Pakistan is “cautiously optimistic” about its mediation between Iran and the United States, the military’s spokesman said on Friday in his first interview since a high-level delegation visited Tehran this week.

Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir has been to Tehran twice this month, most recently on Monday alongside Saudi and Turkish officials.

“Why would the Field Marshal be going twice if it is not for some positivity? So yes, of course,” Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said when asked whether the trips were a positive sign.

“The word that we would use is always cautiously optimistic,” added Lt Gen Chaudhry.

There were still “powerful spoilers and detractors,” who believed conflict serves them, he added without naming them.

Speaking in Rawalpindi, he declined to say what was discussed or whether the US had backed the trip.

Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin joined CDF Munir in Tehran on Monday.

The talks were the first high-level contact between Iran and all members of the Makkah Defence Alliance since Saudi Arabia was drawn deeper into the conflict. Under the Makkah pact, of which both Saudi Arabia and Turkiye are a part and which was signed on August 7, an armed attack on one member is considered an attack on all.

The pact has taken on added significance as the Iran war has redrawn regional alliances and raised fears of a broader Middle East conflict.

After Monday’s talks, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said regional security should be ensured by regional countries without foreign intervention.

The wording of the pact does not bar new members, Lt Gen Chaudhry said on Friday when asked whether Iran could join.

“Anyone who has a shared vision of collective deterrence and regional peace, why not? Everyone is most welcome,” he said, adding that it was for the political leadership of the three principal parties to decide.

Asked whether more Pakistani troops were being sent to Saudi Arabia under the agreement, the DG ISPR said that it would depend on the situation and the decision of both countries’ political leadership.

He said Pakistan was committed to defending Saudi Arabia and the holy sites of Makkah and Madina.

“We are not part of the Yemeni conflict, which is an intra-Yemen conflict,” he added.

Asked if there would now be larger military-led campaigns in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa following the imposition of emergency and governor’s rules, Lt Gen Chaudhry said that was not how the army conducted counter-terrorism.

“Our counter-terrorism operations are based on what we call IBOs, intelligence-based operations… The tempo of the freedom of action of (those) IBOs will further increase,” he said.

Spain’s transport minister on Friday rejected calls for his resignation over the second train accident on his watch to cause mass casualties this year, as authorities worked to identify the victims from a crash that left at least 69 dead.

Lawmakers from across the political spectrum this week condemned Transport Minister Oscar Puente for attributing Wednesday’s crash to a break in protocol by control centre operators rather than accepting responsibility, with rail workers’ unions calling for his immediate dismissal.

The crash, which happened near the town of Urda in central Spain, followed another accident involving the same rail companies on the same line that left 46 dead in January.

It has reopened a debate about safety and maintenance on Spain’s high-speed rail network, the most extensive in Europe, as the country prepares for an election that left-leaning Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called for November 29.

“My duty now is not to focus on discussing whether I will remain in office, but on solving the problem, determining exactly what happened and providing clear explanations,” Puente said at a press conference on Friday.

The train that smashed into a second stationary one was travelling at a speed between 160 and 200 kph when the collision occurred, according to a preliminary report released on Thursday by the Independent Authority for the Technical Investigation of Accidents and Incidents (AITAT).

“The sequence of malfunctions, instructions, and actions eventually led to the collision, in the absence of the necessary mitigating barriers,” AITAT said in the report.

AITAT said it would not be able to confirm the exact speed of the train until it extracted information from the train’s black box.

At the scene of the crash, large cranes were lifting the mangled wreckage as the Civil Guard listed 64 people as missing in what is already Spain’s deadliest train accident since 2013.

Authorities have carried out 49 autopsies so far and formally identified five people — three women and two men — Esther Padilla, spokesperson for the Castilla-La Mancha regional government, said on state television network TVE.

“Testing is proceeding slowly, although families will be contacted throughout the day so that they can come and collect their results,” Padilla said on Friday.

It was unclear if all those missing were accounted for in the death toll.

Authorities can’t rule out more fatalities

No additional bodies were found when rescue teams overturned a train carriage on Thursday, Castilla-La Mancha regional leader Emiliano Garcia-Page said on TVE.

Identifying the bodies was proving difficult because many were in pieces, he said. On Thursday, rescue teams had placed partial remains in 31 bags.

“The truth is that we cannot rule out the possibility that there may be more fatalities,” Garcia-Page said.

As identification of the dead continued, the debate about who was at fault intensified, with unions saying it was unfair to lay the blame on human error.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday vowed to find out what caused the accident.

“It is unacceptable for a country like Spain, with such a strong high-speed rail system, to suffer two accidents of this nature and magnitude in a single year,” he said.

The collision occurred after several trains were automatically stopped due to the failure of a signalling system, after which the central control centre in Madrid took over. A train operated by state-owned Renfe was authorised to proceed, even though there was a stationary Iryo-operated train ahead, according to Puente.

Audio of communications between the control centre and the train drivers obtained by El Pais showed how a controller authorised the Renfe train to continue on its journey at a normal speed, which Puente said disregarded a protocol to travel at no more than 40 kph in such circumstances.

The audio also showed the controller authorised the Renfe train, carrying 379 passengers and seven crew, to resume its journey even though the Iryo train, carrying 147 passengers and five crew, should have proceeded first according to protocol.

Controllers say focus should be on failed signal system

Raquel Ayllón, a union leader for state-owned infrastructure operator Adif, said controllers were having to operate under difficult working conditions.

“Human error is being criticised and questioned very quickly, while people are not really focusing on the central issue: the failure of the safety system,” Ayllón said on TVE.

The LZB system which failed, triggering the sequence of events that led to Wednesday’s crash, was behind schedule for an upgrade, public documents show.

In September 2021, Adif awarded a contract to Thales Espana, the Spanish arm of the French equipment maker, to complete the installation of a new, standardised European system called ERTMS by early 2026 for 93.8 million euros ($105m), according to press releases on the tender.

The system has been installed across most of Spanish high-speed rail, according to a factsheet by European rail association UNIFE, which developed the new ERTMS standard. But the Madrid-Seville line, site of two fatal crashes, had fallen behind, according to the tender contract.

The contract was passed to Hitachi Rail in 2024, according to Thales, which declined to provide comment on the delay of the rollout.

Hackers stole $6.3 billion from Binance in the world’s biggest crypto heist, putting a spotlight on how cryptocurrency exchanges insure their digital assets against theft and cyberattacks.

But insurance protection is far from uniform. Coverage depends on how assets are stored, how hackers gain access and the specific terms of the policy.

Limited regulation and volatile crypto prices have long made insurers wary of the sector, despite growing demand for protection against digital asset theft and claims against company executives.

While both crime and demand for protection have tracked cryptocurrencies’ meteoric rise, underwriting such risks remains a niche business offered largely by specialist insurers in the Lloyd’s market and in Bermuda.

What is digital asset insurance?

Digital asset insurance is a range of policies designed to protect cryptocurrency exchanges, custodians and other companies operating in the sector against financial losses arising from the theft of digital assets, cyberattacks, technology failures and other business risks.

Unlike traditional insurance, these policies are tailored to risks associated with blockchain technology, including the theft or loss of private keys, wallet security breaches, smart contract vulnerabilities and failures in digital asset custody.

The global crypto insurance market was valued at $9.37bn in 2025 and is projected to reach $184.98 billion by 2033, according to Data Bridge Market Research.

The research firm cited growing institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies and rising incidents of cyberattacks and digital asset theft among the factors driving demand.

Coverage can include several types of policies: crime insurance for theft, social engineering and scams; cyber liability for breaches, hacks and regulatory response; errors and omissions insurance for software bugs; smart contract failures; directors and officers insurance for lawsuits targeting executives; and technology liability for infrastructure providers.

How are losses covered?

When a crypto exchange suffers a hack, losses can be covered through a combination of insurance payouts, the company’s own capital and emergency funds set aside to compensate customers.

The extent of insurance coverage depends on the policies held by the exchange, including their limits, deductibles and exclusions. Where losses exceed the insured amount, the company must rely on its own financial resources or other recovery arrangements to meet its obligations.

Some exchanges also maintain reserve funds to reimburse customers following security breaches. Binance established the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) in July 2018 as an emergency reserve to protect users in extreme cases, such as security breaches or platform-level incidents.

As of 2026, the SAFU fund holds crypto assets worth roughly $1bn, entirely in bitcoin, according to Binance’s website. The company did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on its insurance coverage.

What can prevent an insurance payout?

Exclusions that let insurers deny certain claims are common in policies covering digital assets and the personal liabilities of directors and officers at cryptocurrency companies. These can limit the scope of protection available to companies and make it harder for them to secure coverage.

Common exclusions in these policies include value fluctuations, fraudulent acts by the policyholder and unsecured or negligent key management.

Do traditional crime and cyber insurance policies cover crypto?

Most standard crime insurance policies do not cover cryptocurrency losses, as they were originally designed to protect physical property such as cash, securities and precious metals.

Traditional cyber liability policies also do not always cover the value of digital assets stolen in a hack. While cyber policies can cover both first-party losses and third-party liabilities, including forensic investigations, customer notifications and legal expenses, they generally exclude the loss or transfer of funds.

As a result, standalone cyber policies typically do not cover the full value of stolen cryptocurrency unless specific digital asset coverage has been added.

How do insurers assess crypto theft claims?

Insurers examine how a breach occurred, which systems were compromised and whether the resulting loss falls within the policy’s coverage.

They may also assess whether the exchange followed required security procedures, including controls over private keys, wallet access and transaction approvals.

The distinction between an external hacker stealing credentials and an employee deliberately transferring assets can determine whether a crime or cyber insurance policy covers the loss.

US President Donald Trump is scrapping two of his last midterm election rallies, his Republican Party said Thursday, as the 80-year-old leader lashed out at a reporter who asked if he was “sick of travelling”.

“You’re sick to ask that question. You are sick,” Trump told the reporter after returning to Washington from a campaign trip to South Carolina.

“I feel perfect. You are disgusting. Put yourself in shape, you look like hell.”

Trump told reporters he did not “feel like I have to go to Kansas,” a Midwestern state where Senator Roger Marshall, a fellow Republican, is in an unexpectedly competitive race with Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton.

“He is doing very well,” Trump said of Marshall.

“We are going to have a strong Tuesday night.”

Later on Thursday, the Republican National Committee said in a statement that it would also cancel a planned rally in Iowa, home to several competitive congressional races.

Instead of the events in Kansas and Iowa, Trump will hold a “large number” of virtual “telerallies” in a series of states, the Republican National Committee said.

The canceled in-person rallies were set for Salina, Kansas, on Saturday, and Dubuque, Iowa, on Sunday.

Republicans are fighting to keep control of Congress in the November 3 midterms. Trump has urged the party to “pretend I’m on the ballot” to maximise turnout despite his poor approval ratings.

“With Republicans in a strong position in Kansas and Iowa, previously planned in-person rallies in those states will no longer take place as scheduled,” the RNC statement said.

The president is still expected to travel to rallies in several states before Tuesday’s election. Trump’s final election rally is now set to be in Florida on Friday.

Despite being the oldest elected president in US history, Trump has kept up a gruelling schedule of near-daily rallies throughout October to help Republicans in the midterms.

Since October 1, Trump has hosted 25 rallies in 19 states, often speaking for his party in rural areas of Republican-friendly states. Tuesday’s midterm elections will determine whether Republicans retain narrow control of the US Senate and House of Representatives.

MAGA Inc, a campaign funding group aligned with Trump, said on Thursday it would host a series of “tele-rallies” with the president in at least 19 states, including Kansas and Iowa, before Election Day.

Trump has noted that his recent series of more than hour-long campaign speeches has been challenging. Sounding hoarse in Mississippi on Monday, Trump said, “God didn’t make your vocal cords to do a rally every day.”

On Thursday, after campaigning for Senator Darline Graham in South Carolina, Trump ridiculed a Reuters reporter who asked how he felt after weeks of rallies and whether he was sick of travelling.

“You’ve been following me for two weeks,” Trump said before boarding his motorcade back to the White House.

“I feel perfect.”

Cryptocurrency platform Binance said Friday it was working to resolve a “complex attack” that hit around $6.3 billion in funds, with about half that amount frozen to prevent a massive theft.

The company — the world’s largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes — said investigations had “uncovered additional points of breach”, contrary to initial findings that suggested the hack involved a single compromised laptop.

“This was a complex attack, and we are doing all we can in coordination with law enforcement to resolve it,” Binance wrote on X.

The firm earlier posted a series of sometimes contradictory messages, insisting that “user funds are completely safe” but also saying it would “cover all losses.”

The company confirmed on its X account for Latin America that “the total estimated impact is around $6.3 billion.”

That is four times the amount impacted in the biggest-ever cyberattack of its kind to date: $1.5 billion taken in February last year from the Bybit platform.

Binance warned the figure “may continue to increase as our teams work closely with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace and freeze additional assets.”

It said around $3 billion in affected assets had been frozen.

The 2023 Bybit heist was attributed at the time to a group of hackers affiliated with North Korea called TraderTraitor.

Blockchain investigation firm TRM Labs said Thursday it had “high confidence” that the Binance hack was also orchestrated by TraderTraitor, citing “robust on and off-chain intelligence.”

“Several features of this attack match earlier North Korea-linked heists,” TRM said.

TraderTraitor is believed to be part of Lazarus Group – which gained notoriety in 2014 when it was accused of hacking into Sony Pictures as revenge for “The Interview,” a film that mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Fund freeze

At about 0900 GMT Friday, Binance said it was on track to resume withdrawals in 45 hours, after announcing earlier that all deposits and withdrawals had been “temporarily suspended”.

“Deposits remain unaffected,” it said.

The company had said on X that initial investigation suggested the hack involved a compromised laptop belonging to a “DevOps engineer,” allowing the unauthorised party to access a “service container” and execute unauthorised withdrawal transactions.

“We have found no evidence of any private key leaks from wallets,” it said, promising to share a detailed technical analysis once investigations were complete.

But it said later that “subsequent investigation has uncovered additional points of breach.”

Paolo Ardoino, the boss of Tether — a company that issues a cryptocurrency known as USDT — said his firm froze about $1.6 billion “related to a potential Binance exchange hack.”

Jeremy Allaire, who runs cryptocurrency platform Circle, said his company had frozen more than $800 million in USDC.

USDT and USDC are both “stablecoins” or digital currencies whose value is linked to a traditional currency, the US dollar.

The US Department of Justice and the FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Crypto prices tumble

For several hours before Binance confirmed the attack, industry observers said hackers had managed to reach the platform.

The prices of most major cryptocurrencies fell on news of the cyberattack, except for the stablecoins, which by definition can only fluctuate within tight margins.

Bitcoin and Ethereum plunged nearly 5 per cent and nearly 6pc respectively on the news. BNB, native to Binance, tumbled nearly 10pc.

The attack on Binance comes as many observers express worries that the ever-expanding capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) models could compromise cryptography and IT security protocols.

Binance has secure asset fund

Binance runs a secure asset fund for users, which is a reserve held entirely in bitcoin that is intended to protect user assets in cases of security breaches, according to its website.

“It’s becoming very hard to counter hacks as AI can find vulnerabilities faster than you can fix them,” said Bernardo Brites, CEO of Trace Finance, a payments and stablecoin infrastructure company.

“My view is that users will move away from smaller and medium-sized exchanges, (it is) becoming too risky to park your money somewhere that couldn’t cover a hack of meaningful size.”

World Liberty Financial, a crypto company linked to US President Donald Trump and his family, said on Thursday it had worked with cryptocurrency custodian BitGo to freeze funds stolen in what it described as a Binance hack.

Binance’s Yi said $27 million in stablecoins and about $2 million worth of World Liberty tokens had been frozen.

Crypto firm Ripple also froze roughly $200 million in funds, Yi said. Jack McDonald, senior vice president of stablecoins at Ripple, said the company was closely monitoring reports of a potential exploit involving Binance and was freezing affected funds and coordinating with relevant parties.

Incident adds to string of crypto thefts

The incident adds to a string of crypto thefts. Last year, attackers stole $2.9 billion worth of cryptocurrency across nearly 150 attacks, according to researchers at TRM Labs.

In September, cryptocurrency exchange Bitget said roughly $350 million in crypto had been stolen from its platform, underscoring the industry’s vulnerability to hackers.

Authorities have warned that organised crime groups are increasingly using cryptocurrencies to move funds across borders outside the traditional financial system.

Binance.US, a separate cryptocurrency exchange, said it was not affected by the security incident.

Coinbase said it was unaffected and was monitoring the situation.

In an unrelated incident earlier on Thursday, prediction market operator Polymarket temporarily halted trading after a security incident involving a third-party provider. It later resumed trading and said it would fully reimburse affected traders.