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Today on the Daily Scoop Podcast from the Scoop News Group. DoD threatens severe consequences for drone operators flying in restricted airspace and the White House registers new alien related.gov domains It's Monday, March 23, 2026. Welcome to the Daily Scoop Podcast, where you'll hear the latest news and trends facing government leaders. I'm the host of the Daily Scoop Podcast, Billy Mitchell. Thanks so much for joining me. And now let's dive into the day's top headlines. The Defense Department and its federal partners issued a warning Friday to drone operators threatening to impose massive fines, imprisonment and other measures on those who illegally fly unmanned aerial systems in restricted airspace. Drone incursions over stateside military bases and other restricted areas have been widespread in recent years as commercially available systems proliferated. Just last week, the head of the U.S. northern Command and Northern American Aerospace Defense Command revealed that American forces recently identified and defeated a small UAS threat over a strategic US Installation. Agencies operating near the southern border have also been using weapons systems, including high energy lasers, against suspicious drones, raising safety concerns among agencies like the faa. Two incidents in Texas last month led to temporary airspace closures. The federal government restricts who can fly UAS over certain areas, such as military facilities and civilian airports, to protect national security and public safety. In a press release issued on Friday, the dod, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security and the FAA touted the government's detection capabilities, declaring that Uncle Sam has a zero tolerance policy for illegal drone operations and threatening rule violators with severe consequences, including potential fines, upwards of $100,000, criminal charges and incarceration, and the confiscation of their systems. In a released statement, FAA Chief Counsel Liam McKenna said agencies will be stepping up enforcement and that drone users are expected to follow FAA regulations just like any other pilot. Now, moving on to other news, the White House registered two new government domains last week, alien.gov and aliens.gov, according to publicly available federal records. Their appearance comes about one month after President Donald Trump announced plans to direct the long anticipated release of U.S. government records about unidentified anomalous phenomenon, better known as UAP and extraterrestrial beings. Those new domains were not connected to any websites as of last Wednesday morning, but public data managed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency reveals that both sites were registered Tuesday evening and and are hosted on cloudflare servers. Shortly after Trump's disclosure order in February, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon was keen to comply and had started actively working on the initiative. Defense Department leadership set up the all domain anomaly resolution office, or Aaro, in 2022 during the Biden administration to detect and investigate UAP, which is the modern term for UFOs that accounts for perplexing maritime and transmedium objects. Aaro's launch was sparked by mounting public concerns about national security risks associated with unidentified anomalous phenomena. Officials inside the office are working to resolve an ever growing caseload of DoD related UAP reports. They're also conducting activities to improve flight safety and synchronize efforts across the military regarding unexplained objects in the air, sea and space. AARO maintains its own website that serves as a central hub for federal UAP information. The Office is currently accepting reports about suspected UAP encounters, specifically those from current or former U.S. government employees, military personnel and contractors, with plans to expand to the general public sometime in the future. For more news at the intersection of the federal government and technology, make sure to visit fedscoop.com
