Author: USA Facts News

Known as the ‘Deep Blue’, she belongs to a group of sharks known to be one of the largest predators in the ocean.

Only the whale shark, which can grow to be as long as 60 feet, and the basking shark, around 40 feet long, are larger than the great white, capable of growing up to 20 feet.

but given that the other two are whales, the great white is certainly the most predatory fish around.

Just knowing that the shark in Jaws was one of them is enough for me.

So, when footage of one this large water animal does the rounds, which it frequently does, it attracts quite a bit of attention.

This footage was captured back in 2015 by shark expert and marine biologist Mauricio Hoyos Padilla.

Spotted off the coast of Mexico’s Guadalupe Island, Deep Blue seems remarkably unbothered as she floats past some divers, two of whom are inside a relatively flimsy-looking cage, but one who seems altogether too exposed for many people’s liking.

As you can see, the huge female shark makes the divers look tiny, clocking in at an estimated 20 feet long.

The scientists have further guessed that the shark was around 50 years old at the time and seemed to be pregnant.

That made her even bigger, with one report claiming that she had the ‘girth of a small elephant’.

While sharks can be a bit scary to those who don’t understand them, most of the people who commented on the video seemed to be simply in awe of the creature, calling her ‘majestic’ and ‘beautiful’.

Unfortunately, we don’t know whether Deep Blue is still alive after the years that have passed, but there’s no reason why she wouldn’t be.

According to the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, great white sharks can live anywhere between 30 to 70 years in the wild, so there’s every chance that Deep Blue is floating around somewhere still.

The clip recently resurfaced – see what we did there? – on Reddit, where hundreds of people commented on it once again.

One said: “We’re going to need a bigger ocean.”

Another wrote: “Deep Blue. She’s such a beauty!”

A third commented: “Way too impressive, beautiful!”

That’s the sort of reaction we should have to these sharks, to be fair.

They very rarely attack human beings, and even then it’s usually an accident.

Yet, they are threatened – currently listed as ‘vulnerable’ globally and ‘critically endangered’ in Europe.

As you can see, this huge shark has no interest in attacking the divers, and – believe you me – it looks like it could if it wanted to.

Space is a mysterious thing – the vast unknown that is constantly expanding away from us holds a lot of unanswered questions.

Scientists have been studying the stars and the night sky for centuries and centuries, but there’s still so much we don’t know.

Are we alone? Is the Earth flat? OK, maybe we know the answer to the latter, but humanity hasn’t even stepped foot on another planet yet.

Cox has even given his take on the whole (absurd) Flat Earth theory.

Spoiler – he thinks it’s a load of rubbish.

The British physicist has previously also hinted at the fact that aliens may not be real after all, and explained what could happen to a human if they were to be sucked into a black hole.

But in a YouTube video for BBC Earth Science titled ‘Brian Cox On The Most Terrifying Places In Our Solar System’, he revealed the one thing he loses sleep over when it comes to our ever-expanding universe.

When asked what he thought of the ‘possibility of discovering alien life’, Cox answered: “I would be delighted if we found life elsewhere because I feel it would take some of the pressure off.”

The 56-year-old added: “My fear, the thing that keeps me awake at night, is that life is extremely rare in the universe and complex life is so rare that we might be the only planet in the Milky Way galaxy where complex life exists currently.”

Cox went on, explaining that it’s a ‘guess’ and a ‘possibility’, not claiming it to be fact.

“I’m not saying it definitively because we don’t know so if that’s the case,” he highlighted.

The physicist added that if there was someone or something else out there, and if a flying saucer landed on the interview they were carrying out in London, he’d be ‘relieved’.

“[I’d be] like, ‘thank God that it’s not only down to us now’, because you know, we’re not making a very good job of it,” he claimed.

While scientists are still exploring space, there is still no concrete evidence pointing towards extraterrestrial life within our solar system, or beyond it.

Despite admitting that he thinks within our galaxy, Cox has theorised about the idea of aliens on social media.

After speaking about Voyager 1 and how spectacular it is that it can be fixed from Earth, he received sarcastic comments from some users, which he labelled as ‘stupidity’ and an example of our ‘increasingly dim-witted civilisation’.

Cox then spoke about the Fermi Paradox, which is the contradiction between the lack of evidence for extra-terrestrial beings in the universe against the high estimates of their probability.

“Until recently my guess has been that the answer to the Fermi Paradox might be found in biology – complex biological systems are rare. I’m increasingly of the view that the reason for The Great Silence is that civilisations are inevitably crushed by the weight of n**heads shortly after inventing the internet,” he concluded in his well-known sarcastic tone.

The passenger in question was attempting to board a flight from Cartagena, Colombia to Amsterdam when Anti-Narcotics Police stopped him in his tracks at security on 20 February.

The male suspect, 40, from Pereira, allegedly had over 220 grams of cocaine stuffed under his wig, worth $10,000. Watch below:

Cartagena police said in a translated statement: “In the controls deployed by the National Police during the boarding of national and international flights, units of the Anti-Narcotics Police captured a Colombian citizen who intended to board a flight to Amsterdam (Netherlands), with cocaine capsules camouflaged in a wig.

“Thanks to the expertise of National Police officials, through surveillance and profiling of passengers, the capture of a person from the city of Pereira (Colombia) and the seizure of 19 cocaine capsules, camouflaged in a wig that the individual was wearing, was achieved.”

The force noted that the capsules were subjected to the Approved Preliminary Identification Test (PIPH), and tested positive for cocaine.

“According to the flight plans of the captured, 40 years old, he intended to travel to Amsterdam (Netherlands), where he is presumed to carry the alkaloid,” they added.

“With this important result, it is possible to affect criminal finances and avoid the marketing of more than 400 doses of cocaine, valued at more than 10,000 euros (more than 40 million pesos), in international markets.

“The person indicated presents two judicial annotations for the crime of drug trafficking.

“The captured person was made available to the Attorney General’s Office, for the crime of trafficking, manufacture and possession of narcotic substances.”

The commander of the Metropolitan Police of Cartagena, Brigadier General Gelver Yecid Peña Araque, said that – this year alone – more than 450 people have been arrested for drug trafficking.

“We are giving forceful blows against these criminal structures that not only dispute the local drug trafficking, but also generate different violent acts and other types of crimes that alter tranquility and coexistence,” he said.

“We continue to insist on the importance of the community being our main ally, we provide timely information, which helps us identify and locate criminals.”

This comes after a drug-smuggling gang was jailed in December after £200 million worth of cocaine stuffed in a shipment of bananas was intercepted.

The capture made it the UK’s largest haul of the drugs at the time.

Crime boss Petko Zhutev was in charge of the operation which planned to bring in the Colombian drugs to a London warehouse in February 2021.

He was unaware it had already been seized by border officials and, ultimately, he was jailed at the Old Bailey for 27 years alongside four others.

But how did they find it? Especially when the body of Thutmose II had long since been removed from the temple that it was laid to rest in?

Well, archaeologists looking into the site in Egypt have revealed it was the remains of an ancient calf that first led them to thinking they may have found something special in the area.

It was an opportunity they explored with haste, given what we already know about burying pharaohs and, in particular, what is buried with them.

Dr Judith Bunbury, a Fellow and Senior Tutor at Wolfson College, explained: “When a tomb is created, all materials imbued with the magic of the pharaohs have to stay with it. These are placed at a respectful distance in guardian pits or foundation deposits. There are usually two deposits – one on each side of the tomb.

“We unearthed a foundation deposit with a whole sacrificed calf, which seemed lavish. We were looking for the other pit when we found an entrance buried by a metre and a half of rockfall, with a step going down. Then another step, and another… well, that’s not a foundation deposit!”

Bunbury was leading the project that found the tomb of Thutmose II in the Theban Mountain area under the New Kingdom Research Foundation, working closely with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities which looks to find and preserve ancient Egypt.

Thutmose II’s burial chamber is the last missing tomb of the 18th Dynasty kings of Ancient Egypt. It is also the first royal tomb to be found since the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb more than 100 years ago in 1922.

“Getting hard hatted up and exploring the tomb chamber is a long adrenaline burn,” said Bunbury, a geo-archaeologist who has taught at Cambridge for decades, and is a member of the Department of Earth Sciences.

She said that the team had been ‘down in the darkness and the dust’ of the tomb ‘scraping all the debris into buckets’ as they did their best to spot fragments of broken artefacts in the derelict tomb.

And it didn’t help that the entrance to the tomb, along with the corridors, had been damaged significantly by flood water time and time again since Thutmose II died in 1479 BC; more than 3,500 years ago. After navigating collapsed ceilings and debris that over time had set in place to feel like concrete, the team made it into a chamber with evidence of decoration: a patch of ceiling painted blue with yellow stars.

Over on the north wall of the chamber, excavators found scenes from something known as the Amduat; a funerary text similar to the Book of the Dead that was reserved for royalty.

“Initially we thought we might have found the tomb of a royal wife, but the wide staircase and the large doorway suggested something more important,” said Piers Litherland, Director of the NKRF and Honorary Research Associate at Cambridge’s McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

With no remains in the chamber, it was left to look for more clues as to who it the tomb belong to. The team found an initial inscription beginning: “Son of Re, of his body, Thut[…….].”

Then another reading: “The perfect god the Lord of the Two Lands Aakheper[…]re…”. This suggested the king was either Thutmose I or Thutmose II.

Finally, a further fragment was found in a separate chamber which read: “…great chief wife his beloved… Hatshepsut, may she live…”, which indicated that the king was married to a still living Hatshepsut and so could only be Thutmose II.

A close ally of President Trump and executive of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk has become one of the most powerful people in politics – and, perhaps, the world – through his support for the MAGA frontman.

He has caused controversy since becoming part of Trump’s central team, with a salute he gave at the inauguration still causing headlines around the world.

It was during the inauguration that Musk placed his right hand over his heart before enthusiastically thrusting it in to the air, extending his right arm out at an upward angle.

Critics said it was a Nazi salute; something Musk himself has denied and said is people playing politics.

“The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired,” he said in a post to X, previously known as Twitter before his takeover of the platform.

Musk’s father, a well-known South African politician and businessman, has now responded to the attack while appearing on Arab news network, Al Arabiya, where he gave a rather unique response to the situation and said his son made the gesture to show ‘he meant no harm’.

Asked about the ‘fury’ surrounding Musk’s salute on the stage, Musk Snr said: “Nonsense. Elon is a terrible public speaker, he has a lot to learn. I struggled with it at the beginning of my career when I was elected to the city council.

“You have to stand up and talk to a bunch of very wise people all starring at you. Your nerve goes, it doesn’t matter if you’ve written your notes down. Your eyes don’t read… you become blurred.

“Knowing him as well as I do… I could see he was struggling to get through his speech as fast as possible and to try and look as charming as possible, as he could. But he struggles. He hasn’t reached the incredibly smooth level of people like yourself [the interviewer] who have years of experience.”

On the salute, Musk Snr said: “It was an international salute we have had for the last 10,000 years, perhaps more. The old German hail Caesar, of course, emanated from, no doubt, the Persians, the Sumerians, and so on.

Alice Weidel, co-leader of the AfD, said Musk personally called her after their result to ‘personally congratulate her’.

The 61-year-old made a stunning impression on warehouse worker Tara Jones after she filed a direct complaint to him via email five years ago.

Hailing from Oklahoma, Tara issued the main man a personal message after realising she’d been underpaid by $90 (£71.30) while on medical leave.

What happened next with Bezos has to be read to be believed.

In the email obtained by The New York Times, Tara wrote to Bezos in 2020: “I’m behind on bills, all because the pay team messed up. I’m crying as I write this email.”

Left out in the cold, the Amazon staff member kickstarted an investigation by the publication after it was discovered that she wasn’t the only employee suffering the same treatment.

It was found that 179 fellow warehouse operatives were in similarly frustrating circumstances, with their doctors’ notes apparently ‘vanishing’ from the system over a period of 18 months.

Some revealed they were even dismissed from Amazon after its administrative software reported medical leave as absences.

In the aftermath, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told The Independent: “We’re disappointed when any of our employees experience an issue with their leave.

“The New York Times article suggested these issues are widespread and ongoing. They are not.

“We went back and audited the period in question to make sure employees received their pay, and to our knowledge, there are no outstanding issues.

“The controls we’ve implemented over the last 18 months have resulted in less than 1 percent of people experiencing an issue while being on paid leave. Certainly, the unprecedented nature of Covid did put a strain on our system’s ability to keep pace with demand and we’ve been hard at work investing and inventing to do better every day.”

Although he could do with sharpening his email skills, Bezos hasn’t been afraid to test his trillion-dollar baby’s customer service system.

In one ‘uncomfortable’ stunt he pulled during the early days of Amazon, the businessman phoned its customer service line after data showed users were waiting just 60 seconds before being connected.

“I have a saying which is: when the data and the anecdotes disagree, the anecdotes are usually right,” Bezos told the Lex Fridman Podcast.

“It doesn’t mean you just slavishly follow the anecdotes then, it means you go examine the data. It’s usually not that the data is being mis-collected, it’s usually that you’re not measuring the right thing.”

In the end, Bezos was on hold for 10 minutes during his experiment.

“It dramatically made my point that something was wrong with the data collection. That set off a whole chain of events where we started measuring it right. That is an example of truth telling.

“That is an uncomfortable thing to do but you have to seek the truth even when it is uncomfortable,” he said.

Located in Saudi Arabia, the £800 billion city is planned to span 170km (105 miles) by the time of its completion, while having a width of just 200 metres.

It’s unique to say the least, and while developers Neom planned to have it completed by 2030, it looks like they’ve quickly back-tracked after realising the scale of the task at hand.

Neom executives have admitted that it could take up to 100 years to complete and fill the line, which seems a bit far off the original goal of five years’ time.

However, following Saudi Arabia’s successful World Cup bid, it looks like there’s a date to aim for to get something significant done.

The project has been described by Neom’s social media accounts as a place that will ‘transform how we live’ as it will ‘redefine liveability’, and while it will fall short of having nine million residents by 2030, it is well on its way to making significant progress in a short amount of time.

New satellite images of the city have now been released, via Business Insider.

Work on The Line has progressed significantly, despite officials close to Neom admitting that just 1.5 miles of the project would be complete by 2030.

Hundreds of trucks can be seen travelling to and from the project in the Saudi desert, shifting tonnes of dirt.

First announced in 2021, the area is being constructed in the Tabuk province of the country, with a number of futuristic aspects headlining the project, such as a mirror skyscraper and buildings floating over the private Neom Marina.

And the Marina, of course, is for residents of The Line to park their superyachts, before heading to the private beach, the luxury golf resort on site, or up to the sports stadium.

A lot of the technology being used for the project has been kept secret, while many experts have questioned Neom’s capabilities and the tech’s existence.

The idea for the city came from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wanting to move the country’s economy away from its reliance on oil, which is finite, leading to his significant investment into the project.

It has also been suggested that the final cost of the whole project may be closer to £2 trillion if they build everything as planned.

There’s almost nothing worse than being alone in the deep blue sea.

Considering we have only explored a tiny percentage of the ocean; practically anything could be swimming down there.

And the creatures we do know about don’t look too pretty either – take a look at this lovely fella known as the ‘demon fish’ for example.

With so many scary possibilities, only the toughest people are happy to risk venturing into its depths.

In this instance, it was Garrett Reisman, an engineer and former astronaut who lived down in the deep blue for two whole weeks with a crew.

Speaking about his experience in 2020 interview with Joe Rogan, Reisman revealed the most terrifying encounter he had while living in the deep blue.

Recalling an experience while visiting the underwater toilet chamber, he came face to face with a goliath grouper – a fish that’s 8ft long on average and weighs up to 800 pounds.

“I went down [into the water], opened my eyes and in the darkness with my flashlight and I saw like right in front of me this huge eyeball like about the size I don’t know of a saucer,” he said.

“This big staring unblinking great at me.”

Naturally, the encounter left Reisman feeling pretty spooked, leading him to take off back to the main base in a fright.

“My crew come running with a guy like I’ve been bit by a shark or something and I’m like giant fish,” he added. “It was a goliath grouper.”

This wasn’t the only bizarre encounter for Reisman either, as he also had to deal with deep-sea fish thinking his bowel movement was their dinner.

In order to take a dump, Reisman would have to pop on an oxygen mask, exit the base and swim to a nearby ‘gazebo’ toilet.

“The fish get accustomed to this,” he continued. “As soon as you drop in the water at night it’s like the dinner bell going off. Because this is feeding time.”

That’s right, just picture dozens of fish flapping around your bare backside in order to get a bite of dinner.

Speaking to Josh Horowitz on his Happy Sad Confused podcast on Monday (24 February), the Boiling Point actor opened up about his early days, where his passion for acting came from, along with what it was like to work with the likes of Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese.

The 51-year-old said he was stunned when he was flown out to New York to meet with Scorsese – not to mention at his house – for a role in 2019 crime drama The Irishman.

Then when he got there, Graham couldn’t believe he was sat opposite his ‘all-time’ hero in De Niro, who was an executive on the film.

Thankfully for Liverpudlian, the audition landed him the role of Anthony ‘Tony Pro’ Provenzano, a powerful mobster and labor union leader who had conflicts with Jimmy Hoffa, played by Al Pacino in the film.

However, as fans listened to the actor telling his stories, some noticed how it said ‘Hannah’s iPad’ on his video link.

A couple of viewers found it hilarious, assuming the device belonged to his wife, Hannah Walters.

One commented: “Kudos to Hannah Walters from Time (with another Jodie) for lending her iPad to her spouse ;).”

“Hannah’s iPad lol! Great interview as I always expect from the legendary Josh!” a second penned.

Elsewhere in the interview, Graham spoke about a new four-part crime drama he’s starring in, called Adolescence.

The Netflix series follows 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) who is arrested after a teenage girl from his school is murdered.

Graham plays his father Eddie Miller, as Top Boy star Ashley Walters takes on the role of detective inspector Luke Bascombe.

“I don’t want to sound pretentious in any way shape or form, but it’s possibly the most beautiful, wonderful way of working ever for any actor,” Graham said.

“Because what it does, it combines both disciplines, I think, uniquely, which I have never had the experience of being able to do that.

“So it captures and encompasses that truth and reality, and that instantaneous kind of in-the-moment response of theatre.

“Do you know what I mean? Because it’s live, we’re there, we’re in it right there, but it also has that beauty of filmmaking because [of] that minimalistic naturalism.”

Franke had started a YouTube channel called 8 Passengers, filming and posting content about her family which accumulated over a billion views.

Her estranged husband, Kevin Franke, recently denied any knowledge of her abuse of their children, admitting that he ‘still’ loves her.

A Utah law on capping consecutive sentences means Franke will spend a maximum of 30 years behind bars.

Now, in previously unseen footage, the mother can be seen verbally berating her children.

The clips are part of the trailer for an upcoming Hulu documentary series around the mum’s case, titled Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.

Premiering on Hulu on 27 February, it ‘marks the first time Shari and Chad, the Frankes’ two eldest adult children, and Kevin, Ruby’s husband, will share their story in depth on camera’.

Hulu adds: “With exclusive access to the Frankes, their friends and neighbors, and over a thousand hours of their YouTube channel’s unseen footage, Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke cuts through the social media reaction to explore the untold story behind the Ruby Franke case: part family tragedy, part coming-of-age narrative, part tale of our times about the perils of life lived online.”

In an interview with People, Kevin that he was ‘not ashamed’ to say he still loved his wife, but explained: “But that doesn’t excuse what she did, and it doesn’t excuse how she hurt our children and how she hurt me.

“There’s some bridges that you just can’t cross and then cross back. She burned the bridges, and so I’m moving on.”

The mum was arrested after her 12-year-old son escaped the property, asking a neighbour for water and telling them what was happening.

Police said he had duct tape around his ankles and wrists and was covered in wounds, with another child found in a similar condition.

But now, in previously unseen footage of Franke, she can be seen shouting at her kids.

She can be heard shouting at one of her children in the trailer: “Sit her down right here. Sit her down on the flipping couch!”

In narration for the trailer, Kevin can be heard explaining that his wife, who he is in the process of divorcing, wanted to portray the image of a perfect mother through the channel.

In another clip, Franke could be heard screaming: “I’m still recording!”

She could then be seen holding markers while scowling, in front of the camera.

In a different video, she can be heard instructing one of her sons to ‘be excited’ about telling viewers where his name came from, ‘even if you have to fake it’.

Franke could even be seen grabbing her daughter’s face in another clip, but as eldest son Chad revealed on Good Morning America, things became ‘chaotic’ as they became successful.

“Companies started coming to us, offering big money for scripts,” he admitted, adding: “It was a chaotic, chaotic experience, lots of yelling, lots of snapping, and lots of time outs in the corner.”

Chad admitted that he had nicer memories growing up, and pinned the turning point on the introduction of mental health counsellor Jodi Hildebrandt, who was also sentenced to four counts of one to 15 years in prison for child abuse.

Kevin told GMA: “The bottom line is that I was choosing to trust a licensed mental health counsellor and my wife, and they gave some terrible counsel.

“I have regrets, and I wish I hadn’t done those things.”

Full timeline of the Ruby Franke case

Starting a YouTube channel and initial suspicions

Franke started her parenting YouTube channel 8 Passengers with now ex-husband Kevin, amassing over 2.5 million subscribers before it was deleted in 2023 following the arrest.

Several subscribers became suspicious of child abuse, with a petition being signed for the police to investigate the family, citing the numerous questionable videos uploaded.

Franke joins ConneXions with Jodi Hildebrandt

The mum told critics in a 2021 interview for The Wrap that she was showing everyone ‘what a responsible mother looks like’.

She stopped uploading videos to the channel in 2022, joining Mormon therapist Hildebrandt’s ConneXions podcast.

Their divisive opinions on subjects such as eating disorders, blaming rape victims, and criticising immigrants drew the wrong kind of attention.

Franke and Hildebrandt’s arrest

Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested on child abuse charges in August 2023.

The Santa Clara Public Safety Department were called to the Ivins neighbourhood in Utah after a neighbour was alerted by Franke’s ’emaciated’ 12-year-old son, who escaped to knock on their door to ask for help.

He had visible marks and wounds from duct tape put around his ankles, and asked for some food and water.

Police found his 10-year-old sister in a ‘similar physical condition of malnourishment’ in Hildebrandt’s house.

Family members speak out

Franke’s oldest daughter, Shari, wrote on Instagram on the day of the arrests: “Today has been a big day.”

She continued: “Me and my family are so glad justice is being served. We’ve been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up.”

In November, Kevin also officially filed for divorce from Franke, and called her actions to their children ‘horrific and inhumane’.

Franke and Hildebrandt are charged with six counts of child abuse

Just one week after their arrests, the pair were charged with six counts of felony child abuse.

YouTube banned Franke, deleting both 8 Passengers and ConneXions channels and blocking her from the social media platform.

Franke blames the abuse on Hildebrandt

Her attorneys released a statement that said: “Initially, Ms. Franke believed that Jodi Hildebrandt had the insight to offer a path to continual improvement. Ms. Hildebrandt took advantage of this quest and twisted it into something heinous,” according to Fox13.

It blamed Hildebrandt solely for isolating Franke from her family completely, distorting her morality.

Franke pleads guilty

Just three days after the statement was released, Franke pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse. A court had heard how she had tried to convince her youngest children they were ‘evil and possessed’.

Franke and Hildebrandt are sentenced to prison for child abuse

On 20 February 2024, Franke and Hildebrandt were convicted and given four separate prison sentences for one to 15 years, with the length of each sentence decided by the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.

During sentencing Franke apologised to her children and said she would ‘never stop crying for hurting their tender souls’.

She said: “My willingness to sacrifice all for you was masterfully manipulated into something very ugly.

“I took from you all that was soft and safe and good.”

The two women will not serve more than 30 years in a Federal Penitentiary because of a Utah law about consecutive sentences.