Facebook and Instagram logins restored after widespread outage

A technical issue caused widespread login issues for a few hours across Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Messenger platforms Tuesday.

Andy Stone, Meta’s head communications, acknowledged the issues on X, formerly known as Twitter, and said the company “resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”

Users reported being locked out of their Facebook accounts and feeds on the platform as well as Threads and Instagram were not refreshing. WhatsApp, which is also owned by Meta, appeared unaffected.

A senior official with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency told reporters Tuesday that the agency was “not aware of any specific election nexus nor any specific malicious cyberactivity nexus to the outage.”

Ala. lawmakers advance legislation to protect IVF providers

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Alabama lawmakers facing public pressure to restart in vitro fertilization services in the state advanced legislation to shield providers from the fallout of a court ruling that equated frozen embryos to children.

Committees in the state Senate and House on Tuesday approved identical bills that would protect providers from lawsuits and criminal prosecution for the “damage or death of an embryo” during IVF services. The state’s three major IVF providers paused services after the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling last month because of the sweeping liability concerns it raised.

Lawmakers are aiming to give final approval Wednesday and send the legislation to Gov. Kay Ivey to be signed into law. They have fast-tracked the immunity legislation as a proposed solution to get clinics back open as they weigh whether additional action is needed.

“The problem we are trying to solve right now is to get those families back on track to be moving forward as they try to have children,” said Rep. Terri Collins, sponsor of one of the bills.

Schiff, Garvey set to compete for California Senate seat

LOS ANGELES - Republican former baseball star Steve Garvey and Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff will compete in November for the U.S. Senate seat long held by the late Dianne Feinstein.

It’s a rare opportunity for the GOP to compete in a marquee statewide race in this Democratic stronghold.

The matchup also means that California won’t have a woman in the Senate for the first time in more than three decades.

Garvey celebrated with cheering supporters at a hotel in Palm Desert, his hometown, where he warned Schiff not to underestimate him despite the state’s Democratic tilt. He said he would run a campaign that would appeal across party lines, focusing on inflation, the state’s unchecked homeless crisis and rising crime rates in cities.

“They say in the general election that we’re going to strike out,” Garvey said. “Know this: It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”

Garvey, a former baseball MVP who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, was one of the top two vote-getters in Tuesday’s election along with Schiff.

Gaza cease-fire talks fail to achieve a breakthrough, Egypt says

CAIRO - Three days of negotiations with Hamas over a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages failed to achieve a breakthrough Tuesday, Egyptian officials said, less than a week before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the informal deadline for a deal.

The nearly five months of fighting left much of Gaza in ruins and created a worsening humanitarian catastrophe, with many, especially in the devastated northern region, scrambling for food to survive.

“We must get more aid into Gaza,” U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday. “There’s no excuse. None.”

Aid groups have said it has become nearly impossible to deliver supplies within most of Gaza because of the difficulty of coordinating with the Israeli military, the ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent weeks trying to broker an agreement in which Hamas would release up to 40 hostages in return for a six-week cease-fire, the release of some Palestinian prisoners and an major influx of aid to the isolated territory.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona says she won’t seek reelection

PHOENIX - Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona announced on Tuesday that she won’t run for a second term after her estrangement from the Democratic Party left her politically homeless and without a clear path to reelection.

Sinema’s announcement comes after Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan bill to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border and deliver military aid to Ukraine and Israel - a deal that Sinema spent months negotiating. She had hoped it would be a signature achievement addressing one of Washington’s most intractable challenges as well as a powerful endorsement for her increasingly lonely view that cross-party deal making remains possible.

But in the end, Sinema’s border-security ambitions, and her career in Congress, were swallowed by the partisanship that has paralyzed Congress.

“I love Arizona and I am so proud of what we’ve delivered,” she said in a video posted to social media. “Because I choose civility, understanding, listening, working together to get stuff done, I will leave the Senate at the end of this year.”

Sinema’s decision avoids a three-way contest in one of the most closely watched 2024 Senate races. That hard-to-forecast scenario had spawned fierce debate among political operatives about whether one major party would benefit in the quest for the Senate majority. Most analysts agreed Sinema had faced significant, likely insurmountable hurdles if she had decided to run.

Regulator would cap credit card late fees at $8

WASHINGTON - The Biden administration announced a rule Tuesday to cap all credit card late fees, the latest effort in the White House push to end what it has called junk fees and a move that regulators say will save Americans up to $10 billion a year.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new regulations will set a ceiling of $8 for most credit card late fees or require banks to show why they should charge more than $8 for such a fee.

The rule would bring the average credit card late fee down from $32. The bureau estimates banks brought in roughly $14 billion in credit card late fees a year.

“In credit cards, like so many corners of the economy today, consumers are beset by junk fees and forced to navigate a market dominated by relatively few, powerful players who control the market,” said Rohit Chopra, director of the bureau, in a statement.

- The Associated Press