White House Dossier's

Massive cyberattack strikes millions: Are you at risk? Fox Business . . . Millions of Americans are facing a significant threat to their personal data as a result of a massive cyberattack targeting the widely used file-transfer program known as MOVEit. The impact so far is vast, even compromising residents of Louisiana and Oregon who possess driver's licenses or state identification cards, and there are concerns among officials that the number of affected individuals could increase sizably. Fox News

Lawmakers Told US Power Grid is Vulnerable Without More Protection . . . A congressional panel considered options Friday for enhancing security of the nation’s power grid as the federal government continued to ward off another cyberattack traced to a Russian gang. The Energy Department was one of the agencies that was hit. Hospitals — such as Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland — as well as universities and agencies of foreign governments also reported the intrusion into their data. Well News

Damage from the global cyberattacks is ‘extensive’ but not ‘catastrophic’: Rebekah Koffler . . . Arthel Neville welcomes former U.S. Defense Intelligence Officer Rebekah Koffler to discuss the massive global cyberattack that has impacted several federal agencies. Fox News VIDEO

Fight or fright: America's military unreadiness laid bare . . . The Department of Defense proudly declares that "our mission is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security." If only that remained true. Today, the U.S. military's mission is increasingly distracted and its capability diluted by a focus on aping political correctness and identity politics. This theme will be the focus of a series of articles published this week for the Washington Examiner 's Restoring America page , which will feature expert voices from leading organizations, including the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Independent Women's Forum, and Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services. The need for public attention to what is happening in the U.S. military is significant. Washington Examiner

Mainstream news outlets want to end Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s primary challenge . . . When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his primary challenge to Joe Biden in April, the media shrugged him off as a meme candidate who would soon collide with political reality. Two months later, Kennedy is polling as high as 20% and his campaign is gaining momentum. And the media — unwilling to let Biden be primaried by this pedigreed populist — have decided it’s time to step in. And step in they have. Over the past weeks, major print and broadcast organizations have laid the foundations for a powerful narrative designed to hobble Kennedy’s campaign before a single vote is cast. The strategy is to disqualify Kennedy by labeling him a font of misinformation, out to serve America’s monied technocrats. In other words: a Republican in Kennedy clothes. NY Post

A vote for Joe Biden is really a vote for the risky adventure of President Kamala Harris . . . Analysis by Miranda Devine. American voters are none too confident that Biden will last long as president even if he makes it through another election. The latest Harvard Harris poll shows most Americans (66%) think he is too old to run in 2024. This leaves us with Kamala Harris, his vacuous veep. Never has so much ridden on a vice presidential candidate with so little to offer. GOP hopeful Nikki Haley is banking on it: “I think that we can all be very clear . . . that if you vote for Joe Biden you really are counting on a President Harris because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely,” she said. NY Post

Video | Biden ends gun control remarks by saying, ‘God save the Queen’

Could Trump defy the odds again? . . . The New York Post recently published an insightful editorial warning Republicans to “Beware the Trump Trap.” They caution against talking “obsessively” about former President Trump, because that is exactly what Democrats want. They are correct. As he runs for a second term, President Biden will not be able to hide out in his basement, as he so successfully did in 2020; instead, he will hide behind a blizzard of negative Trumpian headlines. The Hill

Shutdown talk to dominate the summer . . . Congress is back in Washington this week, and House GOP leaders are facing an all-too-familiar problem: quelling the conservative angst that’s threatening to derail their legislative agenda heading into the summer’s major policy fights with President Biden. Earlier this month, 11 House Freedom Caucus members shut down all floor action for almost a week to protest Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) handling of the debt ceiling talks. McCarthy was forced to host a string of closed-door meetings with the hard-liners, who want concrete assurances he’ll demand deeper spending cuts in the coming fight over government funding. The Hill

Tearing Apart the Governing Consensus . . . A victory for the administrative state in the war on Donald Trump won’t be a victory for the rule of law. We hear a lot about the loss of “institutional legitimacy” these days. One of the great ironies attendant on that loss is a revolution in sentiment among many—but by no means all—people who think of themselves as conservative. Hitherto, such people would have been staunch supporters of those institutions that, traditionally, had represented the rule of law, the continuity of our culture, etc. Nowadays, they look with a jaundiced eye upon once-respected institutions like the Department of Justice, the FBI, the CIA, and the rest of the national security/surveillance apparat.  American Greatness

In Paris, US lawmakers signal more money for Pentagon likely on the way . . . As Congress weighs providing more funding for the Defense Department over the debt ceiling caps, including increased security assistance for Ukraine, members of a Congressional delegation to the Paris Airshow made it clear they expect to see the Pentagon’s topline rise. Or, as one member put it bluntly, lawmakers likely “won’t be able to help” giving the Pentagon more money in the coming months. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., practically treated a Ukraine supplemental spending bill as a foregone conclusion in a press briefing hosted by the Aerospace Industries Association at the Paris Airshow, where he went on to suggest lobbying by the Pentagon would result in greater funds beyond the spending cap set as part of the debt ceiling deal. Breaking Defense

 Lockheed ready to train Ukrainian pilots if Nato allies send F-16s to Kyiv . . . US defence manufacturer Lockheed Martin has said it stands ready to help Ukrainian pilots fly and maintain its F-16 fighter jets if Nato states agree to send them to help the country against Russian aggression.  “We are standing by, ready to not only backfill need as it arises with new F-16 builds but also any modifications to F-16s as well as training, equipment and systems,” said Frank St John, chief operating officer. Lockheed Martin, the largest US defense contractor by sales historically provided training support to more than 16 countries. Kyiv has lobbied heavily for the so-called fourth-generation aircraft to help bolster its air defences against Russian attacks. Nato countries remain in talks on whether to supply the jets to Ukraine. Financial Times
 

China’s Real Military Budget Is Far Bigger Than It Looks . . . While Congress considers legislation to better approximate China’s military spending, the trend is clearly nothing but upward while America’s defense budget declines. 19fortyfive

NATO focuses on underwater assets amid Russia sabotage concerns . . . NATO has established a new centre focused on protecting undersea pipelines and data cables following the apparent attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines and as concerns mount that Russia has mapped vital Western underwater infrastructure around Europe. The defence ministers of NATO members approved plans for a NATO “maritime centre for the security of critical underwater infrastructure” at a meeting in Brussels, NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday. Al Jazeera

NATO finalizing new Ukraine Council to draw Kyiv ‘politically closer’ to alliance . . . The NATO alliance is nearing the establishment of a NATO-Ukraine Council in which all members can directly engage and consult with the embattled Eastern European country on “security issues of mutual concern” — potentially as a precursor to future alliance membership.  Breaking Defense

VIDEO: Outcome of Ukraine war 'existential' to Putin: Rebekah Koffler . . . Former U.S. Defense Intelligence Officer Rebekah Koffler joins 'Fox & Friends Weekend' to discuss rising tension between Russia and the West, Putin's chilling message and the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus. Fox News

It’s becoming undeniable: COVID came from a Chinese lab . . . Evidence that COVID came from a Chinese lab mounted toward a conclusive level last week: “Multiple government sources” say the very first people infected by the bug were Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers, a new report reveals. More, they were allegedly modifying a close relative of the virus with a key feature unique to it. The report — by Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi and Alex Gutentag, posted on the outlet Public — names Ben Hu, Yu Ping and Yan Zhu as WIV scientists who developed COVID symptoms as early as November 2019, a month before the world even heard of the outbreak, and who now appear to be “patients zero.” NY Post

EXCLUSIVE: Chinese Intel Arm Quietly Operates ‘Service Centers’ In 7 US Cities . . . A Chinese intelligence agency quietly operates “service centers” in seven American cities, all of which have had contact with Beijing’s national police authority. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work Department (UFWD) — which at least one U.S. government commission has characterized as a “Chinese intelligence service” — operates so-called “Overseas Chinese Service Centers” (OCSCs) that are housed within various U.S.-based nonprofits. OCSCs were ostensibly set up to promote Chinese culture and assist Chinese citizens living abroad, according to Chinese government records. Daily Caller

West can't stop Iran from getting nukes, Iran supreme leader says . . . Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is warning that the West cannot stop his country from obtaining nuclear weapons. Speaking Sunday during a tour of Iran’s nuclear project, Khamenei said, "On the basis of our Islamic ideals, we do not want nuclear weapons." "But if this wasn’t the case, they would not be able to prevent us from doing so, just like they could not prevent our nuclear advancements so far," he added. Fox News

BlackRock and JPMorgan help set up Ukraine reconstruction bank . . .  BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase are helping the Ukrainian government set up a reconstruction bank to steer public seed capital into rebuilding projects that can attract hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment. The Ukraine Development Fund remains in the planning stages and is not expected to fully launch until the end of hostilities with Russia. But investors will have a preview this week at a London conference co-hosted by the British and Ukrainian governments. Financial Times
 

I bet they do.

5 Palestinians dead, 7 IDF troops hurt in Jenin battle; Apache carries out airstrikes . . . Five Palestinians were killed as heavy clashes broke out between gunmen and Israeli troops in the city of Jenin on Monday morning. An Israeli helicopter gunship carried out rare strikes, the first in the West Bank in some two decades, in order for seven wounded soldiers to be evacuated from the battle zone after a vehicle was hit by an explosive device, the military and local officials said. The Israel Defense Forces and Border Police said forces entered the northern West Bank city in the early morning hours to detain two wanted Palestinians. Times of Israel

Whether Iran’s ‘hypersonic’ weapon is real or not, Israel has to plan to react: Experts . . .  On June 6, Iranian media blasted out the announcement of what Iran claimed was a hypersonic missile. Images showed a black missile with the name Fattah and the event included a speech by Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi, a clear signifier that Tehran wanted eyeballs on the weapon. Since the unveiling, Iran has sought to capitalize on the announcement by analyzing the missile’s capabilities in pro-government media such as Fars News and Tasnim News, and has been measuring global reactions to the missile’s unveiling. On June 13 Iran’s media published articles castigating Israel’s “inaction” in the face of the news and pondering with the US THAAD system or Israel’s Arrow air defense system could stop the missile. Breaking Defense

Israeli effort to prevent Russians passing to Iran Western arms seized in Ukraine . . . A Russian IL-76 transport aircraft was sighted on Aug. 20 landing at Tehran airport and unloading an estimated $100m worth of Western arms taken booty in the Ukraine war. Senior Israeli officers shared images of the delivery that were recorded by satellite on June 15 this year to leading publications for kicking off a major effort to prevent Western weapons captured in the Ukraine army from falling into Iranian hands.  The consignment included anti-tank missiles, American Javelins and British products. The subject was aired when Defense Minister Yoav Gallant conversed with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in Brussels on Friday. DEBKAFile

China hails 'progress' in U.S. relations after Xi-Blinken talks . . . China's Xi Jinping hailed "progress" in talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing on Monday, the final engagement of a closely-watched trip aimed at ensuring the superpower's disputes do not spiral into conflict. Blinken, the first holder of his post to meet the Chinese leader since 2018, strode towards Xi with his hand outstretched at the Great Hall of the People, a venue China often uses for greeting heads of state - positive signals in the choreography of diplomacy. Reuters

Money

Lots of Hiring, but Not So Much Working . . . Companies resist layoffs even as economic weakness looms. The hiring boom obscures what looks like a contradictory economic trend: Employees are working fewer hours. The average number of hours worked a week by private-sector employees declined to 34.3 in May, below the 2019 average and down from a peak of 35 hours in January 2021, according to the Labor Department.

This could be ominous. With growth now slowing—and by one measure, negative—some employers might be responding by cutting hours, perhaps in preparation for recession. Wall Street Journal

Why are US retirees forced to invest in this threat to America? . . .  Most Americans would be shocked and angered to learn that their retirement savings are funding Chinese companies. massive national security threat arising from these investments. Instead of helping restore American industry, retirees are being forced to boost the Communist Party’s buildup of its People’s Liberation Army. It is why Republican Jim Banks introduced the Protecting Americans’ Retirement Savings Act (PARSA). PARSA blocks private pension plans regulated by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) from making new investments in companies controlled by or based in our foreign adversaries – China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. In addition, it requires investors to disclose and explain their existing stakes in those nations and sanctioned entities. Fox News

Goldman joins Wall Street banks in cutting China's growth outlook . . . Goldman Sachs became the latest Wall Street bank to downgrade its growth forecast for China, as the world's second-largest economy stutters and loses momentum after its coronavirus reopening. The investment bank cut its full-year gross domestic product forecast for 2023 from 6% to 5.4%, noting further turbulence ahead for the economy. The recovery from its stringent Covid-19 lockdown measures continue to disappoint through soft economic data, as well as mounting pressure on its property sector. CNBC

‘Fundamental Culture Change’: Here’s Why Europe’s Energy Giants Are Pivoting Back To Oil . . . Two of Europe’s largest energy firms are pivoting from green energy back to their core oil and gas businesses, a move that signals a willingness to take political hits as oil and gas continue to be major sources of revenue. Both Shell and fellow U.K. energy firm BP opted against further cuts to oil production recently, in a bid to restore investor confidence as their renewable ventures struggled. Activist investors and protestors attempted to storm the stage at Shell’s annual shareholder meeting in late May — the companies are likely to stay the course despite criticism, thanks to the reliability of oil and gas to drive profits despite the emergence of green energy, Dan Kish, said senior research fellow at the Institute for Energy Research. “Smart energy executives looking at the long term recognize that politics are fleeting,” Kish said. Daily Caller

US govt offers $10 million bounty for info on Clop ransomware . . . The U.S. State Department's Rewards for Justice program announced up to a $10 million bounty yesterday for information linking the Clop ransomware attacks to a foreign government. "Do you have info linking CL0P Ransomware Gang or any other malicious cyber actors targeting U.S. critical infrastructure to a foreign government? Send us a tip. You could be eligible for a reward," tweeted the Rewards for Justice Twitter account. Rewards of Justice (RFJ) is a U.S. Department of State program that offers monetary rewards for information on threat actors and attacks impacting the national security of the USA. Initially launched to gather information on terrorists targeting U.S. interests, the program has since expanded to include information on cyber criminals, such as the Conti ransomware operation, Russian Sandworm hackers, REvil ransomware, and the Evil Corp hacking group. Bleeping Computer

Culture

We can revile Putin’s violence in Ukraine, but we’re not at war with Russian culture . . . On 4 September 1939, the day after Britain had declared war on Germany, the BBC Proms opened with extracts from Richard Wagner’s works including The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, Götterdämmerung, Tristan and Isolde, Tannhäuser and Die Walküre. Later concerts that year included works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Strauss and a lot of Wagner. Today, there seems far less tolerance of that sentiment that, even in conflict, it is possible to appreciate the culture of an enemy country as one strand in a more universal civilization. Even to portray an “enemy” landscape seems to many to be morally abhorrent.

Last week, the novelist Elizabeth Gilbert paused publication of her forthcoming work The Snow Forest. Based on a true story, it tells of a family of religious Russian fundamentalists who in the 1930s retreated from Stalin’s terror, isolating themselves in a remote part of Siberia for almost half a century. In an Instagram post, Gilbert acknowledged that she had received an “outpouring of reaction and responses” from Ukrainian readers “expressing anger, sorrow, disappointment and pain” that she had set a novel in Russia. In response, she suspended publication so as not “to add any harm” to people already experiencing “grievous and extreme harm”.

Few have read even a draft of The Snow Forest. It seems obvious, though, that it is neither a propaganda piece nor a celebration of Russian nationalism, let alone of Vladimir Putin. It is, if anything, a laceration of Soviet tyranny and of modernity. The Guardian

For the same idiotic reason, Amazon banned my book Putin's Playbook -- which exposes the real nature of the Russian threat to America and examines Putin's thinking  --  from being advertised. It's bad enough that US government tried censored it and even tried to sabotage its publication; the Big Tech is also censoring it. The bureaucrats at Amazon haven't even read it.

As a Russian American, I'm appalled at the simplistic attitude that many Americans and US institutions have adopted: everything Russian is horrible, while everything Ukrainian is divine. What happened to all the thinking people in America?

U.S. Becomes Transgender-Care Outlier as More in Europe Urge Caution . . . The U.S. is becoming an outlier among many Western nations in the way its national medical institutions treat children suffering from distress over gender identity. For years, the American healthcare industry has staunchly defended medical interventions for transgender minors, including puberty blockers, which suppress the physical changes of adolescence as a treatment for those distressed over their gender.

The European medical community, by contrast, is expressing doubts about that approach. Having allowed these treatments for years, five countries—the U.K., Sweden, Finland, Norway and France—now urge caution in their use for minors, stressing a lack of evidence that the benefits outweigh the risks. This month, the U.K.’s publicly funded National Health Service limited the use of puberty blockers to clinical trials, putting the drugs beyond the reach of most children. These countries have found that the studies cited to support these medical interventions are too unreliable, and the risks are too serious. Wall Street Journal

The American dream needs married fathers . . . As Brookings Institution senior fellow Richard Reeves tells it, we now live in “a world where mothers don’t need men.” Almost 40% of births take place outside marriage, up from 5% in 1960. Reeves would like you to believe these are “marvelous developments.” He couldn’t be more wrong. Decades of social science research have found that children, but especially boys, have a better chance of succeeding if they are raised with a married father in the home. Boys from single-mother homes are more likely to be suspended from school, more likely to get in trouble with the law, less likely to graduate from high school, less likely to go to college, and more likely to be jobless as an adult. Washington Examiner

Do you say ‘pop’ or ‘soda’? Regional dialect across the U.S. explained . . . Do you say “pop,” “soda,” or “Coke” when you’re talking about carbonated beverages? Chances are where you live affects how you ask for a soft drink — and that has everything to do with your vernacular. But what does regional vernacular actually mean? The Hill

Patients who regret sex-change ops, sue doctors pose legal challenges for health care industry . . . Mother "repeatedly" told doctors daughter might have same bipolar disorder but was ignored in favor of drugs and surgery. Academic publisher called out for selective retraction. Healthcare providers may think twice about giving young people puberty blockers or other drug or surgeries, amid growing litigation by former patients who desisted from gender confusion. Two Californians – Kayla Lovdahl and Chloe Cole – are now suing Kaiser Permanente for "gender affirming" procedures performed on them as minors, alleging "medical negligence" and ignorance of a large body of research on the risks of medicalized transitions. Just the News

Russia Sought to Kill Defector in Florida . . . A failed plot to assassinate a C.I.A. spy in 2020 in part led to expulsions of the agency’s chief in Moscow and his Russian counterpart in Washington. The clandestine operation represented a brazen expansion of President Vladimir V. Putin’s campaign of targeted assassinations. As President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has pursued enemies abroad, his intelligence operatives now appear prepared to cross a line that they previously avoided: trying to kill a valuable informant for the U.S. government on American soil.

The clandestine operation sought to eliminate a C.I.A. informant in Miami who had been a high-ranking Russian intelligence official more than a decade earlier. The assassination failed, but the aftermath in part spiraled into tit-for-tat retaliation by the United States and Russia. The target was Aleksandr Poteyev, a former Russian intelligence officer who disclosed information that led to a yearslong F.B.I. investigation that in 2010 ensnared 11 spies living under deep cover in suburbs and cities along the East Coast. They had assumed false names and worked ordinary jobs as part of an ambitious attempt by the S.V.R., Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, to gather information and recruit more agents. New York Times

Ozempic Might Help You Drink and Smoke Less . . .Animal studies suggest GLP-1 drugs alter behaviors associated with reward and pleasure. Diabetes drugs like Ozempic are emerging as a surprising and potentially game-changing way to treat addictions, including alcohol-use disorder and smoking, because of the effects they have on the brain. Some people taking Ozempic are reporting they want to drink less or have stopped smoking altogether after starting the drug. Now, researchers are studying if the pattern holds in large groups. Neuroscientists hope that semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and weight-loss drug Wegovy, may be more potent than older diabetes drugs to curb addictive behavior. Those older drugs have shown promise in animal studies, but had mixed results in trials with people. Wall Street Journal

Joe Rogan Offers Scientist $100,000 To Debate Vaccines With RFK Jr. On His Show . . . Joe Rogan challenged a professor at Baylor College of Medicine Saturday to debate 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he claimed that Kennedy’s stance on vaccines was “misinformation.” Kennedy has been an open opponent of some vaccines, most notably the COVID-19 shots that were rolled out after the pandemic, and appeared on Rogan’s show on June 15 to discuss everything from the controversial COVID-19 treatment ivermectin to vaccines to his uncle John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Dr. Peter Hotez slammed Spotify on Twitter after the episode was released for “Vaccine Misinformation,” prompting Rogan to challenge him to a debate. Daily Caller

Elon Musk Backs Joe Rogan’s Challenge For COVID-19 Scientist To Debate Vaccines With RFK Jr. . . . Twitter owner Elon Musk threw his support Saturday behind comedian Joe Rogan’s challenge for COVID-19 scientist Peter Hotez to debate vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. Musk accused Hotez of being “afraid of public debate, because he knows he’s wrong” when Rogan doubled down on his debate proposal. Hotez, a professor at the Baylor College of Medicine, first responded to Rogan’s request without providing a definitive answer on whether he would debate Kennedy. Daily Caller

Explainer: How MOVEit breach shows hackers' interest in corporate file transfer tools . . . Ransom-seeking hackers have increasingly turned a greedy eye toward the world of managed file transfer (MFT) software, plundering the sensitive data being exchanged between organizations and their partners in a bid to win big payouts. Governments and companies globally are scrambling to deal with the consequences of a mass compromise made public on Thursday that was tied to Progress Software Corp's  MOVEit Transfer product. In 2021 Accellion Inc's File Transfer Appliance was exploited by hackers and earlier this year Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT was compromised to steal data from more than 100 companies. So what is MFT software? And why are hackers so keen to subvert it? Reuters

VIDEO: Rebekah Koffler: The Attacks On Cyber Security . . . War Room

VIDEO: Sen. John Fetterman garbles words, wears baggy shorts during event with Biden in Philadelphia - NY Post

Tucker Carlson Ep. 4 | Wannabe Dictator

Wandering bear captured at Florida airport . . . A black bear was safely captured and relocated after being seen wandering the grounds of Florida's Tampa International Airport. Airport officials said in a news release that a Transportation Security Administration employee first spotted the bear walking along a perimeter fence Tuesday and reported the sighting to the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority. UPI