It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, May 09, 2026
Could Iran use 'kamikaze dolphins' against the US in the Strait of Hormuz?
As US-Iran tensions escalate around the Strait of Hormuz, a journalist at a Pentagon briefing this week asked top US officials an out-of-the ordinary question: whether Tehran could deploy "kamikaze dolphins" against US warships. The idea isn't as far-fetched as it seems, as multiple countries have a history of using marine mammals for military purposes.
The question stems from a Wall Street Journal report published last week. Citing Iranian officials, it said Iran could use "previously unused weapons to attack US warships, from submarines to mine-carrying dolphins".
Though Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth denied that Iran had these in their possession, he refused to "confirm or deny" whether the US does, and Tehran was quick to troll Washington online, with its embassy in Hyderabad posting an AI-generated "dolphin bomber" on its official X account. A long history of military marine mammals
Military marine mammals - especially bottlenose dolphins - have been around for decades, with the Soviet Union in particular known for its dolphin training programme.
There have been reports of evidence that North Korea possesses a naval marine mammal programme as far back as 2015, as well as reports that the Russian Navy deployed trained dolphins in both 2018 to aid in the Syrian civil war, and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Rumours have floated for over two decades that Iran has "kamikaze dolphins" in its arsenal, after a Russian dolphin trainer claimed to have sold a group of Soviet "killer dolphins" to Tehran in 2000. But it's not known if they are still alive.
The US also has a "Marine Mammal Program", training dolphins and sea lions to detect and recover objects underwater, including mines.
Vedika Bahl goes through whether "kamikaze dolphins" are a myth or a military reality.
Israeli court rejects appeal by detained Gaza aid flotilla activists
An Israeli court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by two foreign nationals, one Spanish and one Brazilian, challenging their detention in Israel. The two men were seized in international waters last week while participating in a humanitarian aid flotilla seeking to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. The ruling means an earlier decision extending their detention remains in place.
An Israeli court rejected on Wednesday an appeal filed by two foreign activists contesting their detention by authorities, their lawyer told journalists.
Spanish national of Palestinian origin Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian Thiago Avila were among dozens of activists aboard a flotilla intercepted in international waters off the coast of Greece on Thursday.
The two were seized by Israeli forces and brought to Israel for questioning, while the others were taken to the Greek island of Crete and released.
On Tuesday, an Israeli court extended the detention of Abu Keshek and Avila until Sunday to allow police more time to interrogate them, according to their lawyers.
The pair's legal team then filed an appeal at the Beersheva district court against the detention.
But their appeal was rejected.
"Today, the district court of Beersheva denied our appeal and basically accepted all of the arguments that the state or the police have represented before the court and kept the previous decision," Hadeel Abu Salih said, referring to the earlier court's ruling.
The two activists had appeared in the district court, their feet shackled, an AFP journalist reported.
Abu Keshek looked exhausted and sat with his hands clasped in his lap, while Avila seemed calm, said the journalist.
Israeli rights group Adalah, which is representing the pair, has called their detention illegal.
"As we said from the first day, we're talking about an illegal arrest that took place in international waters where the activists were kidnapped by the Israeli navy without any authority," Abu Salih said after the hearing on Wednesday.
"It's so concerning that also the legal system is giving a free hand for the Israeli forces to continue with this illegal arrest in a way that would give it also legitimacy to do it again and again and kidnap international nationals." 'Stopped drinking'
Adalah has also accused the authorities of subjecting the men to continuous abuse in detention.
"Saif basically told us that he stopped drinking water in addition to the hunger strike he started on Thursday morning," Abu Salih said.
"They are also telling us that they keep interrogating them for most of the time, most of the day, and the questions keep going around the same context, which is the humanitarian mission context."
Adalah had earlier said that the two men were being held in "total isolation, subjected to 24/7 high-intensity lighting in their cells and kept blindfolded whenever they were moved, including during medical examinations".
Israeli authorities have rejected the allegations but have filed no charges against the men.
Adalah said authorities have accused the pair of several offences, including "assisting the enemy during wartime" and "membership in and providing services to a terrorist organisation".
Israel's foreign ministry says both men were affiliated with the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA), a group accused by Washington of "clandestinely acting on behalf of" Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Spain, Brazil and the United Nations have called for their swift release.
"It is not a crime to show solidarity and attempt to bring humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population in Gaza, who are in dire need of it," UN rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan said in a statement.
The flotilla had set sail from France, Spain and Italy with the aim of breaking Israel's blockade of Gaza and delivering humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
Israel controls all entry points into Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
New Trump counterterrorism strategy brands Europe an 'incubator' for terrorism
The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled a new counterterrorism strategy, accusing Europe of fostering terrorism through mass migration, while also expanding US domestic focus to include what it called “violent left-wing extremists” and “radically pro-transgender” groups.
US President Donald Trump's administration accused Europe of being an "incubator" for terrorism fueled by mass migration, in a new counterterrorism strategy unveiled on Wednesday.
The strategy also focuses on rooting out "violent left-wing extremists", including "radically pro-transgender" groups, as Trump's administration steps up its political attacks on opponents.
It further places drug cartels in the Americas at the centre of counterterrorism efforts.
But some of its strongest language is reserved for Europe, home to numerous US allies who will be alarmed to see their continent in the Trump administration's crosshairs once again.
"It is clear to all that well-organised hostile groups exploit open borders and related globalist ideals. The more these alien cultures grow, and the longer current European policies persist, the more terrorism is guaranteed," the strategy said.
"As the birthplace of Western culture and values, Europe must act now and halt its willful decline," said the strategy, led by counterterrorism coordinator Sebastian Gorka, who has been accused of links to far-right groups.
The fresh criticism of Europe comes just months after Trump's new national security strategy said the continent faced "civilizational erasure" due to immigration.
Trump has also recently lashed out at European NATO allies for failing to help with his war on Iran. Left-wing groups are a major preoccupation for the Republican president's administration, with the strategy targeting what it calls "violent Left-Wing Extremists, including Anarchists and Anti-Fascists".
It says US counterrorism efforts will "prioritise the rapid identification and neutralisation of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist".
It specifically cited the alleged killer of Trump ally and conservative influencer Charlie Kirk "by a radical who espoused extreme transgender ideologies."
Since his return to power last year, Trump has demonised any recognition of gender diversity and transgender people.
Hantavirus on the rise in Argentina, where MV Hondius cruise ship set sail
Experts say that a surge of hantavirus cases in Argentina, where the MV Hondius cruise ship set sail, is in part due to climate change. The World Health Organization ranks the South American country as having the highest incidence of the rodent-borne disease.
The health emergency aboard the ship that's moored across the ocean comes as Argentina sees a surge of hantavirus cases that many local public health researchers attribute to the recently accelerating effects of climate change. Argentina, where the cruise to Antarctica departed, is consistently ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having the highest incidence of the rare, rodent-borne disease in Latin America.
Higher temperatures expand the virus’ range because, in part, as it gets warmer and ecosystems change, rodents that carry the hantavirus can thrive in more places, experts say. People typically contract the virus from exposure to rodent droppings, urine or saliva. Argentina probes link to deadly hantavirus outbreak on Atlantic cruise
“Argentina has become more tropical because of climate change, and that has brought disruptions, like dengue and yellow fever, but also new tropical plants that produce seeds for mice to proliferate,” said Hugo Pizzi, a prominent Argentine infectious disease specialist. “There is no doubt that as time goes by, the hantavirus is spreading more and more.”
The Argentine Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 101 hantavirus infections since June 2025, roughly double the caseload recorded over the same period the previous year.
A hantavirus found in South America, called the Andes virus, can cause a severe and often fatal lung disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. The disease led to death in nearly a third of cases in the last year, Argentina’s Health Ministry said, up from an average mortality rate of 15 in the five years before that.
Hantavirus usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings and can spread person-to-person, though that is rare, according to the WHO, whose top epidemic expert said the risk to the public is low. The Andes strain only hantavirus known to spread from human to human.
Authorities said passengers on the MV Hondius ship tested positive for the Andes virus. Argentina on Wednesday said it was sending genetic material from the Andes virus and testing equipment to help Spain, Senegal, South Africa, the Netherlands and the UK detect it.
Argentine officials say they’re trying to pin down where infected passengers travelled in the country before boarding the Dutch-flagged cruise liner in Ushuaia, a city in southern Argentina known as the end of the world. Once they know the itineraries, they plan to trace contacts, isolate close contacts and actively monitor to prevent further spread. 'Unconscionable to keep them on cruise ship': WHO's Gostin on hantavirus outbreak
The UN health agency, or WHO, says that the first death on board, a 70-year-old Dutch man, happened on April 11. His 69-year-old wife, also Dutch, died on April 26. The third passenger, a German woman, died on May 2.
The virus can incubate for between one and eight weeks. That makes it hard to know whether the passengers contracted the virus before leaving Argentina for Antarctica on April 1; during a scheduled stop to a remote South Atlantic island; or aboard the ship.
The province of Tierra del Fuego, where the vessel docked for weeks before departing, has never seen a case of hantavirus. Before boarding, the Dutch couple went sightseeing in Ushuaia, and travelled elsewhere in Argentina and Chile, WHO said.
The Argentine government’s leading hypothesis is that the couple contracted the virus during a bird-watching outing in Ushuaia, according to two investigators who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media, with the investigation ongoing. Authorities are also tracing the Dutch tourists' footsteps through the forested hillsides of Patagonia in southern Argentina where some infections are clustered.
Because early symptoms resemble the fever and chills of a flu, “tourists might think they just have a cold and not take it seriously. That makes it particularly dangerous,” Raul Gonzalez Ittig, genetics professor at the National University of Cordoba and a researcher at state science body CONICET, said.
Argentina in recent years endured a historic drought. But it also had bouts of unexpectedly intense rainfall, part of a broader pattern of wild weather that scientists attribute to climate change.
Some of this variability has created conditions that have allowed hantavirus to flourish, experts say. Dry spells drive animals out of their usual habitats in search of food and water. Huge amounts of rain lead to vegetation growth, scattering seeds that attract leaf-munching rodents.
“When precipitation increases, food availability increases, rodent populations grow, and if there are infected rodents, the chance of transmission between rodents – and eventually to humans – also increases,” Ittig said.
Although hantavirus cases once were limited to the southern reaches of Patagonia, now 83 percent of cases are found in Argentina’s far north, according to the Health Ministry.
The ministry issued an alert in January about several fatal outbreaks, including in the most populous province of Buenos Aires.
With rural hospitals under-equipped, residents had no clue what hit them.
Daisy Morinigo and David Delgado said they initially thought their 14-year-old son had the flu when he came down with a fever and body aches. Doctors who first saw Rodrigo in the town of San Andres de Giles sent him home with ibuprofen and orders to rest.
But the feisty fourth grader's breathing worsened. On January 1, they rushed Rodrigo to intensive care. He died just two hours after a hantavirus test came back positive.
"I wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone in the world,” Delgado said.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
ANALYSIS
How India's pharmaceutical pipeline is fueling West Africa's opioid crisis
Sierra Leone, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria and several more countries in West Africa are in the midst of an overlooked opioid crisis that's crippling the population and devastating families. The drugs that are fueling this crisis aren't made in makeshift labs, but imported by the millions from India's pharmaceutical industry.
For more than a decade, a sizable chunk of West Africa – including Ghana, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Nigeria and Ivory coast – has been gripped by an opioid-abuse epidemic that has devastated families, killed thousands and strained an already overburdened healthcare system. Once primarily a transit zone for the trade of illicit drugs that linked Latin America to Europe, West Africa has become one of the primary consumers of these painkillers.
Broadly, about 30% of West Africa’s population has been found to use tramadol and codeine, making these prescription opioids among the most widely abused substances in the region. Another notoriously dangerous opioid mix is ‘Kush’ – a synthetic drug which commonly contains cannabinoids and synthetic opioids like nitazenes, which can at times be even more powerful than fentanyl. The state of drug abuse has been so devastating that in 2024 leaders of both Sierra Leone and Liberia, in an unprecedented decision, declared national emergencies over drug use. Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority also said last year that the abuse of the opioid tapentadol, known on the street as “Red”, was on the rise.
The root of addiction in these countries is no different than anywhere else: poverty, unemployment and weak governance have created a vulnerable youth who turn to substance abuse during trying times.
Illicit pills have been in circulation outside formal markets in several countries in the region since the surge in drug use began about a decade ago. But unlike the crisis in the US, where Purdue Pharma’s now infamous OxyContin pills were manufactured and distributed, several investigations have revealed that the crisis plaguing West Africa has its roots in India.
India has exported more than 1,400 consignments of tapentadol, worth almost USD $130 million, to several countries in the region, including Ghana, Sierra Leone, Benin, Senegal and Nigeria.
Porous borders and lax regulation
India, the world's largest producer of generic medicines and self-styled "pharmacy of the world", has been in the spotlight several times for flooding West Africa with illicit opioids.
A BBC investigation released in February last year took a deep look at one Indian company, Aveo Pharmaceuticals, based in Mumbai, which manufactured a drug they called "Tafrodol" – a particularly addictive and deadly combination of tapentadol, an opioid painkiller, and carisoprodol, a muscle relaxant. It isn’t legal anywhere in the world, including India or Ghana (the main point of shipment deliveries). Yet it was exported in vast quantities by Aveo Pharmaceuticals using regulatory loopholes.
In response to the investigation, Indian authorities seized Aveo’s stock and halted production. The disruption in the supply chain was expected to reduce the export of opioids by Indian pharmaceutical companies.
But new investigation published by investigative agency Bellingcat and independent Indian news platform Newslaundry revealed that, in fact, exports of other opioids like tapentadol have sharply increased.
02:26
Indian companies shipped more than 320 million tapentadol pills to West Africa. The value of tapentadol sent to the region has risen from about $27 million between 2020 to 2022 to almost $130 million from 2023 to 2025.
More than 80 percent of the total value of the potent drug was exported to Sierra Leone or Ghana. Both countries have sizable ports and sit in the middle of a wider trafficking route where these illicit substances – which are often hidden in cargo or courier parcels – can be transported to neighbouring regions.
The drugs were in high-strength 200mg doses or more – an amount that isn’t even approved in India. Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) categorically stated that they had not issued any permits for the import of tapentadol in any strength to any country in the neighbouring region.
The trade suggests serious gaps in export oversight, enforcement and cross-border drug controls.
Dinesh Thakur, public health activist and co-author of "Truth Pill: The Myth of Drug Regulation in India", says the problem lies in regulatory gaps and a lack of transparency between countries.
“There are two aspects to this issue. First, in the country of manufacture, how does a manufacturer make and export these opioids without any regulatory oversight? Current law in India is that if a particular formulation is not sold in the Indian market, the Indian regulator, CDSCO, has no role in its manufacture and export," he says. "For opioids especially, which fall under Schedule H (prescription only), approval from the Narcotics Bureau is necessary for export; however, how well this process functions is anyone's guess." Thakur adds that on the other side, the importing country will also have to execute their own rules to check for specific batches of drugs.
Nelson Aghogho Evaborhene, a Nigerian PhD fellow at Roskilde University, Denmark, says the spike in opioid use began about a decade ago and its circulation has been challenging to control.
“There are supposed to be border controls to look at drugs that are coming into the country. But most times we see is that this can be bypassed and products can be smuggled through different routes. In like West Africa, the borders are very porous – sometimes it’s just a bridge or a fence. They’re not really manned.”
Evaborhene says Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has tried hard to curb the problem, but it needs the support of customs and neighbouring countries.
He also says that many countries in the region lack robust systems to collect comprehensive data on drug use patterns: “Countries are trying to document but it’s not done at the scale it needs to be. A lot of people will not come to the hospitals and some primary, even secondary healthcare spaces have not transitioned to electronic systems. So it is difficult."
'The pharmaceutical giant of the world'
More than 60 Indian suppliers have made a tidy profit exporting tapentadol to West Africa since 2023. Out of those, three companies – Syncom Formulations, Puizer Pharmaceuticals and Twin Impex – have dominated the market.
According to a detailed investigation into India’s West African opioid economy, only two firms were granted approval to manufacture tapentadol for export but neither was in the 60 exporters released. This marks a serious lapse in India’s regulatory structure.
"Raw materials and API manufacture is China's forte. But to convert those into formulation (pills) requires skills in medicinal and process chemistry which are largely available in India," says Thakur, adding that as far as he is aware, India's pharmaceutical industry has not taken appropriate responsibility and action on the matter.
Evaborhene says that the reckless import puts vulnerable communities most at risk, especially in countries facing socioeconomic hardship: "Sierra Leone is an important case. It’s a relatively small country of less than 10 million people and everybody's cramped in Freetown, so whatever is going on there, it easily spread."
India ranks third globally by production volume (pills and units) for generics, supplying roughly 20% of global generics and over 60% of vaccines by volume. The country excels in affordable, high-volume generics, but lags behind in high-value branded drugs and research and development. These investigations into the opioid exports and previous scandals have brought the quality and legality of some of those medicines, particularly exports to Africa, into question.
Evaborhene says that both India and West African nations have to come together to curb the opioid use. "We need to adopt better transnational policies and joint strategies to manage the issues. That could mean better border control, since the trafficking has a particular route, better regulations and more accountability."
India 'funds organisations behind terror activities in Pakistan': Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
In an interview with FRANCE 24, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, head of the Pakistan People's Party, discussed the ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan. One year ago, after a five-day war between the two countries, US President Donald Trump announced a full ceasefire, but "there are underlying tensions that can, at any point, lead to yet another conflict", our guest warned.
The head of the Pakistan People's Party, which is part of the governing coalition, pointed out that the ceasefire "was meant to be the beginning of a process the Indian side had committed to at the time", but "unfortunately, that didn't happen". He claimed that India "continues to collectively punish the people of Pakistan by violating the Indus Water Treaty", which was suspended by India after the 2025 Kashmir attack. According to Bhutto Zardari, "both countries should engage in a dialogue in pursuit of peace through diplomacy".
Asked about India accusing Pakistan of hosting and supporting terrorist groups, Bhutto Zardari said Pakistan had been "consistently challenging this threat". He added: "Terrorism is not only an issue for Pakistan; this is an issue for India as well. Pakistan and India have no lines of communication, no means of coordinating. You can't counter terrorism without cross-border cooperation."
"Unfortunately, most of the terrorist attacks that do take place in Pakistan are linked to organisations within Afghanistan," Bhutto Zardari declared. Tensions between Islamabad and Kabul have been rising, which led to deadly air strikes on Kabul in March.
"As far as the Indian element is concerned, they continue to fund organisations that are behind terrorist activities within Pakistan," he claimed.
'No military solution to the Strait of Hormuz crisis'
With its strategic location at the crossroads of the Middle East, Pakistan has emerged as a central player in brokering the US-Iran talks. "There's no military solution to the Strait of Hormuz crisis," Bhutto Zardari said.
"Ultimately, we need to build on the momentum of this ceasefire for a more permanent solution, a more permanent peace," he added.
For Bhutto Zardari, the repercussions of a return to conflict would not affect only Pakistan – there would be "consequences for the entire international community".
Is Tucker Carlson eyeing a 2028 US presidential run?
Issued on: 08/05/2026 - FRANCE24
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson knows how to get and keep an audience. Amid his recent criticism of US President Donald Trump, the controversial podcast host has drawn in fans from unexpected parts of the political spectrum. This week on FRANCE 24's media show Scoop, we look at Carlson's history, influence and ambition. Our guest is The New Yorker's Jason Zengerle, author of "Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unravelling of the Conservative Mind."
CPJ demands update on US probe of journalist Abu Akleh’s killing in West Bank
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday demanded a "public progress update" from the US Department of Justice on the investigation into the Israeli military's killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was gunned down while reporting for Al Jazeera in the occupied West Bank in 2022.
A woman takes a photo of a mural dedicated to Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh after it was unveiled in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on August 30, 2023.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday called for US authorities to relaunch their investigation into the Israeli military's killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was gunned down while reporting for Al Jazeera in the occupied West Bank in 2022.
In a letter to the US Department of Justice -- which oversees the Federal Bureau of Investigation -- and FBI chief Kash Patel, the global press freedoms group demanded a "public progress update" on Abu Akleh's death.
"Although the FBI reportedly opened an investigation into her killing in November 2022, it has made no demonstrable progress," the letter noted, adding that CPJ was "not aware that any formal interviews have been conducted with witnesses despite the willingness of multiple witnesses to cooperate."
"This troubling lack of concrete progress -- four years after Abu Akleh's death -- represents a profound failure of the US government to respond promptly and impartially to the killing of one of its citizens by a foreign military."
Abu Akleh was 51 when she was fatally shot on May 11, 2022 by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers while covering an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank, CPJ said.
Then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett initially claimed gunfire from Palestinian fighters was the likely cause of her death.
The IDF later released a statement saying it was "not possible to unequivocally determine the source of the gunfire" that killed Abu Akleh, adding there was "a high possibility that Ms. Abu Akleh was accidentally hit by IDF gunfire." Truth in conflict
But CPJ notes that multiple independent investigations from leading news organizations "concluded that Abu Akleh was killed by IDF fire; some found evidence that she was deliberately targeted."
Abu Akleh was "a household name across the Middle East, widely respected for her courageous and in-depth reporting on Palestinian life," CPJ said, adding that she was wearing a vest marked "PRESS" and "clearly identified as press at the time of her killing."
In a separate statement Thursday, Abu Akleh's family also sought justice for violence at the veteran reporter's funeral -- Israeli police attacked her pallbearers, who nearly dropped her coffin -- saying "no one has been brought to justice, neither for her killing nor for the attack on her funeral."
"Her killing was not only a tragic loss for our family, but also a grave attack on press freedom and the fundamental right to report the truth," the family's statement said. "This ongoing impunity sends a dangerous message that journalists can be targeted without consequence."
Abu Akleh's death also made her a broader symbol of the Palestinian struggle: murals of her face adorn walls, her office's street in Ramallah was renamed in her honor and a museum was named for her.
In addition to demanding a public update on the investigation, press advocates called for the FBI to commit to a timeline to "complete a thorough criminal investigation and publicly release its findings," urging the agency to maintain an impartial and independent inquiry "free from political considerations."
CPJ said since Abu Akleh's killing, Israel has killed 258 more journalists and media workers across the Middle East, including 207 in Gaza alone.
Israel was responsible for two-thirds of journalist deaths in 2025, CPJ said.
The Israeli army rejects allegations of targeted violence, saying it does not intentionally target journalists or their families.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Germans confront past with Nazi party membership lists available online
As Europe commemorates the 81st anniversary of the Allied victory over the Nazis this May 8, many in Germany are discovering long-buried family secrets. Nazi party membership lists – saved from destruction in 1945 – are now available online. In just a few clicks, the Nazi past of millions of German families is within reach.
This online access to Nazi party membership lists comes at a crucial time. As the generation that lived under the Third Reich gradually disappears, it is now their grandchildren and great-grandchildren who are daring to ask the long-taboo question: what role did my grandfather or and grandmother play under the Nazis? Germany is often held up as a model for its remembrance culture. But an intimate reckoning with its Nazi past remains far from complete. In 2020, only 3 percent of Germans surveyed by Die Zeit said their ancestors had supported National Socialism – a figure that speaks volumes about the silence that still lingers within families.
FRANCE 24's Anne Mailliet, Caroline du Bled, Leyla Sobler, Raphaël Kominis and Nick Holdsworth report.
Bright lights and mysterious objects, those are what could be found in a new batch of files on UFOs that the Pentagon began releasing on Friday as President Donald Trump taps into the public's long-held curiosities about "unidentified anomalous phenomena” in the broader universe.
Pentagon releases first batch of ‘top secret’ UFO files
The Pentagon on Friday released decades of previously classified UFO sightings recorded by the FBI and NASA and other federal agencies. At least two of the more than 160 documents date back to the 1940s and report sightings of flying "discs” and “saucers”.
The Pentagon on Friday released a first batch of secret files documenting reported sightings of unidentified flying objects – some dating back to the 1940s – fanning speculation over whether extraterrestrial life exists.
Reports of flying saucers and discs, and a sighting of an orb that resembled the "Eye of Sauron" are among the incidents in the files, which are from the FBI, State Department and NASA in addition to the Pentagon.
Interest in UFOs has been renewed in recent years as the US government investigated numerous reports of seemingly supernatural aircraft, amid worries that adversaries could be testing highly advanced technologies.
"These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation – and it's time the American people see it for themselves," Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement.
More than 160 files were released on the website of the defence department, which officially refers to UFOs as "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena," or UAPs.
One file – from December 1947 – contains a series of reports on "flying discs."
"Continued and recent reports from qualified observers concerning this phenomenon still makes this matter one of concern to Headquarters, Air Material Command," a document in the file said.
An Air Force intelligence report – marked "top secret" – from November of the following year features information on reported sightings of "unidentified aircraft" and "flying saucers".
"For some time we have been concerned by the recurring reports on flying saucers," a document in that file said.
Another file summarises statements from seven federal government employees who separately reported "several unidentified anomalous phenomena" in the United States in 2023.
'Most compelling'
"The reporters' credibility, and the potentially anomalous nature of the events themselves – combine to make this report among the most compelling within AARO's current holdings," a description of the file said, referring to the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.
In one of the incidents, three teams of federal law enforcement special agents independently described "seeing orange 'orbs' in the sky emit/launch smaller red 'orbs.'"
In another, two federal special agents witnessed "a glowing orange orb... perched close to a rock pinnacle". That account included an artist rendering of a red-orange circle with a streak of yellow in its lower third.
The object was described as looking "similar to the Eye (of) Sauron from Lord of the Rings, except without the pupil."
President Donald Trump directed US federal agencies in February to begin identifying and releasing government files related to UFOs and aliens, saying the move was "based on the tremendous interest shown."
The Republican president also claimed the same day he issued the release order that one of his Democratic predecessors, Barack Obama, had revealed "classified" information in viral podcast remarks about the existence of extraterrestrial life.
"They're real, but I haven't seen them and they're not being kept in... Area 51," Obama told host Brian Tyler Cohen, referring to the top-secret US military facility in Nevada at the heart of many UFO conspiracy theories.
Trump told reporters at the time that Obama "gave classified information, he is not supposed to be doing that," while saying of his own beliefs: "I don't know if they are real or not."
No evidence has been produced of intelligent life beyond Earth.
In March 2024, the Pentagon released a report saying it had no proof that UAP were alien technology, with many suspicious sightings turning out to be merely weather balloons, spy planes, satellites and other normal activity.
