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While most people will admit earthlings are almost certainly not alone in the vast expanses of the universe, UFOs — which is to say sightings of possible alien aircrafts within the boundaries of our planet — have long been the purview of conspiracy theorists. Indeed, every now and then Tucker Carlson takes a break from floating white supremacist propaganda and defending the failed MAGA insurrection to try and scare his viewers about them. But after decades of secrecy, there’s a big government report about UFOs coming out, and on Sunday night, 60 Minutes gave us a taste of what we’re in for — and it’s pretty freaky.

The segment finds correspondent Bill Whitaker chatting with a number of government employees, most notably two former Navy pilots who describe an unsettling run-in with a UFO — or, as per the official government lingo, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, aka UAPs for short. In 2004, Cmdr. Dave Fravor and Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich, who were in training at the time, were tasked with investigating what were deemed “multiple anomalous aerial vehicles,” about 100 miles southwest of San Diego.

What they found remains hard to describe. Fravor called it a “little white Tic-Tac-looking object,” which he said was about the size of his F/A-18F. Dietrich, in a separate plane, said it had “no predictable movement, no predictable trajectory.” Fravor claims that as soon as he tried to cut it off, it accelerated quickly, disappearing off his radar. When it reappeared on his system mere seconds later, it was 60 miles away.

Later, another crew happened upon what they believed was the same UAP, which they captured via infrared photography. The footage shows…something. What’s more, Fravor and Dietrich later learned a ship had been tracking this UAP for days.

Whitaker also spoke to Christopher Mellon, who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence for presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, who said he believes the UAP Fravor and Dietrich saw displayed demonstrated advanced technological capabilities. He also spoke about the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, which was formed in August of 2020 with the aim of exploring these types of phenomena.

“What [the Pentagon is] acknowledging is that there are indeed aircraft that are… violating restricted airspace. This has been happening and continues to happen,” he said, “and we don’t know where they’re from, and we don’t understand the technology.”

Next month a report from the force will be presented to Congress.

When the 60 Minutes segment aired, some pointed out what appears to be a sharp 180 the U.S. government has taken on UFOs and extraterrestrial phenomena, especially after decades of secrecy, as well as cultural fascination with things like Area 51.

Some believers in UFOs felt vindicated.

Others, though, dwelled on a little surprise at the segment’s end: the appearance of Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who’s often ridiculed for his beliefs, or his inability to stand up for them. That he’d take an interest in UFOs but not other serious matters did not escape some viewers.

Mind you, no one in the segment says they witnessed alien technology. Everything they said remains “unidentified.” Still, the report due to Congress next month should be fascinating…unless it’s fascinatingly uninteresting.

You can watch the full segment in the video above.

On Sunday, Scarlett Johansson played a big part in the 2021 MTV Movie Awards. She received the show’s Generation Award, and in the middle of acceptance speech, she was rudely interrupted by her husband, Colin Jost, who doused her in green slime, joking that he’d gotten the ceremony confused with the Kids’ Choice Awards. The actress then paid it forward, gifting those watching with a little something: a minute-long, action-packed clip from her long-promised, then long-delayed, MCU solo venture, Black Widow.

The clip presents but a slither from a larger, longer chase, which finds Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff and her sister-figure, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, pursued by armed, motorcycling baddies. It doesn’t appear to be going so hot, but then Yelena has an idea: Ditch Natasha’s plan — basically “to drive us away,” she says — and improvise. Cue Yelena taking the wheel, forcing a u-ey, and taking out one of their foes with a kicked-open side door.

Of course, in a better timeline we would have all seen this scene about a year and two weeks ago. It was originally scheduled for May 1, 2020, but we all know what happened there. And yet we’re still just shy of two months before it drops simultaneously on theaters and, for a hefty fee, on Disney+, on July 9. But perhaps this will tide you over.

You can watch the clip in the video above.

The Brooklyn Nets locked up the 2-seed in the East on Sunday, dominating the Cavaliers in a 123-109 that secured that second spot and a matchup with the winner of the first play-in game between Washington and Boston. That also locks the Milwaukee Bucks into the 3-seed and a highly anticipated rematch in a playoff series with the 6-seed Miami Heat.

It was a game that went according to the script, albeit with a brief moment of concern for Brooklyn when Kevin Durant got elbowed in the face by Collin Sexton (who was tossed for a Flagrant 2). Happily for the Nets, Durant didn’t need to leave the game, staying in to help push Brooklyn out to a 20-plus point advantage behind a 23-point, 13-assist, 8-rebound effort from the superstar forward — and the finish on the play of the year for the Nets.

While Durant had the biggest stat line of the night, it was Kyrie Irving whose efficiency fro the game helped push him over an historic threshold, becoming the ninth player to record a 50/40/90 season after going 7-of-11 from the field and a perfect 3-of-3 from deep, moving him just over 40 percent for the season. His final shooting splits are 50.6 percent from the field, 40.2 percent from three, and 92.2 percent from the free throw line.

It’s a tremendous achievement from Irving and is representative of the incredible growth he’s shown in terms of becoming an efficient scorer over the course of his career. Once thought of as a bit of a chucker, Irving has become an elite three-level scorer and when sharing the floor with fellow superstars is more than happy to play his role and find shots within the flow. He can still take over, as he’s shown plenty of times in the past, but the way all of the Nets stars work off of each other and play within each other is remarkable, with Irving’s historic shooting season offering the best example of how that works in their favor as a team and individually.

The Nets came into Sunday evening needing a win to lock up the 7-seed in the East, which would mean a matchup with the winner of the Celtics-Wizards play-in game rather than the Miami Heat in the first round. Given that they were playing host to the Cleveland Cavaliers, there was little expectation of anything less, but still they had to take care of business with a near full complement of stars, as Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were in the lineup — James Harden sat out as he works back from his hamstring injury.

The first half went according to plan for the Nets, as they jumped out to an 11-point lead at halftime, capped off by one of the highlights of the season with this wild sequence that saw Blake Griffin flick the ball backwards to Kyrie Irving, who fed Mike James for an off-the-backboard alley-oop to Kevin Durant.

Durant got off to a perfect 8-for-8 start to the game, dominating inside and out, but in the third quarter there was a bit of a scare when Collin Sexton caught him in the jaw with an elbow on a drive.

The referees initially called a foul on Durant, but reviewed the play and overturned the foul and ejected Sexton for a Flagrant 2, as he brought his elbow way up high and struck Durant in the face with what they deemed to be a non-basketball move. Sexton had a team-high 16 points when he was tossed and any slim hopes Bucks fans of seeing the Cavs upset the Nets seemingly went out the window with it.

Last week, Chloe X Halle celebrated the one-year anniversary of “Do It,”, the second and most popular single from their excellent sophomore album, Ungodly Hour. The track became the duo’s most successful song and helped push the Bailey sisters into the mainstream spotlight. Months after they released the single, the once inseparable duo was forced to take some extended time apart as Halle crossed the pond to film her role in Disney’s live-action rendition of The Little Mermaid. All the while, Chloe has been sharing excellent covers of songs. On Sunday she delivered another one.

Chloe returned with a dazzling cover of Rihanna’s “Love On The Brain,” a highlight from the singer’s 2016 album Anti. Chloe delivered her own rendition of the song with only slight alterations, making it her own while not straying too far away from the original. The new cover arrives after she took on Cardi B’s “Be Careful,” a performance that the rapper said left her “smiling from ear to ear.” Chloe also covered Silk Sonic’s “Leave The Door Open,” The Weeknd’s “Earned It,” Giveon’s “Heart Anniversary,” and more.

You can watch the “Love On The Brain” cover in the post above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Prior to Sunday, only three albums had spent more than one week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2021. The first was Taylor Swift’s Evermore as it claimed the top spot twice in January. Next was Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Album, which spent its first ten weeks dominating the charts after its debut in late January — the most in Billboard history. Nearly three months later, Justin Bieber’s Justice would land two nonconsecutive weeks atop the album charts. Now, Moneybagg Yo can add himself to this list, as his latest album, A Gangsta’s Pain, is back on top.

Just two weeks ago, the Memphis rapper’s project debuted at No. 1 thanks to a total of 110,000 album units in its first week. Two weeks later, it’s back on top thanks to 61,000 album units, a number comprised of 60,000 streaming equivalent album units. The album’s sales last week are the second-lowest number by a No. 1 album this year behind Taylor Swift’s Evermore, which posted 56,000 when it topped the chart in January. On top of that, this week’s Billboard 200 makes the first time in two months that no albums debuted in the top ten positions of the chart.

After A Gangsta’s Pain debuted at No. 1, Moneybagg shared a video for “Free Promo,” with Lil Durk and Polo G, which made for the fifth song from the album to receive the video treatment.

If the existence of Eva Longoria’s forthcoming movie about Flamin’ Hot Cheetos seemed too good to be true, that’s because it might be. A new piece by The Los Angeles Times spills what may be cold water on a story that was already considered an urban legend, in which a janitor was the one who hatched the new, popular, outside-the-box flavor for the popular cheese snack. But that’s all it is: an urban legend, at least according to parent company Frito-Lay.

The story involves one Richard Montañez, who was hired as a teenager by the snack company as a member of their cleaning staff. He wound up rising the ranks, becoming vice president of multicultural sales and community promotions for PepsiCo. That much is true. What may not be true is Montañez’s claim that he came up with the idea for the Flamin’ Hot flavor by adding spices reminiscent of Mexican seasoning, which they could sell to the Latinx community. That flavor first hit the market in 1992.

But, the L.A. Times claims, there’s no record of this claim. “None of our records show that Richard was involved in any capacity in the Flamin’ Hot test market,” a spokesperson for Frito-Lay told the publication.. “We have interviewed multiple personnel who were involved in the test market, and all of them indicate that Richard was not involved in any capacity in the test market.”

They do allege that Montañez started claiming he invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos when he became a motivational speaker. Frito-Lay, meanwhile, did nothing to disabuse his listeners of this claim. They did, however, allegedly tell Longoria that the tale she wants to tell may possibly be tall. The film is still allegedly a go, though Longoria’s involvement seems to be in doubt. Still, at least someone in charge is going by the old maxim, heard in the classic Western The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: When the truth becomes legend, print the legend — even after an exposé in a major newspaper.

(Via The Los Angeles Times)

Sam Houston State and South Dakota State met on Sunday for an unusual FCS Championship. After delaying their seasons in the fall due to COVID-19, they finally were able to compete in the spring. The two teams were the top two seeds in the FCS playoffs coming in and both had a chance at their first-ever national championship, making it an incredibly meaningful matchup for both programs.

Unfortunately, for the first half of the game, the weather kept the potential of the contest low. It also didn’t help that SDSU starting quarterback, Mark Gronkowski, had to leave the game early with an injury. For a large portion fo the game, Sam Houston State dominated due to a mix of weather and the Jackrabbits’ inability to get the ball moving on offense.

When the sun came out, though, so did the SDSU offense. Down 17-7, the Jackrabbits offense found new life in freshman running back Isaiah Davis. He put the team on his back in a five-play, 72-yard drive capped off by a 28-yard run. A few drives later, Davis again came up big with an 85-yard touchdown run to give the Jackrabbits the 21-17 advantage. Watch him barrel through the entire Sam Houston State defense in one run.

On the other side of the ball, SDSU’s defense had stepped up big in the second half, really getting after the Sam Houston State quarterback Eric Schmid. However, despite the physical attack, he managed to lead Sam Houston State down for a few shots at the endzone. With 16 seconds left he found his target in Ife Adeyi.

With only 10 seconds left, South Dakota State attempted a few hook and lateral plays, but to little success. The clock ran out and Sam Houston State won their first ever FCS Championship.

This is a huge moment for Sam Houston State and an absolutely brutal ending for South Dakota State. For years, both of these teams had been bullied by the powerhouse of FCS in North Dakota State, but the Bison were facing a down season after Trey Lance’s departure for the NFL among other top players. If there was ever a year to take home the title this was the one. Sam Houston came out on top and SDSU will be left wondering what could’ve been.

This was also a huge legacy victory for Sam Houston State coach K.C. Keeler. With this championship he now has the most playoff wins in FCS History, with 24, passing Jim Tressell.

Kash Doll fell victim to theft this past weekend. According to TMZ, the Detroit rapper was forced to call the police on Saturday after she discovered a thief broke into her car and made off with $500,000 worth of jewelry. The publication reports that the incident occurred between 11 p.m. and 5 p.m. while she was recording a music video in San Fernando Valley. The thief made off with a large sum of jewelry as well as a $50,000 Louis Vuitton bag. TMZ added that none of the windows on Kash Doll’s car were broken, which suggests that the items were taken through an unlocked door.

No arrests have been made so far but the hope is that Kash Doll can get her items recovered as soon as possible. The incident comes after a string of releases over the past couple of months from the rapper, including the flirtatious “Bossa Nova,” with Tee Grizzley, which later saw a video that put a wild twist on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. She also recently dropped the single “Thumbin” and joined fellow Detroiter Babyface Ray on “Allowance,” off his Unf*ckwitable EP.

As for what’s next, Kash Doll will join Snoop Dogg, La La Anthony, Steve Harris, and Russell Hornsby as actors on the upcoming series Black Mafia Family. She will play a character named Monique who’s described as a “paralegal for the biggest defense attorney in Detroit and a strong single mom determined to give her daughter a better life.”

The Golden State Warriors led the Memphis Grizzlies by 17 going into the fourth quarter and it looked for all the world like they were about to cruise to a win and lock up the all-important 8-seed in the West going into the play-in tournament. However, a 26-7 run from Memphis to open the quarter saw them take an improbable 95-93 lead midway through the fourth, and suddenly things got tense inside the Chase Center.

However, one of the two teams has Stephen Curry and the other does not, and that was all the difference. After Golden State went back in front 100-97, Curry hit three consecutive threes to run the lead up to 12 and put an end to the Grizzlies’ furious comeback.

After the last one, Steph did the Baron Davis shirt lift celebration that he made famous after his legendary dunk on Andrei Kirilenko, letting out a big scream to the Warriors faithful to put a bow on a sensational performance.

Curry finished the night with 46 points, going 9-for-22 from three-point range — which was three more made threes than Memphis had as a team. The Grizzlies fought valiantly, led by a big 29 and 16 night from Jonas Valanciunas, 18 points from Dillon Brooks (who fouled out when the game was tied at 91-91), and 16 points and nine assists from Ja Morant, but they just couldn’t create enough offense consistently to hang with Golden State. We know for sure that Memphis will host the Spurs in the 9-10 play-in game on ESPN on Wednesday, with the Warriors taking the 8-seed and awaiting word on where they will be headed.

The most likely scenario is a monster showdown with the Lakers, who will be their opponent as the 7-seed with a loss to New Orleans OR a Portland win over Denver. Should the Blazers lose and the Lakers win, Curry and company will head north to Portland for the play-in.