the likes of which you might have been given for Christmas,

fly in their thousands across the US every day.

They're mostly used for fun, but they're also

used by the US government for more serious purposes,

such as mapping terrain or tracking wildlife movements.

The problem for the government is

that these devices are almost all made, at least in part,

in China.

And now officials here in Washington

have started to worry what might happen should Beijing demand

access to the images they take.

This is especially a problem for the US Department

of the Interior, which uses hundreds of these drones

to do everything from fighting wildfires to monitoring

potential earthquake signs.

Last year, the department decided to temporarily ground

all 810 of its drones because every single one of them

had been made, at least in part, in China.

Now, I've been told the department has decided these

pose a serious security threat and is so

planning to make that ban permanent,

albeit allowing for certain kinds of flight

for emergencies, for example.

This is being done despite the protests of the department's

own staff.

I've been leaked documents which show many of the department's

staff worrying about what the effect would

be on their daily work should such a ban take

hold permanently.

Read FT.com for my full story on this.

Now, at the end of last year, I reported

on the pushback coming from certain sections of the US

technology sector against the latest Trump administration

move against Huawei, the Chinese telecoms equipment maker.

In the comments to that piece, MK

asked how this push against Huawei

fitted with the more positive narrative that's

been going on around the US-China trade talks.

Well, this is a particularly pertinent question

now as I speak because the phase-one China trade

deal has just been signed.

And I suspect that officials in the Trump administration

think now that that agreement is in the bag,

now is exactly the right time to once more ratchet up

the pressure on the Chinese telecoms equipment maker.

In fact, I would expect to see more

on exactly this thing from the Department of Commerce

in the coming weeks.

Stay tuned.