Daily News Brief

July 19, 2024

Top of the Agenda

One of the largest simultaneous outages ever reported hit computer systems at businesses using Microsoft software this morning. Microsoft linked the outage to a botched update of cybersecurity program Crowdstrike. Crowdstrike’s CEO said a fix has been deployed and the problem was not a cyberattack. The outage disrupted companies and public services worldwide including banks, health systems, and airlines, underscoring the interconnected nature of the global economy and its vulnerability to disruptions.

The first problems related to the outage were reported late Thursday. It was not immediately clear how long it would take for services interrupted by the outage to be back up and running. Many flights continued to be grounded on Friday, and delays were reported at border crossings including a bridge between the United States and Canada. (Bloomberg, FT, NYT)

Analysis

“This is a very, very uncomfortable illustration of the fragility of the world’s core internet infrastructure,” Oxford University’s Ciaran Martin told the Financial Times. 

“That one update from a single company could plunge so many companies—from airline check-in desks to consultants’ conference rooms—into a digital dark age serves as a stark warning of the economy’s technological dependence, and the dangers of too much consolidation around the same tools,” the Wall Street Journal’s Gareth Vipers and Sam Schechner write.

CFR Senior Fellow Tarah Wheeler testified to Congress in January about the need for transparency and technical expertise in U.S. government reviews of cyber incidents.

Europe

A Russian court sentenced Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to sixteen years in prison for espionage today after a closed door trial. Gershkovich, the U.S. government, the newspaper, and a UN expert panel emphatically rejected the charges; the Russian government did not produce any evidence to substantiate them. Gershkovich was detained in March 2023 while reporting. U.S. and Western officials have accused Moscow of using him and other foreign detainees as bargaining chips for potential prisoner swaps. (CNN, AP)

Earlier this year, “Putin appeared to suggest that Gershkovich could be swapped for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian security officer who is serving a life sentence in Germany for the murder of a Chechen Georgian dissident there,” CFR Press Fellow Miriam Elder said on an episode of The World Next Week podcast. “The Americans can't just call up the Germans or Slovenians and say, ‘Release these guys.’”

France: Yaël Braun-Pivet, a centrist from President Emmanuel Macron’s coalition, was reelected as president of the National Assembly  in a three-round vote yesterday. Centrist candidates saw their numbers in parliament shrink in France’s recent snap elections, during which a leftist coalition emerged with the highest number of seats. A deal has yet to be reached to select the country’s next prime minister. (FT)

Pacific Rim

China’s third plenum did not produce any major breaks on economic policy, analysts said, citing communiqués from the meeting. However, the meeting formalized the removal of former foreign and defense ministers from the ruling Communist party’s central committee, and officials acknowledged concerns over the downturn in China’s property sector. (Nikkei)

CFR Senior Fellow Carl Minzner previewed the plenum and its focus on state manufacturing.

North Korea/Russia: Russian Vice Defense Minister Aleksey Krivoruchko discussed the “importance and necessity” of bilateral military cooperation with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on a visit to Pyongyang yesterday, North Korean state media reported. Kim expressed support for Russia in its war in Ukraine. (Yonhap)

South and Central Asia

The country is experiencing a “near-total” internet outage amid wide-scale student protests. Demonstrators opposed to the country’s 1970s-era quota system for well-paid government jobs have attempted to shut down some transportation networks in the country; at least thirty-nine people have been killed in protest-related clashes, AFP reported. The internet outages are unrelated to global disruptions linked to Microsoft. (Anadolu, Bloomberg, AFP)

Pakistan: Security authorities announced the arrest of Amin ul Haq, a senior al-Qaeda leader on a United Nations terrorism list. He was a close associate of Osama bin Laden and was planning a “large-scale terrorism project” in the country, the authorities said. (Dawn)

Middle East and North Africa

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels carried out a drone attack near the U.S. consulate in Tel  Aviv, killing one person and wounding at least ten. It was the first deadly Houthi attack on the city since the war in the Gaza Strip began last October when Hamas militants attacked Israel.  Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the country will “settle the score” with anyone who attacks it. (AP, Times of Israel)

CFR’s Will Merrow and Kali Robinson map Iran’s regional armed network.

Syria: President Bashar al-Assad’s party won some 74 percent of parliamentary seats in low-turnout elections, electoral authorities announced yesterday. That gives Assad enough parliamentary support to pass a constitutional amendment that could extend his rule; current term limits would limit his tenure to 2028. (AP)

Sub-Saharan Africa

Unions had been threatening strikes amid a cost-of-living crisis that they say was worsened by President Bola Tinubu’s currency and spending reforms. The last minimum wage was set five years ago, but the president of a major union said the proposal to raise the wage from less than $20 to $44 a month includes a provision to review the level every three years. (Reuters)

Sudan/UAE: Emirati leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan endorsed efforts to end the conflict in Sudan yesterday in his first call with Sudan’s military general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan since the country’s civil war began last year. The UAE has been accused of backing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in their war against the Sudanese army. (Al-Monitor)

On this episode of The President’s Inbox podcast, CFR expert Michelle Gavin details the scale of the crisis in Sudan’s civil war.

Americas

President Gabriel Boric said he would send a bill to the legislature to accelerate the construction of a five hundred-person prison after nine people were killed in two shootings in the capital, Santiago, last week. (Reuters) 

Brazil/Paraguay: Paraguay will buy six fighter jets from Brazilian aerospace firm Embraer as part of its own crime fighting strategy, the Paraguayan government announced yesterday. (MercoPress)

U.S. Campaign 2024

In a speech at the RNC, Trump pledged to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and “launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.” He also suggested imposing tariffs of 100 to 200 percent on cars built by Chinese firms in Mexico and hailed his positive relationship with Kim Jong-un. (NYT)

This CFR tracker looks at 2024 presidential candidates’ stances on foreign policy.

Friday Editor’s Pick

The New York Times profiles Myanmar’s poet commandos leading resistance to the country’s military junta.

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