First Congressional hearing on UFOs in 50 years – National & International News – TUE 17May2022

First UFO hearings in Congress in 50 years. Report: Corporations using inflation as cover to price gouge. Fate of Ukrainian soldiers uncertain after surrender.

NATIONAL NEWS

First Congressional hearing on UFOs in 50 years

Pentagon officials have presented their findings of a year-long audit of internal UFO reports before Congress. This is the first hearing of this type in over 50 years. The audit examined reports of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) generated by members of the military since 2004. Last year, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) analyzed about 144 incidents, 143 of which remain unexplained. The Pentagon now says the total number of reports has since grown to about 400.

Speaking at the hearing, Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray said that there is to date no evidence that these phenomena are extraterrestrial in origin. However, many of the reported sightings involve objects making aerial maneuvers that defy explanation based on known technologies. Of the incidents that have been analyzed, 11 of them involve “near-misses” with US aircraft. 

The report indicates that these are real objects as most of them were detected by multiple sensor systems. Whatever they are, both members of Congress and the military now openly consider these UAPs to be potential threats to national security that must be treated accordingly.

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Corporations using inflation as cover to price gouge

Since the start of the pandemic, Lindsay Owen and her colleagues at the Groundwork Collaborative think tank have been listening in on quarterly shareholder phone calls by corporate executives and examining their public profit disclosures. The purpose of their investigation was to determine how much of inflation is truly driven by factors like war and supply chain disruptions and how much of it is driven purely by opportunistic price gouging.

Owen says that in those quarterly calls, execs make no secret of the fact that their pricing is based in large part on what they can get away with. These execs also see no reason to lower prices when their costs drop since, for the moment, people have shown they are willing to pay the higher prices.

For some months, Democrats including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have been pushing for greater scrutiny in pricing. In public hearings, executives have defended their pricing on the basis of high demand. Owen says that while this is true, it is a simplistic explanation. She says that years of consolidation and monopoly building in various sectors has diminished competition and the corporate incentive to keep prices low. A lack of government regulation and oversight has also contributed. 

Executives have also attempted to put the blame onto workers seeking higher wages. However, a report from the Economic Policy Institute indicates that about 54% of the recent price increases are due to corporate mark-ups, while labor cost account for only 8%. 

Listen to the full podcast here (about 30 mins; opens in new tab).

Or you can read the transcript here (opens in new tab).

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Fate of Ukrainian soldiers uncertain as Mariupol resistance ends

For over a month, hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have been taking refuge in the tunnels underneath the Azovstal steel plant. Now, over a hundred soldiers, including over 50 wounded, have been evacuated to Russian-held territory. Their ultimate fate remains uncertain.

Ukrainian officials, including President Zelensky, have framed the evacuation as a humanitarian operation and says the soldiers will eventually be returned in a prisoner swap. Russian officials, on the other hand, have called it a surrender and said the soldiers may be tried or executed.

Ukraine’s defense minister has said that the defense of the plant is effectively over. However, there remains an unknown number of Ukrainian fighters still in the Azovstal tunnels. Russian forces have set up a blockade of the plant and continue shelling areas where people are taking shelter.

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