June 15 (Reuters) – Several U.S. government agencies have been affected by a global hacking campaign that exploited a vulnerability in widely used software, a U.S. cyber watchdog said on Thursday.

Several federal agencies experienced breaches after the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) discovered a vulnerability in file transfer software MOVEit, Eric Goldstein, the agency’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity, said in a statement.

“We are working urgently to understand the impacts and ensure a timely solution,” he said.

CISA did not immediately return emails. The FBI and the US National Security Agency also did not immediately return emails seeking details on the breaches.

Jen Easterly, director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told MSNBC that the US does not expect any “significant impact” from the cyber attack that hit its government agencies.

Easterly said the agency is working to fully determine the impact of the attack and is coordinating with other agencies to ensure a resolution.

Reporting by Raphael Chatter and Shivani Tanna; Editing by Jonathan Otis and Angus MacSwan

Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

BEIJING, June 15 (Reuters) – China’s economy faltered in May as it missed forecasts for industrial production and retail sales growth, adding to expectations that Beijing must do more to boost its post-pandemic recovery.

The economic recovery seen earlier this year has lost momentum in the second quarter, prompting China’s central bank to cut some key interest rates this week for the first time in nearly a year, with expectations for more to come.

“The post-Covid recovery appears to have run its course, the economic double dip is almost confirmed, and we see significant downside risks to consensus GDP growth forecasts of 5.5% and 4.2% in 2023 and 2024, respectively.” Nomura’s analysts said in a research note after the latest disappointing data.

Industrial production grew 3.5% in May from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday, slowing from a 5.6% expansion in April and below the 3.6% expected by analysts in a Reuters poll, as manufacturers struggle. With low demand both domestically and abroad.

Retail sales – a key measure of consumer confidence – rose 12.7%, missing forecasts for a 13.6% rise and down from 18.4% in April.

“All data points have sent consistent signals that economic momentum is weakening,” said Shiwei Zhang, head of Pinpoint Asset Management.

Data from factory surveys and trade to credit growth and home sales show signs of weakness in the world’s second-largest economy. Crude steel production fell year-on-year and month-on-month in May, while daily coal production fell from April, NBS data showed.

The smooth flow of data has defied analysts’ expectations of a sharp pick-up, compared to a much weaker performance last year when many cities were under strict Covid lockdowns.

Analysts say the figures confirm the need for more stimulus as China faces deflationary risks, mounting local government debt, record youth unemployment and weakening global demand.

“Sufficient domestic demand and sluggish external demand may interrupt momentum in current months, causing China’s monthly growth path to gradually enter a U-shaped recovery path,” said Bruce Pang, chief economist at Jones Lang LaSalle.

Bong said the first step would be to introduce stimulus along with a large-scale policy easing. “But a slow economic recovery may require two to three years.”

Following the lackluster data, JP Morgan cut its forecast for China’s full-year gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2023 to 5.5% from 5.9%. After badly missing the 2022 target, the government has set its GDP growth target for this year at around 5%.

Central Bank Easing

China’s central bank cut the interest rate on its one-year medium-term lending facility on Thursday, the first easing in 10 months, paving the way for cuts in benchmark lending prime rates (LPR) next week. The move was expected after some short-term rate cuts earlier in the week.

The yuan hit a fresh six-month low after the rate cut and China’s stock markets rose, with the benchmark CSI 300 (.CSI300) up 1.6% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (.HSI) up 2.2%.

Markets are betting on more stimulus, including measures targeting the property sector, once a key driver of growth.

While policymakers in Beijing have been wary of using aggressive stimulus that could raise capital flight risks, analysts say further easing is needed.

The country’s biggest banks recently cut their deposit rates to ease pressure on profit margins and encourage savers to spend more.

Julian Evans-Pritchard, China head of Capital Economics, said central bank easing would not make a difference on its own, adding that it reflected “growing concerns among officials about the health of China’s recovery”.

He said the second quarter was weaker than he had expected and that more policy support was needed to prevent the economy from entering a renewed recession.

NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui told a press conference that second-quarter growth is expected to pick up due to a lower base effect last year.

However, he warned that the recovery would face challenges including a “complicated and tough international environment, sluggish global economic recovery” and “insufficient domestic demand”.

Yi Gang, the PBOC governor, pledged last week that China would make counter-cyclical policy changes to boost the economy.

Property investment in May fell the fastest since at least 2001, down 21.5% year-on-year, while new home price growth slowed.

The property sector, historically a key driver of China’s economic activity, is expected to struggle with “continued weakness” for several years, Goldman Sachs analysts said this week.

Private fixed asset investment shrank 0.1% in the first five months, in contrast to 8.4% growth in investment by state-owned enterprises, indicating weak business confidence.

Labor market pains Youth unemployment rises to 20.8%. The nationwide survey-based unemployment rate was 5.2% in May.

Chinese factory strikes have risen to a seven-year high and are expected to become more frequent as weak global demand forces exporters to cut workers’ wages and close factories, a rights group and economists said, further hurting consumer and business confidence.

Additional reporting by Albee Zhang; Editing by Sam Holmes and Kim Coggle

Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced Wednesday that his state had sent a busload of migrants to Los Angeles.

The migrants were dropped off at LA’s Union Station on Wednesday evening.

“Small Texas border towns are being overwhelmed by thousands of people crossing illegally from Mexico into Texas because President Biden refuses to secure the border.” Abbott said in a press release. “Los Angeles is a major destination for immigrants, especially now that city leaders have recognized its self-proclaimed sanctuary city status.”

In his release, Abbott said Texas communities along the border are “on the front lines of President Biden’s border crisis” and will continue to provide relief to those communities until more action is taken along the border.

The busing of immigrants is part of a strategy by the Texas Division of Emergency Management to reduce the number of undocumented people at the border by choosing sanctuary cities. It started with Washington, D.C. in 2022, and Abbott added New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia as additional drop-off locations, with Denver most recently added as a bus destination.

According to a release from Abbott’s office, the busing strategy has resulted in more than 21,600 immigrants being transported out of border communities that Texas considers overcrowded.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement that the Texas governor’s move was a cheap political game that brought more than 40 people to LA. He also said that shortly after he took office, he prepared for something like this to happen.

“It doesn’t capture us, and it doesn’t threaten us,” Bass said in a statement. “Now, it’s time to put our plan into action. Our emergency management, police, fire and other departments were able to learn about incoming arrivals as the bus arrived, and were already mobilized with nonprofit partners before the bus arrived.”

This comes after two flights from Florida to Sacramento filled with asylum seekers. Now, according to groups helping those migrants, 36 people who arrived on the plane were promised jobs and other free support.

Earlier Wednesday, California Attorney General Rob Bonda made public records requests DeSantis Office And this Florida Division of Emergency Management Regarding flights, including communications between the DeSantis office and private contractors.

An intersection of polygonal muscle modeling approach guided by muscle scar and MRI data. Credit: Dr. Ashley Wiseman

Digital modeling of the soft tissue of the legendary fossil shows that Australopithecus afarensis had powerful leg and hip muscles for tree-dwelling, but knee muscles that allowed it to walk fully upright.

A University of Cambridge researcher has for the first time digitally reconstructed the missing soft tissue of an early human ancestor – or hominin – revealing the ability to stand upright as we do today.

Dr. Ashley Wiseman 3D modeled the hominin’s leg and hip muscles Australopithecus afarensis Using Lucy’s scans: A famous fossil specimen discovered in Ethiopia in the mid-1970s.

Australopithecus afarensis Early man[{” attribute=””>species that lived in East Africa over three million years ago. Shorter than us, with an ape-like face and smaller brain, but able to walk on two legs, it adapted to both tree and savannah dwelling – helping the species survive for almost a million years.

Named for the Beatles classic ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’, Lucy is one of the most complete examples to be unearthed of any type of Australopithecus – with 40% of her skeleton recovered.

A digitization of the muscle attachment areas used to build the model of Lucy’s muscles, next to the completed 3D muscle model. Credit: Dr. Ashleigh Wiseman

Wiseman was able to use recently published open-source data on the Lucy fossil to create a digital model of the 3.2 million-year-old hominin’s lower body muscle structure. The study is published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

The research recreated 36 muscles in each leg, most of which were much larger in Lucy and occupied greater space in the legs compared to modern humans.

For example, major muscles in Lucy’s calves and thighs were over twice the size of those in modern humans, as we have a much higher fat-to-muscle ratio. Muscles made up 74% of the total mass in Lucy’s thigh, compared to just 50% in humans.

A 3D polygonal model, guided by imaging scan data and muscle scars, reconstructs the lower limb muscles of the Australopithecus afarensis fossil AL 288-1, known as ‘Lucy’. In this model, the muscles are color coded. Credit: Dr. Ashley Wiseman

They agree that Lucy was bipedal, but disagree on how she walked. Some have argued that when chimpanzees — our common ancestor — walked on two legs, she moved in a stooped waddle. Others believe her locomotion was closer to our own upright bipedal gait.

Over the last 20 years of research, a consensus has begun to emerge for fully upright walking, and Wiseman’s work adds further weight to this. Lucy’s knee extensor muscles and the leverage they allow ensure her ability to straighten the knee joint as much as a healthy person can today.

“Lucy’s ability to walk upright can only be determined by reconstructing the path and space occupied by the muscles on the body,” says Wiseman of the Macdonald Institute for Archeology at the University of Cambridge.

Complete views of the polygonal muscle modeling approach (ventral, dorsal, lateral and medial) in AL 288-1, where 36 muscles were created for the lower limb. Polygonal muscles of AL 288-1 are shown in comparison to human 3D muscles segmented from MRI scan data. Credit: Dr. Ashley Wiseman

“Now we are the only animal that can stand upright with straight knees. Lucy’s muscles suggest that even at home in the trees, she had mastered bipedalism like the rest of us. “Lucy probably walked and moved in a way not seen in any living creature today,” Wiseman said.

“Australopithecus afarensis 3 to 4 million years ago roamed East Africa in open wooded grasslands and dense forests. These reconstructions of Lucy’s muscles suggest that she could have effectively exploited both habitats.

Lucy was a young adult who was over one meter tall and weighed 28 kg. Lucy’s brain would have been about a third of ours.

To recreate this hominin’s muscles, Wiseman started with some living humans. Using MRI and CT scans of the muscular and skeletal systems of a modern woman and man, he was able to map “muscle pathways” and create a digital musculoskeletal model.

Weissman then used existing virtual models of Lucy’s skeleton to “rearrange” the joints — that is, put the skeleton back together. This work defined the axis from which each joint could move and rotate, reflecting how they moved in life.

Finally, muscles were superimposed based on the trajectories of modern human muscle maps, as well as small “muscle scars” (traces of muscle attachment found on fossil bones). “Without open access science, this research would not be possible,” Wiseman said.

These reconstructions can now help scientists understand how these human ancestors walked. “For example, muscle reconstruction has already been used to measure the running speed of T-rex,” Wiseman said. “By applying similar techniques to our ancestors, we want to reveal the spectrum of physical movement that drove our evolution — including skills we’ve lost.”

Reference: “Three-Dimensional Measurement of Muscle Reconstruction Australopithecus afarensis Hip and joint, with joint leverage assessments” By Ashley LA Wiseman, 14 Jun 2023, Royal Society Open Science.
DOI: 10.1098/rsos.230356

Four children survived 40 days in the wilds of the Amazon jungle before being rescued.

The four children — Lesly, 13, Soleiny, 9, Tien Noriel, 4, and Christine, 1 — were found thin but very much alive Friday after a rescue operation that took them more than 1,600 miles through dense forest.

Colombian special forces airlifted them to the capital, Bogotá, to jubilation across the country and news headlines around the world.

But the rescue – codenamed Operation Hope – raises many questions.

Gen. Pedro Sanchez, who led the search operation, told NBC’s “Today” show Monday that the children’s survival was down to a factor of three.

“First, the desire to sustain their lives. Second, they are tribal, so they are immune to many dangers in the forest,” he said. “Third, they know the forest.”

Here’s how four helpless children survived for so long in a situation that would be a challenge for most adults.

An accident survivor

The children were traveling with their mother from the Amazonian village of Araraguara to the city of San Jose del Guerrero when the single-engine Cessna plane crashed early May 1.

When the crash site was found 16 days later, rescuers found the bodies of three adults on board – but not the children.

Instead, rescuers found a baby bottle, a small abandoned pair of shoes and some footprints leading away from the rubble.

The children’s maternal grandfather, Narciso Mukuduy, said in a video released by Colombia’s Defense Ministry on Monday that older sibling Leslie found her footing and pulled the younger Christine from the rubble.

Manuel Ranoc, the father of the two youngest children, told a news conference Sunday that Leslie, 13, had been alive for about four days after the accident and that her mother had left the children to fend for themselves.

He added that the children will tell their story when they are ready.

Indigenous knowledge

Rescuers searching the wreckage also found fruit from the plane and remnants of cassava flour, a staple food in the Farina – Amazon region.

As the fruit and tapioca ran out, the children ate the seeds, the family said.

The children are members of the indigenous Huitoto group and are well versed in the lore of the jungle from an early age. Everyone involved in the case agrees: this is what saved them in the end.

“Finding enough high-quality food in a remote part of the Colombian Amazon, building shelters and staying out of harm’s way for 40 days and nights would be a challenge for most adult Westerners … never mind three children under 12 carrying an 11-month-old baby,” said England. said Carlos Perez of the University of East Anglia, an Amazonian biodiversity expert who grew up in the Amazonian city of Belem in Brazil.

“About 100 years ago, that body of knowledge was very robust, but there was no plane crashing in the jungle; 100 years in the future, there might be more efficient planes, but very little of that knowledge.” he added.

Sanchez, who led the search operation, agreed. The children’s background is that they know “how to live in the jungle, how to eat, how to drink, how to protect from the hostile jungle and how to protect from the rain, because it rains only 16 hours a day.”

The children had some luck on their side: the fruit was plentiful, an official told reporters, because “the forest was in harvest.”

How were they discovered?

A massive rescue operation that gripped the country managed to find the children, but President Gustavo Pedro drew fire last month when he mistakenly announced they had been found on Twitter.

The Colombian military and indigenous monitors — two groups not always on the best terms — essentially agreed to work together.

About 150 soldiers and dogs were flown to the area along with dozens of indigenous volunteers.

“The work between the armed forces and the indigenous communities – who know the forest better than us – the work was successful,” Pedro said on Saturday.

Soldiers dropped boxes of food from helicopters into the jungle, hoping it would help the children survive. Airplanes flying over the area dropped flares to aid search crews on the ground at night, and rescuers used loudspeakers to blast a recorded message the children’s grandmother had told them to stay put.

According to Sanchez, the children were found about 3 miles from the crash site in a small clearing in Colombia’s Caqueta province.

Rescuers came within about 70 to 170 feet of the children twice during the search.

“The boys were already very weak,” Sanchez said. “Surely their strength was only sufficient to breathe or reach a small fruit or drink a drop of water in the forest.”

The forest was so dense that there was nowhere for the rescue helicopter to land, and the children had to be pulled out one by one with a rope.

The search is still on for a missing special forces dog, a Belgian shepherd named Wilson, who found the children but was separated from the main search team. The children’s grandfather said the dog was kept with the children and “became their faithful friend” before disappearing into the forest.

How are you now?

Considering the children’s distress, they are in remarkably good shape.

Astrid Cáceres, director general of the Colombian Family Welfare Association, told reporters: “They talk a little and are weak … they don’t talk as much as we would like. So let’s give them some time.”

Defense Minister Iván Velázquez told reporters on Saturday that the children are still very weak, unable to eat food and still being hydrated. Otherwise, “the condition of the children is acceptable,” he added.

They are expected to stay in the hospital for at least two weeks.

Fidencio Valencia, an uncle of one of the children, told Colombian media: “They have painted. Sometimes they need to let off steam.

According to a rescuer, Leslie’s first words after being found were: “I’m hungry.” One of the boys was quoted by local media as saying: “My mother is dead.”

MIAMI (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has arrived at a federal court in Miami to formally surrender to authorities ahead of his appearance on charges of illegally storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Trump’s motorcade arrived at the federal courthouse Tuesday afternoon shortly before he was scheduled to appear before a magistrate judge, a shocking moment in U.S. history as he became the first former president to be charged with federal crimes.

This is the second criminal case Trump faces as he tries to reclaim the White House in 2024. He was charged in New York state court with falsifying business records related to hush-money made during the 2016 campaign.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing, saying he is being unfairly targeted by political opponents seeking to hurt his campaign. After the court appearance, Trump will return to New Jersey, where he is expected to hold a press event to publicly respond to the allegations.

This is a breaking news update. AP’s previous story is below.

MIAMI (AP) — Donald Trump Tuesday is expected to be the first former president to face a judge on federal charges as the city of Miami prepares for possible protests by crowds that officials said could number in the thousands.

Security outside the federal courthouse was tight ahead of Trump’s history-making court appearance, but there were no major disruptions as the morning unfolded.

Trump has approached his case with particular bravado, insisting for years that he has done nothing wrong and is being persecuted for political purposes. But as he responded to 37 offences, the gravity of the moment was unmistakable He is accused of deliberately withholding classified records that prosecutors say would endanger national security if exposed, then trying to hide them from investigators who demand their return.

The case has political implications for Trump, who now dominates the early days of the 2024 Republican presidential race. But it also carries profound legal consequences in terms of the possibility of years in prison. Even for a defendant whose post-presidential career has been dominated by investigations, the dossier investigation stands out for both the sheer volume of evidence amassed by prosecutors and the seriousness of the allegations.

It’s an important moment for the Justice Department, which until last week had not brought charges against the former president. Attorney General Merrick GarlandPresident Joe Biden’s appointee sought to insulate the department from political attacks last year by handing ownership of the case to special counsel Jack Smith.He announced Friday, “We have a set of laws in this country that apply to everyone.”

The investigation, though largely procedural in nature, is the latest in an unprecedented public reckoning this year for Trump, who faces charges in New York. The payments stem from payments made during his 2016 presidential campaign and ongoing investigations in Washington and Atlanta Attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 race. Attacking Smith as “a Trump hater” and vowing to stay in the race, he plans a speech and fundraiser at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club on Tuesday night.

“They’re using it because they can’t win an election in a fair and honest way,” Trump said in an interview with Americano Media on Monday.

The court’s visit also unfolds against the backdrop of possible protests. Some high-profile supporters have used barbed wire rhetoric to voice support. Trump encouraged supporters to join a protest planned for Tuesday at a Miami courthouse, where he is expected to surrender to authorities.

Trump is not expected to undergo a mask, according to a person familiar with the situation. Typically, law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and the US Marshals Service take a booking photo as part of the arrest process and the photo is uploaded to a shared law enforcement database.

Some Trump supporters also planned to board buses from other parts of Florida to Miami, raising concerns for law enforcement officials who are bracing for unrest around the courthouse. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said the city would be prepared, and Police Chief Manuel A. Morales said.

Among those arriving early Tuesday morning were father-son duo Florencio and Kevin Rodriguez, who came to the United States fifteen years ago as asylum seekers fleeing a dictatorship in Cuba.

The younger Rodriguez, who wore a shirt that read “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president,” said Kevin that Trump might be guilty of illegally possessing classified documents. But he questioned the legitimacy of the actions in light of other classified intelligence investigations involving former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Democrats, including President Joe Biden.

Clinton was not charged for sending classified information on a private email server after FBI investigators decided she did not intend to break the law. The Biden investigation remains open, but no evidence has emerged that he acted intentionally — a key claim in the Trump impeachment.

“We will never abandon those who love this country and our freedom,” Rodriguez added, highlighting Trump’s staunch opposition to Cuba’s communist government.

The crowd included far-right internet personality Anthime Gionet, who served a two-month prison sentence for streaming live video of the attack on the US Capitol. Gionet is known as “Fast Alaska”. A live video of Trump chatting with others as he waited for him to arrive.

Unlike the New York case, where photographers produced images of Trump at the courtroom defense table, public viewing will be limited. Cameras are not generally allowed in federal courthouses, and a judge on Monday night banned reporters from having phones inside the building.

A federal grand jury in Washington The documents took months of testimony in the case, but the Justice Department filed it in Florida, where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort is located and where many of the illegal activities took place. Although Trump is scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate on Tuesday, the case has been assigned to his appointee, District Court Judge Eileen Cannon., ruled in his favor last year in a dispute over whether to appoint an outside special master to review seized classified documents. A federal appeals panel eventually overturned her judgment.

It’s unclear what defenses Trump will cite as the case moves forward. Two of his leading lawyers will resign in the morning after filing the charge sheet against him, another lawyer, M. They also announced Evan Corcoran’s Notes and Reminiscences.Quoted repeatedly throughout the 49-page charging document, prosecutors consider him a key witness.

Trump has said he wants to add to his legal team, though no announcement was made Monday. He was expected to be represented by attorney Todd Blanch, who is defending him in the New York case, and Florida attorney Chris Kiss, who joined Trump’s regular lawyers last year. According to county rules, accused persons must have a local attorney to prosecute.

The Justice Department released a 37-count indictment against Trump on Friday. Other charges include conspiracy to defraud and false statements.

The indictment alleges that Trump knowingly withheld hundreds of classified documents He took it with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago after he left the presidency in January 2021. Items he stored in the bathroom, ballroom, bedroom and bathroom included nuclear programs, security and weapons capabilities. The indictment alleges that US and foreign governments and the Pentagon “planned the attack.” Prosecutors said the information, if exposed, could have jeopardized members of the military, confidential human resources and intelligence-gathering systems.

Beyond that, prosecutors say, he tried to thwart government efforts to retrieve the documents, suggesting to his own attorney — Walt Nauta — who was charged with Trump’s personal aide — to move boxes to hide them, and to hide or destroy the documents. Requested by judicial subpoena.

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Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Adriana Gomez Lycon in Miami and Terry Spencer in Doral, Florida contributed to this report.

Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

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Investigations on Donald Trump: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump