U.S. Cyber Command released samples of North Korea's government-funded malware to researchers during the early hours of North Korea's Day of the Foundation of the Republic — a move seemingly timed to unnerve the hermit nation during a national holiday.
The big picture: Cyber Command periodically releases malware to the research community to bolster private sector defenses against foreign threats. But while previous releases received praise from the researchers for providing new details about threat groups, the North Korean samples that were atypically released on a Sunday don't immediately appear to be as fruitful.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Sunday that the European Union will not grant the U.K. an extension to its Oct. 31 Brexit deadline if the current situation doesn't change, Bloomberg reports.
"We won’t start over again every three months. Let the British Parliament, let the British authorities tell us what’s the path."
Thousands of Hong Kong protesters marching to the U.S. Consulate Sunday sang the U.S. national anthem and called on President Trump to "liberate" the Chinese-controlled territory as police looked on, Reuters reports.
Why it matters: This is the latest in a series of weeks-long demonstrations that have plunged the Asian financial hub into its worst crisis in decades. The protests show no sign of abating, despite Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam saying on Wednesday that she was formally withdrawing a bill that would have seen citizens extradited to mainland China — a key demand of protesters.
Amber Rudd resigned on Sunday as the British government's work and pensions secretary and surrendered the Conservative Party Whip, meaning she'll now sit as an independent lawmaker in the House of Commons.
Why it matters: Rudd was one of the few Remain-supporting ministers in Boris Johnson's Cabinet. In her resignation letter, Rudd said expelling 21 rebel lawmakers from the party for voting against Johnson's Brexit plans was an "assault on decency and democracy." The expelled lawmakers had served for a total of 350 years and included high-ranking former government ministers and the grandson of Winston Churchill.
Iran announced on Saturday it mobilized a chain of advanced centrifuges to accelerate uranium enrichment — breaching the 2015 nuclear deal for the third time, reports Al-Jazeera.
Catch up quick: Iran plans to cut its commitments to the deal every 60 days until Europe offers economic terms to offset the blow of U.S. sanctions, writes the Washington Post. European countries have been scrambling to save the deal, with the European Union working to keep money moving into Iran's struggling economy, and France proposing $15 billion in credit lines.
After weeks of negotiations, Russia and Ukraine exchanged 35 prisoners each on Saturday in what could be the "first step toward easing tensions between Moscow and Kiev," reports the Wall Street Journal.
Why it matters: Tensions between the 2 former Soviet countries have been high since Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, per the WSJ. This "rare agreement" could lead to further negotiations, but some caution that the process will be lengthy and complicated.
