Suspected Chinese Hackers Exploited Microsoft Vulnerabilities to Breach Government Email Systems

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Hackers believed to be linked to China have exploited vulnerabilities in Microsoft software to breach the email systems at over two dozen organizations, including some U.S. government agencies, as part of a suspected cyber-espionage campaign.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the hackers, identified as “Storm-0558,” exploited a security weakness in Microsoft’s cloud-computing environment to gain access to sensitive computer networks. This development is especially concerning for officials and security researchers, as it is seen as part of a larger espionage campaign that could have compromised valuable U.S. government information.

“Last month, U.S. government safeguards identified an intrusion in Microsoft’s cloud security, which affected unclassified systems. Officials immediately contacted Microsoft to find the source and vulnerability in their cloud service,” said Adam Hodge, spokesman for the White House National Security Council. He added, “We continue to hold the procurement providers of the U.S. government to a high security threshold.”

The full extent and severity of the incident, including the specific institutions and individuals affected, are not yet known. The incident has underscored the growing concerns among senior Western intelligence officials about the ability of Chinese hackers to orchestrate stealthy attacks that can evade detection for years. (Read more from “Suspected Chinese Hackers Exploited Microsoft Vulnerabilities to Breach Government Email Systems” HERE)

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Poll: Biden Approval Stuck Near Lowest Level of Presidency

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President Joe Biden’s public approval rating was stuck at 40 percent in early July, close to the lowest levels of his presidency, defying White House efforts to further engage voter support.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll delivered the bad news for the president as he looks to another run for office in 2024, telling Turkish President Recep Erdogan overnight he would win re-election next year and would be working with him for the next five years, as Breitbart News reported.

The three-day online poll, which asked Americans, “Do you approve or disapprove of the way Joe Biden is handling his job as president?” and ended Monday, showed a marginal decrease from his 41 percent approval rating a month earlier, within the survey’s three percentage point margin of error.

The largest number of respondents — 21 percent — cited the economy as their top concern, followed by 15 percent who cited crime or corruption, Reuters reports. (Read more from “Poll: Biden Approval Stuck Near Lowest Level of Presidency” HERE)

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Jim Banks to Grill Military Academy Heads on Race-Based Admissions

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House lawmakers plan to grill leaders of the military service academies on their use of race-based admissions at a hearing scheduled for July 19 after a Supreme Court ruling overturning affirmative action did not confirm whether service academies could be exempt.

The Supreme Court ruled on June 29 that universities’ affirmative action policies violated the Constitution’s guarantees of equal treatment for all races, but left open a question of addressing racial preference in military service academies’ admissions decisions, according to the opinion. Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, who chairs the Military Personnel Subcommittee on the House’s armed services panel, will lead the probe next week into how U.S. military academies’ prioritize attracting and admitting future officers of minority races or ethnicities.

“Colorblindness and consistent standards are very important in universities, but in our officer corps they’re life and death issues,” Banks told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Members of the panel will also grill witnesses from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy on topics including curriculum development and diversity of thought, according to the committee website.

“Every American should be judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin and race-based preferences don’t belong in schools, the military, or anywhere else in America. The Supreme Court issued the right ruling, but it should have applied to service academies too,” Banks told the DCNF. (Read more from “Jim Banks to Grill Military Academy Heads on Race-Based Admissions” HERE)

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Donald Trump Blasts More Ukraine Aid: ‘Joe Biden Should Not Be Dragging Us Further Toward World War III’

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“Joe Biden should not be dragging us further toward World War III,” former President Donald Trump said in a statement released Tuesday, calling to “immediately end the bloodshed in Ukraine” and for a return “to a focus on America’s vital interest.”

Trump reacted to the Biden administration’s recent decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, despite President Joe Biden admitting that “we’re low on [them].” . . .

Trump, however, believes it is a mistake, asserting that Biden is essentially “dragging us further toward World War III by sending cluster munitions to Ukraine.”

Trump warned:

He should be trying to END the war and stop the horrific death and destruction being caused by an incompetent administration. These unexploded cluster munitions will be killing and maiming innocent Ukrainian men, women, and children for decades to come, long after the war—we pray—has ended.

(Read more from “Donald Trump Blasts More Ukraine Aid: ‘Joe Biden Should Not Be Dragging Us Further Toward World War III'” HERE)

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Democrat Rep. Switches Parties: Democrats ‘Crucified Me’ and Abuse the Black Community

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A Georgia Democrat state representative announced that she is switching parties after her leftist colleagues “crucified” her when she chose to support school choice, adding that the Democrat Party has “gotten away with using and abusing the black community.”

State Rep. Mesha Mainor, who represents District 56 in the Peach State, announced on Tuesday that she is officially switching her party registration from Democrat to Republican following a tumultuous relationship with her colleagues.

“…today I made the decision to leave the Democrat Party. I represent a blue district in the city of Atlanta so this wasn’t a political decision for me. It was a MORAL one,” she said in a social media post. . .

“When I decided to stand up on behalf of disadvantaged children in support of school choice, my Democrat colleagues didn’t stand by me,” Mainor told Fox News Digital, asserting that her Democrat colleagues “crucified” her for supporting school choice and standing against efforts to defund police. She said she has always stood as the type of politician who will “work across the aisle to deliver results for my community and the people I was elected to represent.” But her leftist colleagues did not support her.

“They abandoned me,” she said, explaining again that her decision to leave the Democrat Party is not a political decision but a moral one. (Read more from “Democrat Rep. Switches Parties: Democrats ‘Crucified Me’ and Abuse the Black Community” HERE)

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Vice Roasted for Paying Execs up to $900K Before Filing for Bankruptcy

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A reporter for Vice Media Group blasted the company for dishing out massive salaries to executives as the once-high-flying firm staggered toward bankruptcy — yet can’t spare a dime for him to pay for court records.

Joseph Cox, a senior staff writer for Vice-owned tech site Motherboard, tweeted screenshots from from documents filed by Vice in its bankruptcy proceedings listing its payments and transfers to top brass for the year before the media company filed for Chapter 11 protection in May.

“Today at Vice I was unable to pull a court record, which costs 10 cents, because the company isn’t paying bills,” Cox wrote Monday. “Meanwhile so many execs, some which led Vice to bankruptcy, make $700-900k, including bonuses at the time VICE laid off much cheaper workers. It’s worse than I thought.”

Last month, a fund tied to billionaire George Soros and SoftBank-owned Fortress Investment Group — Vice’s main creditors — won control of the company, which at its peak was valued at $5.7 billion.

According to the court documents, which the Post reviewed, Jesse Angelo, Vice’s former global president of news and entertainment, pulled in compensation totaling $815,254 between May 2022 and May 2023. (Read more from “Vice Roasted for Paying Execs up to $900K Before Filing for Bankruptcy” HERE)

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Chicago Suburb Starts Making Reparation Payouts in ‘Test Run for the Whole Country’

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A suburb of Chicago has become the first to start paying reparations to qualifying black residents in what is being seen as “a test run for the whole country.”

The city of Evanston has already paid 16 locals from a $10 million package first approved in 2019, the Evanston RoundTable said Monday.

By the end of the year, the reparations committee expects to have paid $25,000 each to 140 qualifying residents in the city of about 75,000, officials also told the Wall Street Journal.

“I see it as like a test run for the whole country,” Justin Hansford, head of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University, told the paper.

Those qualifying had to be at least 18 and living in the city between 1919 and 1969, when the city passed a fair-housing ordinance, the WSJ said. (Read more from “Chicago Suburb Starts Making Reparation Payouts in ‘Test Run for the Whole Country’” HERE)

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U.S. Forced to Walk Back Comments Biden Made About Military

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The Biden administration was forced to walk back comments that President Joe Biden made this week about the U.S. military’s preparedness for war.

Biden faced backlash on Sunday after saying during an interview with CNN that Department of Defense was running low on ammunition because of the war in Ukraine.

“The military has specific requirements for the numbers of weapons systems and ammunition we maintain in our reserves in case of contingencies or military conflict,” a White House official said in a statement. “Everything we send to Ukraine is in excess of that. So, the U.S. is not running out of ammunition ourselves.” . . .

The White House’s correction of Biden’s remarks come after communist China used Biden’s latest gaffe to promote anti-American propaganda on social media.

“People have long known about 🇺🇸’s ammo shortage via many news reports,” tweeted the Global Times, a Chinese state-run propaganda outlet. “It’s already no secret to anyone. Let’s not forget Biden only mentioned this to justify his approval of using cluster bombs that might kill more civilians in the war.” (Read more from “U.S. Forced to Walk Back Comments Biden Made About Military” HERE)

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White House Trying to Kill Ukraine Inspector General Provision in Defense Authorization Bill

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The White House on Monday told lawmakers it opposes a provision in the House’s annual defense policy bill that would create a special inspector general for Ukraine aid, modelled after the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

The Ukraine inspector general was one of several provisions in the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act that the White House, in an Office of Management and Budget statement on the bill, told Congress it wants removed. . .

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., added the language to create the Ukraine inspector general when the Armed Services Committee marked up the NDAA in June and eventually voted 58-1 to advance the $874 billion bill to the House floor. The House’s defense spending bill, which the Appropriations Committee advanced 34-24 in June over Democratic objections, would fund the Ukraine inspector general. . .

The Pentagon said in June a $6.2 billion accounting error inflated the costs of equipment the U.S. has sent to Ukraine, prompting Republicans on the House Oversight Committee to ask Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for a staff-level briefing last week. The error means the Defense Department has more funds available to transfer weapons to Kyiv than it previously thought. (Read more from “White House Trying to Kill Ukraine Inspector General Provision in Defense Authorization Bill” HERE)

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Hospital Nurses, Doctors Ready to Walk Amid Alarming Burnout Rates: Study

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Physical violence. Sexual harassment. Verbal abuse. Indifferent management. Long hours on graveyard shifts. And a chance that you’ll catch a deadly illness.

If that sounds like an ideal job, consider working in a hospital.

A new survey finds that hospital doctors and nurses — including those at institutions ranked among the best in the nation — are suffering from job burnout at alarming rates.

Nearly half of all nurses (47%) reported burnout, and 40% of nurses would leave their jobs if it was possible, according to the survey, published in JAMA Health Forum.

Doctors don’t fare much better: 32% reported feeling burnout, and 23% of hospital doctors would quit if possible. (Read more from “Hospital Nurses, Doctors Ready to Walk Amid Alarming Burnout Rates: Study” HERE)

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