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Iraqi militias claim attack on eight US convoys, follows deal where limited US contingent will STAY in country

Ilya Tsukanov8
Sputnik
Thu, 26 Aug 2021 19:07 UTC
iraq attack
© Twitter / @IbrahimDSY1
Baghdad-allied Shia militias in Iraq have expressed dissatisfaction with the government's recently-signed US forces agreement, which allows for a limited contingent of US troops to stay in the country, and have insisted that all US personnel, including trainers and elements of the US Air Force, leave the country immediately.

Shia militias targeted as many as eight US logistics convoys in a single day, Sabereen News, an outlet affiliated with the militias, has alleged.
The spate of suspected attacks was reported to have taken place Tuesday, with convoys targeted in the Nasiriyah and Samawah areas in southeastern Iraq, with two more attacked in al-Diwaniyah, capital of the southeastern province of al-Qadisiyyah. Two improvised explosive device attacks were reported in Babil province, with a US Army logistics convoy targeted in Baghdad's Yusufiyah district, more vehicles attacked in al-Taji and two other convoys struck in al-Muthana and Dhi Qar provinces.

Comment: See also:

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Laptop

Microsoft warns thousands of cloud customers of exposed databases

Joseph Menn
Reuters
Thu, 26 Aug 2021 21:46 UTC
Microsoft
© Mike Segar/Reuters
Microsoft on Thursday warned thousands of its cloud computing customers, including some of the world's largest companies, that intruders could have the ability to read, change or even delete their main databases, according to a copy of the email and a cyber security researcher.

The vulnerability is in Microsoft Azure's flagship Cosmos database. A research team at security company Wiz discovered it was able to access keys that control access to databases held by thousands of companies. Wiz Chief Technology Officer Ami Luttwak is a former chief technology officer at Microsoft's Cloud Security Group.

Because Microsoft cannot change those keys by itself, it emailed the customers Thursday telling them to create new ones. Microsoft agreed to pay Wiz $40,000 for finding the flaw and reporting it, according to an email it sent to Wiz.

Microsoft spokespeople did not immediately comment.

Comment: There were also the Microsoft Exchange servers that were hacked last month.

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Gold Coins

Cuba to recognize - and regulate - cryptocurrencies


Yahoo! News
Fri, 27 Aug 2021 21:37 UTC
bitcoin, crytocurrencies, Cuba, cryptos
© AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File
FILE - This April 3, 2013, file photo shows bitcoin tokens in Sandy, Utah. The Cuban government said Thursday, August 26, 2021, that it will start recognizing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as payment.
Cuba's government said Thursday it will recognize — and regulate — cryptocurrencies for payments on the island.

A resolution published in the Official Gazette said the Central Bank will set rules for such currencies and determine how to license providers of related services within Cuba.

The popularity of such currencies has grown among a technologically savvy group in Cuba as it has become harder to use dollars, in part because of toughened embargo rules imposed under former President Donald Trump.

Comment:

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Cowboy Hat

Ex-NBA champ urges end to 'iron fist' lockdowns, claims influencers & police are being prevented from speaking about Covid


RT
Fri, 27 Aug 2021 21:08 UTC
Andrew Bogut
© Soobum Im / USA Today Sports via Reuters | Instagram / andrewbogut
Ex-NBA champion Andrew Bogut has held forth on Covid-19
Giant Australian basketball star Andrew Bogut has blasted tight Covid-19 restrictions and claimed that he was made a mysterious financial offer to tell the public to stay at home and follow government regulations.

2015 NBA champion Bogut is based in Victoria, where people are not allowed to travel more than 5km (3.2 miles) from their homes under rules aimed at curbing the spread of the potentially deadly coronavirus.

The 7ft former center, whose former sides include the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers, admitted he was ranting as he warned that people would "see that police chopper over your head" if they stayed outside for too long.

"Yes, I should be quiet," said the 36-year-old, responding to critics who pointed out that he is not a medical expert.
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Yellow Vest

Security forced to escort Connecticut Governor Lamont from angry protesters after he defends school mask mandate

Ken Dixon and Cayla Bamberger
CT Insider
Thu, 26 Aug 2021 20:41 UTC
mask protest ct
© Christine Stuart/YouTube
About 20 anti-mask protesters confronted top state officials at an annual back-to-school event Wednesday in a Cheshire elementary school, abruptly shutting down the discussion, with at least one protester heckling Gov. Ned Lamont right to his vehicle.

The event was billed as a round table discussion at Highland Elementary School with a group of top state education and public health officials to address the start of the 2021-22 school year.

The meeting was supposed to focus on ways to safely maintain in-person instruction for students and faculty amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The protesters grumbled through the first half-hour, holding anti-mask signs and allegedly calling out Dr. Deidre Gifford, acting commissioner of the state Department of Public Health, but stayed in their seats in the cafeteria.
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Chess

Incoming NY Gov. Kathy Hochul adds 12,000 deaths to COVID death count


Fox News
Fri, 27 Aug 2021 20:36 UTC
Kathy Hochul
© AP Photo
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul promised more government transparency on her first day in office and by day's end her administration had quietly delivered it by acknowledging nearly 12,000 more deaths in the state from COVID-19 than had been publicized by her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo.

New York now reports nearly 55,400 people have died of COVID-19 in New York based on death certificate data submitted to the CDC, up from about 43,400 that Gov. Cuomo had reported to the public as of Monday, his last day in office.

"We're now releasing more data than had been released before publicly, so people know the nursing home deaths and the hospital deaths are consistent with what's being displayed by the CDC," Hochul said Wednesday on MSNBC. "There's a lot of things that weren't happening and I'm going to make them happen. Transparency will be the hallmark of my administration."


Comment: Anytime a politician says "___ will be the hallmark of my administration," it should be taken with an eye roll and then a suspicious glance.


The Associated Press first reported in July on the large discrepancy between the fatality numbers publicized by the Cuomo administration and numbers the state was reporting to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Comment: This makes sense from a political point of view. Better to make the additional deaths public now, where they can be blamed on Cuomo, than have it come it later and have to take the PR hit.

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Doberman

Biden's dog Major bit Secret Service members 8 days in row, emails show

Steven Nelson
NY Post
Thu, 26 Aug 2021 17:27 UTC
biden dog
© Adam Schultz/White House/Handout via REUTERS
President Biden's German shepherd Major attacked many more people than the White House has disclosed, according to newly released emails.

The documents indicate that Major bit members of the Secret Service eight days in a row in early March — though only one such incident was publicly acknowledged.

At least one White House visitor also was bitten in early March, according to the emails, which were released Thursday by the conservative transparency group Judicial Watch, which slammed the "cover-up" of the incidents.
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Arrow Up

Texas House advances GOP-backed election security bill achieving quorum

Kaelan Deese
Washington Examiner
Fri, 27 Aug 2021 10:03 UTC
Texas HofR
© Julia Reihs/KUT
Texas House of Representatives
The election bill that prompted Texas Democrats to retreat from the state earlier this summer to stall the legislative process has advanced in the House, according to the state Legislature.

The Republican-backed election bill, a slightly revised version of Senate Bill 1, which aims to bolster voter identification rules and clamp down on vote-by-mail rules, passed the House in a mostly party-line vote of 79-37 on Thursday following a 12-hour debate.

Final approval of the bill is expected to come from the Senate on Friday, although the legislation will not immediately head to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott 's desk. The House committee that approved the bill replaced the Senate's version, which passed the upper chamber 18-11 on Aug. 12, with its own, and the two chambers will first have to compromise on changes made.

"This legislation will make our elections process fair and uniform," Abbott tweeted prior to the vote on Thursday. "I look forward to signing this bill into law."
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Key

Taliban opens up Helmand River to drought-affected eastern Iran's 'Sistan and Baluchestan' province


The Cradle
Thu, 26 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC
Kamal Khan Dam
© Anadolu Agency
Kamal Khan Dam
The Taliban has allowed Helmand River to once more flow into Iran's parched Sistan and Baluchestan province, providing water to over one million Iranians, according to Kuwaiti media outlet Al-Jarida.

According to the report, the gates of Kamal Khan Dam were opened as part of an agreement between the Taliban and Iran which also saw the Islamic Republic resume fuel exports to Afghanistan on 23 August.

Kamal Khan Dam was inaugurated in March of this year by exiled Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who declared that Afghanistan would no longer give away free water to anyone and if they wanted it, Iran needed to provide fuel to Afghans in exchange. By doing so, Tehran says Ghani violated the Helmand River Treaty of 1973 which divided the water between the two countries.

But Iranian officials say that Afghanistan's decision to cut Iran off from a major water source was not done in response to water scarcity, but rather due to Washington's persistence on using any means necessary to put pressure on Tehran.
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Bomb

Two explosions kill and injure dozens, including Americans, outside Kabul airport - UPDATE: ISIS claims responsibility, 170 killed


RT
Thu, 26 Aug 2021 18:23 UTC
Kabul Injured
© Reuters / ASVAKA NEWS
Injured people arrive at a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan August 26, 2021.
Children are among dozens of people killed and injured in two major explosions outside the airport in Afghanistan's capital Kabul as dramatic evacuation efforts continue.

US Department of Defense Press Secretary John Kirby has confirmed the "complex attack" has "resulted in a number of US & civilian casualties".


The two explosions took place on Thursday just outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul: one was at the airport's Abby Gate, the other near the Baron hotel.

Comment: Just prior to the attack, western governments were warning about the possibility of an attack at the airport by ISIS-K (ISIS in Khorasan, Afghanistan). According to a Taliban official, they were the ones who alerted NATO forces about the "imminent" suicide bomb attack:
Zabihullah Mujahid, who holds the office of Information Minister in the Taliban-installed government in Afghanistan, told the Russian media that his organization was the source of the information. The threat was not specific, he said in an interview, but the plan was to provoke chaos and violence at the airport and hurt the Taliban's reputation.

"Over the last 20 years we have learned things and changed," the official said in the interview. "We want to prove that we are not what anti-Taliban propaganda has portrayed us to be. We want to show that to the world."
"Multiple" U.S. service members were killed (so far 4 Marines confirmed, 3 wounded).

UPDATE:


The above were apparently controlled detonations.




UPDATE: The death toll currently stands at 170, very close to the report from Amaq claiming responsibility. Close to 200 wounded. Thirteen U.S. troops were killed, along with at least 28 Taliban members. Despite initial reports of two explosions, the Pentagon claims there was only one bomber, and no explosion near the Baron Hotel. General Taylor says the media report of that explosion was false.

An Afghan witness to the bombing shared his observations with RT:
"When the explosion happened, we fell from the wall on the footpath. There were lots of people [there] so we fell on them. And when we fell on them, the effect of that explosion just came to us," he said. "Our eyes were full of tears. And also we couldn't breathe, like there was no oxygen for 30 or 40 seconds."

The powerful blast was unlike anything Ahmadzai had witnessed in the more than 20 years that his family lived in Kabul, he said. People panicked, both the Afghans outside and the guards inside. The Americans "started shooting," he said, adding that he believed some people in the crowd got shot by the US troops in those initial moments of confusion.

As terrified people fled for their lives, a stampede started, and Ahmadzai got separated from his aunt's family, he said. He fell on the ground when his foot got stuck in something, but luckily his shoe came off and he managed to get to the wall again and climb up. Then he finally managed to circle back and find his relatives, who he feared could have been trampled to death by the crowd.


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