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Convenient Connections To Even More Exciting Destinations. Go Further.

Amtrak San Joaquins Fresno county is the heart of California, home to a diverse community, and once you’re here, it’s easy to see why. From thrilling outdoor adventures to the heartland of farm-to-fork dining.

capitol corridor & amtrak san joaquins America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital features new restaurants, plentiful farmers markets, home-grown breweries, colorful street murals, Gold Rush-era family attractions, or a sunset walk along the river.

San Luis Obispo

pacific surfliner & capitol corridor Spend time in nature hiking or biking, visit local landmarks like Bubblegum Alley, or browse boutique shops in downtown—San Luis Obispo has something for everyone.

amtrak san joaquins With iconic waterfalls, giant sequoias and awe-inspiring cliffs, Yosemite National Park is one of the most beautiful parks in the country.

San Francisco

capitol corridor & amtrak san joaquins Awe at San Francisco’s most famous landmarks such as, The Golden Gate Bridge, The Palace of Fine Arts, Alcatraz, Fisherman’s Wharf, hop on a cable car, and enjoy the endless food options.

capitol corridor Lake Tahoe offers a wide variety of pretty epic vacation experiences year round, including skiing and winter sports in colder months and boating and beach activities in summer.

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How will the new Stuart Brightline station help travelers to South Florida and Orlando?

Riding Brightline to South Florida and Orlando already is a reality. But to make the trip, Treasure Coast residents first need to drive to West Palm Beach to hop on the train.

In about two years, however, they'll be able to board the higher-speed train in Stuart. That's when a $60 million Brightline station is expected to open. Brightline announced March 4 that Stuart would get the station.

At least two northbound and southbound trains daily will stop in Stuart once the station is open, the railroad has said.

With the anticipation building, how much more convenient, and less expensive, will it be to ride Brightline from Stuart than traveling first to West Palm Beach ... or just driving to your ultimate destination?

Is it more convenient now to drive or take Brightline?

Depending on where you live, the answer varies. And once the Stuart station is open and you’re looking to travel to Orlando or South Florida, it still will depend on where you live whether Brightline will be worth the time and cost.

Indian River County is the farthest from Stuart, with Sebastian more than an hour's drive.

Here how long it would take you to drive to the Stuart Brightline station from area downtowns:

• Vero Beach: 1 hour and 1 minute
• Fort Pierce: 40 minutes
• Port St. Lucie: 23 minutes

Local stops in Stuart won't be included in Brightline schedules until the new station is nearing completion, a spokesperson said, but TCPalm looked to the nearest Brightline station, in West Palm Beach, as a point of reference for travel times and estimated costs.

In addition to time on the train, riders will incur costs for gas on top of your ticket price to reach your destination from West Palm Beach. Tickets from West Palm Beach to any other destination vary from $10 to $234 because Brightline uses dynamic pricing, which fluctuates based on customer demand.

Here’s average travel time from Treasure Coast downtowns to the West Palm Beach station:

• Vero Beach: 1 hour and 22 minutes
• Fort Pierce: 1 hour and 10 minutes
• Port St. Lucie: 49 minutes
• Stuart: 48 minutes

Here's how long it would take you to drive to different destinations, compared to travel time on Brightline:

• Brightline travel time from West Palm Beach: 2 hours and 12 minutes
• From Vero Beach: 1 hour and 32 minutes
• From Fort Pierce: 1 hour and 45 minutes
• From Port St. Lucie: 1 hour and 42 minutes
• From Stuart: 2 hours and 5 minutes
• Brightline travel time: 22 minutes
• From Vero Beach: 1 hour and 41 minutes
• From Fort Pierce: 1 hour and 28 minutes
• From Port St. Lucie: 1 hour and 12 minutes
• From Stuart: 1 hour and 5 minutes

Fort Lauderdale

• Brightline travel time: 35 to 40 minutes
• From Vero Beach: 1 hour and 56 minutes
• From Fort Pierce: 1 hour and 43 minutes
• From Port St. Lucie: 1 hour and 31 minutes
• From Stuart: 1 hour and 18 minutes
• Brightline travel time: 51 to 56 minutes
• From Vero Beach: 2 hours and 5 minutes
• From Fort Pierce: 1 hour and 52 minutes
• From Port St. Lucie: 1 hour and 41 minutes
• From Stuart: 1 hour and 33 minutes

Miami Central

• Brightline travel time: 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes
• From Vero Beach: 2 hours and 15 minutes
• From Fort Pierce: 2 hours and 5 minutes
• From Port St. Lucie: 1 hour and 50 minutes
• From Stuart: 1 hour and 42 minutes

What will the same distances and times be from the Stuart station?

Brightline’s Stuart station will be 40 miles north of the West Palm Beach station. Here are times and distances on Brightline from Stuart to other destinations along the Brightline corridor:

• Aventura: 2 hours and 9 minutes, or 93 miles
• Boca Raton: 1 hour and 21 minutes, or 63 miles
• Fort Lauderdale: 1 hour and 46 minutes, or 82 miles
• Miami Central: 2 hours and 19 minutes, or 105 miles
• Orlando: 2 hours and 4 minutes, or 131 miles
• West Palm Beach: 56 minutes

Where will the Martin County Brightline station be?

Brightline in March announced downtown Stuart as the site of its next station. It will be built on 2.35 acres at 500 S.E. Flagler Ave., opposite the Martin County Courthouse.

Groundbreaking on the station is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year, and it is expected to open in the second half of 2026, according to a the city of Stuart.

More: Brightline picks location for a Treasure Coast station. Find out where and when it'll open

More: Brightline train doesn’t stop yet in Treasure Coast, but shows unique view of my hometown

“The addition of a Brightline station will transform Stuart into a hub of modern transportation, fostering connectivity and economic prosperity,” said Stuart Commissioner Troy McDonald in a March 4 statement.

Among benefits of the new station, according to Stuart spokeswoman Misti Guertin, will be new employment opportunities; additional parking; increased connectivity to Orlando, South Florida and eventually Tampa; and a boost in tourism.

Gianna Montesano  is TCPalm’s trending reporter. You can contact her at  [email protected] , 772-409-1429, or follow her on X (formerly Twitter)  @gonthescene .

Olympics | US women’s basketball team arrives at…

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Olympics | US women’s basketball team arrives at Olympics via train from London

This was the first time that the americans had taken a train to arrive to the olympics..

VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France (AP) — Brittney Griner settled into her seat on the Eurostar train and put on her headphones to watch “Vikings” — one of her favorite TV shows — during the 90-minute trip to France from London.

It was an escape to help her forget her last time on a train. That occurred in 2022 when she  was headed to a Russian prison  after being sentenced to nine years in jail for drug possession and smuggling.

“Walking up to the train I was fine,” Griner told The Associated Press. “When I sat down and looked out the window I was like, ‘Damn, last time I was here I was on my way to prison.’ Anxiety started to heighten up. Then I realized I was good, there were no bars. I’m going to win gold.”

Griner turned to Netflix to calm her mind during a simple commute with her U.S. teammates to the  Paris Olympics .

“Everything was cool,” she said.

Griner and her U.S. teammates were commuters on Thursday, traveling to the Olympics via train. The Associated Press tagged along for the trip.

The U.S. had special accommodations, just like the men’s team did for its train travel on Wednesday. The women’s team arrived at the London station an hour before departure, and the group was whisked through passport control.

National team director Briana Weiss collected the passport of each player and coach and put them in a red bag to hold for the rest of the trip. She first collected the passports once the players got off the plane in London, and she gave them back to each member of the traveling party before they got to the train station.

It’s a practice the U.S. has done for years so that no one potentially would lose their passport.

The players then were escorted to a private lounge area before going down to the train.

Following a quick photo op at the Saint Pancras station with a golden basketball, the Americans boarded their private car at the front of the train.

Players used the 90-minute trip to watch movies, have a quick bite to eat or catch a nap. They mostly kept to themselves.

The coaching staff spent the time watching game-video.

The team was kept away from the public except for a quick few seconds when the players and coaches were heading out of the lounge and going to the train. They exited from their car at the Lille station before everyone else did. As they walked toward the escalator out of the building, some of the passengers held up their phones to take pictures of the players through the windows of the train cars.

When the team got out of the station, the group got into a waiting bus for a trip to the arena for practice. The U.S. was set to head down to Paris on another train after practice was done.

“They wanted to make the travel as easy as possible for us and this was the best way,” U.S. guard Sabrina Ionescu said. “Everything so far has been great. I kind of like trains. My family said they wanted to go to London on one of the off days so I was testing this out for them as well. It seems like a really easy way to travel.”

This was the first time that the Americans had taken a train to arrive to the Olympics. While it was something new for the U.S., Jewell Loyd said it’s a common practice when playing overseas in the winter.

“We do it all the time,” she said. “It’s just an easy way to get around with those teams.”

The U.S. women played an exhibition game in London on Tuesday night against Germany, and the train was the quickest and best option to get to Lille for pool play. The U.S. spent Wednesday sightseeing around London on a double-decker bus.

While the players traveled via train on Thursday, their bags were sent to their Paris hotel Tuesday night after the game against Germany. Over 600 bags belonging to the men’s and women’s teams as well as their guests were driven to Paris in two 26-foot trucks.

The bags would be waiting for the players and their guests when they arrived in their hotel rooms late Thursday night.

An additional truck went to Lille with training supplies and other items needed for practice.

The Americans play Japan in their Olympic opener on Monday night.

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More in Olympics

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Olympics | Paris Olympics: U.S. women’s soccer opens with shutout of Zambia

Olympics | Jill Biden meets with US Olympic athletes in Paris — and even helps with a relay drill

Olympics | Argentine President Milei travels to France to meet Macron after outcry over racist soccer chants

Protests against Israeli leader’s DC visit block off Union Station on top of slew of road closures

Thomas Robertson | [email protected] Abigail Constantino | [email protected]

July 24, 2024, 6:12 PM

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As closures change, listen live to WTOP for the latest traffic updates on the 8s.

Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered around D.C.’s Union Station on Wednesday afternoon amid Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the District for a speech before Congress, leading police to block off most entrances to the station.

The crowd set fires, defaced monuments in the area and scuffled with police, according to WTOP reporters who were at the scene.

Virginia Railway Express said in a post on X that Amtrak Police closed every entrance to the station except the entrance on the west side and that passengers were required to show their paper or mobile train tickets to gain access to the station.

ATTENTION UNION STATION PASSENGERS: Amtrak police have closed every entrance to the station except the entrance on the west side (Metrorail/First Street). Passengers will be required to show their paper or mobile train tickets to gain access to Union Station today. pic.twitter.com/JROIrsyM5h — Virginia Railway Express (@VaRailExpress) July 24, 2024

Protesters were gathered at Columbus Circle just outside Union Station, and WTOP’s Mike Murillo reported from the scene that they were defacing monuments and statues there with red and green paint — colors on the Palestinian flag. Demonstrators were painting messages such as “Free Gaza” and “Hamas is comin” on the monuments.

Around 3:20 p.m., U.S. Park Police posted on X that protesters were engaged in criminal activity and confronting law enforcement at Columbus Circle. About 20 minutes later, USPP said the permit for the gathering had been revoked and the area should be cleared.

WTOP’s Nick Iannelli, who was also reporting from the scene, said many of the protesters had been cleared out by around 4:20 p.m.

“The smoke has literally cleared. Protesters were starting fires and I’m actually looking at a charred shopping cart with a flame still going. So they had started fires here and the smoke has cleared and you look around, and the statues outside Union Station are absolutely covered with profane graffiti. There’s trash littered everywhere.”

Iannelli reported that police arrested some demonstrators, and as that was happening, a dense crowd formed and began chanting, “Let them go! Let them go!”

“It is just locked down, a really intense atmosphere with all the security. And there were those arrests and there was that heightened moment, an uneasy moment, with a lot of people surrounding just a handful of police officers as they were making those arrests. But now, as I say, the smoke has cleared and it’s a complete mess outside Union Station.”

• Israel’s Netanyahu walks political tightrope on Washington trip following Biden’s exit from race

The following street closures are in effect as of Wednesday, July 24 until further notice :

• 3300-3400 blocks of 39th Street NW between Newark and Macomb streets
• 3800-3900 blocks of Macomb Street NW between Idaho and Massachusetts avenues

Posted closures during Netanyahu’s visit

Earlier, D.C. police said that a “dignitary visit” would close some roads and restrict parking in the District for about week. Here’s what you need to know.

The closures started on Sunday and are expected to last through Saturday, July 27.

The following streets are posted as Emergency No Parking through Saturday, July 27 at 3 p.m.:

• Virginia Avenue NW from Rock Creek Parkway to New Hampshire Avenue
• Jamal Khashoggi Way from Virginia Avenue to F Street NW
• F Street NW from Rock Creek Parkway to 25th Street
• 27th Street NW from Virginia Avenue to K Street
• 2600 block of I Street NW

The following streets will be closed to vehicle traffic on Sunday, July 21 starting at 10 p.m. through Friday, July 26 at 6 a.m.:

• Rock Creek Parkway NW between Virginia Avenue and the Potomac River Freeway southbound
• Virginia Avenue NW from Rock Creek Parkway to New Hampshire Avenue (eastbound lanes)
• Jamal Khashoggi Way (southbound lanes) between Virginia Avenue and F Street NW
• 27th Street ramp from northbound Potomac River Freeway

Traffic traveling south on Rock Creek Parkway will be diverted east on I Street from Virginia Avenue NW to Potomac River Freeway. Westbound traffic on Virginia Avenue NW will be able to turn north on Rock Creek Parkway.

All traffic from Ohio Drive, SW will be diverted north on Potomac River Freeway.

The following streets in the area of the U.S. Capitol will be posted as Emergency No Parking on Wednesday, July 24 at 5 a.m. through 6 p.m.:

• Pennsylvania Avenue NW between 7th and 3rd streets
• Constitution Avenue NW between 15th and 3rd streets
• Independence Avenue SW between 14th and 3rd streets
• Maryland Avenue SW between Independence Avenue and 3rd Street
• 3rd Street between Constitution Avenue NW and Independence Avenue, SW
• 7th Street between Pennsylvania Avenue NW and Independence Avenue, SW
• Jefferson Drive NW between 3rd and 7th streets
• Madison Drive NW between 3rd and 7th streets

The following street will be closed to traffic on Wednesday, July 24 at 5 a.m. through 6 p.m.:

• Pennsylvania Avenue, NW between Constitution Avenue and 3rd Street

Due to First Amendment activity, plan for intermittent street closures and traffic delays, D.C. police said. Police are advising drivers to consider alternative routes.

Motorists can access businesses and residences around the Watergate Hotel in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood through Jamal Khashoggi Way and 25th Street NW and 27th Street and Virginia Avenue NW.

Residents can access the Watergate Hotel on foot by 27th Street and Virginia Avenue NW, 25th Street and Jamal Khashoggi Way NW and 25th Street and F Street NW.

Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here .

© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Thomas Robertson is an Associate Producer and Web Writer/Editor at WTOP. After graduating in 2019 from James Madison University, Thomas moved away from Virginia for the first time in his life to cover the local government beat for a small daily newspaper in Zanesville, Ohio.

Abigail Constantino started her journalism career writing for a local newspaper in Fairfax County, Virginia. She is a graduate of American University and The George Washington University.

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Photo Appears to Capture Path of Bullet Used in Assassination Attempt

Michael Harrigan, a retired F.B.I. special agent, said the image captured by Doug Mills, a New York Times photographer, seems to show a bullet streaking past former President Donald J. Trump.

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By John Ismay

Reporting from Washington

• Published July 14, 2024 Updated July 15, 2024

Follow the latest news on the Trump assassination attempt .

In documenting the Pennsylvania campaign rally on Saturday afternoon that turned into an attempt on a former president’s life, Doug Mills, a veteran New York Times photographer, appeared to capture the image of a bullet streaking past former President Donald J. Trump’s head.

That is the assessment of Michael Harrigan, a retired F.B.I. special agent who spent 22 years in the bureau.

“It absolutely could be showing the displacement of air due to a projectile,” Mr. Harrigan said in an interview on Saturday night after reviewing the high-resolution images that Mr. Mills filed from the rally. “The angle seems a bit low to have passed through his ear, but not impossible if the gunman fired multiple rounds.”

Simple ballistic math showed that capturing a bullet as Mr. Mills likely did in a photo was possible, Mr. Harrigan said.

Mr. Mills was using a Sony digital camera capable of capturing images at up to 30 frames per second. He took these photos with a shutter speed of 1/8,000th of a second — extremely fast by industry standards.

The other factor is the speed of the bullet from the firearm. On Saturday law enforcement authorities recovered an AR-15-type semiautomatic rifle at the scene from a deceased white man they believe was the gunman.

“If the gunman was firing an AR-15-style rifle, the .223-caliber or 5.56-millimeter bullets they use travel at roughly 3,200 feet per second when they leave the weapon’s muzzle,’’ Mr. Harrigan said. “And with a 1/8,000th of a second shutter speed, this would allow the bullet to travel approximately four-tenths of a foot while the shutter is open.”

“Most cameras used to capture images of bullets in flight are using extremely high speed specialty cameras not normally utilized for regular photography, so catching a bullet on a side trajectory as seen in that photo would be a one in a million shot and nearly impossible to catch even if one knew the bullet was coming,” he said.

In Mr. Harrigan’s last assignment, he led the bureau’s firearms training unit and currently works as a consultant in the firearms industry.

“Given the circumstances, if that’s not showing the bullet’s path through the air, I don’t know what else it would be,” he said.

John Ismay is a reporter covering the Pentagon for The Times. He served as an explosive ordnance disposal officer in the U.S. Navy. More about John Ismay

Our Coverage of the Trump Rally Shooting

The Investigation : F.B.I. officials told Congress that the 20-year-old gunman who tried to kill Donald Trump used his cellphone and other devices to search for images of Trump and President Biden .

Congress Forms Task Force : The top Republican and Democrat in the House have struck a deal to form a bipartisan task force  to lead congressional investigations into the attempted assassination.

Security Blind Spots : Even as investigators continue to examine what happened at the Trump rally, it is already clear that there were multiple missed opportunities to stop the gunman  before the situation turned deadly.

The Gunman : In interviews, former classmates of the suspect described him as intelligent but solitary , someone who tried to avoid teasing by fellow students.

Secret Service Director : Kimberly Cheatle  returned in 2022 to lead the agency she had served for nearly 30 years. Before her resignation, she faced grueling questions from lawmakers  about the adequacy of her agency’s preparation .

Mass IT outage hits airports, businesses and broadcasters around the world

Major airlines, medical facilities, businesses and police forces around the world were hit by a massive information technology glitch Friday, with Microsoft computers around the world showing " Blue Screens of Death ."

The cybersecurity company CrowdStrike said Friday that the outages were the result of a routine software update gone wrong, "not a security incident or cyberattack."

CrowdStrike, which provides cybersecurity services and software for many large corporations that use Microsoft systems, later issued a new software update that automatically fixed some computers. But others must be manually restarted and patched, causing huge delays.

Microsoft announced late Friday morning that its 365 apps and services had recovered, and CrowdStrike said a fix had been deployed early in the morning. But some frozen computers couldn’t receive CrowdStrike’s automatic update, leading to some of the problems lingering into the weekend.

Many flights were delayed as of Friday afternoon . Starbucks locations in New York had resumed normal wait times , despite its mobile order-ahead feature still not working.

The glitch brought chaos to a number of key institutions and businesses around the world that may take some time to clear up.

Many flights were grounded across the globe, and stores and broadcasters in several countries went offline. According to the aviation technology company FlightAware, the tech glitch was responsible for more than half of the U.S.'s 1,352 flight delays and cancellations before 8 a.m. ET on Friday.

Major carriers, including American Airlines , Delta Air Lines and United Airlines , all issued ground stops Friday morning citing communications issues. Passengers traveling to the United States from as far away as Japan had their flights canceled. Delta ordered a “global ground stop,”  said Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., a member of the House subcommittee on cybersecurity.

Follow live updates on the global tech outage

George Kurtz, president and CEO of CrowdStrike, said the problems could persist.

“It could be some time for some systems that just automatically won’t recover,” he told NBC’s “TODAY” show on Friday.

Kurtz said the company was “deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this,” adding the issue had been fixed on its end.

“Many of the customers are rebooting the system, and it’s coming up, and it’ll be operational because we fixed it on our end,” he said. “We’re just trying to sort out where the negative interaction was,” he said of the faulty update that affected Windows PCs.

Earlier, in a post on X , Kurtz said that the outages were due to a “defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.”

In Europe, Berlin’s Brandenburg Airport said there would be delays to passenger check-ins “because of a technical fault,” and Aena, which manages 46 airports in Spain, said “an incident in the computer system” could cause delays. Several budget airlines in South Korea reported technical problems and delays, The Associated Press said. Sydney Airport, one of Australia’s largest, said there would be delays.

Paris' airport authority said in a statement that while its systems were not affected ahead of next week's Olympic Games opening ceremony, "this situation has an impact on the operations of airlines at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly airports: delays in check-in, delays and temporary suspension of some flights," according to the AP.

The Paris Olympics organizing committee told Reuters that while the outage was slowing its operations, its ticket sales remained unaffected. Elsewhere in the world of sports, British soccer team Manchester United delayed a ticket release scheduled for Friday, blaming problems with Microsoft.

That was just one of many businesses affected across the United Kingdom, with train operators blaming IT outages for cancellations Friday morning and the London Stock Exchange saying that a “3rd party global technical issue” had prevented its regulatory news service from posting any new items.

The country’s National Health Service posted on X that “the NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with a [general practitioner] appointment and patient record system.” The NHS that the system’s emergency phone service was still operating.

In Israel, at least 15 major hospitals were affected, according to media there. However, most medical centers had either returned to normal operations or reverted to manual operations. The emergency line of the country’s ambulance service was also affected.

At 2:20 a.m. ET, Alaska State Troopers said that 911 and nonemergency phone numbers across the state were not working “due to a nationwide technology-related outage."

The glitch affected news outlets, too, including NBC News. Sky News, NBC News' British partner broadcaster, was temporarily unable to air live news. Broadcasters in Australia also reported problems.

In a blog posted late Friday afternoon , Kurtz wrote that CrowdStrike staffers would be on call over the weekend to help affected customers, and warned of hackers and scammers exploiting the situation.

“We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this," he said. "I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure that you’re engaging with official CrowdStrike representatives."

I cover early morning U.S. breaking news, everything from severe weather to crime. I'm based in London and have worked for American news outlets since 2013.

Kevin Collier is a reporter covering cybersecurity, privacy and technology policy for NBC News.

What we know about CrowdStrike’s update fail that’s causing global outages and travel chaos

A faulty software update issued by security giant CrowdStrike has resulted in a massive overnight outage that’s affected Windows computers around the world , disrupting businesses, airports, train stations, banks, broadcasters and the healthcare sector.

CrowdStrike said the outage was not caused by a cyberattack, but was the result of a “defect” in a software update for its flagship security product, Falcon Sensor. The defect caused any Windows computers that Falcon is installed on to crash without fully loading.

“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” said CrowdStrike in a statement on Friday . Some businesses and organizations are beginning to recover, but many expect the outages to drag on into the weekend or next week given the complexity of the fix. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz told NBC News that it may take “some time for some systems that just automatically won’t recover.” In a later tweet , Kurtz apologized for the disruption.

Here’s everything you need to know about the outages.

What happened?

Late Thursday into Friday, reports began to emerge of IT problems wherein Windows computers were getting stuck with the infamous “blue screen of death” — a bright blue error screen with a message that displays when Windows encounters a critical failure, crashes or cannot load.

The outages were first noticed in Australia early on Friday, and reports quickly came in from the rest of Asia and Europe as the regions began their day, as well as the United States.

Within a short time, CrowdStrike confirmed that a software update for Falcon had malfunctioned and was causing Windows computers that had the software installed to crash. Falcon lets CrowdStrike remotely analyze and check for malicious threats and malware on installed computers.

At around the same time, Microsoft reported a significant outage at one of its most used Azure cloud regions covering much of the central United States. A spokesperson for Microsoft told TechCrunch that its outage was unrelated to CrowdStrike’s incident .

Around Friday noon (Eastern time), Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella posted on X saying the company is aware of the CrowdStrike botched update and is “working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online.”

What is CrowdStrike and what does Falcon Sensor do?

CrowdStrike, founded in 2011, has quickly grown into a cybersecurity giant. Today the company provides software and services to 29,000 corporate customers, including around half of Fortune 500 companies, 43 out of 50 U.S. states and eight out of the top 10 tech firms, according to its website .

The company’s cybersecurity software, Falcon, is used by enterprises to manage security on millions of computers around the world. These businesses include large corporations, hospitals, transportation hubs and government departments. Most consumer devices do not run Falcon and are unaffected by this outage.

One of the company’s biggest recent claims to fame was when it caught a group of Russian government hackers breaking into the Democratic National Committee ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. CrowdStrike is also known for using memorable animal-themed names for the hacking groups it tracks based on their nationality, such as: Fancy Bear , believed to be part of Russia’s General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU; Cozy Bear , believed to be part of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR; Gothic Panda , believed to be a Chinese government group; and Charming Kitten , believed to be an Iranian state-backed group. The company even makes action figures to represent these groups, which it sells as swag .

CrowdStrike is so big it’s one of the sponsors of the Mercedes F1 team , and this year even aired a Super Bowl ad — a first for a cybersecurity company. 

Who are the outages affecting?

Practically anyone who during their everyday life interacts with a computer system running software from CrowdStrike is affected, even if the computer isn’t theirs. 

These devices include the cash registers at grocery stores, departure boards at airports and train stations, school computers, your work-issued laptops and desktops, airport check-in systems, airlines’ own ticketing and scheduling platforms, healthcare networks and many more. Because CrowdStrike’s software is so ubiquitous, the outages are causing chaos around the world in a variety of ways. A single affected Windows computer in a fleet of systems could be enough to disrupt the network. 

TechCrunch reporters around the world are seeing and experiencing outages, including at points of travel, doctors’ offices and online. Early on Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration put in effect a ground stop, effectively grounding flights across the United States, citing the disruption. It looks like so far the national Amtrak rail network is functioning as normal. 

What is the U.S. government doing so far?

Given that the problem stems from a company, there isn’t much that the U.S. federal government can do. According to a pool report, President Biden was briefed on the CrowdStrike outage, and “his team is in touch with CrowdStrike and impacted entities.” That’s in large part because the federal government is a customer of CrowdStrike and also affected.

Several federal agencies are affected by the incident, including the Department of Education , and Social Security Administration, which said Friday that it closed its offices as a result of the outage.

The pool report said Biden’s team is “engaged across the interagency to get sector by sector updates throughout the day and is standing by to provide assistance as needed.” 

In a separate tweet, Homeland Security said it was working with its U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA, CrowdStrike and Microsoft — as well as its federal, state, local and critical infrastructure partners — to “fully assess and address system outages.”

There will no doubt be questions for CrowdStrike (and to some extent Microsoft, whose unrelated outage also caused disruption overnight for its customers) from government and congressional investigators. 

For now, the immediate focus will be on the recovery of affected systems.

How do affected customers fix their Windows computers?

The major problem here is that CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor software malfunctioned, causing Windows machines to crash, and there’s no easy way to fix that. 

So far, CrowdStrike has issued a patch, and it has also detailed a workaround that could help affected systems function normally until it has a permanent solution. One option is for users to “reboot the [affected computer] to give it an opportunity to download the reverted channel file,” referring to the fixed file.

In a message to users , CrowdStrike detailed a few steps customers can take, one of which requires physical access to an affected system to remove the defective file. CrowdStrike says users should boot the computer into Safe Mode or Windows Recovery Environment, navigate to the CrowdStrike directory, and delete the faulty file “C-00000291*.sys.”

The wider problem with having to fix the file manually could be a major headache for companies and organizations with large numbers of computers, or Windows-powered servers in datacenters or locations that might be in another region, or an entirely different country.

CISA warns that malicious actors are ‘taking advantage’ of the outage

In a statement on Friday, CISA attributed the outages to the faulty CrowdStrike update and that the issue was not due to a cyberattack. CISA said that it was “working closely with CrowdStrike and federal, state, local, tribal and territorial partners, as well as critical infrastructure and international partners to assess impacts and support remediation efforts.”

CISA did note, however, that it has “observed threat actors taking advantage of this incident for phishing and other malicious activity.” The cybersecurity agency did not provide more specifics, but warned organizations to stay vigilant.

Malicious actors can and will exploit confusion and chaos to carry out cyberattacks on their own. Rachel Tobac, a social engineering expert and founder of cybersecurity firm SocialProof Security, said in a series of posts on X to “verify people are who they say they are before taking sensitive actions.”

“Criminals will attempt to use this IT outage to pretend to be IT to you or you to IT to steal access, passwords, codes, etc.,” Tobac said.

What do we know about misinformation so far?

It’s easy to understand why some might have thought that this outage was a cyberattack. Sudden outages, blue screens at airports, office computers filled with error messages, and chaos and confusion. As you might expect, a fair amount of misinformation is already flying around , even as social media sites incorrectly flag trending topics like “cyberattack.”

Remember to check official sources of news and information, and if something seems too good to be true, it might just well be.

TechCrunch will keep this report updated throughout the day.

TechCrunch’s Ram Iyer contributed reporting.

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