A billboard has captured the atmosphere in New York, after the city was engulfed in smoke blown down from wildfires raging in Canada. The Canadian province of Quebec is currently experiencing hundreds of shocking wildfires and the pollution has led to the air quality in the city to be categorised as “very unhealthy”. It’s given the city an ‘apocalyptic’ look, with social media full of people sharing images of the city covered in orange smog. One image that has sparked a big reaction is a billboard advertising a new video game, which seems to capture the atmosphere in the city. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The advert is for the action role-playing game Diablo IV from Blizzard Entertainment and it features a demonic character on the front with the strapline “welcome to hell, New York”. Somehow, that seems strangely accurate right now. Meanwhile, NYC’s Mayor Eric Adams warned that the authorities “recommend all New Yorkers limit outdoor activity to the greatest extent possible” and people in North America have been advised to wear N95 masks outdoors. There are more than 400 wildfires raging in Canada which have led to mass evacuations in Quebec province. While some predictions said NYC might get some relief by Thursday evening, US National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Ramsey said "conditions are likely to remain unhealthy for at least the next few days", with no end in sight for the wildfires. The city’s health commissioner Ashwin Vasan told reporters on Wednesday that the city’s air quality is at its worst since the 1960s, with conditions expected to last through several days. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A 27-year-old internet star has died after drinking 'Chinese firewater' on a live stream. Zhong Yuan Huang Ge was allegedly seen chugging a bottle of the local spirit known as baijiu, which alcohol content ranges between 35 to 60 per cent. Huang's Douyin account – the Chinese version of TikTok – has reportedly since been deleted. His wife confirmed the devastating news, according to The Straits Times, explaining that he had been "desperately" trying to make money to pay off debt. She said he had "to repay hundreds of thousands of yuan in debt that he owed before his marriage". Huang's death marks the second in a month as a result of drinking challenges, after a fellow influencer experienced a similar fate. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The man, identified as Wang Moufeng, was found dead on 17 May after reportedly drinking four bottles of the alcohol for his fans. "When his family found him, he was already gone," a friend identified as Zhao informed Shangyou News. "He didn’t even get a chance for emergency treatment." In a bizarre turn of events, the pair were actually friends with Huang attending Moufeng's funeral weeks prior to his own death. "I don’t know how much he had consumed before I tuned in. But in the latter part of the video, I saw him finish three bottles before starting on a fourth," Zhao told The Straits Times. He added: "The PK games ended at around 1 a.m. and by 1 p.m., (when his family found him) he was gone." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Planes are pricey and often filled with disappointment, especially when it comes to food and beverages. But now, one TikTok user has come up with an innovative plan to avoid paying extortionate prices for water during a flight. In a viral clip that's racked up almost half a million views, TikTok user @rachealxk explained how she "was thirsty but I didn’t want to pay €3.00 for water." The recording shows the passenger with a cup of ice that she let melt before drinking. "No cause why does water have to be so expensive," she continued in the caption. It didn't take long for fellow TikTokers to flood the comments praising her little-known hack. "Surely having to pay for a cup of water on any flight should be illegal or a health risk," one person suggested. Another commented on the lengthy process, highlighting the colder temperatures on a flight: "The way it would take longer to melt because it’s always so cold on a plane." Meanwhile, one person claimed they do the same thing on a night out. "I did this in the club when they tried charging me for tap water because lol," they wrote. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter @rachealxk No cause why does water have to be so expensive? #fyp #holiday #ryanair #travel #europe It comes after one flight attendant lifted the lid on what really happens to the body during a long-haul flight. Speaking to AU News, in-flight services manager for Air New Zealand, Ben Whatman, urged passengers to stay hydrated. "During a long-haul flight, the key thing is to feel comfortable and safe, especially when you’re wanting to get that much-needed shut-eye in an over 10-hour flight," he said. "Due to the recirculated air on a plane, your throat, nose and skin will tend to get dry." He went on to explain that people could, in fact, "lose up to 1.5 to 2 litres of water in a 10-hour flight." As stated by the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA), passengers should limit alcohol, tea, coffee and caffeine while flying as it could cause people to "lose fluids." They also advise people to drink a cup of water during flights. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A 19-year-old Italian model and influencer could be the country's next Queen. Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy – also known as the Prince of Venice – said he will soon pass the baton to his daughter, Princess Vittoria of Savoy, as he's sure "she will do better than me." While speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he said: "It won’t be tomorrow or in one year, but when she is ready. It’s important that the younger generation have a chance to put new, modern ideas into practice." He went on to suggest that the younger generation is "much more conscious" about the world and its challenges. "It is important that she doesn’t become the heir at too late a stage in her life," he said of Vittoria, who shouldn't have to wait too long to become Queen. Filiberto candidly declared mentioned King Charles III, saying while he "is a wonderful King," it "would have been helpful" if he had been sovereign 20 years back. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Vittoria – full name Princess Vittoria Cristina Adelaide Chiara Maria di Savoia – currently lives in London where she studies art history and political science. She is said to split her time between Paris and Geneva and dabbles with modelling outside of her studies, being signed to Parisian model agency, Karin. Her Instagram page has racked up over a healthy 80,000 followers. Here, Vittoria shares photos from her shoots, including a front cover for French Vanity Fair. Vittoria's future reign was made possible when the Salic Law – which meant the Savoy line could only be given to male heirs – was revoked. In 2020, the Prince of Venice announced that he was breaking this Salic Law of Succession. Slay. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Footage of a strange-looking creature spotted swimming near a bridge in South Carolina has even left everyone perplexed as to what it could be. In the viral clip, it shows something clearly swimming in the waters near Pawleys Island but it is not clear exactly what species it is, though it looks like it does have a beak and wings or fins of some kind that keeps itself afloat but doesn't look like a typical outline of a bird. The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources had no idea as to what it could be. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “The people in my office are mostly stumped, but we’re not the experts,” an official with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources told WCNC, NBC's Charlotte station in North Carolina. One law enforcement officer suggested that the creature could be a squid, though still remain unsure as to its identity. What is it? Mysterious creature spotted in Pawleys Island, South Carolina www.youtube.com So the video has been sent to The Marine Resources Research Institute in Charleston, and they are currently studying the footage in the hopes of providing an identification to end the mystery. Meanwhile, WCNC-TV's Meteorologist Brad Panovich shared his thoughts on what the creature could be. “At first, I thought it was a cuttlefish,” he said but now thinks it could be a sea hare or sea slug. “They can be pretty large, and they do swim in the water like that,” Panovich said. However, he did note that they're not typically found in South Carolina and are "more of a Florida and West Coast thing," in warmer waters. Elsewhere, AI has revealed what infamous 'Bigfoot' footage truly is and a suspected Russian 'spy’ whale has been spotted off the coast of Sweden. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

An influencer from Australia has rubbed some people the wrong way after promoting her son's handmade T-shirts on social media priced between $50 and $60. Ruby Tuesday Matthews took to her Instagram Stories, writing: "Mars has a few shirts and singlets that we are going to sell here," "100 (sic) of the profits go into his piggy bank as he does not have a bank account yet." She continued: "He just owes me money for the die (sic) and shirts LOL but I’ll let that slide." The seemingly innocent business venture caused a stir online – especially when it caught the attention of influencer watchdog, Dutch Minty. “What do you think of @rubytuesdaymatthews selling tie dyed tshirts for $50+ made by her 5 year old?” the account posted, according to AU News. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter "I'm sure she has plenty of spare change she could be putting in her son's piggy bank. $50 for a tie-dye shirt and they tie-dye isn't even that vibrant? Ya joking," one person hit back, while another added: "Yeah bc we’re going to buy shirts to fund a kid's piggy bank, surely gotta be taking the p**s. The physical cringe reaction I had to this." Others joked about the extinction of old-fashioned lemonade stands. Despite some negative comments towards the concept, others simply didn't find anything wrong with it. "I’m all for teaching kids how to make money and save. I believe it needs to be taught from a young age. Makes them appreciate things a lot better. Money doesn’t grow on trees," one person chimes in. "If her fans want to pay for something her kid did let them! She’s laughing all the way to the bank," a second added. Indy100 reached out to Ruby for comment. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A lawyer instantly regretted his comments after confessing to having an affair in front of an entire crowd at a comedy show. When comedian Jessica Kirson kicked off her show by warming up the audience, she pinpointed a man sitting in the front row and asked what he did for a living due to his "nice suit". He told Kirson he worked as a lawyer, which led the comedian to ask how long he and his plus-one were dating. Without thinking, the date responded that they were not and that he was, in fact, her boss. "This is why I didn't want to sit at the front," the lawyer responded, to which Kirson said: "You’re never going to see these f**king people again." It was then the man shared his concerns about being posted to social media, as the pair were having an affair. Kirson was clearly taken aback by the confession, as she quipped back: "You're having a f**king affair and you're sitting at the front?!" Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter @jessicakirson A lawyer came to my show and decided to sit up front even though ? #cheating #cheater #lawyer #wow #fyp #foryou The snippet soon went viral on TikTok, where fans took no time in heading to the comments section. "The fact he answered 'an honest lawyer' and then admitted to having an affair right after," one person highlighted, while another joked: "I'm going to hell because I laughed so much… I watched it twice. Hell for sure. Maybe purgatory… that’s worse (according to a friend)." A third person added: "I mean the best way to hide an affair with your assistant is to go to a TikTok-famous stand up and sit front seat." Meanwhile, one fellow TikToker did not see the funny side whatsoever, writing: "This makes me sad someone’s partners back home waiting for their love to come back." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Earth will be torn apart by a nuclear disaster before the year is out, according to a legendary mystic credited with predicting many of the biggest events in history. Baba Vanga, a blind Bulgarian woman is said to have foreseen 9/11, the Covid pandemic and the death of Princess Diana, among other era-defining moments. And despite the fact she’s been dead for some 27 years, her loyal disciples still follow her prophesies with great devotion. They claim that many of her predictions came true long after her death, and there are still more to come. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Indeed, the rest of 2023 is set to be busy on the catastrophe front, according to Vanga’s followers as reported by The New York Post. Not only will a major nuclear power plant explosion take place at some point over the coming months – causing toxic clouds to settle over Asia – by the Earth will be hit by a devastating solar storm and suffer a potentially apocalyptic shift in its orbit around the sun. Other forecasts for the year allegedly include a bioweapons attack launched by an unnamed superpower, the emergence of a new religion based on artificial intelligence, and the end of natural pregnancies. According to her fans, she foretold that all babies would be grown in laboratories and parents would be able to select their physical traits. To be fair, that sounds eerily plausible when you consider one biotechnologist has already begun planning a “human factory” – though, admittedly, not before the end of the year. The issue with all of this is that Vanga’s predictions are cryptic and impossible to verify, as Sky History notes. And yet, there is a reason why a poor, blind woman from rural Bulgaria has been branded the “Nostradamus of the Balkans” and become a global icon. Legend has it that she was blinded in a dust storm at the age of 12 after which she announced that she had been endowed with the gifts of prophesy and healing. Her reputation soon spread beyond the local area and soon everyone from tsars to peasants would make the pilgrimage to her home in the Kozhuh mountains to seek her counsel. She was unable to write, however, so everything she said was documented by those around her, meaning there are no first-hand accounts of her visions on paper. Still, she is understood to have proclaimed in 1989 that “American brethren will fall after being attacked by steel birds […] innocent blood will be gushing” – which many people have taken to be an omen for the September 11 attacks. She also said that America’s 44th President would be Black, which was fulfilled by Barack Obama in 2009. And whilst her claim that Europe would “cease to exist” by 2017 hasn’t come to pass geographically, some have read this as a reference to the 2016 Brexit vote. She also predicted that the US’s 45th president would be faced with a crisis which would “bring the country down.” Given that the 45th president was Donald Trump, we’ll let you be the judge of whether or not there’s any truth to that one. Countless Bulgarian and Soviet scientists studied and tested Vanga throughout her life, ultimately concluding that she had an 85 per cent success rate with her predictions, Sky History reports. She even allegedly foresaw her own death on 11 August 1996 at the age of 85. All we can do now is hope that her doomsday visions for the rest of this year fall into that 15 per cent margin of error... Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A woman was left raging after discovering her husband had cheated on her again – so much so, she 'chopped off' his penis. Meirivone Rocha Moraes, 37, received a text from her friend one evening with explosive claims of his infidelity, prompting her to demote him to the sofa and punish him by "taking off" his manhood. While her reaction is incredibly extreme (and not to mention, illegal), it's not all that it seems. Moraes' husband is a rag doll. "It is just a white rubber dildo, which measures about 16cm. So I decided to take it off. I’ve done it before," she said. She went on to detail her paranoia that "other women will touch Marcelo's penis," so instead she "likes to put it in the [underwear] drawer when we go out to bars or shows." "Then, there is no chance of any other women lusting after him." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Moraes, who has a child with rag doll Marcelo, said this isn't the first time he's been unfaithful. "Last time, I found a bright pink thong on the floor," she shared. "I found out that Marcelo had been with another woman but when I asked whose they were, he didn't answer me." Moraes continued: "Marcelo is naughty, he goes after women and then lies to me that nothing happens." She also claims that the rag doll has over 500 contacts on his WhatsApp, all of which are women. She added: "Every now and then I catch him in a conversation with a girl, and when I ask who it is, he tries to say it’s his cousin." For now, Marcelo continues to sleep on the sofa, and hasn't received his penis back yet. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

All eyes have been on Nasa's long-awaited UFO report, with around 800 events recorded over the past 27 years and unexplained metallic flying orbs within Earth's airspace. But now, one former US agent has claimed materials have been recovered that could support the existence of UFOs. David Charles Grusch, an ex-member of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Reconnaissance Office, claimed the US government has a 'non-human origin' in-tact craft that they're keeping from the public. Speaking to NewsNation, Grusch said: "These are retrieving non-human origin technical vehicles, call it a spacecraft if you will, non-human exotic origin vehicles that have either landed or crashed." Grusch was once the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s senior technical adviser for Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) analysis with Top Secret/Secret Compartmented Information clearance, according to The Debrief. He also acted as a senior intelligence officer in the National Reconnaissance Office with a total of 14 years experience. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Grusch suggested he was denied access to a materials recovery programme which included evidence of such crafts. "I thought it was totally nuts and I thought at first I was being deceived, it was a ruse," he said. "People started to confide in me. Approach me. I have plenty of senior, former intelligence officers that came to me, many of which I knew almost my whole career, that confided in me that they were part of a program." He explained to The Debrief that he had prepared many briefs on UFOs for Congress but decided to provide hours of classified information and data about the materials recovery programme. Grusch claimed the materials recovery programme was hidden away from proper congressional oversight. An unclassified version of the document obtained by The Debrief, said that Grusch has knowledge that UAP-related information is being withheld or concealed from Congress, "to purposely and intentionally thwart legitimate congressional oversight of the UAP program." The complaint suggested that he confidentially provided classified information to the Department of Defense Inspector General about the withheld information but Grusch believes his identity was disclosed. Grusch is now filing a whistleblower complaint, alleging that he suffered retaliation for disclosing the confidential information. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Elliot Page claims he had sex with Juno co-star Olivia Thirlby "all the time" while filming the 2007 indie dramedy. In his hotly anticipated memoir Pageboy, the Canadian actor opened up about his past relationships. One of which included Thirlby, who he felt "taken aback" by the moment he saw her. Page said that while the pair were both the same age, she seemed "so much older, capable, and centred," with chemistry that pulled him in. The Umbrella Academy star went on to describe Thirlby, who played Page's best friend in the film, as "sexually open," which was "far removed" from where he was at the time. They spent most of their time together shooting for the film, with Page recalling the time Thirlby "looked directly at me and said point-blank, ‘I’m really attracted to you.'” Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter "At that we started sucking face, it was on" he claimed in the memoir. "I had an all-encompassing desire for her, she made me want in a way that was new, hopeful." Page went on to candidly detail that Thirlby was the first person to make her have an orgasm. He continued: "Her hotel room, in our trailers at work, once in a tiny, private room in a restaurant … We thought we were being subtle. Being intimate with Olivia helped my shame dissipate. I didn’t see a glint of it in her eyes and I wanted that — done feeling wretched about who I am." Page came out as gay in 2014. In another section of his book, the 36-year-old detailed an incident at a birthday party two months later in which an A-list Hollywood actor said: "You aren’t gay. That doesn’t exist. You are just afraid of men." The chapter, titled 'Famous A**hole at Party', goes on to add the male then reportedly told Page: "I’m going to f*** you to make you realise you aren’t gay." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

McDonald’s new milkshake is bright purple, berry-flavored, and inspired by Grimace.