released

Influential former prime minister released on parole after spending about eight months behind bars.

Thailand’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been released from a prison in Bangkok after spending eight months of a one-year sentence there over a corruption-related charge.

Hundreds of people, including the 76-year-old billionaire’s family and political allies, greeted him on Monday, chanting, “We love Thakisn” as he left the Klong Prem Central Prison.

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Thaksin remade ⁠and dominated Thai politics for a quarter-century, but his influence has waned of late following his jailing and his once formidable Pheu Thai Party’s worst election performance on record ⁠earlier this year.

His hair closely cropped and in a simple white shirt, Thaksin walked out of prison at about 7:40am local time (00:40 GMT) and was immediately surrounded by family members, including his daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was sacked as prime minister by ‌a court order in August last year, weeks before his imprisonment.

He smiled brightly as he walked around to greet his supporters, but left without speaking to reporters.

Thaksin had served as prime minister from 2001 until a military coup toppled him in 2006, while he was abroad.

After 15 years in self-exile, he returned to Thailand in 2023 to face an eight-year sentence for conflicts of interest and ⁠abuse of power relating to his time in office. That sentence ⁠had been commuted to one year by the king.

But he was in prison for only a few hours following his homecoming before complaining of heart trouble and chest pains. He then spent six months in the VIP ⁠wing of a hospital until he was freed on parole.

In September last year, the Supreme Court ruled that Thaksin must serve ⁠that time in prison, concluding that he and his doctors ⁠had intentionally prolonged his hospital stay with minor surgeries that were unnecessary.

A Ministry of Justice panel agreed last month to grant him parole as part of a review of more than 900 eligible prisoners’ cases, citing his good behaviour in prison, his age and the low risk that he would repeat his offence.

According to the corrections department, Thaksin will be required to wear an electronic ankle monitor for the remainder of his sentence.

In a video streamed by the Thairath news outlet on Monday, Thaksin was seen rolling down the car window to greet a small group of supporters outside his home in western Bangkok and responding to reporters’ shouted questions that “I was in hibernation; I can’t remember anything now”.

Thaksin’s Pheu Thai Party, which slipped to third place in February’s elections, joined the governing coalition of conservative Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.

Thaksin’s nephew, Yodchanan Wongsawat, who became Pheu Thai’s standard-bearer ahead of the February election, was made minister of higher education in Anutin’s cabinet.

Thaksin’s daughter, Paetongtarn, became the country’s youngest prime minister in 2024, but was removed from office by Thailand’s Constitutional Court after a recording was released of a compromising phone call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen.

The TWZ Newsletter

Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.

The U.S. government has released 162 declassified videos, pictures, and documents regarding so-called unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), which are also still commonly referred to as unidentified flying objects (UFO). The records span in date from the 1940s to the 2020s, come from multiple agencies, and include materials related to claimed UAP sightings at home, abroad, and even on the surface of the moon. Upon initial cursory review, there doesn’t appear to be anything groundbreaking in this release, which should come as no surprise. That assessment could change as we have more time to examine the files, but as it sits now, that is where we are at.

American authorities say this is just the first batch of records to be shared as part of a new push for “total transparency” on this topic, which has long been a source of controversy and criticism. National security concerns have been increasingly raised about UAP sightings, many of which have been determined to be drones or balloons. The very real and worrisome prospect that adversary intelligence-gathering and other malign activities have become muddled with the matter of UAPs is something TWZ has been sounding the alarm on for years now.

“Today, the Department of War [DOW] announced the initial release of new, never-before-seen files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) as part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE),” the Pentagon said in a press release today. “This interagency effort includes The White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Department of Energy (DOE), the DOW’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and additional components of U.S. intelligence agencies.”

The records that have been released so far come from the U.S. military, the FBI, NASA, and the State Department. In addition to videos and pictures said to show unidentified objects, there are also intelligence reports, statements regarding claimed sightings, diplomatic cables, and other documents. Many of the documents are redacted in part, particularly to omit names and other privacy-protected information. Some of the records, including ones from the FBI and NASA, are said to have been released, at least in part, in the past. We will come back to all of this later on.

The social media posts below show just some of the videos currently contained in the online PURSUE archive.

DOW-UAP-PR28, Unresolved UAP Report, Greece, January 2024

The United States Central Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of one minute and five seconds of video footage captured via… pic.twitter.com/uSKmsWV9ac

— John Greenewald, Jr. (@theblackvault) May 8, 2026

DOW-UAP-PR32, Unresolved UAP Report, Syria, October 2024

The United States Central Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of six seconds of video footage from a full-motion video… pic.twitter.com/CLpUFUrJ04

— John Greenewald, Jr. (@theblackvault) May 8, 2026

PURSUE is the result of a directive from President Donald Trump earlier this year. In February, Trump announced in a post on his Truth Social website that he would be “directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and 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), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters.”

“President Trump directed the Department of War to identify and release government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena, and unidentified flying objects because he is the most transparent president in history,” the White House told TWZ directly today when reached for more information about the new release of records. “While past administrations have sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, the President is focused on providing maximum disclosure to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files. The American people asked, and President Trump delivered — enjoy!”

It is worth noting here that AARO had previously released multiple tranches of declassified UAP-related records, including imagery of unresolved sightings, but on a much more limited and inconsistent basis. The office has also released other assessments and reports over the years, including a review of historical claims, and has provided additional classified information to Congress.

AARO was established in 2022 to act as a central manager within the U.S. military for policies and procedures for tracking, reporting, and analyzing UAP incidents, as well as a repository for relevant intelligence assessments and other data. AARO has become a particular focal point for that criticism from members of Congress on both sides of the political aisle who have complained in the past about stonewalling on UAP-related matters.

“The Department of War is in lockstep with President Trump to bring unprecedented transparency regarding our government’s understanding of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena,” Secretary of War Pete Hegesth said in a statement today. “These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it’s time the American people see it for themselves. This release of declassified documents demonstrates the Trump Administration’s earnest commitment to unprecedented transparency.”

“The American people have long sought transparency about the government’s knowledge of unidentified anomalous phenomena,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also said. “Under President Trump’s leadership, 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 of our holdings to provide the American people with maximum transparency. Today’s release is the first in what will be an ongoing joint declassification and release effort.”

“The FBI is proud to stand alongside President Trump and our interagency partners in this landmark release of UAP records. For the first time in history, the American people have unfettered access to declassified government files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon – a level of transparency that no prior administration has delivered,” FBI Director Kash Patel added in his own statement. The FBI remains committed to supporting this rolling declassification effort with the same rigor and integrity we bring to every national security matter. As these files continue to be reviewed and released, the American people can be confident that their security remains our highest priority.”

“I applaud President Trump’s whole-of-government effort to bring greater transparency to the American people on unidentified anomalous phenomena. At NASA, our job is to bring the brightest minds and most advanced scientific instruments to bear, follow the data, and share what we learn,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said, as well. We will remain candid about what we know to be true, what we have yet to understand, and all that remains to be discovered. Exploration and the pursuit of knowledge are core to NASA’s mission as we endeavor to unlock the secrets of the universe.”

At the time of writing, U.S. authorities do not appear to have briefed the press or the public on the current contents of the PURSUE archive, or called attention to the release of any information in particular.

“No media engagement is planned at this time,” a War Department official told TWZ today. “We are not providing any comment or assessment on the files overall or on any specific file, so that the American people can make up their own minds regarding the files.”

Images taken from the surface of the moon during several Apollo missions are certainly standouts, but it is unclear what they show. In some cases, like the image below taken during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, there are already said to be indications that what is seen is simply a visual ‘artifact’ of some kind rather than an actual object.

There is also the image below, said to be of a “reported UAP that resembles a football-shaped body near Japan,” which very much looks like it could be a balloon of some kind. Chinese use of high-altitude balloons and other lighter-than-air craft for intelligence-gathering and other missions is well established, and there have been reported sightings of such platforms around Japan, as well as other countries in the Pacific, as TWZ has reported on in the past. China’s ‘spy balloons’ became a global cause celebre after one was shot down after passing across the United States in early 2023.

Questions are starting to emerge about what is really being seen in other ‘unresolved’ imagery now found in the PURSUE archive, as well.

What you see is not the shape of the object itself but a known flare that happens when a bright object is directly in frame of a FLIR camera, the video feed is inverted so it appears black pic.twitter.com/TXIB7PfzoX

— Leo Mozoloa (@LeoMozoloa) May 8, 2026

Overall, little additional context is provided for the records in the PURSUE archive, including about prior investigations into any claims and what conclusions, if any, may have been drawn. Investigations into some of the materials released today are said to still be ongoing. As noted, at least some of the records have been released in part in the past, as well.

In addition, some new criticism has already been leveled at U.S. authorities for proving that it is possible to redact and downgrade sensitive imagery related to UAP sightings for release, despite pushback in the past. Over the years, TWZ repeatedly highlighted the dichotomy between the rapidity with which the U.S. military can release post-strike and other incident videos and pictures from advanced sensors that fit a desired narrative compared to the time it takes for official disclosures regarding UAPs, if they ever come. As a prime example of this, American authorities still have yet to release any imagery from the shootdowns of three still-unidentified objects in the skies over the United States and Canada back in 2023. This is despite previous pledges to do so and subsequent releases from the Canadian government.

So what you are saying @DeptofWar, is that you can redact sensitive information on UAP imagery and release photos (and videos).

Gotcha. I’ll just forget you told me you couldn’t do that. Because we know Batch 01 doesn’t have the good stuff. pic.twitter.com/EPl4aLBPkB

— John Greenewald, Jr. (@theblackvault) May 8, 2026

The full scale and scope of new details to be found in the PURSUE archive remains to be seen, and, as noted, U.S. authorities have pledged more releases to come. At this point, there does not look to be anything really revelatory, and it seems to be more of the same, which is not necessarily a surprise. In other words, don’t get your hopes up.

TWZ will be taking a much closer look at the records in the coming days, and as any more information is released.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

May 9 (UPI) — Two activists being held in Israel after the country intercepted its Gaza-bound aid flotilla are scheduled to be released Saturday, an aid organization said.

Human rights organization Adalah said that Brazilian Thiago Ávila and Spanish-Swedish citizen Saif Abukeshek were set to be released on Saturday.

The organization said on Instagram it had been told “that the two Global Sumud Flotilla leaders will be transferred to immigration authorities later today, pending deportation back to their home countries.

“Adalah is closely monitoring to ensure their release. Adalah and FIDH stress that Ávila and Abukeshek were abducted by the Israeli navy from international waters near Greece, held in total isolation under punitive conditions, and subjected to ill-treatment and torture, despite their mission being entirely civilian.

“Both have been on hunger strike since their detention began. Abukeshek escalated to refusing water on the evening of May 5. Their detention was unlawful from the start,” Adalah said.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday, signed by 18 other representatives, demanding that they be released.

“We are outraged that instead of speaking out and taking action to ensure the safety and immediate release of the at least 14 U.S. citizens illegally abducted by the Israeli military, the Department of State went out of its way to issue a formal condemnation of their humanitarian efforts,” it said.

The activists arrived via the Global Sumud Flotilla, which originated in Spain on April 12 bound for Gaza. It was intercepted by the Israelis in the Mediterranean Sea.

The flotilla alleged Israeli forces held people at gunpoint, smashed engines and destroyed navigation equipment on its ships.

“Intentionally leaving hundreds of civilians stranded on powerless, broken vessels directly in the path of a massive approaching storm. Furthermore, communications with multiple vessels have been jammed, severing their ability to coordinate or signal for help,” the group said.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition announced that Ávila’s mother, Teresa Regina de Ávila e Silva, died while he was detained by Israel.

“[Avila’s and Abukeshek’s] continued imprisonment is not only arbitrary and illegal, but also an act of profound cruelty that has denied Thiago the most basic human right: to say farewell to his mother,” the Coalition said in a statement.

The next episode of The Testaments will dive into Agnes’ wedding plans, but when will it be available to stream on Disney Plus?

The Testaments fans can start the countdown for Episode 8.

With seven episodes available to stream on Disney+, The Handmaid’s Tale sequel already has viewers hooked. It follows June Osborne’s (played by Elisabeth Moss) teenage daughter Agnes (Chase Infiniti), as she climbs the ranks at Aunt Lydia’s (Ann Dowd) prep school for wives.

Agnes spends her childhood believing in Gilead’s oppressive system, but everything changes when new student Daisy (Lucy Halliday) joins the school. The pair’s bond changes their lives.

The last two episodes have explored Lydia’s dark past, as well as how Daisy was recruited by Mayday to spy on Gilead. The girls have also found their matches, and Agnes is set to start wedding planning in the next instalment. But when can viewers tune in?

When does The Testaments Episode 8 come out?

Episode 8 of The Testaments will be released on Wednesday, May 13. As always, it will be available to stream on Disney+ for UK and international viewers, while U.S. fans can watch the show on Hulu.

A synopsis for the episode teases: “As Agnes is swept up in wedding plans, Daisy hides a life-altering secret and Hulda faces backlash after speaking out.”

It’s unclear why Hulda (Isolde Ardies) is set to face backlash, but fans have shared unsettling theories.

While the Margaret Atwood adaptation had a relatively slow start, it has ramped up the action over the last few episodes.

Episode 6 featured a particularly chilling scene where Aunt Lydia and Vidala (Mabel Li) were forced to watch Gilead soldiers execute dozens of women.

It turns out producers cut an even more harrowing scene from that episode.

“There was a scene where the women shoot other women,” director Jet Wilkinson told CBR. “There was a whole scene when [the soldiers] bring out the women, they give them guns, and then they hold guns to the women’s heads.

“It was very confronting. We ended up cutting that scene, but there is someone at the end of the line, a woman shooting as well as Aunt Lydia at that time. [They’re] forced to do these brutal acts.”

The Testaments is streaming now on Disney+

May 4 (UPI) — A man accused of leaking classified military information to a Washington Post reporter will be released on home detention ahead of his trial next year, a judge ruled Monday.

U.S. District Judge Michael Maddox ordered the Justice Department to release Aurelio Perez Lugones to be held on home detention until his trial in February.

Lugones, whose location would be monitored and blocked from using internet-connected devices, is charged with leaking classified information to Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, Politico and The New York Times reported.

Natanson’s home was raided in January by the FBI, with the agency seizing two laptop computers, a cell phone and a Garmin Watch as it investigated Lugones, who was a systems administrator at the Pentagon with a top-secret security clearance.

He allegedly had been taking classified reports home and keeping them before passing some to Natanson, which motivated prosecutors to suggest he could send more information to her if she was not held in jail until the trial.

“The government has no way of knowing what he has retained and what he is able to provide to others,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia McLane said during the hearing.

“The person he was communicating with is still employed and has a willingness to accept classified and national defense information … The receptacle of additional national defense information is still available to the defendant,” she said.

The controversial search of a journalist’s home was triggered by stories Natanson wrote about various national security issues, including one that noted the more than 1,000 sources she had cultivated during the course of her reporting.

Magistrate Judge William Porter approved the search warrant, though he was not told about a federal law that restricts the government from raiding reporters and news organizations, and has said he would go through Natanson’s records for things related to the national security case.

Lugones attorney pushed back on the prosecutors’ assertion that he has “a historical Rolodex of classified information in his head,” and that he’d lost his job, top-secret clearance and access to classified information.

The prosecutors said, however, that the information Lugones retained and passed to Natanson “was not old information.”

“This was current information regarding military movement in the Caribbean, in the Gulf and specifically with Venezuela,” McLane said during Monday’s hearing.

“We have a man who has thrown everything away in an attempt to get back at the administration,” she said.

Calling the prosecution’s argument for holding Lugones in jail speculative, Maddox ordered his release and set a trial date of Feb. 22.

The family of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, pictured after his arrest for attacking a group of people demonstrating in support of the release of Israeli hostages in June 2025, was rearrested early Saturday morning after being released by ICE earlier this week. Photo via Boulder Police Department/UPI | License Photo

April 25 (UPI) — An Egyptian family of six that was released from custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement days ago was rearrested on Saturday and may be headed for a quick deportation, their lawyer said.

After an emergency appeal earlier in the day, U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery said the family’s immediate deportation should be paused, The Guardian and The Texas Tribune reported.

Hayam El Gamal and her five children had been held in the Dilley detention center outside San Antonio, Texas, which has been criticized for lack of medical care and food, for ten months.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Chestney on Thursday ruled that the family, which came to the United States in 2022 on a tourist visa and applied for asylum, should be freed while they wait for a decision on their case.

After the family was arrested again on Saturday morning, El Gamal’s attorney, Eric Lee, posted on X that the family had already been put on a flight to Michigan, where they are expected to be deported to Egypt.

Calling the agency’s actions “an absolutely brazen violation of separation of powers,” Lee said the flight “constitutionally” should not be permitted to take off, posting “stop this travesty of justice from taking place.”

The family was arrested in June after El Gamal’s husband, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, allegedly threw Molotov cocktails into a crowd rallying in support of Israeli hostages being held in Gaza.

A judge already had temporarily halted their deportation in June after their arrest.

RALEIGH, N.C. — A U.S. special forces soldier who took part in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro will be released on bond on charges accusing him of using classified information about the operation to win more than $400,000 in an online prediction market, a federal magistrate said Friday.

The magistrate in North Carolina said he would allow Gannon Ken Van Dyke to be released and told him to report to a New York federal courthouse by Tuesday to continue his case there.

Bearded with arm tattoos, Van Dyke said little during the nearly hourlong hearing, during which he was appointed a federal public defender who declined to comment afterward. The $250,000 unsecured bond did not require Van Dyke to put up any money.

Federal prosecutors say Van Dyke used his access to classified information about the operation to capture Maduro in January to win money on the prediction market site Polymarket.

The sites allow people to trade on almost anything — from the Super Bowl to U.S. elections and even the winners of the TV reality shows.

Van Dyke, who is stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, N.C., was charged Thursday with the unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction.

He could face up to 10 years on four of the criminal counts, and up to 20 years on a fifth, the government said Friday. A publicly listed phone number listed for Van Dyke isn’t in service.

Van Dyke, 38, was involved for about a month in the planning and execution of capturing Maduro, according to the New York federal prosecutor’s office. He signed nondisclosure agreements promising to not divulge “any classified or sensitive information” related to the operations, but prosecutors say he used what he knew to make a series of bets related to Maduro being out of power by Jan. 31.

“This involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post.

Polymarket, one of the largest prediction markets, said it found someone trading on classified government information, alerted the Justice Department and “cooperated with their investigation.”

Massive profits from well-timed bets aroused public attention days after the raid in Venezuela and brought bipartisan calls for stricter regulation of the markets.

The sudden rise of these markets has led to growing scrutiny by Congress and state governments. Some lawmakers alarmed by highly specific, well-timed trades on the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran and wagers on President Trump’s next moves have pushed for guardrails against insider trading.

The Trump administration has been supportive of the industry’s expansion. The president’s eldest son is an advisor for both Polymarket and its main competitor, Kalshi,, and is a Polymarket investor. Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, is launching its own prediction market called Truth Predict.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets, announced Thursday that it had filed a parallel complaint against Van Dyke.

That complaint alleges that Van Dyke moved $35,000 from his personal bank account into a cryptocurrency exchange account on Dec. 26 — a little over a week before U.S. forces flew into Caracas and seized Maduro.

Van Dyke made a series of bets on when Maduro might be removed from power, according to the complaint. He placed those bets between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2, with the vast majority occurring the night of Jan. 2 — just hours before the first missiles struck Caracas.

The bets resulted in “more than $404,000 of profits,” the complaint says.

“The defendant was entrusted with confidential information about U.S. operations and yet took action that endangered U.S. national security and put the lives of American service members in harm’s way,” said Michael Selig, the commission’s chairman.

Robertson writes for the Associated Press. AP reporters Allen G. Breed in Raleigh and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.