Many in the UK who unwrapped a new drone this Christmas may face a rude awakening next week, when they will have to take a theory test before being allowed to fly outdoors. From 1 January, those intending to fly drones or model aircraft weighing 100g or more outside must complete a Civil Aviation Authority (CCA) online theory test to get a Flyer ID - something previously only needed for heavier drones. The regulator believes up to half a million people in the UK may be impacted by its new requirements. CAA spokesperson Jonathan Nicholson said with drones becoming a common Christmas present it was important people knew how to comply with the law. With the new drone rules coming into force this week, all drone users must register, get a Flyer ID and follow the regulations, he said.

The U.S. military has begun operating surveillance drones over the Gaza Strip in recent days as part of a broader effort to ensure that both Israel and Hamas adhere to a fragile cease-fire agreement, Israeli and American military officials said. The drones have been used to monitor ground activity in Gaza, with the consent of Israel, according to two Israeli military officials and a U.S. defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational details. They said they were not able to share the drones' flight paths. Those three officials added that the surveillance missions were operating to support a new Civil-Military Coordination Center in southern Israel, which was established last week by the U.S. military's Central Command, in part to monitor the cease-fire. The truce deal, brokered by American, Qatari, and Egyptian mediators earlier this month, has been strained by a recent flare-up of violence in Gaza and lingering tensions over the exchange of deceased Israelis and Palestinians.

The FAA is set to loosen rules to let people fly drones beyond their "line of sight. On Thursday, I published a story about the police-tech giant Flock Safety selling its drones to the private sector to track shoplifters. Keith Kauffman, a former police chief who now leads Flock's drone efforts, described the ideal scenario: A security team at a Home Depot, say, launches a drone from the roof that follows shoplifting suspects to their car. The drone tracks their car through the streets, transmitting its live video feed directly to the police. It's a vision that, unsurprisingly, alarms civil liberties advocates. They say it will expand the surveillance state created by police drones, license-plate readers, and other crime tech, which has allowed law enforcement to collect massive amounts of private data without warrants.

Why you're about to see a lot more drones in the sky For decades, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has restricted people's ability to fly drones in shared airspaces or dense neighborhoods. That's made it hard to deliver futuristic ideas like drones delivering our packages. The agency recently granted Amazon's Prime Air program approval to fly drones beyond the visual line of sight in parts of Texas, and also granted similar waivers to hundreds of police departments around the country. It promises to be the most significant drone decision in decades, and one that will decide just how many drones we all can expect to see and hear buzzing above the US on a daily basis. This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly AI newsletter.

On Sunday and Monday, Twitter was abuzz over a harrowing Russian video, obviously shot with a drone, that showed a mother bear and cub making their way across a steep, snowy ridge. As the drone films, the cub falls down the ridge and laboriously makes its way up to its worried mother, sliding back down onto the rock on multiple occasions. The cub finally makes it to the top of the ridge, and both mother and cub dart off into the brush, the mother glancing over her shoulder in concern as the drone follows them. Many Twitter users found the video to be inspiring, in a way: Look, that baby bear never gave up! Many wildlife biologists, however, saw something rather different.

Make a trip to any major electronics store today and you're bound to find a section selling drones. Once little more than toys for enthusiasts, today's commercially available drones come in all shapes and sizes and are used for all sorts of purposes, with prices ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of yen. But the proliferation of drone technology has brought with it questions about security, and invasion of privacy. The central government and many localities around Japan have put into place a number of ordinances in recent years limiting and forbidding drones near certain locations. Last year the National Policy Agency said there had been 68 cases of illegal drone flights, almost double the previous year's 36.

A second dataset featured 32,000 images captured from a GoPro on the handlecars of a bicycle. Stills from video recordings of the bike approaching objects were used to train the AI in collision avoidance.

OSAKA – The nation's first drone museum opened in the city of Osaka in December featuring a wide variety of drones on display and for sale, with visitors able to try them out. "There are not many places in Japan where people can see and touch drones. We hope to promote them from the Kansai region," said an official of Skyasky Co., the drone pilot school based in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, that runs Drone Museum Horie. The museum, located in Osaka's Minamihorie district, exhibits 16 types of drones produced in Japan and abroad, ranging from an 18-gram palm-sized indoor drone to a gigantic crop-spraying drone equipped with a 10-liter tank. Visitors can learn the history of drones, from the earliest models for industrial use produced in New Zealand in 2011 to the latest model that sends live video footage to a smartphone.

The armed robbery suspect hiding out in a camper in rural Michigan heard state troopers closing in, so he dashed into a field and crouched among the 6-foot-tall cornstalks. What he didn't know was that police had eyes on him from above. Drones are fast becoming an essential tool for more law enforcement agencies, changing how officers carry out everyday tasks and bringing air surveillance to departments with limited budgets. The remote-controlled flying machines have been deployed to bust up a ring stealing bulldozers and backhoes from construction sites on the East Coast; to patrol beaches for sharks; and to scan neighborhoods for survivors in hurricane zones. In this October 2017 photo, Officer Scott Hermon prepares to pilot the department's first drone in Streetsboro, Ohio.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's Small UAS Rule (also known as Part 107) has provisions to obtaining waivers to the usual requirements for flying drones in the United States. For example, you're not generally allowed to fly drones at night, although the FAA has granted quite a few waivers allowing flight after dark. But another rule is that you can't fly drones over people who are not part of your operations, and until about a week ago, the FAA hadn't waived that rule for anybody. Now it has, for CNN. The FAA is allowing the cable news network to use a drone to obtain video over uninvolved people, even crowds assembled at places like sporting events.