The Pentagon’s second batch of declassified UFO files released on May 22 includesvideos such as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) being shot down over the Great Lakes and audio of astronauts witnessing a series of unexplained phenomena.
Dozens of documents were cleared for release on Friday, adding to the previous document dump on May 8, which revealed that Apollo 11 astronauts reported seeing a “sizable” object near the moon.
The U.S. Air Force shot down a balloon-shaped UAP over Lake Huron, one of the Great Lakes located between the United States and Canada, on Feb. 12, 2023.
A U.S. Air Force Air National Guard F-16C shoots down a UAP over Lake Huron on Feb 12, 2023. Department of War
The video, which the War Department said was likely taken by an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform, showed the UAP being struck and “fragmenting in a radial displacement pattern that suggests a high-energy event.”
Fragments fall from the UAP after it was shot. Department of War
The War Department did not reveal what fell from the object.
Officials did not share if any attempts were made to recover the fragments.
The Epoch Times reached out to the Department of War for additional information.
UAP Formation Caught on Camera
The Department of War released a video showing “four areas of contrast” seemingly making a formation, according to a video apparently filmed by an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform.
A screenshot from a video titled “UAP USO Formation.” USO stands for unidentified submerged object. Department of War
The eight-minute clip, which was edited and digitally altered, showed four objects moving in a parallel direction as they became “increasingly indistinct over time as the video quality degrades.”
Four unexplained objects moving in the same direction in a screenshot from video. Department of War
The War Department did not share the date or location of the unexplained formation.
International Sightings
An infrared sensor spotted a UAP, described as “four areas of contrast,” zoom past what appeared to be ships in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in Iran on August 2022.
In a separate incident that year, video captured “multiple spherical UAP” near a submarine in March that were going “in and out of water.”
A UAP, or possibly more than one, appears on the lower left side of a classified video taken in Iran on August 2022. The red circle was added by The Epoch Times to clarify what the Department of War considered to be an unknown anomaly. Department of War
Additional videos showed UAP in Syria in 2021, a “spherical UAP over [Afghanistan] in and out of clouds” in November 2020, and a video that starts in color and shows a bright UAP over the water off the East Coast of the United States.
The latest document dump included a CIA intelligence information report from the Soviet Union that was recorded in the summer of 1973.
The decades-old report revealed that an unnamed source on the Sary Shagan Weapons Testing Range in Kazakhstan witnessed a “sharp, (bright) green circular object or mass in the sky.”
The source, who was identified as a former Soviet citizen, said the “green circle widened and within a brief period of time several green concentric circles formed around the mass.”
The witness did not hear any sounds associated with the phenomenon.
NASA Audio
The second batch of UFO-related files also included several audio clips released by NASA from its Mercury and Apollo missions.
An audio recording from Mercury-Atlas 7 on May 24, 1962, featured pilot Scott Carpenter describing reflective white particles that moved at “random” and appeared to “look exactly like snowflakes.”
He said the phenomena moved faster than his spacecraft.
Additional “little white objects” were also reported months later during the Mercury Atlas 8 mission.
On Oct. 3, 1962, pilot Walter M. “Wally” Schirra Jr. described “little white objects that tend to come from the capsule itself and drift off.”
Minutes later, Schirra reported a burst of light in his window.
“[I’m] getting a real burst of light in the window, and I really don’t know what it is,” Schirra said.
In December 1972 during the Apollo 17 mission, the 11th and final crewed mission in the Apollo program, Cmdr. Gene Cernan, Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, and Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans reported “very bright particles or fragments of something” that drifted by outside the spacecraft as they transited to the moon.
Since April 14, Morocco has been conducting large-scale deportation operations targeting sub-Saharan Africans migrating to Europe, reportedly arresting over 100 per day, local sources told Middle East Eye.
According to Moroccan human rights groups, around 800 people were detained during coordinated raids in the forests between Fnideq and Belyounech, in the northern tip of the North African state, where many were sheltering before attempting to reach Europe.
The operation is still ongoing, with authorities then moving their focus to operations in and around Tangier. Witnesses have described mass arrests, beatings, racist abuse and forced transfers toward the Algerian border.
Sudanese and Chadian detainees were bused south and abandoned near border zones, while people from countries including Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Guinea were deported on flights departing Casablanca.
The crackdown comes as the European Union has intensified its cooperation with Morocco as part of its border externalization strategy, which is a key component of the bloc’s new Pact on Migration and Asylum set to take effect in June.
The EU increasingly outsources immigration enforcement to North African nations with poor human rights records, designating over €900 million within the bloc's Global Europe development instrument to fund stricter migration control, border management and surveillance initiatives across the region.
"The EU wants to restrict people’s mobility as far down the route as possible - what officials describe as stopping migration downstream," Frey Lindsay, a journalist on Statewatch's Outsourcing Borders project, which tracks how the EU outsources migration control, told Middle East Eye. "It's about exerting border control without getting your hands dirty, basically."
Raids and expulsions
Morocco is a key transit country for sub-Saharan Africans en route to Europe. They sail across the Strait of Gibraltar or climb the towering razor wire fence that separates Morocco from Ceuta and Melilla, Spanish enclaves within the kingdom.
Over the years, Morocco has increased cooperation with Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, to prevent migrants from departing the North African coast. In 2025, Moroccan authorities thwarted 73,640 irregular migration attempts toward Europe, according to a report from the interior ministry, a slight decline from 2024 - attributed to alternative migration routes.
In recent weeks, Moroccan security forces have stepped up their role as Europe’s de facto border enforcer, carrying out regular raids on makeshift forest camps and key transit points used by people trying to reach Spain. Attacks on migrant camps have long been pervasive, but have escalated since April 14, with operations concentrated in the north of the country. People who are not deported are typically exiled to the south in an effort to disrupt migration routes.
"According to migrants we have been in contact with, they were subjected to various forms of humiliation, insults and mistreatment by authorities," Chad Boukhari, a journalist and member of Border Resistance, a grassroots collective that supports migrants across the Mediterranean, told MEE.
Some were abandoned near the Algerian border without food or water, where they were detained by Algerian forces. "The Algerian army allegedly tortured many of them. Some individuals also found the bodies of other migrants in the desert," Boukhari added.
In 2025, Algeria expelled more than 30,000 migrants to Niger, abandoning many "deportation convoys" in the Sahara desert. Testimonies of abuse, torture and enslavement have been reported. MEE contacted the Algerian, Moroccan and EU authorities for comment but had not received a reply by the time of publication.
Sub-Sahara Africans often reach Morocco by crossing the Sahel, the arid perilous land belt stretching across the continent. They typically cross through Niger into Algeria or via Mauritania to enter Morocco. Many of the countries along these routes are plagued by chronic instability and rank among the lowest on the Human Development Index.
Once in Morocco, migrants can spend months to years sleeping in the country’s dense, dry woodlands. Humanitarian groups tend to know the whereabouts of informal encampments and provide modest assistance, but even these efforts are often thwarted by authorities.
Since 2014, Human Rights Watch has documented repeated incidents where Moroccan police beat migrants, deprived them of their few possessions, burned their shelters and expelled them from the country without due process.
“Oftentimes, the Red Cross would enter the forest and provide us with blankets and clothing. But we knew that was always a bad sign. Shortly after the Red Cross visits, Moroccan security forces would appear, as if they were watching,” Ousman Sow, a Guinean man who spent a year in Morocco before he was able to cross into Spain, told MEE.
“They burned all of our belongings before driving us far away and dropping us off in remote areas without any possessions," added Sow, who now lives in Germany. The goal is to prevent migrants from reaching Ceuta and Melilla, the only European territories with a land border in Africa.
On 24 June 2022, at least 37 migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, were killed under unclear circumstances while attempting to climb the fence into Melilla. Another 70 people from that day remain missing, amid reports that Moroccan authorities were burying bodies in unmarked graves.
Externalizing control
Despite stricter enforcement, crossings from North Africa continue amid the war in Sudan and worsening instability across the Sahel. For many, the promise of Europe is still worth the risk.
“The more borders and walls you put up, the more dangerous ways people go around them,” Lindsay told MEE. “Securitization doesn't change the reason why people want to leave; it just means more people will die.”
Rights groups also say the latest crackdown is a consequence of the EU’s new migration pact, which seeks to overhaul the bloc’s current immigration system, expediting asylum case proceedings and deportations. The new system expands biometric surveillance and increases rejections on the grounds that people passed through a designated “safe third country” before reaching the EU.
Morocco is included in the list of safe countries alongside other nations accused of human rights abuses, such as Egypt and Turkey. If migrants passed through any of these nations on the way to Europe, their deportation will be expedited.
Over 50 NGOs formally objected to the pact, arguing the new expedited procedures deny the right to a fair and thorough review of asylum cases. The EU has progressively blocked migrants before their asylum case can be filed by externalising immigration enforcement, collaborating with countries outside of Europe to prevent migrants from reaching EU soil.
Under the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, it has poured hundreds of millions of euros into strengthening migration enforcement in Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria.
The adoption of the Pact on Migration and Asylum has put political pressure on the European Commission, which must secure member state backing for a politically contentious overhaul of EU asylum rules. “The new migration pact is a really critical legislative package for [European Commission President] Ursula von der Leyen and her cabinet. They need this to be a success politically, and will do everything to ensure the pact doesn’t fall apart,” said Lindsay.
“Member states have made it very clear that they are unwilling to go along with the pact if the European Commission doesn’t do everything it can to make sure people don’t arrive - and to deport as many people as possible,” he added.
The new approach has drawn particular scrutiny in Libya, where EU-backed groups have been linked to systemic abuses. The EU directly funds, trains and equips Libya’s coastal authorities, which have been accused of collaborating with human trafficking networks to capture migrants, subjecting them to exploitation, physical and sexual violence, and even enslavement.
The EU is now in the process of funding a maritime control centre in Benghazi aimed at intercepting migrants at sea and forcibly returning them to Libya. This requires cooperation with General Khalifa Haftar, who controls eastern Libya in opposition to the UN-recognised government in the west and has been accused of war crimes.
Similar patterns of violent pushbacks have emerged across Europe’s eastern borders. Along the Balkans route, Croatian authorities have been documented violently pushing people back into Bosnia, effectively preventing them from accessing asylum procedures on EU territory.
The new pact also introduces the concept of “return hubs”, nations where rejected asylum seekers may be transferred to and detained while awaiting deportation to their home countries. Migrants will likely have no connections to the designated countries they are deported to; the EU has proposed options everywhere from Bangladesh to Rwanda.
Rights groups say the Pact on Migration and Asylum embodies a broader hardening of attitudes and policies toward migrants across the EU member states, with detrimental consequences for those trying to reach Europe. "Whenever the political climate changes in Europe, you can feel it in Morocco," Sow told MEE. "If Europe wants immigrants, Morocco is okay. If not, it’s hostile there."
We reportedearlierthis week that for the first time Russia's 'Union State' ally Belarus hosted multi-day drills involving a "rehearsal" of Russia’s use of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons.
The exercise ran from Tuesday to Thursday and was presided over by Presidents Lukashenko and Putin, and saw hundreds of Russian missile launchers, warships, nuclear submarines, and jets deploy and engage in military maneuvers. As part of it, Russia reportedlysent more tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
On the occasion, and amid angry denunciations from European leaders, the 71-year-old Lukashenko - who has ruled the former Soviet nation since 1994 - asserted that "We threaten absolutely no one."
He followed with: "But we have such weapons, and we’re ready in every possible way to defend our common fatherland from [the western Belarusian city of] Brest to [Russia’s Pacific port of] Vladivostok."
In Ukraine, President Zelensky warned Belarus of "consequences" over potential deepened involvement in Russia's 'special military operation' - though Belarus did act as a staging ground for the initial attack waves in early 2022.
"The de facto leadership of Belarus" must "stay on its toes – that is, clearly understand that there will be consequences if aggressive actions against Ukraine, against our people, are taken," Zelensky said while making a visit this week to a Ukrainian city which is just dozens of miles from the Belarusian border.
Interestingly, and in what appears another first, Lukashenko actually offered to meet with Zelensky, and that this meeting could take place "anywhere" in Belarus or Ukraine.
"If (Zelensky) wants to discuss something, seek advice, or anything else, please do. We are open to it," Lukashenka said on Friday, according to state media.
"I am ready to meet with him anywhere - in Ukraine, in Belarus - and discuss the problems of Belarusian-Ukrainian relations," the Belarusian leader emphasized.
He also addressed Zelensky's latest accusations, rejecting the premise, and explained that his armed forces won't join the conflict unless "aggression is committed against (Belarusian) territory."
Russia's defense ministry released footage of this week's nuclear drills coordinated with Belarus:
Of course, such a meeting is very unlikely to ever materialize, unless part of some kind of final lasting peace settlement, which has proved elusive over 4+ years of war.
The Ukrainian leader dismissed the overture. "Since 2022, it has been obvious to everyone that this man's words mean nothing, and we should pay attention to his actions," Zelensky's advisor Dmytro Lytvyn told a press briefing later.
Ukrainian forces haveborrowed a pagefrom China's hypersonic glide-weapon testing and applied it to the Eastern European theater, using one-way attack drones against Russia.
Instead of launching the Hornet strike drone from a ground-based catapult, Ukrainian operators tethered it to a high-altitude balloon, extending its range.
The test, details of which circulated through Ukrainian military channels, involved a Hornet manufactured by Perennial Autonomy being dropped from a balloon at approximately 8 kilometers altitude after the aerostat carried the drone 42 kilometers from its launch point.
The outlet said the new tactic would effectively double the Hornet's range to 300 kilometers (about 186 miles).
Military observers have marveled at Ukraine's rapid weapons innovation curve, particularly its use of "low-tech" solutions such as drones and interceptors. These have become so effective that the U.S. military and allied Gulf countries have begun procuring some of these weapons.
The Ukraine-Russia war has effectively become a weapons and AI laboratory, accelerating battlefield technology and bringing forward weapons that would otherwise have been seen in the 2030s.
CBS is reporting that the Trump administration, specifically the Pentagon - as well as intelligence community officials - are currently preparing for a new potential round of military strikes against Iranwithin the next three days.
However, like with much of the latest speculation and reporting regarding what comes next in the Iran war, the report included the important caveat that nothing is ultimately confirmed or final: "No final decision on strikes had been reached as of Friday afternoon."
"Some members of the US military and intelligence community canceled their plans for the Memorial Day weekend in anticipation of possible strikes," several sources said.
"Defense and intelligence officials began updating recall rosters for US installations overseas as tranches of troops stationed in the Middle East rotate out of theater, part of an effort to reduce the American military footprint in the region amid concern about possible Iranian retaliation," CBS said.
Additionally, Trump's own Truth Social post about missing his son's wedding has set off an avalanche of speculation that renewed attacks are imminent.
"Circumstances pertaining to Government" are keeping him from attending his son Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding this weekend, Trump wrote in the post.
"I feel it is important for me to remain in Washington, D.C., at the White House during this important period of time. Congratulations to Don and Bettina!" Trump said. The day prior he had been vague in answering reporters' questions on the matter.
"He’d like me to go, but it’s going to be just a small little private affair, and I’m going to try and make it," he had said.
A number of pundits noted the ease with which he frequently goes down to Florida to play golf, and that it's strange that he would now miss his son's wedding. However, the wedding is being held out of country, at a small island in the Bahamas, and so this does bring with it extra logistical and security planning and logistics.
As for potential new military action, it's obvious that Trump has been growing increasingly impatient and frustrated about Iran's lack of compromise when it comes to negotiations over several days and weeks.
The White House has made recovery of the country's enriched uranium a top priority, while Tehran has repeatedly slammed the door on this as an option and has not budged. The Iranians aren't even making the nuclear issue part of talks to achieve peace, and have made clear their view this would be for future, post-war negotiations.
US-Iran de-escalation hopes drove crude oil and rates lower and put a bid in equities by the end of Friday's trading day, amid speculation that President Trump would stay at the White House over Memorial Day weekend instead of attending Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson’s wedding celebrations in the Bahamas.
"As Iran/oil/rates pressure eased on de-escalation hopes, leadership rotated toward small caps, equal weight, housing, transports, discretionary, and selective defensive growth, with short covering in high short-interest/profitless tech and consumer cyclicals reinforcing the catch-up trade," UBS analyst Torsten Sippel wrote in a note to clients late Friday.
Early Saturday morning, Bloomberg reports that President Trump held a phone call with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, regarding Pakistani-led efforts to de-escalate Gulf tensions and preserve the fragile US-Iran ceasefire.
Iran's top negotiator and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf met Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir in Tehran earlier today amid ongoing diplomatic efforts to bring the US and Iran to a peace deal, Reuters reported, citing Iranian state media.
Ghalibaf told Munir that Iran's Armed Forces "have rebuilt themselves during the cease-fire in such a way that if Trump foolishly restarts the war, they will definitely be more crushing and bitter for the U.S. than on the first day of the war."
The Iranian top negotiator also said, "We will not compromise on the rights of our nation and country."
There was a series of headlines from Sky News Arabia, citing sources, indicating that a major push for regional diplomacy was underway earlier today, with officials from Iraq, Oman, Jordan, and Qatar working to mediate with Tehran to avert another flare-up in the conflict.
Sky News Arabia sources said Pakistan’s mediator helped break the deadlock over the Iranian nuclear file, though several major issues remain unresolved, including the conflict in Lebanon, sanctions on bank accounts, the status of Iranian ports, and the presence of U.S. military forces in the Gulf area.
Iran is reportedly demanding the lifting of restrictions on its ports and a U.S. military withdrawal from the region before reopening the Strait of Hormuz and entering a new round of talks within 30 days.
There is also a reported internal conflict between Iran’s government and the Revolutionary Guard over Tehran’s negotiating demands.
Latest negotiation headlines (via sources) from Sky News Arabia:
Iranian Foreign Ministry: Iraqi and the Omani Foreign Minister discuss in a phone call the ongoing diplomatic efforts to prevent escalation
The foreign ministers of Jordan and Qatar affirm the necessity of concerted efforts to ensure the success of mediation efforts with Iran to reach a sustainable solution that addresses all the roots of the crisis and prevents the renewal of escalation.
The Foreign Ministers of Jordan and Qatar affirm the continuation of coordination of efforts to support targeted mediation aimed at ending the escalation in the region and restoring security and stability.
Sources to Sky News Arabia: The Pakistani mediator has succeeded in overcoming the deadlock on the Iranian nuclear file.
Sources to Sky News Arabia: The issues that have not yet been resolved include stopping the war in Lebanon and lifting the ban on financial accounts.
Sources to Sky News Arabia: Iran demands the lifting of the siege on Iranian ports and the withdrawal of military forces from the region to open the Strait of Hormuz and proceed to a round of negotiations within a 30-day timeframe.
Sources to Sky News Arabia: There is a severe disagreement between the Iranian government and the Revolutionary Guard regarding Iran's demands for negotiations.
Additional overnight headlines (courtesy of Bloomberg):
Economic Impact
The dollar ended the week nearly unchanged as risk assets got a boost from optimism around US-Iran peace talks [BN]
Germany's business outlook improved for the first time since the Iran war began, with an expectations index rising to 83.8 in May [BN]
UK retail sales fell 1.3% as consumers made fewer car journeys amid the global energy shock from the Iran war [BN]
Qatar Airways will skip bonuses for almost 60,000 workers this year after the war forced cancellation of tens of thousands of flights [BN]
Military Readiness
The US halted arms sales to Taiwan to ensure sufficient munitions for the Iran war, according to Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao [BN]
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard resigned from her post, with her anti-war views having spurred tension with the White House [BN]
Trade Disruption
Japan is set to receive its first Persian Gulf oil shipment to transit the Strait of Hormuz since the war began, with the Idemitsu Maru carrying 2 million barrels of Saudi crude [BN]
Anglo American is redirecting Brazilian iron ore output to Asia as the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz prevents shipments to Bahrain Steel [BN]
