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Canada’s Housing Market Faces Headwinds Despite BoC Moves

The Bank of Canada’s 25-basis-point cut in September was at best ignored by the national market, with sales falling 1.7 per cent compared to the month before. The Bank of Canada’s recent interest rate adjustments have done little to revive the country’s housing market, which continues to struggle under the weight of broader economic concerns. In September, the central bank cut its policy rate by 25 basis points, bringing it to 2.5%. Yet, instead of sparking renewed activity, national home sales actually fell by 1.7% compared to the previous month.  Economists note that the housing market is no longer moving in lockstep with monetary policy, but is instead being shaped by regional affordability challenges, consumer psychology, and—most critically—job security fears. Uncertainty surrounding U.S. trade policy has also cast a shadow over Canada’s economic outlook. Businesses remain hesitant to invest, and households are wary of making major financial commitments such as home purchas...

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Global IT Meltdown: Faulty CrowdStrike Update Causes Widespread Chaos

 

In an unprecedented turn of events, a faulty update from cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike has triggered a global IT meltdown, causing millions of Windows computers to crash with the infamous “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD). The update, intended to enhance the security of CrowdStrike’s flagship product, Falcon Sensor, instead resulted in a critical failure that left businesses, airports, banks, and healthcare systems in disarray.

The issue began late Thursday and quickly spread as regions around the world started their day. The BSOD, a bright blue error screen indicating a critical system failure, appeared on millions of devices, rendering them unusable. CrowdStrike confirmed that the problem was due to a “logic error” in the update, which caused the operating system to crash.

The impact was immediate and widespread. Airports experienced significant delays, supermarket checkouts malfunctioned, and businesses struggled to maintain operations. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz issued an apology and assured that a fix had been deployed, but recovery is expected to take time due to the complexity of the issue.

Microsoft, whose Azure cloud services were also affected, is working closely with CrowdStrike to provide technical guidance and support to affected customers. As systems slowly come back online, the incident serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities inherent in our increasingly digital world.


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