Morning Digest: All departing U.S. flights grounded due to communication outage; Microsoft outage hits businesses worldwide, India feels impact, and more

All departing U.S. flights grounded due to communication outageAll flights in the U.S. were grounded on Friday (November 13, 2026), sparking travel chaos across the vast country, after what government officials said was a major communications outage, insisting it was not the result of any “nefarious attack.” The nationwide stop left tens of thousands of passengers in limbo, with some pulled off planes moments before departure by airline staff who appeared in the dark about unfolding events. The incident marked only the second time such an alert was given in U.S. airspace since the 9/11 attacks.Microsoft outage hits businesses worldwide; India feels impactThe global disruption of multiple Microsoft services, which began on Thursday (November 12, 2026) and continued late into Friday (November 13, 2026), affected several Indian businesses’ internal communications and customer-facing operations. In its latest update on Friday (November 13, 2026), the company said it was making progress in fixing the outage, which has affected email access and workplace applications in businesses, public services, and other organisations across the globe. In India, the disruptions affected businesses from startups to multinational corporations. Follow LIVE updates here.Tanker hits a river cruise boat on Mississippi River in New Orleans; rescue operations under wayA tanker in New Orleans that apparently lost its steering slammed into a docked river cruise boat with 180 people aboard on Friday (November 13, 2026), the Mayor said. All aboard survived after the crash prompted a massive rescue operation for passengers and crew who plunged into the Mississippi River as the ship took on water and began to topple over. Video from the scene showed the much larger Atlantic Asphalt tanker hit the cruise boat while it was docked as metal and glass crashed and crunched.In major breakthrough, U.S. assures India of comparative tariff advantage over its competitorsIn a significant breakthrough towards the conclusion of the India-U.S. interim deal on trade, the U.S. has assured India of a comparative advantage over its competitors once it finalises its tariff structure, a senior official in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said, adding that both sides are working to complete the deal by the end of the current financial year. Indian officials have repeatedly been saying that India would move ahead with a deal only if the U.S. assured it of a comparative advantage, as was agreed to in the February 2026 joint statement between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump.Comply with new prices of 137 anti-cancer drugs or face action, says regulatorThe National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has warned of penal action against those failing to comply with the revised prices of 137 non-scheduled anti-cancer drugs. The authority, which functions under the Department of Pharmaceuticals, has asked State drug controllers (SDCs) to strictly monitor the prices and submit their action taken reports by November 16, according to an official release on Friday (November 13, 2026). The revised prices for the 137 anti-cancer drugs came into effect on November 9, 2026, following a gazette order issued on October 17, 2026. The order capped the trade margin on these medicines at 30%.India-Bangladesh consular dialogue will be held on a mutually convenient date, says Ministry of External AffairsThe fifth round of the India-Bangladesh consular dialogue will be held on a “mutually convenient date”, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday (November 13). Speaking to the media during the bi-weekly media briefing, Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson of the MEA, reiterated that India seeks to build “positive, constructive and forward-looking” relations with Bangladesh.Low pressure area forms over Bay of Bengal, likely to intensify into cyclonic storm around November 16A low pressure area formed over the Southeast Bay of Bengal on Friday morning and is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm over the central Bay of Bengal around the evening of November 16 (Monday), according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The Cyclone Warning Centre, Visakhapatnam, said the system is very likely to move northwestwards, and become a well-marked low pressure area on Saturday and intensify into a depression around Sunday morning, before moving north-northwestwards.Students among 24 dead in bus-truck collision in Assam’s KazirangaCollege students were among 24 people killed when a minibus collided head-on with a container truck at Rangajan near Kaziranga National Park in eastern Assam’s Golaghat district on Friday (November 13, 2026). Officials said 39 people, including the driver, were on board when the accident occurred at around 1 p.m. on National Highway-715. The spot is about 230 km east of Guwahati.Delhi overtakes Lahore as world’s most polluted city as air quality dropsDelhi overtook Lahore to become the world’s ‌most polluted city on Friday (November 13, 2026), with ​air quality reaching hazardous ⁠levels and visibility dropping as smog blanketed the city of 20 million people. Air quality index (AQI) in Delhi was “hazardous” at 334, making ‌it the most polluted ‌major city, according to Swiss ⁠group IQAir, which measures air quality levels based on the concentration of toxinsMegaspeed: Gaming company to chips linchpinAt the centre of the scandal surrounding Nvidia, which led to the resignation of founder-CEO Jensen Huang on November 12, is a little-known Singapore-based business founded by Chinese tech executive Alice Huang that came to play a vital role in the global chips trade. Set up in 2023, with no background in AI or semiconductors, Megaspeed grew within the span of a few months into a linchpin of the semiconductors and data centre business in Asia, connecting Chinese tech companies with valuable Nvidia chips amid tightening U.S. export controls. Over the course of a couple of years, the new company would purchase between $4-5 billion of Nvidia technology according to reports, marking a rapid ascent.Urgent climate finance pleas at COP31 face a non-urgent responseUrgent pleas for cash from poor ​nations most exposed to the kind of climate-related disasters that have marked this year risk meeting a sluggish response at Turkiye’s COP31 talks as Western governments put ‌national security and living costs first. Two years ago, rich countries agreed at UN climate talks they would triple ​climate funding for poorer countries to $300 billion per year by 2035 versus a previous 2020 target. Also by 2035, financing ⁠from all public and private sources combined would be $1.3 trillion annually.Turkiye, Qatar sign mutual defence agreement, Turkish presidency saysTurkiye and ​Qatar signed a mutual defence agreement on Friday (November 13, 2026), ‌the office of President Tayyip Erdogan said, ​as the Turkish leader ⁠met the Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in Istanbul. “President Erdogan stated that we ‌would continue working together to prevent the resurgence of war in ‌the Gulf region and establish a ‌basis ⁠for dialogue and achieve peace,” ⁠the presidency said in a statement on X, which did not provide details on the defence accord.Eisenkot urges respect for Israel’s Arab minority after Netanyahu attacksIsraeli Prime Ministerial hopeful Gadi Eisenkot called on Friday (November 13, 2026) for respect for the country’s Arab minority after caretaker Premier Benjamin Netanyahu and other right-wing figures sought to delegitimise the community’s lawmakers by linking them to Hamas. Two Arab-majority parties, Raam and the Joint List, secured a combined 19 seats in last month’s election, winning nearly a sixth of the 120-seat parliament and potentially emerging as kingmakers in efforts by Mr. Eisenkot to form a government.