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Global Microsoft outage hits Australian security agencies | Midday News Bulletin 13 November

SBS News Australia •
November 13, 2026 • 01:30 AM
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Australian security agencies caught up in massive global Microsoft outage, Police rule out criminal charges against Swans players, Australia's Test captain denies knowing about the ball-tampering scandal.

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Microsoft is scrambling to restore services after a global outage left hundreds of thousands of users reporting problems accessing Outlook emails.

More than 5,500 Australians reported issues with the email service on outage tracking website Downdetector this morning.

Thousands more around the world have reported disruptions to Microsoft Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services.

The tech giant says parts of its infrastructure are under increased pressure, causing connectivity problems.

Microsoft says it's redirecting traffic where possible, with signs of a gradual but limited recovery.

Australian Federal Police and domestic ASIO have confirmed they have been affected by the Microsoft outage.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has said he has spoken to Microsoft , who told him there was no reason to believe the outage is linked to a cyber attack.

Mr Burke says Microsoft believe "an update that has gone awry" is likely behind the outage.

The government is defending its record on climate action, as it comes under fire for a second day at the United Nations COP31 talks in Turkiye.

Climate organisations, activists, Pacific countries and First Nations communities continue to voice calls for Australia to phase out fossil fuels and take faster action to address climate change.

Critics point to prime minister Anthony Albanese and Energy Minister Chris Bowen's failure to address fossil fuels at the summit, instead focusing on electrification and renewable energy targets.

But Mr Bowen says as a fossil fuel importer and exporter, Australia is still working to reduce emissions.

"We work to reduce emissions in our transport sector. We work with countries to reduce their emissions where we can help them. We've got, you know, key partnerships with countries to say, "Yep, at the moment you're a big supplier, a big purchaser of Australian fossils. Let's work together on decarbonisation." And we're going to do more of that."

Four Sydney Swans players will not be charged, after police confirmed they have finalised their investigation into a hotel room afterparty.

Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, James Jordon and now former Swan Nick Blakey have been under investigation since August after three women made reports of sexual assault to police.

Victoria Police confirmed on Friday morning that no criminal charges would be laid, saying there was insufficient evidence to proceed.

The four players, and fifth player Riley Bice, were suspended from round 24 and the club's two finals for what the club termed a "serious breach of expected club behaviour and standards".

The United Nations has condemned an Israeli airstrike on southern Gaza's main hospital, killing six people and injuring 27 others.

The strike also caused extensive damage to the hospital.

UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq says hospitals and medical workers must be protected under international law, warning escalating military operations are threatening a fragile ceasefire.

The UN is also calling for safe humanitarian access, including winter supplies, following another strike near its facilities in central Gaza.

“Further on Nasser hospital, Doctor Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, said today that Gaza's health facilities are lifelines for its people. These lifelines must be protected and never militarized or attacked. Yet since October 2023, the World Health Organization has documented more than 1000 attacks on health care in Gaza, resulting in deaths, injuries and damaged facilities."

The United States Attorney General says U-S authorities have not reached a conclusion about whether the woman who had an affair with Nvidia chief Jason Huang, is a spy.

U-S intelligence agencies have been investigating former Shanghai executive Alice Huang who is suspected of leaking information to Beijing, which the Chinese government denies.

Jason Huang today resigned as CEO of the global AI chip maker following revelations he had intimate relations with Ms Huang, as well as a senior executive from his own company.

The U-S government is considering whether it should restrict the export of chips to China, following the scandal.

US Attorney General Todd Blanche says the investigation by the Department of Justice is ongoing.

"You assumed that DOJ learns that she is, in fact, a spy? I'm not a, nobody's said that. I certainly haven't said that and I don't, all I said a minute ago and all that I think I will say is that of course DOJ is investigating, looking at it. So I, there's no, there's no conclusions reached by the Department of Justice or by me or by (FBI) Director Patel around who she is or is not.

Australia's test captain Pat Cummins has denied knowing anything about a ball tampering scandal that erupted during the side's 2018 tour of South Africa.

His statement is the first time he has spoken publicly on the issue since former long-time teammate Usman Khawaja claimed the entire team knew about the plan for the third Test in Cape Town.

"When he says we all knew, if by that he means that we knew sandpaper was going out in the field, he's 100 per cent wrong. I've said that consistently for the last eight years. I did not know that was happening. But I think Usman actually says things that are actually far more serious than that. He says that I and others were architects of a scheme to ball tamper with sandpaper. That's complete and utter nonsense."

Cummins was among four Australian bowlers who denied knowing about the use of sandpaper in a joint statement in 2021.

Mitchell Starc has also maintained his account of events, while one-day captain Mitchell Marsh says he's moved on from the scandal.

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The Guardian
1d ago
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1d ago
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ABC News Australia
1d ago
How the Microsoft outage is affecting Australians

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The Australian Financial Review (AFR)
1d ago
ASIO, AFP caught in Microsoft global outage

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Australian law enforcement agencies and schools were unable to send emails on Friday after a Microsoft outage knocked the services offline.

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Al Jazeera English
12h ago
Microsoft services begin recovering after global outage

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Microsoft services began recovering on Friday after a global outage disrupted Outlook and Teams.

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The Age
14h ago
Microsoft’s global outage and fixes: What we know

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