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Flying amid CrowdStrike outage: What to expect next and tips to navigate travel chaos

July 19, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Friday’s wave of global IT outages, which affected CrowdStrike customers who use Windows products, has led to more than 1,100 flight cancelations and hundreds of delays in the U.S., leaving travelers to navigate uncharted next steps as major airlines deploy workarounds and slowly come back online.

With interim efforts underway at American Airlines, United and Delta, Nick Ewen, a travel expert and senior editorial director of The Points Guy, told ABC News that there’s a potential lengthier domino effect as they get back to fully operational.

“There may be knock-on effects with the impacted airlines throughout the day and even into the weekend,” he said. “This is because planes and crew members get stranded when a flight is cancelled, and if that plane and/or crew are scheduled to operate two more flights later in the day, and then another four the next day, all of those are at risk of being disrupted.”

Tips to navigate flight, travel delays and reimbursements this weekend amid CrowdStrike outages

For anyone traveling this weekend, Ewen suggested people “make sure they’re proactively keeping an eye on their flights to learn about delays or cancellations as soon as possible.”

“Download your airline’s app, which may allow you to track where your inbound plane is coming from. If not, an app like FlightRadar24 allows you to see the registration number of the plane scheduled to operate your flight,” he said. “If you’re waiting to depart from New York in two hours and your plane is still sitting in Texas, you’re not leaving on time — even if the airline’s system is saying your flight is on schedule.”

For anyone experiencing significant delays, especially if it forces travelers to stay overnight at an airport, Ewen said to “inquire with your airline about hotel and food vouchers.”

“If they are unable — or unwilling — to provide them, investigate any trip delay protection you may have on the credit card you used for the flight,” he added. “In some cases, you may be eligible for reimbursement for extra expenses incurred — though you’d still need to submit a claim with the benefits provider. So save your receipts.”

Airline refund rules explained amid CrowdStrike outages

Tomasz Pawliszyn, CEO of AirHelp, a claims management company, echoed Ewen’s advice for travelers to retain receipts for any incurred expenses during the delays, telling ABC News “it’s crucial for passengers to understand their rights and know their options during disruptions.”

“Although this incident is beyond the control of airlines and airports, passengers still have certain rights under U.S. Department of Transportation regulations,” he said. “The passengers are entitled to assistance from the airline. This can include rebooking on the next available flight and, in some cases, meal vouchers and accommodation if the delay extends overnight.”

Pawliszyn said that later this year, there will be some updated rules in place.

“The new refund rules apply when the airline has rescheduled the flight for either an earlier or later time with a margin of 3-4 hours, depending on whether it is a domestic or international flight,” he explained. “When this happens, if the passenger rejects the reschedule, the passenger has a right to obtain a cash refund as opposed to a voucher. “

He added that the new rules “will not apply until after the summer.”

CrowdStrike stock price plummets amid worldwide IT outage

July 19, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(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.

Trump rally shooter’s duffel bag and range finder first sparked suspicions, sources say

July 19, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(BUTLER, Pa.) — New details have emerged about the suspected shooter at former President Donald Trump’s rally over the weekend, including what first brought Thomas Matthew Crooks under suspicion.

Multiple law enforcement sources confirmed to ABC News that suspicions about the suspect were first aroused at the site by other attendees when they spotted him with a range finder and duffel bag.

Attendees then notified law enforcement, according to sources.

The suspect, who was 20, had two cell phones — one on him and a second one found at his home, sources said.

Sources also told ABC News that Crooks came to the rally site in Butler, Pennsylvania, on the morning of the shooting, stayed there for an hour, left and then came back sometime in the early 5 p.m. ET hour.

Additionally, a source told ABC News that an individual using the name of the suspect signed up online to attend the Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump rally on July 6, a week before the shooting.

Meanwhile, the FBI told lawmakers they’ve conducted 200 interviews as part of the investigation, a source said.

On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General opened its third probe into the security that led to the assassination attempt.

The agency said the third probe will investigate the U.S. Secret Service’s planning and implementation activities for protective operations.

“Our objective is to determine the extent to which the Secret Service plans and implements protective activities to ensure the safety and security of designated protectees,” the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General said.

The announcement follows two prior probes, opened on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively that examined the U.S. Secret Service’s process to secure the campaign event and a review of the Secret Service Counter Sniper Team’s preparedness and operations.

Investigators working to determine a motive behind the assassination attempt are also examining a message left on a gaming platform site purported to have been authored by the suspect, according to multiple law enforcement sources briefed on the probe.

Investigators, according to multiple law enforcement sources, found a post on the gaming platform Steam that is credited to the suspected gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. The post reads “July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds.” Investigators are working to determine whether the post is legitimate.

Investigators also found internet searches for both Trump and President Joe Biden on the phone belonging to Crooks, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News. Crooks had searched for the dates of Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and for those of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the sources said.

The suspect’s phone was one of several devices that law enforcement investigators had collected as they worked to piece together a timeline of the assassination attempt against the former president during a Saturday rally.

“What is beginning to emerge is a portrait of a troubled young person who turned to violence,” said John Cohen, an ABC News contributor and former head of intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security.

Cohen, who specializes in the phenomenon of mass shooters, added that investigators may never determine a single or precise motive for the attack. Sources familiar with the investigation have told ABC News that a search of the suspect’s phone history has revealed no indication of Crooks’ political views or his motive for the shooting. Investigators have also found no digital footprint from the suspect suggesting any affiliations with international or domestic terrorist groups. They have also been unable to identify any ideological nexus to Trump and/or Biden, according to sources.

“Likely, it was a combination of mental health issues, ideological beliefs and a sense of personal grievance, the same combination of factors present in almost every school shooting and mass casualty attack over the past several years. As with those incidents, the warning signs were there, they were just not recognized,” Cohen said. “The threat was real but people around him did not understand what they were witnessing or how it would play out last Saturday.”

The FBI early on Sunday had identified Crooks as the suspect. The U.S. Secret Service said snipers had killed Crooks at the scene. Firefighter Corey Comperatore, a dad who was attending the rally, was killed, and two other bystanders injured, officials said.

The searches compounded the questions that were swirling as investigators searched for a reason for the shooting, including a possible political motive. Crooks had been registered as a Republican voter, according to state records. But a $15 donation to a progressive group was also recorded under “Thomas Crooks” in January 2021, according to FEC records.

As investigators analyzed the suspect’s phone, they looked at his search history, which included the queries for Trump and Biden. But that search history didn’t immediately appear to reveal Crooks’ political views, sources told ABC News.

Law enforcement officials investigating the assassination attempt told lawmakers on Wednesday that 20 minutes had passed between the time Secret Service snipers first spotted Crooks on a rooftop and the time the first shots were fired, according to several law enforcement officials and lawmakers briefed on the matter.

Meanwhile, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday requesting more information on the Trump rally shooting — a preview of what GOP members on the committee may ask Wray when he appears at a hearing on Wednesday, July 24.

Jordan alleges that “whistleblowers have disclosed to the Committee that the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) did not have proper resources for President Trump’s campaign event in Butler because of staffing shortages” due to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, which ran from July 9 to July 11 in Washington, D.C., and an event attended first lady Jill Biden in Pittsburgh on the same day as the Trump rally.

“The information provided to this Committee raises serious questions about the thoroughness of the security planning by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies in support of President Trump’s campaign rally,” Jordan said. “Law enforcement overlooked a number of vulnerabilities prior to and during the event.”

Editor’s note: The story has been updated based on additional information from law enforcement.

Isabella Strahan shares she is cancer-free: ‘Everything is clear’

July 19, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Isabella Strahan is on her road to a full recovery!

In a new update on Thursday from a video on her YouTube channel, the 19-year-old daughter of “Good Morning America” co-anchor Michael Strahan shared that she is officially cancer-free.

Earlier this year, Isabella Strahan publicly revealed she had been diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a type of brain tumor.

In her latest vlog titled, “Goodbye Hospital,” Isabella Strahan shared that she was at her last appointment at the Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center in Durham, N.C., to review results from her scans.

“It was a great, great scan,” she said with a smile on her face. “Everything was clear. Cancer-free and everything is great. I don’t have another doctor’s appointment until October.”

She continued, “I miss my doctors already and everyone who’s helped me because they’re all so nice… I feel like I’m just saddened today knowing that I wasn’t gonna be going back for awhile because I love them so much. So, that was my last hospital vlog until October!”

Isabella Strahan was a freshman at the University of Southern California when an initial MRI scan in October ultimately led to her diagnosis of medulloblastoma, a cancerous and fast-growing brain tumor that develops in the cerebellum, the back of the brain where movement and coordination are controlled, according to the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University, where she is being treated.

Medulloblastoma is a type of malignant tumor that accounts for about 20% of all childhood brain tumors, according to estimates published in the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience.

The new update comes after Isabella Strahan shared on her Vlog last month that she completed her final round of chemotherapy.

“This [has been] a long journey but I made it,” she said at the time. “And now I have to recover and get back to my usual state, which is going to take a long time, but I’m done with treatments.”

She was also celebrated by friends, family and hospital staff over the accomplishment with a confetti parade at the hospital before ringing the bell to signify the end of chemotherapy.

Marking the milestone, Michael Strahan took to Instagram to celebrate the moment and gush over his daughter.

“@isabellastrahan you are a SUPERWOMAN! Ringing that bell finishing chemo and on your way!” he captioned a video of her ringing the bell. “You continue to fight with a smile on your face, strength, and determination. I am one proud Dad! Love you, Bella.”

Evan Gershkovich sentenced to 16 years in Russian penal colony on charges of espionage

July 19, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been sentenced to16 years in a Russian penal colony on charges of espionageafter a guilty verdict was announced in the American journalist’s trial on Friday.

The State Prosecutors Office in Russia were looking for a sentence of 18 years but was given 16 instead.

The trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich moved to closing arguments early Friday morning after only two days of hearings in a case his newspaper and the United States have denounced as a sham.

Gershkovich has already been in detention for 15 months.

The exceptional speed of the trial has prompted speculation that Russia may be hurrying to convict Gershkovich in order to conduct a prison exchange that may have been agreed. In the past, Russia has preferred to only trade people once they have been convicted. However, the State Department on Thursday said it doesn’t have any assessment of why the trial was moved up so quickly.

Gershkovich, a 32-year-old American, has spent more than a year in Russia detention since he was arrested on espionage charges that the Wall Street Journal and the United States say are fabricated. Gershkovich’s trial began in June with a one-day hearing behind closed doors in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg, a city about 900 miles from Moscow.

After just a second day of hearings on Thursday, the court announced it had already completed considering all the evidence in the case and that closing arguments would now be heard on Friday.

After that, Gershkovich will be asked for his “final statement” and the court will consider its verdict, a spokesman for the court said, without giving a time frame for when those might happen.

The process is moving exceptionally fast for an espionage trial, which normally take months or even years. The second hearing was also moved up abruptly by a month, after originally being scheduled for mid-August.

If convicted Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison.

Gershkovich was arrested by Russia’s FSB intelligence agency while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg in March last year. The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. and dozens of international media organisations have vehemently denied the charges against him.

The U.S. has accused Russia of seizing Gershkovich and a number of other Americans as hostages using sham charges with the goal of exploiting them as a political bargaining chips. In recent years Russia has arrested several U.S. citizens including WNBA star Brittney Griner and later traded them for Russians imprisoned in western countries on serious charges.

Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have publicly signalled Russia wants to trade Gershkovich. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this week again confirmed negotiations for an exchange have continued with the Biden administration.

“The intelligence services of the two countries, by agreement between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden back in June 2021, have been in contact to see if someone can be exchanged for someone else,” he said.

Gershkovich’s trial is being held in secret and Russian authorities have never presented any evidence publicly to support the charges against him. Russian prosecutors have charged him with gathering secrets on the “production and repair of military equipment” for the CIA, a claim his newspaper has denied as a “transparent lies,” saying Gershkovich was doing his job as a reporter.

“Evan’s wrongful detention has been an outrage since his unjust arrest 477 days ago, and it must end now,” the Journal said in a statement. “Even as Russia orchestrates its shameful sham trial, we continue to do everything we can to push for Evan’s immediate release and to state unequivocally: Evan was doing his job as a journalist, and journalism is not a crime. Bring him home now.”

Thursday’s hearing lasted for more than five hours, with a few short breaks, according to reporters sitting outside the courtroom. A local news outlet It’s My City reported that only one witness appeared in court Thursday, Vyacheslav Vegner, a lawmaker from Putin’s ruling United Russia party in Sverdlovsk’s regional parliament, who has previously said he gave an interview to Gershkovich before his arrest.

Vegner told the local website 66.ru that Gershkovich at the time had asked him about public support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, the activities of the Wagner mercenary group and how the Sverdlovsk region’s industrial enterprises were being repurposed.

Vegner on Thursday told Interfax that he had been questioned in court by the prosecution and defense for about a half-hour.

The Biden administration has said it is negotiating with Russia to try to free Gershkovich and another American, former Marine Paul Whelan, who has spent more than five years imprisoned by Russia on espionage charges the U.S. also says are fabricated. Russia freed Brittney Griner in exchange for the arms trafficker Viktor Bout, and another former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed was traded for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot convicted in the U.S. on drug smuggling charges.

Another American journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, a reporter for the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has also spent 9 months in detention in Russia on charges relating to her coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Roger Carstens, the U.S. State Department’s special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, this week said that both Gershkovich and Whelan would make it back to U.S. soil one day, but he couldn’t say when.

“The U.S. government is going to bring both of them home,” he said, speaking at the annual Aspen Security Forum. “And when we go into negotiation with the Russians, we are intent on something that brings both people home.”

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Mike Levine contributed to this report.

Kate Middleton supports London Natural History Museum amid cancer treatment

July 19, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Kate, the Princess of Wales, appears to be working amid her ongoing treatment for cancer.

On Thursday, the royal shared her support for the opening of the new gardens at London’s Natural History Museum, for which she is royal patron.

“I am hugely supportive of the Museum’s commitment to create a special space which encourages people of all ages to reconnect with nature and learn more about how we can protect our natural world,” Kate said in a statement shared on the royals’ official Instagram account.

The statement from Kate was accompanied by a photo of her admiring the garden with young children.

Another slide showed an image of Kate in the garden, holding a jar of honey and surrounded by children.

“I know the power of nature to support our development and wellbeing, both by bringing us joy and helping to keep us physically, mentally and spiritually healthy,” the statement from the princess continued. “I hope these gardens will be inspiring and transformative for the thousands of people who visit.”

The messages from Kate come just days after she attended the men’s singles final at Wimbledon on Sunday with her daughter, Princess Charlotte.

Kate, who is a longtime tennis fan and royal patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, sat in the Royal Box to watch Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic compete in the final.

She was also greeted with applause from spectators as she entered the stadium. When Alcaraz defeated Djokovic, she presented him with his trophy.

Wimbledon and the photos taken at the Natural History Museum gardens are recent instances that the princess has been out and about since announcing her cancer diagnosis in March.

In a pre-recorded video that was shared at the time, amid growing speculation about her health and absence from the public eye, Kate said that the cancer was discovered in post-operative tests after abdominal surgery in January. The type of cancer has not been disclosed, and she started a course of preventative chemotherapy in late February, according to Kensington Palace.

The palace added that she would return to official duties when she is cleared by her medical team.

In June, the Princess of Wales shared an update on her health and said that she is “making good progress” as she undergoes chemotherapy but is not “out of the woods yet.”

She also joined royal family members days later for Trooping the Colour.

While Kate has limited the number of royal engagements she’s taken on, her husband, Prince William, who she shares daughter Charlotte and sons Prince George and Prince Louis with, has continued to undertake engagements and work.

38-year-old diagnosed with stage 4 cancer weeks after finishing half-marathon

July 19, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(SYDNEY, Australia) — Govind Sandhu said he felt he was at “peak fitness” when he came down with flu-like symptoms, including a fever, night sweats and body aches, in mid-May.

At the time he started feeling sick, Sandhu, 38, said he had recently finished a half-marathon in his hometown of Sydney, Australia, was training for an upcoming marathon and had just taken a vacation in Bali that was focused solely on health and fitness.

“I’m a CrossFit’er who runs marathons and ultramarathons. Everything from the moment I wake to the moment I go to bed is optimized for peak performance,” Sandhu, the head of global music partnerships at TikTok, told Good Morning America. “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke.”

Sandhu said he first believed his symptoms were a result of his intense training or the change of seasons in Australia, which was transitioning from summer to autumn.

Instead, five weeks after first experiencing a symptom, Sandhu said he was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer that forms in the lymphatic system, part of the immune system that helps protect the body from disease, according to the National Cancer Institute.

“I think back on it now, and I ran a half-marathon with cancer running wild through my system — and stage 4 at that,” Sandhu said, adding, “I literally thought I did everything under the sun to make myself not susceptible to something like this … you realize that this could happen to anyone.”

In stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the cancer has spread beyond the lymphatic system to one or more tissues or organs, according to the NCI.

Symptoms of the disease include much of what Sandhu said he experienced including fever, night sweats, weight loss and fatigue, as well as swollen lymph nodes.

As a 38-year-old male who was otherwise healthy, Sandhu had only one of the three most common risk factors for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which include older age, being male, and having a weakened immune system, according to the NCI.

“I wasn’t educated enough at that point of [thinking] if it could be cancer, or what are the symptoms,” Sandhu said. “I’m grappling with the fact that I’m 38 years old and I have cancer, which is still a bizarre thing to say out loud.”

Following his diagnosis, Sandhu said he began treatment, which for now includes six rounds of chemotherapy.

As he goes through chemotherapy, Sandhu is sharing his journey on social media to help raise awareness of cancer, especially among young people.

“It’s the last thing I ever would have thought would happen to someone like me, and if it can happen to someone like me, it can happen to anyone,” he said. “The reality is that anything to do with the big ‘C,’ cancer, the general population is clueless, and I was clueless, because anything that has to do with one’s mortality or disease is kind of not spoken about and shared widely … and I just think there’s a lot of power in talking about this.”

Sandhu said he also hopes his story helps empower patients to speak up if they do not feel right and for doctors to listen to patients and explore all possible causes of their symptoms.

He said he also hopes that by sharing himself going through chemotherapy and grappling with a serious cancer diagnosis he can help reduce the stigma of cancer and encourage other people going through a similar battle to not feel so alone.

“I don’t want people to feel alone on this journey, because, again, if it has happened to someone like me, it can happen to anyone,” Sandhu said. “I want people to know that what they’re going through, I’m also going through.”

He continued, “If this can help anyone that’s either about to go through it, has gone through it or is supporting someone that’s going through it, that’s an absolute win for me. I want to shout about this because I think it’s a really important topic.”

Are top Republicans shifting in favor of unions? Probably not, experts say

July 19, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — At the Republican National Convention this week, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien delivered the type of full-throated union advocacy that one would not expect at a gathering of top conservative officials.

“We are not beholden to anyone or any party,” O’Brien, whose union boasts 1.3 million members, told the audience in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “We want to know one thing: What are you doing to help American workers?”

The next day, vice presidential nominee JD Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio, indicated a second-term Trump administration would lend such a hand to labor. “We need a leader who’s not in the pocket of big business but answers to the working man, union and non-union alike,” Vance said.

Labor experts who spoke to ABC News expressed deep skepticism about the Republican gestures of support for unions.

The pro-labor message comes at a time when Republicans are eager to win over working-class voters, experts noted, saying the sentiment belies the party’s record of policy positions that make it harder for workers to form unions and secure union contracts.

During his first term in office, Donald Trump weakened enforcement of federal labor regulations and appointed Supreme Court justices who issued rulings that limited union activity and worker protections, the experts said.

“Right now, both parties are in selling mode,” Lynne Vincent, a professor of industrial and labor relations at Syracuse University, told ABC News. “I’m hesitant to give any power to those words, without serious commitment to policies that would support labor.”

In a statement to ABC News, the Trump campaign said the former president would improve the financial conditions of union workers, especially in the auto industry.

“Union workers and all the nation’s working families are paying the price for Crooked Joe Biden’s failed economic policies. Joe Biden’s radical electric vehicle mandate will destroy the livelihoods of countless U.S. autoworkers while sending the U.S. auto industry to China. President Trump will reverse Joe Biden’s extreme electric vehicle mandate on Day One and save the U.S. auto industry for generations to come,” Trump campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

The Trump campaign has proposed an escalation of its tariff policy as a means of protecting U.S. businesses, thereby ensuring a robust job market and a bolstered domestic manufacturing industry.

“Trump wants jobs here in America. He wants things made in America,” Stephen Moore, who served as an economic adviser to Trump, previously told ABC News.

Some Republicans have pointed to the selection of Vance as indication of a shift in the party, placing a priority on Vance’s oft-expressed views critical of large corporations and sympathetic toward workers.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., an ally of Vance, walked the picket line with members of the United Auto Workers during a strike last year.

Earlier this month the Republican Party platform released vows to “protect American workers.” The party must “return to its roots as the Party of Industry, Manufacturing, Infrastructure, and Workers,” the platform added. It does not mention the word “union.”

Vance exemplifies a focus on symbolism over substance characteristic of Republican gestures in support of union workers, some experts said. The AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, gave Vance a 0% rating on its scorecard ranking elected officials’ voting record for union-related issues. Hawley carries a rating of 11%, the AFL-CIO says.

“The selection of Vance as vice president did disturb the traditional corporate community that is at the core of the Republican Party,” Erik Loomis, a labor professor at the University of Rhode Island and author of “A History of America in 10 Strikes,” told ABC News. “But at the same time, neither Vance nor Hawley have supported a specific kind of legislation that helps labor unions.”

In response to ABC News’ request for comment, a press representative for Hawley pointed to an op-ed this week in which he backs bipartisan labor law reform. “Thousands of Americans have voted to unionize in elections but can never get a contract done, often due to corporate tricks,” Hawley wrote in Compact. “How can we let that stand?”

ABC News has reached out to Vance’s office for comment.

The speech from O’Brien drew praise from some labor leaders and criticism from many others. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, lauded O’Brien in a post on X. “Glad that he savaged big business for their greed,” Weingarten said.

Among the critics was John Palmer, vice president at large of the Teamsters. “It is unconscionable for any Labor leader to lend an air of legitimacy to a candidate and a political party, neither of which can be said to have done or can be expected to do, anything to improve the lives of the workers we are pledged to represent,” Palmer wrote in a column for the Las Vegas Sun.

O’Brien did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

When asked about O’Brien’s speech, Rebecca Pringle, president of the 3-million member National Education Association, told ABC News: “It’s everyone’s right to speak their mind and for their organization.”

Pringle added there should be no illusions about the Republican Party’s posture toward organized labor. “What we have experienced with Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans is that they don’t care about workers and they don’t support unions,” she said.

Still, polling shows a large minority of union workers support Trump. Union households prefer Biden to Trump by a margin of 50-41, an NBC News survey in February found.

The labor embrace from some speakers at the RNC this week could help Trump and his allies increase that support, some experts said.

“They’re trying to expand their white working-class base,” Harry Katz, a professor of collective bargaining at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, told ABC News. “They’re not idiots.”

CrowdStrike outage sparks global chaos with airline, bank and other disruptions

July 19, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(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.

Trump pitches unity but revives old grievances

July 19, 2024 by WDNY Radio

(MILWAUKEE) — Former President Donald Trump toggled between somber messages of harmony and his favorite red meat rhetoric in a lengthy and charged speech accepting the GOP presidential nomination.

Trump, just days removed from surviving an assassination attempt at a Saturday rally, had forecasted a unifying, and largely delivered at the beginning, reliving details of the shooting that had some audience members in tears. As the speech went on, however, the former president switched back to the GOP’s regularly scheduled programming, veering into unscripted tangents on everything from immigration to foreign policy, occasionally swiping at Democrats by name.

“The first half was perhaps one of the best speeches I have heard in a long time, really driven by emotion and brought a lot of people in. The second half was a rally speech that so many people love,” one GOP strategist said. “It was really two separate speeches in one.”

Trump appeared subdued at the start of the speech Thursday, pushing the country to turn the page on divisions that have ravaged the nation’s politics.

“The discord and division in our society must be healed, we must heal it quickly. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart,” he told an emotional crowd.

He then recounted the details of the shooting, when a shooter grazed his right ear, injured two others and killed one rallygoer at his Pennsylvania rally. Trump said it would be the only time he would discuss the specifics of the assassination attempt because “it’s actually too painful to tell.”

“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” he told an emotional crowd. “I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God.”

Trump also announced that $6.3 million had been raised to help the families of those killed and wounded in attack.

“Despite such a heinous attack, we unite this evening more determined than ever,” Trump declared.

The opening had less of the trappings of a classic, raucous Trump rally, though that was to be expected, given the subject matter.

Quickly, however, the speech reverted back to more typical rhetoric.

Despite his team advertising beforehand that he wouldn’t mention President Joe Biden by name, Trump shouted him out, dubbing him one of the worst presidents in American history.

“If you took the 10 worst presidents in the history of the United States, think of it, the 10 worst, added them up, they will not have done the damage that Biden has done. Only going to use the term once, Biden. I’m not going to use the name anymore, just one time. The damage that he’s done to this country is unthinkable,” Trump said to a crowd that was visibly getting more amped up.

He went on to mention “crazy Nancy Pelosi” and downplayed the current administration’s ability to tackle the nation’s problems — though he said they were capable to fixing elections, reviving unfounded conspiracies about election fraud.

“We’re dealing with very tough, very fierce people, they’re fierce people. And we don’t have fierce people, we have people that are a lot less than fierce, except when it comes to cheating on elections and a couple of other things, then they’re fierce,” he said, mentioning another topic that was not thought to be on the agenda for Thursday night.

The rest of the speech ping-ponged between the two trends.

Trump adlibbed extensively on immigration, repeating warnings that the country was facing an “invasion” at the Southern border and vowing to “drill, baby, drill” for oil and natural gas on his first day in office.

Toward the end of the remarks, he again sprinkled in messages of unity.

“So, tonight, whether you’ve supported me in the past or not, I hope you will support me in the future, because I will bring back the American Dream,” he said. “Love, it’s about love.”

Taken together, the speech left the impression less of a candidate fundamentally changed by Saturday’s tragic events as much as one recognizing its historicity, while still eager to energize his most fervent supporters.

“He’s playing the greatest hits from 2016 — Trump has not changed, he has not moderated, he has gotten worse,” one Biden adviser said. “And he is making no appeal to moderates.”

Republicans, meanwhile, praised the speech, saying it marked a blend that could be featured in future stump speeches.

“I thought it was a good blend,” said Marc Lotter, an official on Trump’s 2020 campaign. “I think it’s one of the reasons why people like him, because he’s not just reading off the teleprompter, the perfectly prepared, well- crafted, poll-tested talking points. He’s adding that context, that commentary.”

Other Republicans swatted away Democratic criticism that the speech was more of the same old, same old from Trump.

“He united the party and country,” said another former Trump campaign official. “Same old led to one of the largest economic expansion in generations. Same old led to zero wars. Same old rebuilt the military.”

Still, some Republicans were seeking more of an emphasis on unity — and that dishing out red meat offered Democrats a chance to swing back at him and go on offense right as they’re convulsing over Biden’s place atop the 2024 ticket.

“Tone was what I expected, typically for these speeches he’s much more on teleprompter, some of his riffs were too long,” one former senior Trump administration official said. “Overall, it doesn’t change anything, but they missed an opportunity to put this out of reach.”

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