According to interviews and electronic records, when a top executive at virtual private network business ExpressVPN acknowledged working on behalf of foreign intelligence service to hack American machines last week, it surprised staff at his new company.
Some employees were even more shocked by what ExpressVPN stated following the US Justice Department’s deferred prosecution agreement. Dan Gericke’s experience as a mercenary hacker for the United Arab Emirates was known to the corporation.
The VPN service stated that the former CIA operator preserving the privacy of its users was not a concern for them. Even as the FBI probe into Gericke’s activities neared its completion, the corporation had continually handed him increased responsibilities at ExpressVPN. According to an internal email at the time, Gericke was named chief technology officer in August and is still in the position. Gericke emailed his ExpressVPN colleagues shortly after court records revealed that he and two other former US intelligence operatives had agreed to pay a fine and give up any future sensitive employment. When senior company executives accepted questions about Gericke’s deal and then discussed the company’s sale to British-Israeli digital security software provider Kape Technologies PLC during a regular online question-and-answer session with employees last Friday, the workforce expressed its displeasure. During the session, more than 40 employees voted in favor of that question, propelling it to the front of the list. Vice reported on other staff complaints earlier on Thursday. Someone with access to the questions and vote totals made them available to Reuters. When asked about the situation, ExpressVPN responded that the conversation was part of a regular monthly meeting between management and employees. At ExpressVPN’s session with leaders Friday, the second-most supported question also concerned him.
“As an individual, I have a problem accepting that Dan was hired despite disclosing past actions. These actions are not small things we can easily forget or accept. Don’t they go against all the things XV stands for?” that person asked. NN: Express VPN has sold out. CIA spy hired… It was part of the deal in a prosecutionn…. RUN RUB RUN the CEO was involved in the Phoenix hack of smart phones.
GO to Mullvard vpn
Kape Technologies buys ExpressVPN for $936 mln
JERUSALEM, Sept 13 (Reuters) – British-Israeli digital security software provider Kape Technologies PLC (KAPE.L) said on Monday it was buying virtual private network (VPN) firm ExpressVPN for $936 million in a deal aimed at creating what it called a “premium consumer privacy and security player.” Kape said the acquisition expands its customer base to more than 6 million from nearly 3 million and would create a tier one digital privacy and security firm best positioned to capitalise on the expected market growth. ExpressVPN, it said, has seen a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35.1% over the past four years amid strong demand for consumer-friendly data privacy and security products. Consumers have increasingly turned to VPNs such as ExpressVPN to obscure their identities on the internet. “Controlling one’s digital presence is at the forefront of every tech consumer’s mind now, and Kape is more committed than ever to innovating and delivering the tools internet users need to protect their data and rights,” said Ido Erlichman, chief executive of Kape Technologies.Dan Pomerantz, co-founder of ExpressVPN, said the firm will have more capital and resources to “accelerate our product development, deliver even more innovation to our users, and protect them from a wider range of threats.” Kape said ExpressVPN will continue to operate day-to-day as an independent service. NN: Ruun Kape is vacuuming up VPN like a hove run over a shag carpet……… RUN RUN RUN.
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain faces a fossil fuel dilemma: it can burnish its green credentials by halting new oil and gas development in the North Sea, yet doing so will leave it more reliant on imported fuel. How Britain charts a course to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 will be under scrutiny when it hosts the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, starting on Oct. 31. Navigating that route has already proved challenging. In June 2019, when Britain enshrined its 2050 net zero target in law, Greenpeace activists steered speedboats towards a BP platform in the North Sea brandishing a “Climate Emergency” banner to try to stop production starting from Vorlich oilfield. Neither legislation nor activism halted the development. Production from Vorlich started in November 2020. Oil majors say new production can play a role in managing decline, while campaigners are pressing for an immediate halt to new projects with publicity stunts and legal action.
The government, meanwhile, needs to keep the nation’s lights on as it smoothes over volatile energy markets and juggles competing demands over how to achieve its climate goals.
“If supply goes away and demand doesn’t change, that only has one consequence and that is an escalation in price rises,” BP Chief Executive Bernard Looney said this month. Britain and other European states have already felt this acutely. Brent crude, a benchmark based on North Sea barrels, is up more than 60% this year, while the price of UK benchmark wholesale gas has risen more than 250%. The challenge caused by shrinking domestic production and rising fuel imports has been felt across Europe. The European wholesale gas price is up more than 350% this year. Britain, which could once depend on its own fields for oil and gas to fire up its power stations, fuel its cars and heat its homes, has been a net energy importer since 2005 as output from the North Sea has dwindled. With the capacity of its gas storage facilities now only enough to last the nation a few days, Britain’s reliance on just-in-time supplies shipped in from Qatar or elsewhere leave it exposed when the market tightens, like now with the surge in demand as economies recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. For activists, the answer is not turning the taps back on but rather reducing domestic fossil fuel consumption. “We’re calling on Boris Johnson to stop pushing through new oil and gas projects,” said Greenpeace activist Philip Evans, addressing the British prime minister who has been pressing other countries to deepen climate commitments before COP26. “If the government is worried about keeping the lights on there are things they can be doing to reduce demand,” Evans said, including improvements to home insulation, cleaner public transport and more investment in renewable power generation. Around 70 scientists and academics sent an open letter published in Britain’s Independent newspaper this week calling on Johnson to stop allowing investment and licensing for new oil and gas fields, saying that “now is the time for bold political action”. Britain has made progress in some areas. It is the world’s biggest offshore wind power producer – and is expanding this resource rapidly. But that doesn’t power homes on windless days. Yet, there is rising pressure to act faster to curb fossil fuel use. The International Energy Agency said in a report the world must halt new oil and gas projects to achieve the 2015 Paris climate summit targets that aim to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050 compared with pre-industrial levels. “The purity of the (IEA) report is excellent, but the reality in practice for countries is about ensuring security of supply,” Anne-Marie Trevelyan told Reuters in June when she was still British minister of state for energy and clean growth. Britain has not committed to ending North Sea exploration, taking a similar approach to Norway but not Denmark, another North Sea producer, which has halted new projects. Britain has, however, been managing a decline, with production now half its 1999 peak at about 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), or about 1% of global oil demand. Oil and Gas UK (OGUK), an industry association, has committed to making the North Sea an operationally net zero basin by 2050, which means it aims to eliminate, capture or offset any residual emissions from producing oil and gas there. It said in September that domestic production was cheaper and cleaner than imported gas, given shipping fuel creates emissions and because some other producing nations have poor environmental records. “Making the most of indigenous resources helps meet UK demand and contain price growth, providing secure supplies with a lower carbon footprint than imports offer,” OGUK said. Britain’s Oil and Gas Authority said gas extracted from the British North Sea had an average emission intensity of 22 kg carbon dioxide equivalent per barrel of oil equivalent, while imported LNG had an average intensity of 59 kg. Yet, Greenpeace and other activists say these arguments miss the point: using fossil fuels must stop rather than simply trying to make using them cleaner. To push for swifter action, they have taken campaigning to the courts. In one case, Greenpeace sought to have a BP gas field licence scrapped over its emissions via a Scottish court – although the action failed. In another case, it is seeking to halt development of the Cambo field off the Shetland Isles, a field part owned by Royal Dutch Shell. “We’ve delivered a 12-foot oil-stained statue of Boris Johnson right to the gates of Downing Street calling him out as a monumental climate failure,” said Greenpeace’s Evans. “They can expect to see a lot more of Greenpeace in the court room.” NN: This what happens when you try to solve a problem you do not have with solutions that will not work. The Greenneewinneeies do not understand that the VOTING public wants their lights on, houses heated and be able to drive to work. The solution is use C02 free nuclear energy and very little polluting natural gas as a bridge untill. Like it or not the soultios are not in pelace tp go 100% grene,
Nuclear Power is undoubtedly part of the path to achieve a carbon free society. Many may still believe that Nuclear is dead or that it is dying off in favor of other alternatives, but the facts are we NEED nuclear power to achieve our goals. Truly aggressive goals to work towards a carbon free future and preserve the planet for future generation with clean air and water. Some organizations such as Uranium Energy Corp foresaw the Uranium bull matrket coming years ago and began stockpiling Uranium. Interestingly, 50% of carbon free power in the United States is Nuclear and some nations like France derive 70%+ of its total power from it and are now pushing to expand Nuclear further with smaller reactors. We wont be able to power the globe just on solar, wind, or geothermal alone. NN: Reality is being a greeneieewinieee is a luxury people can’t afford. Being cold in the winter and paying $10.00 gasoline makes it easy to decide. They will chose nuclear reactors. And in fact they are……..Sorry Greeeneeeieee
This is called whistling a different tune. Two months ago as witnissed by the interview above Walker was saying inflation will cool by later part of 2021…… NOW HE SAYS ” If high inflation continues through the end of the year the Fed may have to adopt “a more aggressive policy response” to control it, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said in remarks on Tuesday outlining the case for why Fed officials may have misdiagnosed the current pace of price increases as temporary. Waller said he too still believes the economy has seen the worst of the current coronavirus wave, that labor and other supply shortages will ease over time, and that “the escalation of inflation will be transitory…I still see supply and demand working here to moderate price increases so that inflation moves back toward 2%,” the Fed’s established target. That would mean any change in the Federal Reserve’s key policy interest rate “is still some time off.” But Waller said he feels the risks are shifting, and he is now “greatly concerned” the current fast rise in prices may continue. The consumer price index has risen at a more than 5% annual rate for four months in a row, a run not seen since 1990. The next several months are critical for assessing whether the high inflation numbers we have seen are transitory,” Waller said in remarks prepared for delivery at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. “If monthly prints of inflation continue to run high through the remainder of this year, a more aggressive policy response than just tapering may well be warranted in 2022.” “Tapering” refers to the Fed’s evolving plan to scale back its $120 billion in monthly bond purchases as a precursor to any interest rate increase, a process Waller says should begin after the Fed’s upcoming November meeting. The tapering is expected to be completed by the middle of next year.
Fed officials are currently divided between those who feel a rate increase will be needed next year and those who see “liftoff” coming later.
Waller cautioned that one common argument — that current inflation is not of concern because it is driven by outsized and likely one-time increases in things like used auto prices — may miss the point. If large “one time” price increases rotate among enough goods, it could push overall inflation higher than desired. “Firms are reporting that they have more pricing power now than they have had in many years, as consumers seem to be accepting higher prices,” he said. “One needs to be careful when selectively ignoring data series — be it used car prices, food and energy prices, or household surveys of inflation expectations…One should exhibit caution in dismissing data as outliers.” NN: These guy are fucking up big tine. They are creating a great big ugly AWH SHIT. They need to stamp out inflation early on. They have let things get out of control. This is fixing to get real ugly
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering implementing the “test-to-stay” strategy nationwide, CNN reported on Tuesday.
The new strategy would mean that students and staff that have been exposed to the coronavirus could stay in schools, if they have a negative COVID-19 test, instead of having to quarantine.
Federal agencies have been struggling to contain outbreaks in schools, which account for a large number of community outbreaks, with the administration urging parents to get kids vaccinated and officials imposing mask mandates.
NN: This is some crazy shit. Urging parents to get kids vaccinated when the vaccine for kids has not been approved yet. And what Einstein decided to have kids exposed to someone infected stay in school… This will not work out well. The only line of defense is the RIGHT mask and getting the kids to wear them… We have a plan see video below
Children now represent more than a quarter — or 26.8% — of weekly Covid-19 cases nationwide, according to data released from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
COVID-NET: Trends in Hospitalization Rates in Children Ages 5–11 Years Not Eligible for Vaccination
CDC’s Coronavirus Disease 2019-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET) shows that rates of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations remain elevated in children ages 5–11 years and younger. Recent weekly rates of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations for these children are the highest they have ever been. Rates in children ages 5–11 years are 1.1 per 100,000 for the week ending September 25, 2021. Children 12 years and younger are not yet eligible for any of the available COVID-19 vaccines.
“We know that children can both get and spread COVID, so public health interventions addressing this population are important.”
Terri Stillwell, M.D., M.P.H.
“Vaccines haven’t reached many youth and aren’t yet available to kids who are now out in the community more than they were before,” he says. “It’s a game of catch up, with the vaccination rollout initially focused on the elderly who are at highest risk of getting severely sick.” NN: One of the most under reported stories of our time. Forcing kids back to schol is endangering their lives………
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission’s chief executive warned Poland on Tuesday that its challenge to the supremacy of European Union law called into question the very foundations of the 27-nation bloc and could not go unpunished. Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled last week that parts of EU law are incompatible with the Polish constitution, undermining the legal pillar on which the union stands and raising fears that Poland could eventually leave the bloc. Poland’s ruling nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) says it has no plans for a “Polexit” and – unlike Britain before its Brexit referendum in 2016 – popular support for membership of the EU remains high in Poland. Nevertheless, other member states have been dismayed by Warsaw’s defiance of the EU, including Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s complaint in a letter on Monday of mission creep that he warned would lead to a “centrally managed organism, governed by institutions deprived of democratic control”.Speaking ahead of Morawiecki in a debate on the row in the EU’s parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen laid out three options for a response to the Polish court’s attack on the primacy of EU law. “The European Commission is, at the moment, carefully assessing this judgment. But I can already tell you: I am deeply concerned,” she said. “This ruling calls into question the foundations of the European Union. It is a direct challenge to the unity of the European legal order.” NN: I want to let you know in advance Poland is planning it’s EU exit. Polexit is in the cards. If you join the EU you give up your sovereignty to the elitists bureaucrats in Brussels… A big mistake.
North Korea fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile off its east coast on Tuesday, setting off alarm bells across the region. The launch was reported by military officials in South Korea and Japan, and comes just after South Korean envoys met with U.S. officials to discuss the nuclear standoff on Monday. Pyongyang has ramped up its military activity dramatically in recent weeks, and Tuesday’s launch marks its latest missile test.The missile was launched shortly after 10 a.m. local time from the sea in the vicinity of Sinpo, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said,where North Korea keeps submarines as well as equipment for test firing missiles. It wasn’t clear if it was fired from a submarine or from a test barge. News of the launch quickly overshadowed a major arms fair taking place in Seoul, and pulled Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida away from several scheduled events. Kishida called the missile tests “regrettable” while South Korea’s national security council called an emergency meeting, and urged Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table. In a statement, the U.S. military called Tuesday’s launch “destabilizing,” but said it did not pose an immediate threat. Analysts suggest Pyongyang’s latest tests aim to match or surpass South Korea’s own quietly expanding arsenal. Pyongyang has decried what it calls double standards by Seoul and Washington as it faces international sanctions over its weapons program. Our goal is to create a safe and engaging place for users to connect over interests and passions. In order to improve our community experience, we are temporarily suspending article commenting. NN: The Biden administration is ignoring two growing threats. The GREAT advances in missile technology N.Korea is accomplishing. And the FACT that Iran has now acheved breakout in its uranium enrichment program. It now has enough material to build 10 nukes…… It got a lot of help from its friends in China, Russia and N.Korea
The UK government’s long-delayed net-zero strategy will be expected to be published this week. Its expected to include “funding for a new nuclear power plant will be announced before the 2024 election, the government will vow this week as it reveals plans to lower carbon emissions”. It continues: “The government will agree to provide financing for the new plant (just like it does for wind and solar) during the current parliament will be included in the government’slong-awaited net-zero strategy. The document, said to be more than 150 pages long, will detail how Boris Johnson plans to hit his pledge to bring the UK’s carbon emissions down to ‘net-zero’ by the year 2050. It will cover everything from shifting away from polluting cars to adopting greener heating in homes and precedes next month’s COP26. According to government insiders, the front-runner site to win the funding is Sizewell C, a nuclear power plant being proposed by EDF Energy for Suffolk.”
The Financial Times says: “UK ministers will put nuclear power at the heart of Britain’s strategy to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050
In government documents expected as early as next week, alongside fresh details of its funding model. The UK government is poised to approve funding for a fleet of Rolls-Royce mini nuclear reactors”. It continues: “A consortium led by the British engineering firm had already secured £210m in backing from private investors for the small modular reactor (SMR) project, a sum that the government is expected to match or better. Confirmation is expected before the spending review on 27 October, according to well-placed sources.” [The funding would go towards developing manufacturing capacity rather than the plants themselves, with Rolls-Royce having previously said the first reactor would cost £2bn.]
PoliticsHome says in an “exclusive” that “sector-specific carbon emission reduction targets for the year 2035 – which will be announced by the government in its net-zero strategy this week – are set to be far more ambitious for the power sector than others, including transport and heat and buildings”. The following reductions for 2035 are expected to be announced: Power: 80-85% reduction in carbon emissions; Natural resources, waste and fluorinated gases: 39-51% reduction; Fuel supply and hydrogen: 53-60% reduction; Transport: 47-59% reduction; Industry: 63-76% reduction; Heat and buildings: 47-62% reduction.
NN: Reality is greeneeweenniee alternative renewable energy systems are a dismal failure. You can’t get their without nuclear energy and natural gas… Now i know the millennials will have a temper tantrum and lock themselves in the basement. BUT reality is the technology is not their yet…… Net Zero is a wet dream……… And not necessary!!!!! Please Note: I run most of my vehicles on fart gas and the short trip run around cars are electric Renault Fluence EV’s bought at salvage prices from France when the change batteries station concept failed. And we power my complex with solar panels.
On Wednesday, the European Union put forward proposals that could see it trying to ban any tapping of new oil, coal and gas deposits in the Arctic.
The EU says it wants to protect the region from further disruptive climate change.
But countries like Russia derive economic wealth from the region’s hydrocarbons and other natural resources.
A new cold front could open up in the political tension between the European Union and Russia over energy. This time in the Arctic. On Wednesday, the EU put forward proposals that could see it pushing to ban the tapping of new oil, coal and gas deposits in the Arctic in an effort, it said, to protect the region from further disruptive climate change. Russia, a major holder of Arctic territory where an abundance of its hydrocarbon and fish stocks are found, is not too pleased with the proposals with Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak telling CNBC Thursday that they were politically-motivated and nonsensical.
” I was a bit surprised when I heard about this yesterday. Why the Arctic, why not the Equator? One could come up with a number of places in the world where oil and gas production must be banned,” he said at the Russian Energy Week conference in Moscow, according to a translation.
“This proposal has no other motivation than political,” he added. “What do these statements tell us – that we need to stop extracting the entire gas produced at the moment? I think that the authors of these proposals have very little understanding of the real state of affairs,” he said. The EU proposals come at a time when tensions are already high between Russia and the EU when it comes to energy, and specifically natural gas. Prices have been soaring as Europe’s demand is squeezed by tighter-than-expected supplies.
Russia has said it has ramped up gas supplies but critics say it is using its gas exports to the region for political purposes, chiefly its bid to get Germany to certify the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Russia denied it was exploiting Europe’s gas crisis, with President Vladimir Putin insisting t on Wednesday that Moscow was not using gas a weapon.
Tensions in the Arctic have already been growing between regional players for a number of years, particularly in light of Russia’s quiet expansion of its political, economic and military influence there. Unlike Russia, the EU is a comparatively new player in the Arctic and the bloc, per se, is not a member of the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum to provide a means for promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic States, although the Council includes the EU member states Denmark, Finland and Sweden. The EU appears to be looking to increase its role in the region, however, and in a proposal mooted by the European Commission on Wednesday, it noted that “the Arctic region is of major strategic importance for the European Union, with regard to climate change, raw materials as well as geostrategic influence.” It said it would aim to “strengthen EU engagement” in the region through “contributing to maintaining peaceful and constructive dialogue and cooperation in a changing geopolitical landscape, to keep the Arctic safe and stable” as well as “pushing for oil, coal and gas to stay in the ground, including in Arctic regions” and “supporting the inclusive and sustainable development of the Arctic regions to the benefit of its inhabitants and future generations.” The Arctic is an integral part of Russia’s economy and territory, its coastline accounts for 53% of Arctic Ocean coastline and the country’s population in the region totals roughly 2 million people — that’s around half of the people living in the Arctic worldwide, according to the Arctic Institute, a center for circumpolar security studies.
NN: Here is the real deal. Russia is pissed about the ban on Arctic drilling. They have big plans for the Arctic. They are doubly pissed that the newly completed and tested Nord Stream 2 pipeline has not bean issued a production permit. So here is how it goes. Russia is punishing Europe and slowing gas supplies. Gas has gone from $5.00 to $30/00 casing crude oil prices to triple. Europe will cave in and allow the Nord Stream will supply all the gas Europe needs this winter. That will shoot in the ass demand for crude oil and prices will plunge. Now you understand my oil trade.