With Halloween in the rearview mirror, Aldi is looking ahead to the next holiday season.

Aldi will unveil more than 20 Advent calendars on Wednesday, Nov. 6. Calendars will be available for purchase in person, through pickup and via DoorDash delivery, while supplies last.

Three luxury calendars featuring cheese, wine and chocolate pairings will headline Aldi's Advent selection this year.

The Emporium Selection Cheese Advent Calendar features Red Leicester, Bruschetta, pesto cheese, Mimolette, aged gouda, extra mature cheddar, mustard gouda, hard goat cheese, cheddar with whiskey, black truffle cheddar and black pepper gouda. The Advent calendar is $16.99.

Police officers have seized an electric scooter with an exercise bike welded to it after it was spotted being ridden around Inverness.

In a social media post featuring an accompanying photograph, Police Scotland confirmed road policing officers spotted the adapted machine being ridden without relevant documents.

The post also stated: "Yes, that is an exercise bike welded to it. Rider reported, vehicle seized."

it is currently illegal to ride an e-scooter in a public place in Scotland.

A pub landlord wants to hunt for the remains of a motorbike-riding lioness that was buried at the venue in the 20th Century.

Howard Watts recently bought the White Hart in the village of Boxford in Suffolk.

The pub is famous for being the home of George "Tornado" Smith who popularised the motorcycle Wall of Death attraction from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Tornado Smith bought a lion cub and trained her to sit on the handlebars of his bike to perform in the stunt. She later died in an incident in her cage and was buried on pub grounds.

Mr Watts explained he fell in love with the White Hart and the story of Tornado Smith after he came to buy his father's old garage nearby in 2001.

He became adamant he wanted to buy the pub eventually and recently, when it came up for sale, he jumped on the opportunity.

"He's a local hero really," Mr Watts said. "He brought over the Wall of Death from America and it was the first time it was seen here.

...

Tornado Smith took his Wall of Death to the Kursaal in Southend-on-Sea in Essex each summer while keeping the show at the pub in the winter.

At some point, he bought the lioness cub which he named Briton.

He trained her to sit on the handlebars of a motorcycle while it rode around the Wall of Death.

"It was very well trained, I don't know quite how he made it so placid," Mr Watts added. "It must have been amazing."

As Briton grew larger, she was trained to sit in the motorbike's sidecar.

...

However as World War Two neared, at the end of the 1930s, it became increasingly hard for Tornado Smith to find enough food for Briton.

She later died following an incident in one of the stables she was kept in.

"It was in a cage and it got its paw trapped and it went crazy," Mr Watts explained.

"There was so much noise and confusion, it had to be put to sleep.

"It was very unfortunate but the lion was buried at the front of the pub and is still there."

...

Claw marks could be seen in the stable and Mr Watts said he believed Briton's remains were buried in one of two locations in the pub's grounds.

"Originally there was a gravestone for the lion with some very nice wording which I have got and I want to find the bones of the lion and put the grave back because it's part of the history of this amazing building," he said.

Social media users were shocked over an “alien” creature that washed ashore in Australia with some labeling it the “freakiest thing” they’d ever seen.

“I’ve never seen anything quite like this before!” wrote the sea denizen’s discoverer Vicki Evans in a post with a photo on a community Facebook page. “Nature never ceases to amaze!”

The beachcomber happened across the freaky flotsam while walking along Horseshoe Bay in Port Elliott, South Australia, The Advertiser reported.

Evans included photos of the oceanic oddity, which is long and riddled with gelatinous tendrils that are tipped with shells, like maritime hair-braid beads.

Many Facebook users were equally baffled by the vermicelli-esque tentacles, with one writing, “That might just be the freakiest thing I’ve ever seen!!”

“Wow, it looks long judging by scale of dog,” one said, referring to a curious pooch seen inspecting the creature in the photo...

Edit: changed title to reflect the updated title in the article

Safety chiefs have sounded the alarm over a set of Christmas baubles sold by John Lewis that looks just like Quality Street chocolates. Concerns have been raised that the tasty-looking festive decorations could lead to injuries if people confuse them for the edible treats.

But a nasty surprise awaits anyone who attempts to chomp down on these glass baubles, as they risk getting cuts in their mouths or on their hands. The Office for Product Safety and Standards has issued a recall notice, warning: "The products present a risk of cuts or injuries as they may be mistaken with real chocolates.

"If the glass baubles are bitten or swallowed the user could receive lacerations to the mouth or hands. The products do not meet the requirements of the Food Imitations (Safety) Regulations 1989 or the General Product Safety Regulations 2005."

Members of an "anti-establishment cult" have been jailed for up to seven years for storming a court with handcuffs and trying to kidnap a coroner.

Mark Christopher, 59, led the group that tried to shut down Essex Coroner's Court in Chelmsford having accused senior coroner Lincoln Brookes of "interfering with the dead" in April 2023.

Matthew Martin, 47, Sean Harper, 38, and his wife Shiza, 45, were part of the group and believed they could overrule the UK judicial system.

All four were sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court having been convicted of conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to commit false imprisonment.

Christopher, of Claremont Road, Forest Gate, east London was also found guilty of sending a letter or email with intent to cause distress or anxiety.

He was jailed for seven years, while Sean and Shiza Harper, of Benfleet Park Road, South Benfleet in Essex, and Martin, of Evelyn Denington Road, Plaistow in east London, were given 30-month sentences.

Mr Justice Goss said the defendants were part of an "anti-establishment cult" who relied on "non-existent powers" to further their aims.

...

The defendants were part of what law agencies called an "organised pseudolegal commercial arguments" (OPCA) group, usually defined as one that believes its interpretation of law supersedes a state's legal system.

Members had self-conferred legal powers derived from what they believed to be the "true meanings" of words, the court heard.

The group called itself the Federal Postal Court, also known as the Court of the People.

Christopher was the group's "chief judge", with Martin and Sean Harper as his "sheriffs".

Shiza Harper, a former special constable with the Metropolitan Police, held a "postal inspector" role.

The group had "many followers across the country and the world" who held "delusional beliefs", the court was told.

They were sold online courses for thousands of pounds by Christopher, who acted as the group’s "teacher".

Addressing Christopher, Mr Justice Goss said: "I am satisfied that you are intelligent, persuasive, manipulative and dishonest.

"Your group, of which you are the self-appointed leader, preys on the vulnerabilities of others, particularly those in financial difficulties, who you are able to persuade to pay you significant sums of money and to do your bidding.

"You clearly recruited your co-defendants to your ideology [and] took a considerable amount of money from Sean and Shiza Harper."

The court heard Christopher sent Mr Brookes a series of letters between March 2022 and April 2023, accusing him of being a "detrimental necromancer" who must face corporal punishment, including beating with cattle prods.

Another letter said: "Mark Christopher will seek the death sentence for damage and for insidious conduct delivered at the court by the coroner".

...

Narita Bahra KC, representing the Harpers, said they were in Christopher’s "thrall" due to "the level of control and dominance he had".

She claimed they had been "on a trajectory of awakening" since the trial.

They were "pressured" to pay more than £30,000 to take part in online courses ran by Christopher, including a “mortgage elimination” scheme, Ms Bahra said.

“The pernicious veil of the first defendant has impacted every aspect of Mr and Mrs Harper’s life,” she said.

In his mitigation, Martin claimed to have been acting with King Charles III’s approval to tackle "state child trafficking" on Christopher’s behalf.

And previously...

• 'Cult' members found guilty of trying to kidnap Essex coroner

A store in Boardman, Ohio is out $400 worth of potting mix after a former employee urinated on the products, according to police reports.

Boardman police were called to the Walmart at 1300 Doral Drive around 3:50 p.m. Tuesday for reports that a former employee was urinating on products for sale outside the business.

Reports state the suspect was still in the area when police arrived and admitted to officers that he had been drinking earlier in the day and had urinated behind a pallet of potting mix.

Security footage provided by the store shows the suspect consuming alcohol while outside the store, also capturing his ruination of the potting mix.

Conservative MP Neil O'Brien has set out a list of policies to make Britain "vaguely civilised again" including "large and instant fines" for passengers playing music on public transport and a "crackdown on spitting".

The Leicestershire MP also called for action to stop e-scooters being " dumped across pavements" and a push to plant trees on every residential street "where this is remotely possible".

O'Brien was a minister in the previous Conservative government and is an influential thinker in the party, as the former head of the Policy Exchange think tank.

In a Substack article,, external O'Brien argued the desire to live in a "civilised, orderly society" was "one of the most under-discussed and under-appreciated things in politics".

"It is something often promised by politicians - but in my lifetime it has not been delivered."

...

Speaking to the BBC, O'Brien singled out street artist Banksy for criticism. He said his work was "valorising" graffiti.

"Graffiti is not art, it's a massive nuisance, it creates a really disorderly atmosphere.

"People have done everything they can to make their place, perhaps a business or shop, nice then some moron sprays paint all over it."

...

Matt Ashby, a crime science lecturer at University College London, says many of the actions O'Brien proposes would require "substantial investment in public services".

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O'Brien acknowledged in his piece that the Conservative-led government cut the number of police and although the overall levels were later restored, Ashby says cuts to Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) were not.

"Compared to 2010, right now we only have 44% of the PCSOs."

Ms Harrison spotted the reddish hue while driving to work through the village of Bramford, Suffolk, at around 5.15am on Wednesday.

The cleaner posted three photos of her discovery to social media with the caption “guess it is the aurora, not seen one before”.

After attracting hundreds of comments, Ms Harrison was told the “beautiful” glare actually came from Suffolk Sweet Tomatoes’ LED light units, which are used to encourage the growth of its stock.

...

Ms Harrison is not the first to make an aurora faux pas. In May, two university students said they were “catfished” into mistaking the purple glow of a Premier Inn hotel for the aurora borealis.

And previously...

• Pals ecstatic after spotting ‘Northern Lights’ - but it was a Premier Inn sign

A burglar has been discovered by police hiding in an exhibit after allegedly breaking into a museum.

Officers went to North Lincolnshire Museum in Scunthorpe after an alarm was activated at about 04:00 BST on Friday.

After a two-hour search with a police dog, "a man was located buried away under a very impressive display", according to Humberside Police.

North Lincolnshire Council said it was "not the Night at the Museum we wanted".

A council spokesperson added: "Officers from Humberside Police were quickly on the scene.

"Sadly, they didn’t find Rexy, Dexter and Ben Stiller but did discover a person hiding behind our display on pioneering archaeologist Ethel Hutchinson."

A 23-year-old guy recently visited Fortis Hospital in Vasal Kunj to complain about stomach symptoms he had been having for roughly three days.

He reported significant gastrointestinal pain and trouble digesting food, which resulted in frequent bloating. The man had eaten street food at a night market a few days before and felt that was the source of his health problems.

Doctors decided that the best course of action was to conduct an Upper Gastrointestinal (GI) Endoscopy, a procedure that examines the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract, to hopefully discover the cause of the man’s symptoms.

What they certainly didn’t expect to find was a live cockroach chilling in the man’s small intestine.

“For the last two-three days, the patient was suffering from indigestion and bloating after eating food. It was during routine inspections that we incidentally spotted the cockroach,” Dr Shubham Vatsya told the Indian Express newspaper. “Even we were surprised as to how the cockroach managed to remain intact.”

...

As for how the 3cm cockroach wound up in the poor man’s intestines, the Indian gastroenterologist speculated that it could have crawled down his throat while he slept, or the man accidentally swallowed it when visiting the night market.

While unusual, this case is not unique. In fact, just last month, we wrote about a Chinese man who accidentally swallowed a cockroach and complained of bad breath for three days.

A man accused of peppering homes and business with rubber ducks and fake $100 bills bearing messages supporting Karen Read now faces criminal charges — the latest twist in a high-profile case that has deeply divided a Boston suburb.

Richard Schiffer Jr. is charged with witness intimidation, criminal harassment and littering for his alleged role in the incidents, the Stoughton District Court told CNN. He was set to appear in court today in the criminal matter, which some area residents are calling “Duckgate.”

Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, by striking him with her Lexus SUV and leaving him outside to die in a blizzard in January 2022. His battered body was found in the snow outside the Canton home of a fellow Boston police officer.

Read’s attorneys argue she was framed as part of a conspiracy to protect people at the Fairview Road house that night. They allege someone inside the home fatally beat O’Keefe, dumped his body on the lawn and then conspired through fabricated evidence and false testimony to frame Read.

Read has pleaded not guilty and her trial ended in a mistrial in July. A retrial is set to begin in January.

The case has spawned a rabid group of supporters who believe Read is innocent. Some have held protests outside the courthouse, carrying signs saying “Free Karen Read,” while others have taken more extreme measures.

...

And in a recent statement of facts, Canton police accused Schiffer of leaving rubber ducks and fake currency with messages outside homes and businesses belonging to key witnesses in the case.

...

The rubber ducks appear to be a reference to a statement at a pre-trial hearing in January, when defense attorney Alan Jackson told the court, “If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s a duck,” police said.

...

Rubber ducks also were found outside the home of Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator on the case.

Proctor has been accused of missteps in the investigation, and has admitted he sent a series of sexist and offensive texts about Read in a private group chat, calling her a “whack job,” mocking her medical issues and telling co-workers he found “no nudes” while searching her phone for evidence.

...

Police said the rubber ducks and fake $100 bills have helped spur a social movement that has harassed witnesses by implying “they cannot ‘duck the truth’ about John O’Keefe’s death.”

In an online fundraiser seeking help with his legal fees, Schiffer admitted to putting rubber ducks around Canton and surrounding areas.

“Through the First Amendment and my right to free speech, I expressed my opinion and belief that Karen Read is innocent. The fundamental right of free speech is afforded to us by the Constitution of the United States,” he wrote.

If you thought fast fashion was SHEIN’s only hustle, think again. The mega-retailer, known for flooding our Instagram feeds with impossibly cheap clothing hauls, has now entered a new, booming market: sex toys. Yes, you read that right. SHEIN joined the $35 billion sexual wellness industry in 2023. But is the company with a questionable track record on ethical and qualitative production really the place you should be going to pick up your next vibrator? Experts say, not so fast.

...

Then there’s the quality problem. In 2021, tests found that some SHEIN clothing contained excessive amounts of toxic chemicals, such as lead.

Surprisingly, sex toys aren’t subject to any specific regulation in the UK. Instead, they fall under broader consumer product safety laws. Consumer safety expert Dr Gordon Hayward notes that while there are no regulations tailored specifically to sex toys, faulty ones can still be recalled by government agencies if a complaint is filed. The situation is similar in the US, where sex toys are largely unregulated.

...

Let’s get one thing clear: when it comes to sex toys, the materials matter. A lot. You wouldn’t shove just any random thing inside your body—or at least you shouldn’t. Medical-grade silicone, glass, and stainless steel are body-safe materials you can trust. But from SHEIN? They aren’t exactly transparent about what they’re using. Their sex toy descriptions offer vague terms like “silicone” or “plastic” without much else. In some cases, they’re outright misleading, listing toys as safe for anal use when they lack critical features, like a flared base, which helps prevent a trip to the ER.

According to Mashable, sex toy expert Poppy Scarlett warns that some toys sold by SHEIN could actually be harmful. Cheap materials like jelly and PVC might contain phthalates, chemicals so toxic they’ve been banned from children’s toys. Imagine those same chemicals leaching into your body during a steamy night in. Not quite the vibe.

...

Still sceptical? Some savvy shoppers have gone full science mode, testing their SHEIN purchases to see if they pass the “flame test,” which is a method popularised by content creators where you hold a lighter to the toy to see if it melts. Silicone toys should remain flame-resistant. But guess what? Several SHEIN toys melted instantly. If the flame test proves that your “silicone” toy is actually plastic, SHEIN might be lying about its materials.

One TikTok user shared a shocking experience, explaining how her intimate areas nearly “caught fire” after using a trendy vibrator she bought from the fast fashion company.

Julie Smith told a misconduct hearing she only took one roll from Beaumont Leys police station in Leicester on 9 February 2023 to "clean a spillage in her car".

But the panel found Ms Smith to be "not a credible witness" and ruled her actions amounted to misconduct.

As Ms Smith had retired from the force by the time of the hearing, no action could be taken against her except to record the finding, police said.

...

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said doubts were raised over the legitimacy of the spillage because Ms Smith had "waited several hours before purporting to attend to it" and had "mentioned it to no-one", according to a hearing report.

Ms Smith had also "concealed the toilet roll on the way to her vehicle", the panel heard, and blue paper hand towels had also been available.

The officer's credibility was further "undermined" by a later admission that she had taken six toilet rolls "over the course of a year", the panel judged.

...

Two further allegations of toilet roll theft were made by the force in January 2023, but the panel said there was not enough evidence to prove them.

On both occasions the panel was satisfied that rolls were found to be missing from the station's toilets.

But members could "not be satisfied" that Ms Smith had been the one to remove them.

The panel also accepted while toilet rolls and empty rolls had been found at Ms Smith's home and in her parents' car, it could not be sure they were those taken from the station.

A woman in Gujarat's Surat district escaped unhurt after an empty water tank fell on her. According to the details, the incident happened on October 10 when the woman was roaming outside her home. A video of the incident showed the water tank coming crashing down on the woman and covering her, but she narrowly escaped what could have been a fatal incident. After the incident, locals came to the spot and rescued the woman from the water tank.

Last year, we reported on the peculiar story of cheating allegations against Hans Neimann. The American chess grandmaster beat Norwegian world champion Magnus Carlsen in a chess match in September last year.

Upset by the defeat to the 19-year-old Neimann, Carlsen made a rather butt-clenching accusation. He said that Neimann had cheated by using wireless vibrating anal beads.

After a 53 game winning streak, Carlsen was beaten by Neimann at the Sinquefield Cup in Saint Louis. Neimann was the lowest ranked player at the competition and the first to beat Carlsen in two years.

Carlsen later withdrew from the tournament and made a statement with his accusations against Niemann. Further complicating things, Niemann admitted to having previously cheated on online matches on Chess.com, leading to his private removal from the site. He claims he’s never cheated in real life matches though.

...

Niemann filed a lawsuit against Carlsen, Chess.com and player Hikaru Nakamura for defamation.

Although the $100 million (€92 million) lawsuit was thrown out by the courts in October, the parties have now negotiated a private settlement.

“At this time, Hans has been fully reinstated to Chess.com, and we look forward to his participation in our events. We would also like to reaffirm that we stand by the findings in our October 2022 public report regarding Hans, including that we found no determinative evidence that he has cheated in any in-person games. We all love chess and appreciate all of the passionate fans and community members who allow us to do what we do,” a statement from Chess.com read.

Carlsen has acknowledged the report from Chess.com and has said he is “willing to play Niemann in future events, should we be paired together.”

And previously...

• Chess grandmaster Hans Niemann denies using vibrating sex toy to cheat
• YouTubers test St. Louis anal beads cheating theory with butt plug

He has been one of the UK’s favourite and most prominent refugees for two-thirds of a century. Now Paddington Bear – official name Paddington Brown – has been granted a British passport.

The co-producer of the latest Paddington film said the Home Office had issued the document to the fictional Peruvian-born character – listing for completeness the official observation that he is, in fact, a bear.

“We wrote to the Home Office asking if we could get a replica, and they actually issued Paddington with an official passport – there’s only one of these,” Rob Silva told Radio Times.

...

He produced the document, complete with Paddington’s photo inside, adding: “You wouldn’t think the Home Office would have a sense of humour, but under official observations, they’ve just listed him as Bear.”

Nick Robinson tripped up over the shadow chancellor’s name on BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today programme – and hilariously didn’t even realise he’d done it.

The BBC presenter became the latest journalist to make the infamous gaffe on Friday morning, slipping up as he grilled Alison McGovern, the employment minister, on welfare cuts ahead of the Budget.

“The Tories announced £12 billion in welfare cuts, and at the time, the Labour Party condemned that,” he said.

“They said that Rishi Sunak, Jeremy Cunt, had no idea where they get the money.”

Robinson later apologies for the slip-up, saying he repeated what was known as the Jim Naughtie error in his last interview

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Mr Naughtie, a former Today programme presenter, famously made the blunder during an interview with Mr Hunt in 2010, with many others since falling into the foul-mouthed trap

A TikToker has sparked a debate after claiming to have driven up the UK's steepest hill, where he alleges 10 people fail every day. The user, known as DavetheDriver, shared a video of his journey through Oakamoor, a village in Staffordshire, en route to Alton Towers theme park.

The footage shows Dave navigating a steep road after passing the Cricketer's Arms pub. As he continues, it becomes evident that the challenging stretch of road extends for quite a distance.

Throughout his ascent, Dave encounters several tight bends and corners with limited visibility of oncoming traffic. "This is the steepest road in the UK," he claimed in the video's caption, adding, "At least 10 cars every day fail to make it to the top,".

Since being posted on TikTok on Friday, September 27, the clip has garnered over 3.3 million views and approximately 143,800 likes. It's one of many videos Dave has shared on his account, with others accumulating over 1 million views in total.

...

However, not everyone agreed with Dave's claim about the hill's steepness. Several commenters suggested that either Sutton Bank in North Yorkshire or Porlock Hill in Somerset holds the title for the steepest hill in the UK.

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In addition, Matthew chipped in with skepticism commenting, "When does it get steep? That's just a normal Scottish road."

Porlock Hill has been noted as the UK's steepest A-road boasting gradients of 25 per cent in some parts. The hill ascends roughly 725 feet in less than a mile.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18925839

Good news! Following up from this https://feddit.uk/post/18671151

David Jakins, 82, known as "King Conker", won the tournament in Southwick, Northamptonshire, last Sunday for the first time after competing since 1977.

But his long-awaited victory was marred when a cheating scandal erupted after a fake steel conker, painted brown, was later found in the veteran competitor's pocket.

His opponent in the final Alastair Johnson-Ferguson told The Daily Telegraph he raised concerns after his conker "disintegrated in one hit, and that just doesn't happen".

The chairman of the organising committee said the steel conker was indistinguishable from a real one, with its weight the only giveaway.

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"The investigation has found no evidence that the steel conker was used. King Conker has been cleared of suspicion, and his name is being engraved on the trophy."

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Mr Jakins won the men's competition but lost in the overall final to women's champion Kelci Banschbach, originally from the United States, who only took up the game last year when she moved to Suffolk.

The championships have been held since 1965 and organisers say they have raised £420,000 for charity.

A children’s soft play centre has removed its hanging “body bag” Halloween decorations after concerns were raised by parents.

Rugrats and Halfpints in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, has apologised over the objects resembling human corpses covered in black plastic.

Some appeared to be wrapped with tape bearing the words “caution” and “danger” and were hanging upside down from poles adjoining one of the soft play structures, according to pictures posted online.