beneath

Sept. 7 (UPI) — One of Microsoft’s cloud services has been disrupted by severed cables below the surface of the Red Sea, the company said.

Users of Azure will experience delays in Internet traffic as it crosses through the Middle East, and the data has been rerouted, Microsoft said in a statement.

There were reports over the weekend that Internet traffic in the United Arab Emirates and some Asian countries had been affected, the BBC reported.

“Network traffic that does not traverse through the Middle East is not impacted,” Microsoft said.

NetBlocks, a company that monitors online Internet traffic, said Saturday that India and Pakistan were among the countries affected by the outage.

The cables were severed in water near the Saudi city of Jeddah, according to a social media post by the Pakistan Telecommunications company.

Severed Internet cables are a fairly routine occurrence, often the result of ships dropping anchor. Some cables, however, may have been cut deliberately, including several in 2024 that were severed between Asia and Europe about a month after the Yemeni government issued a warning that Iran-backed Houthi rebels threatened could sabotage communication cables and attack ships in the Red Sea.

The Houthis denied targeting the lines.

Since Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine in 2022, several communication cables and gas lines beneath the surface of the Baltic Sea have also been severed.

Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel is expected to open in late 2025. Described as the most significant overhaul of the city’s transport network since the City Loop opened in the 1980s, the tunnel has been taking shape beneath the city for the past eight years – with the bill ballooning to $14bn. With an eye on the 2026 state election, the long-serving Victorian Labor government – with its soaring debt of nearly $200bn – is banking on the project to turn its fortunes around. Guardian Australia’s Victoria state correspondent, Benita Kolovos, gets a look at the city’s newest train stations