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CNN International: Global Tech Outages Hit Airlines And Business Worldwide; Russian Court Finds WSJ Reporter Guilty In Espionage Trial; Biden Aide: There's A Growing Sense That "It's Game Over". Aired 8-9a ET
Aired July 19, 2024 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00]
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello, and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Fred Pleitgen in London, and this is CNN Newsroom.
Just ahead, global tech outages hit world airlines around the globe. In Europe and Asia, banks, some hospitals and news outlets are also experiencing problems. Donald Trump accepts his third Republican presidential nomination and delivers the longest speech in RNC history. And President Joe Biden fends off calls to end his campaign, but some top aides signal he may leave the campaign soon.
We begin, though, with breaking news, and the scramble is on across the world to try and fix a massive global IT outage. It's affecting airlines, other transport links, and banks. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike says it is not a cyberattack, explaining there is quote "a defect" in one of its software updates for Microsoft Windows devices. The -- and Microsoft is now saying, in its words, the underlying cause has been fixed. America's Federal Aviation Administration says it's closely monitoring the impact on airlines, and American Airlines now saying it has safely re-established its operation.
But, the number of flight cancellations is still growing. At last check, FlightAware was reporting more than 19,000 delays and 1,700 cancellations worldwide, including more than 1,000 flights into and out of the United States. You see some folks waiting there at airports. The outage is also affecting media companies and other businesses with the potential to disrupt the daily lives of millions of people.
We have coverage around the globe. We have Salma Abdelaziz here in London with me, and CNN's Marc Stewart is looking at the situation in Asia, which has been heavily impacted. He is in Beijing for us.
So, Marc, let's start with you. What's the situation out where you are?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, I think the big issue here in Asia, like most of the world, is with air travel. There are reports of problems at airports throughout the region, in particular, in Australia and New Zealand. We saw some issues in Hong Kong, especially with these electronic kiosks that we so often use to check in. Also getting some reports of issues at the airport in Taiwan, one of the airports there.
A lot of flights operate at this time. It's just after eight o'clock in the evening here in China, after nine o'clock in Japan and South Korea, and there are a lot of these transoceanic flights to the U.S. that depart around now. I don't have specifics. But, do not be surprised if some of those flights are delayed, and then therefore cause delays in the United States. It's something we are monitoring. Some progress appears to be made here and there. But, at one point, major carriers such as Cathay Pacific, which is very dominant in this part of the world, they were experiencing some issues.
The other thing I should point out too, Fred, is that it was around two o'clock in the afternoon when a lot of people were working on their computers in their offices across Asia, and they saw this blue warning screen and that is when we got indication here in China, at least, that there was a problem. The good news is, despite some disruptions, especially on the consumer level with -- in Australia, for example, some of the grocery store chains there were having some issues, as you can see, the iconic Skyline here in Beijing, the lights are on.
Just a short time ago, a colleague and I, we went out of the Bureau to get something to eat, something to drink, the digital payment services such as Alipay and WeChat Pay, which are so prevalent here in China, because for the most part, this is a cashless society, they were working. Nonetheless, I don't want to make it sound like that everything is OK. The air travel issue in particular, Fred, is going to be a big problem tonight and likely probably tomorrow morning, at least here in Asia.
PLEITGEN: Yeah. Thank you very much, Marc Stewart.
And Salma, we also, of course, have huge issues here in Europe as well. Here in the UK, it's not just airports. It's also medical facilities as well.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I think this will be very concerning to people that the NHS was deeply impacted, as we understand, the NHS saying that all of their booking systems have been impacted, their GP appointments today, anybody who is going to GP, which is your regular practice doctor that's in your neighborhood, anyone who is going there today could potentially be impacted. One of Europe's largest medical facilities, it's in Germany, it has cancelled all non-emergency operations. I mean, people are talking about how doctors are now just prescribing pen and paper. So, it really is taking you back not having these systems. And yes, as you heard there from Marc, things are starting to resume.
But, as you know, here in England and other parts of the country, there has been backlogs when it comes to the NHS and when it comes to medical care. So, again, just like what you're seeing with the airports, that means that waitlist for people grows. Now, we do understand again, things are coming back up. People are beginning to be able to get to see their doctors if they need to, but it's those non-emergency services that are still in process.
PLEITGEN: And all this will no doubt take time to get in sync again, to get up and running again.
ABDELAZIZ: Absolutely. And you have to accept --
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PLEITGEN: It's amazing how everything is intertwined. Isn't it?
ABDELAZIZ: It's amazing, and I think it's so astounding when you realize pen and paper becomes something that's almost an obstacle for people because we're so reliant on that technology. And when you already have people who have waited long times, and now you have this gap of several hours or a day or however long it will be in the end, that services have not been provided. All of that adds, of course, to that continuing backlog of public services.
PLEITGEN: It certainly does. Salma Abdelaziz, thank you very much.
And now, let's bring in CNN's Aviation Analyst Mary Schiavo. Mary, the U.S. badly hit by all. There are some carriers still not really up and running. How bad is the situation right now? What do you think carriers are doing right now to go out and get back up and running again?
MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST, & FMR. INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEPT. OF TRANSPORTATION: Well, the carriers are trying to put the software patch and to fix it. The good news, of course, is this not a cyberattack, but they're trying to get back up and running. Some airlines are back up and running. Some still have a ground stop. And so, at this point, the number of cancellations is under 10 percent. But, given the volume of travel, I mean, every day, we know the millions of passengers in the U.S., that's quite a hit and the lines in certain airports are literally out the door.
So, it's having a pretty big impact. People are getting clinging to hope that the fix for the computer problem has been put in place. But, literally, you cannot fly without them. Even though the aircraft and air traffic control have backup systems, you have to have redundancy in the systems more than one computer to do the scheduling, keeping track of the planes, the pilots and flight attendants. I mean, other than putting a bag tag on, it's all computer.
PLEITGEN: And what if airlines -- what do they do in a situation like this to try and at least get some sort of emergency operation up and running, because presumably, they need to do something to at least get some passengers in the air and to their destinations?
SCHIAVO: Right. Well, some airlines, at least in the United States, had noted that they were going to try to do it by hand. They were posting some schedules. They were keeping track of bag tags, etcetera. But, it's really not possible because of the laws concerning scheduling of pilots and crew. Literally, even the sequencing is, who gets what takeoff and landing slots, that's all done by computers. So, while people on the ground at the airport can do their best to help people, try to do whatever they can for them, literally, getting a plane off the ground without a computer is virtually impossible. And also in the U.S., there are laws and there are a lot of crackdowns
recently by the United States Department of Transportation that if you do not fly the flight, you must give a full refund. There are deadlines to do that. You must assist with rebooking, etc. So, at least passengers have a few more opportunities for some relief than they had just a couple of years ago. But, it doesn't help because there is no excess in the system. If you miss, if your flight doesn't go, it could be days before you get another flight because there is just no excess capacity anymore. In the olden days, planes would be half full. Now, they're overbooked. So, it's going to be real difficult to cure this.
PLEITGEN: Yeah. And as you're speaking, we're seeing some pretty long lines there at airports in the U.S. Tell me what the airline's do when all this is back online, back up and running, to try and get their schedule back in order? Because presumably, a lot of that is now completely messed up, isn't it, and that could take days to fix, right?
SCHIAVO: Right. Well, it could take days, especially for the rebooking. Now, for the patches, for the software fix, obviously, they not only have to get it back up and running, but they have to check with all the systems because they are so interrelated with the -- not just the scheduling, but the safety parts of the airline as well. So, even though they get the system back up and running, they could have tens of thousands of passengers to try to rebook.
And a phenomenon now in the U.S. is, as several airlines are no longer interconnected with other airlines, they don't have airline agreements. So, if you're booked on one airline and that airline can't get you rebooked for days, you can't just have an airline agreement and use your ticket on another airline. They have to give you a refund and you have to try go book on another airline yourself, and that says somewhat -- that's different in the United States and it had been in the past, but it's allowed by law.
PLEITGEN: And as you're speaking, we're seeing again Boston, I think the Logan Airport, where people are trying to check-ins and pretty long lines there. Finally, your best advice for passengers right now? Do you think they should try to delay their trip? Do you think they should wait it out? What do you think people should do?
SCHIAVO: Well, again, it depends on their ticket. If their ticket says they have to show up or they lose the value of their ticket if it's a non-refundable, non-changeable, they'll have no choice other than to try to do that. But, airlines should accommodate. And I always say book a backup. Many airlines now allow you to cancel up to the last minute. Be searching online for a secondary backup flight.
PLEITGEN: Mary Schiavo, thank you for joining us.
And Salma, of course, still with me here. I mean, we saw those lines. I think we're looking at Chicago O'Hare Airport.
[08:10:00] We were just looking at there right now. Things not quite as bad in Europe, but also in Continental Europe, there has been some pretty big issues. I saw Greece. I saw Berlin. Some other --
ABDELAZIZ: I mean, mate, all the cities really are struggling in coping with this, and that's if you made it to the airport, Fred, because you have to remember the trains as well are delayed in a lot of countries. People can't even get on to their emails, onto their system. So, there is already delays before you even get to the airport. And then, it has also impacted media. We've been speaking about transportation. We've been speaking about healthcare. But, here in the UK, Sky News, one of our major broadcasters, was down this morning. So, it really is this all-around impact across multiple sectors, and to catch back up, that's going to take time, and it does mean that, of course, there is going to be people lost in the process, of course.
PLEITGEN: Yeah. They certainly are. It's going to be really difficult for a lot of people to get back on track. And you really see how intertwined the economy is and how dependent we are all on IT actually working. Thank you so much, Salma, for being on set here.
And still to come, the walls are quote "closing in." That is a quote, and that's what one senior Democrat is saying about the Joe Biden campaign. The latest on whether he will stay in or get out of the presidential race. That is coming up next. And Donald Trump said his big speech have not been a theme of unity, not of division. Did he keep that promise? We'll tell you when CNN Newsroom continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PLEITGEN: All right. Some breaking news that just came into us here at CNN. The verdict is in in the trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in Russia. Moments ago, a Russian court found him guilty of espionage. You can see Mr. Gershkovich there inside of that glass box that they stick people into in Russia, found guilty of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in a maximum security prison. Moscow had accused Gershkovich of spying for the CIA. The Wall Street Journal and the U.S. government strongly denied those charges, continue to do so, and Gershkovich pleaded not guilty.
Salma Abdelaziz is still with us. She has been covering this story for a very long time. One of the things that we've been looking at earlier was the fact that this trial really got speeded up. Didn't it? It wasn't supposed to even start yet.
ABDELAZIZ: I mean, this is extraordinary. We've had two -- there was an earlier date when this trial was set. But really, we've had two days of hearings. Yesterday, evidence was presented. Today, closing arguments and a sentencing. I mean, usually these types of cases, you would expect would take many, many months. But, in some ways, Fred, this might be a positive sign for Gershkovich. And why is that? Well, throughout, The Wall Street Journal, his employer, U.S. officials, the State Department and White House have said this is a sham trial. What you're looking at is essentially a hostage. That's what the U.S. says. This is a man who has been taken by Moscow essentially to be used as a bargaining chip in a future prisoner swap.
So, now that this step is potentially complete, the trial is over, 16 years sentencing, in a penal colony, very serious, very concerning, very worrying for his family, but hopefully one step closer to negotiations that could bring him home.
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PLEITGEN: Yeah, and the U.S., of course, also has been accusing Russia of essentially stockpiling Americans in Russian jails. You have Paul Whelan, for instance, is also, of course, serving time in Russia for alleged espionage. You have Evan Gershkovich now. This is a serious issue between the U.S. and Russia. So, the Russian Foreign Minister recently said there was irrefutable evidence. But, so far, we really haven't seen anything from the Russians.
ABDELAZIZ: Moscow has not provided any public evidence. But, the way that Sergey Lavrov, of course, the Foreign Minister, was speaking just a few days ago made it sound like it was a foregone conclusion. He also spoke about the negotiations that were ongoing already, because there is already names circulating for how this prisoner swap would occur. Who does Russia want in exchange for Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, as you mentioned? But, the fear is that this sort of solidifies the system of prisoner exchange, and it means that journalist, Westerners in the future in Russia might be more at risk of winding up in a jail, just like this.
PLEITGEN: One of the things that I found interesting is that Vladimir Putin has been asked repeatedly about all this, among others by Tucker Carlson in a recent interview, and even he hinted that they wanted a swap and there was one name that kept coming up, and that is Krasikov, who is, of course, Vadim Krasikov, who is in a German jail right now for a murder in central Berlin.
ABDELAZIZ: Yes. An FSB operative, as you said, in Germany. He was convicted in 2019 of murdering, rather, a Chechen in Germany. Now, this complicates negotiations further, because if indeed that is the individual that Russia has determined that they do want in exchange for the journalist, for Evan Gershkovich, well, that involves a third country now having to step into these negotiations. So, it becomes extremely complicated.
But again, we did see these prisoner swaps occurring 2022. You'll remember, of course, Brittney Griner, the basketball star, being released. We've seen other releases. So, it is possible. And his lawyers have expressed hope. But, it is about that continuing relationship between Moscow and D.C. Does this disintegrate further? Does it put more Westerners at risk? Does this in a way de facto make this prisoner swap deal, something that we continue to see in the future?
PLEITGEN: And that's -- I think one of the points that you made there is so important is, of course, right now, relations between Washington and Moscow are at an absolute low point, and they have been essentially since the full-on invasion of Ukraine, and that does complicate things as well, doesn't it, because even some of the most basic context -- contacts between these governments aren't functioning the way that they used to.
ABDELAZIZ: Absolutely. And forgive me, I'm going to reference our conversation we had off camera. That might change if we have a President Donald Trump. So, that also begins to impact negotiations. That also is, as you can expect in the mind of officials in the Kremlin who are determining how to move forward with this. And it's also important to understand when it comes to journalism, when it comes to the media, the restrictions that have been put on them inside Russia since the start of the Ukraine war. So, how much more difficult will be in the future to report out of Russia when we see cases like this, Evan Gershkovich, over a year now in prison, now facing 16 years, potentially, in a prison colony in Russia, awaiting, of course, that promise from the White House to bring him home.
PLEITGEN: Salma, thank you very much, and standby on this, because obviously it is a very important topic.
We also have our Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Matthew Chance, who is also standing by here in London. Matthew, you've obviously covered this trial from its very beginnings very closely. What do you make of the verdict and of the speed at which this trial was carried out?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. I mean, look, there has been 15 months passed, more than that now, 16 months since Evan Gershkovich was arrested while on a reporting assignment in the city of Yekaterinburg. And there have been sort of, every month or so, there have been court appearances where his detention has been extended. I think this very rapid verdict, though, which comes just three weeks after his trial formally began, took us by surprise, to some extent. Originally, the next hearing was scheduled for August. The defense team had asked for it to be brought forward.
But, to have the verdict now so quickly after this case really got underway properly in court, I think probably tells us a couple of things. One of them is that it points to the politicized nature of the legal system in Russia, the fact that this is such a serious offense that is being tried, and the fact that it took less than three weeks and just a couple of court appearances for the court to reach its verdict of guilty and to hand down that 16-year prison sentence to Evan Gershkovich. I think for critics, it sort of points to the idea that perhaps due process wasn't properly carried out, that the facts of the case may not have been properly weighed, and that's how the authorities were able to reach a verdict so quickly in such a what would -- I expect would have been a very complicated case.
[08:20:00]
On the bright side, however, if there is a silver lining in something like this, the fact that a verdict has now been reached potentially opens the door to the idea of a prisoner swap. The Russians had made it very clear there would be no prisoner swap or exchange of Evan Gershkovich and others in Russian prisons until a verdict had been reached. That's now happened, of course. And so, theoretically, it means that could proceed. But, it could still be months or even years away before a prisoner exchange with Evan Gershkovich is finalized, Fred.
PLEITGEN: Matthew, as we're speaking here, we're seeing images of Evan in that courtroom, inside that sort of fish tank that people call it, that prisoners in Russia are put into. You are obviously one of the few Western journalists who has seen Evan Gershkovich in court. You were at one of his hearings. You managed to try and ask him a question. It seemed to us that despite the fact, under these tough circumstances, his spirit is still unbroken. What do you make of the state that he is in and how he is holding up?
CHANCE: Well, I mean, look, I mean, that's what we hear from all accounts, from the diplomats and the family members, from members of The Wall Street Journal, that have been in contact with him, that his spirits have been pretty robust, which is remarkable, given the gravity of the crime of which he has now been found guilty in Russia, and the prospect of spending 16 years, 16 more years in a Russian jail must be absolutely terrifying. And it's hard to imagine, isn't it, being thrust into that position.
And so, under those circumstances, I expect that Evan Gershkovich has suffered a great deal of stress. And to some extent, I think it showed on his face. I mean, he has obviously lost weight quite a lot from when he was first detained. His head, when I last saw him, was shaved. I think it is now as well. When I tried to sort of speak to him in the court, he was sort of paraded as the accused often are in that fishbowl, the aquarium, as people call it inside Russia, inside the courthouse, and you're not allowed to say anything to them. You just have to stand in front of them and sort of take photographs and you're not allowed to engage. And so, that's when -- when I attempted to do that, I was kicked out of the courtroom.
But, yes, I mean, look, the fact that I think that probably if he is going to stay positive in all of this, he has to focus on the fact that there are contacts that have been underway for some time, they're continuing now, between the special services of the Russians and of the United States to try and broker some kind of an arrangement, some kind of deal to get Evan Gershkovich out. That -- in fact, the verdict has come down, let me reiterate that, sort of removes a bureaucratic obstacle that the Russians had put in place to allow that to happen. And so, that's a good thing. But, when will that deal, when will it happen? That's the big unknown in this very terrible saga.
PLEITGEN: Yeah. Very important context there from our Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Matthew Chance. Thank you very much.
All right. To the United States now, the Republican National Convention wrapped up last night, of course, and in a normal presidential campaign year, we would be talking about Donald Trump's big night right now. But, reaction to the Republican nominee's acceptance speech is taking a backseat amid the upheaval on the Democratic side. CNN reporters have heard from more than two dozen sources who say there is growing acceptance Joe Biden cannot stay in the race. One senior Democrat says the walls are closing in, and that's a quote in a -- and a Biden aide tells CNN, there is a growing sense that the game is over. Biden is currently at his Delaware home, where he is recovering from
COVID. That's where we find our own Priscilla Alvarez right now. And Priscilla, it really seems as though every day it appears to be moving one step closer into an almost inevitable direction right now.
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as one source put it, they are essentially operating in a doom loop, and we have seen that unfold publicly as often. As the weeks passed by, more and more Democratic lawmakers coming out and saying that President Biden needs to step aside. Allies questioning whether he is the most viable candidate, and donors holding back big dollar checks.
So, certainly, not the position the President and his campaign wanted to find themselves in at this stage, and especially this week, a week where it was the Republican National Convention, where the President had planned his own counterprogramming on the campaign trail, but then had to be sidelined because he tested positive for COVID, leaving him here in Rehoboth, Delaware, at his residence, where he has been self- isolating. And aides tell CNN that he is increasingly isolated, as he deliberates his next steps.
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Now, the one source you mentioned saying the walls are closing in, but another source saying that the President is dug in. This has often been the case with his most loyal aides. And as his inner circle has grown even tighter, the President often casting doubt on any polling that suggests that he is not the best candidate to go up against former President Donald Trump. But, the other public polls that we have seen suggest that the President is slipping in the polls, when he is up against the former President.
Now, of course, there are still a lot of questions and concerns circling around this campaign, and even the campaign acknowledges that but also knows that there is no plan B here, that they are still operating with the idea that the President is going to get back on the campaign trail when he recovers from COVID-19. And also, they weighed in last night after the Republican convention with the former President's speech with the Biden campaign chair saying, quote, "He", the former President, "sought to find problems with America, not provide solutions."
So, the campaign is still trying to keep their focus on the former President. They are still levying their attacks and criticisms. But, they're also having to grapple internally with the very real fears and concerns that are held among members of their own party. Now, of course, there are still a lot of questions as to where this goes from here. And ultimately, everyone says it is going to be the President's decision and his alone. Fred.
PLEITGEN: Priscilla Alvarez in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, thank you very much.
Now, let's get to Donald Trump's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. It lasted more than one and a half hours, the longest acceptance speech ever, period. It started out with Trump recounting the terrifying moments when a would-be assassin's bullet tore through his right ear at a rally nearly a week ago. He called for unity and an end to the political divisions that are dominating American politics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The discord and division in our society must be healed. We must heal it quickly. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together or we fall apart. I am running to be President for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: So, that was a call to unity there. But, after that call for unity, Trump veered into many of the themes that dominate his campaign rallies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The Democrat Party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy --
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: -- especially since that is not true. In fact, I am the one saving democracy for the people of our country.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: If Democrats want to unify our country, they should drop these partisan witch hunts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: Let's got to CNN's Alayna Treene in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the Republican National Convention. That was quite a long speech. Wasn't it? It took him about, former President Trump, about half an hour to actually get into the actual issues. What was the reaction that you saw at the RNC, and what did you make of the speech?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, Fred, it was interesting, because Donald Trump had promised to really tear up the speech that he had planned prior to that assassination attempt on him in Butler, Pennsylvania, last weekend, and deliver a more unifying, uplifting message. And of course, we did see him start with that. You just heard that sound of him recounting what he went through during that rally, but then he quickly transitioned to the Donald Trump we all know and expect. He was airing his grievances. He was attacking the Democratic Party. He was painting a dark picture of America right now. And so, it was interesting, because really it was a tale of two speeches.
Now, in the room last night, I will say, just that sort of the speech where he did get deeply personal as he walked through what he was feeling following the aftermath of the shooting. I mean, look, Donald Trump is never vulnerable. He actually sees vulnerability, Fred, as a sign of weakness. And so, it was really striking to me sitting in that arena last night and hearing him tell that story. He was being soft spoken. He was being serious. People were crying in the crowd, and that is very unlike the Donald Trump we all know. I mean, I've gone to countless Trump rallies. I've listened to hundreds of his speeches. And it really was a different Trump at the start of that speech.
But then, again, about 30 minutes into his speech, he did start talking about the real agenda items that he wanted to get to and that's where we heard him begin to rift, to go off-scripts, to talk about a lot of the grievances and the divisive rhetoric we're used to Donald Trump using.
[08:30:00]
So, what I'm really going to be looking for this weekend is Donald Trump and J.D. Vance will be in Michigan tomorrow for their first joint rally, and I'm curious to see exactly which version of Donald Trump we see on that stage. And when I talked to Donald Trump's advisors, they do say that, look, we -- they were happy with his remarks last night. They argue that he very much is feeling spiritual. He believes that he was able to survive that assassination attempt because of some divine intervention at work. And so, I'll be curious to see if he continues to use some of that personal, more vulnerable rhetoric tomorrow in Michigan. But, we'll see. I have a feeling it's going to be the latter, Fred.
PLEITGEN: Yeah. It's going to be very interesting to see in the coming days. Alayna Treene in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, thank you very much.
Well, folks, it's been a pretty rough morning for travelers, thanks to that worldwide tech outage. We'll update you on the efforts to get computers back online. That's coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PLEITGEN: Welcome back, everybody. The CEO of CrowdStrike says it was not a security incident or a cyberattack that brought down computer systems around the world. Instead, it was a bug in its antivirus software for Microsoft Windows that made its way through financial systems, air travel, and other businesses that are crucial to daily commerce around the world. Among those affected, thousands of travelers at airports who found themselves grounded. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz says a fix is being deployed.
And we have our own Anna Stewart, who is live from Heathrow Airport, of course, one of the busiest in all of Europe. Anna, are you seeing that fix deployed yet? Is air travel going?
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I just hope that you're not trying to get back home to Berlin anytime soon, Fred, because you might be stuck here at least for today, given the huge amount of flight disruption that we're seeing. Heathrow has some outages. I wouldn't say it's the worst affected in the UK. There is also Stansted and Gatwick. They've had quite big numbers of delays and lots and lots of queues, I'm told. But really, this is across the world. We're seeing disruption in Asia, in the U.S., in Europe. I think possibly the worst airport for Europe right now is Amsterdam's Schiphol, where there have been huge outages, and actually, KLM, the airline, early today said of the outages are quote "making flight handling impossible."
[08:35:00]
So, you can just imagine the sort of disruption we are seeing. At this stage, the latest data we had was around 1,400 flights canceled all around the world. That was two hours ago. But, I suspect that numbers actually crept up. It does mean, in terms of global IT outages and the disruption they have on travel, this is likely to be the biggest we've ever seen. And we're only a few hours in. And there is always with flight, chaos and disruption, that knock-on effect, which can take many hours or even days to get right. So, for one of the busiest days of travel for those trying to get away for a summer holiday, this is not a very good start.
And as you mentioned earlier, it's not just travel, although that's perhaps where most people will really feel this disruption, it's really across all sorts of sectors. Here in the UK, the NHS, the National Health Service, GPs are struggling to just book appointments, be able to send prescriptions to a chemist, refer patients to consultants, really simple things. Train stations, I believe the port authority in Italy has just mentioned some disruption there. The London Stock Exchange's website isn't working. So, we're just talking about really far-reaching impact right across the world.
PLEITGEN: Anna Stewart, thank you very much. And as Anna was speaking there, we're seeing these really full airport waiting halls.
So, let's dig deeper into the worldwide outage. We're joined now by Harjinder Singh Lallie, an Associate Professor of Cybersecurity at Warwick University. And I think the first question that many of us are asking is, how does something like this happen? We all thought there might be redundancies or firewalls, something to prevent a glitch from essentially causing chaos around the world.
HARJINDER SINGH LALLIE, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN CYBER SECURITY, WARWICK UNIVERSITY: Thank you for having me. So, what we have here is, this was an upgrade failure. So, in other words, it's a piece of software that was supposed to be upgraded. 99.9 percent of the time, that happens without any problems. It gets upgraded, and the system carries on working as normal. In this case, it didn't carry on working as normal. There was a problem with the upgrade. And now, hundreds and hundreds of systems around the world somehow need to go backwards to a system that worked last night. And it's a case of how quickly they can do that in order to get everything up and running again.
PLEITGEN: So, for those of us who aren't cybersecurity experts or tech experts of that, many of us would think, just turn the thing on and off and reboot it. But, I'm guessing it's not that simple, and they probably have pretty complicated work to do right now.
LALLIE: Yeah. That's what we would like to happen and that's what should be happening. And so, when you write a piece of software and you kind of -- it's designed to upgrade a system, what it effectively does is overwrite the code that was already there. So, our phones are upgrading all the time. If you've got an Apple or you've got an Android, it kind of updates itself and it can never see any problems. It just goes through without any issues. In this case, this is a piece of malware -- it's a kind of antivirus software. The irony of that is quite interesting. It's a malware -- anti-malware package, which just didn't update properly. And when that happens, the system is kind of like, oh, which piece of software should I be running? Is it the new one? Is it the old one? And it gets confused, and it just fails to function.
PLEITGEN: How long do you think it'll take to get this back up and running in a good way for things to be ironed out?
LALLIE: So, what has to happen now is, a system that has failed its upgrade, it has to go back to the last version that was running correctly. And I -- we presume that they've got backups, and that they can just go back to the backup. In many cases, that doesn't take long. It can be five, 10, 15 minutes. But, in some cases, it can be a lot more complicated than that. For example, if it's a server, rather than just a typical Windows machine, it will take a lot longer than five minutes to go backwards to the version that was running last night, get that backup, reboot, and fingers crossed, it should all be backup. So, I've got an easy answer for that, probably five minutes for some systems. It could be hours for others, I'm afraid.
PLEITGEN: And another thing is also, I see that they're working on to try and fix all this right now. But, don't there need to be lessons learned from all of this? Doesn't there need to be some way to foolproof the system to make sure that something like this does not derail large parts of the world economy in the future? Don't tech companies, like for instance, Microsoft and CrowdStrike, need to put some sort of system in place to try and make sure this doesn't happen again?
LALLIE: It's a really good question. I mean, what we expect to see, as the public, is that it works 100 percent of the time, not even 99 percent, because if they're upgrading once a week that means once every two years, there is going to be a catastrophic failure.
[08:40:00]
We don't want a catastrophic failure anytime. Now, what should be happening is all their resilience planning, it should be tested internally. And I'm arguing that it should be audited externally as well. They should be going through these drills. If this happens, what do we do and how do we recover and how quickly can we recover? And it'd be interesting to see what their resilience planning says.
But, the other thing, other problem we have is I am a bit surprised. I mean, we need to know more details, obviously. But, I am a bit surprised that something like this could get through QA, that a patch and upgrade could get through QA and no one notices that there are problems. So, there is certainly lessons there. Either Microsoft, or in this case, it's CrowdStrike, it's their software, it's a lesson that they need to learn from this.
PLEITGEN: Absolutely, these wide-ranging consequences. Harjinder Singh Lallie, thank you very much for joining us.
And still to come, a drone attack kills one person and injures others in Tel Aviv. We'll have a live report from Israel when we return.
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PLEITGEN: All right, folks. We're returning now to our breaking news story about the verdict in the trial of a Wall Street Journal reporter in Russia. Moments ago, a Russian court found Evan Gershkovich guilty of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in prison. Moscow had accused Gershkovich of spying for the CIA. He is the first American journalist arrested on spying charges in Russia since the Cold War. The Wall Street Journal and the U.S. government strongly deny those charges, and Gershkovich pleaded not guilty.
Back to American politics, for the third time, Donald Trump has accepted the Republican nomination for President. He did it on Thursday night with the longest nomination speech in U.S. history, breaking his own record from 2016. Trump's spoke for more than an hour and a half, and largely avoided naming his rival Joe Biden directly. He began his speech by calling for unity after recounting his near- death experience over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for others. This is the spirit that forged America in her darkest hours. And this is the love that will lead America back to the summit of human achievement and greatness. This is what we need. Despite such a heinous attack, we unite this evening more determined than ever. I am more determined than ever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: However, Trump soon veered off-script, bashed his political enemies, repeated false claims, and returned to familiar talking points.
Margaret Talev is a Senior Contributor at Axios, and she joins me now from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Margaret, thank you for coming on.
[08:45:00]
That was very long speech, first of all, and it did seem to me that he started off, Donald Trump, almost in a spiritual way, speaking very softly, very solidly, but then it kind of went back into classic Trump. Didn't it?
MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS, & DIRECTOR, DEMOCRACY, JOURNALISM & CITIZENSHIP INSTITUTE AT SYRACUSE UNIV.: It sure did. Fred, I was on the convention floor for about the first half hour, and it was the kind of stagecraft that you would expect from the Donald Trump production, the lights, the Vegas-style show, the replica of the White House, moments of being very somber. Of course, he recounted the story of what it was like to be shot at and survive and how he felt about it, and a lot of pomp, and circumstance, he kissed the helmet of the firefighter who died, who was killed at the rally. And then all of that ended, and it just turned into a regular Donald Trump's speech, a little bit more subdued, but he couldn't help but go after Nancy Pelosi.
I will tell you this, I think for an international audience, the way to think about that convention speech and this whole week is even a little bit different than just for a purely U.S. audience, right? If you're in the United States, you're thinking, how would Trump stack up against Biden in the campaign, or if Biden decides he can't go forward, how would Trump stack up against someone else? Or is the country going to relive Donald Trump? If you are overseas, particularly if you're in Ukraine or Western Europe or a NATO country, you were looking at the events of the week differently. I think you saw J.D. Vance elevated as the running mate, much more of a nationalist and a populist, critical against continued engagement and spending in support in Ukraine.
You saw Trump do a call out to Viktor Orban last night in that speech, posters littering the RNC convention floor that says Trump will end the war in Ukraine. We know the rest of that sentence. And then, of course, today's move by Russia in the sentencing of Evan Gershkovich. So -- and on the flip side, you see this -- sort of potential crisis moment for President Biden's continued campaign, his bid for reelection. If he decides that he can't go forward, as many of his fellow party members are now urging him, then U.S. allies around the world will have two questions. Do they get Trump again, and who would they get on the Democratic side? So, this is creating a lot of international uncertainty even as the U.S. is living through this moment of drama.
PLEITGEN: Yeah. I would say uncertainty is probably exactly the right word. I was listening to the speech, and there wasn't too much in the way of detail as far as foreign policy was concerned. But then, he said, look, with me, the war in Ukraine never would have happened. With me, what's going on in Israel never would have happened. Hamas' attack never would have happened. But, at the same time, I mean, you're right, probably right now, a lot of Western European allies and also the Ukrainians must be pretty concerned what would happen if Donald Trump became the next President with a Vice President J.D. Vance, right?
TALEV: That's right. And we saw CNN's own reporting that Zelenskyy could have a call with Donald Trump as soon as Monday. This is the world trying to come to terms with the momentum that seems to be giving Donald Trump and the Republican Party the win behind their back. It's only July. Nobody knows whether this is the pattern that will be in position in November, but between how inflation has hit Americans in the pocketbook and at home, and just sort of the enthusiasm gap.
You have Democrats in the United States enthusiastic about running against Trump, more than they are enthusiastic about their own candidate, and you have the Republican base, the new Republican Party, which is a changed party from a decade ago, a completely changed party, now rallying around and in service to Donald Trump, and enthusiastic about it, the mood at least in that room, and those are the true believers. They are not the swing voters there. They're not the suburban Nikki Haley voters in American suburbs.
But, the people in that room last night were completely spellbound, at least for the first half hour until it turned into the sort of a grievance extended rally, long play speech. But, for a moment there, he had the crowd. You could have heard a pin drop when he was talking about hearing the bullet that nicked his ear. I mean, he has the core, the base of his party, very much surrounding him and enthusiastic to vote, and the Democrats are not in that moment of unity right now, and that could have implications if those trends continue all the way to November
[08:50:00]
PLEITGEN: Yeah, absolutely completely changed party. Margaret Talev, thank you very much. And we will be right back with much more news.
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PLEITGEN: Welcome back, folks. Tel Aviv is on heightened alert at this hour after a deadly drone attack early Friday. At least one person was killed in the explosion and 10 others injured. Houthi rebels in Yemen are claiming responsibility, but CNN cannot independently verify that claim. An Israeli military official says air defenses detected the drone but it was not destroyed due to quote "human error".
We have our own Jeremy Diamond, who is in Tel Aviv and at the scene. And Jeremy, tell us what the latest is that you're learning.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, we can still hear the sound of people clearing the glass from the windows, the multiple, multiple windows that broke in this residential neighborhood, as this explosive-laden drone fired by Houthi rebels from Yemen all the way here to Tel Aviv. The drone actually exploded in this area overhead right where I am, and it woke people up in the middle of the night. We spoke with several residents who were in the area, including one man who was on his balcony with friends seconds before the drone hit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And as soon as I turned around to the close the door behind me, my friends yells, what's that? I hear this sound like an F-35 or an F-15. But, it was 40 meters above sea level. It makes no sense to be that close. And I hear boom, red, orange blasts hits on the back of my neck and we get pushed forward. The doors blast open.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The windows were broken, shattered, a lot of glass, ceramics, a lot of things were on the floor, and we realized that it was just outside the door.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAMOND: And now, one man in his 50s was actually killed by a shrapnel from this drone. He was found in his bed with what the first responders described as penetrating injuries. Eight other people were taken to the hospital. Five of those at least have been released at this hour. There was also damaged to multiple cars in the area, one car, a significant piece of that drone fell right on it and it is just absolutely totaled. The Israeli military says that they actually detected this drone, but that due to human error, they failed to intercept it, and they also failed clearly to turn on those air raid sirens that would normally alert the people in this neighborhood before that explosion actually happened.
So, clearly, something went very wrong here. And again, this is the first time that Houthi rebels have actually claimed responsibility for a drone attack that has successfully hit a target all the way here in Tel Aviv. Fred.
PLEITGEN: Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much, there for us in Tel Aviv.
And finally, the Olympic torch continues its own Tour de France. Stage 60 of the relay saw the torch making its way through northern France, finishing the last phase of the voyage in the town of Beauvais on Thursday, where French fencing champion Sophie Moressee-Pichot, who won gold at the 1996 Olympic Games, which, of course, were held in Atlanta, and she lit the cauldron.
[08:55:00]
The relay will culminate one week from today with the lighting at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. Also, Netflix is phasing out its basic plan, the cheapest ad-free version of the streaming service. It currently costs $11.99 a month in the United States. The company is pushing users to sign up for its ad-supported plan at $6.99 a month. The phase-out starts in January in Canada and the United Kingdom, with France and the U.S. to follow. Users can still get the streaming service without advertising. The standard plan goes for $15.49 a month, and the premium plan costs $22.99 a month.
I want to thank you all for joining me here in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Fred Pleitgen. Stay tuned. Connect the World with Eleni Giokos is coming up.
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