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The US military has officially declared an end to the mission of its floating pier off the coast of the Gaza Strip that was apparently used to facilitate an Israeli massacre instead of delivering aid to the besieged territory.

Speaking at a news briefing on Wednesday, Navy Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, the deputy commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), claimed that the water dock had “achieved its intended effect to surge a very high volume of aid into Gaza”.

"The maritime surge mission involving the pier is complete. So there's no more need to use the pier," he added.

US President Joe Biden announced back in March the construction of the $230 million pier that involved 1,000 US soldiers and sailors. 

However, bad weather delayed the initial installment of the maritime corridor, and then in late May, broke it apart. Since then, the US military has detached the pier and moved it to the port of Ashdod.

As a result, the pier operated only 25 days and delivered supplies equivalent to just a couple of days’ worth of the aid that flowed into Gaza before Israel’s ongoing genocidal war.

Meanwhile, reports said it facilitated the Israeli massacre against the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza that killed at least 274 people and wounded nearly 700 others on June 8.

The ex-US aid director for the West Bank and Gaza, Dave Harden, said that the now-closed pier was “interesting in theory, but in practice, an absolute failure – and my concern is who will be held accountable?”

“What we have not seen is a robust opening of the crossings … I think this goes first to the Israelis, and second to the Americans,” he told Al Jazeera. “And in the meantime, the Gazans themselves continue to suffer. This was a tragedy compounding a tragedy."

Biden had already expressed disappointment in the temporary water dock, saying, “I was hopeful that would be more successful.”

Several congressmen had also criticized the Gaza pier for its cost and potential risk to US troops.

Furthermore, the Gaza government had condemned the US project as a publicity stunt “to beautify its ugly face.”

Similarly, aid groups had denounced the pier as a distraction, saying Washington should have instead put pressure on Israel to open Gaza crossings and allow humanitarian aid to enter the blockaded Palestinian territory.

“The US wanted to show that it was doing something to aid the humanitarian effort, and yet it wasn’t successful in pushing Israel to do the most obvious necessary thing — which is to allow full access via the land crossing, or allow access from Israeli and West Bank markets,” said Tania Hary, the executive director of Gisha, an Israeli rights group.

“So it put in this incredibly expensive, inefficient workaround that ended up proving to be a completely disastrous waste of money, and a colossal and embarrassing failure on top.”

Israel unleashed its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas resistance group carried out its historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the Tel Aviv regime has so far killed at least 38,794 Palestinians, mostly women, and children, in Gaza, and injured 89,166 others.

Microsoft has announced an investigation into the Azure cloud server outage in the US and other parts of the world.

The outage caused temporary grounding of flights of low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines in the US.

"Our systems are currently impacted by a Microsoft outage, which is also affecting other companies. During this time booking, check-in, access to your boarding pass, and some flights may be impacted. We appreciate your patience," the company said on X.

Now, the ground stop has been lifted, and the company is in the process of resuming flight operations.

In India, SpiceJet, IndiGo, Air India Express and Akasa Airlines also faced difficulties. Most of the passengers were unable to do their web checkin online.

"Due to infrastructure issues with our service provider, some of our online services, including booking, check-in and manage booking services will be temporarily unavailable," Akasa Airlines said in a statement.

"Our systems are currently impacted by a Microsoft outage, which is also affecting other companies. During this time, booking, check-in, access to your boarding pass, and some flights may be impacted. We appreciate your patience," said IndiGo on X.

"As our systems are impacted by an ongoing issue with Microsoft Azure, we are experiencing high volumes at contact centre. Please contact us only if your travel is within 24 hrs," added IndiGo.

"Global digital infrastructure issues with cloud services are temporarily impacting operations across multiple airlines, airports and other businesses globally. As a result, our website, reservation and airport check-in systems are also impacted. Please plan your travel and keep sufficient time in hand for airport procedures. We regret the inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding during this time," said Air India Express on X

Currently, the affected airlines are doing manual check-ins and boarding processes at the airports.

Down under, Sydney Airport in Australia is facing service outage. It has requested the passenger to leave home early to avoid delays.

"A global technical outage has impacted some airline operations and terminal services. Flights are currently arriving and departing however there may be some delays throughout the evening.   We have activated our contingency plans and deployed additional staff to our terminals.   If you're travelling today make sure you leave plenty of time to come to the airport and check with your airline regarding the status of your flight," Syndney Airport posted the message on X.

"CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that services numerous industries, was down across parts of the world Friday morning, halting news broadcasts and grounding flights," reported reported.

"I am aware of a large-scale technical outage affecting a number of companies and services across Australia this afternoon. Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies," said the office of Australia's National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuinness on X. 

Hong Kond Airport is facing IT service outage and has now switched to manual check-in and boarding processes.

Air France and Paris airports are also facing similar issues, reported Reuters. Add to that, Paris Olympic committee said that its IT operations have been impacted by a global cyber outage.

"We have activated contingency plans in order to continue operations," the organising committee said in a statement.

Taiwan's two major airlines, China Airlines and Eva Air, have been spared are unaffected.

Even Microsoft 365, which offers access to Word, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Teams, Intune, PowerBI, Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Defender, Viva Engage and other productivity tools has become inaccessible to clients around the world, including major cities across India.

The Microsoft 365 service health status reads-- "Users may be unable to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services".

Indian Government's statement 

“MEITY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) is in touch with Microsoft and its associates regarding the global outage. The reason for this outage has been identified and updates have been released to resolve the issue. CERT is issuing a technical advisory. NIC network is not affected,” said Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, Electronics & Information Technology, Government of Bharat. 

Computers with CrowdStrike cybersecurity applications are struck with Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) issue.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team has recommended user to follow the process shared by CrowdStrike on Reddit below:

Step 1: Boot Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment.

Step 2: Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory

Step 3: Locate the file matching “C-00000291*.sys” and delete it.

Step 4: Boot the host device normally. This should fix the BSoD problem. 

Bengaluru, Jul 19: The Karnataka government was taking all necessary measures towards rescue and relief of those affected by flooding and landslides caused by heavy downpour in parts of the state, where monsoon rains since June has been 22 per cent above normal, Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said on Friday.

The Minister was replying to a discussion in the Legislative Assembly on floods and landslides in parts of the state due to rains, amid BJP and JD(S) protest from the well of the House against alleged financial irregularities in a state-run corporation.

"The government will take all necessary measures. We had information since January about above normal rains this year and accordingly we have made necessary arrangements. Since June 1 so far normally 365 mm rains should have happened, but 447 mm rains have occurred which is 22 per cent above normal," Gowda said.

He said: "In the three coastal districts normally 1,537 mm rains should have happened but this time it was 1,858, which is 21 per cent above normal, and in the Malnad region normally it should have been 733 mm, but it is 802 mm, which is 9 per cent above normal."

"So far 29 care centres have been set up, where 2,332 people are taking shelter, and to carry out relief works all the districts have been provided a total of Rs 777.54 crore; if required, more funds will be given, there is no shortage of funds," he added.

From July 1 to 19 there has been 244 mm rains in the state and this is highest in 30-40 years, the Minister said, adding, in Malnad districts it is 544 mm and in coastal region 1,154 mm.

Noting that five platoons of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in six districts of coastal and Malnad regions, the Minister said they will be stationed for the entire monsoon season.

The government has identified gram panchayats that are vulnerable to floods, he said. 2,225 villages are mapped as vulnerable ones, under 1,247 gram panchayats, with 2,38,000 people.

"In each of these 1,247 gram panchayats a task force has been set up, and a taluk level officer has been appointed as nodal officer for each panchayat," he said. Funds have been allocated to each of these task forces to take up immediate relief work.

Blaming "unscientific work" by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the massive landslide that hit National Highway 66 near Shirur village of Ankola taluk in Uttara Kannada district on July 16, the Minister said, the Chief Secretary has spoken to NHAI to correct the "unscientific designs."

A tanker containing LPG had fallen into the river during the tragedy, he said. With the help of technical experts, controlled release of gas was done to avoid any possible explosion.

According to preliminary reports, about 371 hectare of agriculture crops and 351 hectare of horticulture crops have been damaged, the Minister said. More crops have been damaged in the last couple of days and reports are awaited. About 2,450 houses have been damaged, including some partially.

"Houses will be provided for those who lost houses," he said, adding, immediate relief will be provided for crop losses.

"About 60 percent of our dams are filled," Gowda said. "Total capacity of our dams is 895 tmcft; last year this time it was 243 tmcft, but this year 536 tmcft water storage is there."

Leader of Opposition R Ashoka alleged that no relief is being given and there are no funds with the government.

"None of the Ministers have gone to affected regions so far. The government has become bankrupt. The government is dead," he added.