There are exactly one hundred days to go until the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. On 6 February 2026, the global sporting event will take place at the Milano San Siro Olympic Stadium and will feature around…
Blog
-
Heathrow, NatWest and Minecraft among sites down
Imran Rahman-JonesTechnology reporter
Getty ImagesHeathrow, NatWest and Minecraft are among some of the sites and services experiencing problems amid a global Microsoft outage.
Outage tracker Downdetector showed thousands of reports of issues with a number of websites globally on Wednesday.
Microsoft said some users of Microsoft 365, which includes Outlook and Teams, might see delays.
The company’s Azure cloud computing platform, which underpins large parts of the internet, reported a “degradation of some services” at 1600 GMT.
It said this was due to “DNS issues” – the same root cause of the huge Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage last week.
Amazon says AWS is currently operating normally.
Other impacted sites in the UK include supermarket Asda and mobile phone operator O2 – while in the US, people have reported issues accessing the websites of coffee chain Starbucks and retailer Kroger.
Microsoft said business Microsoft 365 customers might see problems.
It said it had found parts of its infrastructure with connectivity issues, and was working to “reroute affected traffic to restore service health”.
It has started a thread on X with updates after some users reported they could not access the service status page.
Meanwhile, business at the Scottish Parliament has been suspended because of technical issues with the parliament’s online voting system.
A senior Scottish Parliament source told BBC News they believe the problems are related to the Microsoft outage.
Microsoft has been contacted for comment.
Azure’s crucial role online
On its service status page, Azure’s network infrastructure was showing as “critical” in every region in the world.
Exactly how much of the internet is impacted is unclear, but estimates typically put Microsoft Azure at around 20% of the global cloud market.
The firm said it believed the outage was a result of “an inadvertent configuration change”.
In other words, a behind-the-scenes system was changed, with unintended consequences.
Microsoft said it plans on fixing the problem by effectively replacing its service with a recent backup it knows was working properly.
But it could not give an estimate for how long this would take.
The concentration of cloud services into Microsoft, Amazon and Google means an outage like this “can cripple hundreds, if not thousands of applications and systems,” said Dr Saqib Kakvi, from Royal Holloway University.
“Due to cost of hosting web content, economic forces lead to consolidation of resources into a few very large players, but it is effectively putting all our eggs in one of three baskets.”
Continue Reading
-
Shreks appeal: why gen Zs are settling for plainer dates | Dating
Name: Shrekking.
Age: Shrek the book came out in 1990. Shrek the film came out in 2001 (and went on to become a major franchise). Shrek the verb is more recent.
I Shrek, you Shrek, he/she Shreks? Generally used in gerund form: Shrekking. Though…
Continue Reading
-
To Expand Gravitational Wave Astronomy, Astronomers Look to a Band That’s Mid
Gravitational wave telescopes work in a very different way than optical or radio telescopes, but they do have one thing in common: they are tuned to a specific range of frequencies.
With optical telescopes, we have detectors for…
Continue Reading
-
Federal shutdown could cost US economy up to $14 billion – Reuters
- Federal shutdown could cost US economy up to $14 billion Reuters
- Government shutdown could cost $14bn, congressional forecaster predicts – US politics live The Guardian
- U.S. Shutdown Could Push the Economy Toward a Recession by December Experts Caution Binance
- Chairman Arrington: Democrat Shutdown Already Costing Billions in Lost Economic Growth House Committee on the Budget (.gov)
- A Quantitative Analysis of the Effects of the Government Shutdown on the Economy Under Three Scenarios, as of October 29, 2025 Congressional Budget Office (.gov)
Continue Reading
-
YouTube adds automatic AI upscaling for low-res videos
YouTube is rolling out some updates aimed at making visuals look better on its TV apps, including automatic AI video upscaling. To begin with, YouTube plans to upscale videos that were uploaded in under 1080p to an HD resolution. It aims to…
Continue Reading
-
FDA Moves to Accelerate Biosimilar Development and Lower Drug Costs – fda.gov
- FDA Moves to Accelerate Biosimilar Development and Lower Drug Costs fda.gov
- US set to speed up approval for some generic drugs in blow to Big Pharma Financial Times
- What Impact will FDA’s ANDA Prioritization Pilot have on the Global Supply Chain? Pharmaceutical Executive
- US FDA plans to accelerate biosimilar approvals, FT reports Reuters
- FDA makes major move to reduce regulatory red tape for biosimilars Endpoints News
Continue Reading
-
FIF – PRS – Union Bank Albania (EFSD+2)
Understanding transition
Further information regarding the EBRD’s approach to measuring transition impact is available here.
Business opportunities
For business opportunities or procurement, contact the client company.
For business opportunities with the EBRD (not related to procurement) contact:
Tel: +44 20 7338 7168
Email: projectenquiries@ebrd.comFor state-sector projects, visit EBRD Procurement:
Tel: +44 20 7338 6794
Email: procurement@ebrd.comGeneral enquiries
Specific enquiries can be made using the EBRD Enquiries form.
Environmental and Social Policy (ESP)
The ESP and its associated Environmental and Social Requirements (ESRs) set out the ways in which the EBRD implements its commitment to promoting “environmentally sound and sustainable development”. The ESP and the ESRs include specific provisions for clients to comply with the applicable requirements of national laws on public information and consultation, and to establish a grievance mechanism to receive and facilitate resolution of stakeholders’ concerns and grievances, in particular, about the environmental and social (E&S) performance of the client and the project. Proportionate to the nature and scale of a project’s environmental and social risks and impacts, the EBRD also requires its clients to disclose information, as appropriate, about the risks and impacts of projects or to undertake meaningful consultation with stakeholders and consider and respond to their feedback.
More information on the EBRD’s practices in this regard is set out in the ESP.
Integrity and compliance
The EBRD’s Office of the Chief Compliance Officer (OCCO) promotes good governance and ensures that the highest standards of integrity are applied to all of the Bank’s activities in accordance with international best practice. Integrity due diligence is conducted on all Bank clients to ensure that projects do not present unacceptable integrity or reputational risks to the Bank. The EBRD believes that identifying and resolving issues in the project assessment and approval stages is the most effective means of ensuring the integrity of Bank transactions. OCCO plays a key role in these protective efforts andhelps to monitor integrity risks in projects post-investment.
OCCO is further responsible for investigating allegations of fraud, corruption and misconduct in EBRD-financed projects. Anyone, either within or outside the Bank, who suspects fraud or corruption should submit a written report to the Chief Compliance Officer by email to compliance@ebrd.com. OCCO will follow-up all matters reported. It will review all matters reported. Reports can be made in any language of the Bank or of the Bank’s countries of operation. The information provided must be made in good faith.
Access to Information Policy (AIP)
The AIP, which entered into force on 1 January 2025, sets out how the EBRD discloses information and consults with its stakeholders to promote better awareness and understanding of its strategies, policies and operations. Please visit the Access to Information Policy page to find out what information is available from the EBRD website.
Specific requests for information can be made using the EBRD enquiries form.
Independent Project Accountability Mechanism (IPAM)
If efforts to address environmental, social or public disclosure concerns with the Client or the Bank are unsuccessful (for example, through the client’s project-level grievance mechanism or through direct engagement with Bank management), individuals and organisations may seek to address their concerns through the EBRD’s Independent Project Accountability Mechanism (IPAM).
IPAM independently reviews project issues that are believed to have caused (or to be likely to cause) harm. The purpose of the mechanism is: to support dialogue between project stakeholders to resolve environmental, social and public disclosure issues; to determine whether the Bank has complied with its Environmental and Social Policy or the project-specific provisions of its Access to Information Policy; and where applicable, to address any existing non-compliance with these policies, while preventing future non-compliance by the Bank.
Please visit the Independent Project Accountability Mechanism webpage to find out more about IPAM and its mandate and how to submit a Request for review. Alternatively, contact IPAM by email at ipam@ebrd.com for guidance and more information on IPAM and how to submit a request.
Continue Reading
