US justice department charges four Chinese nationals in Microsoft Exchange hack – live | US news

Joe Biden is set to speak on the economy and the bipartisan infrastructure plan at 11.30 local time. CNN is reporting that the president will use this speech to counter concerns that his economic plan will accelerate inflation.

The speech comes with the bipartisan group working on the bipartisan infrastructure plan at odds over spending, and as Democrats hope to pass a $3.5tn human infrastructure bill alongside it – a bill Republicans are already balking at because of its size.

Biden will likely spend time during his remarks touting the more than 3 million new jobs created since he took office and unprecedented projected growth. But the speech comes

Texas Democrats made headlines when they fled the state for Washington to prevent quorum on a restrictive voting bill dubbed “Jim Crow 2.0” by the left.

Now, however, five of them have since tested positive for Covid-19. All the lawmakers have been vaccinated. “When my Texas House Democratic colleagues and I broke quorum to stop anti-voter legislation, we knew that tactic would come with real personal sacrifice,” said Texas state representative Trey Martinez Fischer in a statement.

However, he noted that he is experiencing “extremely mild symptoms” and is quarantining until he tests negative.

“Just as these new variants sweeping the country are more aggressive than ever, the wave of anti-voter legislation in this country is worse than we’ve seen in generations,” the lawmaker said. “That’s why, I will continue the fight for voting rights with every single fiber of my being.”

“That is the beauty of being vaccinated,” said Democratic Texas state representative Gene Wu. “Every single person who has tested positive so far have little to no symptoms, which is the point of the vaccine. If nothing else, we want this to be a reminder to all Americans: get your stupid shot now.”

This week marks six months that Democrats have held the majority in the Senate, and it kicks off with a lot of legislating on the joint pieces of infrastructure legislation that Joe Biden hopes to pass.

To recap: We have the $1.2tn bipartisan infrastructure deal focused on improving roads, bridges and public transit that Democrats worked out with Republicans. Then we have the $3.5tn human infrastructure bill focused on improving social services and environmental measures.

Republicans were upset over the bundling of the two bills after the lengthy negotiating over the bipartisan deal. In particular, they balked at the size of the human infrastructure bill. In an interview on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures, Republican senator Lindsey Graham said he would advise his fellow Republicans to “learn something from our Democratic friends in Texas when it comes to avoiding a $3.5tn tax and spend package: Leave town.” Graham, of course, is referencing how Texas Democrats thwarted a restricting voting bill by fleeing the state and preventing quorum.

But first: the bipartisan deal. The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, is expected to file cloture today on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, in an attempt to speed things up so that Democrats can then turn their focus on passing the human infrastructure bill.

Cloture is basically the procedure for ending debate and taking a vote. Yet senators in the bipartisan group that came up with the plan spent the weekend trying to solve a $100bn hole that arose after Republicans took issue with plans to beef up IRS enforcement, Politico is reporting.

“How can I vote for cloture when the bill isn’t written?” the Republican senator Bill Cassidy said on Fox News Sunday.

Secretary of state Antony Blinken has issued a statement on the People’s Republic of China and its “destabilizing and irresponsible behavior in cyberspace.”

This is in regards to the Microsoft hack that resulted in the Department of Justice filing charges against the four Chinese nationals working for the Ministry of State Security.

“Responsible states do not indiscriminately compromise global network security nor knowingly harbor cyber criminals – let alone sponsor or collaborate with them,” Blinken said. “These contract hackers cost governments and businesses billions of dollars in stolen intellectual property, ransom payments, and cybersecurity mitigation efforts, all while the (Ministry of State Security) had them on its payroll.”

Howdy, liveblog readers. Happy Monday.

The Biden administration has joined with allies – including the EU, the UK and Nato – in accusing Chinese state-based hacking groups of being behind the exploitation of an estimated 250,000 Microsoft Exchange servers worldwide earlier this year.

The US Department of Justice charged four Chinese nationals working with the ministry of state security of the People’s Republic of China with global computer intrusion campaign targeting intellectual property and confidential business information.

The White House said China’s “pattern of irresponsible behavior in cyberspace” was “inconsistent with its stated objective of being seen as a responsible leader in the world”.

More to come on this and more from Washington today.

In the meantime, you can read more here: