And Finally...

A woman from China’s northwest region has made headlines after giving birth to twins from two separate uteruses, a rare occurrence that has captured the attention of the medical world. The woman, known only by her surname Li, delivered the twins in September at a hospital in Shaanxi province, according to a report by the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

The woman was diagnosed with uterus didelphys, a rare condition that affects only 0.3 per cent of women worldwide. This condition results in a woman having two fully formed uteruses, each with its own set of ovaries and oviducts. While it is already uncommon, Li’s case was even more remarkable because she managed to naturally conceive and give birth to twins—a boy and a girl—each from a different womb.

The twins were born when Li was eight and a half months pregnant, adding a unique chapter to the limited cases of such births across the globe.

A surgeon at a crisis-hit NHS trust used a Swiss Army penknife to open up the chest of a patient because he claimed he could not find a sterile scalpel.

University Hospitals Sussex has said the operation was an emergency, but the surgeon’s actions were “outside normal procedures and should not have been necessary”.

Prof Graeme Poston, an expert witness on clinical negligence and a former consultant surgeon, told the BBC: “It surprises me and appals me. Firstly, a penknife is not sterile. Secondly it is not an operating instrument. And thirdly all the kit [must have been] there."

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The surgeon in the penknife case, who the BBC is not naming, was operating on a patient at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton when he struggled to find a scalpel.

Instead he used a Swiss Army knife which he normally used to cut fruit for his lunch.

The patient survived but internal documents show the surgeon’s colleagues felt his behaviour was “questionable” and were “very surprised” he was unable to find a scalpel.

The BBC has also discovered the same surgeon carried out three supposedly low-risk operations in two months where all three patients died soon after.

Less than an hour later and a quarter of a mile away from Mesa Road, at the Rustic Canyon Recreational Park, local performer “California Joe, the Explorer Magician” was performing a pirate-themed magic act for a 4-year-old’s birthday party in front of about 60 guests.

About 30 children were sitting in a semicircle around a tree, said Alec Egan, the birthday girl’s father. When parents saw a man walking behind the tree, they thought he might be part of the magician’s act, or at least someone invited to the party.

“He kinda looked like a dad who maybe took mushrooms,” said Egan, who was standing about 15 yards from the tree holding an infant.

Egan said he heard Stennett yell a slur at the magician, whose real name is Richard Ribuffo.

Ribuffo told The Times he saw Stennett and thought the man was a parent trying to do something disruptive to his routine to be funny, “which happens more than you think.”

He said he heard Stennett yell, “Turn the voices off” — Ribuffo thinks he may have been referring to the sound from his microphone. He appeared to be under the influence of drugs or having a mental health crisis, Ribuffo said.

Then, Egan said, Stennett ran from behind the tree and sucker-punched the magician in the forehead, about three yards away from the children.

“It caught all of us by surprise,” Ribuffo said. He said he was able to keep distance between himself and his attacker, asking for parents to call 911, until help arrived a moment later — in the form of angry fathers.

Describing it as a “red, primal dad feeling,” Egan said he “football passed” the infant to his mother-in-law and took off running toward Stennett with two of his friends. Stennett fled, and the three chased him to Sunset Boulevard before Egan returned to the park. The two other men continued the pursuit to the North Village neighborhood, he said, keeping Stennett in view until police arrived to arrest him.

Ribuffo, who suffered bruises and swelling on his head from the attack, said he was given a clean bill of health and credited his calm reaction and control of the situation to his study of martial arts. “Put your kids in karate, people,” he said.

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Ribuffo said he was disappointed he was unable to finish his show for the children. He tried to give the parents a discount but was paid the full amount and even tipped, he said. He is not angry at the man who attacked him, he said, but hopes he gets the help that he needs.

“He’s having a much worse day than I am right now,” he said.

A 58-year-old woman allegedly attacked members of the public as they attempted to free a seagull that she had captured in south Belfast, a court heard on Tuesday.

Angela Wildman is also accused of using a carton of milk and a long-handled mop as weapons after she had put the bird into a sports bag.

Ms Wildman, of Annadale Drive in Belfast, denies three counts of common assault, possessing an offensive weapon in public, disorderly behaviour and resisting police in connection with the incident on 14 August 2024.

In court, defence solicitor Damien Trainor acknowledged the alleged incident appeared bizarre, but stressed that his client disputes having any mental health issues.

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A police officer claimed that, after members of the public tried to free the seagull from the bag, "they were assaulted by the defendant with a long-handled mop and a large carton of milk".

One of those at the scene was allegedly struck by both objects.

The court heard that Ms Wildman then became aggressive towards the arresting officers as they attempted to apply handcuffs.

Opposing her application for bail, the officer added: “I don’t know that this obsession is with wanting to capture wildlife."

An 81-year-old Montana man was sentenced Monday to six months in federal prison for illegally using tissue and testicles from large sheep hunted in Central Asia and the U.S. to create hybrid sheep for captive trophy hunting in Texas and Minnesota.

U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris said he struggled to come up with a sentence for Arthur “Jack” Schubarth of Vaughn, Montana. He said he weighed Schubarth’s age and lack of a criminal record with a sentence that would deter anyone else from trying to “change the genetic makeup of the creatures” on the earth.

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Schubarth’s attorney, Jason Holden, said cloning the giant Marco Polo sheep hunted in Kyrgyzstan in 2013 has ruined his client’s “life, reputation and family.”

“I think this has broken him,” Holden said.

Holden, in seeking a probationary sentence, argued that Schubarth was a hard-working man who has always cared for animals and did something that no one else could have done in cloning the giant sheep, which he named Montana Mountain King or MMK.

Literally a cash in hand job.

Officer Kenneth Franco drew on his "twelve hours of narcotics training" and discovered the facility was using more electricity than nearby stores, the lawsuit said.

"Officer Franco, therefore, concluded (the facility) was cultivating cannabis, disregarding the fact that it is a diagnostic facility utilizing an MRI machine, X-ray machine and other heavy medical equipment -- unlike the surrounding businesses selling flowers, chocolates and children's merchandise," the suit said.

Disregarding a sign warning that metal objects should be kept well away, one officer wandered near the machine "dangling a rifle in his right hand," the lawsuit said.

"Expectedly, the magnetic force of the MRI machine attracted the LAPD officer's loose rifle, securing it to the machine," the suit said.

Instead of seeking expert advice on how to retrieve the weapon, one officer decided to activate the emergency shutdown button.

"This action caused the MRI's magnet to rapidly lose superconductivity, leading to the evaporation of approximately 2,000 liters of helium gas and resulting in extensive damage to the MRI machine," the suit said.

The officer then retrieved his gun, but left a magazine full of bullets on the floor of the MRI office, the suit says.

In an unprecedented case report, doctors in Austria have documented the first known instance of psilocybin-induced penile amputation. After consuming a large quantity of magic mushrooms, a 37-year-old man suffering from depression and alcohol abuse severed his penis with an axe. Fortunately, doctors were able to reattach part of the amputated organ. The unique case is detailed in the Mega Journal of Surgery.

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The case report published by doctors at Hospital Feldkirch in Austria outlines the shocking details of a 37-year-old man who consumed a large dose of psilocybin and, during a severe psychotic episode, amputated his penis using an axe. The man, who had a history of depression and alcohol abuse, ingested four or five dried psilocybin mushrooms while staying alone in a secluded vacation home.

Not long after consuming the mushrooms, the man began to experience a terrifying hallucination or delusion, which led him to take an axe and sever his penis into multiple pieces. The details of the event are unclear to the patient, as he did not fully remember what had occurred.

The man reportedly tied a piece of cloth around his genital area to control the bleeding and placed the severed parts of his penis in a jar filled with snow. He then left the house, bleeding profusely, in search of help. A passerby found him in a confused state and called for emergency services. The man was transported to a nearby village and later to a hospital, arriving approximately five hours after the amputation.

Upon arrival, the patient was in a critical condition, having lost a significant amount of blood. He was immediately taken into surgery, where doctors worked to stabilize him and control the bleeding. His penis was contaminated with soil and snow, and parts of the organ were severely damaged. Surgeons were able to save the glans (the tip of the penis) and about two centimeters of the penile shaft, but the other sections were too damaged to be repaired.

Remarkably, the replantation was successful, despite the significant challenges posed by the extent of the injury and contamination. Despite initial difficulties, the patient’s condition improved after the surgery, although he continued to suffer from severe psychotic symptoms, including auditory hallucinations and religious delusions. He was placed under psychiatric care, and his treatment included antipsychotic medications to help control the hallucinations. His mental state gradually stabilized, and after a week, he was moved back to the urology department to continue his recovery.

In the weeks following the surgery, the patient experienced some complications. Superficial necrosis (death of skin tissue) developed on the glans of his penis, likely due to the loss of blood flow during the period of ischemia, but this healed over time. Remarkably, the patient was able to regain some erectile function within three months of the surgery, though the overall length of his penis was significantly reduced due to the damage. At his last follow-up visit, he was able to urinate normally while seated, though a minor complication called hypospadias developed, where the urethral opening is located further down the shaft than normal.

While this case is the first documented instance of psilocybin-induced self-amputation, it brings attention to a broader phenomenon of self-mutilation during psychotic episodes, particularly among individuals with underlying mental health conditions. Known as Klingsor syndrome, these rare but extreme events often involve self-inflicted injury to the genitals and can be associated with a range of psychiatric conditions, from schizophrenia to substance-induced psychosis.

He may not have logged the fastest time or even gone the full distance, but residents of a Newfoundland town agree the goat who unexpectedly joined the local weekend half marathon was the event's undisputed champion.

Partway through Sunday's T’Railway Trek half marathon in Conception Bay South, N.L., an eager 68-kilogram (150 pound) goat named Joshua broke free from his collar and joined the runners on the route.

He kept pace for nearly a quarter of the race before being rounded up by his owners and now even has a medal to show for his efforts.

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Joshua stuck close with the crowd of runners, Taylor said, and managed to avoid roads and stay on a trail. The runners "kept him going, he would follow whoever he was running after."

“At one point he was leading the race,” Taylor said with a laugh.

Once she managed to collect Joshua, Taylor brought him down to the finish line so he could celebrate with his new running friends.

That’s where Joshua was awarded his half marathon medal. Jeanine Scott, a race volunteer, was the one who placed it around Joshua’s neck.

“I figured you know what, you don’t always see a goat at the finish line of a half marathon, so Joshua got the medal and he was sporting it quite well,” Scott said.

This might have a shot at the best Halloween costume this year.

Online costume emporium Yandy has cashed in on the Ozempic weight-loss drug craze with a new Halloween costume inspired by fat-fighting injections.

“Everyone is doing it,” wrote the costume bazaar on its site, where the company has infamously hawked sultry, if strange, Halloween getups inspired by current events like a COVID-19 pandemic-themed hand sanitizer getup of 2020.

Emblazoned with the words “Snatched: Semaglutide Injection,” the costume allows revelers to cosplay as an anti-flab jab, such as Ozempic, which was one of the most talked-about drugs of 2024.

The satirical outfit, titled “Sooo Snatched Costume,” features a two-piece set vaguely fashioned to resemble an Ozempic syringe, with a skimpy, body-hugging blue and orange tanktop-style dress and pill-box hat.

A British clergyman died after a night of sex and drugs with a Belgian priest who has since been arrested on drug-related charges, Belgian authorities said on Saturday.

The 69-year-old, who has not been named, was spending the evening with his fellow cleric, 60, at a clergy house in Kalmthout north of Antwerp on Thursday when he became unwell, the prosecutor office said.

Shortly after midnight, the Belgian priest called the emergency services, who could not resuscitate his companion.

"It appears that the two men had used ecstasy and poppers together and had had sex. Two ecstasy pills were also found," the prosecutor's office said.

An investigation was ongoing and an autopsy could not immediately provide any conclusive information into the exact cause of the death, it added. The 60-year-old priest was questioned by the investigating judge and placed under arrest.

He is facing charges of drug trafficking resulting in death.

The AstraZeneca vaccine was, at the time, at the heart of a cross-Channel row over exports, and Johnson believed the EU was treating the UK “with malice”.

Johnson said that he “had commissioned some work on whether it might be technically feasible to launch an aquatic raid on a warehouse in Leiden, in the Netherlands, and to take that which was legally ours and which the UK desperately needed”.

The deputy chief of the defence staff, Lt Gen Doug Chalmers, told the prime minister the plan was “certainly feasible” and would involve using rigid inflatable boats to navigate Dutch canals.

“They would then rendezvous at the target; enter; secure the hostage goods, exfiltrate using an articulated lorry, and make their way to the Channel ports,” Johnson wrote.

However, Chalmers told Johnson it would be difficult to carry out the mission undetected, meaning the UK would “have to explain why we are effectively invading a longstanding Nato ally”.

Johnson concluded: “Of course, I knew he was right, and I secretly agreed with what they all thought, but did not want to say aloud: that the whole thing was nuts.”

A pet owner was left delighted when her cat brought home a winning scratchcard - bagging her £10. Megan Christian, 33, says one-year-old Monkey often arrives with unusual items.

She's previously dragged home a Wetherspoon menu, a coffee sachet and chicken from KFC. Earlier this month mixed breed Monkey turned up at the home in Penzance, Cornwall, with a winning scratchcard worth a tenner.

Megan, a carer, said: “When she brought home the scratchcard I couldn't believe it - I was like, 'really, a winning scratchcard?' It really intrigued me. I have no idea where she gets these things from. But every time she’s back I’m like, ‘Oh wow, what has she got now?’”

Monkey's treasure hunts began six months ago, with the first item being wall plugs, followed by a child's dummy. The cat also brought home a stuffed pickle recently, which Megan found amusing.

"It’s like something from a horror movie – only it’s not!

Imagine cruising along the River Bann, cleaning up litter, and then coming across a hand poking out of a black bin bag. Honestly, imagine it…

Well, a group of volunteers didn’t have to, as that’s exactly what they encountered in the river on Friday.

‘Oh My God’, were the words uttered by one of the Kingspan team who came across the bag.

Fortunately, what appeared to be something grisly, turned out to be….well, something grisly – a discarded blow-up doll.

Posting a short video on the River Bann Cleanup page, the team described the scenes as “shocking”.

“It’s not something we have come across before, but the team from Kingspan found this on the river today in Portadown while on a clean-up,” they wrote.

“Quite a shocking experience when found floating in the river.

“It seems that this partially clothed, blow-up doll, along with an umbrella and candles had been discarded recently. Maybe a date that didn’t work out, leaving one quite deflated in the process.

“As always, the river is not a place to dump your rubbish….or secrets.”

Well done to the team for the clean-up, as always, and good luck to you as you undergo PTSD treatment over the next few months."

Just Eat customers will soon be able to get vibrators and lingerie sent to their doorstep in minutes, as the company starts delivering products made by sex toy maker Lovehoney in the coming weeks.

The takeaway giant said it will deliver “sexual wellbeing products” and accessories from brands including Womanizer, We-Vibe and Fifty Shades of Grey.

Just Eat said the products will be delivered inside sealed, unbranded paper bags, with receipts attached on the inside to ensure “discretion”.

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Deliveroo partnered up with Ann Summers earlier this year to deliver its lingerie and adult products to people’s homes “in minutes”.

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Alongside delivering the products in plain packaging, Just Eat has also instructed riders not to leave the sex toy deliveries at people’s doorsteps, with orders returned to stores if customers are not contactable.

Spencer Matthews, the former Made In Chelsea star turned ultra athlete, has had his abs likened to the face of Jesus Christ.

After completing an impressive 30 marathons in 30 days, he posed with his wife, Vogue Williams, and fans were quick to notice a peculiar resemblance in his abdominal muscles.

The outline of his abs seemed to mimic the head of Jesus, with two of his muscles looking like eyes and his belly button appearing as a mouth, according to What's The Jam.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17915533

A statue of a popular duck who went missing from the grounds of the University of York has been unveiled live on air during the Radio 1 Breakfast Show.

Host Greg James, dressed in black and wearing a mourning veil, revealed the sculpture of the unusually tall duck, known as Long Boi, in Central Hall.

Long Boi, a 28in (70cm) cross between a mallard and an Indian runner, was regularly featured on James’ show after gaining fame among students and is believed to have died last year after vanishing from the campus.

Speaking on his breakfast show, broadcast live from the university on Thursday, James said: "It is one of my great sadnesses that I never met Long Boi, though I feel like I did."

The statue was unveiled as part of a ceremony held at 09:00 BST, with hundreds of people watching on.

After the unveiling, a "minute's quacking" was held by those in attendance.

Ahead of the ceremony, James said he was "extending the invite" to the ceremony to "all the other ducks on campus".

In an interview, parent Rachel Fjeld told WTKR that her son was sitting to have his school picture taken when the photographer allegedly asked him, "Can I steal your identity?" and "Can I eat your soul?"

"You can say all the things you want to say about good vs. evil, God vs. the devil, or demons or whatever, but at the end of the day what was said was not funny, and it wasn't OK. It was a child in an uncomfortable situation," Fjeld said. "I know people are trying to say, 'Oh she's just joking. It was just funny,' but it's not funny. That's not funny. And what that doesn't do is put any child at ease, it just scares them."

"She asked him, 'Can I steal your identity?' His response was just, 'No.' Her next question was, 'Can I eat your soul?' And, you know, when he was expressing it to us he was crying, he was very upset and he said ‘No, no,’" Fjeld said of the exchange between her son and the photographer.

"Her next question was, 'Well, then what can I eat?' He told me, he said, 'Mommy I didn't know what to say so I said the first thing that came to mind was, 'You can have noodles, you can eat noodles,' and her response was, 'Demons don't eat noodles.'"

A hearing into OceanGate’s Titan sub, which imploded during an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic last year, revealed that its navigation system allegedly relied on team members manually inputting the coordinate data into a spreadsheet in order to track the vessel.

The incident last July killed all five people on board, including OceanGate’s CEO and co-founder Stockton Rush.

“There were delays because there was this manual process of first writing down the lat-long coordinates and then typing them in,” Antonella Wilby, a former OceanGate contractor, told the hearing held by the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation.

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She described the system as “absolutely idiotic”, adding that she had raised concerns about the method with OceanGate but was dismissed for not being “solution-oriented”.

The ultra-short baseline (USBL) acoustic positioning system used sound pings to determine the submersible’s speed, depth and position, however rather than being automatically loaded into mapping software, the coordinate data was transcribed into a notebook before being typed into a spreadsheet on a computer.

A man died in a kitchen mishap after accidently stabbing himself while trying to separate frozen burgers with a knife, a coroner has concluded.

It took police more than a month after Barry Griffiths died to seal off his flat in Llandrindod Wells after a post-mortem revealed that he died from a stab wound, during which time some evidence had been lost.

An inquest at Pontypridd Coroner's Court on Monday (September 16) heard that the investigation later found that there was no evidence that anyone else was involved in the death of the 57-year-old, whose body was found on July 4, 2023 after concerns were raised that he hadn't been seen for more than a week.

On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it.

A rat.

The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on St. Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life.

That’s because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird populations by eating eggs, chicks or even adults and upending once-vibrant ecosystems.

Shortly after receiving the resident’s report in June, wildlife officials arrived at the apartment complex and crawled through nearby grasses, around the building and under the porch, looking for tracks, chew marks or droppings. They baited traps with peanut butter and set up trail cameras to capture any confirmation of the rat’s existence — but so far have found no evidence.

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Around the developed areas of St. Paul, officials have set out blocks of wax — “chew blocks” — designed to record any telltale incisor bites. Some of the blocks are made with ultraviolet material, which allow inspectors armed with black lights to search for glowing droppings.

They also have asked residents to be on the lookout for any rodents and are seeking permission to have the U.S. Department of Agriculture bring a dog to the island to sniff out any rats. Canines are otherwise banned from the Pribilofs to protect fur seals.

There have been no traces of any rats since the reported sighting this summer, but the hunt and heightened state of vigilance is likely to persist for months.

Divine likened the search to trying to find a needle in a haystack “and not knowing if a needle even exists.”

A new study shows that some members of the species Octopus cyanea maraud around the seafloor in hunting groups with fish, which sometimes include several fish species at once.

The research, published in the journal Nature on Monday, even suggests that the famously intelligent animals organized the hunting groups’ decisions, including what they should prey upon.

What’s more, the researchers witnessed the cephalopod species — often called the big blue or day octopus — punching companion fish, apparently to keep them on task and contributing to the collective effort.

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These hunting groups typically included several species of reef fish, such as grouper and goatfish. The octopuses did not appear to lead the groups, but they did punch at fish to enforce social order — most often at blacktip groupers.

“The ones that get more punched are the main exploiters of the group. These are the ambush predators, the ones that don’t move, don’t look for prey,” Sampaio said.

Octopuses would also punch fish to keep the group moving.

“If the group is very still and everyone is around the octopus, it starts punching, but if the group is moving along the habitat, this means that they’re looking for prey, so the octopus is happy. It doesn’t punch anyone,” Sampaio said.

Doctors are worried a combat sport called slap fighting, watched by millions online and gaining in popularity, is causing serious brain damage.

Competitors face off and take turns to deliver bare, full-force, open-handed strikes to the cheek.

To assess the possible harm, medics screened videos of tournaments and have now written a warning letter in a leading journal, JAMA Surgery, external, about their findings.

Unlike boxing, no head gear is allowed and defenders cannot duck to avoid blows. Even flinching is banned.

Opponents are scored based on the amount of damage they inflict and how well they cope with getting slapped themselves.

The sport is popular in the US, but other countries, including the UK, are in on the action.

Next month, Liverpool will hold what is being billed as the first-ever British Heavyweight Slap Fight Competition.

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It is not the first warning public about the sport though.

The alarm was raised in 2021 after Polish slap fighter Artur Walczak suffered a brain bleed during a match in which he was knocked out and lost consciousness.

Despite hospital treatment, he died weeks later of multiple organ failure linked to his head injury.

A group of monkeys reportedly stopped a man from allegedly raping a six-year-old in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat. Media reports claimed that the incident took place on Saturday after the accused lured the child to an abandoned house in the city.

The victim, a UKG student, narrated the incident to her family and informed them of how the monkeys saved her, reported The Times of India.

According to the victim's father, she was playing outside their house when the accused took her to an abandoned house. He then took off her clothes and attempted to sexually assault her, reported TOI. However, a group of monkeys aggressively attacked the man - forcing him to flee.

“The man could be seen in nearby CCTV footage, walking on a narrow lane with my daughter. He is yet to be identified. He also threatened my child that he would kill me. My daughter would have been dead by now if the monkeys had not intervened,” the girl's father said, as quoted by TOI.