Camacho

@Jazzy Jan

they’re very lucky mama bear wasn’t nearby! Group caught on camera pulling bear cubs from tree to take pictures with them By Emily Mae Czachor April 18, 2024 / 1:54 PM EDT / CBS News RACHEL STAUDT / NORTH CAROLINA WILDLIFE RESOURCES COMMISSION A group of people was recorded pulling two bear cubs from a tree in North Carolina on Tuesday afternoon, apparently to take pictures with the animals and leaving one orphaned and potentially injured in the process. In an unsettling videotaken by onlooker Rachel Staudt, the group of around five people is seen approaching a tree lining the fence of an apartment complex in Asheville, where the two small cubs are perched on branches. At first, the cubs are partially obscured by the foliage. But, as the group gets closer to the tree, a few of the individuals reach directly through the leaves to grab hold of the bears and begin to tug until each animal loses its grip on the branch to which it was clinging. Someone manages to yank one of the cubs away sooner than the other. That person ends up holding the cub as if it were a small child, petting it with one hand, posing and smiling while another member of the group appears to snap a picture. Later, one of the two cubs seems to temporarily free itself and dart out from the area around the tree where the group has gathered. The cub runs over to the fence, stands up on its back legs, briefly changes direction and tries again before another individual comes up behind it and seemingly gestures to catch it. Ashley Hobbs, a special projects biologist at the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, responded after receiving a report that several people were pulling cubs from a tree to take selfies, she told CBS News in a statement. The agency's enforcement division has opened an investigation into the incident. Hobbs arrived to find the group of people still around, with only one of the two cubs present and sitting in a retention pond on the apartment complex property. It was lethargic, limping and had a low body temperature, she said. The other cub was no longer on the premises. "I confronted the offending people while at the apartment complex and explained the danger of approaching and handling wildlife," Hobbs said in the statement, noting specifically that attempting to handle bear cubs can pose serious threats to both the humans and animals involved. "There's always a chance that the mother is nearby and may attempt to defend her cubs," she said. "It also endangers the bear cubs. Handling a bear cub poses a risk of injuring that cub and increases the chance it will become separated from its mother." Wildlife experts, including Hobbs, say the importance of leaving be any wild animal instead of interfering. Even in situations where a bear cub or another animal seems to be orphaned or hurt, "leave the animal alone and contact your state wildlife agency for assistance," Hobbs said. A bear cub in Asheville, North Carolina, being prepared for transport to a rehabilitation center after a group of people pulled it from a tree to take pictures. NORTH CAROLINA WILDLIFE RESOURCES COMMISSION The cub was transported to the Appalachian Wildlife Refuge Center, a rehabilitation facility in nearby Candler, where, Hobbs said, it is now recovering well. She told CBS News that the cub will remain in the facility's care until it is old enough to be released into the wild. Bear cubs cannot survive on their own, so the refuge center will wait until the cub is a subadult — a range of ages between 4 and 6 years old where bears become independent of their mothers despite not yet being technically mature.

@Genevieve Vavance @Jazzy Jan she’s getting more paranoid and stupid

Greece legalises same-sex marriage February 15, 2024 By James Gregory / BBC News Greece has become the first Christian Orthodox-majority country to legalise same-sex marriage. Same-sex couples will now also be legally allowed to adopt children after Thursday's 176-76 vote in parliament. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the new law would "boldly abolish a serious inequality". But it has divided the country, with fierce resistance led by the powerful Orthodox Church. Its supporters held a protest rally in Athens. Many displayed banners, held crosses, read prayers and sang passages from the Bible in the capital's Syntagma Square. The head of the Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos, said the measure would "corrupt the homeland's social cohesion". The bill needed a simple majority to pass through the 300-member parliament. Mr Mitsotakis had championed the bill but required the support of opposition parties to get it over the line, with dozens of MPs from his centre-right governing party opposed. "People who have been invisible will finally be made visible around us, and with them, many children will finally find their rightful place," the prime minister told parliament during a debate ahead of the vote. "The reform makes the lives of several of our fellow citizens better, without taking away anything from the lives of the many." Opponents of the legislature held a protest rally in front of the parliament building in Athens The vote has been welcomed by LGBTQ organisations in Greece. "This is a historic moment," Stella Belia, the head of same-sex parents' group Rainbow Families, told Reuters news agency. "This is a day of joy." Fifteen of the European Union's 27 members have already legalised same-sex marriage. It is permitted in 35 countries worldwide. Greece has until now lagged behind some of its European neighbours, largely because of opposition from the Church. It is the first country in south-eastern Europe to have marriage equality.

President Biden is trailing Donald Trump in five of the six most important battleground states one year before the 2024 election, new polls by The New York Times and Siena College have found. https://nyti.ms/3QqiCIH