Strange stories from around the world, some of which might be true...
- Red fire ants, native to South America but often called the world's most invasive species, have arrived in Europe, with sightings in Italy. The species is known for its painful sting, which can be life-threatening
to humans in rare cases. ● More than 17,000 species of animals and plants have been reintroduced to Winmarleigh Moss in Lancashire as part of an effort to restore the Garstang peat bog. Among the species are
white beak sedge, bog asphodel and the insect-eating greater sundew. ● In 2012 Janet Dunbar adopted two formerly-feral cats from the RSPCA on the Wirral where she lived. Six weeks later one of them, called
Clarke, escaped and she spent four years trying to find him before moving to Sandbach in Cheshire. She recently received a phone call from a vet in Prenton, near her former home, telling her they had been handed a
stray cat and his microchip identified him as Clarke. When she told them them he had gone missing in 2012 they said they thought that was a mistake on the record. She - and Scarlett, the other rescue cat - have now
been reunited with Clarke. ● Scientists aboard the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's research ship Okeanos Explorer are baffled by a gold-coloured object discovered on the sea bed
2 miles (3.2km) below the surface off Alaska during a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) dive. They retrieved it using the ROV but are reportedly still baffled. [It looks like a hatched shark egg case to us... -Ed]
● There have been widespread sightings of crystal jellyfish around the coast of Cornwall and the Channel Islands this summer adding to evidence of warming seas. Samples have been taken to identify which
species of the Aequorea family they are.
- A high school teacher and his students using a school telescope have discovered that Dimorphos, the asteroid deliberately hit by NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) last September is not behaving as
expected. After the impact NASA reported that Dimorphos' orbit around its parent asteroid Didymos had shortened by 33 minutes, but the school astronomers found that a month later the orbit had shortened
by another minute, which was not expected. It is possible that Dimorphos is tumbling instead of being tidally locked, or material thrown up by the impact has fallen back onto the surface, increasing its mass and
slowing its orbit. The European Space Agency's Hera mission is due to arrive at Dimorphos in 2026 and should provide some answers. ● Japan is bidding to become the fifth nation to reach the lunar surface
with the successful launch of a spacecraft carrying a lander at the fourth attempt (the first three were scuppered by bad weather). The Japanese lander is due to attempt a landing on the near side of the Moon in
February. ● NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter has captured a distant image of its 'mothership', the Perseverence rover. ● NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected methane and carbon dioxide but
little ammonia in the atmosphere of K2-18b, an exoplanet 8.6 times the size of Earth, suggesting that it could be mostly covered in water under a hydrogen-rich atmosphere. The JWST has also tentatively detected dimethyl
sulfide, which on Earth is only produced by lifeforms, mostly marine phytoplankton, although further research is needed to confirm the finding. K2-18b lies in the 'goldilocks' orbital range of its star, where it is
thought life could exist. It is 120 light years from Earth. ● A spectacular explosion, brighter and shorter-lasting than most observed supernovae has been observed by astronomers from Queen's University, Belfast,
using the Atlas telescope network. It is thought to have been caused by an intermediate-mass black hole devouring a star. The team have coined the term "luminous fast cooler" to describe such phenomena, partly
because lead astronomer Dr Matt Nicholl and some of the others are fans of Liverpool Football Club. "It's a nice coincidence," Nicholl said, "that our LFCs seem to prefer red galaxies."
- A cache of four "excellently preserved" Roman swords has been discovered hidden in a cave near Israel's Dead Sea. Three of the swords were sheathed and a pilum (military javelin) was also found in the
cave. It is thought that they had been captured by rebel Jewish forces in battle and hidden as booty. ● More than a hundred examples of cave art thought to be at least 24,000 years old have been discovered in
a 1,600'- (500m)-deep cave near Valencia, Spain. The art depicts horses, deer and aurochs (wild bulls). ● A pencil sketch of Dover by John Constable has been discovered during a house clearance in Leeds. It
was in a smashed frame in a suitcase. ● Fossil tracks discovered on South Africa's Cape coast have been interpreted as the earliest known evidence of human ancestors wearing shoes, as there are no toe impressions.
They are though to have formed between 70,000 and 130,000 years ago. ● Two Cold War weapons-testing laboratories at Orford Ness, Suffolk, which are closed to both the public and staff for safety reasons have been
studied using drones and a robotic "dog" - all designed by Boston Dynamics - to survey and record them before their inevitable loss to the sea. The facility was built in the 1960s for environmental tests on
the atom bomb, including vibrations, heat and shock that a weapon might be subject to, although there was never any nuclear material involved. ● An original 20" (50cm) model of an X-wing fighter used in the
climactic attack on the Death Star in the original Star Wars film, unseen for decades, is to be auctioned next month. The X-Wing, which was in the collection of the late Oscar-nominated model maker Greg Jein,
has servo-controlled wings and lights for close-up shots and is described as being as significant to film history as Dorothy's ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz. Bidding is expected to start at $400,000
(£320,000). ● A collection of James Bond memorabilia built up over 30 years by Nick Bennett, which is mentioned in The Guinness Book of Records, is to be put up for auction.
- A man has pleaded guilty to charges of assault and criminal damage after driving a privately-owned military-style lorry through a police road block near Tauton, Somerset, last weekend. The lorry drove over some
of the police cars and pushed others out of the way before crashing into a wall. ● Twenty-two years since the 9/11 attack on New York City's World Trade Center the remains of two more victims have been identified
using DNA sequencing. A man and a woman, their names were not revealed at the request of their families. ● Police called by members of the public who thought they had seen several victims of a mass murder lying
on the floor of the North Sea Observatory in Chapel St Leonards, Lincolnshire, raced to the scene in five squad cars only to find that the 'victims' were members of a yoga class who had been taking part in a relaxation
exercise lying on the floor with blankets over their heads while instructor Millie Laws walked among them banging a drum. Laws told reporters that she initially thought that reports of her being a mass murderer were a
joke, while Lincolnshire Police said the call was made with good intentions and everyone was safe and well. ● Van Gogh's painting The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring was stolen from the Dutch town
of Laren in March 2020 but has now been returned via a third party. A man handed it to art detective Arthur Brand, in a pillow and Ikea bag. It is thought that the thief had quickly sold the painting on, and the man
who returned it was not suspected of involvement by Dutch police who coordinated its return with Brand and the man. ● A man who tried to play a prank on his neighbours by leaving fake arms and legs sticking out
of their rubbish bin found himself confronted by police after members of the public called them. ● A Nebraska man who called police to report that he had almost been hit by a car being driven on the wrong side
of the road was arrested - for drunk driving and driving on the wrong side of the road...
- What could be the largest lithium deposit in the world has been found inside an extinct volcano on the border of Nevada and Oregon in the United States. It is thought to contain enough lithium to meet global
demands for battery production for decades. The volcano last erupted around 16 million years ago. ● Social media and security camera videos of the earthquake which struck Morocco this week have recorded
earthquake lights (EQL), an unexplained phenomena where flashes in the sky accompany seismic events. Some lights are hypothesised to be caused by shaking power lines, but others, reported as ball or sheet lightning,
or occurring far from power cables, are harder to explain. ● The eruption of the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai underwater volcano in January 2022 caused underwater flows of rock, ash and mud travelling at up to
75mph (122km/h), the fastest ever recorded, according to newly-released research, as well as the most intense lightning storm on record, with 2,600 flashes a minute. ● The heatwave across Britain that ended this
week provided the hottest day of the year and the longest run of daily temperatures above 30oC (86oF) on record.
IN BRIEF: A couple attempting to join the mile-high club in the toilet aboard an EasyJet flight from Luton to Ibiza last week were met with a combination of laughter and cheering after a flight attendant
opened the door on them in flagrante delicto (we presume thinking someone was in distress)... As one poster on TwitterX commented, it was a good thing they were on EasyJet as Ryanair would
have charged them extra... The airline confirmed that the couple were met by police on landing but did not say if they had been arrested. ● A "cursed" painting which has been returned to a charity
shop twice after purchasers reported strange events including being followed by a shadowy black figure, has been sold in an online auction for £1,680 ($2,100) plus fees. ● Two spectators at last weekend's
Great North Run half-marathon have been awarded event medals after helping 78-year-old John Curd, who was struggling with calf pain and disturbed by lightning near the end of the race. It was Mr Curd's 40th
Great North Run. The two helped him to a St John Ambulance station, where they heard his story, then one of the men took his race number and set off running, meeting up with the other man and Mr Curd 660' (200m) from
finish, having been transported there. Mr Curd was given his number back and the men helped him across the line. ● A lost hiker in Alaska's Katmai National Park was rescued after people watching one of the
parks webcams, set up to film wild bears catching salmon, spotted the man, in seeming distress, and messaged the camera's operator who contacted Park authorities. ● Experienced caver Mark Dickey has been
rescued from Turkey's Morca Cave, where he had been leading a mapping expedition in a new passage, after coming down with gastrointestinal bleeding and being trapped deep underground for ten days. More than 150 cavers
from around the world helped extract him, and he was given a blood transfusion underground before being lifted out and taken to hospital. ● A climber on New Zealand's Mount Taranaki has survived a 2,000' (600m)
fall with only minor injuries. Police said that spring weather had softened the ice on the mountain, causing him to land in snow. ● Two wine tanks at a distillery in the Portuguese village of Sao Lourenco do
Bairro burst this week, causing 600,000 gallons (2m litres) of red wine to flood down the village streets. The wine was not due for consumption, but was going to be distilled into raw alcohol for other products
including oils and cleaning supplies. ● Gill Castle from Alnwick, has become the first person with a stoma bag to swim solo across the English Channel, taking just under 14 hours to cross from Dover to France.
● Jonty Warneken, who lost his leg after a 1994 car crash, has become the first amputee to swim across the North Channel, from Northern Ireland to Scotland.
UPDATES:The Yamaha baby grand piano which Freddie Mercury used to compose songs including "Bohemian Rhapsody" sold at auction for £1.7m ($2.12m). ● A third man man has been arrested
in connection with the fire that destroyed the Crooked House pub last month. All three men arrested so far have been released on conditional bail while police investigations continue.
The class were learning about pirates. "Alright, children," the teacher said, "how do you recognise a pirate?"
Little Mary put her hand up. "They fly the Jolly Roger, Miss!"
Little Simon put his hand up. "They wear eyepatches, Miss!"
Little Jennifer thought for a moment. "They think they're pirates, Miss!"
"How would that work, Little Jennifer," the teacher asked, puzzled.
Little Jennifer smiled as only she could. "They think they're pirates, Miss, so they ARRRRRR!"
