Pentagon releases UFO files for Americans to decide what’s real

WASHINGTON— The Pentagon made good on President Donald Trump’s promise to start releasing hundreds more declassified files linked to decades of UFO sightings, saying Americans can study the “new, never-before-seen” material and decide for themselves if aliens are real.

Among the 162 photos, videos and documents released Friday is an account from U.S. astronauts describing unidentified “particles” seen outside their spacecraft in the 1960s. More recent footage taken by military pilots shows firefly-like orbs zig-zagging across the screen.

Another image features a government rendering of eyewitness accounts from 2023 that described an “ellipsoid bronze metallic object materializing out of a bright light in the sky.” The object then disappeared “instantaneously,” according to the description.

“While past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Trump is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files,” the Pentagon said.

The Trump administration cast the move as a new push toward greater openness, but Friday’s release is a continuation of a trend dating back several years to treat unexplained encounters more seriously and entertain the possibility of alien life rather than dismissing it as the stuff of science fiction.

That prompted the Pentagon under former President Joe Biden to establish a new bureau, the All‑domain Anomaly Resolution Office, to study such sightings. Its website, www.aaro.mil, has periodically released documents and images similar to that distributed Friday, most recently in January.

The images distributed Friday offer no fresh conclusions on any of the encounters or the possible existence of alien life. The Pentagon described the material as “unresolved cases” and said more files will be released every few weeks. It also welcomed analysis and expertise from regular Americans.

—Bloomberg News

Judge sets NC trial date in case accusing James Comey of threatening Trump

The hearing expected to bring former FBI Director James Comey to a North Carolina courtroom Monday is no longer happening. But the legal fight surrounding the federal felony charges is just getting started.

Comey was set to appear in federal court in Greenville, but that hearing was canceled after he successfully requested to waive the hearing on Thursday.

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Louise Flanagan outlined a series of deadlines that could lead to a July jury trial.

Flanagan ordered the attorneys to conduct a pretrial conference by May 29. All pretrial motions should be filed by June 5 and responses by June 15, the order states.

Flanagan set an arraignment hearing, in which Comey would plead guilty or not guilty, for June 30. The trial was set for July 15.

On April 28, a North Carolina grand jury agreed that the government had probable cause to charge Comey with two federal charges. The charges — threatening the president and transmitting the threat across state lines — each carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

On May 15, 2025, Comey said he found seashells arranged in the shape of “86 47” during a walk on a North Carolina beach.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “86” as slang for refusing or banning a customer; removing an item from a menu; or rejecting, discontinuing or getting rid of something. Forty-seven refers to Trump serving as the 47th president.

—The News & Observer

Kristin Smart search: Remains detected and search will continue, sheriff says

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Investigators at the home of the mother of Kristin Smart's killer have detected the presence of human remains but have not found a body, authorities said Friday.

Authorities have been at the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores in San Luis Obispo County this week, testing the soil for any signs of human decomposition. Their results have been "positive," meaning remains have been detected, but that's it so far, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said Friday.

Parkinson said, "We believe that, based on what we're looking at, evidence-wise, scientific evidence, that a human remains were there at one time," he said. "So we can't call it Kristin but you know, we think there's, there's evidence to support human remains there."

But, Parkinson added, investigators won't leave until they are sure they've done all they can. Investigators believe Smart's body may have been moved multiple times after she was killed.

"Our search goes on, and I don't know how long we're going to be there," Parkinson said at a press conference updating the public on this week's search efforts.

If anything is ultimately found, authorities will return to dig, which would require another warrant, which means "you are going to see some delays," he said.

As authorities continued their work Friday, work trucks lined the curb as reporters and podcasters talked on camera outside Susan Flores' colorful house. In the neighbor side yard driveway, soil scientists loaded a truck, having gathered more soil vapors for the day.

Near the sheriff's headquarters along Highway 1, a short distance from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, a pair of billboards read "Kristin Smart Help bring her home."

Earlier this week, sheriff's investigators along with experts in human decomposition descended on the home of the mother of Paul Flores, who was convicted of killing Smart after she disappeared in 1996. They've been sampling soil gases and using ground-penetrating radar to look for signs of her body.

—Los Angeles Times

Federal jury convicts 4 South Florida men in assassination of Haiti’s president

MIAMI — Four South Florida men were found guilty Friday of conspiring to kidnap or kill Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse, who was assassinated in his home outside Port-au-Prince on July 7, 2021, plunging the Caribbean country deeper into political turmoil and gang-fueled chaos.

The verdict, delivered by a 12-member jury in federal court in Miami, came nearly five years after the assassination, following 39 days of testimony over almost nine weeks. The jury spent just over two days deliberating, after sending a question to the judge about one of the nine charges related to the shipment of bulletproof vests to mercenaries in Haiti, a country under a U.S. arms embargo.

Arcángel Pretel Ortiz and Antonio “Tony” Intriago, owners of Counter Terrorist Federal Academy and Counter Terrorist Unit Security in Doral — collectively known as CTU — were convicted along with James Solages, who worked for CTU, and Walter Veintemilla, a Broward-area mortgage broker whom prosecutors said helped finance the plot.

All the men were accused of plotting in South Florida and hiring a squad of former Colombian soldiers to violently overthrow Haiti’s president in a coup scheme that turned from his ouster to his assassination a couple of weeks before his death. The defense teams challenged those allegations by asserting that Haitian police and presidential security details killed Moïse before the Colombian hit squad arrived at his hillside home in the middle of the night.

But prosecutors argued that the South Florida group, in collaboration with a few key Haitians starting in April 2021, wanted to replace Moïse with a new president willing to hire them for lucrative security and infrastructure contracts in Haiti.

“This case is very simple,” lead Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean McLaughlin told jurors during closing arguments. “This is a case about greed, arrogance and power.”

After the jury’s verdicts were announced, one of the defense attorneys told a group of reporters outside the federal courthouse that the four defendants plan to appeal. They’ve been in custody at South Florida detention centers since their arrests.

—The Miami Herald