Happy Friday, Filter Community Members!

What’s a better way to end the week than with some much-needed (potentially terrifying), but hopefully fun news? Remember, if aliens are real, there’s nothing you can do about it, so you might as well be amazed.

What do you think? Are aliens real? Comment below.

Now for the news…

The Department of Defense on Friday released what it described as "never-before-seen" declassified files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), the government's current term for UFOs, fulfilling a directive from President Donald Trump issued earlier this year.

The files are publicly accessible without security clearance and include videos, photographs, and original source documents drawn from multiple federal agencies, including the DoD, the State Department, NASA, and the FBI. The Department of Defense said it will continue releasing materials on a rolling basis, with new tranches posted every few weeks as documents are discovered and declassified.

The initial release includes images captured during the Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 moon missions showing strangely shaped objects, as well as a transcript of communications between Apollo 17 operators in which one describes seeing "very jagged, angular fragments that are tumbling." FBI photographs from New Year's Eve 1999 showing objects in the same frame as U.S. aircraft are also part of the release. One document includes eyewitness accounts from federal employees who observed orbs in the dusk sky on two separate occasions in the western United States. An infrared still image captured over the western United States in December 2025 is also among the materials.

The files are hosted at WAR.GOV/UFO and released under Trump's Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE) program.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement: "These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it's time the American people see it for themselves." Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard stated that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is "actively coordinating the Intelligence Community's declassification efforts with the Department of War to ensure a careful, comprehensive, and unprecedented review." FBI Director Kash Patel called it a "landmark release." NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman applauded Trump's "whole-of-government effort to bring greater transparency to the American people on unidentified anomalous phenomena."

The release follows a Truth Social post in which Trump directed the Secretary of War and other relevant agencies to "begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs)." That directive came after former President Barack Obama said in a podcast that aliens are "real but I haven't seen them," a statement he later clarified by saying he "saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us."

The DoD noted that while all files have been reviewed for security purposes, "many of the materials have not yet been analyzed for resolution of any anomalies."

The left argues that the release, while fulfilling Trump's directive, carries a note of skepticism about its significance. Axios highlighted a Wednesday New York Times essay by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who said the release is "a good thing" but also characterized it as "a distraction from other important files we've all been waiting to be disclosed" and predicted the contents would be "anticlimactic." The left-leaning coverage gave more weight to the caveat that the materials have not yet been analyzed for anomalies, and CNN noted former President Barack Obama's clarifying walk-back of his alien comments, contextualizing the political backdrop of the release.

The right argues that the release represents a historic and unprecedented act of government transparency that prior administrations actively resisted. Fox News framed the release as a "world exclusive," emphasized Trump's direct response to Obama's remarks — including Trump's accusation that Obama "gave classified information" and "made a big mistake" — and foregrounded statements from Hegseth, Gabbard, Patel, and Isaacman praising the administration's commitment to openness. The Hill's earlier reporting provided additional congressional context, noting that Representative Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who led UAP hearings since 2023, had urged Trump to release the files, and that Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) had requested 46 specific UAP videos from the Pentagon, including footage taken over Iran, the Persian Gulf, and the East China Sea.

The four sources overlap substantially on the core facts: the date of the release, the agencies involved, the specific contents described (Apollo mission images, FBI photos, eyewitness accounts), the hosting location, the rolling-release commitment, and the direct quotes from Hegseth and Isaacman. Two of those quotes appear nearly verbatim across partisan lines, which is a strong reliability signal. The score is not higher because the right-leaning sources include several agency statements and contextual details — Gabbard's and Patel's quotes, the PURSUE program name, the Apollo 17 transcript excerpt — that are absent from the left-leaning sources, leaving those as single-source claims that cannot be independently confirmed across partisan lines from the provided articles. Readers can treat the shared facts with high confidence.

Left-leaning:

— LEFT-1: CNN | https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/08/politics/ufo-files-pentagon-release-aliens

— LEFT-2: Axios | https://www.axios.com/2026/05/08/ufo-files-trump-department-of-defense

Right-leaning:

— RIGHT-1: Fox News | https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-admin-releases-highly-anticipatedfiles-documents-ufos-extraterrestrial-life

— RIGHT-2: The Hill | https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5837284-trump-teases-ufo-release/

The United States and Iran exchanged fire in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, May 7, 2026, as three U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers — the USS Truxtun, USS Rafael Peralta, and USS Mason — transited the waterway. U.S. Central Command said Iranian forces launched multiple missiles, drones, and small boats at the vessels. None of the U.S. ships were struck.

CENTCOM said American forces intercepted the attacks and responded with self-defense strikes on Iranian military facilities in and around the strait. The U.S. targeted three Iranian ports: Bandar Abbas, Qeshm, and Bandar Kargan. Iranian state media confirmed its forces had exchanged fire with "the enemy" on Qeshm Island.

President Donald Trump characterized the U.S. strikes as "just a love tap" in a call with ABC News, while also stating that the ceasefire "is in effect." He also said, "They trifled with us today. We blew them away," and warned Iran it would see "a lot of pain" if it did not sign a new U.S. proposal. Iran's Foreign Ministry called the U.S. military action a "clear violation" of the ceasefire.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters he expected to hear from Iran on Friday, May 8, saying, "I hope it's a serious offer." Rubio also stated that if Iran threatens Americans, "they're going to get blown up."

On Friday, May 8, the United Arab Emirates reported a new attack. The UAE's Ministry of Defense said its air defense systems engaged two ballistic missiles and three drones launched from Iran, resulting in three moderate injuries. The UAE said it holds Iran "fully responsible" for the attacks.

CENTCOM disclosed Friday that more than 20 U.S. warships carrying over 200 aircraft and 15,000 troops are enforcing a naval blockade, preventing more than 70 tankers from entering or leaving Iranian ports. The commercial ships blocked have the capacity to transport over 166 million barrels of Iranian oil worth an estimated $13 billion. The blockade has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global energy shipments.

Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi posted on social media Friday accusing the U.S. of launching a "reckless military adventure" and said, "Iranians never bow to pressure." He also disputed a Washington Post report citing a U.S. official who said Iran retains about 75% of its prewar missile inventories, claiming the correct figure is 120%.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country has been in contact with the U.S. and Iran "day and night" seeking to extend the ceasefire and reach a peace deal.

A Chinese-crewed oil tanker was attacked near the strait — the first such targeting of a vessel affiliated with China, which has continued to import Iranian oil. China's Foreign Ministry expressed concern. The tanker was registered in the Marshall Islands. No casualties were reported.

On Thursday, Lloyd's List Intelligence reported that Iran had created a government agency — the Persian Gulf Strait Authority — to vet and tax vessels seeking passage through the strait. Maritime law experts have said Iran's demands violate the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The U.S. has threatened to impose sanctions on companies that pay tolls to Iran. A prior U.N. Security Council resolution calling for reopening the strait was vetoed by Russia and China.

Direct talks between Israel and Lebanon were scheduled to resume May 14 and 15 in Washington, according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity.

The left argues that the ceasefire is dangerously fragile, with NPR emphasizing the humanitarian and global economic consequences — including a global spike in fuel prices, hundreds of commercial vessels trapped in the Persian Gulf, South Korea capping domestic fuel prices, and Brent crude exceeding $125 a barrel. Left-leaning sources also highlighted the ongoing fighting in southern Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah as a parallel sign of ceasefire erosion, and noted that Iran created the Persian Gulf Strait Authority as a formal mechanism of control that raises new concerns about international shipping.

The right argues that the U.S. military operation demonstrates American superiority over Iran's remaining forces and that diplomatic pressure is continuing in parallel with military action. Fox News reported that U.S. airstrikes hit several Very Large Crude Carriers attempting to run the blockade of Iranian ports, and quoted a Foundation for Defense of Democracies analyst who said Iran has only 13 days of traditional oil storage, with empty tankers buying it another 30 to 45 days of capacity. The Washington Examiner cited a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll showing 61% of Americans believe the war was a mistake and a nonpartisan Institute for the Study of War report cautioning that even meaningful military success does not guarantee strategic victory, as well as former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warning the conflict "is beginning to smell very much like a forever war."

All four sources reported the same core sequence of events — Iranian attacks on U.S. Navy destroyers in the Strait of Hormuz, American retaliatory strikes on Iranian targets, Trump's "love tap" characterization, Rubio's Friday statement, and the UAE's fresh missile and drone attacks. The most important facts about the military exchange, the ships involved, the ceasefire's contested status, and the diplomatic outlook are corroborated across both left and right sources, producing a high reliability score. The main divergences were in emphasis and in peripheral details such as specific blockade statistics and the analysis of Iran's remaining military capacity. Readers can place strong confidence in the shared facts reported above.

Left-leaning:

— LEFT-1: NPR | https://www.npr.org/2026/05/08/g-s1-121061/iran-war-updates

— LEFT-2: Axios | https://www.axios.com/2026/05/04/iran-attack-uae-missiles-ceasefire-hormuz

Right-leaning:

— RIGHT-1: Fox News | https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/iran-war-news-trump-strait-hormuz-blockade-ceasefire-may-8

— RIGHT-2: Washington Examiner | https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense/4554844/ceasefire-in-jeopardy-as-u-s-and-iran-trade-shots-in-the-strait-of-hormuz/

The cybercrime group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on Instructure, the company that operates the Canvas learning management system, on Thursday, May 7, 2026. The attack caused Canvas to go offline or become partially inaccessible for users at thousands of educational institutions during a period when many colleges were administering final exams.

ShinyHunters claimed to have accessed data from nearly 9,000 schools worldwide. The group posted a message — which appeared on some users' dashboards and on the login pages of affected schools — threatening to publish the stolen data by May 12, 2026, unless Instructure agreed to "negotiate a settlement." No specific dollar amount was listed in the demand. Instructure's Canvas portal displayed a notice stating the platform was "currently undergoing scheduled maintenance" during the disruption.

The stolen data allegedly includes students' names, email addresses, and messages exchanged between teachers and students. Instructure said it found no indication that passwords or financial information were compromised. Instructure's own status page stated the company was "currently investigating this issue" and had been working with outside experts. The company did not immediately respond to press requests for comment.

Multiple institutions confirmed they were affected. Rutgers University said it became aware of the incident as early as May 5, 2026, and described it as "a vendor-driven, nationwide event affecting multiple institutions." The University of Pennsylvania said it was "actively investigating" and "working with Instructure to restore access to Canvas as soon as possible." Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland shut down access to Canvas after detecting suspicious activity and instructed users not to attempt to log in. The University of Missouri-St. Louis told students just before 5 p.m. Thursday that the entire Canvas system was down. Missouri University of Science and Technology was also affected, though the extent of its data breach remained under investigation.

The University of Iowa's director of information technology described the event as "a national-level cyber-security incident." Virginia Tech acknowledged awareness of the effect on final exams and other end-of-semester activities. Harvard's student newspaper reported the system was also down there. Officials in Spokane, Washington said they were not "aware of any sensitive data contained in this breach."

ShinyHunters has previously been linked to other high-profile cyberattacks, including one targeting Live Nation's Ticketmaster subsidiary. The group has taken credit for multiple extortion cyberattacks since 2019.

The left argues that the Canvas attack is strikingly similar to a prior breach at PowerSchool — another education technology company — in which a Massachusetts college student was later charged, suggesting a pattern of attacks on education infrastructure. Left-leaning sources also reported a second, separate breach occurring after the original, in which ShinyHunters defaced the login pages of at least three schools by injecting an HTML file to display their message, and that a ShinyHunters member confirmed to TechCrunch this was a distinct second compromise. Luke Connolly, a threat analyst at cybersecurity firm Emisoft, described ShinyHunters as a loose affiliation of teenagers and young adults based in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, and noted that extortion negotiations may still be ongoing based on the May 12 deadline.

The right argues that the human impact on students was immediate and severe, with one parent — Alicia Acuna — telling Fox News Digital that her son, a student at a Florida university, was in the middle of an exam when the hackers' message took over his screen. Right-leaning sources also gave greater prominence to Instructure's explicit statement that it found no indication that passwords or financial information were compromised, framing this as a partial reassurance to affected families. Right-leaning local coverage focused on specific Missouri institutions affected, including the University of Missouri, Missouri S&T, and multiple St. Louis-area high schools.

All four sources — two left-leaning and two right-leaning — agreed on the core facts: ShinyHunters claimed responsibility, roughly 9,000 schools were affected, the May 12 deadline and settlement demand were real, Canvas was disrupted during finals week, and Instructure had not immediately responded to press inquiries. The high overlap on these central facts warrants a high confidence rating. Minor gaps exist around the second breach reported by TechCrunch, which was not confirmed by the right-leaning sources, and some specific institutional details appeared only in regional coverage. Readers can treat the shared facts section with strong confidence; the divergent details should be treated as unconfirmed pending further reporting.

Left-leaning:

— LEFT-1: NBC News | https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/cyberattack-hits-canvas-learning-management-system-rcna344160

— LEFT-2: TechCrunch | https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/07/hackers-deface-school-login-pages-after-claiming-another-instructure-hack/

Right-leaning:

— RIGHT-1: Fox News | https://www.foxnews.com/us/hackers-threaten-leak-data-275m-users-breaching-major-college-platform-used-nationwide

— RIGHT-2: KSDK (5 On Your Side, St. Louis) | https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/st-louis-university-of-missouri-ransomware-attack-canvas-schools-hackers/63-b14b97b3-352b-42bf-83b4-20708f8f93e8

The Senate Banking Committee voted 13-11 on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, to approve Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve. All Republican senators on the committee voted in favor; all Democratic senators voted against.

Warsh, nominated by President Donald Trump, would replace current Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Warsh is a former Federal Reserve official who has previously described the 2022 inflation spike to 9.1% as the central bank's biggest policy mistake in four decades. During his confirmation hearing, Warsh told senators he would act independently and not take direction from the president.

The committee vote advances Warsh's nomination to the full Senate, where a confirmation vote had been scheduled for the week following the committee action, the week of May 11th. Powell's term as chair is set to end May 15, 2026.

Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina and a member of the Senate Banking Committee, had previously said he would block Warsh's confirmation unless the Department of Justice ended its criminal investigation into Powell. That investigation, conducted by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, concerned spending related to Federal Reserve building renovations, which the Washington Examiner reported have risen to an expected $2.5 billion. Pirro announced she was closing the probe and directing the Federal Reserve's Inspector General to take up an inquiry into the cost overruns. Following that announcement, Tillis reversed his position and said he would vote to confirm Warsh. The committee's confirmation vote was scheduled shortly after the DOJ investigation was dropped.

Pirro stated in her announcement that she "will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so." A spokesperson for the Federal Reserve's Office of Inspector General confirmed the OIG had been conducting an evaluation of the Board's building renovation project since July of the prior year.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts and the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, voted against the nomination. If confirmed by the full Senate, Warsh would become the third Trump-backed member of the Federal Reserve's seven-member Board of Governors.

The left argues that Warsh's confirmation represents an attempt by President Trump to gain control over the Federal Reserve and manipulate monetary policy ahead of the November elections. Senator Warren is quoted warning that Trump's ultimate goal is to acquire a working majority on the Fed's board, noting that Trump is also seeking to remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook through the Supreme Court, which would give him four of seven board votes. NPR also emphasizes Warren's argument that the DOJ's closure of the Powell investigation was insufficient to protect the Fed's independence, given that Pirro explicitly reserved the right to restart it and that a separate probe into Governor Cook allegedly continues.

The right argues that Senator Tillis's reversal demonstrates that the core Republican objection to Warsh's nomination — the DOJ investigation into Powell — was a principled concern that has now been addressed. Fox Business and the Washington Examiner emphasize that the confirmation is expected to pass and frame Tillis's position change as a natural result of the DOJ closing the case. The Washington Examiner also reports that President Trump had publicly suggested, without evidence, that Powell may be personally profiting from the renovation project, a claim the outlet noted Trump made incorrectly regarding the total cost.

All four sources agree on the essential facts: the 13-11 party-line committee vote, the date, the participants, Tillis's prior opposition and subsequent reversal following the DOJ decision, and the scheduled full Senate vote. The core narrative is consistent across left and right outlets. The score falls short of the highest tier primarily because significant portions of each side's coverage consist of single-source claims, quoted political arguments, and framing choices that do not appear in sources on the opposite side. Readers can trust the shared facts above with reasonable confidence, while understanding that the political significance assigned to those facts differs substantially between sources.

Left-leaning:

— LEFT-1: PBS NewsHour / Associated Press | https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-senate-banking-committee-votes-on-kevin-warshs-nomination-for-federal-reserve-chair

— LEFT-2: NPR | https://www.npr.org/2026/04/29/nx-s1-5802926/sen-elizabeth-warren-kevin-warsh-federal-reserve-trump

Right-leaning:

— RIGHT-1: Fox Business | https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/gop-senator-drops-opposition-trump-fed-chair-nomination-after-doj-decision

— RIGHT-2: Washington Examiner | https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senate/4543080/senate-vote-confirm-warsh-fed-chair-scheduled-next-week/