Il rover sovietico Lunokhod 1, sbarcato sulla Luna nel 1970 e ritenuto disperso dal 1971, è stato localizzato grazie alle immagini della sonda LRO della NASA. Sfruttando le nuove coordinate, un team guidato da Tom Murphy ha puntato un raggio laser verso il veicolo dall'osservatorio Apache Point, ricevendo un fortissimo segnale di ritorno dal catadiottro di bordo. Lo specchio passivo, conservatosi in condizioni migliori rispetto a quello del gemello Lunokhod 2, non richiede elettricità e permetterà di misurare la distanza Terra-Luna con precisione millimetrica, aprendo la strada a nuovi test sulla relatività di Einstein e sullo studio del nucleo lunare.
Welcome to this edition of The Intelligence Brief… This week, anticipation is building around a possible new Pentagon disclosure involving dozens of UAP videos and records expected to be released under the Department of War’s PURSUE transparency initiative. In our analysis, we’ll be looking at 1) the growing signs that a new “Release 02” may be imminent, 2) what lawmakers and leaked descriptions reveal about the footage currently held by AARO, 3) why several of the reported incidents involving “transmedium” objects and spherical UAP are drawing renewed attention, and 4) how the forthcoming release could intensify debate over what the Pentagon knows—and may still be withholding—about unexplained encounters involving U.S. military personnel around the world.
Quote of the Week
“The lack of disclosure regarding the very real threat posed by UAPs in and around U.S.restricted airspace is concerning.”
– Rep. Anna Paulina Luna
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Pentagon Preparing New UAP Release as Lawmakers Push for Greater Disclosure
This week, many speculate that a new batch of Pentagon videos and records related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) could be made public soon as part of the Department of War’s ongoing PURSUE transparency initiative, with some observers anticipating the next release by the end of the week.
The forthcoming installment, expected to appear under what may become PURSUE “Release 02,” is reportedly set to include dozens of videos currently held by the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). Many of the videos were first publicly referenced in a March 31, 2026, letter from Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) to U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, in which Luna requested the release of 46 videos tied to unresolved UAP incidents.
Right now, there are several promising indications that the next release will be on the way very soon.
Here’s a look at what we know.
Subtle New Activity at the Department of War’s PURSUE Page
Although no new files had appeared at the Department of War’s PURSUE webpage as of Noon Eastern on Thursday, there was one very subtle change that came to our attention at The Debrief.
Specifically, this involved the page’s original “Release 01” designation in the site navigation headings near the top of the page, from which the “01” had quietly disappeared from the site’s navigation bar.
While there are other potential explanations for this, a likely interpretation is that it signals preparations that may be underway for an imminent new “Release 02.”
Descriptions of New UAP Videos
Additionally, descriptions of the forthcoming videos that have already been made available to the public suggest the release could potentially include some of the most unique military UAP footage disclosed to date.
Back in March, an itemized listing of UAP videos currently believed to be in the holdings of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was included in a letter from Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Based on the information conveyed in Luna’s letter, we can discern several things about the UAP videos that are currently expected to be released.
For instance, many of the videos reportedly involve spherical objects, a shape category that military personnel and AARO officials have repeatedly identified in recent years. One video allegedly depicts a sphere maneuvering through clouds over Afghanistan in 2020, while another reportedly shows a pulsing orb over water. Additional videos are said to feature erratic movement patterns and unexplained flight characteristics.
Other footage reportedly includes elongated “cigar-shaped” objects similar to the now-famous “Tic Tac” UAP first observed by U.S. Navy aviators during exercises off the California coast in 2004.
“Transmedium” Objects in the New PURSUE Release?
One of the most intriguing categories expected in the release involves “transmedium” objects, which are described as operating both in the air and underwater. According to descriptions contained in Luna’s letter, at least two videos involve unidentified submerged objects (USOs), including one incident from March 2022 in which spherical objects were reportedly observed moving “in and out of water” near a U.S. submarine.
AARO defines UAP broadly as anomalous detections occurring across multiple domains, including airborne, seaborne, spaceborne, and transmedium environments.
In advance of “Release 02,” you can get a complete rundown of everything we currently know about the forthcoming videos in our recent article over at The Debrief, which gives a breakdown of all the new footage, as well as cases that are already well-known, but for which “Release 02” may help provide additional context.
New Support For AARO
Arguably, one of the most promising indicators that the new release will be on the way very soon—possibly within just a few hours—comes from social media, where Representative Luna has recently suggested that the declassification process is already underway.
This much was conveyed specifically in a May 15 posting on X, where the Florida Republican shared a photograph of herself alongside current AARO director Jon Kosloski and Representative Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), writing that they had completed a review of “40+ videos set for declassification.”
“We are standing with the NEW and very QUALIFIED Director of AARO who now has my full support,” Luna wrote, adding that additional releases could arrive “in the coming weeks.”
Whether all 46 requested videos will ultimately be released remains unclear. However, with anticipation building around PURSUE’s next tranche of disclosures, the forthcoming release is likely to renew debate over what the Pentagon knows—and what it may still be withholding—about unexplained objects observed by U.S. military personnel around the world.
A new batch of Pentagon videos and other records related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) is expected to soon be released by the Department of War, with many anticipating their arrival by week’s end.
Although the existence of the videos has been discussed publicly on several occasions by lawmakers in recent weeks, a complete listing of the collection of AARO UAP videos, along with preliminary titles and descriptions of some of the footage, was initially disclosed earlier this year in a letter from Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) to U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
“The continued lack of transparency surrounding these anomalies and the potential national security threat they pose is troubling,” Luna’s letter, dated March 31, 2026, reads.
According to Luna, the existence of “additional video records of potential UAP sightings” came to the attention of Luna’s Task Force as a result of whistleblowers who participated in a September 29, 2025, hearing related to UAP transparency. “To continue its investigation, the Task Force requests certain video files related to UAP sightings,” Luna explained to Hegseth in the letter.
Indications of a Forthcoming Release?
The imminent arrival of the videos, originally requested for release by Luna “as soon as possible but no later than April 14, 2026,” is now anticipated by as early as Friday.
On Thursday, the official page on the Department of War’s website for the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE) featured no additional videos or documents beyond those included with the original release, which appeared on May 8, 2026, when the page went live.
However, the heading originally titled “Release 01” that appears in the page’s navigation bar is now missing the “01,” seemingly indicating that preparations for a new batch, tentatively titled “Release 02,” are likely underway.
Update: Thursday, May 21, 2026: Some visitors to the Department of War website also reported throughout the day that, for a short period, the site’s file listing showed up to 140 blank pages. As of 7:23 p.m. Eastern, only the original number of files associated with “Release 01” is available on the site.
What To Expect in the PURSUE “Release 02”
Based on the original list of videos detailed in Luna’s letter from March, along with some descriptions and imagery associated with the videos that have been disseminated prior to their complete authorized release, a few details about what the videos are expected to reveal can be discerned.
One video that Luna and her Task Force have requested reportedly depicts a formation of four unidentified objects flying over an unspecified region in Iran, observed on August 26, 2022.
Another video, reportedly captured in 2021 over Syria, appears to show an object that seemingly displays “instant acceleration,” a capability that would require overcoming several fundamental laws of physics.
While unusual—or even seemingly impossible—physical maneuvers can often be attributed to camera motion and other artifacts arising from the conditions under which such videos are obtained, there are indications that there could be other intriguing footage in the forthcoming batch, a few of which may display a key capability that has increasingly been attributed to some UAP during military observations.
Unidentified Submerged Objects and “Transmedium” UAP
According to AARO, UAP sometimes represent more than just aerial phenomena, with its official definition including “sources of anomalous detections in one or more domains (i.e., airborne, seaborne, spaceborne, and/or transmedium) that are not yet attributable to known actors and that demonstrate behaviors that are not readily understood by sensors or observers.”
Intriguingly, at least some of the files expected in the forthcoming release include videos that purportedly show objects exhibiting what the military characterizes as “transmedium” capabilities, with the objects, described as “USOs” (unidentified submerged objects), reportedly observed both in and out of water.
In at least one of the two USO videos, several spherical objects observed in near proximity to a U.S. submarine on March 25, 2022, are reportedly observed both “in and out of water” in the AARO footage.
Another video, dubbed “UAP USO formation Wiley 2X Zinc,” reportedly shows a different formation of unidentified objects that may be displaying transmedium capabilities.
Spheres Take Center Stage
Several of the videos requested by Luna and other lawmakers reportedly feature what appear to be spherical objects, a common shape class that has been frequently reported by military personnel in recent years, as well as historical reports involving aerial phenomena.
Spherical object captured by electro-optical sensors aboard an MQ-9 Reaper UAS over the Middle East in 2022 (DOD/AARO).
One video, obtained on November 23, 2020, appears to show a spherical object operating in airspace over Afghanistan as it moves “in and out of clouds.” Another spherical object, filmed in 2022, reportedly displays “erratic movement” frequently attributed to such objects, while in a separate video, a spherical UAP is said to have been observed “pulsing” as it passed over a body of water.
Finally, in an incident that occurred on April 12, 2021, a series of three videos was obtained by U.S. personnel depicting a spherical object of unknown origin.
AARO officials have previously expressed interest in this class of objects. In one incident in 2022, an MQ-9 Reaper UAS operating in the Middle East recorded video of a spherical object using its onboard electro-optical sensor. “The object’s characteristics and behavior are consistent with other ‘metallic orb’ observations in the region,” according to a short summary of the footage included in a 2025 AARO mission brief available at its website.
Tic Tacs, Flying Cigars, “Fast Movers”
Spherical objects aren’t the only objects that make appearances in the videos AARO has obtained. Several other varieties of UAP that are commonly recognized from historical accounts are reportedly featured in the videos, which include elongated “cigar” shapes such as the “Tic Tac,” a designation first attributed to an unusual object captured by an FA/18 Super Hornet Pilot during training exercises off the Baja California Coast in November 2004.
A still frame from the 2004 footage obtained by U.S. Navy pilot Chad Underwood, depicting a purported UAP encountered by personnel with the U.S. Navy’s Carrier Strike Group 11 (CSG-11) (Image Credit: U.S. Department of Defense).
One of the new videos describes a “cigar-shaped or fat spherical UAP” observed on October 15, 2022, while another appears to describe a case in which a United States Coast Guard EADS HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft observed a Tic Tac-shaped object with its high-definition forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensor system.
Another video that could be in the forthcoming release involves a trio of “fast moving UAPs” that were observed by U.S. personnel on October 29, 2020. The term “fast mover” is recognized as slang for “fighter jet,” while similar terminology, such as the variant “Fastwalker,” is also occasionally used in relation to UAP sightings.
New Details on the Eglin Air Force Base UAP?
Some of the videos expected in the forthcoming release may offer additional details about UAP incidents that are already well known and for which case resolutions have been produced during AARO’s investigations.
One video in the forthcoming tranche, designated “IIR 1 665 SO301 23/Eglin AFB,” appears to refer to a January 26, 2023, incident involving a U.S. military pilot who observed four objects flying in a diamond formation over the Gulf of Mexico. At the time of the sighting, the pilot claimed that several of his aircraft’s onboard capabilities malfunctioned, requiring them to manually capture imagery of the object.
In a case resolution report on the incident following AARO’s assessment, investigators concluded that the UAP “very likely was an ordinary object and was not exhibiting anomalous or exceptional characteristics or flight behaviors,” concluding that the object the pilot filmed may have been a lighting balloon.
Electro-optical image of the object photographed by a military pilot in January 2023 near Eglin AFB (Credit: DoD/AARO)
However, AARO’s resolution report added that it had only “moderate confidence in this assessment due to the limited data provided,” a conclusion that drew criticism from even some of the more skeptical UAP investigators.
“The lighting balloon hypothesis always felt like something someone at AARO liked, but wasn’t really supported by much evidence,” skeptic Mick West told The Debrief following the publication of AARO’s report on the incident.
Another of the videos in the forthcoming release was captured by a U.S. Air Force F-16C pilot (callsign AESIR11) during a widely publicized incident that occurred on February 12, 2023, where an object was shot down over Lake Huron with an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile.
According to former AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick, this incident had been one of several involving objects that were later determined to have been hobbyist balloons that were shot down in early 2023, as Kirkpatrick revealed during a recent presentation he gave at the Center for Naval Analyses on April 27, 2026.
Looking Ahead: Cooperation with AARO Continues
Luna has also conveyed to her followers on social media in recent days that the review process required for the release of the new videos was underway, with cooperation from AARO officials.
In a posting on her official X account on May 15, 2026, Luna appeared in a photograph alongside current AARO director Jon Kosloski and Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), writing that they had just completed the review of “40+ videos set for declassification” by the Department of War, which could be expected “in the coming weeks” as of the time of posting.
Finished review of 40+ videos set for declassification out of @DeptofWar in coming weeks this am. We are standing with the NEW and very QUALIFIED Director of AARO who now has my full support and has proven through action that he is working in good faith on declass efforts. pic.twitter.com/1OWhsn6M9b
— Anna Paulina Luna (@realannapaulina) May 15, 2026
“We are standing with the NEW and very QUALIFIED Director of AARO who now has my full support and has proven through action that he is working in good faith on declass efforts,” Luna wrote.
It remains to be seen whether all the videos Luna has requested will be released, although a few glimpses of footage allegedly from the forthcoming batch have already appeared on social media in recent days.
Should the requested tranche of AARO UAP videos arrive in time for the unofficial, but widely anticipated deadline, The Debrief will provide additional reporting on the release of those records, along with any new information they may contain.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached atmicah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.
Welcome to this edition of The Intelligence Brief… This week, a series of fast-moving controversies has placed the U.S. Intelligence Community under scrutiny, following viral (and contested) claims of an alleged CIA raid on the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and explosive testimony from a former intelligence officer alleging a federal coverup of COVID-19’s origins. In our analysis, we’ll be looking at 1) how prime time TV and social media-driven narratives about intelligence activity have quickly spread—and been challenged by officials, 2) the competing claims surrounding alleged CIA retaliation and oversight disputes raised during congressional testimony, 3) how the agency’s own shifting stance on COVID-19’s origins continues to fuel debate between policymakers and the scientific community, and 4) what this latest episode reveals about the growing intersection of intelligence, politics, and public trust in an era of fragmented information.
Quote of the Week
“As the CIA has already assessed, COVID-19 most likely originated from a lab leak, and efforts to undermine that conclusion are disingenuous.”
– Liz Lyons, CIA spokesperson
If you enjoy the news and perspectives offered by The Debrief, make sure that you aren’t missing our stories by making us one of your “preferred sources” on Google News. You can simply follow this link to add The Debrief to your list of favorites, and you can read more about Google’s preferred sources in our article here.
Get all the latest stories from The Debrief, with more breaking stories at the end of this week’s newsletter.
U.S. Intelligence Community Pushes Back as Controversies Swirl Over CIA Claims
It’s been a bit of an odd week for the U.S. Intelligence Community.
Over the last 48 hours, renewed interest in the CIA’s Project MK-ULTRA has emerged amid claims of an alleged raid that targeted the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), as well as new allegations from a former intelligence officer who testified before lawmakers on Wednesday about an alleged federal cover-up involving the origins of COVID-19.
Now, senior officials within the Intelligence Community (IC) are pushing back, challenging narratives that have made their way into news feeds via social media and widely shared video clips.
So what are the recent claims at the heart of these new controversies, whose uniting thread involves a three-letter agency long linked to illegal and/or unethical covert operations, many of which remain partially hidden behind the veil of official secrecy? Read on, dear subscribers, as we attempt to make sense of the latest IC controversies that have erupted over the last few days.
A Raid at the ODNI?
This week, claims involving an alleged CIA raid on the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) surfaced on social media.
The supposed incident was initially reported in a post by Fox News host Jesse Watters, in a now-deleted posting on X. Shortly thereafter, news was widely circulated that the spy agency had seized several dozen boxes of files containing records related to JFK and Project MK-ULTRA, which were reportedly being processed by the ODNI in advance of their public release.
The alleged incident prompted Congressman Anna Paulina Luna to fire back with plans to subpoena the agency if the files weren’t returned. “The CIA has 24 hours to return the documents to Tulsi Gabbard’s office or else I will make a motion to issue a subpoena,” Luna wrote in a posting on X. “These documents have been requested by Congress.”
Later that evening, after the news had entered the prime-time news cycle, DNI spokesperson Olivia Coleman responded with her own post on X, challenging the claims.
“This is false,” Coleman wrote, adding “the CIA did not raid the DNI’s office.”
The claims seemed a bit odd from the outset, especially since the DNI has oversight authority above the CIA. This has been the case since the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, which outlined that the DNI leads the IC, and that the CIA Director, therefore, is required to report to the DNI.
That’s not to say that the CIA hasn’t been accused of operating outside of the law in the past. Nor was the situation involving the alleged seizure of JFK and MK-ULTRA files from the ODNI the only controversy America’s spy agency found itself embroiled in this week.
A CIA COVID-19 Coverup?
On Wednesday, a CIA whistleblower provided testimony before lawmakers claiming that there had been a federal cover-up involving the origins of COVID-19.
Speaking before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, James Erdman III, a former intelligence officer, described himself during introductory statements as a “career CIA operations officer” who was “on joint-duty assignment at the ODNI Director’s Initiatives Group, or the DIG, between March 2025 and April 2026. I was responsible for leading the DIG’s investigation into COVID origins, anomalous health incidents, and unidentified anomalous phenomena.”
Erdman, in other words, had a pretty diverse and interesting assignment during his time at the ODNI’s DIG. However, his reasons for speaking before lawmakers on Wednesday were very specific: “I’m here today to discuss the COVID coverup,” he told members of the Senate this week, along with its national security implications and “CIA refusal to comply with lawful oversight, as well as how we remedy these problems.”
In addition to his background with the IC, Fox News recently described Erdman as a “military veteran who co-founded the grassroots advocacy group Feds For Freedom, an organization that emerged during the COVID-19 vaccine mandate battles involving federal workers and members of the military,” though conceding that “public information online about Erdman’s early life is sparse” and that much of what is available appears on the Feds For Freedom website.
“Intelligence community leaders and senior analysts downplayed the possibility that the COVID pandemic originated as a result of a lab incident,” Erdman told lawmakers on Wednesday, adding that analysts who presented evidence supporting a lab origin for the virus became the targets of retaliation by the spy agency.
“CIA managers retaliated against them for their refusal to agree with management’s middle-of-the-night anonymous rewrite of the analysis, which changed the assessment to a non-call judgment,” Erdman said in testimony he provided. Erdman also reinforced the claims of an alleged removal of documents from the ODNI by CIA personnel, which ODNI representatives have disputed.
Another major focus of Wednesday’s hearing had been Dr. Anthony Fauci, of whom Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, the Committee’s Chairman, asked how the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases could “objectively comment on a discussion of COVID origins when he approved the very funding that may have caused the Pandemic Virus?”
The CIA Pushes Back
Following Wednesday’s hearing, Liz Lyons, a CIA spokesperson, pushed back on the claims presented during the hearing.
“The Committee acted in bad faith by subpoenaing an Agency officer for testimony today without notifying CIA, despite having already obtained closed-door testimony from the individual previously,” Lyons wrote in a posting on X.
Lyons further charged that Erdman was “not appearing as a whistleblower in pursuit of the truth, but instead in response to the subpoena issued by Chairman Paul.”
“This proceeding amounts to nothing more than dishonest political theater masquerading as a congressional hearing,” Lyons wrote in her statement. “As the CIA has already assessed, COVID-19 most likely originated from a lab leak, and efforts to undermine that conclusion are disingenuous.”
The debate over COVID-19’s origins is complex and remains highly controversial. As Lyons notes, the CIA had already shifted its position early last year, claiming that COVID-19 likely originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China—a reversal from the agency’s past positions, which was made public shortly after current CIA Director John Ratcliffe was sworn into office.
Clashing with IC assessments are views from the scientific community, which continue to argue that there is little evidence that genetic engineering could be responsible for the virus, and that most reliable scientific evidence suggests the zoonotic transmission hypothesis remains most likely.
Despite the ongoing debate, it is noteworthy that, following the CIA’s apparent shift in its views regarding COVID’s origins in January 2025, an agency spokesperson conceded that “CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible.”
Altogether, this week’s developments underscore a few things, including how quickly the complexities of U.S. intelligence issues can become entangled with politics, public distrust, and the tangled web of fragmented information.
While the debate over issues like the origins of COVID-19 will no doubt continue, events over the last 48 hours at least serve as a reminder that transparency and accountability in intelligence matters are rarely straightforward—and that definitive answers often emerge only slowly, if at all.
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