US President Donald Trump signed decrees to strengthen national defense against drones, as well as to support the development of air taxis and supersonic passenger aircraft, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA, citing a White House press release.
The orders aim to take key steps toward commercial drone deliveries, reduce the United States' dependence on Chinese drone companies, and begin testing electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
Trump is also creating a federal task force to ensure control of American airspace, including through the implementation of real-time drone detection technologies.
Trump is not banning any Chinese drone companies.
The US president is seeking to address the use of drones by "criminals, terrorists, and foreign powers," said Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "We are protecting our borders from national security threats, including from the air, as major public events like the Olympics and the World Cup loom on the horizon," he added.
The issue of suspicious drones flying over US airspace gained particular public attention last year, when multiple drones were spotted over New Jersey. The US Federal Aviation Administration receives more than 100 reports of drones circling airports each month.
The US Supreme Court has allowed the Government Efficiency Department to maintain broad access to personal data of millions of Americans held by the Social Security Administration (SSA) while a lawsuit against the agency, which was until recently headed by Elon Musk, is ongoing, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
In late March, District Judge Ellen Hollander of Maryland issued an order largely blocking the Government Efficiency Department's access to the SSA database.
The nine-judge Supreme Court, however, on Friday temporarily suspended Hollander's order at the request of the Justice Department. The decision was supported by the six conservative justices, while the remaining three senior justices, who are liberals, disagreed with the reversal of the order.
In addition, the Supreme Court extended the term of court orders requiring the Department of Government Efficiency to hand over documents detailing the agency founded by Donald Trump and Elon Musk to the government oversight committee.
The Department of Government Efficiency believes that the state has been too wasteful so far and has therefore taken measures such as the dismissal of many government employees.
Musk officially left the Trump administration last week.
Two labor unions and a human rights organization have filed a lawsuit to block the newly created department from accessing sensitive information stored by the ASO, which includes Social Security numbers, bank account details, tax information, income history and immigration data.
The ASO pays most government benefits and sends checks to more than 70 million recipients each month, including retirees and the disabled.
The unions and the human rights group that filed the lawsuit say in their complaint that the ASO was "looted", that the employees of the Ministry of Government Efficiency were hired without proper vetting or training, and that they requested access to particularly sensitive personal data.
According to Hollander, the ministry failed to explain why its stated mission requires "unprecedented, unrestricted access to virtually all of the ASO's data systems.".
In its appeal to the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Government Efficiency called Hollander's order an abuse of its powers.
"District Court Forces Executive Branch to Stop the access of employees tasked with modernizing government information systems to the data in those systems, since in the court's judgment these employees do not "need such access", the Supreme Court petition states.
Polish President Andrzej Duda announced on the social network "Ex", quoted by BTA, that he discussed in a phone call with his American counterpart Donald Trump the security of NATO's eastern flank ahead of the upcoming summit of the alliance in The Hague.
"I had a very good phone call with Donald Trump," said Duda. "Our main topics included the security of Poland and our region in the context of the recent B9 summit (as the Bucharest Nine is known – editor's note) in Vilnius and the upcoming NATO summit in The Hague, as well as the increase in defense spending of member states," the Polish president added.
Duda also noted that he had assured the American head of state that the victory of the newly elected Polish President Karol Nawrocki would guarantee close cooperation between Warsaw and Washington.