Corbis via Getty ImagesTopline: Washington lawmakers—but not President Trump—are abruptly taking reports of UFO sightings seriously, with senators ”coming out of the woodwork” to receive classified briefings, the result of a growing acknowledgment, destigmatization and revamped record-keeping of mysterious reports from U.S. Navy pilots. “I did have one very brief meeting on it,” the president said in an ABC News interview. Such sightings have happened since the 1950s and ’60s, according to Politico, but more recent ones were reported to the Pentagon after it launched a new UFO reporting program in 2007. But, “[f]or safety and security concerns, the Navy and the [Air Force] takes these reports very seriously and investigates each and every report,” the Navy said in a statement. Key background: The U.S. Navy refers to a sighting as an “unidentified aerial phenomenon.” In April, the Navy updated their UFO reporting guidelines, which created a formal and destigmatizing process for service members.

Source: Forbes June 20, 2019 17:43 UTC