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Companies around the world hit by Microsoft outage

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Companies around the world hit by Microsoft outage

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One of the biggest-ever IT outages has hit companies across the world, from airlines to financial services and media groups, causing significant disruption.

Thousands of workers in cities from Tokyo to London were unable to log on to their computers on Friday, affecting businesses from finance to healthcare and public services such as transportation and emergency services.

The outage has been blamed on a security update from US group CrowdStrike, which caused a problem with Microsoft’s Windows. Both PCs and servers are affected, suggesting that millions of computers may need to be fixed for the issue to be fully resolved.

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“I don’t think it’s too early to call it: this will be the largest IT outage in history,” said Troy Hunt, a prominent security consultant, in a social media post. “This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it’s actually happened this time.”

In China, some workers welcomed an early start to the weekend after their employers told them to go home. “Thank you Microsoft for an early vacation” was briefly the most-searched term on microblogging site Weibo on Friday afternoon, with users posting pictures of blue error screens. 

Australian businesses were the first to warn of problems, with the operations of retailers including Woolworths and 7-Eleven hit. Sydney airport said “a global technical outage” had affected its operations.

In Europe, airlines and airports warned of disruption. The US Federal Aviation Administration said Delta, United and American Airlines had asked to ground flights due to take off.

The incident comes at a particularly bad time for travel in Europe, with Friday due to be the busiest day for departures from the UK since October 2019.

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“This is a very, very uncomfortable illustration of the fragility of the world’s core internet infrastructure,” said Ciaran Martin, professor at Oxford university’s Blavatnik School of Government and former head of the National Cyber Security Centre.

In an online post earlier on Friday, Microsoft said it was aware of “an issue” affecting Windows devices running the CrowdStrike Falcon agent, which may “get stuck in a restarting state”. That appears to have contributed to the problems that hit some of its cloud computing customers.

“We can confirm the affected update has been pulled by CrowdStrike,” Microsoft added.

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CrowdStrike is one of the world’s largest providers of “endpoint” security software, used by companies to monitor for security problems across a huge range of devices, from desktop PCs to checkout payment terminals.

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Shares in CrowdStrike fell 16 per cent and Microsoft fell 2 per cent in pre-market trading.

CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz said on Friday morning that the company was “working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts”.

“This is not a security incident or cyber attack,” Kurtz said. “The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

Microsoft said just before midday UK time that the “underlying cause has been fixed” in its cloud services, though “residual impact is continuing to affect” some software.

The incident is far from resolved. Disruption across airlines and airports around the world grew on Friday morning. In Europe, Dutch carrier KLM said the problems had “made it impossible to handle flights” and that the airline had suspended “most” of its operations.

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Other airlines and airports said they were still functioning, though they warned passengers of delays.

Many, including Europe’s largest airline Ryanair, advised passengers to arrive at the airport at least three hours before their flights, and to check on the status.

Prague airport said the problems had centred on the IT behind the global check-in system, which is the backbone of airline operations for departing flights.

Berlin Brandenburg airport said it had also been hit by “a technical fault”, and that passengers had been delayed checking in.

Aena, Spain’s main airports operator, said “operations are being carried out using manual systems”.

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The London Stock Exchange Group said its service for company announcements was experiencing a “third-party global technical issue, which prevented news from being published”, according to a statement on the company’s website. LSEG said other systems including the exchange were running normally.

David Rhodes, executive chair of Sky News, said on X that the UK broadcaster had “not been able to broadcast live TV this morning, currently telling viewers that we apologise for the interruption”. Sky News broadcasting has resumed.

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Federal judge bars Trump from implementing proof of citizenship requirement to vote

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Federal judge bars Trump from implementing proof of citizenship requirement to vote

A federal judge on Wednesday permanently barred President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing most of his first executive order on elections, part of which sought to require people to show documentary proof of citizenship when they register to vote.

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper in Boston effectively converts a preliminary injunction she issued a year ago, in which she temporarily blocked many of Trump’s efforts to overhaul elections, into a permanent ban.

Casper rejected the Republican administration’s argument that the lawsuit to block the changes brought by Democratic state attorneys general was premature because the rules had yet to be put in place. Instead, she agreed that the Constitution gives states and Congress the authority to regulate elections, and that Trump’s requirements violated the separation of powers.

The Constitution “does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,” wrote Casper.

Among other proposed changes, Trump’s order would have required people to provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote, prevented mail ballots from being counted if they arrive after Election Day, even if they were postmarked by then, and punished states that failed to comply by withholding certain federal money.

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In a statement, New York Attorney General Letitia James said she was grateful the court had blocked Trump’s “unconstitutional attempt to seize control of our elections” and would continue to defend voting rights in this year’s midterm elections.

“Generations of Americans fought tirelessly for the right to vote, and we honor their legacy by protecting that right against anyone who tries to undermine it,” said James, a Democrat.

A voter casts a ballot during New York’s primary election on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

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California Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose state was the lead plaintiff in the case, said the ruling reaffirmed the constitutional principle that it s up to the states and Congress to set election rules.

“While we are proud of this result, we are clear-eyed that President Trump’s attacks on voting rights and our elections show no signs of slowing down,” Bonta, a Democrat, said in a statement. “So let me be clear: we will keep fighting back every step of the way.”

Requests for comment sent to the White House and he U.S. Department of Justice were not immediately returned.

The ruling was the latest in a series against the elections executive order Trump signed just months after taking office for his second term. The Republican president has since signed another executive order on elections that seeks to create a national voter list and limit mail balloting. That directive also faces multiple legal challenges.

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Last fall, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., overseeing a separate challenge to the first election executive order by civil rights and Democratic Party-aligned groups blocked the government from taking steps to include the proof-of-citizenship requirement on the federal voter registration form. That judge later barred Trump’s defense secretary from requiring documentary proof of citizenship when military personnel register to vote or request ballots.

In an apparent nod to the difficulty of implementing a proof-of-citizen requirement by executive order, Trump is pushing legislation in the Republican-controlled Congress to create such a mandate. The SAVE America Act has passed the House but has stalled in the Senate, leading Trump to advocate for eliminating the filibuster that is blocking the legislation.

On Wednesday, he abruptly canceled the expected signing of a bipartisan housing bill, saying he would not sign legislation until Congress passes his proof of citizenship requirement for voting.

The president and many of his Republican allies have been promoting the narrative that voting by noncitizens is a major problem, when in fact it’s quite rare. The federal voter registration form already requires people to attest that they are U.S. citizens. Violating that is punishable as a felony that can lead to prison or deportation.

In another major voting case, the U.S. Supreme Court is due to issue an opinion soon on whether mail ballots must arrive by Election Day. That could immediately change the rules in 14 states that allow grace periods ranging from days to weeks if the ballots are postmarked by Election Day.

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Casper, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, is the chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

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Video: Mamdani Allies Sweep New York Primaries

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Video: Mamdani Allies Sweep New York Primaries

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Mamdani Allies Sweep New York Primaries

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s progressive coalition had a big night on Tuesday. Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez won their Democratic House primaries.

“I see a New York that we can all afford. I see a New York that truly invests in its babies, not bombs.” Reporter: “What’s the first thing you’re looking forward to doing in Congress?” “Well, tomorrow — thank you — I mean, tomorrow morning, you know, I’m going to be back at 26 Federal Plaza doing court watching, and we want to carry that into Congress as well.”

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s progressive coalition had a big night on Tuesday. Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez won their Democratic House primaries.

By Julie Yoon

June 24, 2026

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Appeals court allows Trump administration expanded use of speedy deportations

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Appeals court allows Trump administration expanded use of speedy deportations

A massive 826,780-square-foot warehouse sits illuminated Feb. 12, 2026, in the El Paso suburb of Socorro, Texas, that was recently purchased by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for $122.8 million.

Morgan Lee/AP


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Morgan Lee/AP

A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to resume carrying out speedy deportations of undocumented migrants throughout the United States, not just near the border.

A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out a lower court decision that temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s expanded use of expedited removal. The ruling was a big victory for the Republican administration, which views the expansion of so-called expedited removal as a key tool for carrying out its mass deportation policy.

Expedited removal — quick deportation without a chance to appear before a judge — has previously been applied to migrants arriving by sea or caught at or near the border shortly after crossing.

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In January, Trump expanded its use to undocumented migrants all over the United States. Immigration agents began whisking migrants away from courthouses where they had gone for immigration proceedings and then removing them from the country within days.

“The Trump administration’s push for fast-track deportations will subject people to an unfair and error-prone system,” Anand Balakrishnan, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement.

Balakrishnan represented plaintiffs in arguments before the appellate panel and said its ruling “undermines the fundamental principle that people receive due process when the government seeks to deport them.”

DC Circuit Judge Justin R. Walker, one of the judges on the panel, said the plaintiffs had not shown the expanded use of expedited removal violated due process rights. Immigrants received notice of removal proceedings and were given a chance to respond, he wrote in his opinion.

Walker and the second judge in the majority, Neomi Rao, were appointed by Trump. The third judge on the panel was appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat.

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Walker said there was no requirement that the administration inform immigrants that they can avoid expedited removal if they can show they have been in the United States for more than two years.

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