All over the world people were cut off from social and business connections. The outage revealed how dependent the world has become on big tech and social media.

  Facebook said the cause was changes in its underlying internet infrastructure that coordinates traffic between its data centers. The outage cascaded through the data centers, “bringing our services to a halt,” the company said.

  The NY Times reports that, “Worldwide, 2.76 billion people on average used at least one Facebook product a day this June, according to the company’s statistics. WhatsApp, which Facebook purchased in 2014, has been downloaded nearly six billion times since the beginning of that year, according to estimates from the data firm Sensor Tower.”

The Outer Limits: President Biden yesterday described Republican efforts to block raising the national debt limit as “reckless” and “disgraceful.” He said that defaulting on the debt later this month would be “a self-inflicted wound that takes our economy over a cliff.”

  The debt ceiling controls the amount of money the government can borrow to pay  the basic bills including Social Security and military salaries. Congressional Republicans routinely approve of raising the debt ceiling when they have a Republican president, but threaten to block it as a weapon against a Democrat.

  Behind it all is the Snively Whiplash of American politics, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who would bring the country to its knees to cripple a Democratic president.

  “I think quite frankly it’s hypocritical, dangerous and disgraceful,” Biden said.

  “It starts with a simple truth: The United States is a nation that pays its bills and always has,” the President said. “If we’re going to make good on what has already been approved by previous Congresses, and previous presidents and parties, we have to pay for it.”

Pandora’s Box: Millions of  documents leaked to an international consortium of journalists have revealed how the world’s rich and powerful stash and hide their often ill-gotten wealth.

  They have been dubbed “the Pandora Papers.”The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists say they have uncovered financial secrets of 35 current and former world leaders, more than 330 politicians and public officials in 91 countries and territories, and “a global lineup of fugitives, con artists and murderers.”

The documents expose dealings of the King of Jordan, the presidents of Ukraine, Kenya and Ecuador, the prime minister of the Czech Republic and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. 

  The ICIJ says, “The leaked records reveal that many of the power players who could help  bring an end to the offshore system instead benefit from it – stashing assets in covert companies and trusts while their governments do little to slow a global stream of illicit money that enriches criminals and impoverishes nations.”

Some specific examples they cite:

• A $22 million chateau in the French Riviera – replete with a cinema and two swimming pools – purchased through offshore companies by the Czech Republic’s populist prime minister, a billionaire who has railed against the corruption of economic and political elites.
• More than $13 million tucked in a secrecy-shaded trust in the Great Plains of the United States by a scion of one of Guatemala’s most powerful families, a dynasty that controls a soap and lipsticks conglomerate that’s been accused of harming workers and the earth.
• Three beachfront mansions in Malibu purchased through three offshore companies for $68 million by the King of Jordan in the years after Jordanians filled the streets during Arab Spring to protest joblessness and corruption.

The Spin Rack: Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang  announced yesterday that he is “breaking up” with the Democratic Party and has registered as an independent. “I believe I can have a greater impact this way,” he said. — 

A powerful Hollywood union, the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE), which includes camera crews, prop masters, hair dressers and other craft workers, say they are being worked to death and have voted to strike. A strike by the union’s 50,000 members would be the biggest Hollywood strike since World War II. — A Russian actress, a director, and their professional Russian astronaut guide launched on a Russian rocket toward the International Space Station to shoot scenes for the first feature-length film shot partially in space. — Actor William Shatner, known for playing Captain Kirk in the “Star Trek” television and film series and being the Priceline pitch man,  plans to go to space October 12th on the tourist rocket developed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The 90-year-old Shatner would be the oldest person to fly to space. 

Dialed Out: Former NBC and CBS anchorwoman Katie Couric had been scheduled to promote her new book on “CBS This Morning” until CBS execs actually read the book that trashes just about everyone in the industry except, of course, Couric herself, the one-time giggle girl of morning television. 

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