Outages
Cuba blames unrest on U.S. interference as Joe Biden backs protests
Cuba blamed historic protests that took place over the weekend on U.S. “economic asphyxiation” and social media campaigns by a minority of U.S.-financed counter-revolutionaries, while U.S. President Joe Biden said he stood with the Cuban people. The streets of Havana were quiet on Monday, although there was a heavy police presence. Outages in mobile internet – the only way many Cubans have of accessing the web – were frequent. Chanting “freedom” and calling for President Miguel Diaz-Canel to step down, thousands of Cubans joined street protests here from Havana to Santiago on Sunday in the biggest anti-government demonstrations on the Communist-run island in decades. At least 80 protesters, activists, and independent journalists had been detained nationwide since Sunday, according to exile...
Huge web outage takes Reddit, Twitch, and other big sites offline
A huge global web outage swept across the internet this morning, taking out popular sites including Amazon, Twitch, and Reddit. The outages started at around 5:30AM ET, with a large number of sites affected. The Fastly content delivery network (CDN) was the source of the issues, which lasted for more than an hour. Major news sites like CNN, The New York Times, The Guardian, and the Financial Times were also affected. The issues also affected UK government websites, so British citizens were unable to renew passports, apply for tax allowances, or obtain driving licenses during the outage. Fastly hasn’t commented fully on the issues other than an outage message on the company’s status page. “The issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented,” said Fastly at 6:44AM ET. Get more stor...
Iran bans cryptocurrency mining for four months
Iran is temporarily banning cryptocurrency mining after some of the country’s major cities experienced repeated blackouts. President Hassan Rouhani said that the ban would last until September 22nd. The country has experienced summer blackouts in years past, and while the current round of outages is mostly being blamed on a drought that’s affecting the country’s ability to generate hydroelectric power, it seems that the Iranian government is eager to cut down on any aggravating factors. Power-hungry cryptocurrency mining operations, for instance. According to the BBC, Iran operates a program where Bitcoin miners must register with with the government, pay extra for electricity, and sell their coins to the central bank. President Rouhani stated that the legal mining operations in the countr...
Iran’s smog, blackouts made worse by power-sapping crypto mining
Outages have been compounded by cryptocurrency mining, which uses banks of high-powered computers. Cities across Iran have been cloaked in thick layers of toxic smog and darkened by blackouts, as the alleged use of low-quality fuel and power-sucking cryptocurrency mining deepen the country’s hardships. Tehran’s Hamshahri newspaper, the country’s most-read daily, ran the headline, “20 Days Living in Smoke,” on Wednesday over a photo of the capital covered in smog. Power plants have been forced to switch to burning low-grade fuel oils to generate electricity because high levels of domestic consumption have led to natural-gas shortages, the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported. Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh denied earlier this week that any of Iran’s power stations are us...
Power restored in Kenya, Uganda after nationwide outages
Power has been restored in the East African nations of Kenya and Uganda after they were hit by nationwide outages in the morning, the countries’ electricity providers said. The Kenya Power and Lighting Company said in a statement that only the Kenyan coastal cities of Malindi and Lamu remained without electricity on Saturday afternoon. The company noted that its technical teams were working to repair the fault. Earlier on Saturday, Kenya Power said engineers had identified a technical fault at a section of the main high voltage transmission power line that services the capital Nairobi. The fault on this “critical line” led to the overloading of other power generators countrywide and is suspected to have caused the nationwide blackout, the firm said. In neighbouring Uganda, the national ele...
