CrowdStrike to apologize for global IT outage in congressional testimony

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Faulty update from cybersecurity company ground hospitals, airports and payment systems to halt in July

A CrowdStrike senior executive will apologize for causing a global software outage that ground the operations of hospitals, airports, payment systems and personal computers around the world to a halt in July.

Adam Meyers, senior vice-president for counter adversary operations at CrowdStrike, is slated to testify before Congress on Tuesday. Meyers will speak to the House homeland security cybersecurity and infrastructure protection subcommittee. In testimony made available before the hearing, he wrote: “I am here today because, just over two months ago, on July 19, we let our customers down … On behalf of everyone at CrowdStrike, I want to apologize.” He will say the company has undertaken “a full review of our systems” to prevent the cascade of errors from occurring again.

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Labour’s benefit fraud crackdown would allow officials to access bank accounts

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Proposals will require financial institutions to share data that may help identify scammers

Labour has promised to crack down on benefit fraud by reintroducing “snooper’s charter” proposals mooted under the last government that would allow welfare officials to request information from claimants’ bank accounts.

A fraud, error and debt bill will require banks and other financial institutions to share data that may help identify benefit fraud as part of a package of measures designed to “catch fraudsters faster” and save £1.6bn over five years.

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New species of invasive flatworm discovered in three southern US states

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Amaga pseudobama was first spotted in 2020 in North Carolina and has now spread to Florida and Georgia

A new species of invasive flatworm has been discovered in the United States and has been found in several states in the south, according to a new paper.

The species, named Amaga pseudobama, was discovered by an international team of researchers and first spotted in 2020 in North Carolina. It is thought to be native to South America.

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Israel escalation based on risky belief it can bomb Hezbollah into a ceasefire

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With no diplomatic ‘off-ramp’ the stage is set for more strikes and counter-strikes from an opponent unlikely to bend the knee

It is now clear that last Tuesday’s exploding pager operation was just a first step. What is now unfolding is an Israeli strategy of military escalation against Hezbollah, premised on the risky belief that the militant group can be bombed into a ceasefire before fighting in Gaza ends.

Monday’s wave of airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed at least 558 people and displaced many thousands, and there is little sign of the campaign slowing. Israel’s air force has said it had dropped 2,000 bombs in 24 hours – and there can be little doubt that this is now a full-on war, though it is not yet an all-out conflict.

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Lady Gaga announces 13-song Joker companion album Harlequin

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The singer and actor has revealed the upcoming release of a companion album to her role in Joker: Folie à Deux

Lady Gaga has announced an accompanying 13-song album to her new film Joker: Folie à Deux.

The singer and actor had been teasing the news on social media and has now shared that the album, Harlequin, will be released on 27 September.

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Biden tells UN ‘we cannot grow weary’ in Ukraine’s defence in valedictory speech

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US president assumes mantle of elder statesman, defending his foreign policy record and urging Gaza deal

Joe Biden has sought to defend his foreign policy achievements on the world stage with an address to the United Nations general assembly against a backdrop of three brutal, intractable wars that have stymied world diplomats seeking an end to the bloodshed.

Addressing the assembly hall in New York on Tuesday, Biden took on the mantle of elder statesman as he alternated between a message of hope and a full-throated defense of his record on foreign policy.

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Meloni-themed restaurant opens near asylum-seeker camp in Albania

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Trattoria Meloni contains 70 portraits of Italian PM and is near site where arrivals to the EU are processed

A restaurant dedicated to Giorgia Meloni has opened in the vicinity of a camp in Albania where the asylum claims of people who seek to enter the EU by sea will be processed as part of a controversial pact promoted by the Italian far-right prime minister.

Trattoria Meloni, a seafood restaurant in the northern port of Shëngjin, was opened by Gjergj Luca, a restaurant owner who is close to the Albanian prime minister, Edi Rama.

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Streep: ‘A Squirrel Has More Rights’ Than Afghan Girls – Newser

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  1. Streep: 'A Squirrel Has More Rights' Than Afghan Girls  Newser
  2. Cats have more freedom than Afghan women - Meryl Streep  BBC.com
  3. Meryl Streep: ‘A squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan’  The Guardian
  4. Afghan women have less freedom than cats, Meryl Streep says at U.N.  The Washington Post
  5. Meryl Streep: Today In Kabul A Female Cat Has More Freedom Than A Woman  Forbes
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Swiss police make arrests over suspected death in ‘suicide capsule’

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Criminal case opened after Sarco capsule – which releases nitrogen gas at the touch of a button – used in Merishausen

Swiss police say they have opened a criminal investigation and arrested several people after the suspected death of a woman in a so-called suicide capsule.

According to local reports, the capsule, named the Sarco Pod by its inventor, was used for the first time on Monday afternoon in a forest close to the German border in the Swiss town of Merishausen.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org and Open Counseling

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What the Exploding Pager Attack Means for Air Travel – The Wall Street Journal

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  1. What the Exploding Pager Attack Means for Air Travel  The Wall Street Journal
  2. ‘We’re clearly walking into a much wider war’: Former CIA director on Israel-Hezbollah conflict  CNN
  3. What to know about the two waves of deadly explosions that hit Lebanon and Syria  The Associated Press
  4. Opinion | Israel’s Pager Attacks Have Changed the World  The New York Times
  5. The Hezbollah Pager Explosions Are More Dangerous Than You Think  Foreign Policy
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