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Global Tech Outages Hit Airlines and Businesses Worldwide; New Details About Gunman in Trump Attack; Biden Campaign Slams Trump's RNC Speech; Global Outages Affect Europe Airports, Travel, Media; U.S. Journalist Found Guilty of Spying by Russian Court; Tel Aviv on Heightened Alert After Deadly Drone Attack; Historical Week in U.S. Politics. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired July 19, 2024 - 10:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:29]
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is CONNECT THE WORLD.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome to our second hour of CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Eleni Giokos. I'm in for my colleague, Becky
Anderson.
Massive tech disruptions hitting airlines, businesses, and even emergency services. It's all connected to one tech company doing an update.
Plus the latest on the state of President Biden's campaign. One aide telling CNN there is a growing sense the game is over.
And the Houthi militant group has now claimed responsibility for a drone strike in Tel Aviv. At least one person was killed.
All right. We start with breaking news amid an enormous IT outage, which is hitting hard across the world. Banks, grocery stores, TV news networks, and
even emergency services are just some of the victims alongside hundreds of thousands of passengers as flights are canceled in droves globally.
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike says it's not a cyberattack.
Here's what the CEO told NBC a short time ago. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE KURTZ, CROWDSTRIKE CEO: The system was sent an update and that update had a software bug in it and caused an issue with the Microsoft
operating system, and we identified this very quickly and remediated the issue, and as systems come back online, as they're rebooted, they're coming
up and they're working. And now we are working with each and every customer to make sure that we can bring them back online.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Well, Texas based cybersecurity company CrowdStrike was launched in 2011. Its software is used by numerous Fortune 500 companies, including
Microsoft. CrowdStrike also provides cyberattack investigations.
And as we heard from the CEO just a moment ago, the outage appears to be primarily caused by what they say is a bad software update to a widely used
cybersecurity product. Now program in question is Falcon, the faculty update, the faulty update, rather, is crashing computers running Microsoft
Windows causing an error message to be displayed on a blue screen.
Now the company stressed that the issue was not due to a cyberattack and that Mac and Linux computers are unaffected. A CrowdStrike advisory seen by
CNN urged customers to reboot their machines and confirmed that the issue is specific to Falcon.
I want to stay on this. We've got a team of experts with us. We've got some reporters on the ground. We also have Stavros Shiaeles, who's an associate
professor in cybersecurity at the University of Portsmouth, as well as CNN's Marc Stewart in Beijing for us, and we'll be joined by Anna Stewart
shortly.
Stavros, I want to start off with you. You know, and just hearing what we've heard from the CEO saying, look, this is just a bug. It was a mistake
that we identified very quickly, and my question is, was it quick enough when you're seeing such a huge issue playing out globally across multiple
sectors that frankly has lasted for many hours?
STAVROS SHIAELES, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN CYBERSECURITY, UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH: Obviously, as you -- thank you, first of all, thank you for
inviting me. Obviously, it was not fast enough. All of the disruption you would not happen if it was fast enough.
GIOKOS: Yes. OK. I've got Marc standing by and I want, Marc, for you to give us a sense what you're seeing on the ground in terms of disruptions
across Asia. We have heard that in the airports we're still seeing delays, flight cancellations.
Is there any word in terms of what they could do to rectify this? You know, CrowdStrike saying all you need to do is reboot. But it seems it's a lot
more complex than this.
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Eleni. It's just past 10:00 at night and there are still issues at airports here in particular.
GIOKOS: So, Marc, give me a sense in terms of whether you've spoken to some of the airlines, what they're doing to try and mitigate this issue. Have
they found any solutions? Is it as easy as rebooting systems? What have you heard?
[10:05:00]
M. STEWART: Sure. Apologies. The delay here at Asia sometimes gets in the way.
Look, it is just after 10:00 at night and there are issues at airports still across Asia in both Bangkok and in Hong Kong. And what airlines are
trying to do now is two things. One, they are just manually checking people in for flights. That requires staff, that requires time. So that's a big
burden to a typically automated system.
They're also telling, in the case of Cathay Pacific Airlines, telling people to use their apps to try to do some of the different functions that
are needed, whether it's booking a ticket or changing a seat. So that is taking place there. A lot of it is going to have to just catch up. The
system is just going to have to catch up. Even though it is so late at night here in Asia because of where we are in the world, we see flights to
departing and arriving even at these late hours.
So the inbound flights that are coming from the United States and Europe typically, they have been delayed, so it's going to cause a problem here
over the next few days and airlines and airports are just having to stick to the basics to do this.
GIOKOS: Yes, exactly. I mean, there's going to be a huge backlog.
Stavros, I want to bring you back into this conversation. And I want you to give me a sense of, you know, what your understanding is when you're
hearing practically the issues that the airlines are facing. We're hearing emergency services are having problems. And just how widespread this
disruption has been and how long do you think it's going to take to actually fix this?
SHIAELES: In normal circumstances, it should not take long because when you update a software, you should always have a backup, which you can restore
the software. However, as I understand what happened with the Falcon software, Falcon is the flagship of CrowdStrike and that software uses a
client that is installed on Window systems, and I suspect the issue is there. There is some faulty (INAUDIBLE) with the client that is causing the
Microsoft Window systems to crash.
So this is not I believe so simple to be corrected, except if there is a backup or before installing the client. There is a system restore point,
which you can restore the system in a previous working condition. However, as this involves some drivers in the system this could be more tricky to
revert back because all the systems they have what we call a failsafe put, which the operating system is starting only the necessary services.
So in this case, I believe in order to remove the buggy software in order not to cash because the system crash as they start you need to remove it
from the system and the drivers, reboot the system normally and then install the new client. So I don't know how much time it will actually take
or if they have the resources for that. I mean, to do it all in very quickly.
GIOKOS: Wow. I mean, it sounds awfully difficult. And as you say, it requires resources.
I want to bring in Anna Stewart, who is standing by for us as well to give us a sense of what's going on in the U.K. as well as wider Europe.
What are you seeing on the ground? Any good news if things going back to normal, Anna?
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely no good news. You won't be surprised to hear because of course with flight disruption, it will take a
very long time to get everything back to normal. You know, plays in the wrong places. Some people have had their flights cancelled altogether and
there are huge delays.
And what is so interesting is just how widespread this is. It really didn't matter where you woke up this morning, whether you were in Asia, Europe,
the United States, so many people are being impacted by this and that's certainly part of the frustration. And I think the worry and concern for so
many people that are feeling this as they get to the airport had sort of forced to appreciate the realization that their holiday probably is
canceled at this stage is just how widespread it is.
And we have a soundbite from a traveler in Paris. He was feeling the impact and he really gets the point of how extraordinary that a single point of
failure from one company could have this sort of global impact. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What's a bit worrying is that one company impacts the global economy and the life of the planet. If I
understand well because this has impact everywhere, like in the United States, I saw airports in Berlin, Amsterdam are closed. The London Stock
Exchange was no longer working. I mean, this is crazy. It's worrying to realize that we depend on such a small thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[10:10:07]
A. STEWART: And of course it's not just airlines. I mean, some planes taking off here if you can still hear me behind that noise, but it's not
just airlines. That's probably where most people will feel the disruption, not least because it's the beginning of the summer holidays, but as the
passenger there mentioned, it's impacting telecommunications. It's impacting payment systems. It's impacting the Web site of the London Stock
Exchange. It's impacting how doctors in the U.K. can prescribe -- give prescriptions to patients or book appointments.
I mean, it's really quite widespread this impact and I think it'll continue for many hours or days to come to really clear up what is a big mess here
at the airport.
GIOKOS: Marc, I was just looking at CrowdStrike share price, which has plummeted 12 percent in early trade. And here's the thing. I mean, the big
question about its reputation, its credibility, when a mistake in an era of this scale occurs. We see colossal impact globally. One questions what kind
of governance and, you know, testing abilities they have before they click- send on an updates.
M. STEWART: Right. Look, the entire strength and credibility of this company is certainly under the microscope. And the fact that its stock
price in early trading has declined by about 12 percent shows that there are tremendous reservations by traders and shareholders in that company.
This is not the kind of failure that, especially a company focused on cybersecurity, should be having. It is interesting to note, though. We saw
the CEO very early on in this crisis take to Twitter and offer an explanation.
We saw him appear on NBC in the United States doing an interview explaining what happened. I mean, that is kind of what you do in a crisis is try to
get in front of it and try to try to address the issues as much as possible. Whether or not that will help improve the company's reputation
remains to be seen. I mean, the losses are not just inconveniences. We're not just talking about missed flights and delayed luggage.
This is impacting banks. This is impacting financial trading. Even the impact on grocery stores. We talked earlier how some of the grocery stores
in Australia were having a hard time. This is impacting businesses large and small. The question is just how forgiving will they be as well as Wall
Street?
GIOKOS: Yes. But -- exactly. And Stavros, I want you to get to weigh in on how this error could have occurred. Is it human error? Is it when they're
testing the updates and there was a lapse in the way that they're testing these updates? Because I think when they say this isn't a cybersecurity
attack, people want to know why and how this could have happened.
SHIAELES: As far as I can tell, when you hear about a bug, which is human error, is a problem in the code, in the -- when they create the software.
Now that's a very good question about the testing and how well the testing. Normally companies so big, they have very cross system checking. I believe
it was a human error that something skipped their cross system checking.
So future they should see to do more rigorous cross system checking and maybe utilize AI which can help a lot in avoiding human errors. So the more
that you remove the human in these tests, et cetera, the better I believe.
GIOKOS: All right. Stavros Shiaeles, thank you so much for joining us. Marc Stewart for us in Beijing and we've got Anna Stewarts in -- at Heathrow
Airport giving us an update, keeping a very close watch on the story and how people have been impacted, disruptions across the board. We're watching
this very closely.
And still to come. while U.S. president Joe Biden struggles to shore up support in the Democratic Party, Donald Trump has triumphantly cemented his
place as the leader of the Republican Party. A live report coming up just ahead.
Plus online activity of the rally gunman paints a picture of the days that led up to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. New details on the
investigation just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:16:53]
GIOKOS: More now on our top story, the global tech outage affecting major services worldwide. America's Homeland Security says it's working with
cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and other agencies to assess the disruption. CrowdStrike is explaining that there's a defect in one of its software
updates from Microsoft Windows devices and Microsoft is now saying, in its words, the underlying cause has been fixed.
Now here's CrowdStrike's official response, and I'm quoting. "This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated,
and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous
updates on our Web sites."
U.S. president Joe Biden is more isolated than he has ever been with many White House and campaign officials now privately believing he must abandon
his chance for a second term and soon.
Donald Trump, meantime, is enjoying the support of his party as the Republican National Convention wraps up in Milwaukee. On Thursday, Trump
officially accepted his party's presidential nomination.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (R): I am running to be president for all of
America, not half of American, because there is no victory in winning for half of America. So tonight with faith and devotion, I proudly accept your
nomination for president of the United States. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Well, this was Trump's first major speech since the shooting at his rally on Saturday.
Trump talked about a wide range of topics in his speech, including the economy, foreign policy, the U.S. immigration crisis, and his assassination
attempt. By CNN's count Trump made more than 20 false claims on a number of topics during his acceptance speech. Now the Biden campaign slammed Trump's
speech with one adviser saying it's all about him.
Joining us now to discuss is CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. And she joins us from Delaware where U.S. president Joe Biden has been recovering from COVID.
Priscilla, great to see you. Look, the world is watching in terms of what President Biden is going to do this weekend. What's the latest from the
president?
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, moments ago we heard from the president's campaign chair, Jen O'Malley Dillon, and she maintained in an
interview with MSNBC that the president is staying in the race. There was acknowledgment that he has slipped in some polls against former president
Donald Trump, and that there has been deepening concern among members of the party about his viability as the Democratic candidate.
And she acknowledged all of that in the course of her interview, but maintained over and over again that the president is not going anywhere and
that their plan is to get him back on the campaign trail once he's recovered and go directly to the American people who they say are not all
willing to go towards former president Donald Trump, but also need some reassurance that the president is up to the task.
[10:20:16]
Now, let me take you behind the scenes because that tells a little bit of a different story. According to sources the president's inner circle has
gotten much tighter as he has deliberated what to do next. He's often cast doubt over polls that show that he can't defeat former president Donald
Trump, even when shown by some of the party's top Democrats. And also his advisers are seeing what they said was the walls closing in, while some of
his loyal aides say he's dug in.
So as you can see, there are a lot of differing opinions here. There are those who think that it has become untenable for the president to remain in
the race, just given the fact that there is a vast concern among members of the party, not only lawmakers, but also donors about whether the president
should be the Democratic candidate. But then, too, there are those who are loyal to the president and just can't catch a break, that they do think
that the president is the best suited to go up against his Republican rival Donald Trump.
While all of this is unfolding within the party, it's, as you mentioned, too, the ongoing criticism and attacks against Donald Trump, including last
night when, as you said, the campaign adviser made the point that the former president's remarks were focused on problems, not solutions. So the
campaign is certainly grappling with a very challenging moment, a moment that has extended now weeks as they continue to field incoming messages
from multiple members of their party and do their best to move forward.
GIOKOS: Yes. I mean, pressure and tensions are certainly rising within the Democratic Party in terms of what they'll do next. But I think one thing
that perhaps could shift this discussion is what happens with the donors, and you mentioned this, whether the donors are in it for the long term with
President Biden, or whether something is significantly changing on that front.
ALVAREZ: Yes, and I want to be clear about which donors we're talking about. We're talking about those who are giving big dollar checks over to
the campaign, something that sources have told me is that they are frustrated that they don't -- they sort of look over the nuance of this
moment in some cases and just want a candidate that they think is viable, one that can go up against the former president Donald Trump.
And they just don't see that right now in President Joe Biden despite getting some sort of reassurances from campaign officials that there's the
next campaign stop or the next solo news conference to try to assuage the concerns that those donors have. But none of that has really made a dent.
Oftentimes putting people in the difficult position of trying to sell a candidate that is grappling with his own intraparty revolt.
And so the other side of this, though, is the grassroots donations. And that has been a bright spot for the Biden campaign. They often point to
those small-dollar funds that are given over to the campaign and so while they're seeing some success still in that space, those big dollar donors
are starting to defect and that is certainly a concern, if perhaps not one that would essentially guide the president in his decision-making, one that
the campaign is having to wrestle with.
GIOKOS: All right. Priscilla Alvarez, great to see you. Thank you so much.
Well, disturbing new details are emerging about the gunman who opened fire on Trump last Saturday in Pennsylvania. Officials say he researched the
arrest of a Michigan school shooter and the prosecution of his parents, as well as Web site on how to build explosives.
CNN's Evan Perez is in Washington with the latest.
More details emerging, Evan, about the shooter. What more can you tell us?
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR U.S. JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Eleni, what we're seeing happening behind the scenes right now with investigators is that
they're building a profile, essentially of this shooter because he didn't leave behind any kind of writings, any kind of manifesto, anything that we
typically see in these types of mass shootings here in the United States.
People often leave behind something to explain what their goals were or what there were trying to do. And in this case, none of that has emerged,
including from his interviews with his parents, his sister. They described him as a loner. So what we now have is a focus by investigators and some of
those internet searches. For instance, as you pointed out, he researched photographs -- arrest photographs of Ethan Crumbley and his parents who
Ethan Crumbley was a school shooter at a high school in Michigan back in 2021.
He looked into how to build explosives. Again, that's a match at some of the rudimentary explosives that were found in his car and at the home after
the investigators searched it.
[10:25:00]
And we also know that, you know, he, on the day of the shooting, while he was there, perhaps minutes before he fired those shots at the former
president, Donald Trump, he was apparently looking at a live stream of the rally as it was ongoing. And he took a screenshot of it. Those are things
that were found on his primary cell phone.
Now as far as trying to get to his motive, you know, they've looked at, for instance, a week before the rally, before last Saturday's rally, they know
he researched the date of the DNC, that Democratic National Convention, which is in August, that he also researched this rally in Butler,
Pennsylvania.
So they, you know, the picture that's emerging, at least one of the theories that's emerging among investigators, Eleni, is that perhaps he was
looking to do something big, something -- carry out some kind of mass shooting and that the Trump rally, which was about an hour away from his
home, ended up being sort of the most convenient one that he could carry out. Again, that's early in this investigation. More certainly to be found
out -- Eleni.
GIOKOS: Absolutely. I know that we are going to be hearing a lot more of this in days and weeks to come.
Evan Perez, thank you so much for being on top of the story.
Well, it's been a rough day for airline travelers, thanks to that worldwide tech outage. We'll update you on efforts to get computers back online, as
well as passengers in the air. Plus a verdict has been reached in the trial of an American journalist accused of spying in Russia. That story plus the
reaction.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: Welcome back to CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Eleni Giokos.
Trying to get back to normal appears to be the order of the day for banks, airlines, and other businesses after that massive global tech outage. One
expert saying it's set to be the largest in history. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration says it's closely monitoring the impact on
airlines. American Airlines now saying it has safely re-established its operation. And Delta says it has resumed some flight departures. But the
number of flight cancellations is overall growing and it's continuing to grow.
[10:30:05]
At last check FlightAware was reporting more than 2,000 cancelations worldwide. Some travelers are finding themselves out of pocket and out of
patience.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm so upset right now. There are eight people in my party. Eight people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's 13 in ours.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: $456 a ticket and they're giving me $100 back. That is it. And we're screwed. This man is getting married. We have reservations.
We have cars that we paid for. I paid $380 in a shuttle -- to shuttle everyone here this morning. They have been here since before me with three
kids. I've been here since 3:00 in the morning. $100 is unacceptable. I am a good -- I am a good customer for Allegiant and I feel like I'm being
completely screwed over. This is bull crap.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Well, CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien is standing by for us. We also have Isabel Rosales standing by as well.
There's so much emotion. You know, we know how you feel when you're at the airport and you can't get to where you need to be in. The trouble is that
the airlines can't do very much with what they have because their systems are down.
So, Isabel, I want you to take me through what you're seeing in Atlanta.
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, and even as some of these flights have resumed, we know like Delta, for example, this is a big travel hub for
Delta, they had paused all their flights. Now resuming them. The issue is in checking people in, the booking process. So what we're witnessing in the
world's busiest airport are just lines of people. Some folks just sitting down. No answers.
They're waiting for essentially shouts from airline staff telling them, hey, Philly has been canceled, or even manually checking people in because
the kiosks are down due to this outage. Folks calling out by flight in order, prioritizing the flights by departure time, saying yes, hey, Boston,
your turn. And folks raising their hands and go into the front there and that is how they're being checked in.
Massive slowdown. Crowds right here just waiting and hoping that they can make their flight in time if it hasn't been delayed or canceled.
Let me introduce you real quick to Maya and Ashley who have been experiencing this headache firsthand.
How would you describe it? What has it been like to me?
ASHLEY, PASSENGER: It's just been a cluster. They're not telling you anything. We came and we actually even tried to see if our flight was still
going, and wouldn't listen to us, just told us to get in line, sat here for two hours. And I go up to the desk to find out it was canceled.
ROSALES: Oh, my gosh, so I'm sure you're frustrated.
ASHLEY: They're not talking even if you tried to ask them. So it's frustrating. And I mean, there's nothing going out.
ROSALES: Yes. So you're not even sure about your next flight.
ASHLEY: No. The QR code to scan, that you can message with a representative to just -- obviously they're busy and you're on hold there, too, so.
ROSALES: And Maya, you're traveling with your toddler.
MAYA, PASSENGER: Yes, I have a toddler. Her car seat, a 40-pound suitcase, my book bag, and we've been here maybe closer to two hours now, hoping that
it doesn't get canceled as well, but it is very frustrating.
ROSALES: And you're both dealing with Spirit. Obviously, all the airlines have been experiencing this worldwide. Are you getting any answers?
MAYA: The way that they're doing it is not the best. And people who come down seem kind of frustrated when we're asking them what happened because
it's like I get you're frustrated, but we're stuck here. You work here. So it's been a mess and very -- it's very --
ROSALES: You're trying to keep your cool.
MAYA: I am because I have a toddler who's now getting antsy and I'm trying to stay calm to keep her calm. It's -- and it's hot. It's very hot.
ASHLEY: Very hot.
ROSALES: Thank you, ladies. And I've also heard from a colleague who actually made it past security. TSA has had no problems that even when they
go inside, that confusion continues because the boards with information, they are blanked out so they don't know what concourse to go to. They don't
know if their flight is on time, if they made it, if they missed it. So that confusion just continues.
And by the way, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport expecting 300,000 passengers today alone.
GIOKOS: Whoa. 300,000 today alone. Isabel, thank you so much for that update. I hope that toddler and the mom gets on a plane very quickly.
All right. So we have another fantastic guest with us to give us a sense of what's going on.
Miles, always good to speak to you, sir. You know, we talk about the impact here and we're saying, all right, these good, listen, we're talking about
how these airlines, these businesses have to reboot their systems manually, by the way, no wonder there's confusion. No wonder we're hearing the
messaging that passengers are not getting any communication because I think frankly no one knows what's going on and how quickly this can be rectified.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Yes, it's a bit of a reminder of the "House of Cards" technical intricacy, which we have collectively created
here.
[10:35:09]
One software patch and pretty much the whole globe is that its knees right now, including a lot of frustrated passengers all over the place. 26,000
plus delays globally. 2700 almost cancellations and going up there. It appears when you look at some of the indicators for Delta, United and
American, I think American is coming back online, but Delta and United still are down in many respects.
This is a big mess and I think if I were a ticket agent, I'd probably call in sick today. And if you are a traveler and have the option of not going
to the airport right now, I would say stay in your hotel or your home. Let this sort out a little bit before you get there in the midst of that
stressful crowd.
GIOKOS: Yes. So here's the thing, right, so you've got this software, this update that, you know, CrowdStrike is saying had a bug or some kind of a
file that was wrong. There was an error. They're trying to figure out how and why this happened. But in the meantime, you know, I wonder if airlines
are ready for these kind of vulnerabilities and what other system they can revert to that could avoid the things that we're seeing right now playing
out at a global scale. We can't just be vulnerable and we're just so reliant on IT and not having sort of a backup system.
O'BRIEN: Yes. I think you've hit the nail on the head here, Eleni, that this system is built, you know, the airline industry is built on
redundancy. That's why it's so safe. 99.999 percent of the time everything is going to be great. And that's because there's layer upon layer.
These systems which are designed to help you book and check in and runs the monitors in the airport, all the backend operations of airline probably
should have an equal amount of redundancy built into them. They should not go down just because Windows goes down. Backup systems are a really good
idea on all sides of this and the airlines' dependency on a system that can fail so horribly with a single point failure I think will hopefully make
them think about having a better backup system in the future.
GIOKOS: Yes, so I mean, from what we understand they're saying, well, look, we figured out the problem, then, you know, everyone needs to reboot. And
if you're going to see how it's rebooted, you need resources, you need IT specialists. It's not really an easy fix. In the meantime, you've got this
backlog of passengers that you need to try and get back on planes.
So tell me the ultimate impact financially that this could have on airlines as well as passengers and what I guess this means for insurance companies.
This is going to have a spillover effect.
O'BRIEN: Yes. It's got a lot of knock-on effects to say the least, and the longer it goes on the more that it becomes exacerbated. Somebody is going
to have to pay a lot for this. This company which instituted this patch I suspect is going to be paying a lot for all of the consequences of this.
It's a reminder, you know, this technical system we built and we are all so dependent upon it. And I think most days we take it all for granted and
everything goes well. But perhaps a little more resiliency in the system might be warranted for the next time.
GIOKOS: Well, listen, I'm of the generation I still remember we had to go to the ticketing office physically to get a ticket printed on the peculiar
printers. So I'm glad that we've gone digital, but yes, some things just don't break.
O'BRIEN: Eleni, I'm going to date myself. When I first got on planes, we would put -- they'd put stickers on a diagram to indicate who sat where.
You know, maybe bring back the stickers.
(LAUGHTER)
GIOKOS: There we go. Miles O'Brien, good to see, sir. Thank you so much.
Well, moving on now, and an American journalist has been found guilty of spying by a Russian court. Russian media reports Evan Gershkovich was
sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security colony. Gershkovich was arrested during a reporting trip for the "Wall Street Journal" in 2023 and
later accused of spying for the CIA. The American journalist had been pleaded not guilty of espionage.
For more on this, we turn to CNN's Matthew Chance, who's in London for us following the story very closely.
And Matthew, I guess the speed at which this trial and this verdict came through brings to question on, you know, whether the judiciary can be
trusted in Russia, but take us through what we've seen.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think the speed was a little unexpected in the sense that this was an espionage
trial, of course, an immensely complicated case, you'd imagine.
[10:40:05]
And, you know, it's been less than three weeks that the trial has been formally underway. I mean, he's been in detention for 15 months before that
simply to prolong his period in, you know, behind bars on remand. And so that does raise questions about, you know, the politicized nature of the
Russian legal system.
There's a sort of sense amongst critics that, you know, was due process given to consider and to weigh the evidence before the court made this very
serious guilty verdict and handed down a prison sentence of 16 years? And I don't think there were many people that really expected there to be
anything other than a guilty verdict in this case because it's become such a political issue between Russia and the United States.
I suppose on the positive side, if you can draw some positivity from this, it's that a bureaucratic obstacle to him being swapped, Evan Gershkovich
going back home has potentially been removed because the Russians made it quite clear they wouldn't consider a prisoner exchange, even though behind
the scenes conversations have been underway about that, but they wouldn't consider actually making that happen until the verdict had been handed
down.
Now, it has been and so it potentially opens the gates to that, but, I mean, that deal, if one is ever agreed, could take months or even years to
come to fruition. And so this is still a very stressful time for Evan Gershkovich, of course, and his family.
GIOKOS: All right. Matthew Chance, thank you so much for that update. Good to see you.
And still to come, Tel Aviv on a heightened alert after a deadly drone attack. Houthi rebels claimed responsibility. Were live in Tel Aviv with
the latest. Stay with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: Tel Aviv is on heightened alert after a deadly drone attack early Friday. One person was killed in the explosion and 10 others were injured.
The attack occurred in an area that's home to several diplomatic compounds, including a U.S. embassy branch office. The U.S. State Department says
there was no damage.
Houthi rebels in Yemen are claiming responsibility, but CNN cannot independently verify that claim. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement in
Palestine have praised the attack.
Let's go straight to Jeremy Diamond, who is in Tel Aviv for us to give us an update.
Jeremy, good to see you. I think there are so many questions about why the Iron Dome did not work. What more do we know?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no doubt a lot of questions this morning about why this drone fired by the Houthis towards
Tel Aviv was not intercepted before it exploded in the air right behind me on this street. The damage spans multiple residential buildings in this
area. A man in his 50s was killed by shrapnel from the blast. Eight others were hospitalized.
[10:45:02]
They have since all been released from the hospital. But people here are still clearing up the broken glass and pieces of shrapnel from this
explosion that happened in the early, early hours of this morning.
I spoke with several residents who heard the blast including one man who seconds earlier before this drone made impact was actually out on his
balcony and he had just walked back inside his apartment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And as soon as go turn around to close the door behind me, my friends yelled, what's that? I hear the sound like an F-35 or an F-
15 but it was 40 meters above sea level that it makes no sense to be that close. And I hear boom. Red-orange blasts hit on the back of my neck, and
we get pushed forward. The doors blast open.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The windows were, you know, 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 as for why this drone was not intercepted, the first successful Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv, we should note, an Israeli
military official telling us that this drone was actually detected, but it seems that it was not identified as a threat and was not intercepted due to
what this military official described as, quote-unquote, "human error."
A lot more questions are going to be asked about exactly what that human error was and why it happened. Certainly it has left people in Tel Aviv on
edge about the possibility of this happening again. The Israeli military says that this was an Iranian made Samad-3 drone that they say was
upgraded, modified in order to have a longer range, to be able to make it all the way from Yemen, where Houthi rebels launched this drone, all the
way here to central Tel Aviv -- Eleni.
GIOKOS: All right. Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much.
Well, the U.K. will resume funding the U.N. relief agency for Palestinian refugees. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced about $27 million
to support work being done in Gaza. The U.K., like many countries, paused funding in January following allegations by Israel that 12 -- UNRWA staff,
rather, members were involved in the October 7th attack by Hamas.
In a statement, the U.K. Foreign Office said, the government is confident that UNRWA is taking action to ensure it meets the highest standards of
neutrality.
The UAE says it's willing to join a multinational stabilization mission for Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war. Lana Nusseibeh, a special envoy of the UAE
Foreign Ministry, told "The Financial Times" her country could put boots on the ground as part of a post-war plan if they were invited by the
Palestinian Authority. Nusseibeh said such a move would also require the U.S. to provide a leadership role and a commitment to achieving a two-state
solution.
And still ahead, an assassination attempt, a president gets COVID, Trump becomes the Republican presidential nominee for the third time, as calls
grow louder for President Biden to pull out of the race. A look at a historical week in American politics.
Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:50:06]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: When I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me, really, really hard on my right ear, I said to myself, wow, what was that?
It can only be a bullet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: It's been a truly remarkable week in U.S. politics. Trump recounting his assassination attempt less than a week ago during
historically long speech. His calls for unity quickly falling to the wayside as he ramps up his campaign promises. This as high-ranking
Democrats call for Joe Biden to step aside from running for a second term. A growing sense that it's game over for the president's candidacy.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny joins us now from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for an update.
Jeff, good to see you. Just a short time ago, we saw a group of Democrats launch a campaign ad calling on President Biden to step down. And I just
want to play a clip for our audience.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Biden, you saved democracy in 2020.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, you have a chance to do it again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's time to pass the torch and let us choose a new nominee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: All right, pressure is mounting so it's going from bad to worse for President Biden. Give us a sense of what that must be like for him right
now and we know what are the people around him advising him at this stage?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Lynda, there's no question that has been an extraordinary week in American politics. I mean,
an assassination attempt for the former president, the current president testing positive for COVID, his party calling for him to get out. The
former president's party is rallying behind him, but here at the end of this week President Biden is increasingly isolated we are told.
There are so many Democrats who indeed are calling for him to step aside because they fear that he cannot beat Donald Trump. Now the Biden campaign
is pushing back very forcefully to that and using the speech from Thursday night, that acceptance speech that Donald Trump gave here in Milwaukee, as
evidenced why. They said that they, you know, did not live up to his pledge of a unity type theme.
And, you know, a few people thought that Trump is going to change stripes obviously. A 78-year-old former president, he's been on the public scene
for so long. But the question is, is Joe Biden going to reassess or not? And that is his decision to make. So going into this weekend, there is no
doubt all Democrats are keeping a close eye on what he intends to do, even as they look forward and quietly discuss contingency plans.
One month from today, Democrats gather in Chicago for their own convention and the big question hanging over all this, will he be the nominee? Will it
be Vice President Kamala Harris or someone else? Truly an unprecedented state of play here in the U.S. -- Lynda.
GIOKOS: Yes, it's a fundamental questions, right? It's not just about what the messaging is going to be about -- lead the party itself. I want to talk
about former president Trump's messaging, right. There seems there were two sections to his speech. The one that was talking about unity and then the
other where he -- you know, went quickly back to his old playbook. I want you to listen to some of what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And I say it often, if you took the 10 worst presidents in the history of the United States, think of it, the 10 worst, added them up,
they will not have done the damage that Biden has done. Only going to use the term once, Biden. I'm not going to use the name anymore, just one time.
The damage that he has done to this country is unthinkable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: How's Biden going to counter that?
ZELENY: Well, look, it's certainly not a message of optimism and hope from the former president. It was a very dark speech. But, look, it is now about
Joe Biden's record. I mean, there's no question. So if you throw out the superlatives and a few fact-checks along the way, there's no question that
the economy, inflation, immigration, those are pieces of the Biden record that he's going to have to defend.
But the Biden campaign and the president will look at other pieces of the Trump's speech, things that he didn't talk about, like abortion rights, for
example. So this is really still a very divided country, a divided campaign, but President Biden now is in a far weaker position because it's
been three weeks since that extraordinarily rough, alarming debate performance and he still has the Democratic Party in a state of paralysis.
So the campaign is still advertising. They are still going about their business. But with the uncertainty of Biden's future it really is an
unprecedented moment here, but we know half the country at least would be eager to move on from Donald Trump. So we shall see. But again, the
president's decision is his and his alone regardless of what these Democrats are urging him to do.
[10:55:09]
GIOKOS: OK. So, look, you've been covering politics for a long time. We've been through many cycles. I just want to get your reflections on how this
week actually played out with so much happening.
ZELENY: Lynda, I mean, Republicans are unified behind Donald Trump. I have covered a lot of campaigns. This is my seventh presidential campaign, I
guess, and this convention felt different. This does not feel like the Republican Party of old. This is completely Donald Trump's Republican
Party. In 2016 when he was coming in, there was a divided Republican Party. The party is very unified behind him.
But the question, is that enough? Does he expand the base? Does he offer anything to people who, you know, may not like President Biden, but they
also don't like President Trump. So unprecedented. We've not seen anything like this. And it's only July. Who knows what will come by November --
Lynda.
GIOKOS: Yes. I mean, we've got some time to go. Jeff, thank you so much.
All right. So we've got some news just coming into CNN. The International Court of Justice has just ruled that Israeli settlements in the West Bank
and in East Jerusalem violates international law and must end. The opinion is non-binding, but it could shape international opinion as a whole. Israel
has reacted by saying the ruling was expected and will not affect its policy in the occupied territories, and that ruling just coming in from the
ICC.
All right. So we're going to a very short break. That's it for CONNECT THE WORLD. "NEWSROOM" with Lynda Kinkade is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
