither the intention nor the motive to interfere with the US presidential election.
“Should the US government genuinely believe in the validity of its claims, it should furnish us with the pertinent evidence — if any — to which we will respond accordingly.”
The United States goes to the polls on November 5, with both Trump’s and Democratic rival Kamala Harris’s campaigns saying they had been targeted by cyberattacks in recent weeks.
US-based tech companies have also said they detected such attacks.
The US intelligence community said Monday it was “confident” that Iran had used social engineering and other methods to target individuals in both campaigns, and that the attempts were “intended to influence the US election process.”
Trump’s campaign said on August 10 that it had been hacked, blaming “foreign sources” for distributing internal communications and a dossier on running mate J.D. Vance.
“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our democratic process,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.
The Republican former president’s campaign implied Iran was behind the move as news outlet Politico reported it had received emails with the campaign material from a source who refused to identify themselves.
Cheung cited a report from Microsoft this week that said Iranian hackers “sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.”
The materials received by Politico included research on vetting Vance, Trump’s vice presidential pick.
In 2016, a hack of Democratic National Committee emails — blamed on Russians — exposed internal party communications, including about candidate Hillary Clinton.
Trump, who would go on to win the election, was criticized for encouraging the hack.
Harris’s campaign said on August 13 that it too had been targeted by foreign hackers, but did not give an indication of which country was believed to be behind the attempt.
“In July, the campaign legal and security teams were notified by the FBI that we were targeted by a foreign actor influence operation,” a Harris campaign official told AFP.
Google said this month that hackers backed by Iran were targeting the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns.
A hacker group known as APT42 linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps went after high-profile individuals and organizations in Israel and the United States, including government officials and political campaigns, according to a threat report released by Google.
Google’s threat analysis group continues to see unsuccessful attempts from APT42 to compromise personal accounts of individuals affiliated with Biden, Harris and Trump, the report said.
US says Iran responsible for Trump campaign hack
https://arab.news/w42au
US says Iran responsible for Trump campaign hack
- Iran’s mission to the United Nations denied the country’s role in the hack and challenged Washington to release evidence for the claim
Trial opens into UK stabbing spree that sparked riots over misinformation attacker was Muslim
- Authorities blame far-right agitators for violence, including by sharing misinformation alleged attacker was Muslim asylum seeker
- Unrest, which lasted several days, saw far-right rioters attack police, shops, hotels housing asylum seekers and mosques
LONDON: The trial of a teenager accused of killing three young girls in a stabbing spree last year that sparked the UK’s most violent riots in a decade is set to begin Monday.
Axel Rudakubana, 18, is due to stand trial at Liverpool Crown Court, accused of murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last year in Southport, northwest England.
Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were killed in the attack in the seaside resort near Liverpool on July 29, 2024.
Ten others were injured, including eight children, in one of the country’s worst mass stabbings in years.
Rudakubana faces a total of 16 charges, including three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and one count of possessing a blade days after the attack.
The trial is expected to last four weeks after pleas of not guilty were entered on his behalf.
The stabbings sent shock waves across the UK, triggering unrest and riots in more than a dozen English and Northern Irish towns and cities, including in Southport and Liverpool.
Authorities blamed far-right agitators for fueling violence, including by sharing misinformation claiming the alleged attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker.
The unrest, which lasted several days, saw far-right rioters attack police, shops, hotels housing asylum seekers and mosques, with hundreds of participants subsequently arrested and charged.
Rudakubana was born in Wales to parents of Rwandan origin and lived in Banks, a village northeast of Southport.
Despite being 17 years old at the time, restrictions on reporting Rudakubana’s name were lifted in August due to concerns over the spread of misinformation.
“Continuing to prevent the full reporting has the disadvantage of allowing others to spread misinformation, in a vacuum,” judge Andrew Menary said as he lifted the restrictions.
Taylor Swift, then in the middle of her Eras tour, wrote on Instagram that she “was completely in shock” the day after the attack on the dance class at the start of the school holidays.
The pop star reportedly met two of the survivors of the attack during her August shows in London.
The UK’s head of state King Charles III also traveled to Southport in August to meet with survivors, inspecting a sea of floral tributes laid outside the city’s town hall.
And Catherine, Princess of Wales, and Prince William visited Southport in October “to show support to the local community,” Kensington Palace said. It was their first joint public engagement since Kate ended a course of chemotherapy for cancer.
In October, the suspect was charged with two additional offenses in relation to evidence obtained “during searches of Axel Rudakubana’s home address” following the attack, the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS), which brings public prosecutions, said.
The charges were for the “production of a biological toxin, namely ricin,” and “possessing information ... likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.”
The terrorism offense related to suspicion of possessing an Al-Qaeda training manual, although the attack was not treated as a terrorist incident.
Following speculation on social media related to policing decisions in the case, Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said she realized the added charges could trigger fresh rumors.
“We would strongly advise caution against anyone speculating as to motivation in this case,” Kennedy was quoted as saying.
She urged people to be patient and “don’t believe everything you read on social media.”
Rudakubana has appeared in several hearings since the attack, often wearing a grey sweatshirt, and refusing to speak in all of them.
In the last hearing in December, he appeared via videolink at Liverpool Crown Court from high-security Belmarsh prison, in southeast London.
The Attorney General and Merseyside police have warned the press and public against publishing any material that risks prejudicing the trial.
Russia says captured two more villages in east Ukraine
MOSCOW: Russian forces have captured two more villages in east Ukraine, including one just a few kilometers from Pokrovsk, a key supply hub for Kyiv’s forces, the defense ministry said Monday.
Army units “liberated” Shevchenko and Novoyegorivka in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk respectively, it said. Shevchenko is around three kilometers (two miles) from Pokrovsk.
Indian police volunteer gets life sentence for rape, murder of Kolkata junior doctor
- Sanjay Roy was convicted by judge Anirban Das on Saturday who said circumstantial evidence had proved the charges against him
- The sentence was announced in a packed courtroom as the judge allowed the public to witness proceedings on Monday
KOLKATA: An Indian court awarded the life sentence on Monday to a police volunteer convicted of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at the hospital where she worked in the eastern city of Kolkata.
The woman’s body was found in a classroom at the state-run R G Kar Medical College and Hospital on Aug. 9. Other doctors stayed off work for weeks to demand justice for her and better security at public hospitals, as the crime sparked national outrage over a lack of safety for women.
Sanjay Roy, the police volunteer, was convicted by judge Anirban Das on Saturday who said circumstantial evidence had proved the charges against Roy.
Roy said he was innocent and that he had been framed, and sought clemency.
The federal police, who investigated the case, said the crime belonged to the “rarest-of-rare” category and Roy, therefore, deserved the death penalty.
Judge Das said it was not a “rarest-of-rare” crime, adding that Roy could go in appeal to a higher court.
The sentence was announced in a packed courtroom as the judge allowed the public to witness proceedings on Monday. The speedy trial in the court was not open to the public.
The parents of the junior doctor were among those in court on Monday. Security was stepped up with dozens of police personnel deployed at the court complex.
Myanmar military, minority armed group agree ceasefire, China says
- The two sides held talks in China’s southwestern city of Kunming
- Analysts say China is worried about the advance of anti-junta forces
BEIJING: The Myanmar military and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) signed a formal agreement for a ceasefire that began on Saturday, China’s foreign ministry said, halting fighting near the border of both countries.
The two sides held talks in China’s southwestern city of Kunming where they thanked Beijing for its efforts to promote peace, ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a regular news briefing on Monday.
“Cooling down the situation in the north of Myanmar is in the common interest of all parties in Myanmar and all countries in the region, and contributes to the security, stability and development of the border areas between China and Myanmar,” she said.
China will continue to actively promote peace and dialogue and provide support and assistance to the peace process in northern Myanmar, Mao said.
The MNDAA is one of several ethnic minority armed groups fighting to repel the military from what they consider their territories.
It is part of the so-called Three Brotherhood Alliance, with the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army, that launched an offensive against the military junta in late October 2023 seizing swathes of territory near the border with China.
The MNDAA, made up of ethnic Chinese, said last July it had taken control of a major military base near the Chinese border.
Analysts say China is worried about the advance of anti-junta forces which have pushed the military out of vital borderlands and started making inroads toward the central city of Mandalay.
The military seized power from Myanmar’s civilian government in February 2021, plunging the country into crisis.
China fears chaos along its more than 2,000 kilometer long border with Myanmar would jeopardize investment and trade.
Beijing previously brokered a ceasefire deal in the northern borderlands in January 2024, but the deal broke down a few months later.
France to keep fighting for release of French-Israeli hostages, says foreign minister
PARIS: France will keep fighting to obtain the release of the two French-Israeli nationals held by Hamas, foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot told BFM TV on Monday.
“We will continue to fight until the last hour for their release,” Barrot told BFM TV, adding France had “no news on their health status nor on the terms of their detention.”
Hamas released three Israeli hostages and Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday, on the first day of a ceasefire suspending a 15-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip and inflamed the Middle East.
French-Israeli nationals Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are expected to be on the list of 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of the draft Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.
