‘We Just Deleted CrowdStrike From All Our Systems’ – Musk
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has revealed that his companies stopped using web/cloud-based antivirus platform CrowdStrike in the wake of Friday’s global Windows 10 outage. The cyber-security firm has admitted that the massive failures were caused by a recent update that conflicted with Microsoft systems.
The IT meltdown affected Windows 10 users around the world, including airports, banks, and broadcasters. According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, at least 4,295 flights were grounded globally due to the outage. The worldwide glitch also hit a number of media outlets, including the UK-based Sky News – which went off the air for a while – as well as the Australian-based ABC, SBS, Channel 7, Channel 9, and News Corp Australia.
Responding to a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday, Musk wrote: “We just deleted Crowdstrike from all our systems.”
Satya Nadella, the executive chairman and CEO of Microsoft, confirmed on X that a CrowdStrike update was to blame for Friday’s outage, adding that Microsoft was providing “customers [with] technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online.”
Musk replied to the statement, saying: “This gave a seizure to the automotive supply chain.”
Commenting on a Financial Times report on the global Windows 10 outage, the US-based billionaire said in a separate post that this was the “biggest IT fail ever.”
The tech tycoon also concurred with Christopher Stanley, the head of security engineering at X and a principal security engineer at SpaceX, who described Friday’s events as a “wake up reminder that you shouldn’t have an internet connected privileged binary running on your production systems.”
“What was a bad update could have easily been a massive adversary backdoor. A third party vendor will always be the weakest link,” he warned.
Speaking to NBC on Friday, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said his company is “deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected” by the outage.
“We’ve identified it very quickly… The systems come back online as they are rebooted,” he stated, adding that CrowdStrike is working with its customers to help them return to normal operations.
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Instagram Censors Team USA Rifle Shooter Ahead Of Paris Paralympics
Big tech’s crackdown on “gunfluencers” is nothing new, but policies at social media companies are becoming increasingly restrictive (read: here), leading to the demonetization of numerous channels. The latest victim of this aggressive censorship isn’t even the typical gun YouTuber but instead a competitive rifle shooter on Team USA for the Paralympics.
Just The News reports that McKenna Geer, a competitive rifle shooter, had her Instagram account censored before she heads to Paris for the Paralympic Games in late August. Next week, the Olympic Games are set to begin.
Geer’s Instagram account, “kennageer10.9,” was reportedly censored by the social media company because of photos she posted with firearms at a qualifying competition.
“I have always feared the day the media would censor my sport and speech just because I use firearms,” Geer wrote on Instagram, adding, “That day has finally come.”
She continued, “This sport is life-changing because of its ability to unite both able-bodied and disabled athletes, young and old, foreign and domestic. Me and my fellow athletes rely on our social media accounts to spread the word about our sport, firearm safety, build our personal brand, and connect with potential sponsors. Many of us (myself included) are either not paid or paid very little for our involvement in this sport. Our social media presence can often be the avenue that pays for us to continue competing.”
Geer posted a screenshot of an image that shows her account has been censored.
“Your account and content won’t appear in places like Explore, Search, Suggested Users, Reels, and Feed Recommendations,” the Instagram notification reads.
On Thursday, she told Just the News that Instagram flagged three of her four latest posts.
When she informed the USA Shooting public relations team about the matter, they reached out to Instagram and received this response:
“On Facebook and Instagram’s Help Center websites, we indicate that while some content may be allowable, it may not be eligible for recommendation, including certain regulatory goods that ‘impedes our ability to foster a safe community.’ Help Center entries do not explicitly reference firearms as a regulated good; however, it does include a link to the Community Standards, which identifies firearms as a regulated good.”
For Geer and gunfluencers who have been censored or demonetized by social media platforms with ‘trust & safety’ teams aligned with the censorship blob, try X. You might find some relief on Musk’s ‘free speech’ platform.
Revival Pastor: Trump Must Lift Up Jesus Christ to Save the United States
Hungarian PM May Adopt Trump’s Proposed Tax Cut on Tips
Just a week after his visit with former president and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told Kossuth Radio this morning that he may borrow some of Trump’s ideas on foreign policy and the economy, reports Hungarian news outlet Magyar Nemzet.
“I also spoke to the president about economic issues, if only because we have a very good relationship with the team that works with him, which also writes his economic and foreign policy programs.”
Orbán noted that they have “been involved” with solidifying Trump’s agenda in terms of stopping migration and family policy, where, the Hungarian prime minister said, “We have quite a lot of authority.”
On the flip side, Orbán told the radio program that there were some points in Trump’s program he would be happy to bring to Hungary, namely economic measures, as early as next year. Without going into detail on what these may be, the Hungarian prime minister noted Trump’s focus on competitiveness and industry, areas in which he intimated Hungary could also improve.
However, on Trump’s proposal to no longer tax tips, Orbán seemed convinced this was a good idea for Hungary as well.
“If Trump wins the U.S. presidential election, he will implement this in the U.S. I think this is very remarkable, I don’t see the need to tax tipping in Hungary either,” he said.
Revival Pastor: Trump Must Lift Up Jesus Christ to Save the United States
Blinken: Iran Is Weeks Away from a Nuclear Weapon
Iran is probably only “one or two weeks” away from having enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, according to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
“They haven’t produced a weapon itself, but that’s something of course that we track very, very carefully,” Blinken said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.
Blinken blamed the Trump administration from withdrawing from a 2015 deal with Iran that halted uranium enrichment and imposing harsh economic sanctions on Teheran.
“Iran, because the nuclear agreement was thrown out, instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that,” Blinken said.
“One of the biggest mistakes that we’ve made in recent years, was throwing out that agreement and allowing Iran to get out of the box that we put it in.”
Iran has repeatedly denied that it is producing nuclear weapons. Its new President, Masoud Pezshkian, stated in The Teheran Times that “Iran’s defence doctrine does not include nuclear weapons.”
Teheran has also been accused of seeking to kill former president Trump, in the aftermath of the attempt on his life last Saturday.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the Biden administration had informed the Secret Service of an unspecified threat from Teheran against the former president. However, officials added that they do not believe Iran was responsible in any way for Thomas Matthew Crooks’ attempt on Trump’s life.
Iran issued a statement saying that the country “strongly rejects any involvement in the recent armed attack on Trump or claims about Iran’s intention for such an action, considering such allegations to have malicious political motives and objectives.”
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Voting Stations in Maricopa County Affected by Crowdstrike Outage
Voting locations in Maricopa County, Arizona were affected by the global Crowdstrike outage on Friday night, officials confirmed.
Maricopa has been dogged by allegations of serious voting irregularities in recent years, including during the 2020 and 2022 elections, but these difficulties appear to have been beyond the control of local officials.
In a statement published on its website, the Maricopa Elections Department said it was “experiencing an outage at some voting locations.”
“Please visit Locations.Maricopa.Vote for the most up-to-date information about locations that are open and their hours of operations.”
The Pima County Recorder’s Office also issued a statement confirming that its machines had suffered outages, but assured the public that there had been “no impact to voters.”
“We’ve been working all night with the Department of Homeland Security to minimize any sort of disruption,” said JP Martin, a deputy communications director for the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.
“We’re still monitoring the situation with our county partners and making sure they have the support they need.”
Early voting for Arizona’s primary elections began on 3 July, with the election due to be held on 30 July.
The outage is part of a global outage caused by cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike. The company has confirmed that the problem, due to a faulty software update, mostly affects Windows computers and not Apple or Linux systems. Thousands of flights were cancelled or delayed and government, medical and legal services were affected, as well as businesses.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz apologized for the outages in a televised interview, saying the company was “deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our companies.”
He confirmed that the company “know what the issue is” and will fix it. However, he added that it could take time to remedy the problem in full, because some customers will require a manual fix to ensure their systems work properly.
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Firefighters Battle Huge Fire at Church of Trump Supporter Robert Jeffress
A huge fire broke out at the historic Dallas First Baptist Church, which is led by Trump support Robert Jeffress.
First responders were called to the church at 6.05pm local time, on Friday night, and were met by a serious blaze. Forty fire units were dispatched to the blaze.
According to an update provided by Chief Robert Borse, the fire was“knocked down and contained” within about three hours of crews arriving on the scene.
“While there is no indication that the fire will escalate, DFR is expected to maintain an extended presence on the scene to extinguish all lingering areas of fire and to maintain a safe perimeter around the unstable building,” he added.
The cause of the fire is unknown at present, but it is reported to have begun in the secondary chapel.
Footage of the fire is circulating widely on social media, with claims that an explosion was heard.
Footage of First Baptist Church Dallas, founded 1868. It’s a SBC church, currently led by Dr. Robert Jeffress.
— William Wolfe ?? (@William_E_Wolfe) July 20, 2024
This is the historic sanctuary, the cornerstone was laid in 1891.
Other reports say there was the sound of a loud explosion as well. Pray for this church. pic.twitter.com/chEpOaTufF
The First Baptist Church is one of Dallas’s most important historical churches, dating back to 1890. The Church has around 16,000 members, and its leader Robert Jeffress is well known as an outspoken Trump supporter.
Jeffress provided a statement to local news.
“A little bit after 6 p.m. we got word that the church was on fire, our historic sanctuary.”
“This sanctuary has been around since 1890. It was the home for our church for a long time.” First Baptist Dallas moved to a new worship center about 12 years ago.
“This historic sanctuary was the site of many personal events, including my own. I was baptized there when I was six, I was ordained for the ministry when I was 21, it holds a lot of memories, but we thank God that nobody has been hurt. We had just concluded vacation bible school with over 2,000 kids. They were all gone, so God has protected us through all of this.”
“I am grateful that the church is not bricks and mortar or wood, it’s people, and the people of God will endure,” he added.
With regards to the cause of the fire, Jeffress said that “nothing has been ruled in or out at this point.”
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