An outage has hit Apple's services, affecting some users trying to access the Mac App Store and Apple Books.
Apple reporting outages for some services
Starting at 12:15 p.m. eastern on Tuesday, August 27, Apple acknowledged an outage affecting its Apple Books and Mac App Store. It is currently unknown how widespread the outages are, as some AppleInsider staffers could still access the services.
Apple hasn't provided a reason for the outage beyond "Users may be experiencing a problem with this service." On its System Status page, it notes that the issue is currently being investigated.
As for the rest of Apple's services, such as iCloud, Apple Music, and Maps, seem to be functioning as intended.
AppleInsider will update this post as events warrant.