(PLANO, Texas) — Six people were rushed to a hospital on Monday after a house exploded in a Dallas suburb, officials said.
The explosion occurred at around 4:40 p.m. local time in a residential neighborhood of Plano, Texas, about 20 miles north of downtown Dallas. The blast was felt up to a mile away by residents as well as staff at a public library, and homes across the street from the exploded house had windows blown out, according to Plano Fire-Rescue.
One resident was inside the home that exploded and was transported to a local hospital for their injuries. Five people who live in the house next door were also injured and taken to the hospital. Three of the wounded were admitted to a children’s hospital, Plano Fire-Rescue said.
One person who lives in the home on the other side of the exploded house was not injured by the blast, according to Plano Fire-Rescue.
In addition to investigators from Plano Fire-Rescue, representatives from Atmos Energy and Oncor Electric along with the Plano Police Department’s bomb squad were all on scene trying to determine the cause of the explosion. The scene was later turned over to the Plano fire marshal and his investigators, with Atmos Energy remaining on site but all other agencies departing.
“At this point, they do not know the cause and do not want to speculate,” Plano Fire-Rescue said in a statement on Monday night.
Electricity and gas was shut off for the entire block until about 9:30 p.m. local time, when Atmos Energy and Oncor Electric determined it was safe to reinstate power and gas except for the exploded house and the two next door, according to Plano Fire-Rescue.
Plano Mayor John Muns said investigators were “working diligently to determine the cause of the blast.”
“We are saddened by today’s tragedy of a house explosion in our city,” Muns said in a statement on Monday evening. “Several of our residents were injured. We are keeping them and their families close to our hearts and hoping for a swift and full recovery.”
(NEW YORK) — Hayley Arceneaux’s dreams of becoming an astronaut were crushed after being diagnosed with pediatric bone cancer at 10 years old, but now she’s set to go to space in the world’s first all-civilian mission to orbit Earth.
Now, the 29-year-old St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital physician assistant is set to make history as the youngest American, first pediatric cancer survivor, and person with a prosthesis to go to space as one of the crew members in SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission.
The four-person mission will launch in September in a SpaceX rocket commanded by entrepreneur and part-time pilot Jared Isaacman.
Isaacman donated two seats to the hospital: One for Arceneaux and another that is being raffled to the public as part of a $200 million fundraiser for the hospital.
Arceneaux shared how her battle with cancer as a child prepared her for the mission into orbit and her excitement for the experience ahead.
Arceneaux told co-host Sunny Hostin that she’s “been so excited” and “so ready” for the space mission.
“I’m going to be the youngest American to go to space, but also what I’m really excited about is that I’m going to be the first pediatric cancer survivor to go to space, and the first person with an internal prosthesis,” she said.
During her one-year treatment at St. Jude for bone cancer, Arceneaux had to get surgery to replace her knee and had a metal rod put in her left thigh bone to save her leg.
“I’m really excited to show all these kids going through cancer treatment what they can do too,” Arceneaux said.
Arceneaux’s family trip to NASA’s headquarters when she was 10 years old inspired her to become an astronaut, but she said her hopes came to a halt after being diagnosed with bone cancer just a few months later.
Looking back on when the doctors told her she had cancer, Arceneaux recalled bursting into tears. “I kept saying, ‘I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die,’ because at age 10, everyone I had known with cancer had passed away.”
She added that it wasn’t until she was “walking into the doors of St. Jude’s” that she felt hope for survival.
“That year that I spent going through cancer treatment at St. Jude was actually the most important year of my life,” Arceneaux said. “It definitely made me who I am, and made me tough because of it, and I think in a way it prepared me to go to space.”
While Arceneaux beat cancer, she thought that going to space was a wish she’d never be able to fulfill. That is, until she received an “out of the blue” phone call in January from St. Jude.
“I was absolutely shocked when they asked if I wanted to go with them to space,” she said. “Immediately, I said yes, and then thought for a second. I was like, ‘Well let me check with my mom.'”
“Getting to be this first all-civilian mission to space, and what this means for everyone coming after us, it’s incredibly exciting to be part of,” she said.
Arceneaux, who’s currently an astronaut-in-training and will become a certified commercial astronaut after completing her mission, will be orbiting Earth for three to four days.
During her training, she said she’s learned the ins and outs of SpaceX’s spacecraft as well as centrifuge training and hypoxia training. Next week, the crew will learn about water survival.
Since Arceneaux is a physician assistant, she’s the designated medical officer on the mission and goes through additional training.
While they are in orbit, “going deeper, higher into space” than any space crew has in 15 years, Arceneaux and the crew will do research on the radiation profile that is seen in that level of space.
“We’re gonna be doing some cognition tests while we’re up there, taking some blood and all kinds of samples to learn any radiation exposure effects, and also testing the microbiome as we’re in this close capsule, all of us breathing the same air, seeing really what the bacteria does on our skin,” she said on “The View.”
On July 11, billionaire Sir Richard Branson flew to the lower edge of space and back to planet Earth in the first fully crewed flight from his private space tourism firm Virgin Galactic. Another billionaire, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is set to launch to the edge of space on Tuesday with the first crewed flight from his private space-faring firm Blue Origin.
Arceneaux weighed in on the billionaires blasting off into space.
“It’s so exciting that more and more people are getting to experience space,” Arceneaux said, adding that her Inspiration4 mission crew was together to watch Branson and plan to be together again to watch Bezos.
“How our mission is different is we’re going to be orbiting, and spending three days in space, participating in research and going through some really extensive training to get us there,” she continued.
“Until my mission, I could have never been a NASA astronaut with the rod that I have in my leg,” Arceneaux said. “Now that space travel is being opened up, you no longer have to be physically perfect to go to space.”
(TUCSON, Ariz.) — Several children initially missing following a deadly fire and shooting rampage that targeted multiple first responders in Tucson, Arizona, have been found alive, police said on Monday.
Tucson Police Department Sgt. Richard Gradillas told ABC News that the two or three children who resided at a home where a badly burned body was discovered in the blaze were found on Monday, but released no further details.
Gradillas said police were still conducting an investigation to determine that the children were not harmed. He said police plan to hold a news conference on Monday afternoon to update the public on the shooting spree.
A 35-year-old man allegedly launched a shooting rampage across three different crime scenes that left at least two people dead and four wounded.
The alleged gunman, whose name has yet to be released, was critically wounded in a shootout with a police officer after he allegedly rammed the officer’s squad car with his SUV, officials said.
The gunman allegedly began the deadly rampage by targeting two EMTs who were responding to a medical emergency at a park, Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus said at a news conference on Sunday.
Magnus said the suspect got out of his silver SUV, approached the ambulance and opened fire, striking the driver in the head and the passenger in the arm and chest.
The 20-year-old EMT driver remained in “extremely critical condition” on Monday, while the EMT in the passenger seat, a 21-year-old woman, is listed in stable condition.
The suspect fled the scene and allegedly drove up to the house blaze in an SUV about 3:45 p.m. local time on Sunday as fire trucks were arriving.
That’s when the suspect “arrives on the scene and starts firing at both the fire department personnel and the neighbors,” Magnus said.
Without warning, the suspect unleashed a barrage of gunfire, hitting a fire department captain in the arm and fatally striking a neighbor who was helping to put out the fire in the head, police said. A second neighbor was grazed in the head by a bullet.
At this point, firefighters called the police to say they were being shot at.
The fire captain and neighbor wounded in the incident were both in good condition on Monday.
The first police officer who arrived at the scene of the fire and shooting spotted the suspect’s vehicle in the area, officials said.
The suspect’s SUV rammed the officer’s car, disabling it, Magnus said. The officer then exited the vehicle and exchanged gunfire with the alleged suspect, striking him.
Magnus said making the incident more complex is the fact a dead body was found inside the burning residence. The fire victim was burned beyond recognition and police have not released the person’s identity. Police said it’s unclear if the person’s death is directly related to the suspect.
This is a “highly tragic, really horrific incident with many unknowns,” Magnus said Sunday night. The investigation, he said, will be “lengthy and complex.”
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero posted a message on Twitter asking residents to pray for the full recovery of the wounded first responders.
“This was a horrific and senseless act of violence,” Romero said.
(New York) — The record-breaking heat waves that have killed dozens of people in the West Coast last month have also had a dire impact on the region’s bird population, particularly its youngest members.
And wildlife experts and environmentalists are warning that this could be a dire sign of things to come as climate change continues to alter the ecosystem.
During the record-breaking heat wave at the end of June, dozens of nesting baby birds, from raptors to corvid species, have been jumping out of their nests to escape the heat and falling to the ground. The Portland Audubon Society reported that it had 100 hawks admitted to wildlife care centers during the final week of June when temperatures were as high as 116 degrees.
“As we have more heat waves and more wildfires, we’re taking away their habitat and they won’t have anywhere to nest,” Sally Compton, the executive director of Think Wild Central Oregon, a nonprofit wildlife hospital, told ABC News.
Compton said her office received triple the amount of calls of injured and separated baby birds and patients than last summer, with 60 patients at the end of June alone.
“During the busy season we have about 10 to 20 cases,” Compton said.
The patients suffered severe head trauma and other fractures, she said. Other birds have showed signs of overheating, such as mouth breathing and longer sleep periods, according to Compton.
Nesting season usually takes place between April and June in the West Coast, according to the Audubon Society. In most cases birds will build their nests in the highest locations of the forests, Compton said.
The extreme heat waves, however, made these locations more dangerous for the baby birds, she said.
“Not only are they exposed to the really high temperatures but they’re also exposed to the direct sunlight,” she said. “They have no choice that they have to flee from the nest.”
Nat Seavy, director of migration science with the Migratory Bird Initiative at the National Audubon Society, told ABC News that baby birds are the most vulnerable because they are still fledging.
“They simply don’t have the ability to move to a better place,” Seavy told ABC News.
And it’s not just the birds that are feeling the heat. Compton said she treated a golden mantle ground squirrel that suffered burns from the heat last weekend.
So far, the damage to the animals hasn’t been too harsh, according to the advocates who have been treating them.
Compton said her team has been able to heal many of the injured birds, reunite them with their families and establish nests in parts of the forests with more shade. The Portland Audubon Society also reunited some hawks that were injured.
She and other advocates warned that increased heat waves will result in long-term problems for the West Coast fauna.
Liz Hadly, a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University, told ABC News that nesting seasons tend to align with times of the year that weren’t hot.
“That mismatch of the nesting period of the bird and the rising temperatures is offset. When you factor in that developmental phase of being fed in the nest and not able to leave the nest, this makes them sitting ducks,” she said.
The ecological shift could lead to several dire outcomes including, longer fledging periods for the baby birds and a decline in the number of birds that make it to adulthood, according to Hadly.
“Their nesting success may decline,” she said.
Seavy and the other experts said that this should propel everyone to work on combating climate change because once the bird population is negatively affected, it won’t take long for other animals to suffer as well.
“Birds tell us the impacts of climate change are serious,” he said. “We have to recognize that we have to address the changes for both wildlife and people.”
(CHICAGO) — Following another violent weekend in Chicago in which 56 people were shot, 11 fatally, the Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown announced a new strategy to combat gun violence.
Brown said the department will create a team of 50 officers to target gun traffickers, straw buyers, unscrupulous licensed firearms dealers and anyone who facilitates the flow of illegal guns into the city.
“The point of this investigations team — which is new and unique, and a first in its class — is to get the gun before it hits the streets at the trafficking level,” Brown said at a news conference Monday. “These third parties need to hear me loud and clear: We’re coming for you, and we’re going to try to charge you with the highest charge we can, if not in the federal system, then at the state attorney’s office.”
The new strategy comes amid an 11% increase in shootings in Chicago this year over the same time period as last year.
Aiming his words at those who purchase illegal guns used in crimes, he said, “Do not buy guns for violent people is our message, or you will pay the price for them by doing what we hope to be serious time.”
“Whatever they’re paying you to go buy these guns … it’s blood money,” Brown said. “Blood is on your hands, and we’re coming for you.”
He said the new gun investigations team will work closely with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as well as state and federal prosecutors in an attempt to demolish any gun pipelines into the city and bring purveyors of illegal firearms to justice.
Brown said one of the major focuses of the team, which the department began assembling in the spring, will be to trace every illegal gun seized in Chicago to the person who sold the weapons to the perpetrators or those who bought the guns on their behalf.
He said the federal government will also being sending a firearms strike force to the city as early as this week to help curb the flow of illegal firearms.
The superintendent also announced that a 24-hour gun trafficking tipline is being established and will be supported by a $1 million fund allocated by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to “give Chicago residents a voice to remove these tools for violence from the streets of Chicago.” He said “significant payouts” will be made for tips that lead to arrests, indictments and convictions of gun traffickers and others that deal in illegal firearms.
“Someone in this community knows who that is, and we want to incentivize you coming forward anonymously,” Brown said. “We want to incentivize you to help the police department protect your community by giving these people up.”
Brown began the news conference by saying that over the weekend, Chicago police officers seized 113 illegal guns and that, so far this year, a total of 6,629 illegal firearms have been taken off the streets — a 26% increase from 2020.
“Every gun recovery is a potential deadly force encounter, and every gun recovery is a potential saved life,” Brown said.
The superintendent added that 3,264 people have been arrested this year on gun charges.
He also announced arrests in two homicides. In one, a 17-year-old juvenile and an 18-year-old man were arrested in the slaying of a 73-year-old Vietnam vet during a July 14 carjacking. In the other, a 31-year-old suspect was arrested in the fatal execution-style shooting of a man on July 17.
But Brown said seizing illegal guns and solving homicides has clearly not been enough to stem the tide of gun violence overwhelming the city, noting the number of shootings that occurred over the weekend.
Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said one of the shootings occurred on Saturday night at a graduation party in the Austin neighborhood on the city’s West Side and left six people injured, including four children.
“This was a group that had gotten together previously to celebrate a graduation party, and it was very successful, a really good group of kids and individuals and no issues,” Deenihan said. “So they decided since they had a successful gathering the first time, then ‘why can’t we do this again?'”
He said that during the party, a vehicle drove up, and two gunmen opened fire on the group mingling outside.
“There was no motive as to anybody in this group was involved in any criminal activity,” Deenihan said.
No arrests were made in what Deenihan described as a mass shooting.
Brown said police in Chicago and across the nation are seeing a surge in drive-by shootings rivaling a level not seen since the 1980s and 1990s.
He said that while the new gun investigations team will be “relentless” in its effort to intercept illegal firearms before they are used on the streets, he added they will need held from the community and “a lot of luck.”
“It’s always better to be lucky than good, but we’re going to be very good at this,” he said. “If we are successful, and I believe we will be, it will save untold lives getting these guns out of the hands of people in the first place instead of waiting until after they use the gun or after we make an arrest and recover the gun. We’ll be on the front end of this to get the traffickers.”
(WASHINGTON) — A Florida man who joined in the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol will serve eight months in prison with 24 months of supervised release, in the first felony sentencing to result from the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation into the insurrection.
Washington, D.C., district judge Randolph Moss said that Paul Hodgkins, 38, who was seen in videos entering the Senate chamber and taking selfies, appeared “prepared for conflict” as he joined the pro-Trump mob in breaching the Capitol in what the judge described as a grave threat to democracy itself.
The Justice Department had asked for Hodgkins to be sentenced to 18 months in prison, while his attorneys had asked that he be released without any prison sentence.
Referring to pictures of Hodgkins holding a red “Trump 2020” flag in the well of the Senate, Moss said it showed “he was staking a claim on the floor of the U.S. Senate, not with an American flag but a flag of a single individual over a nation.”
In remarks leading up to handing down his sentence, the judge sought repeatedly to underscore the danger of the Jan. 6 attack and its threat to the country’s democratic foundation.
“Jan. 6 means it will be harder for our country and diplomats to convince other nations to pursue democracy, to convince our children that democracy stands as the immutable foundation of this nation; it means that we are now all fearful about the next attack in a way that we never were,” Moss said. “It may be the attack on the Capitol was never going to succeed at preventing certification the election, but it did succeed in delaying the democratic process. And that stain will remain on us and on this country for years to come.”
Moss sought to make clear that his sentencing was reflective of Hodgkins’ actions alone and should not be seen as applying to what other similarly-charged defendants might face with guilty convictions for the felony charge of obstructing Congress’ certification of President Joe Biden’s election win. Still, the punishment creates a new benchmark for attorneys defending the hundreds of other alleged rioters not charged with violent crimes, who are weighing whether to engage in plea agreements with the government.
Anna Morgan-Lloyd, a 49-year-old hair salon owner, became the first person sentenced in connection with the Jan. 6 attack when she was sentenced on June 23 to three years of probation after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a capitol building.
Another rioter, Michael Curzio, was sentenced to six months in jail earlier this month after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge. Hodgkins is the first rioter to be sentenced for a more serious felony charge.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Sedky argued during Monday’s sentencing hearing that while Hodgkins was not directly accused of participating in any violence during the assault on the Capitol, his actions and advanced preparation for conflict before coming to D.C. that day made him a key player in furthering what she called “an act of domestic terror.”
In response, Hodgkins’ attorney Patrick Leduc called Sedky’s characterization “offensive,” saying it was “gaslighting the country, and it needs to stop.”
“It was a protest that became a riot,” Leduc said, noting that to date no defendants among the more than 540 charged thus far have specifically been charged with terrorism offenses.
Sedky said the government’s request that Hodgkins serve 18 months in prison with three years of supervised release — which represents the mid-range of sentencing guidelines for the felony Hodgkins pleaded guilty to — should lay down an effective deterrent for any individuals thinking of engaging in similar conduct and disrupting the functions of the government.
“I have a hard time thinking of a crime that, at its core, is more the epitome of disrespecting the law,” Sedky said. “It’s truly flouting lawmakers and law enforcement officers who were there to protect them, and the laws that they were trying to enforce to basically transfer power from one president to another president. And so the need to promote respect for the law is really at its pinnacle in a crime like this.”
Prior to being sentenced, Hodgkins addressed the court to express regret for his actions, saying that he traveled to D.C. “with the intention of supporting the president I loved.” He said went there to participate in a march on Pennsylvania Avenue but never anticipated joining in the storming of Capitol.
“I wish to state that I completely acknowledge and accept that Joseph R. Biden Jr. is rightfully and respectfully the president of the United States,” Hodgkins said. “To put things in short, I allowed myself to put passion before my principles, which resulted in me violating the law for the first time in my life — a thing which I definitely feel shame for, and something that I vow never to let happen again.”
Hodgkins pleaded with Judge Moss not to sentence him to time in prison, saying he feared it would mean he would lose his job just before he’s set to receive a promotion, and make it difficult for him to find a temporary home for his two cats.
“If there is still a debt that I owe society then I hope that I may be able to pay that debt in a way that affords me the ability to continue to be an otherwise law-abiding, working class and taxpaying citizen, rather than becoming a drain on society,” Hodgkins said.
The judge, however, said that Jan. 6 was more than just a simple riot.
“There were people who were swarming into the halls of the Capitol saying, ‘Where’s Nancy?’ The chambers of Congress were emptied during the most solemn act in a democracy of certifying who the next president is going to be by an angry mob,” Moss said. “That is not an exercise of First Amendment rights by any measure.”
(NEW YORK) — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is set to blast to the edge of space and spend a few minutes outside Earth’s atmosphere Tuesday on the first crewed flight from his firm Blue Origin.
The milestone launch in the modern commercial space race comes on the 52nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moon landing in 1969, though the space-faring landscape has evolved by giant leaps since then as billionaires emerge as key players driving the new race to the cosmos.
Bezos, who holds the title of the richest man in the world per Bloomberg data, has said the spaceflight will fulfill a lifelong dream.
He has also expressed hope that Blue Origin will make space more accessible to all, though bidding for a seat on the first flight reached a whopping $28 million. The anonymous bidder who paid $28 million, however, won’t make it on Tuesday due to “scheduling conflicts.” Blue Origin has not disclosed how much the teen who replaced the initial bidder paid for his seat.
The Amazon founder will be accompanied on the historic journey by his brother, Mark Bezos, as well as the oldest and youngest people ever to go to space, Wally Funk, 82-years-old, and Oliver Daemon, 18. Funk is a trailblazing female pilot who trained to be an astronaut during the original U.S.-Soviet space race era but was told they were only sending men to space at the time. Daemon is a Dutch student set to begin classes at Utrecht University this fall, and is the first paying customer for Blue Origin after the initial auction winner backed out.
What is happening and how to watch
Liftoff of the inaugural Blue Origin flight is scheduled for 9 a.m. ET from a rural complex just north of Van Horn, Texas. In total, the flight will be 11 minutes, with approximately three minutes spent above the so-called Karman line that is defined by some as the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. After re-entry, the astronauts are set to descend back to Earth in their capsule with a parachute-landing in the west Texas desert.
ABC News will carry live coverage of the event, which will also be streamed on Blue Origin’s website. The live broadcast will begin at 7:30 a.m. ET. Unlike most spaceflights, there are no on-site public viewing areas in the vicinity of the launch site. The newly-minted astronauts are set to have a press conference shortly after landing back on earth.
There is no pilot aboard the fully-autonomous capsule. While Blue Origin’s New Shepard has flown 15 test flights, Tuesday’s will be the first with humans on board.
The definition of “space” has emerged as a heated debate point in the new space race, as Sir Richard Branson took heat for not passing the Karman line (roughly 62 miles above earth) during his Virgin Galactic spaceflight earlier this month. Neither Blue Origin nor Virgin Galactic’s flights will reach Earth’s orbit, however, the way Elon Musk’s SpaceX missions have. Musk, also a billionaire player in the new space race, on Twitter has called out this “big difference.”
While the modern space race has become the arena of the ultra-wealthy at a time when a global pandemic on earth has exacerbated inequities, some argue the rise of private sector involvement has saved NASA money and accelerated technological advances — which in the long-term has the potential to open up space tourism to all who have been curious about the cosmos.
Still, the billionaire daredevils using themselves as guinea pigs for their private space tourism firms have not had the same support astronauts garnered during the original U.S.-Soviet space race. Animosity was exacerbated by reports that Bezos and Musk have avoided income taxes. A Change.org petition calling for Bezos to stay in space has garnered headlines and more than 160,000 signatures.
In an interview with ABC News’ “Good Morning America” just one day ahead of the spaceflight, Bezos said he is curious how briefly leaving Earth will “change” him.
“I don’t know what it’s going to mean for me,” Bezos said. “I don’t know, I’m very curious about what tomorrow is actually going to bring. Everybody who’s been to space says it changes them in some way. And I’m just really excited to figure out how it’s going to change me.”
(MARTIN COUNTY, Fla) — A man said he was attacked by an alligator after falling off his bike in Florida on Monday, according to authorities.
The unidentified victim suffered serious injuries from the bite, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said.
Man seriously injured after being bit by an alligator at Halpatiokee Park in Stuart. Victim fell off of his bike and said he was attacked. First responders on are the scene now. pic.twitter.com/41d07hpZIT
— MartinCountySheriff (@MartinFLSheriff) July 19, 2021
First responders went to the scene at Halpatiokee Regional Park in Stuart and loaded the victim into a helicopter.
Stuart is about 34 miles north of West Palm Beach.
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department will no longer apply the “compulsory legal process” to journalists acting in their capacity of news gathering, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a memo released on Monday, but he did not rule out using the legal process completely on reporters, only in “limited circumstances.”
That legal process consists of subpoenas, warrants and court orders, the memo explains.
Garland said that the prohibition will not apply to reporters who are under criminal investigation for activities outside of newsgathering, such as insider trading and breaking and entering to obtain
Garland said that in the “limited circumstance” in which DOJ has to use the legal process for records on a member of the news media, it will be approved by the deputy attorney general, and that he or she will be consulted before the process is initiated.
“The prohibition does apply when a member of the media, has in the course of news gathering, only possessed or published government information, including classified information,” Garland writes. “This does not however affect the Department’s traditional ability to use the compulsory legal process to obtain information from or records of, for example, a government employee who has unlawfully disclosed government information.”
The prohibition on using the legal process also does not apply when an entity or individual comes in contact with a foreign terrorist group or agent of a foreign power, or when there is “serious bodily harm” or an imminent risk of death.
The attorney general is also tasking the deputy attorney general with reviewing, developing and codifying the policy and will examine what is already on the books.
The memo came about because major media outlets reporters had records subpoenaed by the Trump Justice Department on stories relating to the Russia investigation.
Those three media outlets met with the attorney general earlier this summer.
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Monday announced the unsealing of an indictment charging four Chinese nationals with a years-long effort to hack into computer systems of dozens of companies, universities and governments in the U.S. and at least 11 other countries.
The two-count indictment, returned by a grand jury in May but unsealed just last Friday, names four residents of China in connection to the scheme — three of whom are identified as officers with the Hainan State Security Department, an arm of China’s intelligence service.
Ding Xaioyang, Cheng Qingmin, Zhu Yunmin, and Wu Shurong had one goal, according to court documents: install malware on protected computers and steal the data on the computers.
The indictment alleges that the HSSD created a front company to “identify and recruit talented computer hackers to penetrate foreign entities (including foreign universities) and steal trade secrets, proprietary data and to recruit talented linguists to interpret the stolen material.”
Prosecutors allege that the scheme went on from July 2009 to September 2018, targeting various research universities in the United States, including the National Institutes of Health, and primarily used a phishing technique to gain access to companies and institutions data.
The Justice Department alleges that the hackers targeted infectious-disease research related to Ebola, MERS, HIV/AIDS, Marburg and tularemia.
“These criminal charges once again highlight that China continues to use cyber-enabled attacks to steal what other countries make, in flagrant disregard of its bilateral and multilateral commitments,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “The breadth and duration of China’s hacking campaigns, including these efforts targeting a dozen countries across sectors ranging from healthcare and biomedical research to aviation and defense, remind us that no country or industry is safe. Today’s international condemnation shows that the world wants fair rules, where countries invest in innovation, not theft.”
The indictment comes on the heels of the Biden administration, several allies and partners and NATO are joining forces to “expose and criticize” China for a “pattern of malicious cyber activities,” announcing on Monday that the PRC is profiting off some of the cyberattacks they’ve supported, and officially saying they were behind the Microsoft Exchange server breach in March, according to senior administration officials.
