Tech mogul believes attack, which left 40,000 without access to site, orchestrated by ‘large group’ or ‘a country’.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk says his social media platform, X, has been targeted in a “massive cyberattack” after the service went down, leaving tens of thousands of users unable to access their accounts.

Complaints about outages spiked on Monday at 10:00 and 14:00 GMT, and more than 40,000 users were unable to access the platform, according to the tracking website <a href="http://Downdetector.com" rel="nofollow">Downdetector.com</a>.

Taking to X, Musk posted that the platform was targeted on a daily basis but the latest attack was “done with a lot of resources” and had been orchestrated by “a large, coordinated group and/or a country”. He did not provide evidence for his claim.

The worst disruptions occurred along the United States coasts, according to <a href="http://Downdetector.com" rel="nofollow">Downdetector.com</a>, which said 56 percent of the problems were reported for the X app while 33 percent were reported for the website.

In March 2023, the social media platform, then known as Twitter, experienced a host of glitches for more than an hour as links stopped working. Some users were unable to log in, and images failed to load for others.

Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and promptly laid off the majority of its staff. Repeated technical issues have followed as well as a notable shift to the right in the discourse on the site.

Anger

Musk, one of US President Donald Trump’s most influential allies, posted his accusations in response to another post drawing links between the outages and recent controversies, including his work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk and his team at DOGE were tasked by Trump to slash the size and cost of the federal bureaucracy. To date, about 25,000 workers have been fired, and another 75,000 have taken a buyout out of the 2.3 million civilian federal workforce.

The billionaire’s political activities have sparked widespread anger across the US, including protests at Tesla dealerships and fires set at the Tesla factory outside Berlin and Tesla charging stations.

In addition to overseeing the firing of thousands of federal workers, Musk has also played a primary role in the cancellation of more than 83 percent of all programmes at the US Agency for International Development.

On Sunday, Musk waded into geopolitics, saying the Ukrainian army’s “entire front line would collapse” without his Starlink internet service.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski hit back, saying Poland, which pays Ukraine’s Starlink costs to help repel Russia’s invasion, might have to seek alternative suppliers.

Musk later lashed out at Sikorski himself, posting: “Be quiet, small man. You pay a tiny fraction of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink.”

Source

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Al Jazeera and news agencies

Kash Patel ’s early requests as the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s new director indicate that he does not trust the agency he was named to lead.

Soon after being confirmed by the Senate in February, Patel, whose critics have branded him a conspiracy theorist, inquired about hiring his own private security detail, people with knowledge of the matter told The Wall Street Journal .

As director, Patel is automatically assigned a team of FBI agents charged with ensuring his safety, so the request indicates that he is not willing to place his life in the hands of his own agents.

In another unusual ask, Patel inquired about how to get a secure phone line directly to the Oval Office from both his FBI office and his home, according to the Journal . He did not wish to go through the FBI landline in his office.

Under the usual chain of command, the FBI director would typically get in contact with the president through the attorney general. All FBI directors since J. Edgar Hoover have sought to maintain distance from the White House as a show of independence.

Patel, however, is a loyal ally of President Donald Trump .

“Director Patel is aggressively working to deliver on removing criminals from our streets, restoring law and order, and ensuring agents have the resources they need to perform their duties effectively,” FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson told the Journal . “We have absolutely zero interest in engaging with false leaks or distractions that undermine that mission.”

The FBI did not immediately return the Daily Beast’s request for comment on Patel’s reported requests.

Patel was among Trump’s most controversial administration picks. Every single Democratic senator, as well as two Republicans, voted against his confirmation, but Patel still made it through .

The reservation wasn’t just that Patel, who was a national security adviser in Trump’s first administration, had a complete lack of experience at the FBI. His critics have also labeled him an unbridled conspiracy theorist.

Patel authored a children’s picture book that pushed the claim that former President Joe Biden rigged the 2020 election against Trump. As a commentator at The Epoch Times , Patel often labeled his political opposition and even the FBI as part of “the deep state.” He has also expressed a sympathetic attitude toward the QAnon movement, which posits that the Democratic Party is a pedophilic cabal.

In February, Patel was accused of spearheading the purge of senior FBI officials, even though he had not yet been confirmed. The Justice Department has also been trying to fire FBI agents who investigated Trump but has faced legal pushback.

Last week, Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi enraged Trump’s supporters with a release of “Epstein files” that offered no new information on the disgraced sex-offender financier.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

With federal investigators looking into Sean “Diddy” Combs in a sex trafficking investigation after multiple women and at least one man accused him of bad behavior, the hip-hop mogul is drawing comparisons to Jeffrey Epstein.

Like Epstein, a financier who had his own private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Combs has been accused of luring victims with his luxurious lifestyle and – in some cases – assaulting them aboard a yacht he rented for trips to the Virgin Islands and Saint Barthelemy. 

Some of the most explosive allegations have come from a February lawsuit producer Lil Rod, whose real name is Rodney Jones, filed against Combs, alleging a pattern of sexual assaults and sex trafficking he claims are recorded on hidden cameras throughout the mogul’s homes.

Combs’ mansions in Los Angeles and Miami were raided earlier this week in connection with a federal human trafficking investigation, months after similar accusations emerged in a series of lawsuits.

The lawsuit also alleges Combs had an aide who played a role similar to Ghislaine Maxwell’s, Epstein’s madame who is now a convicted trafficker.

Just a few weeks ago, Combs, 54, was riding high, receiving the ceremonial key to New York City and celebrating the release of his first album in years on the same day.

“The bad boy of entertainment is getting the key to the city from the bad boy of politics,” Mayor Eric Adams said as he presented a giant key to Combs in Times Square, according to FOX 5 New York.

“He escaped a lot because of who he was,” said Derrick Parker, a former member of the NYPD’s rap intelligence unit who investigated the 1999 nightclub shooting that landed Combs and Jennifer Lopez in handcuffs. “Now, a lot of stuff is just coming back to him.”

From a deadly stampede early in his career, to a nightclub shooting where a protégé took the fall and recent sex trafficking allegations, Bad Boy Records founder Combs has largely prevailed in his legal battles. 

Combs has been acquitted of gun and bribery charges and been mentioned in connection with hip-hop feuds that led to real-life violence without being implicated in any crimes.

But the recent lawsuits kicked off a federal investigation that resulted in raids on his mansions in Los Angeles and Miami last week. Combs and his lawyers denied any misconduct.

The hip-hop icon and founder of Bad Boy Records rose to prominence in the music industry in the early 1990s, then branched out into clothing design, liquor and other businesses, making himself a billionaire.

He came from humble beginnings. His early rise to prominence involved a feud between emerging hip-hop stars on the country’s East and West coasts. 

In 1991, Combs promoted a benefit event at the City College of New York that turned deadly when an altercation in the crowd led to a stampede of fans that crushed eight people to death.

Combs and girlfriend Jennifer Lopez were arrested in New York City in 1999 on weapons and bribery charges after an altercation with another man led to a gunfight at Club New York that injured three people.

The couple left, but after blowing a red light, police found a gun in their car.

Paul Mauro, a retired NYPD inspector and now a Fox News contributor, happened to be working in the same precinct the following morning but was not involved in the investigation.

“Diddy was not there, I remember that,” he recalled. “She was all distraught. I just remember she had her head down, and I have this recollection of her looking very small and very, very diminutive and kind of shellshocked.”

Police held Lopez for about 14 hours before releasing her without charges. Combs was later indicted and then acquitted of gun charges and of bribing his bodyguard to take the fall.

His friend, rapper Shyne, wound up in prison for assault in connection with the bar brawl and recorded part of his next album behind bars.

One of the three people wounded in the Club New York shooting, Natania Reuben, told NewsNation Thursday that it was Combs’ bullet that struck her, not Shyne’s, whose real name is Jamal Barrow.

“I literally watched them pull out the guns,” she told the station. “I had a clear point of view. I mean, for God’s sake, I got shot in my nose.”

Even after becoming a well-established leader in the music industry, allegations of violence continued to follow Combs. Police in Los Angeles arrested Diddy in 2015 after he allegedly attacked an assistant coach at the University of California’s LA campus with a kettlebell. He claimed self-defense, and the district attorney declined to prosecute.

Jones, in his lawsuit, alleges Combs continued exhibiting violent tendencies in 2022 and 2023.

Last year, his ex-girlfriend, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, filed an explosive federal lawsuit alleging rape, forced prostitution and physical abuse. They settled the lawsuit a day later — without Combs admitting wrongdoing.

But more allegations emerged of abuse spanning decades.

Joi Dickerson-Neal filed another lawsuit, alleging Diddy drugged, raped and abused her on tape while she was a college student at Syracuse University in 1991.

Another woman, Liza Gardner, also filed a lawsuit, claiming Combs allegedly coerced her into having sex at a party and that his friend also raped her. Days later, according to the civil complaint, Combs allegedly beat her up.

He was also named in a third lawsuit from a Jane Doe who was underage at the time of her alleged sexual assault. In 2017, a former personal chef sued him, claiming he made her work during sex parties. They settled the case two years later.

Filings in the Jones case are so alarming that his lawyers included a “trigger warning” at the top of the civil complaint.

Jones alleges that there are “HUNDREDS of hours of footage and audio recordings of Mr. Combs, his staff, and his guests engaging in serious illegal activity” at mansions in multiple states and on a yacht that traveled to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Saint Barthelemy. 

Jones, whose lawyers describe him as a musical prodigy, spent a year living with Combs and producing nine songs for Diddy’s new album, “The Love Album: Off the Grid,” the record released the same day he received his key to the city.

During that time, he claims to have witnessed Combs “providing laced alcoholic beverages to minors” and prostitutes and committing other crimes.

The lawsuit also alleges two unnamed individuals, one a rapper and the other an R&B singer, were “consorting with underaged girls” on Combs’ yacht and at his Los Angeles mansion. Jones also claims actor Cuba Gooding Jr. assaulted him in a studio onboard the yacht.

Gooding did not immediately respond to a request for a response to the allegations.

“It is like Epstein,” Parker told Fox News Digital. “It borders on that … and the reason being is that these video tapes are going to be very interesting.”

An expert on the intersection of crime and the hip-hop industry who has written a book on the issue, Parker said he expects HSI investigators to be pouring through any footage seized in the raids to determine if any crimes were committed and if any other high-profile people were present. 

The more lawsuits that emerge, the more accusers Parker said he expects to come forward.

And the evidence in the lawsuits, even those that were settled, will likely play a role in the ongoing federal investigation, Mauro said.

“That stuff is very penetrative,” he said. “[Federal prosecutors] are going to subpoena all of that stuff.”

Diddy has denied wrongdoing. In a statement pinned to his X profile, the mogul said accusers have been trying to “assassinate” his character.

“Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday,” he wrote. “Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name. my family and for the truth.”