US intelligence authorities have not found any evidence that unidentified flying objects (UFOs) seen by navy pilots in recent years were otherworldly alien spacecraft– but apparently did not rule it out, either.

Facebook is suspending Donald Trump’s account for two years, the company has announced in a highly anticipated decision that follows months of debate over the former president’s future on social media.

Footage of detained journalist Roman Protasevich that aired on Belarusian state television Thursday has raised renewed concerns that he is being coerced to take part in political propaganda under duress. Last month, a Ryanair jet with Protasevich on board was forced to land in Belarus so that authorities could arrest the 26-year-old dissident journalist. Amid international outrage, Protasevich appeared in a short video in which he appeared to confess to organizing “mass riots” — generating skepticism on the part of family members and human rights groups, who said that his demeanor and bruised face made clear that he had been coerced.

Days before the Senate voted down the creation of a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Capitol attack, the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, was adamant: he would oppose the bill, regardless of any amendments – and he expected his colleagues to follow suit. The commission that would have likely found Donald Trump and some Republicans responsible for the insurrection posed an existential threat to the GOP ahead of the midterms, he said, and would complicate efforts to regain the majority in Congress. McConnell’s sharp warning at a closed-door meeting had the desired effect on Friday , when Senate Republicans largely opted to stick with the Senate minority leader.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have been investigating whether several Ukrainian officials helped orchestrate a wide-ranging plan to meddle in the 2020 presidential campaign, including using Rudolph W. Giuliani to spread their misleading claims about President Biden and tilt the election in Donald J. Trump’s favor, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The death of a San Jose rail transit worker overnight makes Wednesday’s massacre at a rail yard in the California city the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the San Francisco Bay Area. More details emerged on Thursday about the shooting that claimed the lives of 10 people, including the gunman. Santa Clara county sheriff officials identified the shooter at the light rail facility for the Valley Transportation Authority as 57-year-old Samuel Cassidy, a longtime maintenance worker at the facility. Cassidy’s ex-wife said he had talked about killing people at work more than a decade ago. Cassidy shot nine of his co-workers.

Former President Donald Trump and his onetime personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to incite the deadly invasion of the U.S. Capitol. The lawsuit, brought by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and 10 other House Democrats, accuses the defendants of violating the federal Ku Klux Klan Act on Jan. 6 by fomenting a mob of Trump's supporters to stop Congress from confirming President Joe Biden's electoral victory. Separate motions to dismiss the suit on Thursday argued that Trump's and Giuliani's remarks at a pre-riot rally near the Capitol were protected under the First Amendment.

The Biden administration has reportedly shut down a discrete State Department operation, launched by former President Trump and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to prove the widely-disputed theory that COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, China. CNN reported Tuesday that the current administration ultimately halted the effort over concerns regarding the quality of the inquiry’s work, according to three sources familiar with the decision.

A gunman opened fire early Wednesday at the light rail yard where he worked in the California Bay Area, fatally shooting at least eight people in the latest spasm of mass gun violence to rock America. The suspected gunman—identified by multiple outlets as 57-year-old Samuel Cassidy — reportedly set his own home ablaze, then drove to the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) rail yard and began shooting during a union meeting around 6:30 a.m. PT. Authorities confirmed the shooter died in the attack, with multiple reports saying he killed himself.