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Businesses including banks, airlines, telecoms companies, TV and radio broadcasters, and supermarkets have been taken offline by a Microsoft outage linked to the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Experts are calling the outage “an unprecedented global crisis”.
“This sudden, severe disruption halts everyday activities and starkly exposes the fragility of our heavily digitised world,” said Dr Shumi Akhtar, an associate professor at the University of Sydney business school. “From banking to healthcare, education to government, no sector remains untouched, highlighting an urgent need for a worldwide strategic overhaul of our critical infrastructures.”
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What happened? A botched update to CrowdStrike security software – a well-regarded malware and endpoint protection tool used by entities around the world – caused Windows machines to boot and crash on an infinite loop, explained Ilkka Turunen, of the software supply chain management firm Sonatype.
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What has the outage affected? Flights on US airlines including American, Delta and United have been grounded while airports in Germany and Spain have also been reporting issues. Grocery stores in Australia have gone offline. Emergency 911 lines in Alaska went down, as did TV and radio broadcasters in the UK.
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What have CrowdStrike and Microsoft said? CrowdStrike ran a recorded phone message on Friday saying it was “aware of reports of crashes on Windows”. The situation is developing: follow the Guardian’s liveblog for the latest news.
RNC: Trump mixes messages of unity and hate as he caps off convention
On the last night of the Republican national convention in Milwaukee, Donald Trump accepted the party nomination with lengthy speech recounting his assassination attempt. He began with messages of unity – “the discord and division in our society must be healed,” he said – but quickly reverted back to his old ways, railing against “crazy Nancy Pelosi” and calling Joe Biden one of America’s worst presidents.
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What did Trump say about the assassination attempt on him? Trump said his speech may be the last time he spoke of the attempt on his life because it was too difficult for him, and that he had been saved by the grace of God. “I had God on my side, I felt that,” he said. Trump went on to kiss the helmet and embrace the uniform of Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief who was killed as he shielded his family during the shooting.
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How did the speech go down? The adoring crowd, many wearing bandages over their ears in solidarity with the injury Trump sustained, chanted: “Fight! Fight! Fight!” And punched their own fists in the air in unison – echoing Trump’s immediate response to the attack.
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What were some of Trump’s policy messages? He promised, once again, to carry out the largest deportation of immigrants in US history, and although other convention speakers largely avoided questioning the results of the 2020 presidential election, Trump accused Democrats of having “used Covid to cheat”.
Biden reportedly open to leaving presidential race
The former House speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly told Democratic colleagues that Joe Biden could be convinced to leave the presidential race soon. The Washington Post is reporting that Pelosi – who has been widely reported as orchestrating the renewed pressure on Biden to give up his re-election bid – has been passing messages from House Democrats to the White House, relaying concerns that Biden is incapable of beating Donald Trump in November.
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What do the polls say? The Emerson College Polling/Hill survey showed Trump ahead by 45% to 43%, within the margin of error but consistent with a spate of other polls showing Biden’s support has fallen in swing states since his disastrous showing at last month’s debate in Atlanta.
In other news …
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Hunter Biden is using the same ruling that threw out the classified documents case against Trump to ask a federal judge on Thursday to dismiss tax and gun cases against him.
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A Roman Catholic priest with ties to south-east Louisiana and Texas has been charged with two counts of sexual assault, days after being arrested in Florida for possessing child pornography.
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Ukrainian aerial and maritime drones struck Russian military targets on the illegally occupied Crimean peninsula on Thursday, striking a command center and ammunition depot.
Stat of the day: Taiwan produces about 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductors
Taiwan’s semiconductors were thrust in the spotlight this week after Donald Trump rehashed an old accusation that Taiwan had taken the business away from the US. “They took almost 100% of our chip industry,” he claimed in an interview with Bloomberg. “We should have never let that happen.”
While his comments were unwelcome in Taiwan, what is undeniable is that Taiwan does dominate the global chip industry. Taiwan produces about 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, mostly through the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), the world’s largest producer and a major supplier to Apple and Nvidia. “Taiwan simply outcompeted other countries,” says Dr Raymond Kuo, a senior political scientist at the Rand Corporation, a thinktank.
Don’t miss this: The rise of the sporting dad bod
In 2015, a Clemson University student named Mackenzie Pearson introduced the concept of the “dad bod” into the zeitgeist – a celebration of a male body type that looks less like the sculpted, muscular figures men were once told to aspire to have, and more like the soft, rounded average guy. The dad bod has now extended into the sporting realm, with sports fans seemingly no longer idolizing the ripped six pack of Cristiano Ronaldo and other sports pinups but instead cheering on heroes who look a little more like them.
… or this: Despair and apathy in Dearborn, home of largest Arab American community
As the war in Gaza rages on, a feeling of despairing resignation has settled over Dearborn, Michigan, home of the country’s largest Arab American community. There’s a sense of apathy as the community questions the role US political leaders are playing in enabling the suffering in the besieged territory.
“If you’re planning on sending campaign officials to convince the Arab American community on why they should vote for your candidate, don’t do it on the same day you announce selling fighter jets to the tyrants murdering our family members,” Dearborn’s mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, wrote in January.
Climate check: Extreme heat and the spread of bird flu
The extreme heat that has spread across much of the US may be a crucial factor behind the biggest bird flu outbreak in humans in the country, with triple-digit temperatures making it difficult for poultry workers to properly wear their personal protective equipment. In Colorado, four people have tested positive for H5N1 and a fifth is also expected to have their case confirmed as bird flu – the first time a cluster of human cases of the viral infection has been reported in the US.
“When you change a global system like climate so profoundly, small shifts can have seismic impacts, sometimes in unexpected ways,” said Dr Alexandra Phelan, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg school of public.
Last Thing: Tips for body confidence
A naturist, a fashion model, a sex therapist and a life-drawing model are among the 17 body-confident experts who spoke to the Guardian about how to be confident in your body. “I was introduced to burlesque by my stepdaughter,” said the dancer Sharon Ridgway. “I was so nervous before the first performance but as soon as I started my solo I felt a wave of confidence I’d never experienced. Being around other women who are body-confident is contagious.”
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