SoylentNews

BBC:
British Airways (BA) computer systems that handles tickets and vacation of gates is not working. BA has cancelled all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick until 17:00 UTC because of computer problems.

A "major IT system failure that is causing very severe disruption to our flight operations worldwide", BA said. They apologized for the "global system outage" and said it was "working to resolve the the problem".

Heathrow Airport said it was "working closely" with BA to solve the issue. The problems mean parts of BA's website are unavailable and some travellers claimed they could not check in on the mobile app.

BA aircraft landing at Heathrow are unable to park up as outbound aircraft cannot vacate the gates, which has resulted in passengers being stuck on aircraft. Heathrow advised passengers to check the status of their flight before travelling to the airport.

BA staff in Heathrow's Terminal 5 were resorting to using white boards, according to passenger Gareth Wharton.

Delays have also been reported in Rome, Prague, Milan, Stockholm and Malaga due to the system failure. Philip Bloom said he had been waiting on board a Heathrow-bound flight at Belfast for two hours and added: "We haven't been told very much just that there is a worldwide computer system failure. "We were told that we couldn't even get on other flights because they are unable to see what flights we can be moved to."

The BBC's Phillip Norton is at Rome International airport, where he has been waiting to fly to London. He said BA staff were unable to say how long delays would be, telling him "all flights are grounded around the world". Alma Saffari is in Marseille waiting to get her flight back to Heathrow and said: "When we finally boarded the captain came out and told us their computer systems were down worldwide. "Eventually after sitting on the tarmac for 1 and a half hours we disembarked the plane. /../ Now we are sitting in the departure area outside the gate."

Ms Saffari, who is with her 13-month-old baby, said she had been given a voucher for food and drink.

The Sun:
There were reports of BA staff telling disgruntled passengers trying to get away for the Bank Holiday weekend that the company was under cyber attack but this has been denied by the airline. Passenger Jo Josson said: "Officials are telling us there has been a cyber attack against BA's systems. Even the tannoy is affected."

"It appears it is a cyber attack" said @British_Airways captain @Gatwick_Airport.

Londoner Terry Page, 28, was booked on a flight to Texas but was left stuck in a queue at Terminal 5 in Heathrow Airport for two hours and said "I tried to use their website to get a screenshot of my boarding pass - but the website isn't working either.

britishairways.com seems to work now at 17:01 UTC.

Anybody knows what OS and software they really run for this system?

Fight club: Russian spies seek EU recruits

Russian intelligence services are using martial arts clubs to recruit potential troublemakers in Germany and other EU countries, security experts have warned.

The number of clubs is higher than previously reported and the “sleeper cells” could stage violent provocations ahead of the upcoming German elections, they said.

[...] The martial arts clubs, which teach an offensive style called “systema”, all have “direct or indirect” links to the GRU military intelligence or FSB domestic intelligence services in Russia, according to Dmitrij Chmelnizki, a scholar of Russian espionage who lives in Berlin.

This is NOT about cooking at home or historical influences on cuisines; it's about profit, ownership, and wealth in a white supremacist culture.

White people are nearly 50% more likely than people of color (POC) to own a business in the state of Oregon. Ownership builds wealth in ways that employment does not. The racial wealth and small business lending gaps in the US are pronounced, which allows white folks to open new businesses more easily. These white-owned businesses hamper the ability for POC to run successful businesses of their own (cooking their own cuisines) by either consuming market share with their attempt at authenticity or by modifying foods to market to white palates. Their success further perpetuates the problems stated above. It's a cyclical pattern that will require intentional behavior change to break. If you've come here in anger, please read at least a couple of these articles before continuing to the list on the next tab below.

In the meat of the spreadsheet at the "Restaurants List" tab, we have

"Many people have asked for us to list alternatives owned by people of color (POC), so we have updated the list to include the nearest (in cuisine and distance) POC-owned restaurant to each of the appropriative restaurants. If you look at these two lists and you have visited more of the red than the green, please ask yourself why.

Note that the backgrounds of the people of color who own the listed restaurants do not necessarily match the cuisine they serve. We could have limited the list to only people selling their own cuisine, but we made the decision not to in order to make a point. If this seems like hypocrisy from the standards set for white-owned restaurants, you haven't understood why white appropriation is a problem.

White business owners wield economic and ""cultural capital"" advantages over POC business owners, so they are ""punching down"" by appropriating cuisines from people who are disadvantaged in comparison. A Vietnamese person opening a Japanese restaurant does not have the same impact as a non-Hispanic white person opening a Mexican restaurant. Healthy cultural exchange can and does occur when the playing field is relatively even, but appropriation is a demonstration of power that perpetuates inequities.

I think this double standard speaks for itself despite the rationalizing of the last paragraph. But is it real or a clever hoax?

The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to give Wikimedia a chance to legally challenge the NSA’s mass surveillance as being unconstitutional. The government has previously argued that the NSA’s Upstream warrantless spying is authorized under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. [...]

The ruling yesterday reversed a lower court’s ruling which found Wikimedia, which publishes the internet behemoth Wikipedia, couldn’t prove the NSA’s “Upstream” surveillance program was secretly monitoring its communications, vacuuming the communications right off the internet backbones – even with leaked Snowden documents showing Wikipedia as an NSA target.

[...] due to the sheer size of Wikimedia, the judges found that the NSA probably had seized at least some of their communications.

—Computerworld (hyperlinks in original)

“Wikimedia has plausibly alleged that its communications travel all of the roads that a communication can take, and that the NSA seizes all of the communications along at least one of those roads,” U.S. Circuit Judge Albert Diaz wrote. “Thus, at least at this stage of the litigation, Wikimedia has standing to sue for a violation of the Fourth Amendment. And, because Wikimedia has self-censored its speech and sometimes forgone electronic communications in response to Upstream surveillance, it also has standing to sue for a violation of the First Amendment.”

—Courthouse News Service

further reading:
Wikipedia article on Upstream
Wikipedia article on Albert Diaz

additional coverage:

• Just Security (opinion)
• New York Times
• Just Security
• EFF press release (EFF is one of the plaintiffs)
• Ars Technica
• The Hill
• Associated Press via The Telegraph (Macon, Georgia, USA)

previous stories:
US Spies Still Won't Tell Congress the Number of Americans Caught in Dragnet
Judge Tosses Wikimedia’s Anti-NSA Lawsuit Because Wikipedia It Isn’t Big Enough
Wikipedia's Lawsuit Against NSA Internet Vacuum has First Day in Court
Deeper Dive into EFF's Motion on Backbone Surveillance

I leggings verranno messi fuorilegge: sono ‘’atti osceni’’ in luogo pubblico translation "Leggings will be outlawed: they are "obscene acts" in a public place"

Machine translation:

"Leggings will be outlawed": the female chief of clothing may soon be subject to a restrictive rule of law. The reason? They are considered obscene and comparable to 'obscene acts in a public place'. If you think that the proposal comes from some country with deep Muslim religious fundamentalism, you are wrong: the bill comes from the US state of Montana.

Republican David Moore, in fact, has proposed legislation, the Billboard House Bill 365, which would like to ban "yoga pants" - so called because used by women to do yoga or gymnastics - as "indecent" clothing not to be worn in place Public because they would put too much emphasis on the side b. If passed, the law may also affect other garments that show the breasts or other parts of the provocative body.

[...] As the time for the interview neared, Gianforte came into the room. We exchanged pleasantries and made small talk about restaurants and Bozeman.

During that conversation, another man — who we now know is Ben Jacobs of The Guardian — walked into the room with a voice recorder, put it up to Gianforte's face and began asking if he had a response to the newly released Congressional Budget Office report on the American Health Care Act. Gianforte told him he would get to him later. Jacobs persisted with his question. Gianforte told him to talk to his press guy, Shane Scanlon.

At that point, Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him. Faith, Keith and I watched in disbelief as Gianforte then began punching the reporter.

—Fox News (archive link)

26 May 06:12 GMT update:

"When you make a mistake, you have to own up to it. That's the Montana way," Gianforte said. "Last night, I made a mistake, and I took an action that I can't take back, and I'm not proud of what happened. I should not have responded in the way that I did, and for that I am sorry."

"I should not have treated that reporter that way. And, for that, I'm sorry, Mr. Ben Jacobs," Gianforte said [...]

—Business Insider

additional coverage:

• The Guardian (see Youtube link for audio)
• NPR
• USA Today
• CNN
• The Virginian-Pilot

related stories:
FCC Guards Eject Reporter
Reporter Arrested for "Yelling Questions" at HHS Secretary Tom Price

It's Polyamorous Polysaturation — Unconventional Relationships Abound On TV

Listened to a bit of it on the radio, found the text version.

Huawei Matebook 2017 Launch Live Blog: Starts 2pm CEST (8am ET)

Huawei Launching Two New Clamshell Laptops: The MateBook X and the MateBook D

Huawei Launches the MateBook E 2-in-1: The Next Generation (compare to Surface Pro 5)

Or at the extreme end, would you only buy Purism? Or this thing?

The Guardian in UK reports of a serious incident at the Manchester Arena during a concert by Ariana Grande that occurred sometime around 2017-05-22 21:40 UTC. The Manchester Victoria railway station's services is blocked.

Fatalities have occurred. a huge bang is reported.

NBC News writes that there is 20 dead.

Evacuation chaos
Sound of the "bang" (sounds like a bomb)

British police says to Sky News that there is 19 fatalities and 50 injured. As people have shrapnel injuries, it's likely a bomb of that type.

US Officials says to Sky News that they suspect it's was a suicide bomber.

The explosion occurred in a public area outside the arena.
Ariana Grande is ok.

2017-05-23 06:30 UTC Sky News, reports 22 dead and 59 injured.

I'm sure there are uncertainties in the reporting and that all facts will not be clear for some time.

TD;LR: 2017-05-22 21:40 UTC, Manchester Arena in Britain, Suicide bomber with a nail (shrapnel) bomb explodes it right at the end of the concert in a public area next to the Arena. Results in 19 dead and 50 injured. Ariana Grande is ok.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-39993739

The Church of England's investment success has pushed it into the top ranks of the world's best performing funds of its type last year.

The fund made a 17.1% on its 2016 investments, more than double the 8.2% it made in 2016, according to the Church Commissioners annual report.

[...] "While this is only around 15% of the Church's overall income - most funding comes from the extraordinary generosity of parishioners - we are delighted to be able to play our part."

The Church's ethical investment policy dictates that all investments should be compatible with Christian values and "recommends against investment" in companies which make more than 3% of their income from pornography, 10% from military products and services, or 25% from other industries such as gambling, alcohol and high interest rate lenders.

However, in 2013 it emerged that the Church had invested indirectly in payday loan firm Wonga. It was a particular embarrassment for the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, who had pledged to try to put Wonga out of business by helping credit unions compete with it.