📲 A new California law will require social media platforms to add more 'protections' for children

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed into law a new bill that could upend how social media platforms deal with underage users. The law, which won’t go into effect until July of 2024, is meant to place further restrictions on the type of data that platforms can collect from children.

The California law comes as pressure has mounted on social media companies to do more to protect the privacy and wellbeing of children who use their platforms. Lawmakers in the Senate have also proposed federal legislation that would increase data protections for younger users and President Joe Biden has said he supports banning online advertising that targets children.

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🛰 Hilton will design suites and sleeping quarters for Voyager’s private Starlab space station

Voyager and Lockheed Martin have found a partner to design astronaut facilities for their space station. Under the partnership, Hilton and Voyager will also look at marketing opportunities related to Starlab and trips to what may be one of the first space hotels.

NASA has granted contracts to four private companies who are building private space stations ahead of the agency's planned decommissioning of the International Space Station at the end of the decade. Axiom Space, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman are also working on space stations.

Voyager's operating company Nanoracks received the largest contract, which was valued at $160 million. Voyager and Lockheed Martin hope to have the first Starlab up and running by 2027. 

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📡 Musk Says Starlink Will Ask US Government for Exemption to Iran-Related Sanctions

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said he will seek an exemption from US sanctions on Iran in order to allow his company to provide internet service to people in hath country.

"Starlink will ask for an exemption to Iranian sanctions in this regard," Musk said via Twitter on Monday when asked if it would be possible to provide Starlink to the Iranian people.

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‼️ Turkish deputy Foreign Minister: Working with Russia on extending grain deal

Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal told Sputnik they are working on the grain deal and hope it is going to keep operating with all objectives fulfilled.

"We are working on it with Russia. It’s on our agenda," Onal said on Monday. "We wish that it is going to keep operating with all conditions in place and objectives fulfilled."

The food and energy crisis and Ukraine will be among the main topics of the high-level week of the UN General Assembly session that kicks off on Tuesday.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told RIA Novosti he plans to discuss the grain deal with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week, as well as the export of Russian food and fertilizers to world markets.

🛫 US aircraft carrier to visit S. Korea amid N. Korean threats

The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and its battle group will arrive at a southeastern South Korean naval base on Friday for a combined training meant to boost the allies’ military readiness and to show “the firm resolve by the Korea-US alliance for the sake of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula,” the South Korean navy said in a statement.

The US and South Korean officials also highlighted that the upcoming deployment of the Reagan Carrier Strike Group in the region is a clear demonstration of US security commitment, according to the joint statement. It was the allies’ first such meeting since early 2018. About 28,500 US troops are deployed in South Korea.

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🚨 EXCLUSIVE | Kiev trying to ‘kill as many people as possible,' says Venezuelan journo in Donbass

Alejandro Kirk, a special correspondent for teleSUR and HispanTV news channels in Donbass, has told Sputnik in an interview that shellings carried out by Ukraine in the region are “punitive attacks” that “punish ordinary people just for living here.”

Kirk, who sustained injuries are coming under fire after a recent shelling, underscored that residents in Donestsk are living in “terror,” adding that those who remain “know that at any moment, in any place, a Ukrainian shell could fall.”

“I saw a simultaneous attack on two schools in Donetsk on Monday at 11:00 a.m., when parents and teachers gathered. Friday night attacks on Pushkin Boulevard, where restaurants are located. At noon on the same boulevard where families walked,” he recalled. “All this cannot be the idea of a creative artillery commander, this is undoubtedly a political decision of the highest level.”

READ MORE —> https://sputniknews.com/20220920/venezuelan-journo-in-donbass-kiev-tries-to-kill-as-many-people-as-possible-1100986732.html

‼️ Erdogan: Putin Seeks to End Crisis in Ukraine As Soon As Possible

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told PBS as reported by the Yeni Safak newspaper that Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks to end the crisis in Ukraine as soon as possible.

The Turkish leader recalled that he had a meeting with Putin in Uzbekistan. Erdogan also said Ukraine must be in the same understanding with Russia, adding that he does not lose hope to organize a meeting between the Russian leader and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky.

📚 Leaders confront COVID’s impact on global education at UN

With COVID-related school disruptions setting back children around the world, activists implored world leaders Monday to prioritize school systems and restore educational budgets slashed when the pandemic hit.

“Seven years ago, I stood on this platform hoping that the voice of a teenage girl who took a bullet in standing up for her education would be heard,” said Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai. ”On that day, countries, corporates, civil society, all of us committed to work together to see every child in schools by 2030. It is heartbreaking that halfway through that target date, we are facing an education emergency.”

The percentage of 10-year-old children in poor and middle-income countries who cannot read a simple story increased to an estimated 70% — up 13 percentage points since before the pandemic.

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🤔 While Joe Biden once again said that the US would interfere “if there was an unprecedented attack” on Taiwan (obviously, from China) and send US troops to defend the island, the White House continues to insist that Washington adheres to the One-China policy...

❓ Who's gonna tell'em you can't sit on two chairs?

▪️ Anyway, experts interviewed by Sputnik pointed out possible risks of the US provocative actions.

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🔉 NASA has for the first time recorded the peculiar sound of a meteoroid slicing through the atmosphere of another planet and smashing to the surface of Mars, the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced on Monday.

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🇷🇺 🇨🇦 Russian officials have provided Canadian police with video footage of a Molotov cocktail attack on Russia's Embassy in Ottawa and expects that a thorough investigation will be conducted, Russian Ambassador to Canada Oleg Stepanov told Sputnik on Monday.

🗣 “We have handed over to the Canadian police video footage of what happened, and, of course, we expect that a thorough investigation will be carried out, which, I hope, will result in the arrest of this attacker,” Stepanov said. “We hope that Canadian authorities will draw appropriate conclusions from this case and strengthen measures to ensure the security of our diplomatic missions, which is especially important in the current difficult geopolitical situation.”

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📹 A refugee from the Kharkov region tells how he lived under Russia.

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⚡️ Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev on referendums in Donbass: Encroachment on the territory of Russia is a crime that justifies using all the self-defense forces

⚡️ Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev’s latest statements on the Donbass referendums:

▪️ Holding referendums in Donbass is crucial not only to protect the citizens, but also to restore historical justice;

▪️ Referendums completely change the vector of Russia's development for decades;

▪️ After they are carried out and new territories are accepted into Russia, the geopolitical transformation in the world will become irreversible.

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📹 Russian MoD has published footage showing Central Military District Uragan MRLS crews in combat as part of the special military operation.

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⚡️ US should oppose "Taiwan independence" to maintain peace and stability in Taiwan Strait - Chinese FM

🎖 🇺🇸 The rate of suicide among US veterans might be more than double what government officials report annually because of undercounting related to drug overdose deaths and service record errors, a new analysis released Saturday says.

▪️ Officials from America’s Warrior Partnership, in a joint study between the University of Alabama and Duke University, reviewed census death data from 2014 to 2018 for eight states and found thousands of cases of suspected or confirmed suicides not included in federal calculations.

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⚡️ The Public Council of the Kherson region appealed to the head of the region with the initiative to immediately hold a referendum on recognition as a subject of Russia