Connect with us

Published

on

Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott has announced he is dropping out of the 2024 race, saying voters have been really clear in telling him: “‘Not now’.”

The South Carolina senator’s departure shocked his own campaign staff.

Several told Sky’s US partner NBC News they had no prior warning and only found out he was ending his White House bid while watching his surprise announcement on TV.

Mr Scott entered the race in May with high hopes, with millions spent on his behalf by high-profile donors.

However, he and the rest of the Republican field have struggled in a race dominated by former president Donald Trump.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Republican rivals lock horns

“I love America more today than I did on 22 May,” Mr Scott told Fox News Channel’s Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy.

“But when I go back to Iowa, it will not be as a presidential candidate. I am suspending my campaign. I think the voters who are the most remarkable people on the planet have been really clear that they’re telling me, ‘Not now, Tim’.”

Read more:
Trump ahead of Biden in five key swing states, poll suggests
A ‘very close’ US election – what will decide it?
Historic mugshot: Trump booked on 13 election fraud charges

He is the second high-profile Republican to depart from the race in the last couple of weeks.

Former US vice president Mike Pence suspended his bid to become the next president after struggling to raise money and support for his campaign.

Mr Scott said he would not be making an endorsement of his remaining Republican rivals.

“The voters are really smart,” Mr Scott said. “The best way for me to be helpful is to not weigh in on who they should endorse.”

Read more US news:
Five service members killed after aircraft suffers ‘mishap’
‘Remarkable’ Titanic dinner menu sells at auction

Despite four criminal indictments and other legal challenges, Mr Trump continues to poll far ahead of his rivals.

Many in the party believe the race is effectively over, barring some stunning change of fortune.

Mr Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to news of Mr Scott’s exit.

The former president has been careful not to criticise the senator, leading some to consider Mr Scott a potential vice-presidential pick.

But Mr Scott appeared to rule out serving as vice president, saying the position “has never been on my to-do list for this campaign, and it’s certainly not there now”.

Continue Reading

US

What’s affected by internet outage – all we know so far

Published

on

By

What's affected by internet outage - all we know so far

Dozens of websites, banks and apps are being affected by a major internet outage. 

The problem, which started on Monday morning, appears to be related to an issue at Amazon Web Services (AWS).

As of 9.20am, there were more than 2,000 reports of the Amazon Web Services outage in the US alone, according to Downdetector, which monitors issues and outages in real-time.

Follow live updates here

On its service status page, the company said it was seeing “increased error rates” and delays with “multiple AWS services”.

Here’s what we know so far.

Pic: PA
Image:
Pic: PA

Pic: PA
Image:
Pic: PA

Pic: PA
Image:
Pic: PA

What has been affected?

Multiple banks, the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) website, mobile phone networks and video-chatting platform Zoom are among the websites having technical issues.

All Amazon products – including Prime Video and Amazon Music – have also been affected, as well as the main Amazon website.

Here’s a full list of what has been affected by the internet outage, according to Downdetector:

• Snapchat
• Ring
• Roblox
• Amazon Web Services
• Life360
• My Fitness Pal
• Amazon
• Xero
• Signal
• Canva
• Fortnite
• Blink Security
• Zoom
• HMRC
• Clash Royale
• Clash Of Clans
• Asana
• Wordle
• Slack
• Smartsheet
• Epic Games Store
• Duolingo
• Amazon Alexa
• Jira
• Vodafone
• Tidal
• Coinbase
• Atlassian
• IMDB
• Amazon Prime Video
• Pokemon Go
• BT
• Peloton
• EE
• Ancestry
• Square
• Playstation Network
• Eventbrite
• Amazon Music
• Sky
• Flickr
• Hay Day
• Rocket League
• Perplexity AI
• Dead By Daylight
• Bank Of Scotland
• Lloyds Bank
• Halifax

What has AWS said?

AWS confirmed it was suffering from “increased error rates and latencies” for multiple services.

What is Amazon Web Services?

Mickey Carroll

Science and technology reporter

Amazon Web Services was named as the cause of the problem by the chief executive of AI company Perplexity.

Aravind Srinivas posted on X saying: “Perplexity is down right now. The root cause is an AWS issue. We’re working on resolving it.”

AWS describes itself as “the world’s most comprehensive” cloud service.

It offers companies a virtual backbone, giving them access to servers, databases and storage without having to build their own infrastructure.

Millions of businesses are thought to use AWS, so when something goes wrong, it can have a huge impact. AWS hasn’t put out any information on the outage. Sky News has contacted the company for comment.

In a statement on its website, the company said: “We are actively engaged and working to both mitigate the issue and understand root cause,” an update on its website says.

“We will provide an update in 45 minutes, or sooner if we have additional information to share.”

The company is posting regular updates on the situation and said its engineers were “immediately engaged” as soon as they spotted the issue.

Concentrated in the US

ThousandEyes, a website that tracks the performance of local and wide area networks, servers and applications, shows many of the outages appear to be concentrated in the US.

A large portion is focused in Virginia, which is widely considered as the global capital for data centres.

Has something like this happened before?

Continue Reading

US

Donald Trump mocks ‘No Kings’ protests with AI video of himself dropping brown sludge on protesters from jet

Published

on

By

Donald Trump mocks 'No Kings' protests with AI video of himself dropping brown sludge on protesters from jet

Donald Trump has responded to so-called “No Kings” rallies with an AI video of himself in a fighter jet, pouring brown sludge over protesters.

Millions of people were expected to take part in the demonstrations this weekend – the second such gathering after an initial nationwide day of protest in June coinciding with the US president’s birthday.

The term “No Kings” reflects the belief by some that Mr Trump is behaving like a “king” and some in his administration are depicting him as a monarch.

A protester in costume as Donald Trump presents the president as a prisoner in chains in Seattle. Pic: AP
Image:
A protester in costume as Donald Trump presents the president as a prisoner in chains in Seattle. Pic: AP

One of the rallies in New York. Pic: Reuters
Image:
One of the rallies in New York. Pic: Reuters

On Sunday, the president shared the AI video on his social media platform, Truth Social.

In the clip, an AI-generated version of Mr Trump is wearing a crown and sitting in a jet with “King Trump” written across it, to the soundtrack of Kenny Loggins’ Danger Zone, from the film Top Gun.

The jet then drops thick brown sludge on to AI-generated protesters.

Supporters say the marches are a patriotic defence of free speech, while critics are calling them anti-American.

A large inflatable effigy of Mr Trump in Chicago. Pic: Reuters
Image:
A large inflatable effigy of Mr Trump in Chicago. Pic: Reuters

This protest took place in Washington DC. Pic: AP
Image:
This protest took place in Washington DC. Pic: AP

Mr Trump’s Republican Party has dismissed the demonstrations as “Hate America” rallies.

Many of the events featured marching bands, huge banners and signs, as well as effigies of the president and demonstrators wearing inflatable costumes.

Thousands gathered along the waterfront in Portland, Oregon. Pic: AP
Image:
Thousands gathered along the waterfront in Portland, Oregon. Pic: AP

Protesters at the Wyoming State Capitol got creative with their signs. Pic: Wyoming Tribune Eagle/AP
Image:
Protesters at the Wyoming State Capitol got creative with their signs. Pic: Wyoming Tribune Eagle/AP

The protests follow Mr Trump’s return to the White House and come against the backdrop of a government shutdown which has closed federal programmes and services.

There has also been criticism of what some see as an aggressive executive, confronting Congress and the courts, in ways that protest organisers believe are a slide toward authoritarianism.

This event in San Francisco was among thousands taking place across the US. Pic: Reuters
Image:
This event in San Francisco was among thousands taking place across the US. Pic: Reuters

A 'No Kings' sign, outside City Hall in Los Angeles. Pic: Reuters
Image:
A ‘No Kings’ sign, outside City Hall in Los Angeles. Pic: Reuters

So far, the atmosphere at most of the protests appears to have been largely energetic and upbeat, with protesters calling for accountability and protections for civil liberties.

Organisers said events would be peaceful – a direct response to Republican and Trump administration claims that the protests could be unsafe.

Continue Reading

US

US airstrike destroyed ‘drug-carrying submarine’, says Trump – as survivors repatriated

Published

on

By

US airstrike destroyed 'drug-carrying submarine', says Trump - as survivors repatriated

Two survivors of a US airstrike, targeting what Donald Trump has described as a “drug-carrying submarine” in the Caribbean, have been repatriated to their home countries.

The US president posted footage of Thursday’s operation, part of a recent military campaign targeting boats transporting drugs to America.

“It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“US intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics,” he added.

The US military staged a helicopter rescue for the survivors on Thursday after the strike on their semi-submersible
vessel, suspected of trafficking illegal narcotics. They were then transported to a US Navy warship.

Two other crew members on board were killed.

The semi-submersible vessel was struck by US forces on Thursday, leaving two dead and two survivors. Pic: @realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
Image:
The semi-submersible vessel was struck by US forces on Thursday, leaving two dead and two survivors. Pic: @realDonaldTrump/Truth Social

President Trump confirmed the survivors would be returned to their home countries of Colombia and Ecuador “for detention and prosecution”. Both countries subsequently confirmed they had been handed over.

More on Colombia

“America will not tolerate narcoterrorists trafficking illegal drugs, by land or by sea,” he added.

On Saturday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro posted on X: “We have received the Colombian detained on the narco submarine, we are happy he is alive and he will be processed according to the law.”

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Trump sends CIA into Venezuela and threatens land attack

Read more from Sky News:
Venezuela’s president pleads for peace
Is Trump planning to attack Venezuela?
Venezuela’s Nobel Peace Prize winner

The Trump administration has said previous strikes in the Caribbean have killed 27 people, raising concerns among some about the legality of the military operations.

The strikes also come against the backdrop of a US military buildup in the Caribbean that includes guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear submarine and around 6,500 troops as the US president escalates a standoff with the Venezuelan government.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Venezuelan president: ‘We don’t want a war’

On Wednesday, Mr Trump disclosed he had authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela, adding to speculation in Caracas that the US is attempting to topple Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Mr Maduro has denied any connection to drug smuggling and claimed the US boat strikes are a pretext for regime change, and violations of sovereignty and international law.

Continue Reading

Trending