1 GOLD AND COPPER PRICES SURGE WWW.UBPOST.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/02      2 REGISTRATION FOR THE ULAANBAATAR MARATHON 2025 IS NOW OPEN WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/02      3 WHY DONALD TRUMP SHOULD MEET KIM JONG- UN AGAIN – IN MONGOLIA WWW.LOWYINSTITUTE.ORG  PUBLISHED:2025/04/02      4 BANK OF MONGOLIA PURCHASES 281.8 KILOGRAMS OF PRECIOUS METALS IN MARCH WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/02      5 P. NARANBAYAR: 88,000 MORE CHILDREN WILL NEED SCHOOLS AND KINDERGARTENS BY 2030 WWW.GOGO.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/02      6 B. JAVKHLAN: MONGOLIA'S FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES REACH USD 5 BILLION WWW.GOGO.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/02      7 185 CASES OF MEASLES REGISTERED IN MONGOLIA WWW.AKIPRESS.COM PUBLISHED:2025/04/02      8 MONGOLIAN JUDGE ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE APPEALS CHAMBER OF THE ICC WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/01      9 HIGH-PERFORMANCE SUPERCOMPUTING CENTER TO BE ESTABLISHED IN PHASES WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/01      10 LEGAL INCONSISTENCIES DISRUPT COAL TRADING ON EXCHANGE WWW.UBPOST.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/01      УСТСАНД ТООЦОГДОЖ БАЙСАН УЛААНБУРХАН ӨВЧИН ЯАГААД ЭРГЭН ТАРХАХ БОЛОВ? WWW.BLOOMBERGTV.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     САНГИЙН ЯАМ: ДОТООД ҮНЭТ ЦААСНЫ АРИЛЖАА IV/16-НААС МХБ-ЭЭР НЭЭЛТТЭЙ ЯВАГДАНА WWW.BLOOMBERGTV.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     МОНГОЛБАНКНЫ ҮНЭТ МЕТАЛЛ ХУДАЛДАН АВАЛТ ӨМНӨХ САРААС 56 ХУВИАР, ӨМНӨХ ОНЫ МӨН ҮЕЭС 35.1 ХУВИАР БУУРАВ WWW.BLOOMBERGTV.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     Б.ЖАВХЛАН: ГАДААД ВАЛЮТЫН НӨӨЦ ТАВАН ТЭРБУМ ДОЛЛАРТ ХҮРСЭН WWW.EAGLE.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     1072 ХУВЬЦААНЫ НОГДОЛ АШИГ 93 500 ТӨГРӨГИЙГ ЭНЭ САРД ОЛГОНО WWW.EAGLE.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     Н.УЧРАЛ: Х.БАТТУЛГА ТАНД АСУУДЛАА ШИЙДЭХ 7 ХОНОГИЙН ХУГАЦАА ӨГЧ БАЙНА WWW.NEWS.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     “XANADU MINES” КОМПАНИ "ХАРМАГТАЙ" ТӨСЛИЙН ҮЙЛ АЖИЛЛАГААНЫ УДИРДЛАГЫГ “ZIJIN MINING”-Д ШИЛЖҮҮЛЭЭД БАЙНА WWW.BLOOMBERGTV.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     ТӨМӨР ЗАМЫН БАРИЛГЫН АЖЛЫГ ЭНЭ САРЫН СҮҮЛЭЭР ЭХЛҮҮЛНЭ WWW.MONTSAME.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     “STEPPE GOLD”-ИЙН ХУВЬЦААНЫ ХАНШ 4 ХУВИАР ӨСЛӨӨ WWW.BLOOMBERGTV.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/02     ҮЙЛДВЭРЛЭЛИЙН ОСОЛ ӨНГӨРСӨН ОНД ХОЁР ДАХИН НЭМЭГДЖЭЭ WWW.GOGO.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/01    

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Events

Events

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MBCC “Doing Business with Mongolia seminar and Christmas Receptiom” Dec 10. 2024 London UK MBCCI London UK Goodman LLC

NEWS

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“USD 43 million recovered through efforts of government organizations” www.montsame.mn

The Investigation Division of the Independent Authority Against Corruption of Mongolia (IAAC) has recovered a total of 123.5 billion tugriks (US$43 million) as a result of investigating corruption case.
According to the press release posted by the IAAC, “Several high-level political officials have abused their power and made an illegal decision to sell 49 percent of the common stock of Mongolian-Russian joint venture Erdenet Mining Corporation and Mongolrostsvetmet LLC to the Trade and Development Bank-controlled Mongolian Copper Corporation LLC for US$400.2 million. A joint working group of the IAAC and the Economic Crimes Department of the Criminal Police have investigated the alleged criminal case of corruption.”
“An investigation has found that QSC LLC misappropriated 100 billion tugriks (US$35 million) transferred from Mongol Bank (Central Bank of Mongolia) under the “Debt Transfer Agreement” signed on April 06, 2016, as part of the measures to reduce the risk of insolvency.”
“Investigator’s statement No. 10 dated June 19, 2018, was sent to the Mongol Bank by the working group to eliminate the causes and circumstances that contributed to the crime, demanding the compensation of 100 billion tugriks (US$35 million) in damages to the state by exercising its right to unilaterally withdraw from the “Debt Transfer Agreement” that was misappropriated.”
“In accordance with the investigator’s statement, Mongol Bank terminated the agreement and started to compensate the government by recovering the said amount from QSC LLC. As a result of cooperation between the government organizations, the company has transferred the last payment of 61.8 billion tugriks (US$21.6 million) on May 6, 2021, and the total loss of 123.5 billion tugriks (43 million) was fully recovered.”
Source: Independent Authority Against Corruption
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China allows couples to have three children www.bbc.com

China has announced that it will allow couples to have up to three children, after census data showed a steep decline in birth rates.
China scrapped its decades-old one-child policy in 2016, replacing it with a two-child limit which has failed to lead to a sustained upsurge in births.
The cost of raising children in cities has deterred many Chinese couples.
The latest move was approved by President Xi Jinping in a politburo meeting, state media say.
It will come with "supportive measures, which will be conducive to improving our country's population structure, fulfilling the country's strategy of actively coping with an ageing population and maintaining the advantage, endowment of human resources", according to Xinhua news agency.
"If relaxing the birth policy was effective, the current two-child policy should have proven to be effective too," Hao Zhou, a senior economist at Commerzbank, told Reuters news agency.
"But who wants to have three kids? Young people could have two kids at most. The fundamental issue is living costs are too high and life pressures are too huge."
line
Analysis box by Stephen McDonell, China correspondent
On a rainy, bleak day in Beijing I was out buying a coffee when the news broke.
People started looking down at their phones as they beeped and whirred with the headline flashing across their screens - China to allow couples to have three children.
This is big news in a country which didn't start suddenly producing more babies when the one-child policy eased off to two.
In fact, many are asking how a three-child policy might mean more children when the two-child version didn't and why birth restrictions have remained here at all given the demographic trend.
Very good questions.
One thought is that, amongst those prepared to have two children, at least some parents will have three.
However, I have interviewed many young Chinese couples about this subject and it is hard to find those who want bigger families these days.
Generations of Chinese people have lived without siblings and are used to small families - affluence has meant less need for multiple children to become family-supporting workers, and young professionals say they'd rather give one child more advantages than spread their income amongst several kids.
line
What did the census say?
The census, released earlier this month, showed that around 12 million babies were born last year - a significant decrease from the 18 million in 2016, and the lowest number of births recorded since the 1960s.
The census was conducted in late 2020 where some seven million census takers had gone door to door to collect information from Chinese households.
Graph showing China's falling birth rate
Given the sheer number of people surveyed, it is considered the most comprehensive resource on China's population, which is important for future planning.
It was widely expected after the census data results were released that China would relax its family policy rules.
line
'Too many big pressures'
By Kerry Allen, China Media Analyst
China's leading media are giving a lot of fanfare to the "three-child policy".
Newspaper People's Daily, broadcaster CCTV and news agency Xinhua are all posting happy cartoon images of children today on their social media pages and saying that the new policy has "arrived".
It is already the top talking point on popular social network Sina Weibo - posts mentioning the new policy have already racked up tens of thousands of views, and hundreds of thousands of comments.
More than 180,000 users have commented on Xinhua's upbeat post, and the ones with the most likes do not look upon the policy kindly.
"There are too many big pressures in life at the moment," one user says, "Young people are not willing to have kids."
Many talk about modern day "workplace dilemmas" for people leaving on maternity/paternity leave and there not being even "the most basic reproductive benefits".
And with a shrinking labour market, young Chinese people today accept that they have to work longer hours. Overtime and overwork are endemic.
More women meanwhile are choosing to pursue further education and employment, rather than settle down early to start a family.
line
What were China's previous policies?
The government's move in 2016 to allow couples to have two children failed to reverse the country's falling birth rate despite a two-year increase immediately afterwards.
Yue Su, principal economist from The Economist Intelligence Unit, said: "While the second-child policy had a positive impact on the birth rate, it proved short-term in nature."
China's population trends have over the years been largely shaped by the one-child policy, which was introduced in 1979 to slow population growth.
Families that violated the rules faced fines, loss of employment and sometimes forced abortions.
The one-child policy also led to a severe gender imbalance in the country - in a culture that historically favours boys over girls.
"This poses problems for the marriage market, especially for men with less socioeconomic resources," Dr Mu Zheng, from the National University of Singapore's sociology department, said.
Graphic
White space
Can China lift birth restrictions entirely?
Ahead of China's latest census, experts had speculated that birth restrictions might be lifted entirely - though it appears as though China is treading cautiously.
But others said that such a move could potentially lead to "other problems" - pointing out the huge disparity between city dwellers and rural people.
As much as women living in expensive cities such as Beijing and Shanghai may wish to delay or avoid childbirth, those in the countryside are likely to still follow tradition and want large families, they say.
"If we free up policy, people in the countryside could be more willing to give birth than those in the cities, and there could be other problems," a policy insider had earlier told Reuters, noting that it could lead to poverty and employment pressures among rural families.
Experts had earlier warned that any impact on China's population, such as a decline, could have a vast effect on other parts of the world.
Dr Yi Fuxian, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said: "China's economy has grown very quickly, and many industries in the world rely on China. The scope of the impact of a population decline would be very wide."
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DRC concentrate export ban may tighten global copper, cobalt supply www.mining.com

The Democratic Republic of Congo has reinstated an export ban on copper and cobalt concentrates, but will allow mining companies that hold waivers to continue with shipments.
Congo, the world’s no.1 cobalt producer and Africa’s biggest copper miner, banned exports of concentrates in 2013 to encourage miners to process and refine the ore locally.
Insufficient smelting capacity, however, has driven the Congolese government to repeatedly issue waivers. In August last year, the mining ministry granted an indefinite moratorium for all minerals exports, except copper concentrate, pending discussions with miners.
The ban freeze ended on April 12 and was replaced by a framework allowing the Minister of Mines to grant individual exceptions on a case-by-case basis following an application by an interested party.
Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN), which announced the beginning of copper concentrate production at its Kamoa-Kakula project in the DRC this week, said on Friday the export ban is unlikely to affect the operation.
“The rules recognize that a derogation may be justified for a number of reasons,” president and CFO Marna Cloete said in a statement. “Kamoa Copper has filed the necessary application materials and we have had constructive discussions with the Minister of Mines on obtaining a derogation for Kamoa-Kakula given current limitations on smelting capacity in-country.”
Haut-Katanga Governor Jacques Kyabula Katwe, told Reuters on Friday the country was still dealing with power deficits, which prevents mining companies from building processing facilities.
“It’s better to let them [mining companies] work, but that they show us their plans for increasing smelting capacity,” he said.
Ivanhoe said the company will utilize local smelter capacity as much as possible, and is assessing the construction of its own smelting complex at Kamoa-Kakula to produce blister and anode copper.
Historic moment
Kicking off production at Kakula, the first mine planned at Ivanhoe’s concession, marked a momentous event for the copper market.
Most of the current top producing mines are decades old and, except rare exceptions such as SolGold’s Cascabel in Ecuador and Anglo American’s Quellaveco project in Peru, there haven’t been major new discoveries in years.
While copper projects are in the pipeline, producers are wary of repeating oversupply mistakes of past cycles by speeding up plans at a time when mines are getting a lot trickier and pricier to build — one reason why copper prices have traded near decade highs at above $10,000 a tonne.
Click here for an interactive chart of copper prices
A ban on exports of such metals from the DRC could put more pressure on global copper and cobalt supply. Analysts expects shortages in both markets to become evident next year.
The copper industry needs to spend upwards of $100 billion to close what could be an annual supply deficit of 4.7 million metric tonnes by 2030, according to estimates from CRU Group. The potential shortfall could reach 10 million tonnes if no mines get built, commodities trader Trafigura has said.
Commodity trader and miner Glencore (LON: GLEN) is expected restart operations at its DRC operation in 2022. Mutanda is the world’s biggest cobalt mine and also produces large amounts of copper.
Resumption of operations at the mine could help ease forecast undersupply, potentially capping further price gains.
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Mongolia confirms 891 new COVID-19 cases www.xinhuanet.com

Mongolia's COVID-19 tally rose by 891 to 57,512 in the past 24 hours, the country's health ministry said Sunday.
The ministry said that the latest cases were local infections, and that 7,837 samples were tested in the past day across the country.
Meanwhile, Mongolia's total death toll reached 286 with four new fatalities, and 434 more people have recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries to 49,754, according to the ministry.
The Asian country launched a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign in late February, aiming to cover at least 60 percent of its 3.3 million people.
Over 1,852,500 Mongolians have so far received their first dose, and over 1,174,600 of them have been fully vaccinated.
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Lost in remote Mongolia, I found a serendipitous warm welcome in the steppe www.thestar.com

As soon as the driver of our uazik, a Soviet-era off-roading vehicle, stops in the middle of the steppe for the third time, I know it: We are lost. Together with my guide, Soyolo Baljinnyum, they take out a large paper map with well-worn corners, tracing roads with fingers stiffened in the cold. If the 24-hour flight from Chicago hadn’t already instilled a sense of distance, it sinks in now. I’m far from home.
Earlier in the day, we’d left Ulaanbaatar, an ever-growing metropolis where monasteries coexist with megamalls and residential highrises. Nearly half of Mongolia’s 3.3 million residents live in the capital; more arrive every year, driven away from their nomadic herder lifestyles in part by the changing climate. (Drier pastures in summer make animals more vulnerable to harsher winter conditions, and livestock losses are often irrecoverable for many families.)
But as soon as we exit the city, we’re in a different place. Mongolia has one of the lowest population densities on the planet, and I feel the rush of excitement. I’m finally seeing the terrain I’d dreamed about for so long. We drive across the wind- and snow-swept landscape for hours without encountering another vehicle or human.
An uazik, in the middle of (seemingly) nowhere.
The Land of the Eternal Blue Sky, as the country is often called, stretches on both sides of the road. Herds of horses roam freely and shaman statues laden with cartons of milk and stacks of cookies — offerings to the spirits — punctuate our journey. We stop at several of these ancient signposts and ask the spirits for a safe passage: in order to continue our trip north, we’re about to get into the dangerous off-roads.
I’ve tapped Baljinnyum, owner-operator of Adventure Rider Mongolia, to take me to Lake Khuvsgul, Mongolia’s deepest lake, on the border with Russia, where a festival of ice takes place every spring. To get there, we zigzag across northern Mongolia’s grasslands and steppes, taiga forests and rolling hills, and I relish the opportunity to see this kaleidoscope of landscapes (despite the heavily bumpy drive).
As we stop to let a flock of sheep cross the barely visible dust road, I think of the wild ride Mongolia has been on over the recent decades. The country was transformed in the 1990s when the socialist system gave way to a rapidly growing market economy.
Coal, copper, oil and gold mining fuelled the run, and while it lifted many out of poverty, it introduced challenges: environmental concerns, reliance on volatile global commodity prices, and an overdependence on resources that have a tendency to … run out. The government recently announced plans to diversify away from mining in the new decade, making tour operators like Baljinnyum hopeful.
I step outside the uazik to stretch my legs and watch the last sun rays disappear behind the nearby hill. As soon as they do, the temperature drops sharply and the incessant wind of the steppes picks up. “We are lost,” Baljinnyum tells me, echoing my own instincts. And even though I don’t see another soul around, he continues, “We’ll have to spend the night here.”
The spirits must be looking over us: A few minutes later, a stranger approaches from afar and, after a short exchange with Baljinnyum, gestures to follow him. Our uazik turns the corner and we arrive at a modest family settlement: two solar-powered gers huddled together amid the flat, treeless land.
Before we enter one of the gers, Baljinnyum explains the rules of engagement. “Once inside, step to the left — that’s the area for the guests; the host always sits on the right. Please be polite and accept whatever is offered to you.” In our case, it’s tobacco snuff passed around in a jade green bottle and a cup of suutei tsai, a buttered, salty milk tea that soothes my joints after a daylong tumble of a ride.
Later, I leave the ger for a second and pause in awe. The dusk sky has turned a shade of violet I’ve never seen in my nearly four-decade-long peripatetic life. There’s no light pollution and the early stars are sparkling on the horizon. The silence feels so unfamiliar, I wonder if there’s anyone else left in the world.
At dinner, we’re treated to horse meat dumplings, a rare delicacy from a recent Lunar New Year celebration. A few motorbikes whiz up to the gers outside. As we pass around shots of homemade vodka, more people crowd in to welcome us, the visitors. To me, this is the deeply binding part of travel that’s vanishing from our world: finding oneself at the mercy of strangers and their kindness on the road.
After the morning’s breakfast of tsai and sizzling hot noodle soup, we bid our goodbyes outside. The two generations of Mongolian nomads — mother and father, their son and daughter-in-law — wave until I can no longer see them in my rearview mirror. We keep due north and eventually arrive at Lake Khuvsgul for the festivities, but the unexpected night in the steppe is the singular gift I won’t soon forget.
Mongolia has ambitious plans to receive 1 million visitors a year in the near future, and while this goal has been paused with the pandemic, the country is gearing up for a travel boom when borders can safely reopen. A new airport south of Ulaanbaatar, for example, will triple existing capacity. With the tourism infrastructure set to grow, impromptu encounters in the wild may become far more fleeting. As Mongolia opens up to the rest of the world, I quietly hope its adventurous essence will stay intact.
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Mongolians abroad start voting for presidential election www.montsame.mn

On May 30, Sunday, Mongolian citizen voters residing in foreign countries began casting their ballot for the Mongolian presidential election ahead of the polling day inside the country.
The early voting for the 2021 presidential election is taking place between May 30 and 31 at 45 diplomatic missions of Mongolia in 30 countries around the world. A total of 7,394 are registered to vote for the election at appropriate Mongolian embassies, resident missions and consulates.
Mongolians inside the home country are scheduled to vote on June 9, Wednesday. Three candidates - U. Khurelsukh from the Mongolian People’s Party, S. Erdene from the Democratic Party and D. Enkhbat from the Right Person Electorate Coalition - are vying for the presidency.
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French oil giant Total rebrands in shift to renewables www.bbc.com

Oil and gas giant Total will be rebranded as TotalEnergies as it shifts some of its focus towards renewable energy sources.
Shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of the move and approved the firm's environmental goals.
"We want to become a sort of green energy major," said chief executive Patrick Pouyanné.
Big energy firms are coming under increasing pressure to adjust to a lower-carbon world.
On Wednesday, a small hedge fund investor succeeded in ousting two board members at Exxon in the US, in a bid to alter the firm's direction on climate change.
And a court in the Netherlands ordered Royal Dutch Shell to cut its emissions more quickly than the Anglo-Dutch oil firm had planned.
Shell ordered to cut emissions in key court ruling
Global ban on new gas boilers from 2025 proposed
Total, the world's fourth-largest privately-owned oil and gas producer, is aiming to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, in part by investing in more solar and wind power projects.
While several small investors opposed the company's plans at the annual general meeting, arguing they did not go far enough, the resolution was passed with more than 90% of the vote.
European energy firms have moved more quickly than their US counterparts to begin the transition away from fossil fuels, said Mike Coffin, senior analyst in oil and gas at financial think tank Carbon Tracker.
"Total we see in the upper tier, ranking alongside BP, but below Eni," he said. "They don't fulfil all our hallmarks of Paris [climate treaty] compliance, but above Shell and certainly above the North American companies."
In February, announcing the planned rebranding, Mr Pouyanné said the new name would symbolise Total's "new commitment to be a leader in a world with more energies and fewer emissions".
He said the company would have to go through "a genuine transformation" to meet its net zero target by 2050.
Climate targets
The International Energy Agency surprised the energy market this month with a report suggesting fossil fuel production needed to slow down much more quickly than firms were planning for.
The IEA said there could be no new investment in fossil fuel projects after this year, if the world wanted to reach net zero carbon emissions by the middle of the century.
Carbon Tracker says global energy firms and state-owned producers have fossil fuel reserves on their books that will have to be left unexploited, if the world is to have any chance of meeting its carbon emissions targets.
Hedge funds, as well as large investors like Blackrock and pension funds, were beginning to recognise that failing to adjust plans in the light of climate targets represented a financial risk to companies they invest in, Mr Coffin said.
"From an environmental perspective, we want these fossil fuels to stay in the ground - they're unburnable carbon," he said.
"From an investment perspective, you don't want to sanction them because you're wasting your capital. You won't see the historic returns we've seen from oil and gas because of the slowdown in demand."
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Microsoft says SolarWinds hackers have struck again at the US and other countries www.cnn.com

Hong Kong/London (CNN Business)The hackers behind one of the worst data breaches ever to hit the US government have launched a new global cyberattack on more than 150 government agencies, think tanks and other organizations, according to Microsoft.
The group, which Microsoft calls "Nobelium," targeted 3,000 email accounts at various organizations this week — most of which were in the United States, the company said in a blog post Thursday.
It believes the hackers are part of the same Russian group behind last year's devastating attack on SolarWinds — a software vendor — that targeted at least nine US federal agencies and 100 companies.
Biden signs cybersecurity executive order, though rules wouldn't have applied to Colonial Pipeline
Biden signs cybersecurity executive order, though rules wouldn't have applied to Colonial Pipeline
Cybersecurity has been a major focus for the US government following the revelations that hackers had put malicious code into a tool published by SolarWinds. A ransomware attack that shut down one of America's most important pieces of energy infrastructure — the Colonial Pipeline — earlier this month has only heightened the sense of alarm. That attack was carried out by a criminal group originating in Russia, according to the FBI.
Microsoft (MSFT) said that at least a quarter of the targets of this week's attacks were involved in international development, humanitarian, and human rights work, across at least 24 countries. It said Nobelium launched the attack by gaining access to a Constant Contact email marketing account used by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
"These attacks appear to be a continuation of multiple efforts by Nobelium to target government agencies involved in foreign policy as part of intelligence gathering efforts," the company said.
According to Microsoft, the latest campaign began in late January and was discovered in February. The hackers honed their techniques throughout March, April and early May before "significantly" escalating their attacks on May 25, when they used Constant Contact to "target around 3,000 individual accounts across more than 150 organizations." The hackers custom-tailored their attacks to each target, in an apparent effort to reduce the chances of being detected.
USAID acting spokesperson Pooja Jhunjhunwala said Friday that the agency was aware of "potentially malicious email activity" from a compromised Constant Contact marketing account. A forensic investigation into the incident is ongoing, added Jhunjhunwala.
The White House's National Security Council and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are both aware of the incident, according to spokespeople. CISA is "working with the FBI and USAID to better understand the extent of the compromise and assist potential victims," a spokesperson said.
By gaining access to USAID's account, the hackers were able to send out phishing emails that Microsoft said "looked authentic but included a link that, when clicked, inserted a malicious file" that allowed the hackers to access computers through a backdoor.
"This backdoor could enable a wide range of activities from stealing data to infecting other computers on a network," Microsoft said.
One of the fake emails that appeared to originate from USAID included an authentic sender address. The email posed as a "special alert" that invited recipients to click on a link to "view documents" from former President Donald Trump on election fraud.
Microsoft said that many of the attacks were blocked automatically. The company is notifying customers who were targeted, and said it has "no reason to believe these attacks involve any exploit against or vulnerability in Microsoft's products or services."
A spokesperson for Constant Contact said the company is "aware that the account credentials of one of our customers were compromised," describing it as an "isolated" incident. "We have temporarily disabled the impacted accounts while we work in cooperation with our customer, who is working with law enforcement," the spokesperson added.
At the time of the SolarWinds hack, US intelligence and law enforcement agencies said the group responsible "likely originated in Russia," adding that the attack was believed to be an act of espionage.
Microsoft reiterated those suspected motivations in its Thursday blog post, saying that "when coupled with the attack on SolarWinds, it's clear that part of Nobelium's playbook is to gain access to trusted technology providers and infect their customers."
"By piggybacking on software updates and now mass email providers, Nobelium increases the chances of collateral damage in espionage operations and undermines trust in the technology ecosystem," the company said.
The fake USAID emails were not the only ways that the hackers sought to compromise their targets in the campaign, according to Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm that had also been tracking the same suspected Russian activity.
The attackers "leveraged a variety of lures, including diplomatic notes and invitations from embassies," said John Hultquist, VP of analysis at Mandiant Threat Intelligence. "All of these operations have focused on government, think tanks, and related organizations that are traditionally targeted by [Russian foreign intelligence] operations."
The latest disclosure shows how Russia has been undeterred by recent US efforts to hold the Kremlin accountable and bolster cybersecurity following the SolarWinds campaign, said James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"The Russians have a campaign plan for massive attacks against US targets, for which they have no incentive to stop," Lewis said. "They aren't afraid of the US response. They are testing the new administration."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday refused to comment on the specifics of Microsoft's allegations.
"To answer your question we first need to answer the following: which groups? Why are they linked to Russia? Who attacked what? What did this lead to? What was the attack itself? And how does Microsoft know about it? If all of these questions are answered, we can think about the response [to your question]," Peskov told CNN in a conference call with journalists.
He added that he didn't think the allegations would affect the upcoming summit between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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Buried Alive In Mongolia's Worst Sandstorms In A Decade www.wpr.org

ULAANBATAR, Mongolia – This March, as Mongolian herder Batsaikhan Enkhee tended to his sheep, the sky suddenly darkened. The wind picked up, filling his shoes and shirt with coarse, heavy sand. A massive sandstorm had engulfed the Mongolian grasslands.
"It was dark like the night," Batsaikhanm, 53, told NPR. "I thought I would die."
The herder huddled with his sheep as airborne dirt blocked out the sun. His brother found him the next day, buried in the sand, and dug him out. He survived, but 200 of his sheep died in the storm, about one-fifth of his herd.
Sheep weren't the only casualty. Nine Mongolian herders perished on the steppes in what has been the worst sandstorm season in both Mongolia and China in a decade.
The cloud of sand then blew its way over the course of the next day into Beijing, more than 600 miles away. There, the sky suddenly turned a garish yellow. The air quickly filled with plumes of coarse grit, basting cars and balconies a dusty brown.
Beijing has historically been beset by springtime gales bringing sand in from the Gobi, a vast swath of desert and craggy rock that runs between China and Mongolia. Decades of reforestation efforts along China's northern border had reduced the sandstorm frequency.
Until this year.
A combination of extreme weather, climate change and environmental degradation have created the perfect storm – or rather, a series of eight cross-border sandstorms through March, April and May that have destroyed animal herds, exacerbated respiratory problems and cancelled flights in both Mongolia and China. The news video below captures the magnitude of this year's storms.
The result has been catastrophic in Chinese and Mongolian regions bordering the Gobi. In northern China, tourists found themselves trapped by pelting wind. Air pollution levels skyrocketed to more than 20 times the healthy limit. Southern Mongolia was hit particularly hard; successive sandstorms have killed an estimated 1.6 million livestock, which many herders depend on for income.
"Even the rescue teams could not even go forward because it was so dark during the [March] storm," says Jargalsaikhan Sonomdash, the governor of the southern Mongolian county of Airag, where 3,600 animals died after they were buried by sand drifts.
Mongolian climate experts say an unusually dry year for precipitation created huge amounts of loose sand. "Almost no snow fell last winter, and some provinces had no rain last summer," says Dulamsuren Daskhuu, a senior researcher at Mongolia's Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring Research Institute, a ministry.
The Gobi desert is also growing bigger. Desertification is creeping up into northern Mongolia at an average rate of 75 miles a year, according to Dulamsuren's institute.Part of the reason is climate change.
Temperatures in Mongolia have increased about 4 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 70 years, according to the Mongolian Ministry of Environment, about twice the rate of the recorded global average increase.
Pollution from widespread mining of gold, coal, and copper has also speeded up desertification. It's stripped vegetation and led lakes and streams to dry up.
Another big factor in promoting sandstorms is overgrazing. The number of Mongolian livestock animals has nearly tripled in the last 30 years, according toMongolia's national statistics office. The number of goats has grown the fastest, from 5 million heads to 27 million heads. Mongolian goats produce an estimated 40% of the world's cashmere. They also eat twice the amount of grass that sheep do, destroying pastureland at an unsustainable rate.
"If no measures are taken now, Mongolian will be all desert in 30 to 40 years," says Dulamsuren. "There will be many more sandstorms in the future."
Not all the sand is coming from Mongolia however. Satellite imagery show that the sandstorms that coated China later in the spring season, during April and May, largely originated from northern Chinese provinces like Ningxia, Gansu and Inner Mongolia. This winter, the average ground temperature there also remained 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit higher than usual, says Liu Junyan, a Beijing-based researcher at Greenpeace. That caused faster evaporation, less water retention, and more dry sand.
"China's northwestern and northern areas always experience annual sandstorms as a natural phenomenon," says Liu. "Just because people did not pay attention to the storms does not mean the storms stopped existing."
In March, the extra sand was then picked up by seasonal winds given an extra boost by La Nina, a cyclical weather phenomenon where the Pacific Ocean cools and which can also lead to an uptick in hurricanes and less rainfall.
Since 1978, China has had a sandstorm battle plan, planting an estimated 66 billion trees along the country's border with Gobi Desert – a phalanx of vegetation nicknamed "the Great Green Wall." It is intended to anchor loose dirt and prevent small sandstorms from picking up speed. But such was force of this year's storms that loose sand was propelled hundreds of yards up into the air, hurling it well above the line of trees meant to hold back such incursions.
In China's capital of Beijing, residents huddle indoors each time the air outside becomes too hazardous to breath due to sandstorms. But for those living closer to the Gobi, the increased rate of sandstorms is a matter of life and death.
This past March, as dust ominously began to cloud the skies in Mongolia's southern Dornogovi province, herder Nyamsambuu Myadagmaa, 43, and several other herders shepherded some of their sheep and goats into a barn for safety.
But the sandstorm lasted 20 hours – the longest on record – and dumped so much sand on the barn that its roof caved in, killing the animals inside. Animals that had been left outside were literally buried alive.
"Many of us found our animals that were killed in the steppe because they were stuck in sand and only their ears or head were left poking out," Mydagmaa remembers. The survivors had been blinded by the scouring sand.
By Khaliun Bayartsogt
Amy Cheng contributed research from Beijing.
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Statement by Mongolian President at Leaders’ Session of 2021 P4G Seoul Summit www.montsame.mn

On May 30, President of Mongolia Khaltmaagiin Battulga delivered a speech to the 2021 P4G Summit taking place in Seoul, the Republic of Korea.
“Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the outset, I wish to extend my sincere appreciation to the Government of the Republic of Korea for organizing this summit in these difficult times when every country in the world is fighting with the pandemic.
Over the past several years, we negotiated too many times and pledged ambitious goals to combat climate change, reduce environmental degradation and conserve the nature. Unfortunately, the implementation and concrete results are extremely unsatisfactory.
Mongolia is one of the most affected and vulnerable countries by the climate change. The frequency of natural hazards doubled in the last two decades and their economic impacts are increasing.
We must limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in order to prevent natural disasters and damages resulting from the climate change. This is the basic and most effective way to protect our planet. Every country pledged to define and implement its national goal to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions with the framework of the Paris Agreement. For Mongolia, we increased our initial commitment from 22.7 percent to 27.2 percent by 2030.
Dear delegates,
There is an urgent need to intensify the transition to environment friendly green technologies through public-private partnerships.
For this reason, shortly after my election as the President of Mongolia I made a concrete proposal to establish and implement a “North East Asian Super Grid” renewable energy project, which is one of the green technologies, during the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia.
The Mongolian Gobi Desert, which sees 270 sunny and clear days per year, is the world’s second largest solar energy source after the Sahara Desert. We have a big potential to use this abundant source to generate electricity, reduce peak demand for electricity in countries such as South Korea and also store electricity using seasonal and time zone differences.
The renewable energy network is the most optimal and economic solution for protecting the environment.
Time and climate change will not wait us. We call on all countries to take decisive, effective and concrete actions to transform our economic recoveries after the pandemic into the environment friendly “green” model and start to fulfill our commitments made before the international community while every country is overcoming the pandemic with less damage.
Thank you for the attention."
Source: The Office of the President of Mongolia
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