Free Republic

Professional protester Greta Thunberg helped block the entrance to Norway’s energy ministry Monday to demand freedom for indigenous reindeer herding. “We can’t use the so-called climate transition as a cover for colonialism,” Thunberg told broadcaster TV2 as she blocked the doors of the ministry in Oslo, AFP reports. “A climate transition that violates human rights is not a climate transition worthy of the name and we must therefore stand up against the human rights violations that are happening here,” the Swedish activist said.

...Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said investigators had seized 63.7 Bitcoins, now valued at about $2.3 million, paid by Colonial (COLPI.UL) after last month's hack of its systems that led to massive shortages at U.S. East Coast gas stations....An affidavit filed on Monday said the FBI was in possession of a private key to unlock the hackers' Bitcoin wallet. It was unclear how the FBI gained access to this key...."Today, we've turned the tables on DarkSide," said Monaco, referring to a ransomware group widely believed to have been behind the crippling fuel pipeline attack.

Best touted as the beacon of democracy, Canadian values are supposed to be emulated by the rest of the world. Its good governance practices and rich Human Development Index are categorised as a cornucopia of an ideal modern society. However, the way it is dealing with its persecuted indigenous people reflects the legacy of its dark colonial past. Behind its glittering facade of social justice and equality lies the legal discrimination and violence against the natives. Racial discrimination and violence towards the indigenous people is not new to North America. The history, culture and society of countries in the region...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called the cyberattack suffered by the Colonial Pipeline Company “an act of war” and said the U.S. should respond by killing whoever was responsible for it.“We ought to pass a law immediately that makes this kind of hacking subject to a death penalty, and the law should include a provision that the president, through a judicial process, should be able to order the killing of anybody overseas who’s doing this,” Mr. Gingrich, a Republican, said Monday on Fox News while speaking about the ransomware attack that recently disrupted the Colonial Pipeline system.Mr. Gingrich, 77, who...

The Colonial Pipeline is reportedly facing more issues. A Reuters reporter wrote the company is "experiencing network issues impacting customers' ability to enter and update nominations." "Our internal IT department is aware of the issue and working to resolve as quickly as possible," Reuters' Devika Krishna Kumar quoted the company as saying on her Twitter account on Friday. Colonial also reported said communication from its systems to Transport4 may also be affected. Transport4 is a business utility used by the pipeline industry to enter, manage and track shipments. Colonial is the largest pipeline system for refined oil products in the...

DarkSide, the hacker group behind the Colonial ransomware attack, received $90 million in bitcoin ransom payments, according to blockchain sleuths Elliptic. The cybercriminal gang shut down last week after losing access to its servers and as its cryptocurrency wallets were emptied. Elliptic said DarkSide's bitcoin wallet contained $5.3 million worth of the digital currency before its funds were drained.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a Friday interview that the only reason the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased its masking rules for vaccinated Americans was to distract people from the skyrocketing gas prices. The rising gas prices were in response to high fuel demand following the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline Company. Colonial Pipeline Company operates the largest fuel pipeline in the United States — providing roughly half of all diesel and gasoline on the East Coast — and became aware of a cyberattack from hackers linked to a group called DarkSide last Friday, promptly shutting...

A recent report from Wired reveals that a week after a ransomware attack shut down Colonial Pipeline halting fuel distribution on the East Coast, the company paid a reported $5 million dollar ransom to regain control of their systems and resume operations. The payoff may lead to future ransomware attacks, as one expert notes: “Unfortunately, it’ll help keep United States critical infrastructure providers in the crosshairs. If a sector proves to be profitable, they’ll keep on hitting it.”

President Biden on Thursday said Russian President Vladimir Putin “was not” involved in the devastating ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline — as he pleaded with gas stations not to gouge customers. “I am confident that I’ve read the report of the FBI accurately. And they say they were not, he was not. The government was not,” Biden said at the White House when asked if Putin was involved. The pipeline reopened on Wednesday night amid reports that the company paid a $5 million ransom to the cybercriminals. Biden declined to comm

Colonial Pipeline paid almost $5 million in ransom to hackers last Friday despite reports that said the company had no intention of paying...

Secretary of the Department of Energy Jennifer Granholm said at a press conference at the White House on Tuesday that people who are driving electric cars are not affected by the hacker-forced shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline. “I just have a question for each of you. I’ll start with you, Secretary Granholm, because ladies first,” a reporter asked. “Obviously, we have the acute issues with the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack. But looking more holistically in a macro view, how does this speed up the efforts at DOE to move in more of a renewable direction since this is going to...

Gas stations from Florida to Virginia have closed their pumps and a state of emergency has been declared by the governor of North Carolina after Colonial Pipeline was forced to shut off the nation's biggest fuel pipeline when it was hacked. The FBI has confirmed that DarkSide, a Russian hacking outfit made up of ransomware veterans, was responsible for the attack on Colonial Pipeline, which runs from Texas to New Jersey and transports 45 percent of the East Coast's fuel supply. The 5,500 pipeline shut down five days ago and services are only gradually being restored now. Colonial, which is...

Gas stations across the East Coast are starting to run out of fuel as one of the biggest petroleum pipelines fights to recover from a cyberattack. Specific gas stations ranging from Virginia to Florida to Alabama are reported to have run out of gas, and drivers have been surprised to find long lines or no service available. The outages come as people are rushing to the pumps to fill up, causing a spike in gasoline demand. In five states alone — Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia — gasoline demand rose more than 40% on Monday, said GasBuddy...

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said Monday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that President Joe Biden’s roughly $2 trillion plan for the nation’s infrastructure was needed for “national security.” Referencing a cyber attack shutting down the Colonial Pipeline, anchor Nicolle Wallace said, “I wonder if you can tell us how the proposed infrastructure bill would have protected this pipeline from a cyber attack and whether that is central to all those things that I know some of your conservatives make fun of, things that aren’t actually tangible roads and bridges.”

This is crazy. I stopped for gas just now having no idea what was happening. It’s out. People here told me they’d been to other stations and found the same. pic.twitter.com/7LDVdUXPo4

The U.S. government and the top U.S. fuel pipeline operator on Monday worked to secure the network that transports nearly half of the East Coast's supplies as a shutdown to halt a ransomware cyberattack entered its fourth day. The attack on Colonial Pipeline last week was one of the most disruptive digital ransom schemes ever reported and has sent shockwaves across the industry. The resulting shutdown has disrupted fuel supply across the eastern United States, triggered isolated sales restrictions at retail pumps and pushed benchmark gasoline prices to a three-year high. .... The southeastern United States would likely be the...

Massachusetts abolished enslavement before the Treaty of Paris brought an end to the American Revolution, in 1783. The state constitution, adopted in 1780 and drafted by John Adams, follows the Declaration of Independence in proclaiming that all “men are born free and equal.” In this statement Adams followed not only the Declaration but also a 1764 pamphlet by the Boston lawyer James Otis, who theorized about and popularized the familiar idea of “no taxation without representation” and also unequivocally asserted human equality. “The Colonists,” he wrote, “are by the law of nature free born, as indeed all men are, white...

Canada is complicit in a "race-based genocide" against indigenous women, a government inquiry has found. The report cited research finding indigenous women were 12 times more likely to be killed or to disappear than other women in Canada. The inquiry blamed the crisis on deep-rooted colonialism and state inaction. Among more than 200 recommendations is a call for all Canadians to help end violence, including by learning indigenous history. The 1,200-page document released Monday is the culmination of almost three years of hearings and research by the inquiry into disproportionate violence faced by indigenous women and girls in Canada. Red...

Alexandria says growing cauliflower in community gardens is ‘colonial’ Here she is, talking total hogwash => https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=87&v=PUJ6o4tqwyM Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said yesterday that growing cauliflower in community gardens is part of the “colonial” attitudes that her Green New Deal will stamp out. The New York Democrat, who introduced the proposal to tackle climate change by radically transforming the economy, posted a series of Instagram videos filmed in her home state talking about community gardens as a “core component” of her proposal. “What I love too is growing plants that are culturally familiar to the community. It’s so important,” she said as...

Caption -- Borobudur: hardly Chinese The author is former foreign secretary of India sibalkanwal@gmail.com The West has built a lot of myths about China which others, including in India, have accepted without challenge. That China was for centuries the dominant power in Asia and is now on the way to recovering that lost status is one such myth. This historical distortion is serving to legitimize China's hegemonic ambitions, as if China has the right to recover its natural position in Asia and any resistance amounts to denying the Chinese their due. This explains why even when China is aggressive...