Bits and Bites and Bee Stings from Around the World > Woman loses arm to lion in Aussie zoo; Attacked by Grizzly in northern B.C.; Bee attack in France sends 3 to hospital, 24 injured

 

Woman loses arm in lion attack at Australian zoo

By Darryl Coote

July 7 (UPI) -- A woman has lost her arm after being attacked by a lion at Queensland's Darling Downs Zoo over the weekend officials said.

The unidentified woman was attacked Sunday morning and was airlifted to Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, where she underwent surgery. Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls said the victim had lost an arm but was "recovering well" at the medical facility.

The zoo said the attack happened at around 8:30 a.m. local time Sunday.

It identified the woman in a statement as "a much-loved member of our family" who was "well-versed in safety protocols around potentially dangerous animals."

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According to the zoo, the woman was watching keepers work in the carnivore precinct when, "inexplicably," one of the animals grabbed her by the arm, causing severe damage.

"At no stage did this animal leave its enclosure, and there was no risk at all to staff members or members of the public," it said.

The zoo added that the attack occurred during an activity the woman "has done many, many times over the past 20 years."

"Police and Workplace Health and Safety personnel are investigating this incident and have been on site all morning," the zoo said. "The zoo is working with them to establish how this incident occurred, but the full details will not be known until our family member can be interviewed."

The zoo later clarified that the involved animal will neither be euthanized nor punished.

Last month, the zoo promoted its lions on its Facebook page, stating its managing director, Steven Robinson, and his wife, Stephanie, have been breeding lions since 1997 and moved their collection to the Darling Downs Zoo in 2002.

"Every day at 10 a.m., they are on supervised display to our visitors and are also available for some personalized encounters," the June post stated. "These encounters are strictly monitored to ensure their enjoyment of them and their wellbeing."

The zoo said it expects to reopen at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Man recovering from injuries after ‘defensive’ grizzly bear attack in B.C.

British Columbia’s Conservation Officer Service says a man is recovering from non-life-threatening injuries after a grizzly bear attack in northern B.C. that the service has deemed “defensive in nature.”

According to a post on Facebook by the service, the attack took place at approximately 11 a.m. local time in a remote, fly-in location approximately 110 kilometres west of Fort Nelson, B.C., where a group was working in the area.

“The victim noticed a grizzly bear and two cubs nearby just as the sow charged,”  the service wrote. “The victim was bitten and scratched before the bear disengaged.”

Members of the work group helped the man, who was flown to hospital for treatment and has since been released. The entire group was evacuated from the area.

Conservation officers say the attack was determined to be defensive in nature following an investigation into the circumstances, which included interviewing both the victim and a witness.

As a result of the investigation, as well as the remote location, officials say no efforts are being made to capture or dispatch the bear.

Bee attack in southern France leaves 3 hospitalized, 24 injured

By Katie Scott  Global News

Posted July 7, 2025 12:42 pm

 2 min read

A rare bee attack in the French town of Aurillac left 24 people injured, including some critically, according to local authorities.

People walking in the south-central France town were stung over a period of 30 minutes on July 6, according to The Associated Press.

Firefighters and medical teams were rushed to the scene to treat the victims, while police set up a security perimeter until the bees stopped their attack.

Aurillac Mayor Pierre Mathonier told French broadcaster BFM TV on July 7 that the three people in critical condition were sent to a local hospital and their condition has since improved.

One of them, a 78-year-old, had to be resuscitated in the fire department’s ambulance after cardiorespiratory arrest. That person is now in stable condition, Mathonier said. The two others “are in good health,” he added.

Mathonier told the media that the bees may have become aggressive after their rooftop hives were attacked by Asian hornets. He said the rooftop beehives were installed in a downtown hotel more than 10 years ago.

He also said that the beekeeper has removed the beehive and relocated it outside of the town.

“All ended well,” Mathonier told the public television network France 3. “The emergency services were perfectly coordinated. There was no panic in Aurillac, but a number of people were stung.”

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Mathonier added that the 78-year-old victim was stung 25 times.

Lt. Col. Michel Cayla, in charge of the local fire services, said he had never experienced such an attack.

“In terms of the number of victims, the panic among the people and the severity of some of the injuries, it was impressive,” he told broadcaster TF1.

Reactions to stings from honeybees and wasps range in severity from minor to potentially fatal, according to the Mayo Clinic. In most cases, stings only cause a brief, sharp pain, along with slight swelling and redness.

If you’re allergic to insect venom, a more severe reaction, called anaphylaxis, can occur and require emergency medical attention, the Mayo Clinic explains.

Corruption is Everywhere > Today's Boeing flight fright

 

Dramatic audio captures Southwest pilot declaring

emergency after engine cover rips off

By 

Social Links forYaron Steinbuch

Published April 8, 2024, 12:17 p.m. ET

Dramatic cockpit audio captured the frantic pilot of a Southwest Airlines flight asking for an “immediate return” to Denver and declaring an emergency after an engine cover ripped off shortly after taking off with 143 people on board.

"Frantic" is a bit extreme. The pilot should be commended for his response to this emergency.

“We don’t know the nature of the emergency but apparently several passengers and flight attendants hear something loud hit the wing,” the pilot of the Houston-bound Boeing 737-800 says in a recording obtained by LiveATC.net.

A few seconds later, he tells the controller: “Let’s go ahead and declare an emergency for Southwest 3695 and we’d like an immediate return.

3

The engine cover ripped off shortly after takeoff.

@SweeneyABC / X

“We’ve got a piece of engine cowling hanging off, apparently,” he adds.

Terrifying video posted on X by ABC’s chief transportation reporter Sam Sweeney shows the cover flapping in the wind in full view of the passengers.

The pilot then informs traffic control that he was planning a flaps-up landing — a procedure in which the devices, which are normally lowered to provide extra lift at slower speeds, are kept up during certain emergencies.

The Federal Aviation Administration has confirmed that the cowling detached and struck one of the flaps.

“We’re moving everybody out of the way,” the controller advises the pilot, who is busy running through checklists.

3

The damaged engine.

@SweeneyABC / X

When asked for more information about the damage, the pilot says he “thought the flap from the inboard of the side between the engine and the fuselage ripped off on takeoff.

“We don’t actually see it from the cockpit — that’s just what the crew in the back are telling us,” he adds. “The engines seem to be fine but we’re structurally damaged.”

The pilot then asks to change the landing runway due to “the flaps up and the heavy gross weight” of the plane, which still carried about five hours of fuel.

Moments later, the flight landed safely and was met by emergency vehicles. No one was injured in the terrifying incident.

A Southwest rep told The Post the incident was the result of a “mechanical issue” on the plane, which was manufactured in 2017.

“Southwest Flight 3695 returned to Denver International Airport this morning and landed safely after experiencing a mechanical issue. Our Customers will arrive at Houston Hobby on another aircraft, approximately three hours behind schedule,” the spokesperson said.

The plane returned to Denver about 25 minutes after takeoff.

A Boeing spokesperson directed The Post’s inquiries to Southwest.

The embattled aerospace giant has been dogged by a series of safety issues and CEO Dave Calhoun has announced he will step down from his post at the end of the year.

On Jan. 5, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 suffered a near-catastrophic mid-flight blowout when a door plug blew off at an altitude of 16,000 feet.

The plane made an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon, with a hole the size of a refrigerator. Miraculously, just one of the 177 passengers was injured. 

Last month, the Justice Department announced it had launched a criminal investigation into the incident. Boeing and Alaska Airlines have also since been hit with a $1 billion lawsuit over safety concerns.

Man-Made Coronavirus Leaked from Wuhan Lab - Ex-MI6 Boss

LAB LEAK Coronavirus pandemic started as ‘an accident’

when man-made virus leaked from China lab, ex-MI6 boss says

Alex Winter

THE coronavirus pandemic "started as an accident" when the engineered virus escaped from a Chinese lab, a former MI6 chief has said.

Sir Richard Dearlove says he's seen an "important" new report which claims the virus didn't emerge naturally.

A former spy chief claims Covid-19 didn't occur naturally in the wild, but may have been created instead

by Chinese scientists  Credit: AP:Associated Press

Instead, it was created by Chinese scientists before it accidentally leaked, Sir Richard told The Telegraph.

And he claimed the report could force China to pay 'reparations' to the rest of the world for the death toll and economic hardship wrought by the virus.

International scientists believe the virus emerged in animals - most likely bats or pangolins - before jumping to the human population.

But Sir Richard says a scientific paper published this week by a Norwegian-British research team suggests key elements of Covid-19's genetic sequences were "inserted" and may not have evolved naturally.

He said: "It raises the issue, if China ever were to admit responsibility, does it pay reparations?

"I think it will make every country in the world rethink how it treats its relationship with China."

Sir Richard suggested scientists may have been conducting secret gene-splicing experiments on bat coronaviruses when Covid-19 somehow escaped through a lapse in biosecurity.

"It's a risky business if you make a mistake," he said.

It's an insane business and ought to be a crime against humanity.

Sir Richard, who was the head of MI6 between 1999 and 2004, said he's read peer-reviewed research produced by top academics at St George's Hospital at the University of London and Norwegian virologists.

The paper claims that there are 'inserted sections' in the DNA of the virus, and warns that current efforts to develop a vaccine are doomed - because the virus has been misunderstood.

Some have claimed the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology  Credit: AFP or licensors

Sir Richard called the study a "very important contribution to a debate which is now starting" about how the virus evolved and then turned into a pandemic.

Sir Richard says it could raise questions about how China will compensate affected countries Credit: Reuters

The paper has been rewritten several times, and an earlier version apparently claimed coronavirus could correctly be called the "Wuhan virus".

The earlier version, seen by The Telegraph, claimed to have proven "beyond all reasonable doubt that the Covid-19 virus is engineered."

One of the authors, John Fredrik Moxnes, asked for his name to be withdrawn from the research, throwing its credibility into doubt.

London academics have also dismissed its conclusions, it is understood.

But the remaining authors claim the virus has "unique fingerprints" that cannot have evolved naturally.

The paper has not yet been accepted for publication in any scientific journal.

The Chinese government has always insisted that the outbreak began in a "wet market" in the city of Wuhan late last year.

Coronavirus: Chinese CDC Now Says The Wuhan Wet Market Wasn't The Origin of The Virus

The truth, it seems is slowly emerging. It is just too much of a coincidence to believe that the very coronavirus the Wuhan Lab was working on began naturally in a wet market just down the street! 

Coronavirus: Dossier Lays Out Case Against China Bat Virus Program; Designer Virus

Nobel Prize-Winning Scientist Who Discovered HIV Says Coronavirus Was Created In Lab (second story on link immediately above)

Wuhan P4 Lab ‘Had Emergency Shutdown’ Last October; People Disappear

Coronavirus is 'Uniquely Adapted to Infect Humans'

Petitioning Against Climate Alarmism Goes Global

“There is No Climate Emergency”

By Larry Bell 

CFACT

A petition being submitted by hundreds of independent climate scientists and professionals from numerous countries to heads of the European Council, Commission and Parliament declares “There is No Climate Emergency.”

Briefly summarized, the request for consideration conveys five urgent messages:

Climate change is real and has been occurring with nature-driven cold and warm cycles for as long as the planet has existed.

There should be no surprise that the Earth has been warming through natural causes since the last Little Ice Age ended around 1870. Actual temperature increases, however, are far less than predicted by theoretical climate models.

There is no real evidence that anthropogenic (human-caused) CO2 emissions are a major or dangerous warming influence. They instead offer great benefits to agriculture, forestry and photosynthesis that is the basis for life.

There is also no scientific evidence that increasing CO2 levels are causing more natural disasters. However, CO2-reduction measures do have devastating impacts on wildlife (e.g. wind turbines), land use (e.g. forest clearance), and vital energy systems.

Energy policies must be based on scientific and economic realities — not upon a harmful and unrealistic “2050-carbon-neutral policy” driven by unfounded climate alarm.

The petition concludes by recommending the recognition of clear difference in policies addressing the Earth’s environment through good stewardship versus Earth’s climate, the latter of which “is largely caused by a complex combination of natural phenomena we cannot control.”

100 Italian scientists

This recent petition to EU leaders signed by approximately 100 Italian scientists from many prominent organizations urges recognition of the same basic realities.

The Italian petition calls attention to the fact that the planet has previously been warmer than the present period, despite lower atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Warming periods have been repeated about every thousand years, including “the well-known Medieval Warm Period, the Hot Roman Period, and generally warm periods during the Optimal Holocene period.”

Most recent climate warming observed since 1850 followed the Little Ice Age – the coldest period of the last 10,000 years. “Since then, solar activity, following its [previous cooling-influence] millennial cycle, has increased by heating the Earth’s surface.”

The notification advises that climate, “the most complex system on our planet,” needs to be addressed with scientific methods that are “adequate and consistent with its level of complexity.”

This system “is not sufficiently understood. And while CO2 is indisputably a greenhouse gas, “according to [UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] IPCC itself, the climate sensitivity to its increase in the atmosphere is still extremely uncertain.”

The petition states that “In any case, many recent studies based on experimental data estimate that the climate sensitivity to CO2 is considerably lower than estimated by the IPCC models.” Accordingly, all evidence suggests that such models “overestimate the anthropic [human] contribution and underestimate the natural climatic variability, especially that induced by the sun, the moon, and ocean oscillations.”

Likewise, alarmist media claims that extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and cyclones, are increasing in frequency are entirely inaccurate and typically far more directly tied to natural ocean oscillation cycles.

Again, the Italian signatories from numerous universities and research organizations take strong issue against “deplorable propaganda” claiming that carbon dioxide is a pollutant rather than a molecule that is indispensable to life on our planet.

Accordingly, given “the crucial importance that fossil fuels have for the energy supply of humanity,” the petitioners urge that the EU should not adopt economically burdensome and unwarranted CO2 reduction policies under “the illusory pretense of governing the climate.”

The petitioners also emphasize that while credible facts must be based upon scientific methods, not determined by numbers of supporting theorists, there is no alleged “consensus” among specialist in many and varied climate disciplines suggesting that human-influenced climate change presents an imminent danger. They point out that many thousands of scientists have previously expressed dissent with alarmist anti-fossil energy conjecture.

31,000 American scientists

More than 31,000 American scientists from diverse climate-related disciplines signed a Global Warming Petition Project rejecting limits on greenhouse gas emissions attached to the 1977 Kyoto Protocol and similar proposals. The list of signatories included 9,021 Ph.D.s, 6,961 at the master’s level, 2,240 medical doctors, and 12,850 carrying a bachelor of science or equivalent academic degree.

A 12-page petition attachment was introduced with a cover letter issued by Fredrick Seitz, a past president of the National Academy of Sciences and former president of Rockefeller University. It read, in part:

“This treaty is, in our opinion, based upon flawed ideas. Research data on climate change do not show that human use of hydrocarbons is harmful. To the contrary, there is good evidence that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is environmentally helpful.”

The letter added, “The proposed agreement would have very negative effects upon the technology of nations around the world, especially those that are currently attempting to lift from poverty and provide opportunities to over 4 billion people in technologically undeveloped countries.”

Gratefully, an American Congress at that time listened to that sage advice and unanimously agreed. We can only fervently hope that more current legislators will continue to be equally wise.

There is no hope for such wisdom in the #PCMadness of Canada.

Larry Bell

CFACT Advisor Larry Bell heads the graduate program in space architecture at the University of Houston. He founded and directs the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture. He is also the author of "Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind the Global Warming Hoax."

‘Entirely Preventable’: Aid Agencies Blame Saudi Arabia for Yemen Cholera Outbreak

‘Entirely preventable’: Aid agencies blame Yemen blockade, economic collapse for cholera outbreak

People infected with cholera lie on beds at a hospital in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, Yemen May 14, 2017. © Abduljabbar Zeyad / Reuters

Leading international organizations including Red Cross and the UN have pointed to the Saudi-led blockade and bombing campaign over the past two years as central causes behind the cholera epidemic that has already taken over 180 lives.

Calling the situation “catastrophic,” Dominik Stillhart, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Director of Operations, told RT from Yemen that with 11,000 confirmed cases the hospitals he personally visited in the capital, Sana’a, were “really struggling to cope,” with “heartbreaking” scenes of people having to share beds, amid a never-ceasing inflow of new patients.

Stillhart said that that 160 hospitals and other medical facilities have been destroyed, predominantly as the result of bombing by the Saudi-led, Western-backed coalition of Sunni Muslim states that have been attempting to put out a Shia rebellion that began in spring 2015, “seriously weakening the health system.”

This is a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Iran wants to spread its influence throughout the region but Saudi Arabia does not want an Iran-friendly, Shia government on its flank. 

It seem as if Muslims who can't find infidels to fight, will resort to fighting among themselves. "My brand of Islam is better than your brand of Islam; I kill you!" 

Except for Ireland, and Ireland is always an exception, you really don't see that kind of infighting among Christians. At least not in the last few hundred years. 

The ICRC second-in-command also blamed the Saudi-imposed aerial and naval blockade for leading to the famine and poverty that provided a breeding ground for the epidemic, which has resulted in a declaration of a state of emergency.

“There is a situation where people are not only affected by the direct consequences of conflict, but the economy has been seriously slowed down, because it is very costly to move goods across the country through the different frontlines. Then there is the aerial blockade, and it is difficult to move food into some of the seaports,” said Stillhart, who insisted that ICRC have “repeatedly called on the conflict participants” to allow full access for humanitarian supplies.

Stillhart estimated that over 17 million Yemenis – two-thirds of the population – require humanitarian assistance, and 10 million are in “acute need” of food aid.

The collapse of the economy has led to civil servants, including public sanitation workers, not being paid for eight months, which has meant that “garbage-laden water has been running through the streets of Sana’a when it rains,” creating the perfect conditions for a disease that has mostly been eliminated even in the developing world, says Sara Tesorieri, Advocacy and Policy Adviser for Norwegian Refugee Council in Yemen.

“Cholera is preventable. If you have the health systems and the response in place, you can control its spread, but the systems here have just been decimated. And the authorities don’t have the capacity that they had even four months ago to deal with this,” Tesorieri told RT from Sana’a.

Tesorieri said that international organizations are struggling to overcome the natural difficulties of working in a country that has been carved up by untidy frontlines, but hinted that there has been conscious resistance to allowing aid through – echoing previous expert concerns that civilian starvation and disease are being used as deliberate tactics.

“There is an issue of basically the strangulation of imports. That somewhat affects the aid situation, but more it just affects how great the needs are. Yemen imports 90 percent of its food, so any sort of obstruction of imports of any kind really puts the country at risk,” said Tesorieri. “We do encounter obstacles from authorities as well and we encounter obstacles simply because the fighting continues, and that makes it difficult to reach certain areas.”

“People are not able to buy water that’s pure,” Jamie McGoldrick, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, told RT. “We are just not able to see how we can turn this around quickly. And time is of the essence, because cholera does not wait for anybody.”

All three experts have accused leading international powers of failing to dedicate enough diplomatic and financial resources to ending the conflict, which remains finely balanced.

“We have less than 20 percent of our appeal funded, despite a pledging event two weeks ago in Geneva, where over $1.1 billion was pledged. We have not seen that money. And until we get that money, we cannot address the threat of famine later this year or more importantly we cannot address the current cholera outbreak,” McGoldrick said.

“All of this is entirely preventable,” Tesorieri said. “The deaths and suffering from cholera, the potential famine – these are the consequence of the conflict and the choices that the parties to the conflict and the parties that support them are making to continue this fighting, which is leading to a collapse of Yemen.”

Despite a top UN official calling Yemen “the worst humanitarian crisis since 1945,” and stated efforts by the organization to seek a ceasefire before Ramadan, which starts later this month, Stillhart warned the plight of the country will only deepen in the coming months.

“My biggest concern is that with no end in sight to the fighting, is that the situation will continue to deteriorate. It is absolutely crucial that the international community pays much more attention to the conflict and finds a resolution. In the absence of a resolution, it is key to respect international humanitarian law,” he told RT.