What you’ll do: People can volunteer as individuals or in groups to sort and pack food and produce boxes at the warehouse. Other jobs include cleaning and tidying the warehouse and coolers. Westside Food Bank encourages food drives for its programs of non-expired food items, or you can just make individual donations at the warehouse. The Westside Food Bank’s partner agencies serve the neighborhoods of Santa Monica, Venice, Culver City, West Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Inglewood and the LAX area, as well as the West Los Angeles VA and several college campuses.
When: Volunteers are typically needed on weekdays in the mornings and afternoons. Corporate volunteer shifts are typically scheduled on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Weekend volunteer opportunities can be arranged by emailing[email protected].
Where: Volunteers are needed at the warehouse in Santa Monica Mondays-Thursdays or at their mobile pantries around their service area including the Gerard Mobile Pantry, VAP Mobile Pantry and West LA Civic Center Mobile Pantry.
Details: Register online for volunteer opportunities. Drop off food donations at the food bank between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Frozen and/or refrigerated foods can be accepted by calling (310) 828-6016 beforehand. Appointments are required to drop off large collections of food.
YouTube users reported problems streaming content and accessing the app for about 60 minutes before the company resolved the issue.
Published On 16 Oct 202516 Oct 2025
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YouTube says it has resolved problems with its website and app after hundreds of thousands of users worldwide self-reported issues with its streaming services.
“This issue has been fixed – you should now be able to play videos on YouTube, YouTube Music, and YouTube TV!” YouTube wrote on X on Thursday morning in Asia.
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YouTube did not disclose why users reported problems streaming videos for about 60 minutes on Thursday morning, or the global extent of the problem.
Disruptions began just before 7am in East Asia (23:00 GMT, Wednesday) for YouTube, YouTube Music and YouTube TV, according to Downdetector, a website that aggregates website disruptions in real time.
Users from Asia to Europe and North America soon reported problems streaming, accessing the website, and using the apps of YouTube and its affiliates, though error reports were most heavily concentrated in the US, according to Downdetector’s user-generated error map.
Major disruptions were also reported in Japan, Brazil and the United Kingdom, although the extent of the problem is unknown because Downdetector data is based on user-submitted reports and social media.
The number of error reports peaked at 393,038 reports in the US at 7:57am (23:57 GMT) before falling off sharply, according to Downdetector data.
Downdetector reported a smaller number of disruptions for YouTube Music and YouTube TV, which both peaked at fewer than 5,000 error reports in the US over the same period of time.
Microsoft warns customers of ‘increased latency’ in connectivity and says efforts are under way to resolve the issue.
Published On 7 Sep 20257 Sep 2025
Internet disruptions have been reported in the Middle East and South Asia after multiple undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea, tech giant Microsoft, which has been criticised for its links to Israel as its war on Gaza rages on, said in a statement.
The statement on Sunday did not give further details about what caused the cuts.
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In a status update published to its website, Microsoft said “network traffic traversing through the Middle East may experience increased latency due to undersea fiber cuts in the Red Sea”. The global software giant said its Azure cloud computing services, the world’s second largest after Amazon, were affected by the cuts but added that general network traffic was not impacted.
“Network traffic that does not traverse through the Middle East is not impacted. We’ll continue to provide daily updates, or sooner if conditions change,” it said.
Microsoft said the disruptions started at 05:45 GMT on September 6.
The internet connectivity watchdog NetBlocks reported “degraded” internet connectivity in several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and India, “resulting in slow speeds and intermittent access”.
NetBlocks said the connectivity issues were due to failures in the SMW4 and IMEWE cable systems near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan Telecommunications, one of the country’s largest telecoms providers, released a statement on X warning customers that the country “may experience some degradation during peak hours”, adding that its international partners were working to resolve the issue.
Undersea cables form the internet’s backbone, carrying global data traffic. The Middle East serves as a critical hub linking Asia and Europe. They are vulnerable to damage by ships’ anchors, but can also be targeted in attacks, which can cause widespread disruption.
In early 2024, Yemen’s internationally recognised government-in-exile alleged that the Houthis planned to attack undersea cables in the Red Sea. Several were cut, but the Houthis denied being responsible.
On Sunday morning, the Houthis’ Al Masirah TV acknowledged the cuts, citing NetBlocks.
Microsoft’s Azure has been storing information, including intercepted Palestinian phone calls in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip for Israel’s military, according to an investigation by The Guardian, +972 Magazine and Local Call.
Microsoft has denied knowledge that Israel’s cyber-intelligence division, Unit 8200, was using its cloud services for material obtained through mass surveillance, but launched an investigation in August.
Microsoft has fired four employees who participated in protests on company premises over the firm’s ties to Israel.
The WNBA is still struggling with a string of sex toy disturbances.
In the past week and a half, sex toys have been thrown on court during games in Atlanta on July 29, Chicago on August 1, Los Angeles on August 5 and Chicago again on Thursday night, with the most recent object hitting the court in the closing seconds of the Atlanta Dream’s victory over the Sky.
The sex toy that landed on the court in Los Angeles nearly hit Fever guard Sophie Cunningham during Indiana’s game against the Sparks. Sex toys were also thrown at games in New York and Phoenix last Tuesday, but didn’t reach the court. Police say another toy was thrown at a game in Atlanta on August 1, although it is unclear if that one reached the court.
The distractions have created unexpected challenges for the league, the teams and the players, but also for arena security. Here’s what to know.
A man was arrested Saturday in College Park, Georgia, after he was accused of throwing a sex toy onto the court during the Atlanta Dream’s July 29 matchup with the Golden State Valkyries, according to a police report. The report said he threw another sex toy during the Dream’s August 1 game against the Phoenix Mercury, but that instance did not seem to result in a delay of play.
He is charged with disorderly conduct, criminal trespassing, public indecency and indecent exposure. All four charges are misdemeanours in the state of Georgia, meaning that if he is convicted, the punishment for each can be a fine of up to $1,000 or jail time of up to 12 months. A misdemeanour for public indecency and indecent exposure may also require registration on the state’s sex offender list.
The report said the man told police, “This was supposed to be a joke and the joke [was] supposed to go viral.”`
Another man in Phoenix was arrested after police say he threw a sex toy in the crowd at a Mercury game on Tuesday. Police say the 18-year-old pulled the sex toy from his sweater pocket and threw it towards seats in front of him, striking a spectator in the back.
The man later told police it was a prank that had been trending on social media and that he bought the toy a day earlier to take to the game. He was later tackled by a volunteer at the arena who had witnessed the incident and began following him as the man tried to leave the arena.
Police say the man was arrested on suspicion of assault, disorderly conduct and publicly displaying explicit sexual material.
The New York Liberty told The Associated Press on Thursday night that there is an ongoing investigation into the throwing in New York, and the team is cooperating with law enforcement.
The types of sex toys being thrown onto the court generally do not include metal elements, meaning that arena metal detectors are not able to sense them. When carried on a spectator’s body, they become even more difficult to detect.
ARENA SECURITY?! Hello??! Please do better. It’s not funny. never was funny. Throwing ANYTHING on the court is so dangerous.
Arena security teams face challenges in catching these items, according to Ty Richmond, the president of the event services division at Allied Universal Security, a company that provides security services to certain NBA, WNBA, NFL, MLB and MLS arenas across the country.
“Not all stadiums are using a screening process that’s consistent and can detect (the sex toys) because of what it would require — pat down searches, opening the bags, prohibiting bags,” he said. “The conflict of expediency, of getting fans into the arena and into the venue, which is an important issue, and security and safety.”
The limits of arena security make legal action one of the strongest deterrents for this kind of behaviour, Richmond said.
“The decision to prosecute and show examples of how people are being handled is very important,” he said. “Without a doubt, I think it will make a difference. The application of it is important, and publicising that is important.”
There have not been any arrests made yet in Los Angeles and Chicago. In a statement to The AP, the Sparks said they are “working with arena personnel to identify the individual responsible and ensure appropriate action is taken”.
The WNBA has said that any spectators throwing objects onto the court will face a minimum one-year ban and prosecution from law enforcement.
As the disturbances pile up, those on the court have become increasingly frustrated.
“Everyone is trying to make sure the W is not a joke and it’s taken seriously, and then that happens,” Cunningham said on her podcast after nearly being hit by one of the sex toys on Tuesday. “I’m like, ‘How are we ever going to get taken seriously?’”
No other professional sports leagues have faced sex toy disturbances like this. It has started a conversation online about the perpetrators’ choices to throw them during games in a women’s league and a league with a high-profile amount of lesbian and queer players.
“This has been going on for centuries, the sexualization of women. This is the latest version of that. It’s not funny. It should not be the butt of jokes,” said Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve on Thursday. “The sexualisation of women is what’s used to hold women down, and this is no different.”
Despite the criminal behaviour leading to arrests, at least one crypto-based predictions market is offering trades essentially allowing users to wager on whether sex toys will be thrown at future WNBA games.
Players have also been sounding off on social media, echoing concerns about arena security protocols.
Liberty forward Isabelle Harrison posted on X last week, saying, “ARENA SECURITY?! Hello??! Please do better. It’s not funny. Never was funny. Throwing ANYTHING on the court is so dangerous.”
Hong Kong issues its highest tropical cyclone warning and China’s Hainan and Guangdong provinces have been put on high alert.
Hong Kong has issued its highest tropical cyclone warning as Typhoon Wipha batters the city, with authorities cancelling classes and grounding hundreds of flights and other transport services.
Wipha was located about 60km (37 miles) southwest of Hong Kong at around 1pm (05:00 GMT) on Sunday and was moving west towards coastal regions of southern China, according to the latest satellite reports from the United States weather monitor NOAA and Japan’s Himawari.
The Hong Kong observatory issued the T10 hurricane alert, saying “winds with mean speeds of 118kmph (73mph) or more are expected” and pose “considerable threat to Hong Kong”.
“Under the influence of its eyewall, hurricane force winds are affecting the southern part of the territory,” the observatory said, warning the public to “beware of destructive winds”.
Huge waves were spotted off the eastern coast of Hong Kong Island, according to the Reuters news agency.
A representative from Hong Kong’s Airport Authority on Sunday said about 500 flights have been cancelled, while 400 others are scheduled to take off or land later in the day.
China’s Hainan and Guangdong provinces were also put on high alert, according to the state news agency Xinhua. The cities of Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Macao cancelled or delayed all daytime flights on Sunday.
More than 200 people have sought refuge at government-run temporary shelters in Hong Kong. One man sought medical treatment at the emergency room of a public hospital on Sunday morning, with officials receiving more than a dozen reports of fallen trees.
Authorities also suspended Sunday’s classes at all day schools and daycare centres, while trains offered limited services.
Hong Kong last hoisted the T10 warning signal for Super Typhoon Saola in 2023.
Wipha, which in Thai means “splendour”, also passed over the Philippines at tropical storm strength and drenched parts of Taiwan.
The typhoon also intensified seasonal monsoon rains in the Philippines, and two people have been reported missing, according to the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
More than 370,000 people in the Philippines were affected by days of stormy weather, including 43,000 who fled to government-run emergency shelters or homes of relatives due to flooding, landslides and fierce winds.
More than 400 houses were damaged in the onslaught, officials in the Philippines said.
Airlines are forced to reroute or cancel flights, affecting major hubs like Doha and Dubai, despite a ceasefire announced between Iran and Israel.
The Israel-Iran conflict, together with the military intervention of the United States and Tehran’s retaliation, has continued to heavily disrupt global travel despite some Middle East nations saying their airspaces were now open again.
The delays, suspensions and cancellations by multiple airlines continued on Tuesday after Iran launched a limited missile attack on US forces at Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base on Monday in retaliation for US strikes on Sunday at three Iranian nuclear sites.
Qatar temporarily closed its airspace just hours earlier, forcing state-owned Qatar Airways to announce that its flights were suspended because of the closure.
Airports throughout the region have been on edge since Israel began the deadly conflict on June 13 – with a surprise barrage of attacks on Iran, which retaliated with its own missile and drone strikes.
Passengers queue at Dubai International Airport, following Iran’s Monday attack on a US military base, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, June 24, 2025 [Reuters]
In the days following the US strikes, more and more carriers cancelled flights, particularly in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which sit just across the Persian Gulf from Iran.
While US President Donald Trump announced a truce between Tehran and Tel Aviv late on Monday night, many airlines have halted select routes through the middle of the week, citing safety concerns.
Middle East carriers severely affected
Dubai-based Emirates suspended all flights to Iran and Iraq, including those serving Baghdad and Basra, through June 30. An unspecified number of other Emirates flights were rerouted but continuing to operate as scheduled, using flight paths well distanced from conflict areas, according to the airline, which added that some flights may be delayed.
Gulf Air, the carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, extended the cancellation of scheduled flights to Jordan until June 27.
Air tracking data from FlightAware showed 382 cancellations worldwide just after 10:30am ET (14:30 GMT) Tuesday, following 834 cancellations seen on Monday.
Airports in the Middle East are some of the busiest in the world, covering an area stretching from Iran and Iraq to the Mediterranean and serving as a connecting hub for flights between Europe and Asia.
However, in an early sign of normalcy returning to the region, Iraqi airspace reopened and flights were now transiting it, flight-tracking website Flightradar24 wrote on X on Tuesday.
It’s unclear whether Iranian airspace is now also open to international arrivals and departures to and from Tehran.
In the meantime, the Israel Airports Authority says Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv is returning to full operation.
Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines cancelled some flights to and from Dubai starting Sunday and through Wednesday, citing “a security assessment of the geopolitical situation in the Middle East”.
And British Airways said it had suspended flights to and from Doha through Wednesday, adding that it “will keep the situation under review”.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration invited travel industry executives to the White House in May for a meeting on federal plans for the 2026 World Cup, a landmark event that under normal circumstances would draw massive international tourism to the United States. It was a welcome gathering by President Trump and his team for an industry eager to capitalize on a rare opportunity and capture tourism dollars.
Welcome, at least, until Vice President JD Vance cracked a joke.
“We’ll have visitors from close to 100 countries — we want them to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the games. But when the time is up, they’ll have to go home. Otherwise, they’ll have to talk to Secretary Noem,” Vance said, referring to the Homeland Security secretary and head of border enforcement.
Vance’s remarks, while taken in jest, fell flat in a room filled with experts more keenly aware than most of the challenges facing travel in the Trump era.
“It’s one of those moments where you’re almost, like, stop helping us,” one participant in the meeting told The Times, granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Stories are flooding media overseas of capricious denials and detentions at U.S. border crossings, raising concern among international tourists over spending top dollar on vacations to America that may end up disrupted, or never materialize. Erratic tariff policies out of the White House have shaken consumer confidence that experts say reliably tracks with discretionary spending on travel. And a series of scares in U.S. aviation, coupled with cuts to the National Park Service and the National Weather Service, have made planning trips to some of the country’s top destinations less reliable.
In California, the nation’s No. 1 tourist destination, international visits are expected to drop by 9.2% through the year, with international spending anticipated to drop 4.2%, according to a forecast published last month by Visit California and Tourism Economics.
Around Yosemite National Park, one of the nation’s most popular attractions, reported bookings were down “as much as 50% going into Memorial Day weekend,” Caroline Beteta, president and chief executive of Visit California, told The Times.
Narratives of travel disruptions under the Trump administration have given pause to U.S. officials and industry experts concerned not only with the immediate economic consequences of a slower summer season, but with the prospects of anemic attendance at World Cup games next year and, beyond, for the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
“Consumer confidence certainly matters,” said Geoff Freeman, president and chief executive of the U.S. Travel Assn. “It creates a degree of uncertainty.”
‘People should plan ahead’
Unlike much of the rest of the country, California is particularly susceptible to shifting trends among tourists from Asia, where tourism has yet to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic as robustly as it has in the Americas and Europe. Commercial flight restrictions over Russian airspace and the strength of the U.S. dollar haven’t helped, Freeman said.
On the other hand, California benefits from a tourism industry that relies more heavily on domestic travelers, the source of 80% of tourism dollars spent in the state, Beteta noted.
“There’s no question that there are widespread misperceptions about impacts to the travel experience, from reports about staff cuts to detentions at the border,” Beteta said. “Cuts at the National Park Service, for example, don’t affect the park concessionaires — and those companies run most of the visitor-facing services, such as lodging, dining, shuttle services and much more. The misperception of chaos at the parks is a PR issue that can have real consequences.”
Visitors board buses in Yosemite National Park on May 20. Reported bookings around Yosemite National Park were down 50% leading into Memorial Day weekend.
(Carlos Avila Gonzalez / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
But Cassidy Jones, senior visitation program manager at the National Parks Conservation Assn., said that cuts to the parks are tangible and will directly affect visitors’ experience over the coming months, despite efforts by leadership at the Department of the Interior to paper over the cracks.
“There may be fewer entrance gates open,” Jones said. “People should plan ahead and remember to be helpful park visitors. Take the optional shuttle. Come with supplies with you, as some facilities may be closed at hours you’re not expecting, because they don’t have the staff to keep them open. Toilets may not be unwinterized yet if they’re in cold places.”
In April, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued an order directing that national parks be “open and accessible” through the summer season, as fears grew that staffing cuts implemented by the administration could become apparent. Still, the White House cuts and hiring freezes severely disrupted a seasonal hiring and training cadence for park rangers that usually begins around Christmas, Jones said.
“Some parks may not feel like a lot of changes are evident, but there’s a lot of work that is not being done in the background,” Jones added. “The order basically demanded that even though parks have experienced devastating staffing cuts, they are to put on a sort of public appearance that everything is business as usual. That means pulling superintendents to work in visitor centers, science and research management staff to make sure facilities are clean — biologists cleaning toilets, that sort of thing.”
Flight disruptions expected
Twenty years ago, roughly half of flight delays were caused by uncertainty over the weather — a number that has dropped to 33% in recent years thanks to improved forecast quality. That progress is starting to reverse due to widespread cuts in talent, and will be felt by travelers sooner rather than later, said Rick Spinrad, who served as administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under President Biden.
Trump’s government efficiency program, known as DOGE, has eliminated hundreds of positions at NOAA, including at the National Weather Service, and is proposing a 25% cut in the agency’s budget.
“In the short term, this summer, when people are doing longer traveling, we may see a degradation of services. You may see more delayed flights, more weather-impacted flights,” Spinrad said.
But Spinrad’s concern is that the cuts to NOAA will soon be felt much more deeply, at the local level, among the emergency managers, local transportation departments and public health centers that count on reliable forecasts to map out their work.
“What we’re going to start to see, I think, is the erosion of the capability of NOAA to provide services to the degree that people had become accustomed to,” he said.
Spinrad visited Southern California in late May and was taken aback by the number of people raising concern over the agency’s ability to continue predicting atmospheric river events, with all of their implications on public safety, reservoir operations and hydro power. Those forecasts rely heavily on the work of a satellite operations facility that was gutted by the Trump administration.
And the capabilities of the National Weather Service to predict phenomena like Santa Ana winds, which fueled devastating fires in Los Angeles in January, are at risk, with 30 of the agency’s 122 weather forecast offices operating without meteorologists and with technicians cut throughout, he said.
“I know it will degrade, just by definition. Everything’s going to degrade,” Spinrad added. “All of NOAA’s predictive capabilities will degrade as a result of these cuts.”
Mark Spalding, president of the Ocean Foundation, warned the aviation industry would soon face disruptions as NOAA’s capabilities continue to diminish.
“We will see effects this summer, because they’ve fired so many people and shut down so much activity,” Spalding said.
“There are a lot of services that a lot of people rely on that NOAA provides — weather prediction, ocean observing, tsunami early warning, hurricane center monitoring,” he added. “There’s a lot this summer that could be affected in ways that are akin to what we’re seeing in air traffic control due to the sudden loss of personnel there.”
Still, Freeman, of the U.S. Travel Assn., expressed optimism for the U.S. tourism sector going forward, noting he and his counterparts are in “regular communication” with the Trump administration over headwinds facing the multitrillion-dollar industry.
“We have no shortage of challenges in the travel industry,” he said. “I think the picture right now for travel is uncertain, at worst.”
“For every challenge you see, there is an opportunity on the other side,” he added.
Disruption from the ‘highly sophisticated and targeted cyber attack’, first reported around Easter weekend, continues.
British retailer Marks & Spencer estimates that a cyberattack that stopped it from processing online orders and left store shelves empty will cost it about 300 million pounds ($403m).
The company said in a business update (PDF) on Wednesday that disruption from the “highly sophisticated and targeted cyber attack,” which was first reported around the Easter weekend, is expected to continue until July.
Online sales of food, home and beauty products have been “heavily impacted” because the company, popularly known as M&S, had to pause online shopping.
The attack on one of the biggest names on the United Kingdom high street forced M&S to resort to pen and paper to move billions of pounds of fresh food, drinks and clothing after it switched off its automated stock systems.
That led to bare food shelves and frustrated customers, denting profits.
A month on, M&S’s large online clothing service remains offline, and the attack has wiped more than a billion pounds off its stock market value.
Chairman Archie Norman said the timing of the attack was unfortunate as M&S, which has been implementing a comprehensive turnaround plan since 2022, had been starting to show its full potential.
“But in business life, just as you think you’re onto a good streak, events have a way of putting you on your backside,” he said.
M&S, which has 65,000 staff and 565 stores, said the hack would cost about 300 million pounds ($403m) in lost operating profit in its year to March 2026, although it hopes to halve that impact through insurance, cost control and other actions.
Chief executive Stuart Machin said the company is focused on recovery and restoring its systems and operations.
“This incident is a bump in the road, and we will come out of this in better shape,” Machin said. He did not provide any details on the attack or who might be behind it.
Earlier this month, the company said customer personal data, which could have included names, emails, addresses and dates of birth, was taken by hackers in the attack.
Two other British retailers, luxury London department store Harrods and supermarket chain Co-op, have also been targeted by cyberattacks at around the same time.
The Marks & Spencer website is down, leaving users unable to browse, as the retailer continues to deal with the aftermath of a cyber-attack last month.
Customers have been unable to make online orders for weeks but on Wednesday evening users were met with a screen reading: “Sorry you can’t browse the site currently. We’re making some updates and will be back soon.”
Following the cyber attack, M&S said some personal customer data was stolen in the recent cyber attack, which could include telephone numbers, home addresses and dates of birth.
The High Street giant assured customers that the data theft did not include useable payment or card details, or any account passwords, but added that online order histories could be included in the personal data stolen.
The attack took place over the Easter weekend, initially affecting click-and-collect and contactless payments. A few days later M&S put a banner on its website apologising that online ordering was not available.
M&S estimates that the cyber attack will hit this year’s profits by around £300m – more than analysts had expected and the equivalent to a third of its profit – a sum that would only partly be covered by any insurance pay-out.
“Over the last few weeks, we have been managing a highly sophisticated and targeted cyber-attack, which has led to a limited period of disruption,” said M&S chief executive Stuart Machin.
Police are focusing on a notorious group of English-speaking hackers, known as Scattered Spider, the BBC has learned.
The same group is believed to have been behind attacks on the Co-op and Harrods, but it was M&S that suffered the biggest impact.
