Washington (United States) (AFP) – Jury selection began on Monday in the long-delayed trial of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the accused mastermind of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship that left 17 American sailors dead.

Nashiri was captured in Dubai in 2002 and underwent harsh interrogations in a secret CIA prison before being transferred to the US military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba 20 years ago, where he has been held ever since.

"Panel selection began" on Monday afternoon, Ronald Flesvig, spokesperson for the Office of Military Commissions, told AFP.

The attack on the USS Cole was carried out by two militants in a speedboat laden with explosives that detonated near the warship -- a guided missile destroyer -- as it took on fuel in the harbor at Aden, Yemen.

Nashiri was charged in April 2011 with offenses including murder in violation of the law of war and terrorism, but his case has been mired in pre-trial proceedings for years.

Several of the charges faced by Nashiri -- a Saudi national who was considered close to late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden -- can carry the death penalty.

His case has been complicated by abuse during his detention, with defense lawyers unsuccessfully arguing that Nashiri was not competent to stand trial due to trauma he suffered.

He was subjected to so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" on at least four occasions during his detention, according to a US Senate report released in 2014.

During one session in December 2002, Nashiri was blindfolded by a CIA officer who put a pistol near his head and "operated a cordless drill" close to his body.

An internal CIA investigation found that the officer, among others, slapped Nashiri "multiple times," blew cigar smoke in his face, and implied his mother would be brought in and sexually abused in front of him.

They also subjected him to "improvised stress positions" causing cuts and bruises, before a medical officer expressed concern that his shoulders could end up dislocated.

Nashiri has said he suffered abuse while at Guantanamo as well, complaining of having to wear chains and of enduring "ill-treatment" by guards.

A military judge ruled in August 2023 that a confession by Nashiri was tainted by years of abuse at the hands of the CIA and FBI and could not be used as evidence.

Guantanamo Bay, located 430 miles (700 kilometers) southeast of Miami on the southeastern coast of Cuba, has been used to indefinitely hold detainees seized during the wars and other operations that followed the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Conditions there have prompted outcry from rights groups, and UN experts have condemned it as a site of "unparalleled notoriety."

President Donald Trump's administration has also used the base as a holding center for migrants who are being deported from the United States.

Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Ukraine on Monday said multiple Russian strikes on a school where humanitarian aid was distributed killed at least 26 people and dashed fragile hopes of "progress toward peace" after a local ceasefire in the south expired without violations.

Russia resumed its strikes on the southern region of Kherson after the end of a local ceasefire in the area, the longest truce in the war raging between the neighbours since Russia's 2022 invasion, Kyiv said.

A rare pause in the fighting, brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump to enable a mission to the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, ended Sunday after starting on Tuesday, with neither side reporting breaches.

But hours after the truce, Russia targeted a village in Zaporizhzhia, adjacent to Kherson, with repeated strikes that killed at least 26 people, the acting regional governor said. Some of the dead had come to collect aid at a local school.

Footage posted by the Ukrainian emergency services showed the building reduced to piles of smouldering rubble and rescuers working at the site.

"Every Monday humanitarian aid was distributed to people there. The Russians carried out the first strike just as people arrived -- several aerial bombs. Then there was a repeat strike -- more aerial bombs, this time targeting the shelter," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily address.

Among those killed were "two rescue workers and four police officers", acting regional governor Mykhailo Semikin said on Telegram.

The service named the rescuers as two 44-year-olds: Denys Konovalenko and Oleksy Sushchevsky.

"Every day they went out to help people, working in dangerous conditions and risking their own lives to save others," it said in a statement.

Zelensky said that after the Oleshky truce, "there was a moment when the next steps could have shown that progress toward peace was possible."

"With these killings, Russia is sending an entirely opposite signal: Russia is counting on more killings. There must be a response to this".

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Nazareth (Israel) (AFP) – The leader of the largest Arab-majority party in the incoming Israeli parliament told AFP on Monday that it was time for reluctant opposition members to accept "political reality" and join forces to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Yousef Jabareen, head of the Joint List, pointed to the inconclusive results of last week's election, in which the pro-Netanyahu bloc won 53 seats and the opposition camp won 48 -- both well short of a 61-seat majority.

But the Joint List and its fellow Arab-led party Raam bagged 11 and eight seats, respectively, enough to push the opposition over the finish line should it choose to accept their support.

The Arab parties' performance "is what is stopping Netanyahu from celebrating the continuation of his government," he said, calling it "a far-right government with all the dangers it represents".

He criticised holdouts in the opposition camp who have publicly voiced opposition to a coalition that includes Arab parties, including Avigdor Liberman's secular-right Yisrael Beiteinu.

"Like everyone else in the political arena, Lieberman must deal with the political reality and the numbers in the Knesset," or parliament, Jabareen said.

"Given the current parliamentary arithmetic, Netanyahu's government... cannot be replaced without coordination with the Joint List," he said in an interview in Nazareth, an Arab stronghold and the boyhood home of Jesus Christ.

Israeli-Arabs, who make up around 20 percent of the population, are descendants of Palestinians who stayed after Israel's creation in 1948.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog will begin meeting this week with representatives of parties that won seats in the October 27 vote, to determine to which leader to give the first shot at forming a government.

Opposition camp leader Gadi Eisenkot has expressed misgivings about a coalition government including Arab parties, but has not ruled it out publicly.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, spent the campaign painting the parties as a threat to the country.

Jabareen said he had met with Raam leader Mansour Abbas on Monday, and would the following day with The Democrats' Yair Golan, the veteran left-winger who is the only member of the opposition bloc publicly to urge a governing partnership with the Arab-led parties.

"The political landscape is now clear: the opposition parties do not have a majority to pass legislation without the Joint List. We are therefore saying that we are willing to extend our hand in support in legislation and decisions that serve our political project and programme."

The Joint List diverges strongly from most Jewish-majority opposition parties in key areas including in its support for a Palestinian state.

Jabareen played down such issues, saying his party was focused on the interests of Arab-Israelis.

"The need to ensure their safety in the face of crime and violence, house demolitions, discriminatory policies and budget allocations are issues on which there is room for dialogue," he said.

But he said potential partners would have at least to look positively on the party's positions repudiating Netanyahu including his "path of wars, destruction in Gaza and settler terrorism in the West Bank".

Eisenkot shares much of Netanyahu's security outlook, and his opposition to a Palestinian state. But he has promised to repair the damage done to Israel's international standing by the devastating Gaza war, and to crack down on West Bank settler violence.

"What I would emphasise is that our positions are based on human rights and are supported by international law and international conventions," Jabareen said.

"These positions can only be described as extremist if the person making that accusation is himself an extremist."

Dakar (AFP) – At the entrance to a dirt field between buildings in a Dakar suburb, a Senegalese guide scatters salt into the air, then onto the ground ahead of Swiss wrestlers who one by one break into a run.

As part of a cultural exchange, three Senegalese and three Swiss wrestlers faced off Sunday in Dakar, mixing their own ancestral wrestling traditions.

The event was organised on the sidelines of the Youth Olympic Games which opened in Senegal on Saturday, marking the first ever Olympics on African soil.

The encounter started with the Swiss wrestlers trading in their usual getups for Senegalese wrestling attire.

In Switzerland, traditional wrestling known as "Schwingen" is practised wearing thick sackcloth shorts over trousers, with a wrestler grabbing hold of an opponent's shorts in an attempt to throw the fighter off balance and pin the person to the ground.

In Dakar, the wrestlers encountered a different attire.

Senegalese wrestling, known as "laamb", is performed bare-chested and in a loincloth, with the participant often adorned in "gris-gris", charms and amulets believed to offer protection.

To ensure their loincloths were tied correctly, the Swiss wrestlers received help from a Senegalese wrestling star, Emile Francois Gomis, known as "Franc".

Next came a mystical bath ritual: a little bit of water poured over the body, part of a protective tradition that some Senegalese wrestlers undergo.

Then drums started to beat and the singing of traditional songs began.

The Senegalese wrestlers entered, draped in traditional "leppi" cloth wraps.

The initial rounds featured young wrestlers, with the crowd cheering them on.

Then Modou Lo, a Senegalese wrestling legend and local resident, appeared to shouts and applause.

Together with his proteges, he performed a dance to the beat of percussions, and the Swiss wrestlers joined in, drawing further applause.

Then came the laamb matches, with the Senegalese naturally prevailing.

Swiss wrestler Matthieu Burger said his opponent "does it all the time, for me it's the first time. And he was stronger".

But he described the match as "great fighting, conducted with mutual respect".

The main difference, in his opinion, was that Swiss wrestling entails maintaining a constant grip on one's opponent, whereas there is more distance between wrestlers in Senegal.

Burger said he was confident the experience would prove useful in his own traditional wrestling.

Next, the roles were reversed: Senegalese wrestlers put on traditional burlap shorts to try their hand at Swiss wrestling, with the Swiss avenging their earlier defeat.

For "Franc", who initiated the event, the mission was accomplished: "This is what we wanted, to come and show Senegalese culture, our pride. Wrestling, it's our sport," he said.

The Senegalese style, with its raw power and rituals, and Swiss style, with its rigour and centuries-old history, serve as a "cultural and sporting bridge", said Aboubacar Djamil Sane, mayor of Dakar's Parcelles Assainies municipality, where the event took place.

On the Swiss side, Patricia Danzi, a former Olympian who is representing the Swiss government at the Youth Olympic Games as the director general of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, said she was moved.

The Games, she said, "don't just take place in the stadiums, they also happen in our neighbourhoods".

Brussels (Belgium) (AFP) – Grocery stores across at least nine European countries were hit Monday by a suspected cyberattack on their freezer systems, prompting the EU to warn of a deliberate attempt to disrupt the bloc's food supply chain.

Supermarkets in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden reported refrigeration problems that forced some retailers to discard food after temperatures rose overnight.

The incident came three weeks after a cyberattack disrupted French grocery stores and led hundreds of outlets to throw away spoiled stock.

No one has claimed responsibility for either incident.

EU food and agriculture commissioner Christophe Hansen said the bloc was taking the incidents "very seriously".

"They are a deliberate attempt to disrupt our food supply chain and undermine consumers' confidence in it -- a warning that we must take seriously," Hansen said.

In Italy, at least four supermarkets in Sicily and one business in Tuscany were affected, according to media reports and the national cybersecurity agency. The Italian government was to hold a cybersecurity meeting with intelligence services on Tuesday.

Belgium was among the hardest-hit countries, with dozens of stores across several grocery chains reporting refrigeration failures. Federal prosecutors opened an investigation.

"It's a cyberattack, there is no other reason," said Mich Vergauwen, a spokesman for Carrefour Belgium which reported disruption in about 15 of its 700 stores.

Carrefour Belgium said around 15 stores were affected, while Ikea said its Mons outlet also experienced a cyberattack that caused freezer temperatures to rise.

Belgian refrigeration company Sabcobel said it had begun securing its installations after the October attack in France, but some systems had yet to be upgraded and were among those affected on Monday.

Delhaize, Colruyt and Intermarche also reported refrigeration problems at stores in Belgium, while four Delhaize outlets in Luxembourg were affected.

In Ireland, retailer Musgrave said 13 Supervalu stores were impacted by what it described as a cyber incident.

A small number of corner shops in the Netherlands also suffered disruptions.

In Portugal, the Mosqueteiros group confirmed to AFP incidents at seven Intermarche stores linked to a cyberattack, which "appears to have targeted an external service provider responsible for managing the refrigeration systems".

And in Sweden, chain Coop confirmed six of its around 800 stores had been hit.

"We can confirm that it is a cyber incident. The problem has now been resolved and the fridges and freezers are working as normal," spokesman Carlos Cancino told AFP.

He said Coop did not know who was behind the attack, but noted that the affected stores had been connected to a 4G mobile network, not the updated 5G system, which made them "more exposed" to hackers.

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Washington (United States) (AFP) – The US Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved a low-cost version of a twice-yearly HIV prevention shot, bringing the breakthrough drug closer to market in low-income countries.

The approval was announced by Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, the Indian maker of the generic version of lenacapavir, and by Unitaid, a global health initiative.

The generic will be available for $40 per person per year in 120 countries, under a pricing agreement announced in September 2025 between Dr. Reddy's and Unitaid, the African health research institute Wits RHI, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI).

"This is a moment of immense pride for all of us at Dr. Reddy's," said Deepak Sapra, CEO of Pharmaceutical Services and API at Dr. Reddy's, in a statement.

"Developing and manufacturing a complex long-acting injectable like lenacapavir at an affordable price required strong scientific capabilities and manufacturing expertise to address an urgent access need."

"Unitaid's early risk-taking is helping shorten the time between a scientific breakthrough and real access in countries," added Philippe Duneton, Unitaid's executive director.

Lenacapavir was first developed by US pharmaceutical company Gilead and approved in June 2025 after proving more than 99.9 percent effective in large clinical trials.

A twice-yearly injectable that is akin to a vaccine -- albeit without training the immune system -- can be a more effective way to administer HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) than daily pills, which first won US approval in 2012 but only work if taken consistently.

But lenacapavir's high cost -- roughly $28,000 per year in the US, though insurance lowers what patients pay -- was a major obstacle to its becoming a game-changer against a disease that has killed over 40 million people in four decades.

In late 2024, Gilead granted voluntary licenses for lenacapavir to six generic manufacturers, including Dr. Reddy's.

"Even before generic availability, over 125,000 people in 10 early adopter African countries have already started Gilead's lenacapavir," Unitaid's statement said.

The approval was granted under the US FDA's President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program, Dr. Reddy's said.

Brussels (Belgium) (AFP) – Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever tendered his resignation to King Philippe on Monday as coalition talks deadlocked over a deficit-cutting budget, with the monarch putting off his decision until the end of the week.

The Flemish conservative has been locked in protracted coalition talks to agree a federal budget for next year, with the government seeking 10 billion euros ($11.6 billion) in savings by 2029 to reduce the country's high deficit.

The latest talks broke down hours before De Wever put forward his resignation.

"The king is withholding his decision and will launch discussions tomorrow with the different party leaders of the governing coalition," said a royal statement, adding that De Wever would be received again on Friday.

Belgium "cannot afford a prolonged political crisis," the palace warned in a statement, adding that "The king regrets the lack of agreement to give the country a credible budget that meets the current challenges."

"The king therefore calls on everyone to show a sense of responsibility and urges all parties involved to put the general interest and the spirit of compromise first," it said.

De Wever, whose New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) has led a five-party centre-right coalition since February 2025, did not immediately comment.

Instead, it was left to the Instagram account of his cat Maximus, reportedly the second most popular political account on Belgian social media after De Wever's, to opine that "there are days like that".

A similar budget impasse occurred a year ago, when De Wever nearly tendered his resignation to the king.

The government is seeking savings and new revenue to help cut a budget deficit that exceeds five percent of Belgium's GDP.

Its plan relies mainly on cuts to public spending, including on healthcare, but also includes a VAT increase that is strongly opposed by one coalition partner.

That partner, the French-speaking liberal MR party, says tax hikes would fuel inflation.

Recent months have seen trade unions mobilise against austerity measures with rolling protests that have brought tens of thousands of people into the streets.

One, on October 9, culminated in violence and vandalism.

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Londonderry (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Irish bookshops are helping readers in Britain and elsewhere obtain novels by Sally Rooney after her publisher halted UK supplies because of complications arising from the author's support for a pro-Palestinian group.

Publisher Faber said it could no longer distribute Rooney's books in the United Kingdom because it could not transfer UK earnings to the author after she announced plans to donate those proceeds to Palestine Action, which is banned in Britain.

But Jenni Doherty, owner of Little Acorns Bookstore in Londonderry, has continued stocking Rooney's bestselling books through suppliers in the Republic of Ireland.

"We're not banned from selling the books. We can still have access to the books," Doherty, 55, told AFP, surrounded by Rooney titles such as "Normal People", "Intermezzo" and "Beautiful World, Where Are You".

Londonderry, known as Derry to republicans within Northern Ireland, is part of the United Kingdom but lies next to the border with EU member Ireland.

Its position allows Doherty to order stock through Irish distributors before sending books to customers around the world, including in Britain.

"To sell a writer's work and not be able to pass on earnings is an unconscionable situation for a publisher," Faber said, as it announced its decision in mid-October.

The decision, made in agreement with Rooney, followed the author's declaration that she would donate her earnings to the pro-Palestinian direct action group.

Palestine Action was banned by the UK government in July 2025 under anti-terrorism laws, but is not prohibited in Ireland, where Rooney lives.

Its proscription, which places it on the same list as Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah and the Palestinian militants Hamas, makes it illegal in Britain to belong to, support or finance the group.

Faber said it remained Rooney's publisher and would continue selling her work outside Britain.

The books themselves have not been banned, and copies already held by British retailers can remain on sale.

But shops cannot replenish them through Faber's normal UK distribution network.

The supply restrictions have now drawn new business to Doherty's shop.

"I've had a lot of new customers who've never been in before," she said, adding that the controversy had brought Rooney's work to a broader range of readers.

Before, the books were placed on the general shelves in alphabetical order.

Now they are displayed prominently on the front counter, often sparking "honest, personal conversations" with customers, said Doherty.

She has also received inquiries from British booksellers looking for alternative suppliers.

"You don't have to read it if you don't want it. You don't have to buy it if you don't want it," she said.

The boom has extended across the Irish border, with Kenny's Bookshop in Galway reporting a tenfold increase in sales of Rooney's novels following Faber's decision.

Doherty said the dispute resonated strongly in a city shaped by civil-rights campaigns and Northern Ireland's decades-long Troubles conflict.

The controversy also reminded her of Ireland's history of literary censorship, which affected famous writers including Edna O'Brien, Samuel Beckett and John McGahern.

"It's as if we're going backwards rather than forwards," she said.

But restrictions often pique readers' curiosity and could introduce them to Rooney and other Irish writers, Doherty said.

"A banned book is a bought book," she said. "It just attracts a whole new attention."

Palestine Action's proscription is being challenged by co-founder Huda Ammori, with Britain's Supreme Court due to hear an appeal on Wednesday and Thursday.

Rooney's novels have sold millions of copies internationally, gaining a cult following for their observations of modern relationships before the BBC television adaptation of "Normal People" brought her wider fame.

"She captures a sense of the age right now which is really, really unique to her. People do love her books and her writing," said Vicki Shenkin Kerr, owner of Bard Books in London, which stopped selling Rooney's books following Faber's decision.

Its remaining stock sold out within a "few days", and the shop decided not to replenish it through imports.

"We are kind of like Faber, we wouldn't feel comfortable selling a book where the author isn't getting the royalties," Kerr said. "It does feel like a silencing."

Seoul (AFP) – South Korea will double spending on AI and semiconductors in 2027 to a record high, the president said Monday, pledging to use the technology to turn the military into a "smart, elite force".

President Lee Jae Myung in his annual budget speech to parliament said 21.3 trillion won ($16 billion) would be allocated to chipmaking and artificial intelligence, spanning data centres to robotics.

"We will make bold investments in AI and future growth engines to boost our economy's growth potential," he said, adding that the figure was "nearly double this year's amount".

On the defence budget, the government wants to see an increase of around eight percent from this year to 73.3 trillion won, aiming to secure nuclear-powered submarines and KF-21 fighter jets.

Lee said Seoul aims to "rapidly transform our military into a smart, elite force by establishing integrated manned and unmanned systems based on AI, robots and drones".

North Korea has recently tested a slew of weapons, including a new precision-guided torpedo system and an intermediate-range hypersonic missile, both of which it said used AI technology.

And last year, Seoul announced an agreement with Washington to build nuclear-powered submarines, with Pyongyang slamming the submarine programme as a "dangerous attempt at confrontation".

Overall, the 2027 budget plan totals 821 trillion won, a 12.8 percent increase on-year, making it the largest budget proposal on record.

Lee now needs parliament to pass the budget proposal, which is likely given his party's majority.

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Frankfurt (Germany) (AFP) – Multiple German politicians on Sunday criticised clashes and looting the day before on the margins of youth-led demonstrations, though several also warned that the acts should not eclipse the protesters' demands.

Such "violent acts" were "totally unacceptable", the minister-president for the state of Hesse, Boris Rhein, said on X.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, speaking to the Bild daily, blamed the unrest on "leftist groups inclined to violence and troublemakers from migrant communities".

He said, however, that he viewed the disturbances as less severe "than those that took place in Paris".

On Saturday, tens of thousands of people participated in the protests organised by the group "GenZ regelt!" (Gen Z has got this!) to demand attention to youth priorities, ranging from the cost of living to education spending and budget cuts.

On the sidelines, masked rioters looted shops in Frankfurt, and violence broke out in major cities including Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg. Police fired water cannon at youths hurling Molotov cocktails.

The demonstrations were inspired by similar movements in France and Italy.

The head of Germany's far-left Die Linke (The Left) party, Ines Schwerdtner, told the Rheinische Post daily that the demands made by those "demonstrating peacefully will not disappear because small angry groups followed up with acts of vandalism".

The co-head of the Greens party, Franziska Brantner, criticised the violence, which she told the same outlet "harmed the legitimate cause of many people who demonstrated peacefully".

The far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) party blamed left-wing "extremism" and "uncontrolled migration" for the violence.

The "Gen Z regelt!" movement said on its website that it was calling for fresh demonstrations on November 14, calling them "just the start".

Tehran (AFP) – Iran warned on Sunday that any renewed war with the United States could last longer than the previous round of fighting, after President Donald Trump said he still had to "take care" of more targets.

Diplomatic efforts to end the Middle East war have been punctuated by repeated threats from the US and Israel to resume bombardments as they hold crucial elections.

"A potential future war could last longer than previous conflict, and the American president would not be in a position to dictate the timing or the conditions of its conclusion," said army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia, according to Iranian state television.

In the most intense phase of the war, which began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, Tehran retaliated with missile and drone attacks across the region. Iran-aligned armed groups joined the fighting in Lebanon and Yemen.

Akraminia's remarks followed Trump's suggestion that the US could swiftly strike its remaining targets in Iran.

"We still have to take care of, I would say one or two sites, but we can do that in 10 minutes," Trump told reporters.

"You probably could look at Pickaxe Mountain, and you have to take care of that. We can do that all very quickly," he added, referring to a suspected underground nuclear complex.

US media reported that Trump had held a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday over whether and when to ramp up combat operations against Iran.

Axios quoted one US and one Israeli official saying the two leaders discussed the state of negotiations with the Islamic republic, with Netanyahu pressing the president to strike Iran immediately after Tuesday's US midterm elections and Trump eager to let negotiations play out.

The Israeli source described the call as "tough", while the US source said it was "direct", according to Axios.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump confirmed he had discussed Iran with Netanyahu, but would not elaborate.

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New York (AFP) – Binance said that it had seen withdrawals of around $4.7 billion on Sunday, after more than $6 billion in virtual assets were stolen from the cryptocurrency exchange in a major hack the FBI said North Korea was responsible for.

Binance is the world's largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes. News of the hacking attack, which is thought to be the biggest-ever crypto heist, caused the prices of most major cryptocurrencies to fall sharply on Friday.

The company has offered reassurances it will cover the losses from the attack, saying it has used company funds to buy tokens to replenish 90 percent of what was stolen.

Binance suspended user withdrawals after the attack but said they would be resumed in phases, the first of which began on Sunday.

Between 0600 GMT and 1530 GMT, the platform said it had processed $4.65 billion in withdrawals and $1.01 billion in deposits.

The net outflow of $3.64 billion amounted to about 2.1 percent of the total assets the company manages.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation accused North Korea of being behind the hack in a statement on Saturday, confirming earlier suspicions from private investigators and analysts that a Pyongyang-affiliated group called TraderTraitor was responsible.

TraderTraitor is the same group blamed for a $1.5 billion theft from the Bybit platform in February last year.

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is releasing information advising the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) was responsible for the theft of more than $6 billion USD in virtual assets from cryptocurrency exchange Binance, on or about October 29, 2026," the statement said.

The FBI added that it had observed "TraderTraitor actors" converting stolen assets into Ethereum, and expected those assets to be laundered further by converting them using decentralized finance and instant swap services.

It said it was urging private sector entities "to block transactions with or derived from addresses TraderTraitor actors are using to launder these stolen assets."

US President Donald Trump cast doubt on North Korea's involvement in the hack.

"I'm not concerned. We're learning about it. We don't know if it's North Korea," Trump told reporters at his residence in Florida late Saturday.

The president often reflects with pride on summits he held with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his first term.

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