DJI's next drone likely won't be authorized for sale in the US. Image: DJI

The US government has placed a de facto ban on the import and sale of new drones and drone parts made outside of its borders, including ones from popular manufacturers like DJI. While people are still able to fly the drones they currently own and retailers can sell current models, it's a major blow to the drone market in the country.

A press release from the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, predictably cites national security as the reason for the policy change. It acknowledges that "unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), otherwise known as drones, offer the potential to greatly enhance public safety and innovation," but goes on to say that "criminals, hostile foreign actors, and terrorists can use them to present new and serious threats to our homeland." It lists major events, like the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 summer Olympics, as potential reasons to "safeguard" its airspace.

The policy isn't an outright ban on selling foreign drones

The policy isn't an outright ban on selling foreign drones. Rather, it makes it so the FCC can't authorize new drones or critical drone parts* if they're made in a foreign country. However, the end result is that any drone that doesn't currently have that authorization won't be able to be legally imported or sold in the US, without explicit approval from the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security. Again, this doesn't impact drones that Americans currently own (except for, potentially, the availability of replacement parts).

This move has been a long time coming. The US government has been threatening to ban DJI's drones, which make up the vast majority of the market, in one way or another for years. Its most recent move was to require a security audit of the company's products before December 23rd, and to subsequently not carry out that audit, but the efforts have spanned all branches of the government, under multiple administrations.

A DJI spokesperson told Politico that it's "disappointed" in the new policy. The company has clearly seen the writing on the wall, though, as many of its recent products (drones or otherwise) haven't officially launched in the US. That's despite the company telling us that the Mavic 4 Pro had "all necessary approvals and clearances, including FCC certification, for sale in the United States."

Drones are obviously useful tools for photographers and videographers, but they've also become vital in other industries such as forestry, agriculture, industrial inspections and more. While the FCC's press release states that this move will "unleash American drone dominance," it's unclear what, if any, American companies are poised to take up the mantel of designing and manufacturing drones that are as affordable or easy to use as those available from DJI and its competitors.

* - Banning authorization of parts cuts off the obvious loophole of companies selling each part individually, and giving users instructions on how to assemble them

We’ve all owned something where one tiny detail drives us nuts: a blinding power LED, buttons in the wrong order, or a beep that could wake the dead. This beautifully documented project fixes exactly that kind of annoyance, only this time it’s the climate-controlled seats in a 2020 Ram 1500.

[projectsinmotion] wasn’t satisfied with adjusting seat heating and ventilation only through the truck’s touchscreen. Instead, they added real physical buttons that feel just like factory equipment. The challenge? Modern vehicles control seats through the Body Control Module (BCM) over a mix of CAN and LIN buses. To pull this off, they used an ESP32-S3 board with both CAN and LIN transceivers that sits in the middle and translates button presses into the exact messages the BCM expects.

The ESP32 also listens to the CAN bus so the new physical buttons always match whatever setting was last chosen on the touchscreen, no mismatched states, no surprises. On the mechanical side, there are 3D-printed button bezels that snap into blank switch plates that come out looking completely stock, plus a tidy enclosure for the ESP32 board itself. Wiring is fully reversible: custom adapters plug straight into the factory harness. Every pinout, every connector, and every wire color is documented with WireVis diagrams we’ve covered before, making this an easily repeatable seat-hack should you have a similar vehicle. Big thanks to [Tim] for the tip! Be sure to check out some of our other car hacks turning a mass produced item into one of a kind.

When the Trump administration brutally cut federal funding for biomedical research earlier this year, at least 383 clinical trials that were already in progress were abruptly canceled, cutting off over 74,000 trial participants from their experimental treatments, monitoring, or follow-ups, according to a study published today in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The study, led by researchers at Harvard, fills a knowledge gap of how the Trump administration’s research funding cuts affected clinical trials specifically. It makes clear not just the wastefulness and inefficiency of the cuts but also the deep ethical violations, JAMA Internal Medicine editors wrote in an accompanying editor’s note.

In March, the National Institutes of Health, under the control of the Trump administration, announced that it would cancel $1.8 billion in grant funding that wasn’t aligned with the administration’s priorities. The Harvard researchers, led by health care policy expert Anupam Jena, used an NIH database and a federal accountability tracking tool to find grants supporting clinical trials that were active as of February 28 but had been terminated by August 15.

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Rendezvous Robotics' autonomous tile-based modules, built using Project TESSERAE tech, will potentially power Starcloud's plans to build massive data centers in space. The company is partnering with Nvidia to build a 5-gigawatt facility in orbit, and Rendezvous can help make that distant future a reality.

On Tuesday, Westinghouse announced that it had reached an agreement with the Trump administration that would purportedly see $80 billion of new nuclear reactors built in the US. And the government indicated that it had finalized plans for a collaboration of GE Vernova and Hitachi to build additional reactors. Unfortunately, there are roughly zero details about the deal at the moment.

The agreements were apparently negotiated during President Trump’s trip to Japan. An announcement of those agreements indicates that “Japan and various Japanese companies” would invest “up to” $332 billion for energy infrastructure. This specifically mentioned Westinghouse, GE Vernova, and Hitachi. This promises the construction of both large AP1000 reactors and small modular nuclear reactors. The announcement then goes on to indicate that many other companies would also get a slice of that “up to $332 billion,” many for basic grid infrastructure.

So the total amount devoted to nuclear reactors is not specified in the announcement or anywhere else. As of the publication time, the Department of Energy has no information on the deal; Hitachi, GE Vernova, and the Hitachi/GE Vernova collaboration websites are also silent on it.

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Without explanation, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the Trump administration has reverted from using the disease name "mpox" to the obsolete "monkeypox," which the world abandoned in 2022 because it was seen as racist and stigmatizing.

Mpox is the name of the disease caused by Orthopoxvirus monkeypox, a relative of smallpox and cowpox that has exploded to global prominence in recent years. In 2022 and 2024, the spread of mpox caused the World Health Organization to declare international public health emergencies.

Amid the attention, health officials became acutely aware of the problematic name.

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