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☆ Chinese hackers stole 60,000 emails from senior State Department officials in May, source says
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-28 | by ( Sean Lyngaas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The Chinese hackers who breached multiple US government agencies in May stole some 60,000 emails from senior State Department officials, including information on officials’ travel itineraries, a Senate staffer briefed on the matter told CNN. The hackers were also able to access a list of every State Department email address, according to the Senate staffer. That kind of reconnaissance could be useful information for any follow-on hacking efforts aimed at the State Department. At a press briefing Thursday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed that the hackers accessed about 60,000 State Department emails. “[T]his was a hack of Microsoft systems that the State Department uncovered and notified Microsoft about,” Miller told reporters.

Persons: Antony Blinken, Republican Sen, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Matthew Miller, ” Miller, China Nicholas Burns, Gina Raimondo, Daniel Kritenbrink, Don Bacon of Nebraska, Schmitt, ”, ” Schmitt Organizations: CNN, State Department, Republican, State Department IT, State, Department, Microsoft, The State Department, Biden, East Locations: Pacific, China, East Asia, Blinken

REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File photo Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies Microsoft Corp FollowWASHINGTON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Chinese hackers who subverted Microsoft's (MSFT.O) email platform earlier this year managed to steal tens of thousands of emails from U.S. State Department accounts, a Senate staffer told Reuters on Wednesday. The staffer, who attended a briefing of State Department IT officials, said the officials told lawmakers that 60,000 emails were stolen from 10 different State Department accounts. The staffer, who works for Senator Eric Schmitt, shared the details of the briefing on condition that he not be identified by name. Allegations that China hacked the State Department - along with two dozen other, mostly still unidentified organizations - have strained an already tense U.S.-China relationship; Beijing has denied being behind the spying. The U.S. State Department did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Persons: Kacper, Eric Schmitt, Microsoft's, " Schmitt, Raphael Satter, Leslie Adler Organizations: REUTERS, Microsoft Corp, WASHINGTON, U.S . State Department, State Department IT, Department, East, State Department, Reuters, Thomson Locations: East Asia, China, Beijing

REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File photo Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies Microsoft Corp FollowWASHINGTON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Chinese hackers who breached Microsoft's (MSFT.O) email platform this year managed to steal tens of thousands of emails from U.S. State Department accounts, a Senate staffer told Reuters on Wednesday. The staffer, who attended a briefing by State Department IT officials, said the officials told lawmakers that 60,000 emails were stolen from 10 State Department accounts. U.S. officials and Microsoft said in July that Chinese state-linked hackers since May had accessed email accounts at around 25 organizations, including the U.S. Commerce and State Departments. The hackers compromised a Microsoft engineer's device, which allowed them to breach the State Department's email accounts, according to the briefing. The State Department did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Wednesday, and Schmitt wasn't available for an interview.

Persons: Kacper, Eric Schmitt, Microsoft's, Schmitt, Raphael Satter, Zeba Siddiqui, Leslie Adler Organizations: REUTERS, Microsoft Corp, WASHINGTON, U.S . State Department, State Department IT, Department, East, Microsoft, U.S . Commerce, State, State Department, ., The State Department, U.S . State, Commerce, Reuters, Thomson Locations: East Asia, Europe, China, Beijing

A group of Ukrainian Army soldiers pierced by Russian grenades and mortar shells arrived at a hospital recently in need of surgery. It would have been a familiar scene from the bloody war grinding on in Ukraine, except for two crucial differences: Most of the wounded soldiers were American, and so was the hospital — the U.S. Army’s flagship medical center in Germany. The Army has quietly started to treat wounded Americans and other fighters evacuated from Ukraine at its Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. When the war erupted in 2022, hundreds of Americans — many of them military veterans — rushed to help defend Ukraine. Most of the wounded have had to rely on a patchwork of Ukrainian hospitals and Western charities for help.

Persons: — Organizations: Ukrainian Army, Army, Regional Medical Center, Ukrainian, Pentagon Locations: Ukraine, Germany, United States

The Pentagon has provided Patriot air defense systems and cajoled allies to provide S-300 air defense ammunition, both of which have proven effective. It has also provided other air defenses like the Avenger system and the Hawk air defense system. But Ukraine does not have enough air defense systems to cover the entire country, and must pick the sites it defends. Today, Russian officials have remade their economy to focus on defense production. As a result, military production has not only recovered but surged.

Persons: Russia’s Organizations: Pentagon Locations: Moscow, Russia, Kyiv, Ukraine, United States, Washington

☆ Mysterious tremors on the moon have been traced back to an unexpected source
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-13 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Data showed a mysterious quake happening every lunar morning, and scientists weren't sure why. A new study has found morning tremors are coming from the Apollo 17 lunar lander base. They discovered that some of the tremors were being produced by the descent stage of the Apollo 17 lunar module, left behind on the lunar surface 51 years ago. AdvertisementAdvertisementBut each morning, scientists also saw bizarre waves popping up every few minutes. By triangulating the signal, they were able to figure out the source of the mysterious tremors.

Persons: Allen Husker, —, seismometers, Harrison H, Schmitt It's, Husker, Francesco Civilini, Renee Weber, it's, It's Organizations: Service, NASA, California Institute of Technology, Caltech, NASA Marshall Space, CalTech Locations: Wall, Silicon

African leaders allied with Russia had grown used to dealing with Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the swaggering, profane mercenary leader who traveled the continent by private jet, offering to prop up shaky regimes with guns and propaganda in return for gold and diamonds. But the Russian delegation that toured three African countries last week was led by a very different figure, the starchy deputy defense minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov. Dressed in a khaki uniform and a “telnyashka” — the horizontally-striped undergarment of Russian armed forces — he signaled conformity and restraint, giving assurances wrapped in polite language. “We will do our best to help you,” he said at a news conference in Burkina Faso. The contrast with the flamboyant Mr. Prigozhin could not have been sharper, and it aligned with the message the Kremlin was delivering: After Mr. Prigozhin’s death in a plane crash last month, Russia’s operations in Africa were coming under new management.

Persons: Yevgeny V, Yunus, bek Yevkurov, —, ”, Prigozhin, Prigozhin’s Locations: Russia, Burkina Faso, Africa

The images of Russian troops retreating from a village in Ukraine under fire leave little doubt of the impact of cluster munitions. An armored vehicle speeding down a road before being hit in a cascade of simultaneous eruptions salting the surrounding ground. By embracing cluster munitions to keep this summer’s counteroffensive moving forward, Ukraine and the United States have opened themselves to human rights concerns about their long-term threat to civilians who inadvertently trigger unexploded bombs. One official said the weapons were key to helping Ukraine maintain the momentum its troops just recently gained on the southern front against Russian forces. All three of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

Persons: Biden Organizations: The New York Times, Russian Locations: Ukraine, Urozhaine, United States

After piercing a daunting line of Russian defenses around the southern village of Robotyne, Ukrainian forces are now seeking to take the next step in their arduous counteroffensive, waging a fierce battle a few miles farther to the east, according to Ukrainian military commanders and U.S. officials. The intense fighting on Thursday comes amid weeks of brutal battles that have resulted in small but significant advances that Ukrainian forces are trying to exploit, with the broader goal of driving a wedge into the so-called land bridge between Russia and occupied Crimea, which is vital to the Russian military’s supply routes. The Ukrainian 46th Brigade, which is participating in the fighting in the area, said that its assault units were attacking Russian positions near the village of Verbove, nine miles east of Robotyne. The move toward Verbove is notable because it shows that Ukraine is confident enough in its hold on Robotyne that it believes its troops can try to press forward.

Organizations: Ukrainian 46th Brigade Locations: Robotyne, Russia, Crimea, Verbove, Ukraine

There he was in Denmark, praising the government for “helping Ukraine to become invincible” with its pledge to send 19 jets. In Athens, he said Greece’s offer to train Ukrainian pilots would “help us fight for our freedom.” Within days of returning to Kyiv, Mr. Zelensky had secured promises from a half-dozen countries to either donate the jets — potentially more than 60 — or provide training for pilots and support crew. “It is important and necessary,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway told Mr. Zelensky in Kyiv, announcing that his government would provide an undetermined number of the jets — probably 10 or fewer — in the future. It was a remarkable victory lap for a sophisticated attack aircraft that even Ukraine’s defense minister has acknowledged is unlikely to perform in combat until next spring — and then only for the few pilots who can understand English well enough to fly it. With Ukraine’s counteroffensive grinding ahead slowly this summer, Mr. Zelensky’s airy announcements of securing the F-16s signal a tacit acknowledgment that the 18-month war in Ukraine will likely endure for years to come.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, Jonas Gahr Organizations: ” Locations: Ukraine, Netherlands, Denmark, “, Athens, Kyiv, Norway

The Kremlin is considering options on bringing the private military group Wagner under its direct control after the presumed death of its leader, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, according to U.S. and Western officials. Among those possibilities, officials say, are absorbing Wagner into the Defense Ministry or its military intelligence arm. The Kremlin could also install a Russian general or other government ally as its new chief, according to people briefed on the preliminary intelligence. Still, U.S. officials said the Kremlin believes the organization’s military prowess, experienced operators and ties to African governments are too valuable to give up or allow to wither away. A plane believed to be carrying Mr. Prigozhin crashed on Wednesday, Russian, U.S. and European officials have said.

Persons: Wagner, Yevgeny V, Prigozhin, Vladimir V, Putin, Prigozhin’s Organizations: Defense Ministry, Kremlin, U.S Locations: Russian, Russia, Ukraine, U.S, Moscow

☆ Merch, vinyl, hotels and credit cards: Taylor Swift's Eras Tour helped a bunch of companies – but hurt others
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-26 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour had a significant impact on several public companies this summer. "Knowing how our guests can't get enough of Taylor Swift, we proactively secured an exclusive vinyl offering that Swifties bought in droves." "In July, Taylor Swift launched her Eras Tour merch shop with us experiencing unprecedented volume sales and site visitors on launch day, and we were ready for it." "Folks aren't buying as much patio furniture when they're spending hundreds or thousands of dollars to go to Taylor Swift. Rolling Stones, U2, Madonna, Prince, and this Taylor Swift performance was at a whole different level.

Persons: Taylor, Taylor Swift, Swifties, Christina Hennington, — Harvey Finkelstein, — Boyd Muir, — Leslie Hale, Raymond Martz, Jon Bortz, Wee Ee Cheong, Thomson Leighton, James Conroy, It's, Jonathan Johnson, Tom Schmitt Organizations: Service, AlphaSense, Merchandising, Universal Music, Lodging, Overseas Bank, Bot, Akamai, Forward Locations: Wall, Silicon, Chicago

The plane that listed Mr. Prigozhin as a passenger left Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on Wednesday at about 6 p.m. local time, bound for St. Petersburg. The paint and a partial registration number, RA-02795, visible on the aircraft match a jet that Mr. Prigozhin is known to use. Was Mr. Prigozhin killed? American officials said they could not confirm Mr. Prigozhin had been killed in the plane crash, or why the jet went down. Emerging from jail as the Soviet Union was collapsing, Mr. Prigozhin began his post-criminal career selling hot dogs on street corners in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Persons: Yevgeny V, Russian Wagner, Prigozhin, Prighozin, Dmitri Utkin, Wagner, Vladimir V, Putin, Mr, ”, Prighozhin, Putin’s Organizations: RIA Novosti, Embraer, Russian, Kremlin, Central African Locations: Russian, Moscow, Sheremetyevo, St . Petersburg, Kuzhenkino, Tver, Western, Kremlin, Russia, South Africa, Ukraine, Soviet Union, Bakhmut, Syria, Libya, Mali, Central African Republic, Belarus

An explosion on a plane believed to be carrying the Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin likely brought down the aircraft on Wednesday, killing all the passengers aboard, according to U.S. and other Western officials citing preliminary intelligence. A definitive conclusion has not yet been reached, but a blast is the leading theory of what caused a private plane to crash in a field between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The explosion could have been caused by a bomb or other device planted on the aircraft, though other theories, like adulterated fuel, were also being explored, the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, said. U.S. officials sounded increasingly certain, both publicly and privately, that Mr. Prigozhin was dead, and that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had ordered the killing, intent on removing a figure who had led a short-lived mutiny in June that was seen as the gravest challenge to Mr. Putin’s rule in decades. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said the initial U.S. assessment, based on a “variety of factors,” was that Mr. Prigozhin had likely been killed in the crash.

Persons: Yevgeny V, Prigozhin, Vladimir V, Putin, Putin’s, Patrick Ryder, ” Organizations: Pentagon Locations: Moscow, St . Petersburg, Russia, Brig

Russian officials said Ukrainian forces dropped explosives on a Russian village near the border with Ukraine, killing three, and targeted Moscow with drones for a sixth consecutive day on Wednesday. Since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion almost 18 months ago, Ukrainian forces have regularly fired on villages in the region, according to the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov. Two other drones were shot down early Wednesday in suburban districts of the Moscow region, the Russian Defense Ministry said on the messaging app Telegram. Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment on the episodes, as has been their practice on attacks inside Russia. The drone attacks in the Moscow region have not caused injuries or deaths, according to Russian officials.

Persons: Vyacheslav Gladkov, ” “, Vladimir V, Juston Jones, Edward Wong Organizations: U.S, Moscow City, Russian Defense Ministry, U.S . State Department, Ukraine, Russia’s Federal Agency for Air Transport Locations: Ukrainian, Ukraine, Moscow, Russian, Belgorod, Russia, ” “ Russia, Moscow City, Ukraine’s Odesa

American officials say there are indications that Ukraine has started to shift some of its more seasoned combat forces from the east to the south. But even the most experienced units have been reconstituted a number of times after taking heavy casualties. Ukraine has penetrated at least one layer of Russian defenses in the south in recent days and is increasing the pressure, U.S. and Ukrainian officials said. Taking the village, American officials said, would be a good sign. The Russians are battling from concealed positions that Ukrainian soldiers often see only when they are feet away.

Locations: Ukraine

American officials say they fear that Ukraine has become casualty adverse, one reason it has been cautious about pressing ahead with the counteroffensive. The number of dead and wounded reflects the amount of lethal munitions being expended by both sides. When close combat does occur, it resembles the battles of World War I: brutal and often taking place in trenches. Unlike the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where American forces strictly adhered to evacuating casualties within an hour to a well-stocked medical facility, there is no such capability in Ukraine. In some cases, the wounded and dead are left on the battlefield, because medics are unable to reach them.

Locations: Ukraine, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq

In a long-awaited move, the United States will allow allies to send American-made F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv once Ukrainian pilots are trained to operate them, a U.S. official confirmed on Thursday. However, the requirement that Ukraine’s pilots be fully trained means that the approvals will not come for months. Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which began two months ago, has a chance of prevailing without the fighter jets, experts say, but it is likely to be far more difficult. The U.S. decision had been anticipated since May, when President Biden eased his resistance to NATO allies’ efforts to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s and provide the jets to Ukraine. The official who confirmed the U.S. shift was not authorized to publicly discuss the agreement and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Persons: Yuriy Ihnat, ”, Biden Organizations: U.S, Ukraine’s Air Force, NATO Locations: United States, Kyiv, Ukrainian, Ukraine, U.S

☆ Blinken’s Toughest Challenge Might Not Be Coups but Passport Delays
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Michael Crowley | More About Michael Crowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has a crisis on his hands. But unlike the foreign coups, hostage-takings and military threats that the nation’s top diplomat routinely faces, this one comes from within the vast bureaucracy he commands — and may be even more difficult to solve. The problem is a huge backlog of passport applications that is creating summer travel nightmares for Americans who find that getting a new passport or renewing an expired one can take months, forcing them into panicked races against their planned travel date through an often bewildering bureaucratic maze. Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, has called the situation a “crisis.” Senator Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, has said it is “an unacceptable failure.” And Utah’s entire congressional delegation told Mr. Blinken in a letter this spring that their offices were “struggling to handle all incoming emergency requests due to the sheer volume” of pleas from their constituents. “While running a competent passport application process may not make a panel at Davos, this is an important function of the federal government that directly affects the lives and plans of millions of Americans,” Senator Eric Schmitt, Republican of Missouri, said in a letter to Mr. Blinken, referring to the elite economic forum held annually in the Swiss Alps.

Persons: Antony J, Blinken, —, Mark Warner, Rick Scott, Eric Schmitt Organizations: Democrat, Republican Locations: Virginia, Florida, Davos, Missouri, Swiss

The military takeover in Niger has upended years of Western counterterrorism efforts in West Africa and now poses wrenching new challenges for the Biden administration’s fight against Islamist militants on the continent. American-led efforts to degrade terrorist networks around the world have largely succeeded in longtime jihadist hot spots like Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. Not so in Africa, especially in the Sahel, the vast, semiarid region south of the Sahara where groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State are gaining ground at an alarming pace. Niger, an impoverished nation of 25 million people that is nearly twice the size of Texas, has recently been the exception to that trend. Niger has slowed, but not stopped, a wave of extremists pushing south to coastal states.

Persons: Biden, Mohamed Bazoum Organizations: Islamic, Nigerien Locations: Niger, West Africa, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Africa, Sahel, Al Qaeda, Texas

Two long-time industry executives told Reuters that Yellow's rates were roughly 10% to 20% below those of rivals. Loads in the so-called LTL market do not trade on the spot market and they vary based on the type and size of shipments, they said. "Yellow was way below" market rates, said Ken Adamo, chief of analytics at DAT Freight and Analytics, which operates one of North America's largest truck freight marketplaces. Unlike the highly fragmented trucking market, LTL is dominated by about a dozen players. Some providers are already raising rates, which could send LTL rates up 10% to 15% from current levels, Pickett said.

Persons: Mike Blake, Ken Adamo, Chris Pickett, Pickett, Adamo, Thomas Schmitt, Schmitt, Lisa Baertlein, Marguerita Choy Organizations: U.S, Rivals, Reuters, Analytics, Flock, Walmart, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Forward, Forward Air, Thomson Locations: Mexico, San Diego , California, U.S, North, Los Angeles

[1/3] A general view of a grain terminal at the port of Odesa, Ukraine, April 10, 2023. Drone attacks wrecked buildings in the port of Izmail and prevented ships on the Danube River from loading grain for export. WHAT DOES INTERNATIONAL LAW SAY? The Geneva Conventions and additional protocols say that parties involved in military conflict must distinguish between “civilian objects and military objectives”, and that attacks on civilian objects are forbidden. This prohibition is also codified in the Rome Statute of the ICC, which opened an investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine soon after the invasion.

Persons: Ritzau Scanpix, Bo Amstrup, Russia's, Yousuf Syed Khan, RIA, Katharine Fortin, Michael Schmitt, Marko Milanovic, Anthony Deutsch, Stephanie van den Berg, Kevin Liffey Organizations: REUTERS, Criminal, Global Rights, ICC, Utrecht University, Lieber, U.S, West, International, University of Reading, Nova, Thomson Locations: Odesa, Ukraine, Izmail, The Hague, Kherson, Geneva, Rome, Russian, Nova, Russia

☆ Whale fossil may be the heaviest animal ever
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Kristen Rogers | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —A colossal ancient whale discovered in Peru might be the heaviest animal on record, according to a new study. What’s more, Perucetus likely weighed two to three times more than the blue whale, which today weighs a maximum of 149.6 metric tons (330,000 pounds). Giovanni Bianucci“Discoveries of such extreme body forms are an opportunity to re-evaluate our understanding of animal evolution,” wrote J.G.M. “It seems that we are only dimly aware of how astonishing whale form and function can be,” they added. The lifestyle of a colossal whaleThe findings suggest that gigantism or peak body mass among cetaceans had been reached around 30 million years earlier than previously thought, according to the study.

Persons: Giovanni Bianucci, “, ” Bianucci, Perucetus, ”, ’, Bianucci, pacificus, Mystacodon selenesis, Mario Urbina Schmitt, Schmitt, Thewissen, David A, Waugh, weren’t, Ingalls, Brown, ” Thewissen Organizations: CNN, University of Pisa’s, sirenians, Peru “, National University of San, Ohio Medical University Locations: Peru, Italy, Ica, Peruvian, National University of San Marcos, Lima

Ukraine’s decision to change tactics is a clear signal that NATO’s hopes for large advances made by Ukrainian formations armed with new weapons, new training and an injection of artillery ammunition have failed to materialize, at least for now. It raises questions about the quality of the training the Ukrainians received from the West and about whether tens of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons, including nearly $44 billion worth from the Biden administration, have been successful in transforming the Ukrainian military into a NATO-standard fighting force. “The counteroffensive itself hasn’t failed; it will drag on for several months into the fall,” said Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who recently visited the front lines. “Arguably, the problem was in the assumption that with a few months of training, Ukrainian units could be converted into fighting more the way American forces might fight, leading the assault against a well-prepared Russian defense, rather than helping Ukrainians fight more the best way they know how.”President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has increasingly signaled that his strategy is to wait out Ukraine and its allies and win the war by exhausting them. American officials are worried that Ukraine’s return to its old tactics risks that it will race through precious ammunition supplies, which could play into Mr. Putin’s hands and disadvantage Ukraine in a war of attrition.

Persons: Biden, ”, Michael Kofman, Vladimir V, Putin, Putin’s Organizations: NATO, Carnegie Endowment, International Peace Locations: Russia, Ukraine

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