22 July 2024 - A tech meltdown for the ages

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G’day… Claire Kimball here. 

If you’re not a sceptical-yet-optimistic person like I am, you might have had cause to contemplate the end of the world last week. Yes, I am being a bit dramatic, but July 2024 has been a lot… 

Just to double-back on the issue that dominated last week - the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump - I have to confess that the News Club poll result shocked me. Last Monday, we asked you whether the attempt on Trump’s life was to be expected, and 55% of 1,000 respondents said yes. 

Plenty of Squizers reflected on the hostile tone of America’s politics. And then there were those - not heaps, but enough to call it out - who wish Trump had been killed. Now, I’m not here to tell anyone what to think - the Squiz is built on the principle of providing you with the best reporting so you can make up your own mind. But geez we’re in a weird place where an act of political violence against a man who is about to face voters in a free and fair election can be squared away by some… 

Later in the week, we sent you a newsletter based on Kate’s Newsmakers interview with Chris Uhlmann - it covered some of the issues of our time, including Western values. In that poll, we asked you if big things like democracy and freedom are on your mind, and 98% said yes. 

So putting those things together: if you take the structures of our societies seriously - as Squizers clearly do - an attempt on the life of the US presidential frontrunner is something you’re probably thinking about and trying to make sense of. No wonder so many of us are feeling a bit discombobulated… And the turbulence continues as the Democrats source a new candidate after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race overnight - so watch this space. 

Now, back to the end of the world… To wrap up a remarkable week, Friday’s global IT meltdown was the cherry on top. Team Squiz’s world was relatively undisrupted, but that wasn’t the case for millions of Aussies. So to our Club Picks this week: 

1. What happened? CrowdStrike - a whopping big US cybersecurity company (that I’d never heard of…) - issued an update that resulted in an operating system crash on Windows (aka Microsoft) systems. Some experts say it’s the largest IT outage in history… This explainer from the tech publication Wired is the best I found because it’s detailed but accessible.  

2. ‘Digital resilience’ is being discussed at the top levels of government and business more and more - consultants PwC say that’s because “recent geopolitical developments indicate a shift towards a less connected and more multipolar world”. But as the New York Times’ national security writer David E Sanger says, this outage shows not a lot of progress has been made. 

3. Do you have a ‘go bag’? Me neither… But we are encouraged to have an emergency kit with a few days’ worth of water, food, and basic supplies to get us through if there is a natural or digital disaster. Here are the Queensland Government’s pointers to pull one together. 

Onwards and upwards… 

Your friend in news
Claire Kimball

Wrapping up the week in US politics…

Last week in US politics was one for the history books. First, there was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Then, JD Vance was named as his VP. Oh, and the Republican National Convention happened. Amid all that chaos, you might have missed that some of the criminal charges against Trump were dropped. So, Kate and I grabbed the mics for a bonus episode of Weekly Wrap - US politics edition. You can listen to that episode here.

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