FAA Lifts Nationwide Ground Stop After Communications Failure

This is the morning edition of the One News Page Global Briefing, for Saturday, the fourteenth of November, twenty twenty-six. Here is what matters now.

The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a rare nationwide ground stop on Friday after a communications failure disrupted all Air Route Traffic Control Centers, allowing departures to resume across the United States. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said U S airspace had been opened up and attributed the disruption to old hardware, stating the halt was not caused by a cyberattack or a sweeping Microsoft outage. The order, issued earlier Friday, delayed or canceled nearly seven thousand U S flights, according to aviation tracker FlightAware. The F A A cited extraordinary circumstances and reasons of safety in halting departures. Duffy described the trigger as a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. The disruption traced to overloaded and antiquated telecommunications equipment sustaining its latest widespread failure, prompting calls for more funding to accelerate upgrades. Passengers across the country were stranded or delayed during the hours-long halt, with many expressing uncertainty about when they would reach their destinations.

On Capitol Hill, Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland announced Thursday that he will challenge Chuck Schumer for Senate majority leader when Democrats regain the chamber's majority in January, setting up a contest over the party's direction after its midterm sweep. Van Hollen said the American people called for change, and he has drawn support from some of the party's more vocal progressives. Schumer, the long-serving Democratic leader, insists he has the votes to win. Endorsements began flying within moments of Van Hollen's announcement, with Democrats divided over who should lead the party as it prepares to retake the majority in both the House and Senate. In an opinion piece, Senator Bernie Sanders framed the choice not as a personality contest but as a debate about whether the Democratic Party remains a top-down party dominated by billionaire campaign contributors or becomes one responsive to its grassroots base.

At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday awarded a Joint Service Commendation Medal to Specialist Thomas Iglesias, the soldier who had loudly reprimanded Hegseth and members of his staff after some in the group were heard laughing and talking near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during a Veterans Day visit. We love standards. Well done, Specialist, Hegseth wrote. The incident occurred Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery after a group photo at the Tomb of the Unknowns, when the sentinel silenced Hegseth's group for poor decorum. The medal was awarded for the execution of his duties.

In Colorado, Republican Representative Lauren Boebert lost her re-election bid on Friday to Democrat Eileen Laubacher, according to a projection by The Associated Press. Boebert, a three-term incumbent and prominent conservative media figure, was defeated in a conservative-leaning district, marking a significant victory for Democrats. Laubacher is a retired rear admiral and Navy veteran who defeated one of President Trump's highest-profile supporters in a deep-red district she acknowledges will be tough to hold.

In New Orleans, A tanker struck a river cruise boat on the Mississippi River near the Port of New Orleans on Friday, partially submerging the vessel with one hundred and twenty-nine passengers on board. Rescue operations were underway, and all passengers have been accounted for. At least thirty-two people were treated at local hospitals, and no fatalities were reported, officials said.

In London, The Metropolitan Police have launched a criminal investigation into David Walliams, the comedian, children's author and television personality, over alleged serious sexual offences. The fifty-five-year-old denies the allegations, saying he has not broken the law. The Met said the allegations are separate from those made by multiple women in a joint investigation published this week by I T V News and The Guardian.

In the technology sector, Microsoft said Saturday morning that all services had been fully recovered across Teams, Outlook, Copilot and other applications, ending a global outage that disrupted online communications for businesses and governments for more than twenty-four hours. The company had earlier apologized and reported a broad recovery for Outlook and other services. The U S homeland security chief confirmed there was no Microsoft link to the U S air stoppage.

In the Middle East, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed it targeted and destroyed a U S early-warning radar in Bahrain in retaliation for a U S airstrike on a communications tower in Sirik overlooking the Strait of Hormuz. It was Iran's first direct attack on U S military installations for months. The United States said it had intercepted the attacks. Clashes continued in the Strait of Hormuz, with the conflict remaining in a state of de-escalation.

In Alaska, Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins won the Alaska governor's race, becoming the first Democrat to win the office since one thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight and, at thirty-seven, the youngest governor in the state's history. A former state legislator, Kreiss-Tomkins ran a campaign emphasizing bipartisanship in a state that usually votes Republican, and made a name for himself as a coalition builder willing to raise alarms about Alaska's dire fiscal straits.

In Oklahoma, Richard Glossip, the former Oklahoma death row prisoner, pleaded guilty to accessory to murder after the fact, avoiding a retrial on a first-degree murder charge. During his time on death row, courts set nine different execution dates for Glossip, and he came so close to being put to death that he ate three separate last meals.

In Brussels, European Council President Antonio Costa said Friday that Brussels will send diplomats from the twenty-seven-nation E U bloc and five members of the Coalition of the Willing that backs Ukraine—the U K, France, Germany, Italy and Poland—to upcoming Ukraine talks, as European leaders push for a voice in the negotiations.

That was the morning edition of the One News Page Global Briefing. Read the complete briefing and explore its supporting coverage at one news page dot com.