Courts, spies and MPs: How the Microsoft outage has been felt around the world

In the US, staff with the House of Representatives told Politico, external their work had been halted by the outage.

“We all use Outlook, that’s our life, everything is there, our calendar is there, our boss’s calendar, so it has been a challenge … with no access to our Bible,” one House staff member said. “There goes a day of legislative work.”

Tech giants OpenAI and Anthropic have both reported problems.

OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, said it was investigating an issue affecting its connections to Microsoft’s services, which caused some tools not to work as expected.

Courts from Los Angeles to Texas also warned that communications might be delayed.

Electric truck maker Workhorse Group, which was expected to report third-quarter results on 12 November, rescheduled to 16 November, citing business disruptions caused by the outage.

Meanwhile, officials in some US cities encouraged citizens to call local offices and agencies where needed instead of using email.

The City of Austin in Texas account posted on X early on Friday: “Due to an ongoing Microsoft Outlook outage, City of Austin employees cannot receive or send emails at this time.

“City phone lines remain operational, and 911 Emergency services are not impacted.”

In Canada, a healthcare network running several hospitals in Toronto had declared a “code grey”, indicating an infrastructure failure.

The company, Unity Health Toronto, said its teams were having trouble sending or receiving email but that patient care was not affected.

Other hospitals, including Canada’s largest children’s hospital SickKids, also reported its staff having issues accessing phone calls and emails.

Via Rail, Canada’s national train network, said in a post on X that its passengers may not be able to receive emails about their trips due to the outage.

Disruptions have also been reported by Canadian municipalities, including the City of Ottawa and the City of Vancouver. Both urged residents in a notice to call in for any urgent issues.