Haye Kesteloo is the Editor in Chief and Founder of DroneXL.co, where he covers all drone-related news, DJI rumors and writes drone reviews, and of EVXL.co, for all electric vehicle news. Haye can be reached at haye @ dronexl.co or @hayekesteloo. Also on LinkedIn, Muck Rack, Instagram and YouTube.
The FCC extended Covered List exemptions for trusted drones through January 1, 2028, but in the same move proposed cutting off imports and sales of foreign-made thermal, LiDAR, docking, spraying, swarming, defense-integrated, and 55-pound-plus drones. That combination gives approved U.S.-aligned manufacturers more runway while putting public safety, agriculture, and survey fleets on notice.
The European Commission has formally launched the EU-Ukraine Drone Alliance, pairing nine EU companies with nine Ukrainian manufacturers behind a joint drone and counter-drone production push targeting the end of 2026. The move turns months of bilateral defense-industrial deals into formal EU policy and puts companies like Quantum Systems and Vyriy on the founding board.
The National Press Photographers Association told the FAA its proposed Section 2209 drone rule would create opaque, potentially permanent no-fly zones with no expiration, no review clock, and no practical protection for newsgathering — the same structural fixes drone pilots already asked for.
Northwestern University says its single-motor Phantom Twist drone is roughly ten times harder to see in flight than a same-size quadcopter, turning persistence of vision into a real-world drone-detection problem.
Ukrainian long-range drones hit two Wildberries logistics hubs that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says were supplying drone-production components and navigation equipment to Russia's war effort, in the deadliest deep strike inside Russia in more than two years.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says drones and advanced thermal imaging are now part of Canada's national wildfire response, bringing DroneXL's thermal-drone fireline coverage into a G7 leader's public briefing for the first time.
Boom Supersonic has turned Blake Scholl’s Mach 1 RC challenge into an $800,000 competition with judges, co-sponsors, and formal rules, but the fine print may be the hardest part: entrants must clear a legal and regulatory path that does not obviously exist today.
The Minneapolis City Council deadlocked 6-6, killing a free 75-day Skydio Drone as First Responder trial after members cited the company’s ties to ICE and the Israeli military, despite neighboring cities expanding similar programs.
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