Author: USA Facts News

Just six weeks after Michelle Black was told she was cancer-free, the 50-year-old from Hertfordshire was told by doctors that they had discovered a small, inoperable tumour.

Describing it as ‘almost invisible’ as it’s ‘less than a millimetre in size’, the mum was given the emotional news just five days before Christmas.

Michelle was diagnosed with a rare case of bile duct cancer in March 2024, and was told she had beaten it in November before the tragic turn of events.

The Brit was told that the tumour was stage three and incurable, with the rare form of the disease only effecting three in a million people around the world.

Only three in 10 people survive bile duct cancer for more than a year.

Michelle was diagnosed with cancer after losing her appetite, feeling pain under her ribs, realising that her urine was dark and that her skin had turned yellow.

Surgery was carried out to take out 60 per cent of Michelle’s liver, but further tests after this discovered the ‘almost invisible’ tumour in the tissues near her portal vein, which is a major vessel that carries blood from the liver.

While doctors have told her that she has just two to three years left to live, the mother-of-two is set on fighting the disease and finding a cure, so she can be around for her son Mason, 16, daughter Shannon, 31, and two granddaughters.

Speaking to PA Real Life, she admitted: “It’s impossible to believe that I’ve gone from being cancer-free at Christmas to a stage three incurable cancer six weeks later for something so small you can’t even see it,

“The cancer is so small, it is almost invisible – we’re still baffled as to why it can’t be cured.”

Her family are also remaining strong, as her son told her she’s ‘going to get through it’.

Michelle revealed that she has been healthy throughout her life, steering clear of smoking and alcohol.

But after experiencing repeated symptoms and illnesses, she noticed something was wrong in December 2023, and has since experienced numerous hospital admissions, several diagnoses, repeat sepsis and surgery.

Someone who has stuck by her side through all of this is her best friend, Kirstine Cox, 53.

She recalled the time Michelle didn’t feel like eating, and clocked that something was off.

In weeks, she would then start losing weight, up to 0.9kg every 10 days.

A rheumatologist found that she had a high level of Bilirubin, which is caused by the breakdown of red blood cells, which resulted in her being sent for further tests.

The 53-year-old added: “She didn’t think anything serious was going to happen but then she called me from the hospital in floods of tears.

“She said ‘I can’t believe it, they say it could be cancer but they can’t be sure’.”

Kirstine recalls the pair being ‘in tears’ after it was confirmed that Michelle had bile duct cancer, also known as cholangiocarcinoma.

“If you get any cancer, you wouldn’t want this one – it’s one of the most aggressive you can get,” she explained.

As well as part of Michelle’s liver being removed, her gallbladder was also taken out, while her bowel was reattached to try and remove the cancer.

Kirstine said that she looked ‘like a zombie’ because of the medicine.

While the 50-year-old would be readmitted for MRSA and sepsis over the next few months, she was led to believe she was cancer-free by the back-end of 2024, celebrating her 50th birthday in November after further tests showed there was no spread.

However, doctors at Royal Free Hospital confirmed she had a stage three tumour the following month after the mum ‘wasn’t feeling right’.

So far this year, she has undergone one round of chemotherapy and is in and out of hospital, as Michelle described the experience as being ‘like a rollercoaster’.

She stated: “I’d like to thank Kirstine as well as my mum, my sister Claire, my daughter Shannon, my neighbour Emma, my son Mason and everybody who has helped me so far as I try to beat this.”

Kirstine, who started a GoFundMe to raise money for alternative treatments, added: “Michelle is the most wonderful friend you could ever imagine.

“She just wants people to love her and she would do anything for anyone – she radiates love and she radiates kindness.”

The images, taken from a camp named Rancho Izaguirre, show discarded personal items such as shoes, clothing and letters to loved ones littered about the two-acre path of land, which lies around 37 miles away from the city of Guadalajara.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the camp was discovered by volunteers from Warrior Searchers of Jalisco — one of the many groups who work to uncover what happened to the hundreds of thousands of ‘disappeared’ Mexicans.

“It was a tremendous shock,” recalled Raúl Servín García, of Warrior Searchers of Jalisco, said of the discovery.

“The first thought that occurs to you is to hope that no relative — a son, a husband — had ever been in this place, had ever been tortured or murdered there.”

What do we know about ‘extermination camp’ Rancho Izaguirre?

Located in Jalisco state, the camp features numerous buildings, a ‘training’ course complete with barbed wire and tires lining the ground as well as a shrine to folk saint Santa Muerte (Holy Death), a symbol often linked to criminality in the country.

However, the most horrifying discoveries included what appeared to be an underground crematoria, what appeared to be burnt human bones and bullet casings — findings which prompted local media outlets to refer to the site as a ‘extermination camp’ or ‘Mexican Auschwitz’.

Notebooks with handwritten entries of what appeared to be a ‘coded’ ledger of ex-captives was also recovered, alongside a farewell letter which read: “My Love if Some day I don’t Return I only ask you to remember how much I Love you.”

Los Angeles Times added that the National Guard had previously raided the site last September, where two living captives and a third body wrapped in plastic were recovered.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has since confirmed that federal authorities would take on the investigation of the ranch. “The first thing we have to do in that case is investigate, because the images are obviously painful, we really need to know what happened there before anything else,” she said (via Bloomberg).

“That’s why it’s important that there is a coordinated investigation, and obviously determining who is responsible.”

Reports in local media have since suggested that local group Jalisco New Generation Cartel could be responsible, however, this has not been confirmed by authorities.

According to statistics from Mexico’s National Search Commission (CNB), the state of Jalisco has the highest number of disappeared persons, with over 5,000 people reported missing (via Mexico News Daily).

Just months on from the heartbreaking final episode of The Grand Tour, which seemed to signal the end of over 20 years on the screen together, it looks like Clarkson, Hammond and May are making a return.

Call it anticlimactic, but the fact of the matter is that fans of their shows will be over the moon about the news.

The show will air on Prime Video and it’s titled The Not Very Grand Tour, which was confirmed by Amazon today, with more information on the official website for the British Board of Film Classification (bbfc).

It is stated on the BBFC website that the show was produced back in 2024, and that the title will be a ‘motoring comedy documentary series’ – sound familiar?

In the first episode of the first season, titled ‘The Glory and The Power’, the synopsis reads: “In this episode, the team celebrate the combustion engine, with a look back at footage from past adventures and test drives.”

Sounds like a nostalgia trip for everyone to enjoy.

For any doubters out there, it is also stated that the episode was directed by Phil Churchward, who also worked on Top Gear and The Grand Tour.

It is also stated that the cast consists of the trio, with no other names mentioned.

Amazon confirmed in a press release that we can expect The Not Very Grand Tour to be released on Friday 18 April.

The Grand Tour came to a close in September last year, with the three presenters going in separate directions with their careers, such as Clarkson with his farm and pub, Hammond with his own car show and May with his travelling adventures.

But never in a million years did we think that they’d be back together so soon.

In fact, the three made comments hinting towards the popular Prime show continuing after One For The Road.

Speaking to LADbible, May said about the show continuing without them: “Well, there are rumours that it is, and I hope it does.”

And Hammond agreed, saying: “Absolutely, it’d be nice to watch it rather than make it.”

May joked: “I’d like to see these two still in it.”

Hammond said it would be ‘lovely’ if the show carried on, but Clarkson was more particular about some boxes that needed to be ticked if The Grand Tour was to continue.

The 64-year-old journalist explained: “I think they should get three unknowns,

“The biggest mistake they could make, by a mile, is getting people whose names we already know – ‘Oh, they like cars’. That’s not good enough,” he insisted.

Clarkson said they would need to know every detail of the car, down to knowing the model from ‘an eighth of a car’s door mirror’.

“You’ve got to know your stuff. You’ve got to be able to drive, and you’ve got [to be] motoring journalists as well. So, but they’ve got to be unknowns,” he concluded.

Whether the show continues or not, at least we’ve got yet another new episode of the iconic trio to look forward to.

Officials made it clear Sam Jones was no longer welcome in the country in wake of the incident, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese branded an ‘outrage’.

The Montana-based content creator, who touts herself as a ‘wildlife biologist and environmental scientist’, sparked fury on social media after sharing the shocking video.

It showed Jones laughing as she picks up a baby wombat from the side of the road and runs towards her vehicle, while the joey’s mother is seen frantically following her.

As she held the visibly-agitated animal up to the camera, Jones said while grinning: “I caught a baby wombat!”

The wombat appeared to make hissing sounds while attempting to wriggle out of Jones’ clutches – which campaigners say are telltale signs that the animal was in distress.

The influencer seemed to be aware of the upset she was causing to both the mother and child as Jones then remarked: “Okay, mom is right there…and she is p**sed. Alright, let’s let him go.”

The footage then shows her placing the joey back on the side of the road, while attempting to facilitate a reunion with it’s parent, as she yelled out: “Come here mama, come here!”

Jones, who also goes by the name Samantha Strable, was met by sheer disgust online after the clip went viral and Aussies called for her to be deported.

An online petition calling for her to be shown the door reportedly gained more than 30,000 signatures.

The online star, who boasts nearly 100,000 followers, later deleted the Instagram post and has since made her account private.

Anger erupted among politicians in Australia, who branded the stunt ‘cruel’, while emphasising that this is no way for a guest in the country to behave.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged Jones to see how she’d get on while toying with less forgiving animals in a furious statement.

“[Wombats] are gentle, lovely creatures…I suggest to this so-called influencer, maybe she should try some other Australian animals, maybe she should try a crocodile.

“Take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there. Take another animal that can actually fight back rather than stealing a baby wombat from its mother.”

Australia’s Home Affairs minister Tony Burke announced that his department was looking into revoking Jones’ visa in response to the footage.

Explaining they would investigate ‘whether immigration law has been breached’, he said at the time: “Either way, given the level of scrutiny that will happen if she ever applies for a visa again, I’ll be surprised if she even bothers. I can’t wait for Australia to see the back of this individual, I don’t expect she will return.”

However, Jones had already cut and run before officials had the chance to kick her out.

“There has never been a better time to be a baby wombat,” Burke said on Friday (14 March).

It is not clear whether the government would have had grounds to terminate Jones’ visa, as she has not been charged with a crime or deemed a threat to the nation.

The American attempted to clarify the situation in since-deleted comments on her post, according to the BBC.

She claimed that the baby wombat was ‘carefully held for one minute in total and then released back to mom’ before ‘they wandered back off into the bush together completely unharmed’.

“I don’t ever capture wildlife that will be harmed by my doing so,” Jones added.

However, wildlife experts aren’t so sure – as Yolandi Vermaak, founder of animal care charity Wombat Rescue, warned that it’s mother could have rejected her offspring after Jones’ interference.

She told Sky News: “My biggest concern is that we didn’t actually see mum and baby getting reunited. When she put it down, it looked disorientated.

“It was turned away from where the mother was last seen. So we don’t know if mum and baby actually found each other again.”

Vermaak also claimed the footage appeared to show that the joey was suffering from a skin disease and urged Jones’ to reveal the location of the video.

“The baby has mange and it’s a matter of time before it dies of mange, so it’s important for us to find where this happened and to get this baby and its mum treated as soon as possible,” she added.

The Wombat Protection Society also slammed Jones for the ‘appalling video’ of her ‘mishandling a wombat joey in an apparent snatch for social media likes’.

“The individual, who appeared to have no understanding of wombat behaviour or the severe stress caused by human interference and separation from its mother, She then placed the vulnerable baby back onto a country road—potentially putting it at risk of becoming roadkill,” it said in a statement.

“There is no clear evidence that the joey was successfully reunited with its mother. A baby of this size is highly dependent on its mother, and prolonged separation could have fatal consequences. Additionally, without proper training in wildlife handling, the tourist not only risked injuring the joey but also putting herself in danger.”

Wombats are a legally protected species in Australia and maintain a close bond with their parent even after emerging from it’s mother’s pouch.

National Geographic explains that joeys ‘frequently crawl back in [the pouch] to feed or to escape danger’.

Brits were among those who went back into Kim Jong-un’s secretive country last month as tour groups resumed operations for the first time since the pandemic. Following their visit, they spoke about the ‘bleak’ sights and old-fashioned accommodation.

Rason is a city near North Korea’s border with China, and a number of Western travel agencies had been sharing updates on tours there after finally getting permission from their North Korean partners.

But today (March 5), the companies have announced that their tours to the city are now suspended.

Young Pioneer Tours, which was one of the first tour groups to cross into North Korea when it reopened recently, shared the travel update on Facebook.

“We have been advised by our partners in the DPRK that tours to Rason are currently paused. We are in the process of clarifying how this will impact your upcoming trips,” it wrote.

“We recommend that those planning tours in April and May refrain from booking flights until we have more information.

“Rest assured, once we have further details, we will reach out to everyone individually. Please know that if your tour is cancelled, you’ll have the option for a full credit or refund.”

Spanish-based travel agency KTG Travels also shared: “Oh no! Just received news from our Korean partners that Rason is closed to everyone. We will keep you posted.”

While tours coordinator for KTG, Rayco Vega, confirmed the travel suspension to AFP news agency, adding: “We do not know the reason nor how long this will last.”

YouTuber Mike O’Kennedy was one of the Brits who managed to visit North Korea last month.

During their trip, they paid a visit to a school where students performed songs and routines, including eight-year-olds dancing with a video of ballistic missiles hitting targets behind them.

With much of the show praising the leader, O’Kennedy said in his video that one of the clearest things he saw on the trip was ‘the utter devotion people had towards Kim Jong-un’.

Joe Smith was also on the trip, marking his third visit to North Korea.

He said: “I feel like the more times you visit the less you know,” he told the BBC. “Each time you get a little peek behind the curtain, which just leaves you with more questions.”

Smith described the roads as ‘awful’ and buildings ‘weirdly constructed’, as he added: “They’ve had five years to fix things. North Koreans are so sensitive about what they show tourists.

“If this is the best they can show, I dread to think what else is out there.”

This comes as Russia seemingly had a public change of heart on the prospect of a ceasefire in Ukraine.

It initially appeared the Russians weren’t onboard with the idea after Putin aide Yuri Ushakov dismissed the idea of a 30-day ceasefire ahead of talks to permanently end the war. Despite US leader Donald Trump’s previous warnings that things would get ‘very bad for Russia’ if they didn’t agree to a deal.

But just as we were all busy stockpiling tinned food and building fallout shelters, Putin announced that Russia ‘absolutely supports’ a ceasefire deal after all… with conditions.

What are Russia’s conditions for a ceasefire in Ukraine?

Putin has now made it clear that a ceasefire in Ukraine would only be on the table if his demands are met, telling reporters during a broadcast on Russian state television that he was in favour of a 30-day ceasefire, but there are ‘nuances’.

“First of all, what are we going to do about this incursion in Kursk?” he began, referring to the small areas of Russian territory which Ukraine currently holds.

The 72-year-old has previously stated that Russian forces are allegedly back in control of the Kursk region and that Ukrainian troops ‘have been isolated’.

He added: “If we ceased hostilities for 30 days, would it mean that everybody there would leave? Should we release them after they committed serious crimes against civilians there?”

Putin then further questioned the technicalities of a ceasefire, questioning if the Ukrainians would use the time to regroup and rearm their forces. “How will those 30 days be used? For Ukraine to mobilise? Rearm? Train people? Or none of that? Then a question – how will that be controlled,” he questioned.

“How will other aspects be dealt with along with 2,000-kilometre contact line? As you know, the Russian troops are advancing practically in every sector of the contact line, and all the conditions are there for us to besiege fairly large [Ukrainian] units.”

Russia is thought to occupy around 20 percent of Ukrainian territory, which includes parts of the parts of Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts, as well as Crimea.

The questions laid out in Putin’s TV address follow previous conditions set by the Russian leader, which includes no NATO membership for Kyiv, along with an agreement not to deploy foreign troops in Ukraine and international recognition of Russian sovereignty over occupied Ukrainian territory (via The Times).

“The idea is good and we absolutely support it, but there are issues we need to discuss, and I think we need to negotiate with our American colleagues,” he added.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy has since responded to Putin’s update with a statement of his own, accusing the Russians of ‘preparing to reject’ the deal.

Tanya Santiago was making impressive progress on her journey but was halted by a cancer scare. Determined not to back down though, the 31-year-old didn’t give up and has continued to follow the healthy changes she made to her life.

The retail store manager from California weighed 42st 12lbs at her heaviest, wearing clothes in a size 7XL.

She says she’d gotten so big at that time that she struggled to get out of bed and ‘everyday tasks were difficult’.

“I ate anything I could get my hands on,” she explained. “Chinese was my go-to and Mexican. I’d eat enormous portions – for a family of six.”

But in 2020, tragedy struck as Tanya, who hadn’t known she was pregnant, suffered a miscarriage.

She explained she’d had ‘irregular periods’ that were ‘really heavy and lasted a year’.

And during a procedure to remove tissue from inside her uterus, it was found she had miscarried.

“I was three months along, and my body was rejecting the pregnancy,” Tanya said.

“I had to get an abortion pill as I was too big to go on the table.”

This scare put things into perspective, with the realisation she couldn’t carry a baby without being in serious danger. After grieving this, she also realised she wasn’t happy in her marriage and filed for divorce in December 2021.

So, Tanya started to make simple changes and exercising however she could – starting with short walks and pool exercises.

Chinese takeaways were swapped for low-carb homemade meals, and she’d lost 17st 12lbs by January 2023.

However, her health was deteriorating as Tanya said: “I went to the doctor and he said it’s great you’ve lost all this weight but you have fatty liver disease and it’s going to turn into cancer.”

A gastric bypass was advised to help her lose the additional weight and reverse the disease.

Since that four-hour operation, the woman kept up her exercise and now works out a mega six days a week for two hours a day.

Thanks to her determination before and after the bypass, Tanya now weighs 12st 2lbs and her family hardly even recognise her.

“When I went home they said ‘who is this lady at my door?'” she explained.

“They said ‘you shape shift’.”

The woman says her old life feels like an ‘old TV show that used to air’ as she’s amazed every day that she ‘can run’.

She’s still got her old 7XL clothes as a ‘reminder’ of how far she has come and is now becoming an online coach and bodybuilder.

“I just want to help other people,” Tanya added. “If I can do it you guys can too.”

Shocking footage shows how the pair stood on top of the table and let loose – despite the place being fully equipped with bathroom facilities – last month.

The bizarre incident took place in a private room at a Shanghai branch of Haidilao, which is China’s biggest hot pot chain, on 24 February.

But bosses only became aware of the vile act four days later after the footage started to go viral on social media, the BBC reports.

Police said that the boys, who were aged 17, were drunk at the time and both were detained shortly after the incident.

Haidilao admitted that staff in the restaurant had failed to stop the teens, while it took another week for the company to identify which branch it had happened at out of the dozens in Shanghai.

For those who don’t know, hot pot restaurants offer a communal dining experience which allows people to cook their own food.

You fling a variety of ingredients into a tasty pot of simmering broth that’s right in front of you and tuck in – but that might not sound as enticing after this incident.

The company said in a statement (as per CBS): “In the early hours of February 24, two men urinated into a hotpot after dining in a private room at a Haidilao branch on the Bund in Shanghai.

“As management had never made contingency plans or given training for dealing with this type of incident, staff at our branch were unable to detect any abnormalities at the scene or uphold the safety of the dining environment.”

Although there is no suggestion that anyone consumed the contaminated broth, Haidilao has offered to compensate the more than 4,000 diners who visited the Shanghai branch.

Customers who ate at the outlet in question between 24 February and 8 March will receive a full refund and cash compensation which is ten times the amount of their bill.

Haidilao said in a statement: “We fully understand that the distress caused to our customers by this incident cannot be fully compensated for by any means, but we will do our utmost to take responsibility.”

Broths and dining equipment are not re-used by multiple customers, however, it remains unclear whether the area was thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before the next customers sat down.

Haidilao said that all hotpot equipment and dining utensils have been replaced, while crockery and other utensils have all been disinfected.

The hot pot chain – which has two branches in London and one in Birmingham – operates more than 1,000 restaurants across the world.

Its website explains that it offers a ‘signature dining experience’ for guest, with a ‘focus on service, food and atmosphere’.

Haidilao is known for its customer service and unique offerings, as people can get a manicure or watch ‘noodle dancing performances’ as they wait for a table, while kids are given candy floss.

It’s not to do with his recent warnings to Russia’s Putin or heated exchange with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy. Instead, it’s the swathe of major tariff increases that’s led to his latest brutal message.

Having threatened to raise the metals tariff to 50 percent for Canadian imports before backing off due to its retaliation, he’s still put a 25 percent tariff on all goods from Canada and Mexico.

Trump also raised a tariff on all Chinese goods as well as the initial tariff of 25 percent on steel and aluminium from all countries.

Now, in quite the threat, the US president is looking at EU alcohol.

Yesterday (13 March), Trump threatened he would put a 200 percent tariff on ‘wines, champagnes, and alcoholic products’ from the European Union.

This came as a response to a retaliatory 50 percent import duty on US whiskey. So, with tension escalating between the longtime trading partners, he hit out at his close ally.

“The European Union, one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World, which was formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States, has just put a nasty 50% Tariff on Whisky,” Trump wrote on his platform, Truth Social.

“If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES. This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”

And then, later yesterday morning, he seemed to send a message to the rest of the world as he posted: “The US doesn’t have Free Trade. We have ‘Stupid Trade’. The Entire World is RIPPING US OFF!!!”

A whopping 200 percent tariff on alcohol from EU would be quite the hit, but potentially also an interesting one considering the state’s preferences.

Alcohol is quite a hefty part of the US’ agricultural imports and United Nations trade data found that from the EU in particularly, French wines and spirits and Italian wines took the lead in US imports in 2023.

A spokesperson told the BBC: “The European Union regrets and is very disappointed by this latest statement by the US president, we believe that these types of tariffs are unjustified, unfair and counterproductive.”

They added that they will be speaking to US officials today.

Plenty of Brits use mobile banking these days, and with a few taps of their phone screen can access their worldly fortunes, which worryingly means that anyone who nabs your phone and taps the screen in just the right way also does.

On an episode of The Martin Lewis Money Show Live, the man himself sounded a warning that phone theft was on the rise and there were some things people ought to be doing to keep their bank accounts safe.

“Thefts are up 40 percent in London but they’re going up right across the country too,” the Money Saving Expert warned.

“Now the crucial thing is they’re not just trying to nick your phone, some of them are trying to access your financial data from your phone. You have to protect yourselves on this folks.”

As for how to protect yourself, Lewis ran through the ways you could stop thieves from getting access to your money.

He said: “Use remote tracking to locate your device if it’s been nicked and suspend payments, there’s ‘FindMy’ from Apple, ‘SmartThingsFind’ from Samsung, ‘FindMyDevice’ from Google, do those things.

“Next, enable the biometrics, you know, face ID and fingerprint ID, on your phone both for the phone itself and for your banking apps.

“If you’re not going to and you’re a PIN code type person, please different PIN codes for the phone and the banking apps.

“It’s called ‘shoulder surfing’ these days, people look over your shoulder to see your PIN code and then if they’re doing the same for both they can access your money.”

He then explained something else you might want to know about, saying you could dial *#06# to get something called an IMEI image, then suggested you should get a screengrab of that and save it.

“That is what you’re going to need to give to the police if your phone is stolen,” Martin Lewis said.

“Screengrab it, and assuming you can access your email not just on your phone I would just email it to yourself so you’ve got a copy somewhere.”

Other advice the Money Saving Expert had for Brits included switching off ‘preview notifications’ for the sake of your lock screen and looking into the other security features you could get for your device to stop ne’er-do-wells from getting their hands on it and by extension your bank account.

He said: “There are thieves who want to access your finances by your phone. It is growing. It is dangerous. Protect yourself please people.”