Month: February 2025

The Dutch woman paid a horrifying price of looking and smiling directly at a gorilla named Bokito, who she believed used to laugh with her anytime she did.

Back in 2007, Bokito managed to escape from his enclosure at the Diergaarde Blijdorp zoo, in Rotterdam, and in doing so brutally attacked one woman before crashing into a restaurant on the park and injuring a further three people.

It wasn’t until armed zookeepers managed to bring his terror to an end as they sedated him through the use of a tranquilliser gun.

Following the incident, authorities were trying to piece together what had caused Bokito to become enraged enough to break out of his enclosure.

According to reports at the time, it all kicked off at the zoo when Bokito responded to children who had been throwing rocks at him.

But after jumping over the walls of his enclosure, he initially only had eyes on the woman who he attacked – by way of dragging her around before biting her, causing multiple fractures and leaving her hospitalised.

When officials spoke to the woman she explained that she was a regular and would visit Bokito’s enclosure around four times a week since he was four months old.

In that time she had grown a habit of making eye contact with Bokito and smiling at him – which her husband said she had been advised not to do by a zookeeper.

In an interview with newspaper De Telegraaf, the woman later said: “If I laugh at him, he laughs back.”

But according to the website, Gorilla Trek, making eye contact with a gorilla is a huge no-no.

“To mountain gorillas, any person who keeps direct eye contact with them is a challenger and an enemy who comes to destroy the family,” they explain.

“Direct eye contact will therefore force the silverback to charge and fight you in order to defend his family. If you want to be peaceful with gorillas, you should avoid eye contact.”

Discussing the incident, one person shared their own experience on Reddit: “I once worked in a zoo on work experience at 15. I made the briefest of eye contact with a sliverback at the back feeding part of the enclosure, (not dissimilar to silence if the lambs prison, but with fencing) that was enough to of caused it to run at me and smash against the weak looking fencing with both fists and grunting heavily.

“He then grunt called to the others, who sloped off there platforms and started trying to get me with sticks and throw hay at me, I was quickly escorted out.

“It was prob because a cute baby gorilla was bashing its chest till it fell backwards and I was watching that, and the silverback was watching me in the background.

“They are very much not to be messed with and like pretty much all other animals, not to be imprisoned for our viewing curiosity.”

Last month, the President of the United States signed an executive order titled ‘Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.’.

The order was put in place because ‘the victims’ families and the American people deserve the truth’.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer has put together a task force who are aiming to carry out the 78-year-old’s orders.

Also before the inauguration, Trump said he would release documents related to ‘Epstein Island’ and information on Area 51.

Chairwoman for the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, told Daily Mail podcast Welcome to MAGAland: “I don’t think the government’s been 100 percent truthful with the American people about what may or may not exist out there, especially in Area 51.”

Meanwhile, Trump has explained why he wants the files to be released.

“I have now determined that the continued redaction and withholding of information from records pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is not consistent with the public interest and the release of these records is long overdue,” he said.

“And although no Act of Congress directs the release of information pertaining to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I have determined that the release of all records in the Federal Government’s possession pertaining to each of those assassinations is also in the public interest.”

But Comer also noted: “When President Trump ordered the release of the JFK assassination files and classified documents, what we learned a week and a half later is the agency didn’t release all the documents.

“There were still 1000s of more pages.

“So we felt like this task force could follow up, and ensure that these agencies do what they’re supposed to do, because what we’ve seen over the past two decades in Washington is these bureaucrats don’t comply with Congress.

“They don’t obey the president. They have their own agenda.

“They’re all liberal activists and they’re arrogant.

“They don’t think the American people deserve the truth.

“They think they could spend tax dollars any way they want, the law doesn’t apply to them.”

Before becoming president, Trump promised: “When I return to the White House, I will declassify and unseal all JFK assassination related documents. It’s been 60 years, time for the American people to know the TRUTH!”

Reeves has starred in countless classics over the years, from John Wick and Speed to Constantine and The Devil’s Advocate.

But without a doubt, it’s The Matrix series which made him a superstar.

The sci-fi franchise didn’t only catapult him to A-List status – but he also made a tonne of cash in the process.

How much Keanu Reeves earned from The Matrix series (1999-2022)

• $10 million for The Matrix

• $15 million for The Matrix Reloaded

• $15 million for The Matrix Revolutions

• $12-14 million for The Matrix Resurrections

However, the salary alone barely scratched the surface on how much he made in total.

Reeves has made over $200 million from continued negotiated backend fees, according to the outlet.

This means he got a share of the $1.7 billion the franchise earned at the box office.

And another clause, that’s mentioned in all of his contracts, is that he won’t allow studios to digitally alter his face.

“I don’t mind if someone takes a blink out during an edit,” Reeves explained to Variety in 2023.

“But early on, in the early 2000s, or it might have been the ’90s, I had a performance changed.

“They added a tear to my face, and I was just like, ‘Huh?!’ It was like, I don’t even have to be here.”

On the whole, Reeves just doesn’t like digital alterations.

“What’s frustrating about that is you lose your agency,” the actor said.

“When you give a performance in a film, you know you’re going to be edited, but you’re participating in that. If you go into deepfake-land, it has none of your points of view.”

He went on to say how he is scared of ‘deepfake’ cinema and how younger people ‘don’t care’ if it’s not real.

“People are growing up with these tools: We’re listening to music already that’s made by AI in the style of Nirvana, there’s NFT digital art,” the film star continued.

“It’s cool, like, ‘Look what the cute machines can make’, but there’s a corporatocracy behind it that’s looking to control those things. Culturally, socially, we’re gonna be confronted by the value of real, or the non-value.

“And then what’s going to be pushed on us? What’s going to be presented to us?

“It’s a spectacle. And it’s a system of control and manipulation.

“We’re on our knees looking at cave walls and seeing the projections, and we’re not having the chance to look behind us.”

Gordon Cordeiro, from Maui, Hawaii, was sentenced to life without possibility of parole for the killing of Timothy Blaisdell on a remote dirt road on the island.

According to court documents, Blaisdell had been shot after travelling to purchase pound of marijuana with $800 (£633) in cash.

His body was later found at the bottom of a ravine.

Cordeiro, aged 20 at the time of the killing, was later found guilty of murder, robbery and attempted murder in a second retrial and received a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

Over the next couple of decades, Cordeiro’s family would continue to argue his innocence, with his case later being picked up by The Hawaii Innocence Project, who argued the now 51-year-old should be released after new DNA testing indicated that he was not present at the crime scene.

This backs up an alibi presented by Cordeiro’s attorneys, who argued that he was at home with his family on the day of the killing and nowhere near the remote road, which is referred to by locals as Skid Row, Associated Press reports.

Three decades on from the conviction and Cordeiro has now been freed from prison, after judge Judge Kirstin Hamman ruled that the new evidence presented would likely change the outcome of another trial.

“And the judgement and sentence is vacated and the defendant is ordered to be released from custody,” she told the court, while gasps and cries could be heard in the courtroom.

Cordeiro has since branded his release ‘Freedom Friday’ and thanked his family and supporters for sticking by him.

“[I’d like] to thank all these people. This is the people that helped me out,” he told Hawaii News Now, adding: “Without them, I wouldn’t have made it out.”

He will also be eligible to file for $50,000 (£39,582) compensation for every year he served, totalling $1.5 million (£1.1 million).

His joy was shared by Kenneth Lawson, co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project, who said: “He cried, we all cried.”

Cordeiro’s attorney’s had previously argued that a man named Michael Freitas, who had accompanied Blaisdell on the day of his killing, was actually involved. Freitas has since passed away in 2020.

“The police botched this case from the beginning and turned the number one suspect into the state’s star witness, resulting in a 30-plus-year nightmare and miscarriage of justice for Gordon and his family,” Lawson added (via The Daily Mail).

Regional prosecutors have since disagreed with the ruling, with Maui County Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin stating that he is seeking for bail conditions to be imposed.

“None of the judge’s findings exonerate him in any way,” Martin said (via CBS), adding Cordeiro was a flight risk.

The ISS has been operated by the likes of NASA, Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos, the Canadian Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the European Space Agency since 1998.

However, its lifetime is limited by its primary structure from wear and tear.

“NASA has examined several options for decommissioning of the International Space Station, including disassembly and return to Earth, boosting to a higher orbit, natural orbital decay with random re-entry, and controlled targeted re-entry to a remote ocean area,” NASA explained.

All but Russia have committed to operating the station through 2030, but the Vladimir Putin led country have only committed to at least 2028.

“The safe deorbit of the International Space Station is the responsibility of all five space agencies,” NASA previously said.

Musk, whose SpaceX company has been tasked with building a deorbit vehicle for the ISS, wants to decommission the space station by 2026.

The SpaceX boss, 53, is hoping to colonise Mars from 2050 so reckons that the International Space Station (ISS) is no longer needed.

“It is time to begin preparations for deorbiting the [ISS]. It has served its purpose,” he wrote on X.

“There is very little incremental utility. Let’s go to Mars.”

When he was asked by a follower when he’d like to begin deorbiting the ISS, he responded: “The decision is up to the President, but my recommendation is as soon as possible.

“I recommend 2 years from now.”

This comes after the ISS had 50 ‘areas of concern’ on board last year.

The American space agency and its Russian counterpart have been aware of leaks on the ISS, which have been there since 2019.

NASA told the Washington Post that Roscosmos has used ‘a combination of sealant and patches’ to cover up the cracks.

“We have conveyed the seriousness of the leaks multiple times, including when I was in Russia earlier this year,” NASA associate administrator, Jim Free, told the outlet.

As a fix, they instructed astronauts to keep the hatch closed as much as possible ‘in the evening’.

“We’ve asked them to minimise how long that hatch is open, and they are minimising it,” Free said.

“We’ve come to a compromise that they close it in the evening.”

The space agency believes that the ISS is still safe enough for operation.

That being said, the leak rate still ‘ranges from 2 to 2.5 pounds (of air) per day above space station baseline,’ NASA said a few months ago.

According to Healthline, around five to ten percent of the population have thalassophobia. That’s a crushing fear of deep bodies of water, if you didn’t know!

A survey conducted by the University of South Australia back in 2021 claimed that a lot of people who hate the water are petrified of sharks, while others are a bit more wary of drowning in deep water.

A big chunk of people are actually scared of other animal encounters too, and, after watching this viral social media video, you may be as well.

Basically, it shows a guy who works on an oil rig amusing himself while standing on top of one of the towering platforms.

For starters, those with a fear of heights were left feeling quite sickly, while others couldn’t believe that the man had put his trust in a metal grate to take his weight.

Although oil rigs are obviously erected with safety stuff in mind, it does look like the ideal spot for some kind of James Bond villain to install a trap door.

But thankfully, it isn’t Goldfinger up there – it’s just some Redditor mucking about while on his lunch break.

Anyway, he decides to drop a portion of his leftovers through the holes in the walkway, which is hundreds of feet in the air, right down into the ocean below to see what happens.

The identity of the snack he sent down to the fishes also sparked much debate online, as although it appeared to be some sort of flapjack, others reckoned it could have been a cookie or a chicken nugget.

But that is besides the point – unless you are trying to find out what aquatic creatures have an appetite for, of course.

As the unknown food object tumbled through the air, all was quiet – until it got a few feet away from the surface.

Out of nowhere, what looks like hundreds of fish start thrashing around in the previously calm waters as they all battle it out to get their hands on the gift from the skies.

They dart across to where it landed and devour the small chunk of grub, no doubt reducing it to nothing in just a matter of seconds.

As you can imagine, the footage has made people think twice about diving into what appear to be empty waters, as it seems you never know what could be lying in wait.

One viewer said: “Well, I’m never swimming outside a pool ever again.”

A second joked: “Note to self: don’t fall off an oil rig.”

“Bro singlehandedly caused an all-out war down there,” penned a fellow Redditor.

“That metal floor is the difference between you living another day or turning into fish food,” another commented.

Someone else chimed in, saying: “I’m not going into that water.”

Others pointed out that fish tend to hang about near oil rigs due to it being a good spot for plants and marine life to base, while they also get the odd scrap off humans.

But as we all know, where fish go, sharks tend to follow.

Another social media user pointed out: “Food drops, pool of fish emerge. Pool of fish emerge, sharks emerge.”

Some even said the footage seemed to have captured the ‘real life version’ of the Lachrymose Leeches in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events… and if that isn’t enough to keep you out of the water, I don’t know what is.

Advanced Data Protection (ADP) is a tool which protects your data stored in the iCloud with end-to-end encryption. The tool means only the user who owns it can see the data, such as pictures and documents, and not even Apple can see them.

Before you think of upgrading to a new phone or making a switch from Android, be aware that new customers in the UK will no longer have access to the advanced security settings immediately, with many fearing the change will open a back door to bad actors.

An Apple spokesperson said: “Apple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the United Kingdom to new users and current UK users will eventually need to disable this security feature.”

It will still remain available outside of the UK.

So in real terms, what do these changes mean for iPhone users? Data that falls under standard data protection will now be accessible by Apple and also shareable with law enforcement if they have a warrant.

The removal of ADP doesn’t affect the 14 iCloud data categories that are end-to-end encrypted by default. This includes services like iMessage and FaceTime, iCloud Keychain and Health.

The areas to be concerned about are the nine iCloud categories which now only fall under Standard Data Protection.

These nine categories are iCloud Backup, iCloud Drive, Photos, Notes, Reminders, Safari Bookmarks, Siri Shortcuts, Voice Memos, Wallet Passes, and Freeform, which will now no longer have an option for end-to-end encryption.

Until these changes, nobody else could access your data, not even Apple.

The government had requested access and for the changes to be made.

The Apple spokesperson explained: “Enhancing the security of cloud storage with end-to-end encryption is more urgent than ever before.”

“Apple remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data and are hopeful that we will be able to do so in the future in the United Kingdom.

“As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”

The Apple website explains: “Standard data protection is the default setting for your account. Your iCloud data is encrypted in transit and stored in an encrypted format at rest.

“The encryption keys from your trusted devices are secured in Apple data centres, so Apple can decrypt your data on your behalf whenever you need it, such as when you sign in on a new device, restore from a backup or recover your data after you’ve forgotten your password.

“As long as you can sign in to your Apple Account successfully, you can access your backups, photos, documents, notes and more.”

Will Cathcart is the head of WhatsApp, and he shared his concerns over the government’s request.

He wrote: “If the UK forces a global backdoor into Apple’s security, it will make everyone in every country less safe. One country’s secret order risks putting all of us in danger and it should be stopped.”

The decision means Apple can no longer offer ADP to new users from today, and they will be providing guidance to existing users and customers in the UK soon.

The level of security means Apple cannot just disable ADP automatically.

Users will instead be given a window of time to disable the function themselves in order to be able to keep accessing their iCloud account.

The tech giant is unable to disable ADP automatically, and instead, you’ll be given a period of time to disable it yourself in order to keep using your iCloud account. Since it was an opt-in tool, you won’t have it enabled if you haven’t chosen to do so.

Outside of the UK, ADP continues to be available everywhere.

The change comes after the UK Government demanded to be given access to encrypted data stored by Apple in the cloud service, and the demand for access came from the Home Office under the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA).

The act forces companies to provide information to law enforcement agencies.

If there are any apps that you are concerned about being left unsecured within an iCloud backup, you should disable these from within your iCloud settings.

It’s no secret that travellers will go to extreme lengths to get the perfect snapshots of their holidays to share on social media, and several tourists will go to dangerous lengths to get the perfect photo—sometimes with deadly consequences.

This is what happened to 53-year-old Olga Perminova, from Saratov, Russia, after she leaned out of a train carriage to take a photo on Sri Lanka’s famous Podi Menike train route.

Perminova had been travelling towards the town of Ella on a route which has become increasingly popular with tourists due to its picturesque scenery and passes over the famous Nine Arches Bridge.

While passing through luscious green forests and mountainous terrain, Perminova decided to document the moment and leaned backwards out of the carriage while holding handrails.

This is where tragedy would occur as Perminova collided with a rock, fell from the carriage and suffered severe head injuries, later dying in hospital.

A report from local authorities explained that Perminova, a grandmother from the Moscow region, had died after falling from the train while ‘attempting to take a selfie’ between the Badulla and Hali Ela railway stations.

“The woman knocked against a rock, fell off the train and sustained severe injuries,” the report added.

Photos from Perminova’s final moments show her wearing a pink dress and learning out of the carriage while smiling.

Her body will now be repatriated back to the Eastern European country.

Perminova’s tragic death is one of many cautionary tales of tourists dying at holiday hotspots.

According to statistics published by Slate, there was 379 selfie-related deaths between the period of 2008 and 2021.

Recent fatalities include the 35-year-old Tobias Fischer, who died while hiking in in the Taganga district of northern Colombia last October.

According to MailOnline, he had tried to take a selfie near a viewpoint when he lost his footing and fell into a nearby ravine.

His death was later reported as an accident.

Meanwhile, Czech athlete Natalie Stichova fell to her death just two months earlier near a castle in Bavaria, Germany which is popular with tourists.

The 23-year-old had reportedly fallen 80 metres down the Tegelberg Mountain in August 2024 after attempting to take a photo of Neuschwanstein Castle, which served as the inspiration for Walt Disney classic Sleeping Beauty.