Beech Tree News Network

Multiple websites went offline briefly across the globe Tuesday after an outage at the cloud service company Fastly, revealing how critical a handful of companies running the internet's plumbing have become. Dozens of sites including the New York Times, CNN, some Amazon sites, Twitch, Reddit, the Guardian, and the U.K. government's home page, could not be reached. * * * Two Kentucky House members have proposed a second piece of legislation for the 2022 legislative session that would ban teaching critical race theory in the state’s public schools. A version unveiled early last week by Rep. Joe Fischer, R-Ft. Thomas, would cover K-12, but the latest one, sponsored by Republicans Matt Lockett of Nicholasville and Representative Jennifer Henson Decker of Waddy, would also include colleges and universities. * * * The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in April to $68.9 billion as an improving global economy boosted sales of American exports. The April deficit, the gap between what America buys from abroad and what it sells to other countries, was down 8.2% from a record March deficit of $75 billion.