A Delta Airlines plane sits on the tarmac at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport on July 23, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Delta Airlines has canceled and delayed hundreds of additional flights as problems from the outage caused by the Crowdstrike software update continue into a fifth day. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Delta apologized for its widespread cancellations and delays over the last several days, issuing a new message Wednesday to customers affected by the fallout from the global IT outage last Friday.
The airline also says it plans to issue 10,000 bonus miles and offers to reimburse “reasonable expenses.”
“Please accept our sincere apologies for the disruption to your recent travel plans caused by a vendor technology outage affecting airlines and companies worldwide,” the airline said. “Delta teams have been working tirelessly to restore our operation to get our customers safely to their final destinations. We understand that unexpected disruptions like this are difficult for everyone and do not reflect the operational reliability and experience you have come to know and expect from us.”
Delta also said that if passengers incurred “any hotel, meal, or transportation expenses while in transit resulting from this flight disruption,” they may submit a claim to the airline for a reasonable expenses reimbursement.
“Please note that we do not reimburse prepaid expenses, including but not limited to hotel reservations at your destination, vacation experiences, lost wages, concerts, or other tickets,” Delta said.
The apology comes several days after a wave of IT outages swept across the globe on Friday morning, causing thousands of flight cancellations and stalling internal and external systems across a variety of industries including hospitals, banks, stock exchanges and other institutions, as some Microsoft-based computers ceased to work.
Thousands of flights were canceled in the U.S. after American Airlines, United and Delta asked the Federal Aviation Administration for a global ground stop on all flights.
At least 2,537 flights were canceled and 8,376 were delayed in the U.S., FlightAware data reported last Friday.
“Please know that we deeply value you and your experience as our customer. Despite this unexpected disruption to our operations, we are doing everything possible to ensure your future travel meets the high service and reliability standards that Delta is known for,” the airline said. “We appreciate your trust in us and look forward to providing an exceptional experience to you on your next Delta flight.”
(NEW YORK) — McDonald’s is extending its popular $5 meal deal as the value meal battle between fast food chains wages on.
In a company memo obtained by ABC News, McDonald’s executives said most U.S. locations will extend the deal through August.
The deal that first launched on June 25 was only supposed to stay on menus for a month, but executives said the deal has resonated with millions of customers and has helped boost traffic at restaurants.
The meal combo includes a choice of a McDouble or McChicken sandwich, small french fries, four-piece chicken nuggets and a small soft drink.
Several other fast food chains including Burger King, Wendy’s, Starbucks and Taco Bell have rolled out comparable discounts this summer to entice customers voicing frustrations over fast food high prices.
Wendy’s upped the ante on Monday, announcing a new mobile app exclusive where customers can get the Honey Buddy — its Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit breakfast sandwich — for just $1 every Monday through the end of September with any purchase.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index, the cost of going out to eat has outpaced the cost of groceries each month this year.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Department of Transportation has opened an investigation into Delta Airlines over recent flight disruptions, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Tuesday in a post on X.
“All airline passengers have the right to be treated fairly, and I will make sure that right is upheld,” Buttigieg said.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff descend from Air Force Two at Delaware National Air Guard base in New Castle, Delaware, on July 22, 2024. (ERIN SCHAFF/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — When Kamala Harris ran for president in 2020, she released 15 years of her personal tax returns, the most of any 2020 presidential candidate. The disclosure offers a glimpse into how Harris, who has emerged as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination after President Joe Biden’s sudden withdrawal from the race, became a millionaire as a public servant.
After Harris, in 2014, married Doug Emhoff, who was then an entertainment lawyer, her net worth increased significantly due to the couple’s combined assets, a review of her tax records and financial disclosures shows.
Before then, Harris’ income came mostly from her public salaries as district attorney of San Francisco and attorney general of California.
Before she was married, the highest annual income reported by Harris was in 2010, when she reported earning $263,000. The next year, when she became attorney general, her reported income dropped to less than $160,000 a year in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
After marrying Emhoff — whose clients have included retail giant Walmart and health care company Abbott Labs, as well as a Malibu real estate agent who found fame on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills — Harris’ income went up significantly.
As a high-profile attorney for one of the world’s largest companies, Emhoff earned more than $1 million per year and held dozens of investments and stocks, according to financial documents reviewed by ABC News.
In 2014, Emhoff owned shares of at least 30 stocks from companies including Home Depot, St. Jude Medical, Comcast, and American Express, according to his statement of economic interest, a form required for California employees.
After Harris announced she would run for U.S. Senate in 2015, Emhoff sold off many of his stocks, including CVS Health and Oracle. Harris won her Senate seat in 2016.
From 2015 until 2019, Emhoff reported dozens of publicly traded investments known as “excepted investment funds,” according to annual reports filed by Harris when she was a senator.
As Harris’ profile grew, so did her earnings. According to a 2018 annual report filed by Harris, she received an advance of more than $300,000 for her memoir, The Truths We Hold, and she and Emhoff reported a gross joint income of $1,889,156 that year, according to tax returns.
Before Harris assumed the vice presidency in 2021, Emhoff announced in December 2020 that he would leave his law firm. He joined Georgetown University’s law school as a member of faculty, where he has earned nearly $200,000 per year.
As a result of the move, the couple’s income dropped significantly, from more than $3 million in 2019 to about $450,000 in 2023.
Nevertheless, with their real estate assets and pension, Forbes estimates Harris and Emhoff’s net worth to be about $8 million, up from $7 million in 2021. Property records reviewed by ABC News show Harris sold her Washington, D.C., condo in 2021 for $1.85 million, and the couple currently owns a house in Brentwood, California, that Emhoff purchased in 2012 for $2.7 million.
If Harris becomes the Democratic presidential nominee, she will face former President Donald Trump, who has long fought to keep his tax records private.
Forbes, in its most recent accounting, estimates Trump’s net worth to be $5.9 billion, which an earlier breakdown said consists of $2.5 billion mainly from his real estate properties, clubs and resorts, plus the value of his share of Truth Social’s parent company, minus the $540 million in legal liabilities from his civil trials over the last year.
(NEW YORK) — Families, friends, and even roommates are combining forces to create more savings on grocery products by buying in bulk and splitting the bill at big box retailers like Costco and Sam’s Club.
The idea of “bulk sharing,” as first reported by the Wall Street Journal, applies to the idea that’s catching on with more American shoppers hoping to find any savings they can on everyday items.
Marissa Verna told “Good Morning America” that she shops and splits bulk items with her sister Jill.
“I don’t need 40 bags of this toddler snack,” Verna said, adding that’s why she thought to ask her sister, “‘Do you want to go halves on it and I’ll send over 20 bags for you and I’ll keep 20 bags and vice versa.'”
Verna added, “It’s really also looking for the sale items as much as it is splitting the goods as well.”
For Kristy Davies’ family of five in New Jersey, it’s a strategy that she said has helped reduce food costs by nearly $75 every week.
“I think just ease and convenience,” she said.
Davies coordinates grocery runs to stores like Costco with her mom Janet and they split the bill afterward then divvy up the food, especially with things like fresh fruit.
“When I buy in bulk, sometimes it’s too much. So I’ll share it with Kristy,” her mom said.
Before spending for herself at a regular store, Davies thinks back to when the last time one of them shopped at a warehouse retailer to decide, “is this something that I can wait and we can get at Sam’s Club because I’d rather not spend that price from the grocery store if I can help it.”
New government data has shown a stabilization in grocery prices after rapid increases from the COVID-19 pandemic that has continued over the past three years.
According to the USDA, the typical family spends about 11% of its disposable income on food, which is the highest level in three decades.
Hitha Herzog, Retail analyst and chief research officer of H Squared Research, warned that shoppers shouldn’t assume that buying in bulk is always cheaper.
“For example, if your group are the type that would go and buy very expensive pre-wrapped charcuterie boards or pre-cut vegetables — then you try to split that up — the price that you are actually saving isn’t that much relative to you just going and purchasing the vegetables or the meat on your own,” Herzog said.
(NEW YORK) — The stock price of cybersecurity company CrowdStrike plummeted in early trading on Friday amid a global IT outage that has affected clients worldwide.
Shares fell nearly 15% on Friday morning, dropping the price to its lowest level since May.
“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said in a post on X.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — IT outages have been reported across the globe as airlines, airports, banks and media companies have suddenly experienced ongoing disruptions that have upended the daily lives of potentially millions of people.
American Airlines, United and Delta have asked the FAA for global ground stop on all flights, according to an alert from the FAA on Friday morning.
However, at approximately 5 a.m. ET, American Airlines issued a statement that they were back up and running as normal.
“Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” the statement read.
The FAA is telling air traffic controllers to tell airborne pilots that airlines are currently experiencing communication issues.
“No one here knows anything, the gate agents said we all know as much as they do,” Scott Sanders told ABC News, saying his flight from SeaTac Airport in Washington was delayed for two hours on the tarmac before passengers were deplaned. “I feel awful for the employees and those that have a sick loved one they need to get to or funerals, thankfully that’s not us.”
Meanwhile, flights in the air will stay in the air, but no American, United or Delta flights have been taking off.
“We’re aware of a technical issue with CrowdStrike that is impacting multiple carriers. American is working with CrowdStrike to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” American Airlines said in a statement obtained by ABC News.
“A third party software outage is impacting computer systems worldwide, including at United,” United Airlines said in a statement on Friday morning. “While we work to restore those systems, we are holding all aircraft at their departure airports. Flights already airborne are continuing to their destinations.”
It is unclear how widespread the issue is but Melbourne Airport in Australia has also said they are “experiencing a global technology issue” which is impacting their check-in procedures.
Global IT outages have also been reported in many countries across the world including Berlin Airport in Germany, the London Stock Exchange, Google Cloud, Microsoft and Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom.
“We’re investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services,” Microsoft said in a statement released on social media Friday morning.
Crowdstrike, the U.S. cybersecurity company, has admitted to being responsible for the error and are working to correct it.
“Crowdstrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows 4 related to the Falcon sensor. Please monitor the status via the tech alert on our customer support portal,” says a message on the Crowdstrike technical help line on Friday morning.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Zunaira Zaki and Helena Skinner contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Writer, entrepreneur, and influencer Nathaniel “Nat” Eliason sat down with ABC News to discuss his new book, “Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance.”
Eliason needed to make money quickly, so he turned to the most promising get-rich-quick opportunity at the time, crypto. By 2022, he was deeply involved in the world of cryptocurrency.
As a self-taught programmer, Eliason’s journey was a roller-coaster of earning and losing millions of dollars, a testament to his determination and resourcefulness. His new book lays out his learning journey and is a source of inspiration for others.
Eliason talked about the good, bad, and ugly in his cryptocurrency journey.
ABC NEWS: In 2021, writer and entrepreneur Nat Eliason was unemployed with a baby on the way. He needed a quick way to make money and as much as possible, so Nat turned to the most promising get-rich-quick opportunity of the time: crypto. By 2022, Nat was deep inside the world of crypto as a self-taught programmer who earned and lost millions of dollars. He shares his journey in a new book, “Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance. “
Joining us now, Nat Eliason. Thank you so much for being here tonight. We really appreciate it.
NAT: Yeah, thank you so much for having me on.
ABC NEWS: Nat, I want to get straight to it because I have a lot of questions. Your journey into the world of crypto began as a need for financial security. How did it go? Give me the good, bad and ugly as quickly as you can.
NAT: Well, it started where a lot of people’s journey started then. Trying to day trade Dogecoin on my phone after seeing Elon Musk and whoever else talking about it online and, in the span of a year, it went from moving around a couple hundred or a couple thousand dollars to looking at my, at least my paper amount of crypto that I had. And seeing that it had passed over $10 million and did not get nearly all of that, any most of it back out. But to see that kind of rise and fall in such a short time period was a pretty, pretty wild experience.
ABC NEWS: You write, “Getting rich is a long, slow, steady process. Get a job. Do your work. Get promoted. Invest in your 401 K. But what if there were a faster way?” In today’s economic climate, we all know this is all we’re talking about as we creep closer to the election. There are a lot of families struggling out there, and a lot of people that are going to be saying, like, I would like a really quick way to get rich. Did your experiences in the crypto world shape your views on the conventional path to financial success?
NAT: It definitely shaped my views on how appealing the get-rich-quick idea is, and how deceptive it can be. Something I share a lot in the book are the many ways that the game is rigged against you behind the scenes. If your goal is to try to make as much money as fast as possible, try to follow in the footsteps of people that you see on Twitter or on other social media sharing their wins. And it really gave me a lot more respect for trying to actually get good at a skill, make money slower, be more patient with it, because often when you get really quick wins, they disappear just as quickly.
ABC NEWS: So then to follow up on that, I mean, would you recommend this to the average person? I mean, you know, if I’m having a conversation with my mom this afternoon, do I need to tell her: ‘Let’s let’s talk about crypto’?
NAT: I definitely believe that crypto is going to become a larger and larger part of our financial and tech lives, but a lot of it will be in the background. It certainly won’t be a day trading Dogecoin on your phone. I think that the big ones like Bitcoin and Ethereum are going to slowly continue to become more relevant in our day-to-day lives.
ABC NEWS: And we know the first tip you’re going to give people is to read your book before starting to invest and look down these different avenues. But can you give us some more practical steps for the average people, myself included, when you’re talking about the crypto space or places like this.
NAT: I think that, on the one level, if you’re just looking at it financially, then you don’t have to overthink it, right? Bitcoin and Ethereum have kind of been the big ones. They’ve been here for the longest. And right now you can buy the Bitcoin ETF in your Vanguard account or one of your other trading accounts. And Ethereum will be able to do that soon, too. So you don’t have to overthink that side of it. But what I would encourage people to do is to look into some of the technology that’s being built, not just whatever crazy coin is going up 1,000%, because there are really cool, new tools being built like some of these stablecoins as new payment rails instead of credit cards and things like that. That could be really interesting parts of our financial life in the future.
ABC NEWS: All right. I love it. Thank you so much Nat for joining us. “Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance” is now available for purchase. Check it out.
(NEW YORK) — Shares of former President Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social soared in early trading on Monday, extending a rally that began in the immediate aftermath of an assassination attempt two days earlier.
In early trading on Monday, shares climbed about 30% to a price of $40. That figure marked the highest level for the stock in more than a month, but shares still stood well below a peak of about $62.
“The stock serves as a little bit of a proxy for sentiment toward Donald Trump himself,” Tyler Richey, an analyst at Sevens Report Research, told ABC News.
“I think there’s a resurgence of people — your die-hard Trump fans and fair-weather supporters — who think, ‘This is a life or death situation, we’re going all in,'” Richey added.
Shares began rising in pre-market trading almost immediately after an assassination attempt at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. The strong performance in recent days indicates the latest in a series of dramatic price swings for the stock.
In the immediate aftermath of Trump’s felony conviction in his hush money case in May, the stock tumbled about 15%, before soon rallying higher than the pre-conviction level.
In March, shares vaulted from an initial offering price of about $50 to a peak of nearly $80. Over the ensuing two weeks, the price fell nearly 70%, reaching a low of about $23.
Analysts who previously spoke to ABC News described the performance of Truth Social as the characteristic fluctuation of a so-called “meme stock.” The term – made famous by pandemic-era examples such as GameStop and AMC – indicates a company that largely appeals to investors on the basis of ideology rather than financial outlook.
Truth Social generated roughly $4 million in revenue last year, government filings show. Meanwhile, the company reported $58 million in net losses over that period. By comparison, Instagram-parent Meta delivered nearly $135 billion in revenue last year, company earnings revealed.
The strong performance for Truth Social on Monday could grant the company an opportunity to reinvest funds and improve the service, Richey said, noting the possibility of an increase in users as Trump draws continued attention in the coming months.
“The financials are atrocious,” Richey said. “But the prospects, while a little doubtful, are still there.”
“If this generates a significant uptick in users, then that could be bullish. Or it becomes a blip of short-term optimism,” he added.
For now, the absence of financial underpinning leaves Truth Social vulnerable to volatility in response to even mildly negative or positive news, experts previously told ABC News.
“The only thing that you can predict is that there will continue to be volatility,” Jay Ritter, a professor of finance at the University of Florida, told ABC News.
The surge in the price of Truth Social on Monday coincided with a swell across the wider stock market. Each of the major stock indexes ticked upward in early trading on Monday, including a record high for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Emma Grede attends the FRAME & Amelia Gray dinner at the Chateau Marmont, April 4, 2024, in Los Angeles. — Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for FRAME, FILE
(NEW YORK) — Emma Grede, a British entrepreneur and the mastermind behind brands like SKIMS and Good American is sharing her secrets on how she built a successful career.
Grede is CEO of Good American, a fashion line on which she partners with Khloé Kardashian, serves as chairperson of the nonprofit 15 Percent Pledge and has also made her mark on ABC’s hit series Shark Tank.
The 41-year-old businesswoman, also a mentor on and executive producer of Side Hustlers on The Roku Channel, told Good Morning America that one secret to her success is thinking about her failures as much as she thinks about her accomplishments.
“I think often we don’t talk about those failures. I’m the opposite. I do [it] all the time,” she explained. “Because I know that everything that I’ve done, that hasn’t worked, I’ve taken a bit of those learnings and spun them into something new.”
Grede also added of her success, “It’s been a mixture of unbelievable hard work and an unbelievable ability to learn from every single mistake that I’ve had.”
Read below for six more tips for success from Grede:
1. Define what you want.
“I’ve been very, very clear about what it is that I want,” she said. “And then I chart a path of how to get there. This is what will make me happy, this is the success that I want. And here are all the incremental steps I’m going to need to get there.”
“Because we all have jobs, we all have a past. And you can take anything that you’re doing and make that situation work for your next situation, so long as you’re focused on what it is that you want. And I often think people are not clear about what it is that they want, you know, I want to be happy, I want to be successful. What does that mean to be happy? What does it mean to be successful, and I’m a real person that has relied my entire life on having a plan,” she added.
2. Reframe your thoughts.
“I honestly think that my greatness is, really, it kind of comes down to mindset,” Grede said, “It starts like first thing in the morning, and I wake up and my day is just chocked full of problems, but I can think, ‘oh my goodness, I have so many issues today’ or I can think, ‘I get to do this.'”
She continued, “And when I say mindset, I mean, how you think – the stories that you tell yourself, right, we have a constant conversation going on in our own head often. And the difference between success and failure in my life is really so much down to the way that I think and how I control those stories and the way I approach every day, and how that mindset leads you into certain habits and rituals around your life and your work that really, really set you up for success.”
3. Make gratitude part of your routine.
Grede said she reinforces a gratitude mindset shift every day, like when brushing her teeth.
“In the morning, I wake up, and it’s like, the first thing I do is not reach for my phone, but it’s really to go into this moment of gratitude,” Grede said. “And when you practice gratitude, it shifts your focus.”
Grede added, “You can talk yourself up and into anything or out of it, and so if you can start to change the way you think, you change the way you act.”
“What you think you become,” she continued. “In my career, and in my life, it’s literally what’s going on [in my mind] and how I speak to myself every day that’s really made the difference.”
4. Remember the ‘rule of thirds’
“My mom would say to me, ‘Emma, you’re not better than anybody else, but nor is anyone better than you.'” Grede recalled. “I think that’s been just really important for me to think about and to play out in my life every day, but I was also really raised with this idea that not everything should go well for you all the time.”
Grede said she lives her life in a way where she expects the “high highs” as well as the “low lows.”
Grede likened what she calls the “rule of thirds” to chasing a dream, completing a task that was hard or the unexpected.
“You’re going to be happy about one-third of the time, the other third of the time, you’re going to feel like kind of okay, and the other third of the time, you’re going to feel pretty terrible,” Grede said. “You have to expect that you’ll have those really, really difficult days.”
She continued, “The rule of thirds has really helped me to figure out, how do I balance those things? How do I think about it? How do I set my expectations up?”
5. Put ambitions ahead of fears.
“Fear is something that can really hold you back — fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of leaving the security of whatever it is that you have,” Grede said. “I think that you have to put your ambition ahead of your fear. You have to make sure that you can grab on to what it is that you really want.”
Grede acknowledged that fear can sometimes be a motivator, as long as it stays in perspective.
“Sometimes, it’s good to have some [fear] in the back of your head, but it’s got to stay in the back,” she said. “You can’t put it in your future.”
6. Stay true to your dream.
“I honestly believe that anyone can achieve greatness if they’re really true to themselves,” Grede said. “If you make a decision, a clear decision, about what it is that you want, and what you believe is important to you, you have to create and make every single decision you make and every move you make going towards that one decision.”
“And that is one of the most important things: be clear about what it is that you want,” she added. “Be intentional about what it is that you want, and go after it without apology.”
The Walt Disney Co., is the parent company of ABC and ABC News.
