WASHINGTON —

Related video above: Deadly rocket strike hits Ukraine apartment building

The White House on Monday said it believes Russia is turning to Iran to provide it with “hundreds” of unmanned aerial vehicles, including weapons-capable drones, for use in its ongoing war in Ukraine.

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said it was unclear whether Iran had already provided any of the unmanned systems to Russia, but said the U.S. has “information” that indicates Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use them as soon as this month.

“Our information indicates that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs, including weapons-capable UAVs on an expedited timeline," he told reporters Monday.

Sullivan said it was proof that Russia's overwhelming bombardments in Ukraine, which have led it to consolidate gains in the country's east in recent weeks, were "coming at a cost to the sustainment of its own weapons."

Sullivan's revelation comes on the eve of President Joe Biden's trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, where Iran's nuclear program and malign activities in the region will be a key subject of discussion.

The U.S. decision to publicly reveal that the two countries' chief regional rival was helping to rearm Russia comes as both Israel and Saudi Arabia have resisted joining global efforts to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine due to their domestic interests.

Sullivan also noted that Iran has provided similar unmanned aerial vehicles to Yemen's Houthi rebels to attack Saudi Arabia before a ceasefire was reached earlier this year.

Military analyst Samuel Bendett of the CNA think tank said Russia’s choice of Iran as a source for drones is logical because “for the last 20 years or more Iran has been refining its drone combat force. Their drones have been in more combat than the Russians'.” They are pioneers of so-called loitering munitions, the “kamikaze” drones like the Switchblade that the U.S. has provided Ukraine.

Iran has “a proven track record of flying drones for hundreds of miles and hitting their targets,” Bendett added, including penetrating American-supplied air defenses and striking Saudi oil refineries. He said the Iranian drones could be very effective at striking Ukrainian power stations, refineries and other critical infrastructure.

Bendett noted that before the Ukraine war, Russia had licensed drone technology for its Forpost UAV from a proven supplier: Israel. The Jewish state has remained neutral in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, so that source is no longer available to Moscow.

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Associated Press writer Frank Bajak in Boston contributed to this report.

New York City (Video above from WCBS, Adam Cohen, NewsNation, CNN via CNN) —

New technology, including a robotic dog and drones, played a role in the response to a recent parking garage collapse in New York's Lower Manhattan.

The building collapse killed at least one person and injured others. An investigation into the collapse is underway.

It was last week that New York City announced its police department would be using robotic dogs for some efforts, such as hostage situations.

"Just one week ago, I was being criticized by all the folks in the bleachers, saying, 'Well, why are you getting that dog?' Now you see why I got the dog — to save lives," NYC Mayor Eric Adams said after the parking garage collapse on Tuesday.

Despite the fact that it lost its footing at one point, the robotic dog was able to enter the collapsed structure and navigate into areas that wouldn't have been safe for first responders.

“Like when we fall we got back up. Snoopy got back up," Adams said.

The mayor is glad the city had a robotic dog on-hand while responding to the collapse.

“If we didn’t have that robotic dog we would have placed those firefighters in jeopardy," the mayor added.

Making its way into the rubble, the robot dog was able to provide responders with information about the conditions inside the parking garage.

“He'll have some type of video. He may have sound associated the actually probably has some type of metering associated with it whether its gas meters or whatever," Lt. Mike Gioux, of Yonkers Fire Department, said.

City first responders had previously used drones to fight fires, but on Tuesday the drones were able to provide a bird's-eye view.

“They’re able to stream the video directly to our phones, to our the command center and this is the first time we've been able to fly inside in a collapse to do this and get the information," FDNY Chief of Fire Operations John Esposito said.

Lt. Gioux thinks the robot dogs, drones and other technology will continue to be used in rescue efforts and by first responders.

"I do believe it’s gonna be the wave of the future, and again it’s a tool were gonna use but to extricate those individuals out of a collapse zone a trench, out of a structure fire it still has to be the firefighters performing the work," Gioux said.

For the first time, a defibrillator delivered by a drone has played a critical part in saving the life of someone experiencing a cardiac arrest.

Emergency dispatchers in Sweden sent the drone carrying an AED to a 71-year-old man's home after he suffered a cardiac arrest while shoveling his driveway.

It arrived in three minutes — before an ambulance could get there.

A bystander used the AED on the patient after providing CPR, which saved the man's life.

Doctors and researchers following the developments are hopeful the first successful case in Sweden will provide more momentum in the U.S.

"We have a very advanced EMS system in this country — 911 and sending ambulances to these kind of events and other kinds of trauma," said Dr. Wayne Rosamond with the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina. "So, how can we integrate drone technology? Not to replace that, of course, but to supplement that."

Rosamond is part of a team studying how drone AED deliveries could work. He says the U.S. has come a long way to make the life-saving technology a reality in the last few years. He says questions remain about how to implement the technology safely and whether the new systems are more efficient than the ones in place now.

Dr. Michael Kurz is an emergency medicine researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He sees the most potential for the technology in rural areas.

"The idea is that this could be immediately deployed and fly there and could get an AED inside the 10-minute window, even if that professional response still takes 30 minutes," Kurz said. "If there's a bystander there who will do CPR and get the AED there within that 10-minute window, then you're going to see real impact and folks surviving."

Kurz also sees potential in dense urban areas when an ambulance can't get to the victim because of traffic.

Experts say another hurdle facing the technology is regulation.

Rosamond says a few communities could try AED drone delivery in a year or so, but it could be years after that before it's more widespread in the U.S.

Until then, health experts are focusing on getting people to use the AEDs available now in public places. Anyone who witnesses someone having a heart attack should call 911. The dispatcher will provide CPR instructions that can be delivered in seconds.

There are also efforts to make the signs on AEDs more standard, so they're easier to find in a public place.

Taylor Moreland sells drones, but not just any drones. He sells drones that keep farmers in mind.  

"Our goal really is to provide tools to farmers, provide a brand new tool to farmers where they can aerial apply granular liquid products by themselves on their own, on their own farm," Moreland said.

It was something he started testing at the beginning of the pandemic in rural Missouri.  

"I used the first year 2020 as kind of proving grounds testing," he said. "This is brand new technology, brand new equipment to us."

They're called agricultural spray drones and need very little human intervention to work. All you have to do is map out your field and select which spots you want to spray. 

"90% of the time, you don't even have to touch the remote," Moreland said. "The drone's just flying."

They can be used to spray chemicals like pesticides on crops and even seeds, coming in handy in areas that are tough to reach.

Moreland says the drones can also help reduce costs for farmers. 

"When a farmer needs something applied on his crop from the air, right now his only option is to call the helicopter airplane company and they just broadcast the whole field," he said. "Instead, if a farmer has a drone, that can just hit only the spots that need it. So they're saving chemical, which is better for the environment and better for their costs."

He also pointed out the drones can be used to plant cover crops, which can slow erosion and improve soil health, before harvesting crops.  

The technology is fairly new to the U.S., but drones like this have been used overseas for decades now are primarily in Asia. 

Arthur Erickson, the co-founder and CEO of agricultural drone maker Hylio, believes this technology is a game-changer for the agriculture industry.   

"Due to the abundance of rice paddies over there in Asia, it actually makes a lot of sense because that's wet terrain and it's much better serviced by flying drone vehicles versus terrestrial tractor vehicles," he said. "The drones are interesting because not only can they do what's traditionally done better, cheaper, faster, you know, less labor, more automated, but they're unlocking kind of a whole new way to approach farming that previously wasn't available."

As for the future of these devices, Erickson is hopeful the technology will take off.  

"The idea that you're going to start having these drones going out on their own, so they're charging themselves, they're refilling themselves and they're just kind of scanning these fields and making decisions in real-time and solving them before even you have to get involved," he said. "That's going to be the future of this technology, I think, in the next two to three years."

A recently released analysis by the market research firm Sheer Analytics and Insights estimates agricultural drones will be a $6.5 billion industry within 10 years as farmers look to deal with labor shortages and shifting trends toward vegetarianism. 

This story was originally published by Stephanie Sandoval on Newsy.com.

WASHINGTON —

Federal officials say they will allow operators to fly small drones over people and at night, potentially giving a boost to commercial use of the machines.

Most drones will need to be equipped so they can be identified remotely by law enforcement officials.

The final rules announced Monday by the Federal Aviation Administration “get us closer to the day when we will more routinely see drone operations such as the delivery of packages,” said FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson.

Drones are the fastest-growing segment in all of transportation, with more than 1.7 million under registration, according to the Transportation Department.

However, the widespread commercial use of the machines has developed far more slowly than many advocates expected. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos once predicted that his company would use drones to deliver goods to customers’ doorsteps within five years, but that prediction is already off by two years.

There have been several tests and limited uses. United Parcel Service said last year that it received approval to operate a nationwide fleet of drones and has already made hundreds of deliveries on a hospital campus in North Carolina.

Also last year, Google sister company Wing Aviation won FAA approval for commercial drone flights in a corner of Virginia.

And this past August, Amazon got similar FAA approval to deliver packages by drones. The company is still testing the service and hasn’t said when shoppers will see deliveries.

For drone supporters impatient with the pace of adoption, regulatory hurdles are a leading complaint. Currently, operators who want to fly a drone over people or at night need a waiver from the FAA.

The new rules will require that drones used at night include flashing lights that can be seen up to three miles away. Operators will need special training. Small drones flying over people cannot have rotating parts capable of cutting skin.

The rules covering flights over people and at night will take effect in about two months. They finalize proposed rules issued last year.

Related video: 2 arrested after drone crashes into prison

All drones that must be registered with the FAA will be required to have equipment that broadcasts their identification, location and control station or be operated at FAA-recognized areas. So-called remote ID was a requirement impose by Congress at the urging of national security and law enforcement agencies.

Drone manufacturers will have 18 months to begin making drones with remote ID, and operators will have one year after that to start using drones with remote ID.

BLUE ASH, Ohio — Red, White and Blue Ash returned for the Fourth of July after being canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, but there were a few changes this year.

Families and visitors gathered in Summit Park for the first fireworks show since the pandemic began, happy to be back in crowds and with friends once more.

"It feels like, you know, we need to take these opportunities more seriously and really show more appreciation for the fact we can celebrate something like independence," said Sue Chae, from Mason.

For years, Chae said she'd heard Red White and Blue Ash was a fun party, but it wasn't until this year she ventured to the event for an opportunity to see friends from Dayton whom the pandemic had kept away.

"I think we've learned a lot in the last year and a half and I think celebrating independence has taken on a new meaning," she said.

The big changes Sunday night were centered mostly on food, though the event did not have a concert this year either. Summit Park was absent any food or drink vendors for the celebration, though event organizers encouraged people to bring their own food and drinks.

When the temperatures rose on Sunday, nearby ice cream shop Nanny Belle's celebrated the return of Red White and Blue Ash customers the shop had struggled without during the pandemic.

"We were fortunate we could keep our walk-up window and keep our distance and everything, but it really hurt when we were not able to do our event," said Jill Donnellan, co-owner of Nanny Belle's.

Another change involves the fireworks show put on by Arthur Rozzi Pyrotechnics. During the show, the display included 200 drones in the sky creating pictures and displays to accompany the spectacle.

"We’re really excited to bring an amazing fireworks show back to Blue Ash,” Rachel Murray, the communications coordinator with the city of Blue Ash, said. "I think everybody’s ready to get out of the house and do something fun. And this is the perfect opportunity to have the family out, and have a great time and see a great show.”

The event and parking were free at Summit Park, and the park is open all day Sunday. The fireworks show began at 10 p.m.