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China-Linked Hackers Breach US Nuclear Weapons Agency In Sophisticated Operation

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has been hit by a sophisticated cyberattack that exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint, and is being widely described by one of the most serious breaches of US defense infrastructure this year. Fingers in the West are pointing to Beijing.

Hackers believed linked to the Chinese government used a zero-day exploit targeting on-premises versions of SharePoint to infiltrate over 50 organizations, including the agency responsible for the Navy’s nuclear submarine reactors. China is vehemently denying the charge.

The NNSA oversees both the production of nuclear reactors for submarines and the maintenance of the US nuclear arsenal. Cybersecurity experts are currently describing what’s known as an advanced remote code execution (RCE) attack.

The vulnerability reportedly affected SharePoint Server 2019 and the Subscription Edition, which allowed attackers to bypass security protocols and execute arbitrary commands on targeted systems, as described in Bloomberg.

The US Department of Energy is well-known to use Microsoft 365 cloud systems for a lot of its SharePoint work. “The department was minimally impacted due to its widespread use of the Microsoft M365 cloud and very capable cybersecurity systems,” a Department of Energy spokesperson conveyed in a statement to Bloomberg. “A very small number of systems were impacted. All impacted systems are being restored.”

It’s believed the hackers were able to gain unauthorized access, steal data, collect login credentials, and potentially move deeper into connected networks; however, the Department of Energy has claimed no classified or sensitive nuclear data was compromised in the breach.

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Microsoft knew of SharePoint server exploit but failed to effectively patch it

A security patch released by Microsoft (MSFT.O) last month failed to fully fix a critical flaw in U.S. tech giant’s SharePoint server software that had been identified in May, opening the door to a sweeping global cyber espionage operation.

It remains unclear who is behind the ongoing operation, which targeted around 100 organisations over the weekend. But Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Google, which has visibility into wide swathes of internet traffic, said it tied at least some of the hacks to a “China-nexus threat actor”.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Chinese government-linked operatives are regularly implicated in cyberattacks, but Beijing routinely denies carrying out hacking operations.

Contacted on Tuesday, Microsoft was not immediately able to provide comment on the patch and its effectiveness.

The vulnerability that facilitated the attack was first identified in May at a hacking competition in Berlin organised by cybersecurity firm Trend Micro (4704.T), which offered cash bounties for the discovery of computer bugs in popular software.

It offered a $100,000 prize for “zero day” exploits – so called because they leverage previously undisclosed digital weaknesses – that could be used against SharePoint, Microsoft’s flagship document management and collaboration platform.

A researcher working for the cybersecurity arm of Viettel, a telecommunications firm operated by Vietnam’s military, identified a SharePoint bug at the event, dubbed it ‘ToolShell’ and demonstrated a method of exploiting it.

The researcher was awarded $100,000 for the discovery, according to a post on X by Trend Micro’s “Zero Day Initiative”. A spokesperson for Trend Micro did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment regarding the competition on Tuesday.

Microsoft subsequently said in a July 8 security update that it had identified the bug, listed it as a critical vulnerability, and released patches to fix it.

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Antidepressants During Pregnancy Raise Risk of Birth Defects, Doctors Tell FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) needs to do a better job of warning pregnant women that taking SSRIs, a type of antidepressant, may harm them and their developing baby, doctors told the agency Monday.

The FDA hosted an expert panel of developmental biologists, psychiatrists, epidemiologists, obstetricians and mental health experts who discussed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and pregnancy. The agency livestreamed the two-hour conversation on YouTube and X.

SSRIs have been “implicated in different studies to be involved in postpartum hemorrhage, pulmonary hypertension and cognitive downstream effects in the baby, as well as cardiac birth defects,” said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who opened the event.

Nearly 1 in 4 middle-aged women and up to 5% of pregnant women are on an antidepressant, Makary said.

“Antidepressants like SSRIs can be an effective treatment for depression, but we have to stop and also look at the big picture,” he said. “The more antidepressants we prescribe, the more depression there is. … We have to start talking about root causes.”

SSRIs in particular warrant scrutiny as serotonin “may play a crucial role in the development of organs of a baby in utero,” he said.

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California’s Fraudulent “Disaster Recovery” Is A Land Grab

Remember Gavin Newsom’s first visit to the sites of devastating fires last January in Los Angeles, when he vowed to streamline California’s paralytic regulations so people could quickly rebuild their homes?

In that interview, while undulating his shoulders in a weird shimmy that will undoubtedly come back to haunt him as he ramps up his presidential campaigning, Newsom also promised to “prevent opportunistic investors from exploiting vulnerable residents by offering below-market prices.”

It’s hard to say which promise has been more thoroughly violated. As celebrity author Adam Carolla posted on 7/14, there is virtually no work going on along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, where hundreds of homes burned down to the sand.

This is typical.

The Palisades Fire, with a burn area that included Malibu, destroyed over 6,000 homes. So far, 161 permits have been issued by the City of Los Angeles. The community of Altadena, which was consumed by the Eaton Fire, lost over 9,000 homes. So far, 84 rebuilding permits have been issued.

Instead of streamlining the process to get permits to rebuild, if anything, the city has made it harder. In a July 14 interview with the local ABC affiliate, one dispossessed homeowner claimed the city is adding new requirements and deadlines, saying, “They’re now requiring you to submit an itemized list with pricing, which is nearly impossible in a home that’s been owned for over 40, 50 years.”

But whether it’s California Governor Gavin Newsom or Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the playbook is not designed to help people rebuild their homes and move back into the neighborhoods where their families have lived for generations. New regulations did not replace old regulations. They added as much as they removed, with the new ones being unfamiliar even to veteran builders. All of them, of course, came delivered with the rhetoric of streamlining, while in fact only adding complexity.

Newsom, a tool of corporatist special interests, and Bass, a socialist darling of public sector union bosses, were never playing a game intended to help anyone living in a “single-family detached home.” The new regulations, sold as a way to expedite permitting, were in fact a way to make rebuilding impossible for all but the wealthiest homeowners. And Newsom’s executive order that would “prevent opportunistic investors from exploiting vulnerable residents by offering below-market prices” was actually a move calculated to limit the options of homeowners while the special interests—including the government itself—lined up to purchase these properties.

This isn’t speculation. In late June, Los Angeles County’s “Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action and Fire-Safe Recovery” issued its “draft action plan” for “The Resilient and Sustainable Rebuilding of Los Angeles County.” This document is a textbook example of what corporate socialist elites have in store for those normal citizens who, to date, still maintain a modicum of financial independence.

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LEAK: Pentagon Inspector General Has ‘Evidence’ Hegseth Signal Chat Included Classified Information From Central Command – Pentagon Spox Responds

Another day, another leak.

CNN and The Washington Post on Wednesday reported that sources say the Pentagon Inspector General has ‘evidence’ that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Signal chat included classified information from Central Command.

The Pentagon Inspector General expanded his investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the double-encrypted app Signal in May.

Steven Stebbins took over as Acting Inspector General after President Trump fired the previous IG and 17 other inspectors general.

Stebbins was first appointed to his position in 2015.

Pete Hegseth has been under heavy attack since before his confirmation hearing and the leaks keep coming.

The Pentagon Inspector General expanded his probe following The Wall Street Journal’s reporting on Hegseth’s wife and brother participating in Signal chat groups.

Pete Hegseth was blamed for not noticing Jeffrey Goldberg was added to the Signal chat group with other high-level Trump Administration officials.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell responded to the latest leak in a statement to CNN: “This Signal narrative is so old and worn out, it’s starting to resemble Joe Biden’s mental state. The Department stands behind its previous statements: no classified information was shared via Signal. As we’ve said repeatedly, nobody was texting war plans and the success of the Department’s recent operations–from Operation Rough Rider to Operation Midnight Hammer–are proof that our operational security and discipline are top notch.”

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WEF Said Eat Bugs… While Klaus Schwab Billed The Forum For Massages And Moët: Leaked Investigation

Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum and its public face for more than half a century, is at the center of a widening internal investigation into alleged workplace misconduct, inappropriate spending, and personal interventions in the Forum’s research and operations, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and individuals familiar with the probe.

The Forum’s board of trustees commissioned the investigation in April following a whistleblower complaint. Preliminary findings accuse Schwab of a pattern of inappropriate behavior, including suggestive and potentially inappropriate remarks to female staff, questionable travel expenses exceeding $1.1 million for himself and his wife Hilde Schwab, and alleged manipulation of the Forum’s influential Global Competitiveness Report.

In one instance cited by investigators, Schwab wrote to a senior female executive in a late-night email in June 2020, “Do you feel that I am thinking of you.”

Investigators told trustees that Schwab treated the Forum like his “fiefdom,” fostering a culture of intimidation and fear while allowing harassment and discrimination to go unchecked. They also flagged 14 hotel massages billed to the Forum – either through Schwab’s corporate card or junior employees’ cards – noting he later reimbursed roughly half. Schwab said he had instructed assistants to bill him for such expenses.

Schwab, now 87, stepped down from the Forum over Easter weekend and no longer holds any official role. In a written statement, he defended his and his wife’s decades-long involvement: “Throughout this journey, Hilde and I never used the Forum for personal enrichment.”

Through a spokesman, Schwab also rejected the report’s broader conclusions, citing his fixed annual salary of 1 million Swiss francs (approximately $1.3 million), a 100,000 franc allowance for entertaining guests, and a commitment to reimbursing any personal costs mistakenly covered by the Forum.

He added that any travel expenses covered for his wife were based on a “good-faith understanding” between the Forum and the Schwab Foundation, which she chaired without a salary since 1973. Schwab also said he donated most gifts to charity and displayed others, such as Russian tea sets, at Forum headquarters. “He didn’t specifically recall other gifts described by investigators,” the spokesman added.

The internal inquiry, led by Swiss law firm Homburger, has involved interviews with over 50 current and former employees. The firm is expected to deliver a final report to the full board by the end of August, which will be shared with Swiss nonprofit regulators and may be referred to prosecutors.

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HYPOCRISY ON STEROIDS, about the Gaza genocide

The U.S. supplies 69% of the weapons, Germany supplies 30%, for Israel’s extermination of the Gazans, but on July 21st, America’s AP headlined “UK, Canada and 26 other countries say the war in Gaza ‘must end now’”, and reported that, “Twenty-eight countries including Britain, Japan and a host of European nations issued a joint statement Monday saying the war in Gaza ‘must end now’ — the latest sign of allies’ sharpening language as Israel’s isolation deepens.” America’s AP did not headline “Israel-allied countries support but also condemn the genocide against Gazans” — which would have been the full basic truth — they instead reported only that these countries (which the AP didn’t even completely list) were, in this “joint statement” (to which the AP provided no link, so that the actual document — which they were allegedly reporting about, was instead being actually hidden by the AP — censored-out by them) was “saying the war in Gaza ‘must end now’” INSTEAD OF that Israel and America and Germany must cease their perpetrating this genocide. The AP was saying that “the war in Gaza ‘must end now’” — as-if this ‘war’ ISN’T instead an extermination of Gazans, but just a war between Gazans and Israel, which latter Government is actually leading this Israel-U.S.-German-perpetrated genocide to get rid of Gazans. Israel is leading this extermination-campaign, just as Germany had led the one against Jews; and, just as Germany’s Government had participating foreign Governments helping them, so too does Israel’s.

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More Promises Of Western Aid Emboldened Ukraine To Neutralize Anti-Corruption Institutions

The EU and NATO recently promised more aid for Ukraine. The first did so in late May after the European Council created the “Security Action For Europe” (SAFE) instrument, which will provide up to €150 billion in low-interest loans for defense investments in the bloc’s members and also Ukraine, while the second came in mid-July when Trump announced that NATO members agreed to pay full price for new US arms that they’ll transfer to Ukraine. These promises emboldened Ukraine to raid its anti-corruption bureau.

Bloomberg condemned the move in a sharp opinion piece while The Economist warned that “something sinister is at work” after Zelensky then signed a law that was rushed through the Rada shortly afterwards for subordinating the anti-corruption bureau and its prosecutorial counterpart to presidential control. 

Protests have since erupted in several Ukrainian cities over the latter move, which could only be possible with the SBU’s tacit approval, but it’s premature to conclude that a power struggle is underway.

In any case, a security-related pretext was exploited to justify intimidating and then subordinating anti-corruption institutions to the presidency ahead of more promised aid from the West.

Had those promises not been made, then there’d be a lot less money to steal, thus making it less likely that Ukraine would risk negative Western media coverage by doing what it just did. After all, those moves generated more negative attention than any of its anti-corruption institutions’ accusations against state officials.

Nevertheless, precedent suggests that the West won’t curtail its promised aid despite credible concerns that some of it will be stolen, including some of the arms that NATO might soon send. Russia’s First Deputy Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy claimed last October that “15% to 20% of all military goods received by Kiev end up on the gray and black markets within the next two weeks.”

The Swiss-based Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime also warned about this threat in February.

The reason why Western aid will likely continue flowing into Ukraine in spite of it brazenly neutralizing its anti-corruption institutions is because that bloc has already accepted that some of it will be stolen as the price to pay for continuing their proxy war on Russia.

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Princess Diana’s Grand-Niece Found Dead Under Mysterious Circumstances

Rosie Roche, who was the granddaughter of the late Princess Diana’s uncle, was found dead at her home in Wiltshire, England.

Roche, who is the grand-niece of Princess Diana and the cousin of Prince William and Harry, was found dead by close family members at her home on July 14th.

An investigation from a coroner revealed Roche’s death stemmed from a “traumatic head injury.”

The coroner further reported that a firearm was located near Roche’s body.

Per Fox News:

Rosie Roche, a cousin of Prince William and Prince Harry, has died at the age of 20.

The granddaughter of the late Princess Diana’s uncle was “found deceased by close family members” on July 14 at her home in Wiltshire County, England, the Wiltshire and Swindon coroner confirmed to Fox News Digital.

Roche’s cause of death was a “traumatic head injury.” According to the coroner, a “firearm was located nearby.” The coroner’s office stated that “there are no suspicious circumstances or third-party involvement.”

According to the Times, Roche was found by her mother and sister at their home. The outlet reported that she had been packing for a vacation with her friends.

Roche was the granddaughter of Diana’s uncle, Edmund Roche, 5th Baron Fermoy. Edmund’s sister was the late princess’s mother, Frances Shand Kydd. Kydd shared five children, including Diana, with her first husband, John Spencer, Viscount Althorp.

Roche was connected to the British royal family through her grandfather, 5th Baron Fermoy, Edmund Roche, who was the uncle of Princess Diana.

Edmund Roche died of suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1984.

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CRIMINALS AND BOTS: OpenAI’s Sam Altman Warns Financial Sector That Artificial Intelligence Is About to Unleash ‘Significant Fraud Crisis’

The rise of the Artificial Intelligence technology carries a lot of promise but also a lot of risk.

When it comes to the perils of the AI technology, we’ve heard multiple experts alerting to the ‘macrocosmic’ problems that it can pose to the very survival of humankind, with the alarmism hitting overdrive with provocateur Eliezer Yudkowsky saying ‘I think we’re all gonna die!’

But there’s also the ‘microcosmic’ problems that AI is already unleashing on humanity, in the sense that it quickly became another tool used by criminals – and a powerful one, too!

Sometimes there are terrible stories that seem a ‘one-off’ destined to the folklore, as in the case of the French woman scammed out of $850k by con-man posing as ‘Brad Pitt in the hospital’ with AI-Generated images and Chatbot.

But now, we seem to be heading to a more systemic danger, as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warns the financial sector of a ‘significant impending fraud crisis’ because of artificial intelligence.

Altman detailed AI’s increasing capability to ‘impersonate human voices’, allowing criminals to bypass security protocols and even illicitly transfer funds.

The Independent reported:

“Speaking at a Federal Reserve conference in Washington, Mr. Altman expressed particular alarm over outdated authentication methods. ‘A thing that terrifies me is apparently there are still some financial institutions that will accept the voiceprint as authentication’, he stated. ‘That is a crazy thing to still be doing. AI has fully defeated that’.”

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