High Strangeness
Video has emerged showing the two disc-like clouds floating before a third suddenly becomes visible. Towards the end of the footage, a plane is seen heading towards the sky rings and pierces the first circle. Local media said a fourth ring appeared shortly afterwards.
The incident was filmed in the city of Irkutsk in the southern Russian region of Irkutsk Oblast by numerous local residents, and the images were later widely shared on social media.
The long red mesas of Utah's Uintah Basin greet us as my driver, an American real estate mogul and tech investor, pulls us into Fort Duchesne. Looking out my window, we are finally out of the mountains and in the valley. My mind is lost in thought about the legends here, the supposed curse that now haunts this land, and the men and women who have experienced that curse head on. I have monsters on my mind. Well, actually just one: the Skinwalker.
A quick right turn shakes me from my daze.
"We are almost there," my driver tells me. "Are you excited?"
He has a childlike grin on his face. We had travelled for nearly three hours from Salt Lake City. A snow storm had interrupted our journey through the mountains, blinding us and covering the highway in a sheet of ice.
Safe in the valley, the sky is blue, a sharp contrast from the grey storm skies at higher altitudes. The sun bounced off the mesa that made the area famous for paranormal junkies and UFO enthusiasts alike. Local lore has always told that strange lights hover over this area and that strange creatures roam the wilderness here. One tale tells of the Ute, an Indigenous tribe from this valley and their uneasy alliance with the Navajo. Siding with American military forces in the late 19th century, the Ute helped force the Navajo people out of the area. Local lore suggests that the Navajo unleashed a Skinwalker, a shapeshifter who can possess animals' skin.
Comment: See also,
- Trailer for paranormal documentary 'Hunt For The Skinwalker' released
- Incidents at Skinwalker Ranch, cloaking technology and Project Chameleo
- Path of the Skinwalker: A small ranch in northern Utah, US may be the strangest place on Earth?
- Examining aspects of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) from a scientific perspective: The Skinwalker Ranch
Government-run webcams monitor Popocatepetl and eagle-eyed netizens spotted what appeared to be a UFO in the skies above shortly after it began spewing ash following a massive volcanic explosion late Monday evening.
Naturally, online speculation about alien visitors was rife, with some making light of such an unlikely scenario and others simply wanting to believe that the truth is out there.
Comment: This appears to be a fairly common phenomenon - and not just at Popocatepetl:
- UFO seen grazing past Popocatepetl volcano in Mexico
- UFO spotted on Iceland volcano cam (Video)
- UFO: Volcano camera captures cloaking entity over Spain?
- Several UFOs seen flying over Yellowstone super-volcano
- Disc-shaped UFO photographed over Irazu volcano in Costa Rica
- Another UFO caught on camera diving into Popocatepetl volcano, Mexico
- UFO: Mexican TV network records bright 1 km long cylinder falling into volcano
- UFO filmed during eruption at Calbuco volcano, Chile
It closed down its UFO unit in 2009 after concluding that in more than 50 years they had never deceived any hard evidence of a potential extraterrestrial threat.
An Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "It had been assessed that it would be better to publish these records, rather than continue sending documents to the National Archives, and so they are looking to put them onto a dedicated gov.uk web page."
He added by saying we could expect the records to be published online "some time within the first quarter of 2020".
Comment: RT adds:
After decades of secrecy, the UK's Royal Air Force (RAF) will now publish its entire record of UFO sightings above British territory, in an unprecedented move which is sure to spark even more conspiracy theories.So, not so significant after all. MUFON and similar organizations probably do a better job than the RAF has.
The archives are comprised entirely of correspondence with members of the public, who have had to file UFO sighting reports with local police since the RAF closed its UFO desk.
The RAF spokesperson was careful not to confirm or deny the existence of aliens, however, merely stating that: "The MoD has no opinion on the existence or otherwise of extra terrestrial life and does not investigate UFO reports."
As recently as January 21, there were UFO sightings over London, in broad daylight no less, so the new archives are likely to be a hotspot for X-Files enthusiasts and internet sleuths alike.
"When I worked on the MoD's 'UFO desk' we didn't find definitive proof of extraterrestrial visitation, but there were so many bizarre and unexplained sightings that we didn't entirely rule it out," said Nick Pope, who used to investigate reports of UFO sightings for the MoD.

Flodigarry on the Isle of Skye, where a proposed salmon farm sparked a storm over the potential impact on the local sea sprites.
But a group has claimed that the protection of the magical aquatic creatures was a valid reason for opposing plans for a new fish farm on the Isle of Skye. And Highland Council planners have now blocked the 12 cage Organic Sea Harvest salmon farm.
A group calling themselves the Flodigarry Fairies warned the Asrai - which they say have been in the waters off the Isle of Skye, Scotland for over 1,000 years - could die.
They say the sprites are in "fear for their lives" claiming the cages could draw the fairies to the surface and they would melt, in opposing the farm off Skye's north coast.
Comment: Scotland is not the only country where local folklore is taken into account:
- Iceland's hidden elves delay road projects
- To appease angry elves, Iceland construction company unearths rock covered over after landslide clearance
The RAF closed down its 'UFO desk' in 2009 after 50 years of reports in which no serious threat was identified. Records from this RAF unit were traditionally sent to the National Archives, where they were kept as classified documents.
Now, however, the most recent reports will be placed in an online archive on a dedicated gov.uk page, according to a Freedom of Information request submitted by the PA news agency.
"It had been assessed that it would be better to publish these records, rather than continue sending documents to the National Archives, and so they are looking to put them onto a dedicated gov.uk web page," a spokesperson for the RAF said.

Main image: Lake Okanagan British Columbia inset: A statue of Ogopogo in Kelowna.
Tales of the curious creature in the British Columbia lake date all the way back to the 19th century but no concrete evidence has ever been discovered.
Outdoor enthusiast Blake Neudorf believes he and his father finally found some while fishing off a dock in the town of Kelowna.
Seen floating over Lahore on Tuesday, the "evil cloud" - as some have taken to calling it - left onlookers perplexed, many of whom took to social media to try to get to the bottom of what they had just witnessed.
Comment: Mysterious Smoke Rings or When is a Cloud not a Cloud?
See also:
- Strange black 'smoke ring' appears above Moscow region
- Driver snaps black smoke rings floating in the sky above the M9 motorway in Scotland
- Ominous' black ring moves through sky over West Bridgford, UK
- Mysterious black ring in the sky is captured by girl, 16, on her iPhone above Leamington Spa in UK
- Mysterious black ring hovers over Kazakh village

This infamous video of the USS Nimitz UFO encounter may not be the only one out there...
In response to a recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, a spokesperson from the Navy's Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) confirmed that the agency possesses several top-secret documents and at least one classified video pertaining to the 2004 UFO encounter, Vice reported.
According to the ONI spokesperson, these documents were either labeled "SECRET" or "TOP SECRET" by the agencies that provided them, and that sharing the information with the public "would cause exceptionally grave damage to the National Security of the United States."
Comment: See also:
- 'Didn't match any known aircraft': Navy crew speaks out on 2004 UFO encounter, saw flying 'elongated egg' with 'phosphorus glow'
- Docs show Navy pushed through 'UFO' patent warning China was working on similar tech
- Navy source reveals that UFO sightings were 'daily occurrence' across multiple squadrons in 2014-15
- Confidential military report analyzes recent Navy Tic Tac UFO encounters near California coast
- UFO video is the start of 'War of the Worlds' claims US Navy pilot
- Retired Navy pilot David Fravor describes 2004 encounter with UFO off San Diego coast
- Strange readings on US submarine sonar points to belief that Navy has secret USO program - UFO researcher
Police were seen early Saturday afternoon removing a body from a large lake that is adjacent to the Fort Lauderdale Westin, located at 400 Corporate Drive.
Authorities later confirmed that the deceased woman was Kelly Glover, who was in South Florida on business and staying at the Westin.
Glover's husband, Adam Bremer, told Local 10 News on Friday that her disappearance was very bizarre.
"Her friend went to bed early (Wednesday)," Bremer said. "My wife was still up. Her friend woke up around 4 a.m. (Thursday), and my wife was nowhere to be found, and the door was left open."
Comment: RT provides further footage of the event and reports that current speculation in Russia is that these were left by a Su-30 fighter jet: