🛰 FCC proposes ‘five-year rule’ for dead satellite disposal

The Federal Communications Commission wants to do something about space junk in low Earth orbit. The FCC wants to adopt a five-year rule that would require domestic satellite operators and companies that want access to the US market to dispose of their non-functioning satellites as soon as they can. 

The proposal comes as the number of satellites in low Earth orbit is expected to increase over the next few years dramatically. With contributions from companies like SpaceX, Amazon and OneWeb, as many as 18,000 new satellites could be floating above the planet by 2025. Those satellites will not only make it more challenging to observe the night sky, but the probability of a potential crash will increase too.

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📦 Amazon is buying a company that makes pallet-stacking robots

Amazon has agreed to buy Cloostermans, a company that makes robots capable of stacking pallets in its warehouses. After the acquisition closes, Cloostermans' 200 or so employees will join the Amazon Global Robotics division in Europe and likely dedicate their time to solely building tech that suits Amazon's needs.

While Amazon has been relying more on robots at its fulfillment centers for several years, the Cloostermans acquisition comes soon after employees at a Staten Island facility became the first Amazon warehouse workers to win a union election. The company said in 2019 that automation isn't expected to replace human workers at warehouses for at least a decade.

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‼️ Four civilians killed by Ukrainian mines in Kinburn spit reserve amid fires - Source

Thousands of hectares of forest are burning in the Kinburn Spit Reserve in the Russia-controlled part of Mykolaiv region as a result of Ukrainian shelling, at least four civilians died, a source in the emergency services of the neighboring Kherson region told Sputnik.

"With the outbreak of hostilities, a heavy blow was dealt to the ecosystem of the peninsula - the Kinburn Spit was covered with fires that arose due to artillery strikes carried out by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. To date, more than 11,000 hectares of forest have burned out and are irretrievably lost. The actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine led not only to the death of thousands of hectares of forest and to the impossibility of extinguishing fires due to the high risk of mine explosions, but also to the deaths of civilians," the source said.

He specified that two civilians were killed when their vehicle blew up on a Ukrainian mine on August 13. Another two civilians were killed on August 15, when their car hit a Ukrainian mine in the same area (between the villages of Vasylivka and Pokrovske).

"This stopped fire trucks from leaving the village of Vasylivka, and the fight against fires became impossible. All that local residents can do in this situation is to fight fires inside their villages and around power substations," the emergencies source told Sputnik.

💳 Visa, Mastercard, and AmEx to start categorizing gun shop sales

It’s a major win for gun control advocates who say it will help better track suspicious surges of gun sales that could be a prelude to a mass shooting. But gun rights advocates have argued that step would unfairly segregate legal gun sales when most sales do not lead to mass shootings.

Visa said it would adopt the International Organization for Standardization’s new merchant code for gun sales. Until Friday, gun store sales were considered “general merchandise.”  It joins Mastercard and American Express, which also said they plan to move forward with categorizing gun shop sales.

The cards acts as a middleman between merchants and banks, and it will be up to banks to decide whether they will allow sales at gun stores to happen on their issued cards.

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😳 📹 A former Central California elementary school head is facing charges of cruelty to a minor after a video appeared online showing how he shoved a student to the ground.

▪️ Brian Vollhardt, the former principal of Wolters Elementary School, was seen striking the student in the chest during breakfast time on June 7.

▪️ Superintendent Bob Nelson said the student, who has special needs, wasn't injured after the incident, and was provided with the necessary emotional support.

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📌 LIVE UPDATES: Four vessels set to leave Ukraine under Istanbul grain deal, JCC says

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📹 Thousands of people took to the streets in Vienna yesterday to protest against rising energy prices.

▪️ Protesters called for the resumption of the Nord Stream 2 project and the opening of Nord Stream, as well as the abolition of unilateral measures against Russia.

▪️ Demonstrations expressing dissatisfaction with the economic situation in Europe have been taking place in several EU countries in recent weeks.

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📹 Crews of T-90 tanks from the Southern Military District have neutralized and destroyed the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who attempted to penetrate Russia's defenses.

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“To start with there was the (first) explosion…Then the second blast came”

A resident of the DPR describes how Ukraine’s Army shells local residential buildings

🇫🇷 Paris plans to reduce lighting on the Eiffel Tower… because of energy crisis.

🤔 Eiffel Tower management company SETE explained that contrary to popular belief, lighting the tower at night accounts for only 4% of the monument’s annual electricity bill, and the flashing of 20,000 LEDs flashing for five minutes at the beginning of each hour is done using energy efficient equipment. Therefore, the measure, which will be announced on September 13, is symbolic.

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🇦🇫 📹 A Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a Taliban* training exercise in Kabul, killing three, the group's defense ministry said Saturday.

🗯"An American Black Hawk helicopter, which was flown... for training, crashed due to a technical problem inside the campus of the National Defense University," said Ministry of Defense spokesperson Enaytullah Khowrazmi, adding that five people were injured.

▪️The Taliban took control of some US-made aircraft after they seized power in the country just over a year ago. It remains unclear how many are operational.

*under UN sanctions for terrorist activities

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⚡️ Russia will not sell gas or oil to countries that impose restrictions on their price, the head of the Russian Energy Ministry says

❗️Russia’s MoD briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️Russian Forces perform high-precision strikes on Ukrainian units and reserves in the Kharkov region. As a result, Ukrainian personnel and military equipment of the Ukrainian units and of the14th and 92nd Mechanized Brigades were hit; the Ukraine’s Army losses totaled more than 200 servicemen and more than 20 military equipment units;

▪️Russian Forces eliminated more than 250 Ukrainian servicemen and destroyed 12 Ukrainian units of armored vehicles, three field artillery guns, one multiple-launch rocket system and 17 motor vehicles;

▪️Russian Air Forces performed high-precision missile strikes on the Nikolayev-Krivoy Rog axis, destroying a temporary deployment point of units of the 36th Brigade of the Ukraine’s Army Marine Corps near Nikolayev. As a result, more than 100 Ukrainian troops and 15 Ukrainian units were eliminated;

▪️In total, from September 6 to 10, Kiev’s losses totaled more than four thousand and more than eight thousand were wounded in these two areas alone;

▪️Russian Aerospace forces performed strikes in the Kherson region, eliminating over 50 Ukrainian servicemen and 7 pieces of military equipment of the 60th Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine;

▪️Russian Forces destroyed eight Ukrainian command posts in the Dnepropetrovsk region, in the Nikolayev region and in the Kherson region. In addition, Russian Forces eliminated 43 Ukrainian artillery units, as well as Ukrainian troops and military equipment in 103 areas.

▪️Russian Forces destroyed Ukrainian munitions depots in the DPR and in the Nikolayev region;

▪️Russian Forces destroyed radio detection and ranging station in the Nikolayev region;

▪️Russian air defense means destroyed a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter in the DPR;

▪️Russian air defense means destroyed four Ukrainian UAVs in the Kherson region, Nikolayev region and in the DPR, as well as intercepted two Tochka-U ballistic missiles and two American HARM anti-radiation missiles in the Kharkov region;

▪️Russian Forces intercepted 12 rockets fired by US-made HIMARS systems and nine Olkha rockets in the Kherson region.

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📹Footage showing combat by the Russian MI-8MTV-5 army aviation rotorcraft crews within the special military operation. The video is courtesy of Russia’s MoD.

Crew members of the MI-8MTV airlift helicopter eliminated the fortified strongpoints, armored equipment and manpower of Ukraine’s Army, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.

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📹 The Russian MoD has published footage showing Su-25 assault fighters in combat action.

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