Fancy Bear, a group U.S. intelligence believes hacked the Democratic National Committee in 2016 and attributes to Russia, appears to be using Lojack laptop tracking software to facilitate new hacking campaigns.
The details: Researchers at Arbor Networks' ASERT lab found that hackers tampered with Lojack to communicate with several domains used by Fancy Bear in the past.
President Trump pitched meeting Kim Jong-un in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, and CNN is now reporting, citing one source, that South Korean President Moon Jae-in has convinced Kim to agree to meet Trump in the DMZ.
Trump’s reasoning: "There's something that I like about it because you are there, you are actually there…If things work out there's a great celebration to be had on the site, not in a third-party country."
Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu briefed President Trump two months ago on the capture of the Iranian "nuclear archive," and decided to publicly expose the documents yesterday due to Trump's May 12th deadline on possible U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.
Between the lines: An Israeli official tells me Israel wanted to publicly release the new intelligence after White House visits from French President Macron and German Chancellor Merkel, both of whom tried to convince Trump not to withdraw. "We are facing a major decision by President Trump regarding the nuclear deal. Last week was for the Europeans, and this week is our week," the official said.
The Dominican Republic is terminating its diplomatic relationship with Taiwan and pledging to recognize it as "an inalienable part of China," reports the AP.
The big picture: It's a setback for Taiwanese sovereignty and a win for Beijing, which is increasingly wary of Taiwan's leanings toward independence and threats to the One-China policy. The Dominican Republic's move comes as the U.S. is ramping up diplomacy with Taiwan under President Trump.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented documents and files during a primetime speech in Israel that he says shows Iran has "a comprehensive program to design, build and test nuclear weapons," despite Iran's claims it has no ambitions to pursue nuclear weapons development.
Between the lines: The urgency behind the nuclear deal came from the belief Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapon, so this won't come as a surprise to any of the parties to the deal. Axios contributor Barak Ravid tweets the "information is not new and especially interesting. ...It won't change the position of the European powers."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will give a speech at 1pm ET (8pm local) laying out new evidence concerning Iran's nuclear program, an Israeli official said. He briefed the Israeli security cabinet on the matter earlier today.
Why it matters: Israeli officials say he'll provide dramatic information showing Iran is cheating on the deal. They say he updated President Trump on Saturday and Secretary of State Pompeo yesterday. This comes 12 days before Trump's deadline to decide whether to stay in the deal.
The Trump administration has not appointed diplomats to 38 ambassadorships around the world, reflecting a larger issue of key vacancies across the State Department, reports Foreign Policy.
Why it matters: Some of the regions missing ambassadors are crucial to the U.S.'s foreign policy priorities. South Korea is missing a top diplomat amid negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and the European Union and Mexico have vacancies as those nations try to avoid a trade war with the U.S.
South Korea is removing propaganda-broadcasting loudspeakers from its North Korean border as promised after a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, reports AP.
Why it matters: These gestures of peace show that both sides are willing to work with each other to create peaceful relations between North Korea and South Korea after decades of turmoil.
