Huge Lion Dad Crouches Down to Meet His Tiny Cub for the First Time, Melting Hearts

Huge Lion Dad Crouches Down to Meet His Tiny Cub for the First Time, Melting Hearts

A big lion named Tobias lowers himself to the ground so he can meet his tiny son. It is the first time the two have met, and the moment from the Denver Zoo has won over the internet.

The cub was born on July 25. He spent his first months bonding behind the scenes with his mom Neliah, his dad Tobias and his half-sister Kamara. The 2-year-old father was praised for how gentle he was when he crouched down to say hello.

In the same video, the cub plays with Kamara, who is 4. The zoo describes her as "just the most attentive and affectionate older sister."

The zoo shares a "cubdate" every other day, and is asking the public to help pick a name for the cub: Meru, Moremi or Tatu, the Swahili word for three, since he is Neliah's third offspring.

The zoo also pointed out that half of African lions have disappeared in the last 25 years. It hopes this small cub will inspire people to help protect lions in the wild.

u/ipanicprofessionally — 4 days ago

After 50 Years in Chains, Raju the Elephant Finally Took His First Steps to Freedom

For 50 years, Raju the elephant was chained day and night, forced to beg on India's streets while his owner pocketed the money tourists gave him, sometimes with nothing to eat but plastic and paper. When Wildlife SOS finally arrived for a midnight rescue, his owner tried to stop them by tightening Raju's chains and shouting to scare them off, but the rescuers held their ground.

It took 45 minutes to cut through the shackles wrapped so tightly around his legs. As they worked, tears rolled down Raju's face. "We knew in our hearts he realised he was being freed," said rescuer Pooja Binepal. "He felt hope for the first time," added fellow rescuer Kartick.

After the 350-mile journey to Wildlife SOS's Elephant Conservation and Care Centre, an exhausted Raju took his first free steps just after midnight. Five decades of suffering ended in a single night, and the elephant who once wept in chains is now free to simply be an elephant.

u/ipanicprofessionally — 12 days ago
▲ 1.7k r/TheBoredDen+1 crossposts

John Fetterman’s Fundraising Emails Were Used by Republican Operatives to Court Trump Donors, Report Says

A leaked private message indicates that Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, has been raising money in ways that benefit Republican operatives. The Atlantic and The Intercept reported that right-wing groups have worked with him behind the scenes to win the attention of donors who sympathize with Donald Trump.

The message came from inside Blitz Digital Group, a firm aligned with the Republican Party. Account associate Leah Mergener wrote: "I thought you would be interested in this high performing Fetterman copy." She added: "It has been doing crazy numbers for us."

According to The Atlantic, the fundraising appeal carried Fetterman's signature and linked to donation pages for his own campaign. Yet the wording was crafted to appeal to donors who back President Trump. It included Fetterman's declaration: "I'm always going to reject Socialism and the anti-American way of life." The money passed through Anedot, a payment-processing company that Republicans use.

The message then reached Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, a Republican. He sent it to his own fundraising list. "I just got an email from John. He's basically a Republican now," Lee wrote in a solicitation that The Atlantic obtained. He followed with: "I need your help to draft him."

The reporting also notes that Fetterman's relationship with MissionWired, a digital fundraising firm aligned with Democrats, ended in June. Soon after, he set up a joint fundraising committee with Pennsylvania's other senator, Republican Dave McCormick.

A former Fetterman staffer told The Intercept that millions of small-dollar donors had given because they wanted a Democratic Senate.

u/TerryLink11 — 11 days ago

NYC Mayor Announces One-Year AI Ban for Students Through 8th Grade

The Mayor of New York has announced a ban on the use of AI in the city's public schools.

Zohan Mamdani announced that elementary and middle school pupils up to the age of 14 won't be allowed to use AI over the next school year.

Speaking of the ban, which will affect around 600,000 students, Mamdani said: "Children need their teachers and human connection in order to learn and in order to grow.

"They need to develop skills alongside their peers, build relationships with educators and wrestle with tough problems on their own."

He added: "Just because technology is everywhere doesn't mean that it belongs everywhere.

"We will embrace new technology, but only when it serves our students.

"We want to ensure that we are actually providing tools to our students that we know to be beneficial as opposed to tools that we know to be profitable."

Mamdani said that the policy will be closely monitored throughout the year and that it is not 'set in stone'.

u/ipanicprofessionally — 18 days ago

Tierra Walker asked for help and was told "your baby is fine" multiple times.

Tierra Walker asked her doctors for an abortion more than once as her pregnancy grew dangerous. Weeks later, she was de*d.

Walker's family has sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, currently running for U.S. Senate, along with the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the Bexar County Hospital District, the Texas Medical Board's executive director, Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales, and three of Walker's doctors.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Bexar County District Court, argues that Texas's abortion ban and the way it was enforced cost Walker her life.

Walker, 37, of San Antonio, had already lost twins to preeclampsia in 2021. When she became pregnant again in 2024, her doctors and family feared the condition would return, and by the end of her pregnancy, it had. Over four months, she developed seizures, blood clots, and a hypertensive crisis, but doctors repeatedly told her the baby was fine and sent her home. She passed away in December 2024, at 20 weeks pregnant. Her teenage son found her unresponsive on his 15th birthday.

The lawsuit accuses Paxton and the other defendants of "deliberate indifference, discrimination, and medical mistreatment" that caused what it calls Walker's "horrific and tragic de*th," and it asks a court to declare the state's near-total abortion ban unconstitutional.

LaTanya Walker, Tierra's aunt and the lawsuit's lead plaintiff, said, "It's horrible that she's gone and she was taken from us this way." Molly Duane, litigation director for the group representing the family, described Walker as a wife and mother who was the glue holding her extended family together, and said Tierra and her family repeatedly asked for an abortion throughout her pregnancy.

This is the first lawsuit tied directly to a de*th linked to Texas's abortion restrictions, which have been in near-total effect since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

u/ipanicprofessionally — 25 days ago