FBI says ‘malicious actors’ targeted Patel’s personal email, Iran-based hacking group claims responsibility
An FBI spokesperson told Fox News the bureau is aware of “malicious actors” targeting FBI Director Patel’s personal email information and has taken “all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks.” The FBI noted the information in question is “historical in nature” and does not involve government information. The Handala Hack Team, an Iran-linked hacking group, has claimed responsibility. The State Department‘s “Rewards for Justice” program is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to the identification of the Handala Hack Team — a group that has frequently targeted U.S. government officials. ISRAEL KILLS IRANIAN INTELLIGENCE MINISTER WHO SURVIVED INITIAL STRIKE, OFFICIAL SAYS “Consistent with President Trump’s Cyber Strategy for America, the FBI will continue to pursue the actors responsible, support victims, and share actionable intelligence in defense of networks,” the FBI spokesperson said. “We encourage anyone who experiences a cyber breach, or has information related to malicious cyber activity, to contact their local FBI field office.” The targeting of Patel’s information comes after the Department of Justice (DOJ) on March 19 announced a massive crackdown on the hacking group. Weeks ago, the DOJ announced the seizure of four domains as part of an ongoing effort to disrupt hacking and transnational repression schemes conducted by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), which allegedly ramped up after the U.S.-Iran war began on Feb. 28. FBI DIRECTOR TICKS OFF TERROR THREATS FOILED BY AGENTS The domains were allegedly used by the MOIS to target adversaries of the regime by claiming credit for hacking activity, posting sensitive data stolen during such hacks, and calling for the killing of journalists, regime dissidents and Israelis. In one instance, the seized handala-hack[.]to domain was used by the MOIS to claim responsibility for a destructive March 11 malware attack on a U.S.-based multinational medical technologies firm, according to the DOJ. Handala Hack claimed the attack was retaliation for ongoing cyber assaults against the infrastructure of the “Axis of Resistance.” MAN ACCUSED OF PLOTTING TRUMP ASSASSINATION CLAIMS IRAN FORCED HIM TO Days earlier, the MOIS, via the Handala-redwanted[.]to domain, allegedly posted the names and sensitive personally identifiable information of roughly 190 people associated with or employed by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) or Israeli government. Investigators also discovered the alleged cyber-terrorists used an Outlook email account to send death threats to Iranian dissidents and journalists living in the U.S. and abroad, openly offering bounties to Mexican cartel “partners” to commit acts of violence. A March 1 email with the subject line, “Death to [redacted victim names],” read: “We the Handala Hack team, the loyal followers of the supreme leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei, declare war on all the enemies of Islam in the West. Our partners, the CJNG [Jalisco New Generation Cartel] cartel in America and Canada have been given a list of our enemies who are responsible for our great leaders [sic] death. [Redacted names], you laughed like hyenas during the [redacted] show. We have hacked and revealed your home addresses in [redacted] and [redacted] to our partners in the CJNG who are in [redacted U.S. state] and [redacted foreign country] now. Both of you will be executed soon, and we have offered a reward of $250,000 for the operatives who kills [sic] and beheads both of you. ALLAHU AKBAR[.]” This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Obama-appointed judge reverses course, rules voter ID law isn’t discriminatory in GOP win
An Obama-appointed federal judge who once blocked North Carolina’s voter identification law has reversed course and ruled it constitutional, delivering a major win for Republicans and election security advocates after a seven-year court fight. Judge Loretta Biggs upheld the law Thursday, finding the liberal voting rights groups that sued North Carolina’s election board failed to prove the voter ID law was discriminatory. The ruling leaves North Carolina’s voter ID law in place ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. It also comes as President Donald Trump has been advocating stricter voter ID laws nationwide, alleging what he has said is widespread fraud in elections and to prevent illegal immigrants from potentially casting ballots. The North Carolina case centered on a bill that the GOP-led Senate crafted in 2018 to govern how the state would enforce an amendment requiring voters to present a photo ID at the polls. The amendment had been approved by about 55% of North Carolina voters, and the legislation dictated how the amendment would be put into practice. THUNE ACCUSES CRITICS OF ‘CREATING FALSE EXPECTATIONS’ AMID BACKLASH OVER STALLED SAVE AMERICA ACT “Finally. After seven years, we can put to rest any doubt that our state’s Voter I.D. law is constitutional,” said Republican state Sen. Phil Berger, who intervened in the case to defend the law. Biggs emphasized in her 134-page decision that North Carolina had a “history of extensive official discrimination against African Americans” that was undisputed by parties in the case. The judge said she found evidence that the voter ID law served to disenfranchise Black and Latino voters but that precedents set by higher courts meant the evidence was not enough to invalidate the law. HOUSE REPUBLICANS PUSH JOHNSON TO GO TO WAR WITH SENATE OVER SAVE ACT “This Court … concludes that it is compelled by controlling case law to render Judgment in favor of the Defendants,” Biggs said, tossing out the plaintiffs’ allegations that the law violated the 14th and 15th amendments and the Voting Rights Act. The judge said the “case law requires this Court to assign less weight to the historical background. It further requires almost impenetrable deference to the presumption of legislative good faith.” The judge’s findings echo prominent Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who have called voter ID laws “Jim Crow 2.0.” Schumer has said the SAVE America Act, which he is currently blocking from Senate passage, is “a dagger to the heart of our democracy.” Trump has been aggressively urging Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a bill that would impose a nationwide requirement that people provide a physical document proving U.S. citizenship when they register to vote. But tensions have flared on Capitol Hill after the bill passed the House but stalled in the Senate because of Democrats’ opposition to it. The decision marked a reversal for Biggs after she issued a preliminary injunction in December 2019 that blocked the state from enforcing the voter ID law for the 2020 election cycle. In that opinion, she cited the state’s “sordid history of racial discrimination and voter suppression,” arguing that parts of the law were “impermissibly motivated, at least in part, by discriminatory intent.” Her injunction was later reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. The state Supreme Court also upheld the law in a separate state-level case. North Carolina Republicans have defended the law as one designed to be accommodating to all voters, saying it offered a wide range of identification options for people showing up to the polls while also boosting election integrity and confidence in elections.
Iran backlash forces Gulf allies toward Washington as regional tensions rise
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies are showing signs of a quiet but consequential shift in their posture toward Iran, as escalating attacks across the region are testing years of careful balancing between Washington and Tehran. For much of the past decade, countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) sought to avoid direct confrontation with Iran, maintaining diplomatic and economic ties even while relying on U.S. military backing. But that middle ground is increasingly under strain. That strategy was designed to keep Gulf states out of direct confrontation. But officials and analysts say Iran’s expanding attacks are narrowing the space for neutrality, pushing some Gulf states closer to Washington. One of the clearest signs of that shift is a reported move by Saudi Arabia to grant U.S. forces access to King Fahd Air Base in Taif, a western facility not used for American combat operations since the Gulf War era. HEGSETH BLASTS BRITS, SAYS IRAN’S CHAOTIC RETALIATION HAS DRIVEN ITS OWN ALLIES ‘INTO THE AMERICAN ORBIT’ The shift is also visible across the region. The UAE has severed diplomatic ties with Tehran, shut down Iranian-linked institutions and launched a crackdown on networks tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after a wave of attacks. Bahrain, meanwhile, led efforts at the United Nations to pass a Security Council resolution condemning Iranian strikes on Gulf states, while multiple countries — including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait — have issued coordinated statements denouncing Iran’s actions and asserting their right to self-defense. These Gulf states are in line with the U.S. view that Iran’s missile development, uranium enrichment programs and support for regional militant groups need to be “addressed and curtailed” but remain opposed to strikes on critical infrastructure inside Iran, a Gulf official told Fox News Digital. Qatar has also taken concrete steps in response to Iranian attacks, expelling Iranian military and security attachés and ordering them to leave the country after strikes on critical energy infrastructure. However, Qatar has stopped short of severing full diplomatic ties, maintaining its role as a mediator even as tensions rise. The Qatari prime minister was in Washington for talks focused on defense cooperation and protecting critical energy infrastructure Thursday, an official briefed on the visit told Fox News. King Fahd Air Base’s location, deep inside Saudi territory and farther from Iran’s missile and drone reach, would offer strategic depth the U.S. has not relied on in decades. U.S. military posture in the region has long centered on more exposed bases along the Persian Gulf, including hubs in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Sources familiar with the matter cited in Wall Street Journal reporting said Saudi Arabia agreed to let American forces use the base. The Pentagon and the Saudi embassy declined to comment on the base. Combat aircraft routinely operate “dark” with transponders off in potential combat zones, so they would not appear on civilian flight radar. Saudi Arabia’s tightly controlled media environment also means there are few, if any, independent local reports of U.S. aircraft activity at King Fahd Air Base. “Our primary concern today is to defend ourselves from the daily attacks on our people and our civilian infrastructure,” the Saudi government said in a statement on its posture toward Iran. “Iran has chosen dangerous brinkmanship over serious diplomatic solutions. This harms every stakeholder involved but none more than Iran itself.” The reported basing shift is one of several signs that Gulf states are recalibrating their position as Iranian attacks escalate across the region. While Gulf leaders are still stopping short of joining combat operations and continue to pursue diplomatic off-ramps, their actions — from expanding cooperation with U.S. forces to issuing more direct and coordinated condemnations of Iran — suggest growing frustrations with Iranian attacks on their territory. President Donald Trump said Thursday that countries across the region — including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Oman— were “shocked” as Iranian attacks expanded beyond traditional flashpoints. “They start shooting in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Oman,” he said at a Cabinet meeting. “They start shooting at them. And they were — they were. Everybody was shocked, including us. You know why? Because they’re sick. And they had a plan to take over the Middle East.” Since late February, Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones across the Gulf, targeting countries from Saudi Arabia and the UAE to Qatar and Kuwait. After the launch of Operation Epic Fury Feb. 28, Iran warned it would retaliate against U.S. forces and their regional partners, a threat it quickly carried out with strikes on bases and infrastructure across the region. Years of diplomatic outreach and de-escalation efforts in Gulf capitals failed to shield them from Iranian retaliation. Saudi Arabia signed an agreement in 2023 to restore diplomatic ties while the United Arab Emirates maintained economic channels that allowed limited commercial activity to continue. At the same time, the steps Gulf countries have taken remain measured. The United States already operates from bases in Saudi Arabia, including Prince Sultan Air Base, which has served as a hub for U.S. air operations and force protection in the region. But those sites sit closer to the Gulf and are more exposed to Iranian missile and drone threats, while more interior locations like Taif provide greater depth and longer warning times against potential strikes. “They have to be very careful even now,” former Israeli Defense Forces officer and national security analyst Ehud Eilam told Fox News Digital. “They know that they would have to live with Iran after the war.” WHY GULF STATES AREN’T JOINING THE WAR AGAINST IRAN — DESPITE ATTACKS ON THEIR SOIL “They can’t really strike back hard,” said James Robbins, Institute of World Politics dean and former special assistant to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. “They’re small countries, and they’re hard to defend.” Robbins added that Gulf states face a long-term dilemma, warning that even a weakened Iran would likely regroup and pose a continued threat.
Norway to add more than $11bn to defence budget over 10 years
Norway, as well as other NATO countries, has been under pressure from the US to boost defence spending. By AFP and Reuters Published On 27 Mar 202627 Mar 2026 Norway is set to raise defence spending by 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product to compensate for rising military equipment costs and to adjust to lessons learned from the Ukraine war, the government says. The proposed increase will amount to 115 billion kroner ($11.84bn) and will be spread over the next 10 years, aligning with the country’s NATO commitments. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “We are … allocating a significant increase in resources to the long-term plan, while also carefully weighing the priorities needed to rapidly strengthen Norway’s defence capabilities,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told reporters on Friday. Norway, like other NATO countries, is increasing defence spending as a result of Russia’s war on Ukraine. NATO countries have also come under increasing pressure from United States President Donald Trump, who accuses some members of failing to pay their dues and overly relying on the US. The increased spending will include support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, authorities said. Norway borders Russia to its northeast. In a statement, the government outlined several priorities, including plans for new submarines and frigates, and upgrades of critical defence infrastructure. It said Norway would also seek to strengthen electronic warfare capabilities, short-range air defence and autonomous systems. Norway expects to receive the first of its German-ordered submarines in 2029. Two frigates bought from Britain are also expected to arrive in 2030 and 2032, respectively. Defence Minister Tore Sandvik said despite the increase in budget, Norway’s procurement of anti-ballistic air defences as well as of maritime surveillance drones will be delayed. Adblock test (Why?)
Nixon to Trump: Pakistan’s long record as backchannel between rival powers
Islamabad, Pakistan – In the middle of 1971, at the height of the Cold War, a Pakistani government plane carrying US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger flew overnight from Islamabad to Beijing. The trip was secret, the facilitator was Pakistan, and the geopolitical consequences were generational. More than 50 years later, Pakistan is once again carrying messages. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar confirmed on March 25 that Islamabad is relaying a US 15-point ceasefire proposal to Tehran, with Turkiye and Egypt providing additional diplomatic support, as the US-Israeli war against Iran stretches into its second month. On Thursday, chief US negotiator Steve Witkoff also confirmed that Pakistan was transferring messages between Washington and Tehran. Hours later, President Donald Trump announced on his social media platform, Truth Social, a 10-day pause on threatened strikes against Iranian power plants, citing, in his words, a request from the Iranian government. Iran has so far denied that direct negotiations are taking place, but Trump’s latest pause means that his initial threat to attack Iran’s power plants, delivered last weekend, has now been deferred twice, as Pakistan plays the part of a key diplomatic facilitator. The role is not new. Pakistan brokered the secret US-China backchannel in 1971 and was a key interlocutor in the Geneva Accords that helped end the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. It also facilitated talks that led to the 2020 Doha Agreement and has, across successive governments, attempted to mediate between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Advertisement Since the launch of Operation Epic Fury, the US-Israeli air campaign that began in late February 2026 and killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei within days, Islamabad has quietly but deeply inserted itself into the crisis, working the phones and holding meetings with key regional actors. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has spoken repeatedly to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir has held at least one direct call with President Donald Trump. Both Sharif and Munir have also travelled to Saudi Arabia, with whom Pakistan signed a mutual defence agreement in September last year, and which hosts a US base and has faced Iranian attacks in recent weeks. “Pakistan’s story is told most often through the prism of conflict,” says Naghmana Hashmi, a former Pakistani ambassador to China. “Yet beneath the headlines of coups, crises, and border skirmishes runs a quieter, more consistent thread: a state that has repeatedly tried to turn its geography and Muslim-world ties into diplomatic leverage for peace,” she told Al Jazeera. Whether this latest round of diplomacy produces anything durable remains uncertain. But it has once again raised a familiar question: How and why does Pakistan keep emerging as a diplomatic broker, and how effective has it been? Opening the China channel In August 1969, US President Richard Nixon visited Pakistan and quietly tasked the country’s military ruler, President Yahya Khan, with passing a message to Beijing: Washington wanted to open communication with the People’s Republic of China. At the time, the US treated Taiwan as China and did not recognise Beijing. Pakistan was chosen for the diplomatic role because it maintained working relations with both Washington and Beijing. Winston Lord, who served as Kissinger’s aide and was on the flight to Beijing, described the decision in a 1998 oral history interview conducted by the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. “We finally settled on Pakistan. Pakistan had the advantage of being a friend to both sides,” he said. Two years of indirect exchanges followed, with Pakistani officials carrying messages between the two capitals. Then, in July 1971, Kissinger arrived in Islamabad on a public tour of Asia. According to historical records and accounts from key participants, he appeared to fall ill at a welcome dinner. In the early hours of July 9, Yahya Khan’s driver took Kissinger and three aides to a military airfield, where a Pakistani government plane was waiting with four Chinese representatives on board. The aircraft flew to Beijing overnight, while a decoy car headed to the hill resort of Nathia Gali, about three hours from Islamabad. Advertisement Kissinger spent 48 hours in meetings with Chinese leader Zhou Enlai before returning to Pakistan. The trip paved the way for Nixon’s visit to Beijing in February 1972, and the famous handshake with Chinese leader Mao Zedong that led to a detente between the two countries, and the US recognition of communist China. Kissinger later acknowledged in an interview with news magazine The Atlantic that the Nixon administration had declined to publicly condemn Pakistani army actions in East Pakistan, which contributed to the creation of Bangladesh in December 1971. According to him, doing so “would have destroyed the Pakistani channel, which would be needed for months to complete the opening to China, which indeed was launched from Pakistan”. Masood Khan, who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States and later to the United Nations, says the episode reflected something structural. “In 1971, Pakistan was the only country that could be trusted simultaneously in Washington and Beijing with a very sensitive mission, which was kept secret even from the State Department,” he told Al Jazeera. “But beyond trust, Pakistan had also acquired the requisite strategic manoeuvrability and operational flexibility that suit interlocutors caught in an apparently irredeemable situation,” Khan added. Muhammad Faisal, a Sydney-based foreign policy analyst, called it Pakistan’s defining diplomatic moment. “Pakistan’s facilitation of the US-China backchannel is unambiguously the most consequential. It restructured Cold War geopolitics in ways that still define the international order. No other Pakistani facilitation comes close in scale or permanence,” he said. But he also points to its limits. “Pakistan couldn’t turn that support from both powers to its advantage in the 1971 civil conflict and the subsequent war with India. Despite being on good terms with both China and the US, Pakistan couldn’t deter India from taking advantage of the civil conflict,” he added. Pakistan’s role in Afghan diplomacy spans four decades and does not always fit neatly into the category of neutral brokering. An early instance
Lebanon faces ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ under Israeli assault: UN
Displaced Lebanese families ‘living in constant fear’ under Israeli bombardment, warns UN Refugee Agency official. Lebanon faces the threat of a “humanitarian catastrophe”, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has warned, as Israel expands its weeks-long bombardment and ground invasion of the country. UNHCR’s Lebanon representative Karolina Lindholm Billing said on Friday that Israeli strikes and forced displacement orders have affected people living across the country – from southern Lebanon to the Bekaa Valley, the capital Beirut, and further north. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list More than 1.2 million people have been forced from their homes since Israel’s intensified attacks against its northern neighbour began in early March, according to UN figures. “The situation remains extremely worrying and the risk of a humanitarian catastrophe … is real,” Lindholm Billing told reporters during a briefing in Geneva. She noted that, as displacement numbers continue to rise, Lebanon’s already overstretched shelter system is struggling to meet families’ needs. “Just last week, there were strikes that hit central Beirut, including in densely populated neighbourhoods … where many people had tried to find safety in collective shelters,” Lindholm Billing said. “The families are … living in constant fear, and the psychological toll, particularly on children, will last far beyond this current escalation.” Israel launched intensified attacks across Lebanon after Hezbollah fired rockets towards Israeli territory following the February 28 assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the US-Israel war on Iran. Advertisement The Israeli military has carried out aerial and ground attacks across the country while issuing mass forced displacement orders for residents of the country’s south, as well as several suburbs of Beirut. On Friday afternoon, the Israeli military said it had begun a wave of air strikes on Beirut. It also issued more forced displacement orders for several areas in the city’s southern suburbs, including the neighbourhoods of Haret Hreik and Burj al-Barajneh. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets into northern Israel and confront Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, with leader Naim Qassem stressing this week that the group had no plans to stop fighting “an enemy that occupies land and continues daily aggression”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also announced plans to expand the country’s ground invasion in southern Lebanon, saying the military would create “a larger buffer zone” in Lebanese territory. Rights groups have condemned the expanded operation and warned that preventing Lebanese civilians from returning to their homes in the south may amount to the war crime of forced displacement. “Israel’s tactics of mass expulsion in Lebanon raise serious risks of forced displacement,” Human Rights Watch said on Thursday. “Forced displacement and collective punishment are war crimes.” Displaced residents sit outside a tent in a local school in Beirut after fleeing their homes in southern Lebanon, on March 27, 2026 [Wael Hamzeh/EPA] The Israeli military’s destruction of civilian homes and several bridges linking southern Lebanon to the rest of the country has also fuelled concerns that Israel is trying to isolate the area. During Friday’s news briefing, UNHCR’s Lindholm Billing noted that the destruction of the bridges has made accessing southern Lebanon “increasingly difficult”. “The destruction of key bridges in the south has cut off entire districts … isolating over 150,000 people and severely limiting humanitarian access with essential items to reach them,” she said. Reporting from Tyre in southern Lebanon on Friday afternoon, Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto also stressed that Israel’s forced evacuation orders are “causing a lot of panic” among residents. “Evacuation orders are happening in areas that were previously thought to be safe,” he said, adding that the destruction and damage to bridges over the Litani River in the south has made the prospect of finding safety more difficult. “This is putting the government in Beirut in a very difficult situation to try and respond to the humanitarian crisis quickly growing in the south of the country,” Hitto said. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)
India to face third lockdown? Govt breaks silence amid speculation, says ‘rumours completely false’
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri denied rumours of a new lockdown in India, clarifying PM Modi never mentioned restrictions.
Dhurandhar 2: Who is Shaista Parveen? gangster Atiq Ahmed’s wife, UP’s ‘most wanted criminal’; where is she hiding now?
The UP gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his underworld network came back into light after one of the character of Dhurandhar The Revenge, was inspired by him. In the film, this character is named ‘Atif Ahmed.’ But do you know Who is Atiq Ahmed’s wife Shaista Parveen and where is she now?
Who is Amita Singh Tomar? ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ fame woman tehsildar arrested in MP’s Gwalior; here’s why
Amitabh Bacchan hosted game show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ fame woman tehsildar Amita Singh Tomar was arrested in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior on corruption charges over her alleged involvement in a flood relief scam that took place in Sheopur district.
Uttarakhand accident: Bus loses control, overturns near Nainital’s Bhowali; 1 killed, several injured; here’s what we know so far
In a tragic incident in Uttarakhand, at least 1 killed and several injured after a bus lost control and overturned near Khupi village area near Bhowali in Nainital district on Friday morning.