USA - Newt Gingrich on Monday night said Joe Biden should be authorized to 'order the killings of anybody overseas' who was found to be behind attacks on America's infrastructure, describing the cyberhack of the Colonial Pipeline as 'an act of war'. Gas shortages were beginning to be reported across the East Coast on Monday evening, as the pipeline was slowly brought back on line after a four-day shutdown. Hackers from DarkSide, a Russia-based network of cybercriminals, were said by the FBI to be behind the ransomware attack. On Monday they said they were mistaken to cause 'societal consequences', and only sought money. They said they would not target critical infrastructure again, and wanted no part in any geopolitical battles. But Gingrich said that the United States needed more power to go after those responsible.

USA - Prices are going up so fast that even the mainstream media can’t stop talking about it. This has already become a major national crisis, and it should be exceedingly obvious to everyone that it is only going to get worse. The Biden administration wants to borrow and spend trillions more dollars on top of all the absurd spending that has already happened, and the Federal Reserve is going to continue to pump gigantic piles of fresh cash into the financial system. Collectively, our leaders are literally committing economic malpractice, and if most Americans truly understood what was going on they would be out in the streets protesting against it.

USA - Hackers were able to launch cyberattacks on more than 24 other companies across a range of industries after shutting down the Colonial Pipeline, according to reports. At least two dozen other victims - which have not been named - were also affected by the ransomware attack, Bloomberg reported. They were helped by private-sector companies and US agencies who helped disrupt the hack, the news agency said. The 5,500 mile Colonial Pipeline was shut down on Friday evening by the company when the ransomware attack was launched - seemingly by Russian-based cybercriminal group, DarkSide. Service was gradually being restored on Monday. White House officials have warned the attack shows just how vulnerable the US is to such events. President Joe Biden said Monday: 'We need to invest to safeguard our critical infrastructure.'

INDIA - Dozens more bodies of Covid victims in India washed up on the banks of the Ganges on Tuesday, as ambulance drivers were spotted dumping corpses into the water. The infected bodies surfaced in the river along the border of the northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which the Ganges run through. Tuesday's discovery comes after more than 150 rotting bodies were dumped into the river on Monday in the same region. Some of the bodies on Tuesday were partially burned, according to media reports quoting other officials, suggesting they had not been properly cremated. Locals suggested to AFP news agency that people were immersing the bodies of relatives who had died of Covid-19 because they could not afford wood for funeral pyres or because crematoriums were overwhelmed. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are two of India's poorest states and home to an estimated 370 million people. Since the pandemic began, India has seen more than 22.6 million infections and over 246,000 deaths - both, experts say, almost certainly undercounts.

UK - The Queen has delivered her Government's plans for the year ahead as the nation faces recovery from the pandemic and the post-Brexit era. Here is what she said. The Queen says the government will “ensure that the public finances are returned to a sustainable path once the economic recovery is secure”. She says it will also “ensure that children have the best start in life” with a focus on early years. Ministers will address the lost time in education during the pandemic, she says.

ISRAEL - More than 300 injuries have been reported after Israeli forces raided Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, for the second time since Friday, amid soaring tensions over Israeli plans to forcibly evict Palestinian families from their homes. Israeli security personnel used tear gas and stun grenades while storming the holy site, according to eyewitness reports. At least 305 people have been injured, according to the Palestine Red Crescent, with seven in critical condition. Nine officers sustained injuries during the clashes, Israeli police said. A spokesman for Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the “brutal storming” of the mosque, claiming it undermined peace efforts and presented a “new challenge to the international community.” The European Union’s delegation to the Palestinians released a statement saying the bloc was “extremely concerned” by ongoing clashes in the Old City and urged all sides to refrain from violence. The diplomatic mission also called on Israel’s security forces to ensure that paramedics are able to offer aid to those who have been injured in the clashes.

ISRAEL - What Jerusalem's Arab and Jewish residents have in common is a desire to never return to a physical division of the city, which most of its population is too young to remember. Today is the day we mark the liberation of Jerusalem. Our parents and grandparents dreamed of this city, which we do not appreciate enough, which has become something we take for granted – a city without walls and barbed wire.

FRANCE - A group of active French military personnel has published a new open letter to the country's president Emmanuel Macron, warning him of a "civil war" brewing in the country after all the "concessions" he's made to Islamism. The letter, published in the conservative Valeurs Actuelles magazine late on Sunday, strikes a similar tone to the message published by the same outlet last month. Unlike the previous one, which was signed by 25 retired generals and active-duty soldiers, the new letter is anonymous and is open for signing by the general public. As of noon on Monday, it had attracted over 100,000 signatures.

USA - Have you noticed that the corporate media has suddenly become obsessed with rising prices over the past week or so? Day after day, mainstream news outlets are barraging us with stories about inflation, and even CNN is occasionally taking a break from bashing Republicans to cover this. Earlier today, I was directed to a CNN article entitled “Prices are rising everywhere you look”, and I decided to read it. Surprisingly, this was one CNN article that would actually pass an impartial fact check. We really are seeing very painful inflation throughout the entire economy, and this is causing many to recall the days of “stagflation” under Jimmy Carter in the 1970s.

USA - Equity markets tumbled in Asian trade Tuesday following steep losses on Wall Street as investors grow increasingly worried about a surge in inflation that could force central banks to wind back their ultra-loose monetary policies earlier than forecast. All eyes are on the release this week of crucial data on US retail sales and consumer prices, with expectations for a sharp rise as the world’s top economy reopens and vaccines allow people to return to a sense of normality. A massive miss on US jobs creation last week indicated the recovery was not going to be as smooth as thought... And there is a feeling that the issue will dog markets for some time, even as investors are confident the global economy is well on the recovery path.

RUSSIA - Russian President Vladimir Putin marked the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe with a speech warning that Nazi beliefs remain strong. Speaking to the annual military parade on Moscow’s Red Square, Putin on Sunday decried “attempts to rewrite history, to justify traitors and criminals, on whose hands lies the blood of hundreds of thousands of peaceful people.” “Unfortunately, many of the ideologies of the Nazis, those who were obsessed with the delusional theory of their exclusiveness, are again trying to be put into service,” he said, without citing specifics. The anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat, which Russia calls Victory Day, is the country’s most significant secular holiday. commemorating the Red Army’s military feats and the vast suffering of civilians. About 27 million Soviet soldiers and civilians are estimated to have died in the war.

GERMANY - One of the hallmarks of totalitarian systems is the criminalization of dissent. Not just the stigmatization of dissent or the demonization of dissent, but the formal criminalization of dissent, and any other type of opposition to the official ideology of the totalitarian system. Global capitalism has been inching its way toward this step for quite some time, and now, apparently, it is ready to take it. Germany has been leading the way.

CHINA - Based on our newly updated preliminary estimates for 2019, global emissions — including emissions of all six Kyoto gases, inclusive of land-use and forests and international bunkers — reached 52 gigatons of CO2-equivalent in 2019, a 11.4% increase over the past decade. China alone contributed over 27% of total global emissions, far exceeding the US — the second highest emitter — which contributed 11% of the global total. For the first time, India edged out the EU-27 for third place, coming in at 6.6% of global emissions.

USA - Top US fuel pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline has shut its entire network, the source of nearly half of the US East Coast's fuel supply, after a cyber attack that the company said was caused by ransomware. The incident is one of the most disruptive digital ransom operations ever reported and has drawn attention to how critical US energy infrastructure is vulnerable to hackers. The shutdown has raised fears of a price spike at gasoline pumps ahead of peak summer driving season if it persists. Colonial transports 2.5 million barrels per day of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined products through 5,500 miles (8,850 km) of pipelines linking refiners on the Gulf Coast to the eastern and southern United States. Colonial said it shut down systems to contain the threat after learning of the attack on Friday. That action also temporarily halted operations and affected some of its IT systems, the company said.

IRAN - Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Major General Hossein Salami warned Israel “could be destroyed” in a single operation, and the Jewish state’s security was crumbling from within. “The Zionist system is breaking apart, faltering, and crumbling from within. Over the past year and a half, they tried to project a powerful image of themselves, namely inflate themselves like a balloon,” Salami told Iranian state TV on the eve of Quds Day, Iran’s day of rage against Israel. He appeared to claim responsibility for a series of attacks against Israel, most of which never happened or were part of controlled tests, including at a rocket factory and also at a Mossad outpost in Iraq. “The Israelis have tried to show a figure of authority over the past year and a half and have tried to expand the scope of their evil, while they have [experienced] tremendous damage.” He continued by saying the US could not help Israel. The US’ foreign policy is “inactive.”