Trump admin acts after massive fraud uncovered at agency Dems tried to shield
Following the uncovering of a massive bribery scandal at USAID, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is ordering a full audit of all government contracting officers who have exercised grant-awarding authority under the agency’s business development program over the last 15 years.
In a letter obtained by Fox News Digital, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said the scale of the USAID fraud is a “damning reflection of systemic failures in oversight and accountability.” She further said that the fraud “was not an isolated incident.”
In response, Loeffler instructed Associate Administrator Tre Pennie, who oversees government contracts awarded by SBA, to “act decisively” to crack down on any potential similar abuses in the agency.
Loeffler instructed Pennie to immediately initiate a full-scale audit of the agency’s awarding officers back to 2010.
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“The role of federal government contracting officers is not ceremonial or self-dealing; rather, it is a position of immense authority and fiduciary responsibility,” said Loeffler. “The contracting process must be transparent and built on merit, not personal gain.”
This comes after USAID, an agency tasked with administering civilian foreign aid, was essentially dismantled by the DOGE waste, fraud and abuse cuts made under Elon Musk and President Donald Trump. The move was met with massive protests from Democrats who claimed that cutting USAID would impoverish and harm recipients across the globe.
Despite claims of how much good the agency was doing, it was recently discovered that an influential contracting officer at USAID named Roderick Watson was able to carry out a massive, long-term bribery scheme dating all the way back to 2013.
Watson, 57, pleaded guilty to “bribery of a public official,” according to a DOJ press release.
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According to the DOJ, Watson sold his influence starting in 2013, with contractors Walter Barnes, owner of Vistant, and Darryl Britt, owner of Apprio, funneling payoffs through subcontractor Paul Young to hide their tracks.
A DOJ press release said that Britt and Barnes “regularly funneled bribes to Watson, including cash, laptops, thousands of dollars in tickets to a suite at an NBA game, a country club wedding, downpayments on two residential mortgages, cellular phones, and jobs for relatives. The bribes were also often concealed through electronic bank transfers falsely listing Watson on payroll, incorporated shell companies, and false invoices.”
The statement said that Watson is alleged to have received bribes “valued at more than approximately $1 million as part of the scheme.”
Vistant was awarded in November 2023, as part of a joint venture, a contract worth up to $800 million with one of the focuses of that contract being to address “a variety of issues affecting the root causes of irregular migration from Central America to the United States,” an issue that President Joe Biden tasked then-Vice President Kamala Harris with during his presidency.
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Several days later, that contract was canceled after USAID published a notice that said Vistant was excluded from government contracting due to “evidence of conduct of a lack of business honesty or integrity.”
The joint venture then successfully sued the government over being put on that exclusion list and was re-awarded the contract and given a $10,000 payment in August 2024.
In her letter, Loeffler said the USAID scandal “represents a collapse in the very safeguards that are supposed to protect American taxpayer dollars and ensure fair access for legitimate small businesses.”
She slammed the Biden administration for awarding the $800 million contract to Vistant despite the business being labeled by USAID as lacking “honesty and integrity.”
“The fact that a federal official was able to act as the linchpin of a persistent, large-scale fraud operation speaks to a failure in internal controls and a breakdown in the contracting environment that demands immediate correction,” said Loeffler.
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She said that SBA plays a “critical role” in federal contracting and “will no longer stand by while abuses are perpetrated at the expense of taxpayers and deserving small businesses.”
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Loeffler said the agency’s audit will begin with high-dollar and limited competition contracts within SBA’s 8(a) business development program. The findings will be referred to the U.S. Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the DOJ.
Any officials or businesses found in violation of the SBA’s ethical standards or who have committed criminal misconduct will be referred to the appropriate authorities and SBA will assist the DOJ in recovering misappropriated funds, Loeffler said.
“We will not allow public trust to be quietly eroded by backdoor deals and unchecked discretion,” said Loeffler.
“We owe it to America’s small businesses to get this right,” she went on. “Your office has the authority, and now the mandate, to act decisively.”
Condoleezza Rice reveals thoughts on Trump’s strikes on Iran and their impact
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States and Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities are a significant moment for the Middle East and a sign of bolstered American credibility on the global stage.
Rice joined “Special Report” on Thursday after the United States struck three Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend, praising the American military and Israeli forces for their accomplishments.
“We will eventually know precisely how much the Iranian program was damaged, but I think all of the evidence is that it was substantially, significantly damaged to the place that, for a while at least, it will be hard to build a nuclear weapon,” she said.
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Iran’s Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites were hit early Sunday morning by U.S. B-2 bombers and Tomahawk missiles as part of Operation Midnight Hammer.
The B-2 bombers flew for 37 hours non-stop from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to drop 12 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators on Fordow and two on Natanz.
More than two dozen cruise missiles were also launched at Isfahan from a U.S. submarine.
Top Trump administration officials have maintained the “obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear program in the days following the strikes despite questions regarding the whereabouts of the Islamic Republic’s highly enriched uranium.
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“President Trump directed the most complex and secretive military operation in history. And it was a resounding success, resulting in a ceasefire agreement and the end of the 12 Day War,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a Thursday press briefing at the Pentagon.
“There’s been a lot of discussion about what happened and what didn’t happen. Step back for a second. Because of decisive military action, President Trump created the conditions to end the war, decimating, choose your word, obliterating, destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities.”
Rice told Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier that she believes the U.S. strikes set Iran’s nuclear program back significantly.
She criticized a leaked, “low-confidence” preliminary intelligence assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency — which claimed President Donald Trump’s strikes did not destroy key components of Iran’s nuclear facilities — as “irresponsible.”
“When you look at what the Israelis were able to do to Hezbollah, what they were able to do to Hamas — the significant efforts against the Iranian military establishment, against scientists. This really is a now-crippled Iran, and a crippled Iran is good for the region,” the Stanford professor explained.
The Trump administration is pushing for diplomatic talks with the Iranians following Operation Midnight Hammer, but Rice argued she has no doubts that the Iranian regime isn’t interested in peace, given its “legitimacy” is based on destroying Israel.
“We’ve had 46 years of the Iranians destabilizing the region, killing Americans. We’ve had 46 years of their proxies holding terror against Israel, against Iraq, against the people of the Middle East. So, no, they don’t want peace,” she said.
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The former Bush official added that the U.S. strikes were a “shot in the arm for American credibility” on the global stage following former President Joe Biden’s “disastrous” withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“Credibility is not something that you establish one day and then you sort of dial it in and say it’s done. We have to keep establishing that the United States is going to try and shape the international system, not just be a victim of it,” Rice said. “But what’s happened in the last couple of days is very, very good for American credibility.”
Harris campaign accused of lying about interview set-up by comedian podcast host
Comedian and podcast host Andrew Schulz accused the Harris campaign of “blatantly” lying about his team not reaching out to them during the election on Saturday.
In an interview with the New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast, Schulz described his efforts to reach out to Democrats like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to appear on his “Flagrant” podcast during the 2024 election.
He claimed the Democrats not only rejected him but accused his team of being “podcast bros” who were “sexist, bigoted and racist.”
Schulz said he tried to set up an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris as well, but her campaign “blatantly lie[d]” and said he did not reach out.
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“It’s wild to blatantly lie when not only did I reach out — Charlamagne, who’s working with them, reached out,” Schulz said. “Mark Cuban, who’s a surrogate, reached out, and we reached out, and they blatantly lie.
“Then when people write articles about it, they’ll say, ‘Andrew says he reached out to Kamala, but we reached out to the Kamala people, and they said that never happened.’ So what is the reader supposed to interpret that as?”
He added, “I think it’s an indictment on me, because it’s almost like calling me a liar.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Harris, Charlamagne and Cuban for comment.
Schulz acknowledged that he has since spoken to progressive figures like Buttigieg and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. He believed the reason was that prior to the election, Democrats felt that they didn’t need to go on podcasts like his to reach voters.
Schulz and his “Flagrant” podcast interviewed President Donald Trump during his campaign in October. He said after the interview he felt Trump went from having “no chance” of winning the presidency again to “winning by a landslide.”
COMEDIAN ANDREW SCHULZ SAYS DEMOCRATS’ ‘COOLNESS FACTOR’ IS LONG GONE, PARTY IS NO LONGER DOMINATING CULTURE
Also on The Times podcast, Schulz described himself as a lifelong Democrat who voted for Trump.
“[M]y vote was more like I voted against a Democratic institution that I feel was stripping the democratic process from its constituents. I didn’t like the way things were going, and Kamala was saying, Yeah, we’re going to keep doing that,” he said.
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Elite university faces crisis after White House slashes billions over campus protests
The Harvard Kennedy School of Government will lay off staff after federal funding cuts and endowment tax threats on Wednesday, according to an email from the dean of the school that was obtained by Fox News Digital.
Without mentioning the Trump administration directly, Harvard Kennedy School Dean Jeremy M. Weinstein announced in an email to faculty and staff that the cuts were in response to “unprecedented new headwinds” creating “significant financial challenges.” These included a “substantial proposed increase in the endowment tax” and “massive cuts to federal funding of research.”
He also cited the impact on international student enrollment after the administration eliminated the student visa program due to “pro-terrorist conduct” at Harvard’s campus protests. According to the Kennedy School, international students made up 59 percent of the school’s student body last year, and 52 percent on average in the past five years.
HARVARD UPDATES LAWSUIT AFTER TRUMP CANCELS ADDITIONAL $450M IN FUNDING
The Kennedy School has been planning for budget cuts since February, but the White House’s recent actions appear to have exacerbated the circumstances.
The Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in funding to the university and threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status due to its handling of antisemitism on campus in the wake of the October 7 terror attacks on Israel by Hamas.
The Department of Education’s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism released a statement on May 13, citing recent reporting that “has exposed the Harvard Law Review’s (HLR) pattern of endemic race discrimination when evaluating articles for inclusion in its journal.”
The findings resulted in the Trump administration cutting an additional $450 million in grants from the university.
In addition to layoffs, Harvard has implemented “important steps” to reduce costs across the Kennedy School, Weinstein said, such as pauses in hiring and merit-based pay, ending a lease on the first floor of an office building, halting “non-urgent” construction and renovation projects, and “reducing spending” across each core department.
“Unfortunately, those efforts alone will not be enough to address our current financial challenges,” the dean wrote. “As a result, we need to lay off some members of our team and restructure other positions to ensure the long-term financial future of the Kennedy School.”
TRUMP FROZE FUNDING FOR HARVARD. MONEY TO THESE UNIVERSITIES MAY ALSO BE ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK
Weinstein stated that managers would inform staff affected by the layoffs on Wednesday afternoon.
“This is an extremely difficult moment, and one that we did everything possible to avoid,” Weinstein added.
“I am truly sorry that we need to take this step as we navigate unprecedented challenges as a School and University,” Weinstein wrote, while also noting that the administration’s actions caused “even greater financial uncertainty.”
The Harvard Kennedy School declined to disclose to Fox News Digital how many staff members were laid off.
The Harvard School of Public Health implemented layoffs in April and other schools are considering cutting staff as well, the Harvard Crimson reported Thursday.
The Trump administration did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Former NY governor refuses to bow out after shocking defeat to socialist candidate
Andrew Cuomo is not dropping out of the race for New York City mayor.
Cuomo, the former three-term New York State governor who resigned from office in 2021 amid multiple scandals, has decided, for now, to move ahead and run in the general election as an independent candidate, two sources confirmed to Fox News on Thursday night.
The announcement by Cuomo came two days after progressive upstart Zohran Mamdani shocked the political world, as he topped Cuomo and the rest of the 11-candidate field in heavily blue New York City’s Democratic Party mayoral primary and took a big step toward becoming the first Muslim mayor of the nation’s most populous city.
Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist state assemblyman from Queens who originally hailed from Uganda, captured 43.5% of the first round unofficial primary results, with Cuomo at 36.4%.
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While he acknowledged Mamdani’s victory in the primary, Cuomo left the door open to a November run as an independent candidate, which election rules in New York State permit.
“I want to look at all the numbers as they come in and analyze the rank choice voting. I will then consult with my colleagues on what is the best path for me to help the City of New York, as I have already qualified to run for mayor on an independent line in November,” Cuomo said in a statement earlier this week.
Cuomo was facing an end-of-the-day Friday deadline for candidates who had already qualified to run as independents to decline that independent ballot line.
The former governor will keep his place that he already secured earlier this year on the “Fight & Deliver” ballot line. But the sources said that Cuomo had not committed yet to running an active general election campaign through the summer and into the autumn.
If Cuomo drops out of the race at a later date, his name will stay on the general election ballot.
Once a longshot in the race, Mamdani closed the gap with Cuomo during the final stretch of the primary race thanks to an energetic campaign that focused in part on New York City’s high cost of living.
Endorsements by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive rock star and New York City’s most prominent leader on the left, and by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the progressive champion and two-time Democratic presidential nominee runner-up, helped Mamdani consolidate much of New York City’s Democratic Party base
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And Mamdani rode a wave of support from younger and first-time voters to catapult himself into first place.
“I will be the mayor for every New Yorker,” Mamdani said in his victory speech. “Whether you voted for me, or for Governor Cuomo, or felt too disillusioned by a long broken political system to vote at all, I will fight for a city that works for you, that is affordable for you, that is safe for you.”
Since none of the candidates topped 50%, counting technically now heads into rounds of ranked-choice elimination. But the combined totals of votes Mamdani and other aligned progressive candidates won are likely to be more than enough to topple Cuomo as the ranked-choice tabulations begin on July 1.
Cuomo, seeing the writing on the wall, admitted defeat and complimented Mamdani as the initial primary results poured in on Tuesday, telling supporters that “tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won.”
But Cuomo, in an interview on Wednesday with CBS New York, noted that “in the general election, more people come out to vote. It’s a broader pool, if you will, of New Yorkers, more representative pool of New Yorkers.”
“There are about 5 million voters in New York City, there are about 8 million people in New York City, and about 1 million people vote in the Democratic primary. So it’s not, necessarily, representative of the city at large,” the former governor said.
And a poll from a consulting and lobbying group that was aligned with an outside group supporting Cuomo released a poll on Thursday that suggested Mamdani and Cuomo tied in a possible general election matchup, with incumbent Mayor Eric Adams – a Democrat who’s running for re-election as an independent – and Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa far behind.
Sliwa, the founder of the volunteer crime-fighting patrols known as the Guardian Angels, is the GOP nominee for a second straight election cycle. Also running this November as an independent is former federal prosecutor Jim Walden.
Asked if Cuomo should drop out of the race, Mamdani said Thursday in an interview with Fox News affiliate WNYW in New York that “I think there’s room for everyone because, ultimately, we’re going to win it.”
The 67-year-old Cuomo has spent the past four years fighting to clear his name after 11 sexual harassment accusations, which he has repeatedly denied, forced his resignation. He was also under investigation at the time for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic amid allegations his administration vastly understated COVID-related deaths at state nursing homes.
Last month, the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into Cuomo after Republicans accused him of lying to Congress about the decisions he made as governor during the coronavirus pandemic.
Cuomo, thanks to his name recognition, was the front-runner in the polls even before he announced his candidacy earlier this year. But he ran a safe campaign that relied on union support, and he shied away from often engaging with local or national media.
Mamdani, meanwhile, made smart use of social media platforms, including TikTok, as he engaged the primary electorate. He proposed eliminating fares to ride New York City’s vast bus system, making CUNY (City University of New York) “tuition-free,” freezing rents on municipal housing, offering “free childcare” for children up to age five, and setting up government-run grocery stores.
Adams, in formally launching his campaign on Thursday on the steps of City Hall, said “this is a city not of socialism,” in an obvious jab at Mamdani’s proposals.
“There’s no dignity in someone giving you everything for free. There’s dignity in giving you a job, so you can provide for your family and the opportunities that you deserve. This is not a city of handouts. This is a city of hands up.”
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Adams’ poll numbers were sinking even before he was indicted last year on five counts, which accused the mayor of bribery and fraud as part of an alleged “long-running” scheme to personally profit from contacts with foreign officials.
The mayor made repeated overtures to President Donald Trump, and the Justice Department earlier this year dismissed the corruption charges, so Adams could potentially work with the Trump administration on its illegal immigration crackdown.
He announced in early April that he would run for re-election as an independent and forgo the Democratic primary.
Violent mob hurls knives, explosives at officers in shocking ICE facility attack
Multiple people have been arrested following a violent riot outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland, Oregon, that involved knife-throwing and explosives.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Fox News Digital that one of the rioters had tried to fire a ‘Roman Candle’ firework at law enforcement.
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The same person allegedly threatened officers with a large knife by swinging it and then throwing it at them, the spokesperson said.
No law enforcement officers were seriously injured during the attack, according to officials.
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While the suspects’ identities have not yet been released, DHS confirmed there have been three arrests.
“Unfortunately, these violent attacks are becoming more and more common,” the spokesperson said. “Our ICE law enforcement is now facing a 500% increase in assaults while carrying out enforcement operations.
“Secretary [Kristi] Noem’s message to the rioters is clear: You will not stop us or slow us down. ICE and our federal law enforcement partners will continue to enforce the law. And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be fully prosecuted by the law.”
OFFICERS INJURED AS PORTLAND RIOTERS BREACH ICE BUILDING WITH EXPLOSIVES AND ROCKS
Fox News Digital previously reported that following a Portland “No Kings” protest on June 14, a mob had launched fireworks, smoke grenades and threw rocks at federal law enforcement.
The rioters broke glass and breached the ICE facility, leaving four officers injured.
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Officials said the building was later secured.
NASA’s Mars rover uncovers bizarre formations that have scientists puzzled
NASA’s Curiosity rover is getting a firsthand look at a region on Mars previously only seen from orbit that features a “boxwork” pattern, along with evidence of ancient waterways, including rivers, lakes and maybe an ocean.
New images and data from the Mars rover have already raised questions about how the red planet’s surface was changing billions of years ago. Scientists are still unable, though, to answer why the planet’s water eventually dried up and converted the surface into a chilly desert.
Curiosity rover is in an area called Gale Crater, and evidence has shown that when it was formed, water was percolating under the surface.
NASA said the rover had found evidence of groundwater in the crater when it encountered crisscrossing low ridges, some of which were only a few inches tall and were described by geologists as being arranged in a boxwork pattern.
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Beneath the ridges is bedrock scientists believe formed when groundwater trickled through the rock and left behind minerals that accumulated in the cracks and fissures. The minerals then hardened and became cement-like.
The formations were worn away after what NASA called “eons of sandblasting” from Martian wind, though the minerals remained and revealed a network of resistant ridges within.
Rover has already analyzed ridges that scientists say look more like a crumbling curb.
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But the patterns created over time stretch across miles of a layer on the 3-mile-tall Mount Sharp. The rover has been climbing the foothills of Mount Sharp since 2014, NASA said.
What scientists also find interesting about the boxwork patterns is they have not been found anywhere else on the mountain by orbiters overhead or Curiosity.
“A big mystery is why the ridges were hardened into these big patterns and why only here,” said Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “As we drive on, we’ll be studying the ridges and mineral cements to make sure our idea of how they formed is on target.”
NASA said the patterns are found in a part of Mount Sharp formed during various eras of the ancient Martian climate. So, as the rover ascends from the oldest layers to the youngest, it is essentially time traveling and searching for signs that water existed on Mars and which environments would have supported microbial life in the planet’s ancient times.
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“The rover is currently exploring a layer with an abundance of salty minerals called magnesium sulfates, which form as water dries up,” NASA said. “Their presence here suggests this layer emerged as the climate became drier. “Remarkably, the boxwork patterns show that even in the midst of this drying, water was still present underground, creating changes seen today.”
Recent clues exposed on Mars may provide additional insight for scientists into why the boxwork patterns formed where they did.
The bedrock between the ridges has a lot of tiny fractures filled with white veins of calcium sulfate, which is a salty mineral left behind when groundwater trickles through cracks in rocks, NASA said. In the lower layers of the mountain, similar veins were plentiful, and one was even enriched with clays. But, until now, none of the veins had been spotted in the sulfate.
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“That’s really surprising,” said Curiosity Deputy Project Scientist Abigail Fraeman of JPL. “These calcium sulfate veins used to be everywhere, but they more or less disappeared as we climbed higher up Mount Sharp. The team is excited to figure out why they’ve returned now.”
The Curiosity rover was launched Nov. 26, 2011, and landed on Mars Aug. 5, 2012. Its mission was to find out whether Mars ever had the right environmental conditions to support life, and, early on, the rover discovered chemical and mineral evidence of habitable environments from the past.
Viral video shows tourist handling shell of ‘world’s deadliest’ animal at beach
A woman visiting a local beach was walking along the tide admiring shells when she picked up one that could have had deadly repercussions.
Sharing her story on TikTok, the woman shows herself finding a spotted, cone-shaped shell and picking it up. She was in Okinawa, Japan, when this happened.
“She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s about to pick up the world’s deadliest shell that leads to full paralysis in minutes,” the text on the video says.
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The woman picked up a cone snail shell with coils spotted in brown and white.
Cone snails are one of the most venomous animals on Earth, with approximately 600-700 species of slugs in existence, according to the Ocean Conservancy (OC).
Most venom in the snails will “cause tingling or numbness at the injection site, then spread to the impacted limb and eventually the entire body,” according to OC.
In a follow-up video that garnered millions of likes, the woman shared that she did research on the shell and its usual inhabitant, finding out even “worse” information about it.
“My brain kept convincing me that I had been stung and just didn’t realize it. By the fourth day of panic, my husband was sick of reassuring me I was indeed going to live,” she said.
Cone snails are marine predators. They use venom to immobilize their prey by using their “harpoon-like teeth” to inject victims, according to the National Library of Medicine (NLM).
The video garnered nearly one million likes, with TikTokers weighing in on the incident.
“This is why life should have an instruction manual,” said one woman.
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A user commented, “Don’t touch anything pretty.”
“I wonder if my mother-in-law would like a cone shell collection,” joked one TikToker.
Another user said, “I grew up in Hawaii and they taught me this in fourth grade.”
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The person added, “But I don’t think it’s common knowledge.”
Celebs flock to Venice for Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s lavish wedding
The stars are aligning for Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez.
On Thursday, celebrities such as Orlando Bloom, Tom Brady, Kim Kardashian, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kylie Jenner and more were seen boarding water taxis at various luxurious hotels in Venice, Italy ahead of the couple’s extravagant wedding celebrations.
Sánchez gave onlookers a wave as she boarded a boat with her soon-to-be husband by her side outside the Aman Hotel. The couple shared a sweet kiss while aboard the boat.
JEFF BEZOS AND LAUREN SÁNCHEZ ARRIVE IN VENICE AS WEDDING FESTIVITIES BEGIN
According to People, the couple hosted a welcome party for their guests in a closed cloister adjacent to the Madonna dell’Orto church on Thursday night.
Sánchez wore a golden, satin dress — a look from Schiaparelli’s Spring-Summer 2025 Haute Couture collection — according to the outlet.
Guests reportedly arrived in a convoy of about 30 boats. According to the outlet, guests will be eating pizza cooked onsite by a famous Neapolitan chef.
Throughout the day, baskets of white and purple-colored flowers were brought in to decorate the venue, along with a piano, People reported.
SEE IT: CELEBS FLOCK TO VENICE FOR JEFF BEZOS AND LAUREN SÁNCHEZ’S WEDDING
The party is reportedly being held in the Sant’Alvise complex, which is a 14th century church, monastery, and Barco. Per Vanity Fair, Bezos will be escorted by 10 bodyguards during the kick-off party and the Italian government has recruited reinforcements to maintain the privacy and safety of all attendees amid recent protests.
On Wednesday, the soon-to-be newlyweds were seen out and about in Venice.
According to multiple reports, the couple decided to change one of their wedding venues in Venice because of security concerns and possible protests.
The couple had planned to hold a wedding party at the historic Scuola Grande della Misericordia in the Cannaregio section of the city, but are now said to be moving it to the harder-to-reach Arsenale, a former shipyard, which is completely surrounded by water and only reachable by boat when connecting bridges are raised, BBC News and Reuters reported.
A number of other celebrities are invited to the wedding festivities, which remain a secret but are expected to kick off on Thursday and end Saturday in the picturesque Italian city.
Despite ongoing protests from local Venetians, Mayor Luigi Brugnaro told The Associated Press that the city is “very proud” to be hosting the couple’s wedding.