Congress is taking UFOs more seriously, but many questions remain
WASHINGTON — Unidentified flying objects were a punchline for years, but now Congress is taking these unexplained encounters more seriously.
“For too long, the stigma associated with UAPs has gotten in the way of good intelligence analysis. Pilots avoided reporting, or were laughed at when they did,” said Rep. André Carson, D-Ind.
Carson presided Tuesday over the first public hearing of its kind in half a century, as a House Intelligence subcommittee heard testimony about so-called unidentified aerial phenomena. Lawmakers couldn’t resist a few cracks about science fiction, but for the most part, the tone was clinical and somber.
No one scoffed about little green men or dismissed the whole thing as a crock. Instead, the idea of breaking through the “stigma” came up again and again.
“UAP reports have been around for decades, and yet we haven’t had an orderly way for them to be reported — without stigma — and to be investigated. That needs to change,” said House Intelligence Chairman Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif.
—CQ-Roll Call
Road deaths in US jump to highest level since 2005 as driving rebounds
Traffic fatalities surged last year to the highest level since 2005 as drivers increasingly returned to the roads following a dip during the early days of the pandemic.
Almost 43,000 people died in car crashes in 2021, a 10.5% jump from the prior year, according to a statement Tuesday from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That initial estimate represented the largest-ever one-year increase.
“We face a crisis on America’s roadways,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in the statement.
The increase came as total U.S. driving rose by 11.2% from 2020, or about 325 billion miles. NHTSA said the fatalities per 100 million vehicle-miles traveled in 2021 decreased slightly to 1.33.
Safety advocates said the data suggest risky driving patterns and behaviors that emerged in 2020 are persisting as residents return to the road. Driving fell earlier in the pandemic but accidents remained high.
—Bloomberg News
Hurricane center targets surge in preventable post-storm deaths
ORLANDO, Fla. — Hurricanes are terrifying and deadly forces, but experts are growing more concerned by the amount of deaths tallied up after a storm is passed, as they’ve observed indirect death totals increasing in recent years.
“Now we’re seeing more people dying after the storm,” said Michael Brennan, the Branch Chief at the National Hurricane Center. “In Louisiana, especially after both Laura and Ida, lots of carbon monoxide fatalities due to improper generator use in these so called indirect deaths.”
With the official start of hurricane season coming June 1, the National Hurricane Center wants to bring those numbers down like it did when it increased efforts to educate the public about storm surge deaths.
Since 2017, the NHC has seen seven deaths related to storm surge. In comparison, just in the last two storm seasons, it’s seen 70 indirect deaths from just hurricanes Laura and Ida.
—Orlando Sentinel
Greek leader warns Congress about internal democratic erosion, citing his country’s history
WASHINGTON — The leader of Greece on Tuesday implored Congress to take seriously internal democratic erosion in the United States, which he said was critical to confront if Washington is to maintain its global leadership role.
Addressing a joint session of Congress, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was elected in 2019, referenced Athens’ own struggles with societal cohesion amid rising inequality and the spread of disinformation through social media. He is the leader of his country’s center-right New Democracy Party.
“Personally, I am more worried about the internal fragmentations of our democracies than I fear the threats of arrogant despots,” said Mitsotakis, who is the first Greek leader to address a special joint session of Congress.
“Our democracies are threatened by the sirens of populists who offer easy solutions to complicated problems,” he said. “Their voices are being heard primarily because income inequality has increased in our societies and many justifiably feel that they are being left behind. In Greece, we speak from experience, we played a heavy price for listening to them.”
—CQ-Roll Call
