While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Nov 15, 2026

Repair of old copper wiring caused US flight disruption: Trump administrationWeary travellers braced for more flight disruptions on Nov 14 as service resumed from US airports after an hours-long stoppage that the Trump administration blamed on faulty equipment or an error by a contractor tasked with switching out old copper wire communication lines.The Nov 13 nationwide ground stop – meaning no planes can take off – sparked widespread chaos and left hundreds 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.“Tired. Exhausted. Frustrated. Yeah, you know, it’s just a mess, right?” Lisa Beraid, 48, who works for an insurance company, told AFP, as she waited for a flight the morning of Nov 14 at New York’s La Guardia airport.Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Bryan Bedford said that 12,000 flights were cancelled on Nov 13 and between four and five thousand flights out of 41,000 scheduled for Nov 14 were likely to be cancelled as well.READ MORE HEREPhilippine teen wins Eurovision’s first Asia contestPHOTO: EPAA teenage pop star from the Philippines won the first Asia edition of Eurovision on Nov 14 after a night of power ballads, pop-dance hits and pyrotechnics from the makers of the cult European kitsch fest.Carmelle, 19, was crowned queen of the inaugural Eurovision Song Contest Asia in Bangkok for her performance of Sobra-Sobra (Too Much), a shoutout to strong women.Hosts Thailand finished a close second, followed by Vietnam, Malaysia and Laos, with Nepal, Cambodia and Bangladesh languishing at the bottom of the points table.READ MORE HERESpaceX’s Starship aces first return to TexasPHOTO: REUTERSSpaceX’s Starship spacecraft on Nov 14 returned from its longest flight in orbit yet to the Texas launch tower it was launched from a day prior, demonstrating the first key recovery of the rocket system’s centrepiece vessel in the company’s decade-long effort to develop a fully reusable rocket.The towering two-stage rocket’s Super Heavy booster - the rocket’s bottom half - carried Starship to space on Nov 13, lifting off from SpaceX’s Starbase, Texas, facilities. That booster had failed to make a similar return to the launch pad some 10 minutes after liftoff, nixing SpaceX’s plan to recover both parts of the rocket for the first time.But the Starship upper stage’s successful return after orbiting Earth 14 times for over 22 hours marked a key engineering milestone in the whirlwind, multibillion-dollar development of Starship, which billionaire Elon Musk sees as the future workhorse for SpaceX’s satellite business and ambitions to put humans on the moon and eventually Mars.READ MORE HEREPentagon eyes smaller troop cuts across Europe in reversalPHOTO: REUTERSThe Trump administration’s cuts to roughly 80,000 US troops across Europe will be lower than the continent’s leaders have feared, according to people familiar with the matter.European allies had previously feared the US might cut as many as 25,000 troops, but a smaller cut is now more likely because the US has looked favourably on increased NATO defence spending, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.Pentagon leadership has also realised how much the US military relies on forces posted across Europe to project American power in the Middle East, where the Iran war continues to drag on, according to the people.READ MORE HEREFrench protesters chant against inflation and policePHOTO: REUTERSTens of thousands of protesters paraded in the streets of France on Nov 14, some clambering up statues with French flags as they vented on issues ranging from the rising cost of living to a proposal to give police greater legal protection.The European Union’s second largest economy has been gripped by high-school blockades and mass demonstrations for more than a month, with the far-right leading in the polls to win presidential elections in 2027 to replace Emmanuel Macron.Around 106,000 people took to the streets nationwide, including 24,000 in Paris, the interior ministry said, in the lowest turnout in recent weeks.READ MORE HERE