Cuba's state energy company announced a nationwide power grid failure on Sunday, plunging the entire country, including Havana, into darkness. The blackout is the latest in a series of collapses, attributed to ageing infrastructure and a US energy embargo.
Cuba's national electricity grid has collapsed, causing a widespread blackout across the island. The state-run Electric Union announced the failure, which follows previous outages due to damaged infrastructure and fuel shortages, impacting essential services and households.
Wildfires burning over 100,000 hectares in Washington state have triggered widespread evacuations and power outages around Spokane. Strong winds are driving flames into residential areas, prompting a Level 3 evacuation order for parts of Spokane County and a statewide state of emergency declaration.
Over 4,000 firefighters, National Guard, and crews from 12+ states battled multiple wildfires across Washington state, US, on Saturday. Governor Bob Ferguson declared an emergency and burn ban as fires, including the Old Trails Fire in Spokane, burned over 250,000 acres, forcing evacuations and power outages.
A bombing near a Moscow restaurant killed at least 3 and injured 21. Ukraine's strikes on Russian-controlled infrastructure caused power outages in Crimea, affecting locals. A Ukrainian drone attack sank a Rosatom vessel in the Black Sea.
A 4.7-magnitude earthquake, the strongest in 40 years, struck near Naples, Italy, injuring at least 26, causing power outages, transport disruption, and building damage. Around 300 people were evacuated from Pozzuoli amid ongoing seismic activity and warnings of further collapses.
Kenyan courts are increasingly seeing cases of illegal ant smuggling, particularly the Giant African Harvester Ant, with thousands of specimens seized. Driven by a growing pet hobby in Europe, this trade, where a queen can fetch over €200, poses significant ecological risks to Kenya's savannah ecosystems and highlights a legal gray area in international wildlife trade.
Xbox's technology chief, Scott Van Vliet, acknowledged an "unacceptable" 20-hour outage that prevented some players from accessing disc-based games due to a licensing issue. This incident, following a similar PlayStation Network outage, intensifies concerns about game ownership and a potential digital-only future for gaming.
A major fault in Ghana's national power grid caused widespread outages in Accra, Kumasi, and northern regions, affecting homes, businesses, and essential services, with GRIDCo working to restore power safely.
Cuba's worsening energy crisis, exacerbated by US sanctions and halted Venezuelan oil exports, has led to frequent power cuts, disabling water pumping stations and leaving nearly 3 million Cubans without reliable access to water, forcing reliance on informal water economies.
Gatwick Airport's water supply was restored after a power failure at a treatment works caused outages, leading to closed restaurants, bars, and long toilet queues, with no flight cancellations reported.
A global PlayStation Network outage affecting digital game playability was resolved after hours, amid concerns over Sony's 2028 shift to digital-only new game releases.
A Himachal Pradesh consumer commission ordered Reliance JioFiber to pay Rs 10,000 compensation to a Shimla woman for unresolved internet service disruptions despite multiple complaints, citing deficiency in service and unfair trade practice.
Microsoft resolved an outage affecting Teams users in the Asia-Pacific region, preventing them from joining or creating meetings and calls. Downdetector reported over 7,000 issues earlier.
Australia is training its emergency services and military personnel in traditional navigation methods like paper maps and celestial navigation. This initiative addresses the nation's high dependency on vulnerable space infrastructure, including satellites and GPS, which could be disrupted by enemy attacks or solar flares, leading to widespread system failures.
About 10,000 homes and hundreds of businesses in Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong, lost fresh water for over a day. The department responsible announced increased budget for water main replacements and scheduled new works covering 40km by year-end.
Waymo's robotaxi service in San Francisco resumed after a temporary pause due to a power outage affecting 7,000 PG&E customers. The company made "temporary adjustments" and coordinated with officials, following past incidents that prompted Mayor Lurie to call for tougher AV regulations.
Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' faces an online right-wing backlash over casting and perceived 'wokeness,' amplified by Elon Musk. Despite a power outage canceling an early IMAX screening in Philadelphia and concerted downvoting efforts, the film is a massive box office success, with an AI-generated version also announced.
ChatGPT experienced an outage affecting 91% of users, with OpenAI acknowledging the issue. The service, including APIs, is now back online with performance restored to normal, as verified by the TOI Tech team.
Telstra CEO Vicki Brady returned to Australia to face a media storm and Senate grilling following a major national mobile outage caused by a software fault. The incident affected millions, disrupted services, and led to a welfare check on triple-zero users. The company faces scrutiny and potential penalties.
Telstra CEO Vicki Brady returned to Australia after a national mobile outage affected millions, disrupted services, and led to a Senate grilling. The outage, caused by a software fault with the company's time-telling systems, is the third major incident in less than a year, prompting government scrutiny and a regulatory investigation.
The Bank of England and FCA will regulate major tech firms like Amazon and Google from Monday, overseeing critical third parties to ensure financial stability and consumer protection against cyber-attacks and outages.
Telstra CEO Vicki Brady apologized for a national outage caused by a software fault affecting trains, transactions, and emergency calls. In sports, France advanced to the World Cup semi-finals. Australian politics features a Labor mayor's push for pokies reform.
Telstra is investigating why its backup systems failed during a recent national outage caused by a software fault in its time systems. The outage impacted mobile, Eftpos, and rail services for nearly five hours. South Australian police are investigating a death during the outage, exploring a potential link to triple zero call failures, though Telstra claims no record of such a failure.
