On this day in conspiracies

Just after midnight, John Reichart, his wife Linda, and two other couples tell Fort Worth police that a creature leapt from a tree onto their parked car near Greer Island at Lake Worth. Reichart shows officers a long scratch down the side of the vehicle as proof.

The idea jumps to Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. Screenshots circulate side by side: an expensive cabinet next to a news item about a missing girl who shares the product’s first name. The visual pairing gives the claim its viral engine, and it is picked up quickly by QAnon-linked accounts already primed to see elite child trafficking everywhere.

Euronews publishes an explainer on why the HAARP-triggers-earthquakes hoax resurfaces after nearly every major natural disaster, from Haiti in 2010 to Venezuela in 2026. Despite the debunks, the 'laser weapon' clips keep recirculating through the month.

The Department of War releases its fourth PURSUE batch: about 40 records, comprising 14 documents, 19 videos, four audio recordings, and three images. One video, from a 2020 encounter over the Atlantic Ocean, shows a maroon, blob-shaped object with dangling strands. Its report describes the object as roughly 12 to 15 feet tall and "traveling with the wind," and observers link it to the earlier jellyfish footage.