Kuwaiti government official accused of fixing raffles
One woman's streak of four luxury car wins in Kuwaiti televised raffles was too good to be true.
Videos show a government official running the draws with an approach we will charitably call… unorthodox. He allegedly slipped the winning tickets from his sleeve after clumsily shaking off a pile of others.
The Ya Hala Kuwait Shopping Festival, which organized the raffle, has paused draws while authorities investigate a three-year scam allegedly involving up to 20 people. The raffle should have been beyond reproach: It was overseen by the so-called Permanent Committee for Celebrating National Holidays and Occasions and staffed by Kuwait's Ministry of Commerce and Trade officials. A deputy minister offered his resignation.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
Daughter of suspected Colorado terrorist Mohamed Soliman said ‘USA has fundamentally changed me' — and revealed why family moved here — weeks before firebombing
The daughter of Colorado terror suspect Mohamed Soliman suggested her family moved to the US so she could pursue a 'dream' career in medicine — professing America 'fundamentally changed me' just weeks before her father's heinous alleged attack that flew in the face of the country's core values. Habiba Soliman relocated from Kuwait to the US with her family two years ago and settled near Colorado Springs, where she enrolled at the Thomas Maclaren School, according to a glowing profile in the Denver Gazette about winners of its 'Best and Brightest' scholarship for graduating high school seniors. She was born in Egypt but spent most of her life living in Kuwait, according to the Gazette, and was inspired to pursue a career in medicine after watching the 'magic' of a surgery that allowed her father to walk again. Advertisement 3 Habiba Soliman suggested her family came to the US so she could study medicine. Instagram/Thomas MacLaren School Kuwaiti residency laws prevented Habiba from going to medical school, however, and it was her family's recent move to the US that allowed her dream to become a reality, she said in her 'Best and Brightest' application. 'Coming to the USA has fundamentally changed me,' Habiba wrote. 'I learned to adapt to new things even if it was hard. I learned to work under pressure and improve rapidly in a very short amount of time. Advertisement 'Most importantly, I came to appreciate that family is the unchanging support,' she added. But Habiba — along with her mother and her four siblings — is now in ICE custody after her father Mohamed Soliman was arrested in Boulder Sunday for hurling Molotov cocktails at a peaceful march honoring Israeli hostages, injuring 12 people and leaving one in critical condition. 3 Habiba's father Mohamed Sabry Soliman allegedly doused a Jewish march with flaming bombs. The family has been stripped of its visas and is expected to be deported through an expedited process, law enforcement sources told The Post. Advertisement Soliman — who was in the US illegally after overstaying a visa in March — allegedly spent a year plotting the attack, and waited until his daughter graduated high school to carry it out. He tried to buy guns during his planning but was unable to because of his illegal status, so he allegedly settled on using Molotov cocktails and flaming gasoline pumped from a hose to attack his victims. 3 Mohamed Soliman faces hate crime charges for the sickening attack. Boulder County Sheriff's Office/AFP via Getty Images Footage from the scene showed the 45-year-old leering over the chaos and screaming antisemitic slurs as marchers rushed to douse flames from the limp bodies of victims. Advertisement The attack was called 'an antisemitic terror attack' by the White House and FBI, and Soliman has been charged with federal hate crimes and attempted murder. After his arrest Soliman told police he wanted to 'kill all Zionist people,' that he 'wished they were all dead' and that he'd do it again if given the chance, according to court documents. He also expected the attack to be a suicide mission, and left notes for his family hidden in their apartment.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Authorities make disturbing discovery after raiding hundreds of homes driving up utility bills: 'Posing a direct threat to public safety'
Kuwaiti authorities have begun to crack down on unauthorized crypto mining, and a recent raid in the southern Al-Wafrah region led to a 55% drop in local power use within a week, according to Reuters. The enforcement efforts come as the oil-rich nation faces mounting blackouts and extreme pressure on its electrical grid. While crypto trading itself is banned in Kuwait, mining has not been explicitly outlawed, per the report. This is a loophole that miners exploited. Officials say they raided nearly 100 homes under suspicion of mining crypto, and some were using more than 20 times the energy of a typical Kuwaiti household. The country's worsening energy crisis is driven by rapid population growth, rising temperatures, and delayed maintenance at power plants, per Reuters. With summer heat spiking demand for cooling systems, authorities say crypto mining is pushing the grid to its limits. "It only takes a very small share of the total bitcoin mining network to have a significant impact on the relatively small total electricity consumption of Kuwait," Digiconomist founder Alex de Vries-Gai told Reuters. Kuwait's interior ministry said crypto mining constitutes an "unlawful exploitation of electrical power" that "may cause outages affecting residential, commercial and service areas, posing a direct threat to public safety." The environmental cost of crypto can also be steep. A single Bitcoin transaction uses more than 1,189 kilowatt-hours of electricity — about as much as the average U.S. household in 41 days, according to Digiconomist. Globally, over 65% of crypto mining runs on dirty fuels, according to U.N. researchers. While cleaner sources may make up more of the energy mix since the time of the 2023 report, it is clear that crypto is adding significant volumes of heat-trapping pollution into the atmosphere and worsening air quality as a result. Even when power comes from renewables, the grid can experience strain if there's not enough generated to support energy-intensive operations. Because of this, some companies are focused on developing cryptocurrencies that require less power. Online internet users supported the crackdown in Kuwait. "Finally — a sane decision," one Reddit commenter wrote. Do you think America has a plastic waste problem? Definitely Only in some areas Not really I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Yahoo
Energy use in a Kuwaiti city fell by over 50% after authorities cracked down on crypto mining
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Authorities in Al-Wafrah, Kuwait, cracked down on alleged crypto miners in the city, which resulted in a 55% decrease in power consumption the following week. According to Reuters, Kuwait is in a power crisis as summer temperatures are soaring. Its growing number of citizens are pushing the power grid to keep cool while some power plants are experiencing maintenance delays. Kuwaiti authorities allege that cryptocurrency miners are pushing power demand beyond the country's capacity, leading to blackouts and a "major" power crisis. Cryptocurrency trading is illegal in Kuwait, but mining is not explicitly banned. Nevertheless, the government's interior ministry said it "constitutes an unlawful exploitation of electrical power…and may cause outages affecting residential, commercial, and service areas, posing a direct threat to public safety." The government raid covered about 100 homes suspected of hosting crypto mining operations, with some using more than 20 times the electricity consumption of the average Kuwaiti home. Crypto mining is a power-intensive activity, with one Bitcoin transaction consuming more than 1,047 kWh of electricity — about the same amount of power that the average U.S. household uses in over a month. Researchers estimated that Kuwaiti miners were responsible for less than half a percent of global mining activities in 2022. However, Digiconomist founder Alex de Vries-Gao told Reuters, "It only takes a very small share of the total bitcoin mining network to have a significant impact on the relatively small total electricity consumption of Kuwait." Kuwait is a small, oil-rich country in the Middle East, where electricity is affordable, probably because of its low fuel costs. Because of this, it's become an attractive area for crypto miners, as power consumption is one of the biggest costs of their operation. However, Kuwait's limited power reserves and expanding urban area mean these operations compete against residents and other businesses for electricity. Given that the authorities ban cryptocurrency trading, it makes sense for them to also crack down on mining operations. This incident highlights the increasing power demands of high-powered computing. And while crypto mining might be setting records in power consumption, AI data centers are the bigger threat to our electricity supply. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg says that limitations in our power grid will constrain AI growth, with Meta and other companies turning to nuclear reactors to provide the electricity their massive data centers need. And even if there's enough power to be had, they also cause reduced power quality in nearby residential areas, reducing the lifespan of electrical appliances in our homes. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
