Interesting & funny news from around the world, Интересные и забавные новости со всего мира

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YouTuber breaks Rubik's cube record while skydiving

A 23-year-old German YouTuber jumped out of a plane to break the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to solve a rotating puzzle cube while in freefall.

Tom Kopke, aka Tooleko on YouTube, solved his Rubik's cube in 23.333 seconds before opening his parachute over Mossel Bay, South Africa, in February.

He broke the previous record of 28.25 seconds, which was set by Australian Sam Sieracki in 2023.

"I first solved the Rubik's cube when I was 18 and practiced a lot back then. I even made a video attempting some crazy Rubik's cube challenges, where I also said that one day I would solve it while skydiving," Kopke told Guinness World Records.

He said the goal was put off for a while because he didn't have a skydiving license yet.

"I always wanted to learn skydiving because I have a lot more crazy skydiving videos planned, and I thought it would be really cool to start this journey with a clear goal in mind, which was to break the record," he said.

Kopke said he worried about dropping the cube in mid-fall.

"I practiced a lot with the cube in the air so I got used to it. The most dangerous part is actually the handover, kind of like in track and field where a lot of mistakes happen during the baton exchange," he said.

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Massive sea lion 'Chonkers' drawing crowds in San Francisco

Crowds are flocking to San Francisco's Pier 39 — including some from across the country — to catch a glimpse of a rare visitor to the city: a massive sea lion.

The Steller sea lion, dubbed Chonkers, has been seen lounging among the much smaller California sea lions on the docks in recent weeks.

Steller sea lions can grow up to 11 feet long and weigh as much as 2,500 pounds, making them about twice the size of California sea lions.

"They're so big because they dive deep and they swim in much colder waters than even here in San Francisco Bay," Sheila Chandler, the Pier 39 harbor master, told KGO-TV. "So they need all that blubber for sure."

She said Chonkers appears to be getting along well with his much smaller cousins.

"He's so much bigger. He's literally twice the size of the biggest California sea lion that you can see out there," she said. "And he's very mellow. It seems he's not that vocal from what we can see in here. And he doesn't have to go up against any of the others to prove who's dominant. It's sort of an implied 'yes.'"

Visitors have been gathering at the pier every day in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Chonkers.

"I saw on the news about Chonkers in Atlanta, Georgia, and I came all the way to San Francisco to see him," one visitor told CBS San Francisco.

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ored Man Confesses to Starting Forest Fire for His Own Amusement Rangers patrolling the Kaeng Hat Oi Forest, in Thailand’s Phitsanulok province, last Saturday, apprehended a suspicious young man, following repeated reports of fires in the area. The suspect was carrying a lighter and couldn’t offer a valid reason for his presence there, so he was taken in for questioning. At the police station, the 22-year-old man, identified only as Matina, eventually admitted to setting fires in Kaeng Hat Oi Forest, but offered a very bizarre reason for it. “I just wanted to have fun. I had nothing to do, so I started a fire to get forest rangers to put it out. I just acted out of recklessness,” the man casually said. Rangers transferred the suspect to the Chat Trakan Police Station for legal proceedings, where he was charged with damaging natural resources. The young arsonist remains in custody, but authorities have yet to announce the penalties he faces. Thailand is already battling numerous forest fires started by natural causes or human recklessness, but this is probably the first case of someone starting a forest fire for fun. House fires are a different matter entirely, though, as we have reported several cases of people setting homes on fire for their own entertainment.

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Deputy responding to animal call finds entire escaped farm

An Indiana sheriff's deputy responding to call about an animal in a roadway arrived to find an entire escaped farm — including chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese and goats.

The Grant County Sheriff's Office said Deputy Korporal responded last week to a report of an animal in traffic and arrived to find the goats and various birds had escaped from a nearby farm.

Body camera footage shared on social media shows Korporal herding all of the animals back into a gated area.

"Thankfully, no animals were harmed, and everything ended the way we like to see it — safely and without incident," the post said. "All of the animals were rounded up and put back where they belonged."

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Barista left the instructions in the new cup

Cashed out my Starbucks points today and got a new tumbler. Went to rinse it out tonight and realized the barista didn't take the instructions out before pouring the drink

UPDATE: I didn't realize this was important but the barista offered to put my coffee in the new cup after I purchased it. I don't work at a Starbucks so I don't know what the policy is. I just assumed that was common since I was asked, and presumed the coffee cup would be rinsed out. I didn't ask her to clean it out for me, she simply just asked if I wanted my coffee order in my newly purchased cup and I said yes because that made sense. I didn't even know there were directions in it lol.

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7-foot alligator caught trying to cross Florida highway

Sheriff's deputies in Florida helped wrangle a 7-foot alligator found jaywalking across a busy highway in Hillsborough County.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said on social media that deputies responded alongside a licensed trapper when the gator was reported attempting to cross the North Dale Mabry Highway.

"When your 'suspect' is 7 feet long and comes with 80 very sharp teeth... you call in backup," the post said.

The sheriff's office said the alligator's attempt at jaywalking "was safely shut down."

"Catch this wild moment on a future episode of COPS," the post joked.

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‘She’s opening the bees!’ US beekeeper jailed for trying to save friend from eviction

A beekeeper has been jailed for six months after she set swarms of her insects on sheriff’s deputies attempting to carry out an eviction at a friend’s house.

Rebecca Woods insisted she only released her truckload of hives to allow the bees to enjoy the “lovely, flowering landscape” near the home of an elderly friend and cancer patient.

But a district court in Springfield, Massachusetts, heard that Woods, 59, admitted under questioning that she was trying to save him from eviction by freeing the bees in the presence of the deputies who had shown up to serve papers.

Several officers were stung on their heads and faces, and one required hospital treatment, the New York Times reported.

Additionally, about a thousand of Woods’s bees died during the encounter, many of them crushed when several hives toppled as she wrestled with deputies trying to arrest her, and others because female honeybees die after delivering their sting.

“This was unlike anything our team has ever experienced,” Nick Cocchi, the Hampden county sheriff, said of the incident, which was captured on video released by his office and posted to YouTube by MassLive.

In the footage, several deputies are heard shouting “hey!” at Woods, and one says: “She’s opening the bees!”

One deputy is seen frantically waving his arms, trying to shoo the insects away.

Woods, who put on her beekeeper’s suit during the incident, had driven up to the property with the hives stacked on a trailer pulled by her blue SUV, and proceeded to lift the lids of a number of them. During an ensuing tussle, she was thrown to the ground by two deputies and arrested as a large swarm of bees flew around the property’s front yard.

The court heard that Woods was told during the encounter that some deputies were allergic to bees, and that she replied: “Oh, you’re allergic? Good!”

Mary Saldarelli, Woods’s lawyer, told the Times that her client’s words were “a reaction to having your face put down in the pavement and being shoved there and kept there”.

Her reason for going to the property, Saldarelli added, was that Woods had experienced several evictions herself and wanted to protect people from predatory lenders who charged extortionate rates on non-mainstream mortgages.

Her friend was a man in his 80s who was undergoing cancer treatment, she said, and had gone to a local library to see about filing a motion to halt the eviction, while Woods drove the bees to his house.

“It really was just a sincere hope that he would not suffer the humiliation and devastation of going through an eviction, of losing your home,” Saldarelli said.

According to the Times, a jury acquitted Woods of seven felonies but convicted her guilty of four misdemeanor counts of assault and battery and two counts of reckless assault.

Saldarelli said her client would serve about another two weeks in jail because she had been held without bail since her arrest at a motel room in Tennessee and during a lengthy extradition process to Massachusetts.

Woods, she said, maintained her innocence and has filed an appeal. “So she is not acquiescing in any way, shape or form,” the lawyer said.

Her friend, meanwhile, lost his home in Longmeadow, about five miles south of Springfield. Woods “ultimately failed in her attempt to stop the eviction, which is a matter determined by the courts, not the sheriff’s office”, Cocchi said in a statement.

He added: “We don’t just show up to enforce an order. We try to help people through difficult situations. That commitment doesn’t change, even in the face of something like this.”

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Florida man allegedly shot woman in neck, jumped into backyard pool to escape cops

WILDWOOD, Fla. (TCN) — A 40-year-old man has been arrested and charged after allegedly shooting a woman in the neck following an argument.

Police received a report of a gunshot following an argument between a man and a woman, according to ClickOrlando. When they arrived at the property, a woman with a gunshot wound to the neck was found in the driveway, and she was taken to a hospital for treatment, according to an arrest report obtained by the outlet. Her name has not been released.

Officers encountered the suspect, Robert Anthony Morgan, allegedly attempting to escape by crawling under the garage door and jumping into a swimming pool. He was pulled out of the pool and detained.

WESH reports there was a trail of blood on the street leading to the driveway where the victim was found, and police located a rifle in the garage.

Villages News reports that during the shooting, four children and the victim’s mother were inside the home, and all were interviewed.

During the investigation, the victim’s mother said Morgan has a history of domestic abuse against the victim. She alleged to interviewers that she saw him dragging the victim back up the street to the property after shooting her, said that she was fine, and threatened to shoot the victim’s mother as well if she called police, per ClickOrlando.

Villages News reports Morgan has a criminal history dating back to 2009. Previous convictions include felony battery, retail grand theft, and possession of a firearm and ammunition. In addition, he was reportedly arrested in 2017 after allegedly using his young daughter as a human shield outside of a Dollar General store.

According to ClickOrlando, Morgan was charged with attempted felony murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and discharging a firearm in public or on residential property. He is being held on no bond.

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San Diego Zoo launches Elephant Valley live camera

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park is giving the entire Internet the chance to visit its new elephant habitat with a live camera on its website.

The zoo announced pachyderm patrons around the world can now meet the eight elephants in its herd thanks to a live camera feed from the newly-opened Denny Sanford Elephant Valley.

The camera went live Thursday morning for classrooms around the United States, and went live for the public at 2 p.m.

"Opened on March 5, 2026, Elephant Valley is the largest and most transformative project in San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance's 109-year history," the zoo said in a news release. "Elephant Valley serves as a bridge between the vital science happening in San Diego and the collaborative elephant conservation initiatives supported by San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance across the African savanna."

The habit is home to eight elephants: martriach Swazi, Ndlulamitsi (Ndlula), Umngani, Qinisa (Nisa), Phakamile (Kami), Khosi, Mkhaya and Umzula-Zuli (Zuli).

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Robot passenger causes flight delay in California

A Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland, Calif., to San Diego was delayed for more than an hour due to the presence of an unusual passenger — a robot.

Eily Ben-Abraham of Elite Event Robotics confirmed he and the 4-foot-tall, 70-pound robot, named Bebop, boarded the plane at Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport on Thursday to fly to San Diego.

Southwest Airlines spokesperson Lynn Lunsford confirmed Ben-Abraham had purchased a ticket for Bebop, but the initial delay was caused by the robot's presence in an aisle seat being a violation of the airline's policy for large carry-on items.

Bebop was moved to a window seat, but airline staff soon noted a second issue.

"Then they come and start asking, what kind of batteries does it have? What's going on with this? X, Y and Z. They want to see it," Ben-Abraham told KGO-TV.

Bebop's lithium battery was found to be larger than the maximum allowed by Southwest Airlines policy, so the plane was only able to depart once the battery was removed and confiscated.

Ben-Abraham and the inert robot were then able to continue their flight to San Diego. The plane departed one hour and two minutes behind schedule.

Elite Event Robotics, which rents out its robots for appearances at various events, said Bebop will continue to fly commercial, but without its batteries installed.

Bebop was able to make it to a scheduled appearance Sunday at Digestive Disease Week at McCormick Place in Chicago. Elite Event Robotics had batteries shipped overnight to Chicago so the robot would be able to perform.

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