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Multiple states on the East Coast and beyond have fielded reports of mysterious drone sightings in the last few weeks, spurring questions and conspiracy theories about what they are, their purpose, and who might be operating them.

Details, so far, suggest many cases of misidentification — and no signs of risk.

In a statement Thursday responding to sightings in New Jersey, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security emphasized that there’s “no evidence” the drones “pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus,” matching an earlier Pentagon statement. In a statement Monday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby reiterated the point, noting that the sightings included commercial drones, hobbyist vehicles, law enforcement drones, planes, helicopters, and stars mistaken for drones. As federal authorities previously stated, their investigations revealed that many sightings were “actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully.”

Cases of “mistaken identity” have been widespread, particularly on social media.  It’s also unsurprising that more people are seeing drones, a Pentagon official noted Monday, citing the “thousands of drones flown around the US on a daily basis.”

State leaders and congressional lawmakers have nonetheless expressed concerns about the lack of available information about the drone sightings and requested that the federal government learn and share more. President-elect Donald Trump has chimed in as well, alleging that the federal government has more information it hasn’t disclosed.

Here’s what we do know, however.

Reports of drone sightings first began in New Jersey in mid-November, and were initially concentrated in Morris County, in the northern part of the state. In recent weeks, they’ve come from other New Jersey towns as well, including Bedminster, where Trump has a golf course, and Colts Neck, where the Naval Weapons Station Earle is located.

Since then, there have been sightings reported in at least five other states, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. On Friday night, drones were spotted near the New York Stewart International Airport in Hudson Valley, prompting state transportation authorities to shut its runways down for one hour. Drones were reportedly also seen flying over a home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on Thursday night, in a cluster of 10 to 15 vehicles, and near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, on Friday, forcing the facility to close its airspace for four hours.

Photos and videos of the sightings have shown a variety of different events, including multiple bright aircraft hovering over a neighborhood or a single aerial object traveling at night. It’s not yet clear if these sightings are linked or if they’re all separate from one another.

The sightings appear to feature a mix of different aircraft, according to federal authorities, including both drones and passenger planes. Many of the reports they’ve evaluated have been manned aircraft operating as usual, officials say.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas noted in an interview with ABC News on Sunday that a fraction of these sightings were drones, while the rest were likely planes or other aircraft that were misidentified. 

Pentagon Press Secretary Major Gen. Pat Ryder said Monday that the presence of drones — including near military bases — was also not uncommon as more of these aircraft now populate the skies. 

Of more than 5,000 tips they’ve received about such aircrafts, officials have deemed around 100 worthy of follow-up investigation, federal authorities said in a press briefing on Saturday.

There’s no evidence these drones are from a foreign adversary or from the US military, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters in remarks last Wednesday.

Singh’s statement comes after some Republican lawmakers, including Reps. Jeff Van Drew and Chris Smith, have suggested that the drones could have been sent by foreign governments such as China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia.

That wouldn’t exactly be unprecedented — though not a drone, a Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down in US airspace in 2023, sparking a brief diplomatic crisis. China described the balloon as “mainly civilian” in purpose, but its flight path took it over “a number of sensitive sites,” according to the Pentagon.

Federal authorities have emphasized that the 2024 drone sightings aren’t a similar phenomenon, with Kirby noting they come from an array of commercial, law enforcement, and civilian sources.

One explanation for some of the increased activity could be new regulations, announced in 2023, that allow drones to fly at night, Mayorkas also told ABC News.

Some drones, like those near the Stewart International Airport and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, have prompted officials to close down these facilities’ respective runways and airspace for a brief period.

The FAA has also announced temporary flight restrictions over Trump’s Bedminster golf course and the Picatinny Arsenal Military Base in Morris County, New Jersey, after drones were seen flying over both.

Officials have emphasized, however, that there isn’t any indication that these drones pose a danger to the public.

Drone operations have also prompted a number of arrests. In Boston, two men were arrested on Saturday for operating a drone “dangerously close” to Logan International Airport. And in California, a Chinese citizen and legal US resident was arrested on December 10 for operating a drone and taking photos over Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County on November 30.

Federal authorities have said they are closely monitoring the reports and sending specialized drone detection systems to New Jersey and New York to assist in state efforts.

State leaders, however, including New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, had previously expressed frustration at the pace and opaqueness of the federal response. Murphy and Hochul have both pressed President Joe Biden, with the former emphasizing that “residents deserve more concrete information” beyond what federal authorities had provided.

The FAA encourages people to contact local law enforcement if they believe a drone is flying unsafely or poses a threat.

Law enforcement officials have discouraged drone-spotters from taking matters into their own hands, however, warning that shooting at drones, or what people believe to be drones, is both dangerous and illegal. A drone could, for example, create a safety hazard if it falls on people or property after being felled by gunfire, in addition to the danger of shooting at a misidentified manned aircraft.

The House Intelligence Committee is expected to receive a classified briefing about the issue on Tuesday. For now, however, there’s little to do but wait — and hope we learn more soon.

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The big decision facing Syrian refugees: An estimated 6 million to 7 million Syrian refugees are living outside the country. The sudden fall of Assad regime and the end of 13 years of civil war came suddenly, leaving those displaced by the conflict with a difficult choice to make — to return to a changed Syria or remain in their current host countries.

The data on men’s well-being continues to concern experts: There’s a growing body of evidence that we should be worried about men: They’re generally falling behind in education, in the labor market, in data on drug overdoses, and they make up the majority of deaths by suicide. Scott Galloway, a New York University professor and the host of The Prof G Pod, is working on a book about the state of masculinity. He spoke with The Gray Area about why society seems to be producing men who feel alone.

The US refugee program could be gutted in January: President-elect Donald Trump has said he plans to “suspend refugee admission, stop the resettlement, and keep the terrorists the hell out of our country” on his first day back in office. Any formal effort to end the refugee program would take an act of Congress —  but Trump has previously significantly lowered the cap on refugee admissions during his first term, banning Syrians and refugees from countries including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

OpenAI whistleblower found dead: Suchir Balaji, a 26-year-old former researcher for the artificial intelligence company, died by apparent suicide in his San Francisco apartment. Balaji had previously been critical of OpenAI’s methods of training its technology with potentially unauthorized, copyrighted internet data. [Business Insider]

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Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images

Now that the show is getting rebooted with a new, presumably younger cast, it only feels right to revisit all the relentlessly compelling 11 seasons of the reality show Vanderpump Rules, which follows Lisa Vanderpump’s restaurant server and bartender staff. There’s nothing like observing a group of people in their 30s and early 40s struggling to keep up with the demands of adulthood on national television.

The series is a fascinating document of terrible men, the economic disappointments of millennial life, and the empty promises of reality TV. This tragic element is what made Vanderpump Rules both extremely comical in its first run and surprisingly significant as a 2010s time capsule. If you haven't seen it yet, your holiday downtime might be a good opportunity to jump in and binge. While the millennial reign on Bravo and in popular culture might be coming to end, Vanderpump Rules will continue to serve (no pun attended) its faithful audience and newcomers, too.

—Kyndall Cunningham, culture reporter

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