Global IT Outage
Countries around the world have been hit by a powerful IT outage, crippling air traffic control systems, banks, and broadcasters. Windows 10 users are said to have borne the brunt of the crisis, with media reports and experts attributing the failures to a recent update of CrowdStrike, a web/cloud-based anti-virus which has caused computers to crash.
Problems have so far been reported in Australia, New Zealand, India, and Japan, with the monitoring site Down Detector also showing outages at the Microsoft Store and Amazon, as well Delta and Ryanair airlines, among others.
- 19 July 202412:15 GMT CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz has told NBC that his company is “deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected” by the outage. He confirmed that the crash was caused by a software bug in an update which conflicted with Microsoft systems.
“We’ve identified it very quickly… The systems come back online as they are rebooted,” he said, adding that CrowdStrike is working with its customers to help them return to normal operations. At the same time, he was unable to say how long exactly it will take to achieve this.
- 11:54 GMTSeveral major Chinese airlines have told CGTN that their operations were not affected by worldwide disruption as they use different IT systems.
- 11:45 GMTThe UK government has held an emergency meeting following the global IT outage, a Downing Street spokeswoman said, adding that UK authorities were “working closely with the respective sectors and industries on this issue.” She confirmed that newly elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not chair the meeting but is being kept in the loop, explaining that he had a meeting with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky.
- 11:35 GMTTesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk has branded the Microsoft outage the “biggest IT fail ever.” He also laughed at a meme comparing Microsoft to the Secret Service following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, concluding that neither was secure.
- 11:23 GMTMicrosoft has said, as quoted by Reuters, that the underlying cause of the global outage has been fixed, but acknowledged that the residual impact continues to affect some of its apps and services.
- 11:18 GMTThe White House National Security Council spokesperson told CNN that the Biden administration is aware of the outage and is “looking into the issue and impacts” of the incident.
- 10:56 GMTDubai International Airport says it has returned to normal operations after some of its check-in procedures were affected by the global outage. It noted that “airlines promptly switched to an alternate system, allowing normal check-in operations to resume swiftly.”
- 10:34 GMTAround 30% of McDonald’s outlets in Japan have been forced to suspend operations due to the outage, Kyodo News has reported, citing the local branch of the fast-food giant. It is not yet clear when services can be resumed in full, it added.
- 10:31 GMTRussia’s Ministry of Digital Development said the Microsoft outage was further proof that the country needs to continue weaning itself off foreign software, especially when it comes to critical infrastructure.
- 10:24 GMTThe Kremlin’s IT systems have not been affected by the Microsoft outage, spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. Flight and railway authorities in Russia have also confirmed that their operations continue unimpeded.
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Von der Leyen’s Agenda will Spark Street Protests Across Europe, Predicts Former Polish FM
In an interview with wPolityce.pl, Witold Waszczykowski, the former Polish minister of foreign affairs and a former MEP for Law and Justice Party (PiS), has expressed his strong disapproval of Ursula von der Leyen’s reelection as the head of the European Commission. Waszczykowski believes that von der Leyen’s second term will be marked by confrontational street protests due to her ambitious and, in his view, unrealistic promises.
Waszczykowski predicts that von der Leyen’s agenda will lead to protests by farmers and workers on the streets of European cities.
“Citizens will pay more and more for these ideas,” he warned, recalling the “yellow vests” movement in France and suggesting that such protests could spread across Europe. “These bureaucratic whims will not be accepted by ordinary people,” he added.
He also points to the corruption he says was inherent during von der Leyen’s term as president.
“Von der Leyen’s previous term was riddled with scandals and blunders,” Waszczykowski stated. “From the vaccine procurement scandal involving SMS messages to the Brexit debacle and the ‘Qatargate’ corruption scandal, her tenure has been far from exemplary.”
He also criticized the EU commission’s handling of the Russian aggression in 2022, arguing that the EU’s response was too slow and ineffective.
Despite these criticisms, von der Leyen secured a second term, a fact that Waszczykowski attributes to her pre-election pact with the left and the Greens.
“By promising support for the Green Deal and constitutional changes outside the Treaty, she secured a majority,” he said.
Waszczykowski also questioned why some MEPs from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) supported von der Leyen. He suggested that their support stemmed from a fear of being marginalized by the majority political mainstream and a desire to maintain some influence.
“Many conservative circles in the West practice a symptom-free conservatism,” he said, “using conservative rhetoric but acting like liberals.”
The former minister believes that PiS’ current strategy is flawed and that they should have joined forces with Marine Le Pen’s Patriots for Europe to build a strong conservative bloc and negotiate changes within the EU.
As for von der Leyen’s promises and announcements during the debate, Waszczykowski compared them to the unrealistic pledges made by Donald Tusk in Poland.
“These are all pipe dreams,” he said. “The EU is being sidelined by China and the U.S. and especially by an aggressive Russia. Von der Leyen herself experienced this in Ankara when she was not even offered a chair next to President Erdoğan.”
He also anticipates that von der Leyen’s second term will further the trend towards a super state, with decisions being made at the EU level by majority vote, potentially leading to coercion and blackmail tactics similar to those used by Tusk in Poland.
“Countries, including Poland, will be afraid to leave the EU for geopolitical reasons,” Waszczykowski said, “and will be forced to accept all these eccentricities under the threat of Polexit.”
Unless significant socio-political movements emerge to oppose these changes, Waszczykowski fears that Europe will be pushed towards a future that many will find unacceptable but be unable to stop.
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Spanish PM Pushes Media Censorship Law Amidst Corruption Scandal
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is pushing for new rules to be adopted with the stated aim of stopping the spread of “fake news” – specifically that which he brands as being “largely finances by the extreme right.”
But the opposition there remains unconvinced that this is not simply another initiative to censor media outlets that the government dislikes, sold to the public as a new way to rein in “digital tabloids that spread hoaxes.”
Despite, or because of these suspicions, that the government’s activities are aimed at stifling the very foundations of democracy, free speech, and media, Sanchez chose to “sell” his proposal to Spain’s parliament as necessary – to protect democracy.
“Without reliable and diverse sources of information, the citizens are blind,” Sanchez is quoted as declaring.
He’s not wrong – but actions, as well as context, speak louder than words. Not only is Sanchez’s “law on censorship,” as opponents are calling it, supposed to align with the EU’s Media Freedom Act, but it also comes at a particularly sensitive time for Sanchez personally.
Namely, his wife is about to testify in court in a corruption scandal, which the prime minister has previously said was fabricated for political reasons “by right-wing media,” and to assist the opposition.
And announcements of new rules around media outlets were first heard from the head of government earlier this month, when the wife, Begona Gomez, made her first court appearance in the case.
The most influential among the opposition, the People’s Party, has no doubt that Sanchez is simply out to control the media publishing content critical of him.
Sanchez, on the other hand, insists the new rules would apply equally to all media without favoritism. Some of the proposed measures include identifying “all shareholders with influence over editorial policy” – which would require a strong and clear definition of who qualifies before it would ever be accepted as fair by critics.
And, the Spanish PM wants to make sure the “trusty” legacy media (referred to as “traditional” in reports appearing in – the legacy media) are given a leg up in a competitive market.
Namely, the plan is to subsidize their transition to digital with €100 million ($109 million).
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68 Republicans Urge Supreme Court to let South Carolina Defund Planned Parenthood
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – Sixty-eight Republican members of Congress signed onto an amicus brief filed July 5 in support of South Carolina’s right to exclude Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses from the state Medicaid program.
In March, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that South Carolina had to restore Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood after deeming the abortion giant not qualified, claiming Medicaid recipients had a right to the provider of their choice. The U.S. Supreme Court had previously ordered the Fourth Circuit to reconsider its prior ruling to that effect in light of its Talevski ruling, which concerned whether the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act (FNHRA) created federal rights healthcare recipients could enforce via lawsuits.
“Congress did not unambiguously create a right for Medicaid recipients to drag states into federal court to challenge those decisions, so no such right exists,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel and vice president of appellate advocacy John Bursch said. “The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Talevski makes that even clearer.”
The brief to the Supreme Court, headed by South Carolina Republican Rep. Ralph Norman, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and Sen. Tim Scott and signed by a total of seven senators and 58 House members, argues that the Fourth Circuit’s decision “will open the door to costly and unwarranted litigation and will undermine Congress’s prerogative to decide whether a statute should be enforced through private litigation.”
“Congress alone can create private rights of action. Amici believe that because Congress has not spoken clearly here, Section 1983 cannot support Planned Parenthood’s or its client’s claims to a private right of action under the Medicaid Act’s any-qualified-provider provision,” it argues. “Congress knows how to create a private right of action, but it did not do so here. Amici therefore urge this Court to grant the petition and reverse the decision.”
“Private parties like Planned Parenthood have no right to undermine congressional intent by forcing states to say that Planned Parenthood is a qualified Medicaid provider,” Norman said. “South Carolina has every right to determine what qualifies and disqualifies Medicaid healthcare providers operating within our state. That was precisely the intent of Congress. My hope is the Court will see this lawsuit for what it truly is: a misguided attempt to undermine that authority.”
“The people of South Carolina have made it clear they support the right to life, and therefore, should not be forced to spend taxpayer dollars to fund abortion providers like Planned Parenthood,” South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster added. “I thank Congressman Norman, Senator Graham, Senator Scott, and the 65 other members of Congress who are standing with South Carolina to oppose this federal overreach and protect our ability to defend our values.”
Fourteen states currently ban all or most abortions. But the abortion lobby is working feverishly to cancel out those deterrent effects by deregulated interstate distribution of abortion pills, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors, and enshrining abortion “rights” in state constitutions.
Taxpayer funding is key to perpetuating the abortion industry in the post-Roe v. Wadelandscape. Nationally, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s annual report released in April reveals that the organization committed 392,715 abortions in the most recent reporting period, a record number. Planned Parenthood received $699.3 million in government grants and reimbursements in 2023, a 4.2 percent rise over its funding the previous year.
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Merck Defrauded the Public for Over a Decade, Falsely Advertising Their MMR Vaccine as ‘Safe & Effective’ Against Staggering Evidence
Much of the well-established “vaccine science” that Americans trust is really just fraudulent marketing and rigged trials put forth by the pharmaceutical companies. The 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania recently heard oral arguments for a lawsuit alleging that Merck fraudulently marketed its MMR vaccine.
The most trusted medical intervention is based on decades of fraudulent advertisement, misbranding, mislabeling
For decades, the medical community insisted the vaccines are the most thoroughly studied pharmaceutical product in the history of medicine. However, there are no federally funded studies comparing vaccinated populations against unvaccinated populations because scientists believe it is unethical to withhold these “lifesaving” vaccines from children. The proper double blind, saline, placebo-controlled studies do not take place because of a longstanding bias that the vaccines are necessary for human life and should not be withheld from children. This supposition disregards historical evidence of populations that were never subjected to these products but did however develop natural immunity to various infectious diseases.
The scientific and medical community must take a more critical look at the safety and necessity of today’s vaccine schedule. The father of modern vaccinology himself, Dr. Stanley Plotkin, recently admitted that vaccines are not properly studied — neither pre-licensure nor post-licensure. Plotkin admitted that “prelicensure clinical trials have limited sample sizes [and] follow-up durations” and that “there are not resources earmarked for post authorization safety studies.”
Merck defrauded the CDC, FDA and the general public with its ineffective and unsafe MMR vaccine
For over three decades, Merck scientists have been aware that their measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) combination vaccine is less effective than the company proposes on its original product license and product insert. Over the years, researchers have demonstrated that Merck’s MMR vaccine loses efficacy over time. Instead of suspending sales and rendering the vaccine defective, Merck has pushed state legislatures to mandate the vaccine for schoolchildren, going as far as to lobby state reps to abolish philosophical, religious and medical exemptions to their vaccine.
Merck’s own test results for the MMR vaccine did not meet the FDA’s specifications and acceptance criteria for drug applications. Instead of withdrawing the product and issuing a product recall, the FDA allowed the vaccine on the market. The CDC continued to purchase the defective vaccine while the public was unaware and misinformed of its failing efficacy and growing risk profile.
By April 2012, two Merck virologists – Stephen Krahling and Joan Wlochowski – became whistleblowers against Merck. They filed two lawsuits against their employers, alleging the company falsified research data, enabling the formation of a monopoly on the MMR vaccine. An expert witness from the FDA, ex-commissioner Dr. David A. Kessler, provided Merck’s own internal documents to show that the vaccine was “misbranded” “out of compliance” and “non-marketable.” Witnesses to the case allege that Merck scientists began “falsifying data and destroying unfavorable data” to make the MMR vaccine appear safe and effective.
The whistleblowers allege that Merck defrauded the U.S. government regulatory agencies, misleading them to purchase 4 million doses of misbranded and mislabeled MMR vaccine every year for at least a decade.
MMR vaccine’s false sense of security putting future generations at risk
Over the years, the vaccine’s lack of efficacy has given vaccinated populations a false sense of security and has led to mumps and measles outbreaks in highly vaccinated populations. Merck has known this for many years, but they have continued to deceive the public, the FDA and the CDC, destroying any shred of informed consent on the matter, and maintaining a monopoly on a product that doctors and parents have blindly trusted for decades.
So far, Merck has received favorable rulings because their defense contends that the CDC continued to purchase the vaccine and the FDA did not require any changes throughout the years. However, not providing the latest data and science on the MMR vaccine constitutes a willful act of fraud on behalf of Merck. This level of fraud has deeply affected many generations of people. Some have lost loved ones to the vaccine’s adverse events and others have received little to no immunity to measles, mumps and rubella – putting them at greater risk to the target infectious diseases over time. The loss of passively acquired maternal antibodies for infants can also be traced back to the failures of the MMR vaccine. Decades of Merck’s MMR vaccine fraud will have vast and potentially drastic consequences for future generations of children.
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Australian Lawmaker to Introduce Bill Requiring Religious Schools to Employ Homosexual Teachers
(LifeSiteNews) — A South Australian lawmaker plans to table a new bill that would require religious schools to employ homosexual teachers.
Robert Simms, an openly homosexual member of the upper house of South Australia’s Parliament and member of the leftist Greens Party, told Australian newspaper The Advertiser that he hopes to propose the aforementioned bill in August to eradicate exemptions for religious institutions.
“It is outrageous that in 21st-century South Australia, a gay teacher working in a religious school can be in fear of losing their job simply because of their sexuality … Surely all South Australians deserve equal protection before the law?” Simms said in comments cited by Russia Today.
Simms also told The Advertiser that it was “disappointing to see the Federal Government dragging their heels” on the issue, urging the South Australian government to “step up” and introduce the amendments, Russia Today added.
In statements to LifeSiteNews, Warwick D’Silva, national president of the Australian Family Association (AFA), criticized Simms’ proposal, declaring:
Robert Simms’s plan to remove current exemptions for faith-based schools from South Australia’s anti-discrimination law smacks of hypocrisy. Would Simms support legalization taking away the freedom of his Greens Party to employ only those who support Greens’ policy? Would the Greens support legislation that denied them the freedom to refuse employment to a member of the Liberal Party who was also a strong opponent of the Greens?
D’Silva added:
Simms says that these exemptions ‘allow discrimination’ against people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. They don’t allow discrimination, they allow religious schools the freedom, the liberty, to employ teachers and staff in accordance with the deeply held beliefs on matters of sex, natural marriage and family. The current exemptions for faith-based schools in the South Australian Equal Opportunity Act protect the inherent right of parents to have their children raised and educated in accordance with their beliefs, as recognized in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 18(4) calls on governments to have ‘respect for the liberty of parents and, when applicable, legal guardians to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions.’ Mr Simms’s proposals would violate this fundamental human right of parents, just as taking away the rights of political parties to employ only those who respected the principles and policies of their party would violate the civil and political rights of all political parties.
Meanwhile, removing faith school exemptions at the state level would not dispense with federal protections.
“Should Simms succeed in removing the exemptions for faith-based schools in South Australian law, current federal exemptions for religious schools would take precedence,” D’Silva told LifeSiteNews. “This means that the freedom of SA religious schools to choose who they wish to employ would be preserved under the Federal Sex Discrimination Act.”
Simms’ suggestion comes in wake of a heated debate over the employment of LGBT staff in faith-based organizations, such as religious schools, in Australia.
In May, non-profit LGBT organization Equality Australia urged the Australian federal government to “protect” LGBT staff and students in religious schools.
“Every day the government delays is another day more harm is being done because religious schools are allowed to discriminate against staff and students who are gay, trans, pregnant, divorced, or unmarried,” CEO Anna Brown claimed in remarks citedby Cityhub.
Also, in March, the Australian federal government published a report finalized by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) in late 2023. Notably, the ALRC suggested removing the exemption in Section 38 of the Sex Discrimination Act that permits religious schools to hire staff in accordance with their beliefs.
An excerpt of the ALRC report reads:
… the Australian Government’s commitment is that an educational institution conducted in accordance with the doctrines, tenets, beliefs or teachings of a particular religion or creed: must not discriminate against a student on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or relationship status or pregnancy; must not discriminate against a member of staff on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or relationship status or pregnancy.
Furthermore, the ALRC suggested that religious institutions be permitted to choose like-minded staff as per their religious beliefs if it is “reasonably necessary” and “proportionate” to ensuring a community of faith without violating sex discrimination laws, as per a March report by Crux.
In response to the ALRC’s suggestions, Crux reported that Australian churches submitted a letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese objecting to any efforts to remove legal exemptions for faith-based schools.
Australian National Catholic Education Commission executive director Jacinta Collins, Melbourne Archbishop Peter A. Comensoli, Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher, Melkite Bishop Robert Rabbat, Maronite Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay, Chaldean Bishop Amel Nona and Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney were some of the Catholic signatories of the letter.
Jacinta Collins underscored that current Australian law enables Catholic and other faith-based schools to employ and enroll staff and students based on their faith.
“The recommendations would severely limit the ability of our schools to operate and teach according to our ethos and are at odds with the Inquiry’s terms of reference, and the desire of families to choose a faith-based school for their children,” she said in comments cited by Crux in March.
“The ALRC has critically neglected the Attorney General’s third term of reference to ensure that religious schools can ‘continue to build a community of faith by giving preference, in good faith, to persons of the same religion as the educational institution in the selection of staff.’”
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