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Video length: 2 min
On Friday, July 19, a computer glitch caused confusion in dozens of countries. Airports, hospitals, and train stations were disrupted, businesses were paralyzed, banks were impacted, and stock markets were slowing down. The reason: a botched software update.
An incredible chaos spread like wildfire through airports around the world on Friday, July 19, from Milwaukee in the United States to Sydney in Australia. Planes were grounded, as in Amsterdam (Netherlands) or Berlin (Germany). In Los Angeles (United States), an error message from Windows, Microsoft’s operating system, appeared on the screen. In the United States, which was particularly affected, air traffic became almost non-existent. In Hong Kong, China, not a single digital sign was working.
The outage also affects the Brussels train station (Belgium): the ticket machines no longer work. Administrations and hospitals in Berlin and London (United Kingdom) are also affected. In the United Kingdom, the entire health system has been disrupted. From one end of the planet to the other, few countries have been spared. A fast food chain in Japan has had to close. In Australia, the ABC news channel has been impacted, as has Skynews in the United Kingdom. It could take several days for the system to return to normal, according to some experts.