By Christina Lu, a reporter at Foreign Policy covering energy and environment.

Long queues of passengers form at the check-in counters at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, amid a global IT disruption caused by a Microsoft outage and a CrowdStrike IT problem, in Manila, Philippines, on July 19.

International air travel, financial services, medical systems, and television broadcasts briefly ground to a halt on Friday after CrowdStrike, a U.S. cybersecurity firm, pushed through a flawed software update that sparked a global technology outage.

CrowdStrike may not have been a household name before Friday, but the firm plays an outsized role in operating many of the world’s digital services, as demonstrated by this incident. More than half of all Fortune 500 companies rely on CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software, which allows them to identify and thwart potential hacking attempts, according to the company.

Friday’s disruption occurred after the firm deployed a software update that appeared to clash with Microsoft Windows, thereby wreaking havoc on computers that had been running that system. George Kurtz, the CEO of CrowdStrike, stressed that the outage was not the result of a security issue or cyberattack.

“Our customers remain fully protected,” Kurtz posted on X, formerly Twitter. “We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on.”

In the wake of the outage, the scale and scope of its aftershocks have underscored just how reliant much of the world is on key software providers. Hours after the initial incident, health systems across the United States and major airlines were still grappling with lengthy delays, stranding frustrated passengers at airports.

“All of these systems are running the same software,” cyber expert James Bore told The Associated Press. “We’ve made all of these tools so widespread that when things inevitably go wrong—and they will, as we’ve seen—they go wrong at a huge scale.”

What We’re Following

Deadly strike in Tel Aviv. Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility for a deadly drone attack that pierced Israel’s extensive air defenses and struck Tel Aviv on Friday, marking the Iran-backed group’s first fatal strike in the country. Warning alarms were not activated in Tel Aviv, and the strike killed one person, injured as many as 10 others, and caused an explosion near a U.S. Embassy branch office in the city.

From an initial investigation, the Israel Defense Forces said that there was likely a “human error that caused the interception and defense systems not to be operated.” The Houthis hailed the strike as a major success, with Houthi spokesperson Yahya Sare’e describing the attack as a “specific military operation” that deployed a new drone effective at “bypassing the enemy’s interception systems.”

The deadly strike comes ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s scheduled trip to Washington next week. It also comes as the International Court of Justice said on Friday that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories are a “violation of international law” and that Israel must evacuate them and make reparation payments. The top U.N. court’s legal opinion, while nonbinding, marks one of the strongest legal rebukes of the Israeli occupation to date. Netanyahu criticized the opinion as “absurd” in a post on X.

Russia sentences Gershkovich. Russia on Friday sentenced American journalist and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in a maximum-security penal colony on charges of espionage. He, his employer, and the U.S. government have all denied the charges, and Moscow has offered no public evidence for its allegations. Washington has deemed Gershkovich, who was arrested in March 2023, as “wrongfully detained.” Moscow has signaled an openness to a potential prisoner exchange for Gershkovich, and U.S. officials have criticized Russia for using his detention as a “bargaining chip.”

“This disgraceful, sham conviction comes after Evan has spent 478 days in prison, wrongfully detained, away from his family and friends, prevented from reporting, all for doing his job as a journalist,” Almar Latour, the chief executive of Dow Jones and publisher of the Wall Street Journal, and the Journal’s editor in chief, Emma Tucker, said in a statement.

Gershkovich will now enter Russia’s overcrowded and notoriously brutal penal system, where human rights abuses are rife and prisoners suffer harsh working conditions. In a statement released on Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden said that his administration is “pushing hard for Evan’s release and will continue to do so.” “We will not cease in our efforts to bring him home,” he added.

Venezuela’s election troubles. As Venezuela’s presidential election looms later this month, fears are growing that President Nicolás Maduro is ramping up efforts to sideline the opposition and further extend his more than decadelong rule.

Venezuela is classified as “not free,” per Freedom House, and Maduro has already barred popular opposition leader María Corina Machado from running. (Standing in for Machado is another candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia; he currently has a double-digit lead over Maduro in polls.)

On Wednesday, Venezuelan authorities arrested Machado’s security chief on what Machado said were spurious charges of gender violence. Opposition figures and voter advocacy organizations also contend that Venezuelan authorities are conducting the election in a way that is meant to confuse voters and help Maduro. The presidential ballot, for example, is laid out in a way where Maduro’s face appears at the top of the page 13 times—while González Urrutia’s face appears just three times in more inconspicuous places.

What in the World?

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a dip in the Seine on Wednesday, hoping to prove that the river no longer poses a major health risk ahead of scheduled open-water swimming events at the Paris Olympics. About how much did the effort to decontaminate the river for the Games cost?

A. $900 million
B. $1.2 billion
C. $1.5 billion
D. $1.8 billion

Odds and Ends

To split the bill at the end of the date, or not? It’s an eternal question that has long vexed hopeful romantics around the world. For one British Columbia woman, it’s also one that landed her in court. A British Columbia tribunal has ordered Alyssa Randles to refund her ex the $450 that he spent on her Coldplay concert ticket. While Randles said the concert was a romantic date and she believed the ticket was a gift from Michael Stolfi, her then-partner, Stolfi said that he expected repayment. He also sought an additional $150 for taxi costs, a hotel room, and meals purchased during the concert trip, although she was cleared of those payments.