April 27, 2026

1. Mali Rocked by Coordinated Jihadi and Separatist Offensive; Defense Minister Killed

Coordinated attacks by jihadist group JNIM and Tuareg separatist rebels struck military sites across Mali on April 25–26, including the main military base at Kati outside Bamako. Mali's Defense Minister Gen. Sadio Camara was killed in the assault , and armed groups seized towns and military installations in multiple regions. UN Secretary-General Guterres called for an international response to curb the spread of violent extremism in the Sahel. The scale of the offensive — penetrating the capital's perimeter — represents a significant escalation and raises questions about the Malian junta's capacity to maintain territorial control following the withdrawal of French and UN peacekeeping forces.

2. North Korea's Lazarus Group Linked to $292M KelpDAO Crypto Heist

North Korea's state-sponsored Lazarus Group has been tied to the approximately $292 million exploit of KelpDAO, a decentralized finance protocol. The stolen funds were rapidly laundered across chains using DeFi protocols, cross-chain swaps, and privacy tools. The hack triggered over $13 billion in outflows from DeFi total value locked and created roughly $200 million in bad debt on the Aave lending platform. This continues a pattern of Pyongyang-directed cyber-enabled financial theft to fund sanctioned weapons programs, with April 2026 DeFi losses reaching an estimated $1.7 billion across multiple incidents.

3. Italy Extradites Chinese National Xu Zewei to U.S. on Cyber-Espionage Charges

The Italian government extradited Chinese engineer Xu Zewei to the United States on charges including stealing COVID-19 vaccine research and hacking Microsoft servers. Xu was arrested at Milan's Malpensa airport in 2025 at Washington's request. The extradition, approved by Italy's Supreme Court and Justice Ministry, signals a harder transatlantic line on China-linked cyber-espionage cases and represents a notable instance of European cooperation with U.S. enforcement against Beijing-directed intellectual property theft.

4. Dutch Intelligence Identifies Hamas Organizing and Iranian Cyber Threats in Europe

The Netherlands' AIVD intelligence service reported that Hamas has been actively organizing pro-Palestinian protests and raising funds within the Netherlands. In the same assessment, the AIVD warned about Iran's expanding offensive cyber programs — including influence operations, sabotage capabilities, and espionage — targeting European countries. The disclosure highlights the degree to which Middle Eastern state and non-state actors are leveraging European democratic openness for operational purposes, and the dual-track nature of Iranian threats combining physical proxies with digital intrusion.

5. Iran Deploys AI-Generated "Slopaganda" in Escalating Information War

Iran's propaganda apparatus has scaled up its use of AI-generated content — dubbed "slopaganda" — to reach global audiences through viral memes and Lego-style videos mocking the U.S. and Israel. A group called Explosive Media, which NBC News confirmed is based in Iran, produces dozens of these AI-crafted videos leveraging irony and internet culture rather than traditional state messaging. Researchers at the University of Manchester noted the content is reaching audiences who do not follow conventional news, representing an evolution in state-backed influence operations that bypasses legacy information gatekeepers entirely.

6. Hacktivist Group "313 Team" Claims DDoS Attack on eBay

The pro-Iranian hacktivist group 313 Team claimed responsibility for a DDoS attack that disrupted eBay globally on April 26–27, impacting search, checkout, login, and API functions for millions of users. eBay has not publicly confirmed the cause of the outage. The 313 Team, named for a Shia eschatological reference, has previously targeted Western commercial platforms, and the timing during the ongoing U.S.–Iran conflict context suggests ideologically motivated disruption of Western economic infrastructure.

7. FARC Dissidents Kill 20 in Colombia Highway Bombing Ahead of Elections

A bomb-laden bus exploded on Colombia's Pan-American Highway in the Cauca region on April 25, killing at least 20 people and wounding 48—the deadliest attack in the country in years. Colombian authorities blamed a dissident FARC faction and identified a rebel leader known as “Marlon” as having ordered the strike, offering a record $1.4 million reward for his capture. The bombing is part of a wave of at least 26 attacks in two days and represents a deliberate escalation of political violence ahead of Colombia's May presidential election, aimed at demonstrating armed groups' territorial control and destabilizing the democratic process.