Cloudflare admits ‘we have let the Internet down again’ after outage hits major web services – as it happened

Technical problems at internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare today have taken a host of websites offline this morning.Cloudflare said shortly after 9am UK time that it “is investigating issues with Cloudflare Dashboard and related APIs [application programming interfaces – used when apps exchange data with each other].Cloudflare has also reported it has implemented a potential fix to the issue and is monitoring the results.But the outage has affected a number of websites and platforms, with reports of problems accessing LinkedIn, X, Canva – and even the DownDetector site used to monitor online service issues.Last month, an outage at Cloudflare made many websites inaccessible for about three hours

BP to scrap paid rest breaks and most bank holiday bonuses for forecourt staff

BP is ditching paid rest breaks and most bank holiday bonuses for 5,400 workers in its petrol forecourts as it attempts to offset a planned rise in the independent living wage.The company has told workers in its 310 company-run forecourts that it will be changing their benefits in February. Workers at a further 850 BP-branded forecourts run by partners are on different pay deals.BP is an accredited member of the Living Wage Foundation’s fair pay scheme, under which employers commit to pay staff an annually set wage to meet living costs.Hourly pay for BP’s affected workers will rise to a minimum of £13

Cloudflare apologises after latest outage takes down LinkedIn and Zoom

Cloudflare has apologised after an outage on Friday morning hit websites including LinkedIn, Zoom and Downdetector, the company’s second outage in less than a month.“Any outage of our systems is unacceptable, and we know we have let the internet down again,” it said in a blogpost, adding that it would release more information next week on how it aims to prevent these failures.The outage on Friday came after Cloudflare adjusted its firewall to protect customers from a widespread software vulnerability revealed earlier this week, and was not an attack, it said. Earlier, it said a separate issue had been reported with its application programming interfaces.The issue, which affected 28% of its traffic, lasted for half an hour and was resolved shortly after 9am GMT, it said

‘Urgent clarity’ sought over racial bias in UK police facial recognition technology

The UK’s data protection watchdog has asked the Home Office for “urgent clarity” over racial bias in police facial recognition technology before considering its next steps.The Home Office has admitted that the technology was “more likely to incorrectly include some demographic groups in its search results”, after testing by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) of its application within the police national database.The report revealed that the technology, which is intended to be used to catch serious offenders, is more likely to incorrectly match black and Asian people than their white counterparts.In a statement responding to the report, Emily Keaney, the deputy commissioner for the Information Commissioner’s Office, said the ICO had asked the Home Office “for urgent clarity on this matter” in order for the watchdog to “assess the situation and consider our next steps”.The next steps could include enforcement action, including issuing a legally binding order to stop using the technology or fines, as well as working with the Home Office and police to make improvements

Australia v England: Ashes second Test, day three – live

England gather on the boundary edge, the sun is beating down here in Brisbane, it is 29 degrees and quite humid. Hot enough for the pitch-side broadcasters to be sheltering under parasols.Ben Stokes and Joe Root share a giggle as they wait to enter the field of play. They look pretty relaxed but they’ll know deep down this is it.Pantomime boos ring out from the Gabbatroopers as England take the field, followed by throaty chears for Carey and Neser

Sale blow 14-0 lead to slump to home defeat by Glasgow in Champions Cup opener

Losing is in danger of becoming a habit for Sale after a stellar ­Glasgow side headed back north with a ­bonus-point win in this Champions Cup opener.Alex Sanderson’s hosts, beaten here by Exeter a week ago and already off the pace in their Prem campaign, let slip an early 14-0 lead to a Warriors team packed with some of Scotland’s finest talent.Franco Smith’s men, inspired by the captain, Kyle Steyn, and centre pairing Stafford McDowall and Sione Tuipulotu, showed their mettle to beat Sale in this competition for the second season running.Several of Sale’s England internationals – George Ford, Tom Roebuck, Bevan Rodd, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Joe Carpenter and Asher Opoku-Fordjour – were unavailable. But defeats on their home turf on the outskirts of Salford have been a rarity in recent seasons under Sanderson; now they have suffered two inside a week