They would have called him Jonah in a past life… When lobster diver Michael Packard found himself being swallowed up by a humpback whale he was convinced his time had come. But just as he was having what he assumed to be his final thoughts, the whale decided against it and spat him out. Packard was able to swim to safety after the incident, which was in June 2021. Since then, he has given a series of interviews about the death-defying episode. “[I was] trapped for about 30-40 seconds. Yes, I was almost convinced I was going to die that day,” he said in a Reddit Ask Me Anything. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “All of a sudden, I felt this huge shove and the next thing I knew it was completely black,” he said in a separate interview with the Cape Cod Times. “I could sense I was moving, and I could feel the whale squeezing with the muscles in his mouth,” Packard was 56 at the time, and initially thought he was inside a great white shark. However, he couldn’t feel any teeth and he hadn’t suffered any obvious wounds, and it dawned on him that the situation was far more biblical than that. “I was completely inside; it was completely black,” Packard said. “I thought to myself, ‘there’s no way I’m getting out of here. I’m done, I’m dead.’ All I could think of was my boys — they’re 12 and 15 years old.” Experts think the incident was likely a freak accident, and that the humpback whales are not aggressive towards humans. (That puts them in a different category to orcas, which have spent the first half of 2023 exacting their revenge on humankind.) Jooke Robbins, director of Humpback Whale Studies at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, said: “Based on what was described, this would have to be a mistake and an accident on the part of the humpback.” When a humpback opens its mouth to feed, it billows out like a parachute, blocking the animal’s forward vision, which is why so many become entangled in fishing gear in their mouth and jaws, said Robbins. It isn’t even Packard’s first brush with death. The diver also managed to survive a plane crash in Costa Rica in 2001 in miraculous circumstances. The crash, which killed three people, saw Packard sustain “severe facial injuries and multiple broken long bones in his arms and legs”, according to a Cape Cod Times dispatch in 2001. A doctor who treated the survivors told the Associated Press: "They would not have survived another night at that site." As for the whale escape? Packard didn’t sustain any serious injuries, telling Reddit he was left with “soft tissue damage, nothing serious”. A close shave indeed. 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.

Breaking news hit the NFL world on Friday when it was announced that DeAndre Hopkins has been released by the Arizona Cardinals.https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1662142199096655883?s=20There were rumors that DeAndre Hopkins wanted a split from the Cardinals, with most people assuming ...

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Ronald Koeman has questioned the transfer policy at Barcelona following the arrival of 32-year-old Ilkay Gundogan.

Crocs shoes have grown massively in popularity and many fans of the foam shoes might be distressed by a rumour that they are being banned in some public places. The clog-shaped foam shoes have become a mainstay in fashion culture thanks to celebrity endorsements and the notorious levels of comfort they provide. It is thanks to their comfort that many people choose to wear them on long flights and on shopping trips where they will be on their feet a lot. But, rumours have begun spreading online that the shoes are being banned in places like airports and malls. One post on X/Twitter, claimed: “Crocs are Being Banned from Airports, Train Stations and Shopping Centres.” Another said: “Many places like airports, train stations, and malls have now banned them on escalators with posted warnings.” “Crocs have been banned from escalators in some airports, train stations and shopping centres after a series of scary incidents,” alleged another post. Is the Crocs ban rumour true? Thankfully, the rumours that Crocs are being banned in airports and train stations are not true and you are free to keep wearing them wherever you choose. However, in the past, warnings about escalators and Crocs have been issued it was revealed in 2006 by ABC that children wearing them were having their feet sucked into the edge of escalators. The report detailed a scary incident in which a child damaged her toe. Other reports have revealed that children have lost their toes and even damaged the ligaments in their legs after their Crocs were pulled down the side of an escalator. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter 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.

PARIS Ratings agency S&P spared France on Friday the embarrassment of downgrading the country's sovereign debt, but remained

The United States beat Germany 99-91 thanks to 34 points from Anthony Edwards and finished 5-0 in FIBA World Cup warm-up matches. But their flaws were still apparent as ever in Sunday's game."That fear factor is gone," said Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton following the Unit...

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Brazil's Supreme Court opened the first trials Wednesday over the January 8 riots by supporters of far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, putting four accused in the dock in one...