Breaking Update: Whistleblowers, Visa Denials, and Today’s UFO Hearing

Instagram teen accounts have built-in protections for who can contact teens and what they see. Learn more about teen accounts at Instagram.com slash teen accounts. Running a business is hard enough. Don't make it harder with a dozen apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. That's software overload. Udo is the all-in-one platform that replaces them all. CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR. Fully integrated, easy to use, and built to grow with your business. Thousands have already made the switch. Why not you? Try Udo for free at O-D-O-O dot com. That's Udo dot com. Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. Before you know it, you're drowning in software instead of growing your business. This is where Udo comes in. Udo is the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one, fully integrated platform that handles everything. CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR, and more. No more app overload. No more juggling logins. Just one seamless system that makes work easier. And the best part? Udo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. It's built to grow with your business. Whether you are just starting out or already scaling up. Plus, it's easy to use, customizable, and designed to streamline every process. So you can focus on what really matters, running your business. Thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you? Try Udo for free at Udo dot com. That's O-D-O-O dot com. Hi everyone, and welcome back to That UFO Podcast. As always, my name is Andy, and this is a breaking news podcast. I'm going to summarize the event that happened today in Washington DC at the National Press Club. It was organized and arranged by James Fox, well-known director of the phenomenon, Moment of Contact, and of course the latest version of Moment of Contact. I'll read it from my screen here. New revelations of alien encounters. Now, this event had a little bit of hype behind it. Not too much. It wasn't overdone. And I'm going to go through what happened on the day, who spoke, and some of the listener thoughts at the end of it as well. It hasn't long finished. It's been on for a couple of hours. So bear with me. I'm going to go through not the full thing word for word. That's really boring for you. There are a few different feeds available online. And we'll get to that at the start, actually, as well. So it's a factual summary of the event that happened today in Washington, largely around the 1996 Virginia case. And it was going to be split up how initially it was advertised to a one-hour event around the Brazilian side of things and a second hour with American whistleblowers or people speaking. Slightly different, I think, in the end to how it played out. It was very much Virginia-centric, with a few welcome additions in there, too. So I watched the event online as it unfolded. A little bit of a preamble, folks. There was some technical issues. So this event was advertised as being the National Press Club. It was on the YouTube channel, allegedly. And then no one could find the link. We knew News Nation. Now, News Nation, of course, where Ross Coulthart has his home with his reality check show, seemed to ultimately have exclusive, not rights as such, but the exclusivity to stream this. There was no other mainstream news media available or covering this, as far as anyone could tell. And that was confirmed by people at the event, too, which is really disappointing. Really disappointing. Noticable by their absence, absolutely. But I think that just shows how much, you know, people like you listening to this and watching this and myself covering it have a duty to share, like, comment, not just on this video, but on the topic in general, to really push things like this. And I'm really intrigued to see in the coming hours and days what kind of fallout this gets, given some of the names who did speak at it. And I thought it was a really interesting event. So, yeah, the technical issues at the start didn't help because on the News Nation feed, it was one of those where there was Ross and his producer, Megan, who was at the event and the live feed. They had a lot of audio issues. People in the live streams were not happy. That was nothing to do with Ross and Megan. I think they had some patching issues, it sounds like, in terms of the microphones being interfered with. Nothing sinister, folks. There's no conspiracy theory there. It was just a little bit of audio hiccuping. It got sorted, though. I actually watched it on Martin Willis' podcast UFO feed because he was sitting front row, had a camera and microphone set up, and it was really clear. And I don't like watching these events with someone on the screen watching it and commenting over it. I just find that unsettling or odd. But, yeah, I like to see the event and hear the speakers. So, thank you to Martin Willis. I donated to his channel off the back of that. Really appreciated his coverage. So, yeah. So, it was introduced, the event itself, by Karen Austin of Rice University. Rice University home to Jeff Kripal as his archives of the impossible. Check out those interviews I've done with Jeff. She explained the structure of the day. There was going to be written witness statements that would be read out loud. And it was stated clearly by Karen that this process could take around one hour. It went a little bit longer, folks. It wasn't as dry as it sounds, though. There would be a break and then a Q&A. Things overran. So, it ended up with more witness statements, some closing statements. And then the Q&A session would go on as long as required. And actually, as of time recording, the event should have finished one hour and a half ago. It's still going on just now. But I've had to tune out of the Q&A. Some of the feeds started breaking up. News Nation stopped our feed. But the Q&A, I think, seemed to be covering more old ground. I got the first question in, though, which was relevant. And I'll follow up on that. If anything else interesting is asked off the back of it. So, Karen Austen outlined her academic background and role in organising the event. She was largely there to bring in the next person, the next speaker, keep things ticking along, which was helpful. She introduced Kirk McConnell. So, he was someone who was not advertised for the event. Kirk McConnell, you may remember, folks, is someone who served for 37 years on the staff of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee and in other congressional roles. He's appeared in James Fox's The Phenomenon. I believe it was The Phenomenon, and he was quite a big get for that. So, a really interesting character involved in the background of this topic in a few different ways. Seems like a really nice down-to-earth guy as well, because Martin Willis was speaking to him during one of the breaks. And he was just chatting, and it was a really, really nice guy, it sounded like. But important figure, I think, in this topic when it's all said and done. McConnell addressed the audience directly, stating that while the testimony being presented might sound extraordinary, similar reports had reached senators and senior staff behind the scenes. He stressed that these accounts are taken seriously, including by people like Marco Rubio, who obviously is now in a rather lofty position in the United States. It escapes me. He was a senator, but he's now one of Trump's right-hand guys. Potential future president, Marco Rubio. I don't know my US politics that well, but he seems to be in that kind of frame. He's made a lot of comments publicly, including in the Age of Disclosure, which came out recently as well. And McConnell emphasised this was not an isolated case. There is testimony of this nature existing far beyond what the public usually hears. And just, again, to remind you folks, I'm recapping here off the back of an over two and a half hour long presentation. I'm not going to keep you here all day, but if I get anything wrong, I apologise, but it should be pretty much on the money. And tomorrow, I've got Joe Margia, UFO Joe himself, joining me to discuss the event and some news happening around it. And we can discuss the fallout after the event too. So this is just a summary of what was said for you. There was then a recorded statement introduced from Jacques Vallée. He was not able to attend in person, but he had a video statement that is also available online, folks. Jacques Vallée praised the work of James Fox on the Virginia case, stating that it opened up an entirely new field of research. He referenced multiple historical cases with comparable data, including events in New Mexico and France, and spoke about the importance of environmental evidence. Vallée noted that in past decades, physical samples such as soil and tree bark had been collected. I heard him speak about tree bark as evidence for a case when I was at Sol back in October at the Sol Symposium, and how the technology at the time really limited the analysis. And it may sound, I was going to say dry, pardon the pun, that tree bark is evidence. But if you have the right technology, which we are starting to now, you have to destroy the evidence to get the data. But you can find out how badly the tree bark was affected by, for example, radiation levels. And that can be a real pointer to something incredible having happened in the vicinity of where the tree bark was taken from. But Vallée noted in past decades, like I say, samples that had been collected couldn't be studied appropriately, but modern advances are now allowing researchers to examine evidence that is decades old in ways that previously just were not possible. So that statement was about six minutes long. James Fox appears on stage, introduced by Karen Fox. You know, I am a big fan of James Fox in many ways. I think he's a lovely guy. I think he puts in a lot of great work into this topic, a lot of time. And I'm very pleased for him that this event went off as well as it did. Fox noted that Congressman Eric Burleson had just arrived, along with a Brazilian senator who was present in the room. He briefly recapped the Virginia incident for context before emphasising that more witnesses continue to come forward. He describes how courage can be infectious and that this investigation is ongoing. And that's important to note. It's worth saying here that the organisation of this event, particularly in the absence of mainstream press interest, deserves recognition. This was fantastically well run and put together. My only gripe is that I wish the National Press Club itself, given it was hosting the event, but as we found out early on, not sponsoring the event. So it wasn't officially through them. They were just the venue. It would have been nice if they had their own live stream dedicated to the event with all, you know, the 4K cameras and the real crystal clear audio. That would have been nice. However, James Fox introduces Carlos de Souza, a civilian witness you may recognise from the Moment of Contact documentary on stage. His experience has been well documented. Of course, witnessing and describing a distressed cigar-shaped object losing altitude near Virginia in 1996. He followed its trajectory and arrived at the crash site where he described a strong, foul odour. And that's something that so many witnesses in this case talk about the stench. He could see the wreckage himself with his own eyes. He says at the scene, he picked up a lightweight metal fragment, stating that when he crumpled it in his hand, it instantly returned back to its original shape, a detail often compared to material descriptions from the Roswell crash famously, for example. He described being confronted by a soldier who struck him with a rifle, threatened him at gunpoint and ordered him to leave immediately. Later, Carlos was approached by two unidentified men in a dark vehicle. They knew his personal details and warned him that he would face lifelong consequences if he spoke about what he had seen. Carlos then clearly became emotional as he pleaded publicly for authorities not to abandon witnesses again and to allow the truth to emerge. Carlos is a very emotional guy when he talks about this. And I think thinking back to the moment of, I was going to say age of disclosure, but the Moment of Contact documentary itself, there's a scene where Carlos finds the area in this really big expanse of fields and talks about it. I remember very clearly he goes like this with his hands out and pats the air to say this was it, this was the area. You know, beings died here and get so upset. He's either completely lying, completely delusional and believes what he's saying, or he's telling the truth. And for me, that's where I lie on this one, that there's a truth to this case. And call me naive if you like, but there's a real genuineness to this testimony that's put forth through these people. James Fox then confirms that six Brazilian witnesses were denied US visas, I think largely due to some of the issues going on in the United States around people getting in and out of the country. I know there's a lot of unrest folks, so we'll leave that where it is. But it prevented them from attending in person. As a result, their sworn statements were recorded in Brazil at an official government building and presented via video. I won't play those videos or the audio. We're allowed to. James Fox explicitly mentioned you can share those far and wide online. The link for those videos are in the description to the podcast. I've uploaded those to my YouTube and my X account. They're all in Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, I believe is how it's commented on the language, sorry. It's been a long afternoon. And aside from that, they are subtitled, of course. Otherwise, I wouldn't understand them, much like you listening to me right now. But yeah, the witnesses involved in those videos include the three young girls at the time, Katia, Liliane and Valkyria. As young girls in 1996, they shared the same encounter together of actually seeing the non-human being. Their accounts were consistent and aligned with what had been documented by others. Their mother also provided testimony describing the girl's distressed condition afterwards. That when she went to the scene where they had seen the being, remember the being described as being oily, brown or red skinned with red eyes and a horrendous smell. She mentioned that the footprint was at the scene and that she said the odour stuck in her nose for 20 to 25 days. She could smell this putrid smell and later was visited by four unidentified men in black who offered her money, millions of dollars in exchange for silence. She said at the time in the testimony that scared her, their presence, the situation scared her and she asked them to leave. And this is, of course, her testimony. I think that might be one that people, maybe people wrestle with a little bit to think that if you were offered millions of dollars to not talk about something like that, why wouldn't you take it? And I think that's down to the individual. So that one may raise eyebrows because I don't think Carlos D'Souza was offered millions of dollars to not discuss it. So, yeah, that's one I think that people were like, hmm, interesting. At least from the Discord chat. I was in the Discord for the podcast. Remember, folks, if you sign up to a paid membership, you get access to that Discord. And we were in there chatting about the event as it happened. Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. 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I'm going to butcher this next name, but then next up in that video testimony, Brazilian journalist Naya Nadei described attempting to investigate the events on the day January 20th, 1996, 30 years ago, but he was blocked by soldiers. He reported hearing shouted commands and describing an atmosphere of urgency and secrecy. I believe he remembers hearing, surround it, surround it, coming from the woods, people running. And it's smooth, it's smooth that they'd captured a being. The being was obviously alleged to be running around the village or the city. So, yeah, he then said he spoke to anonymous witnesses. Oh, sorry, another anonymous witness spoke, stating he was involved in transporting the being before it was transferred to Campinas. I did pronounce that properly, I believe, folks. After which, other personnel then took over to take the being on to a different location. The anonymous military testimony then stated that later the being was non-human and claiming it was ultimately taken by Americans to an undisclosed location. Then we had the testimony from the sister of Marco Chereze, who was the young Brazilian soldier who died shortly after coming into contact with the being, allegedly scratched. Physician Armando Fortunato described performing the autopsy and stating it was highly unusual for a young, healthy soldier to die from what initially appeared to be just that, a scratch and a minor infection and that samples were sent to a specialist pathologist for further analysis. Dr. João Batista-Giannini, a highly experienced pathologist with decades of academic and professional experience, provided a written statement. He explained in the statement that his access was limited strictly to tissue fragments from the autopsy. He identified what he described as a microbial agent of extremely high aggressiveness and lethality, stating it went beyond the limits of a conventional infection. Dr. Giannini raised the hypothesis of an extraterrestrial origin for the bacterium while making it clear this remained a hypothesis. He stated that legal approval, and this is one of the big ones for me, folks, from this, he stated that legal approval is currently being sought to exhume the body, take the body back out the ground with the aim of applying advanced molecular biology techniques that could provide further answers. Really plainly, folks, what he's saying there is they are trying to go through, and I'm presuming with the permission of the sister and the family, James Fox and co, I'm sure, are involved, being able to take the body respectfully and safely from its grave and study what remains are left. And from that, can they work out, I'm sure, going down to the small atomic level structure, I don't know how that works, but that would be some incredible science to be done. Similar to what Vallée was saying earlier, this is stuff that couldn't be done 30 years ago, it can be done now. So, we're opening up new evidence and new possibilities from old cases. 30 years isn't the oldest of the cases, of course, but it's still a reasonable amount of time, so, yeah. Next up, Brazilian Senator Eduardo Girao was in the room, and he addressed the room stating that he was speaking personally rather than on behalf of the Brazilian Senate, and he referenced Brazil's historic operation, Plateau, and described the Virginia case as one of the most consequential UFO cases globally. Then next up, folks, I've got limited notes on this one because I got a little bit lost at this point making notes going into the chat, but essentially we had Colonel Fred Clausen, who James Fox introduced stating he had examined flight logs and believed the operation involved, the operation around the being, and the flights involved had approximately 39 to 40 American personnel. Well, Clausen publicly called on retired pilots to come forward, saying many of you would now be in your 70s and probably no longer an active service. Come forward and speak about this. Fox then explained that his team filled a FOIA request in 2022, receiving a response only three years later in 2025 from the CIA, denying the request under national security exemptions. We then had Kirk McConnell closing. Kirk McConnell returned to the stage to address whistleblower issues. Kirk McConnell explained that NDAs cannot legally override a whistleblower's obligation to testify before Congress, yet the fear of retaliation remains very real. He referenced cases including David Grush and Luis Elizondo, noting that even without sharing first-hand programme details, they have faced consequences. McConnell stated plainly that the president could confirm the reality of these issues immediately, even via a public statement on social media, without any bureaucracy. But we know how difficult that may be. And then Representative Eric Burleson, who turned up very much at the start of the event, came on stage to close the event, the official part of the event, thanking the witnesses. He referred them as his new friends from Brazil, and emphasised he needed to continue pushing forward. And for me, that was nice, despite a lot of geopolitical tensions going on across the world right now. It was nice to see Burleson shaking hands with all the witnesses, one by one on the stage. He called for the passage of the UEP Disclosure Act and stronger whistleblower protections being paramount. So yeah, and then there was a listener Q&A. And bear in mind, at this point, folks, I think we're around two and a half hours into the event. There was one question asked of James Fox straight away, and I could just make it out, because bear in mind, I'm listening to someone film the event. But then they were cutting to the audio in the room, away from direct audio of the microphones that the witnesses and James are speaking into. But the first question was around the video that James Fox has claimed is out there. And a lot of folks have said is out there. Now, James Fox has said there is a video of the being when it was filmed, captured in the hospital at the time. And I've even missed out Dr. Italo, who spoke at the event. He was the star of the New Revelations of Alien Encounters, extended cut of the documentary, of course. And he shared his witness statement around the event, being in contact with the being. Of course, it was a very emotional section of the new documentary. And when you see Dr. Italo speak about that telepathic contact with the being for three or four minutes, with the being almost pitying us as a species and being scared. So yeah, Dr. Italo spoke, again, getting very emotional, folks. I missed that one out, so I apologise. But yeah, James was asked about that video. And he said they have names of people who perhaps can get it to them. James has offered money and substantial money for the video, but it's very difficult to get a hold of it. And it's really something that could prove a huge smoking gun, if indeed that video was out there. But as always with the UFO topic, folks, the truth is out there somewhere. We just have to find it, don't we? And what I'd love to do is just finish off with some of your thoughts, folks, on this. Like I say, tomorrow I'm going to be speaking in more detail with this, back and forward, with Joe Murgia, who's a wonderful commenter on the UFO topic online. So over to some of you in the Discord, folks, and your thoughts. Noses said, it met my expectations. No major revelations. I've seen it all, really. But as I said earlier, I've no idea how this lands with the uninitiated. It might blow people's socks off, but I've been thinking about it since 1996, so I'm not the person to ask. I'm just so happy it's now having its moment, and James has done this. Really excellent work. Asuta said, I like, we're finally looking beyond the US. There was some compelling testimony, but I'm afraid it will be ignored by mainstream media as always. Well, we know it was ignored by mainstream media on the day, but in the hours and the days preceding, hopefully it picks up some traction, folks. I'd love to know your thoughts. If you've seen it, if you've not, if you've listened to this and what your take is on the event, send it over, contact form at thatufopodcast.com or email me, ufouapam at gmail.com, and I'll include those in the recording tomorrow with Joe. Scooby said, I'll be curious where the bacteria is found on Earth. Could that environment shed light into the, or share light into the NHI environment? I'm a little bit lost in the wording of that, but I get the gist of it, Scooby. Yeah, that bacteria, if they can do the microbiology on that exhumed corpse, what will it show? And if it shows nothing, that's frustrating because that could be a real dampener on this subject. However, I know a lot of the comments in the chat was to say, if that body was indeed infected with an alien bacteria, is what we're talking about here, folks, then would it even be the original body that was buried at the time? Surely the governments of Brazil, the United States, whoever was involved, would have fixed that situation. Zab said, I was pleased to see Kirk McConnell involved today and contributing to the event. XCTHAL said, this, oh, different comment. Trevzy said, it was okay for me. We've had real life Top Gun in favour and now a nationally acclaimed brain surgeon, that's Dr. DiTallo, as first-hand witnesses to NHI crafting body. If that doesn't gain traction, then we have to resign ourselves to material evidence being the only thing that will. Doubt will get better, more credible first-hand witnesses. That's my current thoughts, however. Mark Morgan said, I thought the testimony was excellent. After the rocky technological start, the speakers and witnesses were extremely compelling. There was nothing particularly new in the claims and evidence given, but the package of speakers were well put together. I'm uncertain of the type of reach this press event will have beyond the UFO community, but every time something like this takes place, we step a little closer towards disclosure. Bring on the videos. Yeah, and Gnosis again commented, I think the most interesting part is how this lands outside the UFO community. Andy, I'd be interested in you covering the press release and any info you have about which major outlets might have been contacted. that's when I think it's worth chasing up and I'll make a note to do that. And yeah, so really interesting for me what's going to come off the back of this. I hope you've enjoyed this summary, folks. A real quick one just to let you know what happened at the event. There are, News Nation has the full event online with Ross Coulter commenting on it. You've got a podcast UFO was the stream I used and I enjoyed the fact Martin just filmed it and allowed us to watch uninterrupted. And I know other outlets also streamed it too, but I don't know what those look like. So yeah, thank you. Please get involved. Send in your thoughts, folks. Send in your opinions. Send in your questions. And I'll put those to UFO Joe. And yeah, so really excited for that. And a few guests I've got confirmed coming up on the podcast. I'll drop those in to the next news update so you can send over your questions too. But as always, thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for supporting. And I'll speak to you all very, very soon. That's all for this episode of That UFO Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and watching. If you enjoyed the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps others find the show. If you're watching on YouTube, hit like, subscribe and turn on notifications so you don't miss future episodes. You can also support the show directly and get early access, add free episodes and bonus content on Patreon or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube memberships. All the links are over at thatufopodcast.com or in the show description below along with merchandise and more. Don't forget, you can also pick up a copy of my book, Atlas of Unidentified Flying Objects available now in all good bookstores and through online retailers, including Amazon. Big thank you again to all of you for listening and tuning in. Until next time, keep looking up. You never know what you might see. Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. Before you know it, you're drowning in software instead of growing your business. This is where Odoo comes in. Odoo is the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one, fully integrated platform that handles everything. CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR, and more. No more app overload. No more juggling logins. Just one seamless system that makes work easier. And the best part? Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. It's built to grow with your business, whether you are just starting out or already scaling up. Plus, it's easy to use, customizable, and designed to streamline every process so you can focus on what really matters, running your business. Thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com.