PHOTO: REUTERS
While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Nov 14, 2026
· The Straits TimesMicrosoft Outlook, Teams outage eases after over a day; recovery timeline uncertain
A global outage of Microsoft Outlook and Teams was easing on Nov 3 after more than 24 hours of disruption crippled online communications across businesses and governments, though the company said it still had no timeline for fullrecovery of services.
Microsoft said server issues were behind the incident that also affected its Copilot AI assistant and that a broader rollout of software fixes was stabilising the system. It said it was not aware of any malicious activity and ruled out AI as the cause.
Outlook and Teams are two of the most widely used workplace applications with hundreds of millions of users. The outage prevented people from performing essential functions such as sending emails, managing calendars and hosting virtual meetings.
It affected government agencies from Australia and Japan to the United States, caused delays at trading firms, hindered some companies from publishing earnings and prompted airlines to warn customers of communication lags, according to public statements.
US grounds flights nationwide after air traffic control communications outage
The US Federal Aviation Administration grounded all departing flights nationwide on Nov 13 after a communications failure hit air traffic control centres across the country, disrupting thousands of flights.
The announcement means planes in the air may land, but those on the ground cannot take off. Flight tracking service FlightAware said nearly 7,000 flights were delayed or cancelled due to the nationwide ground stop.
“The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop for all US airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.
EU settles on five-nation group to speak for Europe at Ukraine peace talks
EU leaders have agreed that Europe’s team for Ukraine peace talks will comprise five major military powers - non-member Britain plus France, Germany, Italy and Poland - and EU institutions, European Council President Antonio Costa said on Nov 13, after months of wavering over who will speak for the continent.
“Europe must speak with one clear voice and united voice in all discussion that shape the future of Ukraine and the security of our continent. And this is ultimately a team effort,” Costa, who chairs EU summits, told a press conference at the end of a leaders’ meeting in Dublin.
The Kremlin said on Nov 13 that Russia would be open to European countries taking part in Ukraine peace talks if it saw they genuinely intended to contribute to peace. Russian officials have also called for a broad agreement on Europe’s security architecture to be reached before specifics of the war are addressed.
Turkey, Qatar sign mutual defence agreement, Turkish presidency says
Turkey and Qatar announced on Nov 13 that they signed a mutual defence agreement, which they said was aimed at adopting a “unified position” in the face of an external attack.
The announcement came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Istanbul.
Erdogan had said the agreement would further strengthen ties between the regional allies, according to his office.
China fires researchers after child dies in gene-editing trial
Chinese authorities fired two researchers and disciplined several others after an investigation found safety and ethical flaws in an experimental gene-editing study that led to the death of a child.
The two key researchers leading the study at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine also were barred for five years from government science and technology projects, state media China Central Television reported on Nov 13.
Several others received penalties, including removal from their posts, demotions and disciplinary warnings, according to the CCTV report that cited a Shanghai investigative task force.