Advertising and Donations - advertising-newsandtimes.comDoctors in the UK have announced the birth of eight healthy babies after performing a groundbreaking procedure that creates IVF embryos with DNA from three people. Ian Sample tells Madeleine Finlay about the life-threatening genetic disorders that the technique appears to prevent, and Prof Sir Doug Turnbull describes the 25-year journey to achieving the breakthrough
Clips: Sky News
Eight healthy babies born after IVF using DNA from three people
Archives reveal political manoeuvring to ensure DUP’s inclusion in 2004 Remembrance Sunday ceremony
Tony Blair’s government altered the rules on party leaders laying wreaths at the Cenotaph to keep unionists onboard with Northern Ireland’s peace process, newly released files show.
The decision was taken in the run-up to the Remembrance Sunday ceremony in 2004 to change rules drawn up in 1984 that meant leaders of parties who won at least six seats at the previous general election could lay a wreath.
Hundreds of Alaska Airlines flights and thousands of passengers’ travel plans were disrupted over the weekend and well into Monday following a “significant IT outage” that resulted in the grounding of planes for about three hours.
The airline has since resumed flights, but the company said in a statement late Monday that the effects of the grounding could result in possible additional disruptions as well as delays. Travelers have reported waiting for hours in ticketing queues and sleeping in airports because of the outage.
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“We appreciate the patience of our guests whose travel plans have been disrupted. We’re working to get them to their destinations as quickly as we can,” the airline said in its statement.
Here’s what to know.
Flights were grounded at 8 p.m. PT on July 20 after the outage. Alaska Airlines said a “critical piece of multi-redundant hardware,” which was manufactured by a third party, suddenly failed. The unexpected failure affected the airlines’ systems, requiring the ground stop. The stop was lifted at 11 p.m. PT, Sunday.
The Seattle-based airline assured that the IT outage is not a cybersecurity event and is “not related to any other current events”—including the recent worldwide Microsoft hack. It also said the safety of its flights remain unaffected.
Since Sunday, the airline cancelled more than 200 flights, with 116 cancellations on Monday—affecting some 15,600 passengers.
The airline advised passengers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
Alaska Airlines said it offers a “flexible travel policy” for those who wish to change or cancel their flights. According to its website, Alaska Airlines will provide hotel accommodations, arrange ground transport, and distribute meal vouchers for those affected by the outage. It may also help arrange flights for another air carrier to the passenger’s destination.
These IT outage-related measures apply only to tickets purchased on or before July 20, with original travel dates between the 20th and the 23rd. New travel dates are expected to be from Monday, July 21, until July 28.
Tech-related flight disruptions are common, though they are usually resolved in hours. Many airlines have long relied on aging computer systems, and the aviation industry has been criticized for failing to modernize swiftly.
Last year, a massive Microsoft IT outage caused the grounding of flights worldwide.
In January 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of all departing flights nationwide for 90 minutes because of a computer issue that prevented airports from updating safety notices that help warn pilots of potential flight hazards. The FAA found no evidence of a cyberattack, instead tracing the issue to a corrupt file.
And in December 2022, Southwest Airlines cancelled thousands of its flights over more than two weeks, stranding more than 2 million travelers at the height of the holiday season. The airline’s operations were stymied by a winter storm, but the issue snowballed after the storm overwhelmed its crew-rescheduling system.