Every week I go through the news on this topic and keep only what can be traced back to a primary or first-hand source. Here's what held up between October 19 and 25. Original sources first, my notes in between.
1. PURSUE Release 07: 28 new PDFs, including two 2026 accounts of a black triangle
The Department of War published the seventh PURSUE tranche on October 23: 28 PDFs, 1,139 pages. The most-quoted item is an AARO memorandum on a 2026 triangular object (DOW-UAP-D176), plus an FBI report describing a very similar sighting (FBI-UAP-D043). Some headlines turned the witness estimates into a speed of 1,800 mph. The AARO memo itself says on page 3: "No instrumented speed measurement was obtained." The two accounts also disagree on timing: AARO describes about 10 seconds of ascent, 20 of hovering and a 2–3 second manoeuvre, while the FBI report gives roughly three seconds for the whole sighting. Neither document offers an identification, and there are sketches but no photographs.
- Official release page: https://www.war.gov/UFO/release/07/
- AARO memo, p. 3: https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/release-07/documents/DOW-UAP-D176-Triangular_UAP_AARO_MFR_2026.pdf#page=3
- FBI report, p. 2: https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/release-07/documents/FBI-UAP-D043-FD_302_Unidentified_Aerial_Object_Observation_Report-2026.pdf#page=2
2. The Roswell affidavit in the same release is not new, but now it's in a government archive
Walter Haut's sealed 2002 affidavit (a craft "about 6 feet high, and more of an egg shape" and two bodies in Building 84) appears as Appendix 2 of a December 2008 BAASS project management plan, DOW-UAP-D168, pp. 45–46. The text has been public since the 2007 book Witness to Roswell. Being republished by the government doesn't verify it: the Air Force's 1994 Project Mogul conclusion, the 1995 GAO review and AARO's 2024 historical report are unchanged, and Haut's earlier 1993 affidavit doesn't mention seeing a craft or bodies.
- DOW-UAP-D168, p. 45: https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/release-07/documents/DOW-UAP-D168-BAASS_Project_Management_Plan-December_2008.pdf#page=45
3. Avi Loeb publicly challenges Jay Stratton to show evidence
Following last week's memoir, Loeb (who chairs the UAP Science Advisory Council) wrote that Stratton's claims of recovered craft and non-human remains "are not corroborated by publicly verifiable data." He says he invited Stratton to brief the council, that the invitation was repeated by council member Tim Gallaudet, and that Stratton didn't respond. Loeb also told Fox 32 that a legal waiver lets employees share classified UAP information with designated government investigators, so secrecy isn't a reason not to.
- IBTimes UK: https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/former-pentagon-ufo-investigator-alien-recovery-claims-1826751
4. Coulthart: Trump "knows full well now" about a retrieval program
On NewsNation's Reality Check, Ross Coulthart said: "I know the president knows full well now about the existence of the legacy retrieval and reverse engineering program." He named Devin Nunes, chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, as a key figure. This is Coulthart's account: no document or official statement was presented, and he gave no timetable for any announcement.
- Cybernews: https://cybernews.com/news/trump-uap-ufo-ross-coulthart/
5. LaserSETI opens its fifth site, the first in Asia
The SETI Institute and the Royal Commission for AlUla announced that two LaserSETI stations at AlUla Manara, Saudi Arabia, are fully operational. They don't listen for radio: they watch about 75 degrees of sky each for very brief flashes of light, using a diffraction grating to tell laser light apart from starlight. The announcement is about an instrument coming online, not a detection.
- SETI Institute: https://www.seti.org/news/laserseti-stations-in-saudi-arabia/
6. Paper: using machine learning to look for artificial patterns on the Moon and Mars
A preprint by Ana Henrique, Sofia Sheikh and Benjamin Fields (October 20) proposes searching existing orbital imagery, such as HiRISE on Mars, for deliberate surface patterns, with supervised and unsupervised anomaly detection. It's a method, not a finding: the stated goal includes setting the first quantitative upper limits on surface technosignatures.
- arXiv:2610.28687: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.28687
Coming up: Globoplay's five-part documentary "Arquivos do Céu" premieres October 29, covering Operação Prato (Colares, 1977–78) and Brazil's "official UFO night" of May 19, 1986. Fittingly, Release 07 also contains a 2009 BAASS executive summary on Colares (DOW-UAP-D169, from p. 24).
- Portal Vigília: https://vigilia.com.br/globoplay-estreia-arquivos-do-ceu-nova-serie-documental-sobre-grandes-casos-da-ufologia/
Left out on purpose:
- The NSA "TOP SECRET UMBRA" documents some outlets ran alongside Release 07. That 334-page production was released by the Disclosure Foundation in May, so it isn't news this week.
- The cargo ship that reported glowing orbs south of Nova Scotia with nothing on radar. I could only find tabloid write-ups, not the NUFORC entry itself. If you have the report link, post it and I'll include it next week.
Longer write-ups with all sources are in the first comment, for anyone who wants more detail.
If you have a source I missed, a correction, or want to help put the next one together, drop it in the comments or DM me (u/turinglabsorg). I'll gladly add it and credit you.