GoKawiil
Tech News
President Trump has proposed building a drone port atop the new White House ballroom, envisioning missile-armed drones and armed troops to guard against aerial attacks. Reporting reveals the Secret Service already operates a separate, smaller drone port nearby on a Treasury Department building, using unarmed surveillance drones deployed from weatherproof boxes to monitor threats.
EFF joined the ACLU, ACLU of D.C., and photography trade groups in an amicus brief urging the D.C. Circuit to strike down an FAA drone flight restriction in Levine v. FAA. The rule had barred drones from flying near DHS officers and vehicles, including ICE and CBP convoys, effectively blocking aerial recording of immigration enforcement even from over half a mile away. Although the FAA rescinded the restriction in April after being sued, the petitioner argues the case should still be decided because past violations remain punishable and the agency could reimpose the rule.
On September 12, Ukraine's Defense Intelligence spotted a Russian Orcan explosive drone boat in the Black Sea and sent a Sargan-3000 naval drone armed with a remote-controlled 12.7mm machine gun to intercept it. The Ukrainian vessel opened fire from about one kilometer away, knocking out the Russian drone's communications antenna before sinking it entirely, according to footage released by Ukraine's navy.
A viral video shows a large quadcopter drone equipped with hose attachments hovering over a dog in Linyi, Shandong province, and dousing it with water while the animal wags its tail. The clip reportedly stems from a demonstration by a Chinese company that builds drones designed to clean solar panels, though the exact company and video's authenticity remain unverified.
A tech newsletter roundup covers preparations for an extreme El Niño event, new developments in jet-powered drone warfare, the emergence of credit cards designed for AI agents to make purchases, and a GLP-1 drug manufacturer partnering with Anthropic's Claude to accelerate medicine development.
Amazon Web Services has confirmed that customer data hosted in its Bahrain and United Arab Emirates data centers was permanently lost following Iranian drone strikes in March. The damage wiped out data across all three availability zones in Bahrain and one of three zones in the UAE, with AWS saying the destruction exceeded what its systems were built to survive. Amazon had already halted billing in the affected regions and spent six months trying to restore services before disclosing the losses.
Amazon Web Services disclosed on September 15 that drone strikes attributed to Iran destroyed data center infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain so severely that customer data and resources could not be recovered. AWS said the damage crossed multiple availability zones, exceeding the redundancy built into its regional and multi-zone systems, following earlier strikes in March and April that had already caused structural, power and fire-related damage.
The UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) is spending $94 million over three and a half years across 18 projects to build high-altitude pseudo-satellites—essentially long-endurance drones—that would deliver wireless internet to areas lacking ground networks. The program, called Enduring Atmospheric Platforms, targets a unit carrying a 300-watt communications payload that can stay airborne for a full week, with work split into technology development, system integration, and deployment phases.
Amazon Web Services has confirmed that customer data hosted in its Bahrain and United Arab Emirates regions was permanently lost following Iranian drone strikes on its data centers months earlier. An AWS status update posted September 15 said the company could not restore data in one UAE availability zone and across all three availability zones in Bahrain, though recovery work continues elsewhere.
Amazon Web Services has told customers to relocate their data away from its Abu Dhabi and Bahrain facilities, more than six months after drone and missile strikes damaged both sites during regional conflict involving Iran, the US and Israel. AWS gave no timeline for repairs, and Bahraini state media reported that site was destroyed by cruise missiles.
McDonald's has teamed up with Chinese super-app Meituan to deliver food by drone to designated pickup kiosks in Shanghai's waterfront district. Customers place orders through Meituan, and drones fly meals like Big Macs and McNuggets directly to these collection points within minutes.
Amazon Web Services facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain remain out of service months after being struck during the recent Iran conflict, according to reports. The prolonged outage is raising questions about the resilience of Gulf infrastructure underpinning the region's AI ambitions.