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Did Buzz Aldrin say, ‘The moon is not what you think’?

Claim:

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin once said in an interview, “The moon is not what you think.”

Rating:

Throughout 2025 and 2026, YouTube channels posted videos online (archived) claiming that Buzz Aldrin, one of the first two astronauts to land on the moon, broke down in tears during an interview and said, “The moon is not what you think.”

At least three other popular videos (archived) on YouTube (archived) make the same claim (archived). Snopes readers sent emails asking if the claim was true.

Snopes could not find evidence that Aldrin ever said this in any interview he has ever participated in. Therefore, we’ve rated this claim as an incorrect attribution.

We reached out to Aldrin through his website’s inquiry form to ask if he has ever said such a quote, or anything akin to it. We’ll update this story if we receive a reply.

Searches for the “The moon is not what you think” quote and Aldrin’s name on Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing and Yahoo did not find any videos or transcripts of the interview in which Aldrin supposedly said the quote, or the full interview in writing. The searches did not reveal any credible news reports that quoted Aldrin saying these words. Considering one YouTube video claims Aldrin said the moon quote in interviews and another referred to the quote as Aldrin’s “famous warning,” it’s unlikely that there’d be no credible references to this quote outside of these YouTube videos.

Each of the four videos linked above tells a different story, and three of the four center the story around the moon quote Aldrin allegedly said. The fourth video, despite having a title about Aldrin apparently saying “The moon is not what you think,” is not about Aldrin. That video focuses on Michael Collins, another astronaut on the Apollo 11 mission alongside Neil Armstrong and Aldrin, and does not even include the quote “The moon is not what you think.”

The three videos that actually focus on Aldrin use the same commonplace artificial intelligence-generated voice for narration. In fact, two of these videos include YouTube’s “AI” label just under the videos’ titles.

The narrator, instead of Aldrin himself, says the quote in all three videos. None of the videos use footage from the interview in which Aldrin supposedly said it, even though one of the videos claims the interview took place in a television studio. One of the other videos changes Aldrin’s quote to “You are mistaken about the moon” in the middle of the video.

Each video assigns a different meaning to the quote in its conclusion. One video says Aldrin’s apparent quote was referring to the moon as the beginning of humanity’s exploration. Another video refers to the quote as a reference to the moon’s earthly origins. The third video suggests the quote means that no amount of data or knowledge of the moon can replicate the experience of being on the moon itself.

A search for the quote itself does show it has been used as a title for YouTube videos and social media posts. Snopes could not find any evidence the quote has ever been associated with Aldrin or any other astronaut.

This claim may have originated with an older video also narrated by an AI voice. A 2023 YouTube video titled “Apollo Astronaut Breaks In Tears: ‘The Moon Is NOT What You Think!‘” (archived) focuses on Michael Collins. The quote “The moon is not what you think” does not appear anywhere in the actual contents of the video.

None of the channels that posted the videos included publicly available contact information on their YouTube channels.

For further reading, we’ve previously collected 15 of our fact checks related to the moon.

October 6, 2026
Creatine could help you build muscle even without exercise, study suggests

It seems like everyone is suddenly obsessed with creatine, a naturally occurring compound used as a sports supplement.

Gym bros vow that the dissolvable substance can help your muscles swell and get fuller; track and field specialists claim it will help enhance athletic performance by releasing glucose, which Harvard Health described as ‘one of the best sources of instant energy’.

But can taking a daily three to five gram scoop of creatine help you build muscle and see results without ever setting foot in the house of gains?

Well, experts from the United States have concluded that it may be the case—but the results may have you reaching for the dumbbells anyways.

Sedendatry vs active adults: the creatine test

Researchers at Texas A&M University (TAMU) recently collected a 64-strong cohort of test subjects aged 45-65 to see whether the white powder could help sedentary adults pack on lean mass.

Experts have studied if you need to exercise to feel the benefits of creatine (Getty Stock Image)

The study, published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, detailed how 38 participants opted to work out as part of a three-day supervised training program. On non-training days, the candidates were instructed to walk at least 10,000 steps.

The remaining 26 subjects chose not to exercise for the duration of the 12-week trial.

Each participant was also instructed to take either a creatine supplement or a replacement placebo twice per day and advised to follow an American Heart Association–guided diet.

The study suggested subjects eat in a 300-500 calorie deficit while consuming around 55 percent carbs, 15 percent protein, and 30 percent fat every day.

Creatine worked with or without the gym

At the end of the study, experts found that those who remained sedentary and took creatine gained about 2.4 pounds of lean tissue, as stated by Medical News Today.

Those who worked out with creatine added around 3lbs of lean mass (Getty Stock Image)

Not only that, but they also had greater strength on bench presses and leg presses after the 12-week mark.

Naturally, those who completed the study, exercised three times per week, and walked 10,000 steps built more muscle—but not much.

The study suggested that those who took creatine and completed the exercise program gained around three pounds of lean tissue.

They, too, had greater bench and leg press strength. The participants also improved their time to exhaustion, meaning they could exericse at their highest intensity for longer.

Other benefits included losing body fat mass, reducing their body fat percentage, and ‘favourable changes’ in certain blood fats, cognitive function, and glucose control.

Experts weigh in on positive creatine study

Speaking about the surprising creatine results, lead author of the study, Richard Kreider, professor and director of the Exercise and Sport Nutrition Lab at Texas A&M, told the publication that creatine ‘increases energy in the muscle’.

“Non-exercise physical activity and functional activities may increase correspondingly. If you feel better and daily activities are less demanding, you are more apt to do physical activity.”

Be aware of creatine’s side effects (LADbible)

He added that after the study, he and his team are convinced that creatine scoops may have ‘important implications for middle-aged and older individuals seeking to reduce body fat while maintaining muscle mass and cognitive function’.

“I think this study adds useful evidence for creatine as part of a healthy aging strategy, particularly because improvements in lean mass were seen even without structured exercise,” explained Sebnem Ünlüişler, a genetic engineer and chief longevity officer at the London Regenerative Institute.

“However, the participants were middle-aged rather than elderly, the sample was relatively small, and DXA measured lean tissue rather than muscle directly.”

She added to Medical News Today that a further study with a ‘more controlled or focused approach to diet’ would be of interest.

Researchers at Texas A&M added that they would also like to explore creatine’s metabolic and cognitive impacts further.

For now, it’s something to think about during your next wellness-oriented splurge, right?

October 6, 2026
Why Endangered Species Act protections for monarch butterflies are in limbo under Trump
Claim:

In 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration denied protections under the Endangered Species Act to monarch butterflies until 2030.

Rating:
A rumor spread online in fall 2026 that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration had formally denied protections for monarch butterflies under the Endangered Species Act until 2030.

This rumor originates from a September 2026 settlement between conservation groups and the Fish and Wildlife Service over the federal agency’s failure to finalize a policy proposal that would have protected monarch butterflies under the act.

In December 2024, under then-President Joe Biden’s administration, Fish and Wildlife formally proposed such a rule. Under the act, proposed rules must be finalized within one year. Thus, Trump’s administration was supposed to make a decision by December 2025. It did not, which resulted in the lawsuit.

The settlement specifies that the Trump administration must finalize the proposal to protect monarch butterflies by June 2030, meaning the administration could technically issue a decision anytime before 2030. However, the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said Fish and Wildlife “asserted that they do not have the resources to issue the final listing before the agreed upon date because of budget and workload.”

Given that we cannot predict the future, we have rated this claim as a mixture of truth and undetermined information.
In fall 2026, a rumor spread online that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration had formally denied protections for monarch butterflies under the Endangered Species Act until 2030.

In other words, posts claimed that the government had refused to designate monarch butterflies as an at-risk species deserving of specific protections under federal law — and that the government would not consider the issue again until 2030.

The claim circulated on Facebook (screenshot) and X.

The claim is largely true, although it omits a few details. On Sept. 30, 2026, the Fish and Wildlife Service reached a settlement with conservation groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, over a delay on the federal agency’s decision as to whether monarch butterflies should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The settlement requires Fish and Wildlife to issue a final decision by June 6, 2030. Technically, that means Fish and Wildlife could issue a decision anytime before that deadline. However, Center for Biological Diversity spokesperson Tierra Curry said Fish and Wildlife “asserted that they do not have the resources to issue the final listing before the agreed upon date because of budget and workload.”

We reached out to Fish and Wildlife to confirm whether this is true and await a response.

It’s also worth noting that Trump is due to leave office in January 2029, so it’s possible that a future administration may prioritize making a decision on monarch butterfly protections before 2030.

Because we can’t predict what the future holds, we have rated this claim as a mixture of truth and undetermined information.

Monarch butterfly conservation

Fish and Wildlife estimates that, by 2080, the probability of extinction for eastern monarchs ranges from 56% to 74% and for western monarchs the probability for extinction is greater than 95%. Threats to the species include loss of habitat, exposure to insecticides and the effects of climate change, the agency said on its monarch butterfly conservation page.

The Endangered Species Act allows the federal government to designate imperiled species as threatened or endangered. Each designation comes with its own protections and resources for conservation.

For more on the Trump administration’s changes to the Endangered Species Act, see our explainer.

Background on conservation efforts

Conservation groups have fought to bring monarch butterflies and their habitats under Endangered Species Act protections since at least 2014, when three groups and a monarch scientist named Lincoln Brower filed a formal petition with the Fish and Wildlife Service.

In December 2020, under the first Trump administration, Fish and Wildlife announced that protection for monarch butterflies was “warranted but precluded by work on higher-priority listing actions.”

Fish and Wildlife’s news release on the decision said 161 species were listed as higher priorities for formal protections under the Endangered Species Act ahead of the monarch butterfly.

“With this decision, the monarch becomes a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and its status will be reviewed each year until it is no longer a candidate,” then news release said.

Under former President Joe Biden’s administration in December 2024, Fish and Wildlife proposed an official rule that would have designated the monarch butterfly as a protected species under the Endangered Species Act:

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), propose to list the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), the iconic orange and black butterfly, as a threatened species and designate critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). We propose to list the monarch butterfly as a threatened species with protective regulations.

Under the Endangered Species Act, Fish and Wildlife is supposed to publish its final decision within one year of publication of a proposed rule, which would put the rule into effect and thus, in this case, officially list the monarch butterfly as an endangered species worthy of protection.

Trump took office January 2025. His administration did not meet that one-year deadline, which prompted the lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety.

What the settlement says

The settlement does not prevent the Trump administration from making a decision before 2030. Here’s what it says on Page 2:

On or before June 6, 2030, the Service shall submit to the Office of the Federal Register for publication a final listing determination for the Monarch Butterfly, pursuant to the ESA, 16 U.S.C. § 1533(b)(6).

Curry, the Center for Biological Diversity spokesperson, said in an email that, in effect, the settlement meant the denial of current protections would end in 2030 with a final listing. The Center for Biological Diversity’s news release about the settlement called it a “bittersweet move for conservation groups.”

In other words, it’s not as if the Trump administration withdrew the proposal to protect monarch butterflies — rather, the settlement means Fish and Wildlife has until 2030 to make a decision on whether to finalize protections for the species.

There are also additional ways, per the settlement, that the deadline to make a decision could be extended. For example, if the government were to shut down due to a lapse in funding before 2030, the deadline would be extended for the number of days the shutdown occurred (see Page 2).
October 6, 2026
Brit family spends £20,000 moving to other side of the world and say it’s just like living in the 90s

A family who spent £20,000 to move to the other side of the world and live in New Zealand say it was ‘worth it’ and they’re living in a home that reminds them of the way the UK was ‘in the nineties’.

Sean Purdy, 36, and his wife Tania, 40, had travelled around South America for nine months last year with eight-year-old son Atticus and seven-year-old daughter Aurelia.

Though they both worked while they travelled, Tania as a teacher and Sean in marketing, their life on the move wasn’t sustainable and in May they moved back to the UK.

Tania had been applying for teaching roles in New Zealand and the day after they landed back in Britain she had a job interview for one of them, a week later she was told the position was hers and the Purdy family were looking at their next big move.

They put their house up for sale but deals don’t happen quickly and they had to borrow £15,000 then get another £5,000 from family to afford the move across the world.

The family travelled around South America last year before returning to the UK, then Tania got a job offer from New Zealand (Sean Purdy / SWNS)

Last month they flew out to Katikati, Bay of Plenty, and moved into their new rented home in New Zealand with Tania teaching at a secondary school and Sean becoming a labourer to help make ends meet.

The Derbyshire man said that ‘things happened quick’ and after Tania was offered the job they mulled it over for 10 days before deciding to move to the other side of the world.

It’s still early days but they’re enjoying a better work life balance and while they’ve not really noticed things are cheaper they do like the lifestyle more, with them still spending around £1,800 a month in various costs of living.

He said: “Initially the reason we wanted to move out of the was the cost of living, but in New Zealand it’s pretty much on par with back home.

“For us, it’s the work life balance. We still work in New Zealand but everything is a bit more slower paced and not so much like the nine to five rat race the UK seems to have.”

The family flew out to New Zealand to start their new life there and they say it’s ‘just like the nineties’ (Sean Purdy / SWNS)

He said that he felt the UK was lacking in ‘culture and connectivity with big friend groups’, saying that being in New Zealand ‘reminds me of how the UK was in the nineties’ where ‘people just seem to want to help out complete strangers’.

“It threw us off a bit as our experience in the UK, people are helpful but you are more into yourself and what you need to do,” Sean said.

“The Kiwis seem to be more out of their selves and happy to help random strangers at a whim.”

Sean said that while he’d ‘never been invited to anything school wise in the UK’, three days into living in New Zealand and the family was invited to a traditional Māori greeting called mihi whakatau.

He said: “We were full on greeted and sang and got a hongi – where you put your head on their nose and do a deep breath.”

It cost them around £20,000 to move over to New Zealand, but they plan to stay there for the rest of their lives (Sean Purdy / SWNS)

Breaking down the costs of moving to New Zealand, the family had to spend £3,000 on straight to residence visas, while health checks for the family cost £800, while he and Tania had to undergo a police check which cost £300, and flights across the world cost the family £3,000.

There were ‘a bunch of other bits and bobs’ which piled on the costs, and then the family had to deal with the ‘unexpected things’ like finding a place to rent and buying a car so they could drive around once they’d migrated.

Even though they had to borrow money to afford the move the family think it’s been ‘100 percent worth it’, with beaches and mountains both within easy reach of their new home.

“The trade off at the moment is the first one to two years costs will be harder and things will be harder as we’re in a completely new country,” he said.

“It’s still a trade off of having an outdoors lifestyle, community and a bit more freedom. That’s the trade off we’re happy with.”

They’re planning on buying a house pretty soon, though they need to sort out selling their old one first (Sean Purdy / SWNS)

Their plan is to complete the sale of their house back in the UK so they can afford to get a mortgage over in New Zealand.

Sean added that since changing career he’s spoken to ‘people who were managers or doctors who took a big step down’ in their careers after the move to New Zealand and said the important thing was ‘the Kiwi experience’.

The former marketer is on £31,942.50 a year as a labourer while Tania is earning around £42,590 as a secondary school teacher, and the working day is slightly shorter in New Zealand.

They’re planning to live there for the rest of their lives, but said that since some of the younger New Zealanders leave the country ‘as they say there is not much to do’ they might move away again if they own children decide to go.

October 6, 2026
‘Prophet of Doom’ who predicted Covid warned of ‘pandemic’ days before death of Russian lab worker

A self-proclaimed psychic dubbed the ‘Prophet of Doom’ made a chilling prediction over a possible pandemic days before the news about a possible plague outbreak broke.

Speaking on a stream shared on September 24, Craig Hamilton-Parker, who is also known as ‘Prophet of Doom’, told his YouTube followers a future pandemic of a bacterial illness that attacks the chest was on the way.

He is previously claimed to have accurately predicted the Covid-19 pandemic and the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

His major COVID prediction came in a video published in January 2020, in which he forecast a flu-like pandemic that would start in China and spread worldwide, just months before global lockdowns were introduced.

Lab technician holding test tubes (Getty Stock)

In a recent video which has had over 160,000 views, he attributed the warning of another ‘pandemic’ to two Tibetan monks who he claimed had arrived unexpectedly at his home with a ‘warning’.

“It would be more like a biological type of illness that would be much harder to control,” he described, adding: “It’s much more dangerous this one because it can spread much more quickly.”

He also said the monks knew of a cure, hidden in ancient Tibetan texts, and that the prophecies say the outbreak would be stopped.

“So if it happens again, guys, rest assured we’re going to conquer it. We’ll beat it,” he told viewers.

Mere weeks later was when news then broke about a lab worker who had died in Russia, sparking fears of a potential outbreak of the pneumonic plague.

Daria Shipilova, a lab technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute in Siberia, reportedly came into contact with the pathogen and became unwell.

Some local media outlets reported that Shipilova became infected while at the Institute after ‘breaking a test tube’ containing live biological material that can cause pneumonic plague.

Daria Shipilova (Facebook)

This is a condition which affects the lungs, and is one of three different forms of plague, with the other two being bubonic plague and septcaemic, with the bacterium itself being called ‘Yersinia pestis’.

While in hospital Shipilova was placed on a ventilator, but died two after being admitted to the hospital.

Since then, some 189 people have reportedly been quarantined as authorities suspect that they may have come into contact with Shipilova, raising the possibility that they may have been infected with the bacterium.

Among them are other members of staff at the laboratory where Shipilova had been employed as a technician.

Shipilova’s death has prompted fears of a pneumonic plague outbreak, resulting in five hospitals and colleges being placed into lockdown and around 200 people she came into contact with being quarantined.

There have also been accusations that Russian officials are attempting to ‘cover-up’ the situation.

October 6, 2026
Popular men’s aftershave with thousands of Amazon reviews is now only £21 in flash sale

Men say they ‘can’t begin to count how many compliments they’ve gotten’ since wearing the Cremo Spice and Black Vanilla Eau de Toilette.

You might not have heard of Cremo, but the bestselling fragrance has earned thousands of five-star reviews online, with shoppers claiming the aftershave smells far more expensive than its price tag.

It’s ideal for autumn too, as the aftershave has been described as a ‘masculine’ scent with top notes of cardamom, tobacco and black vanilla.

And if the reviews are anything to go by, it could be just the thing to have in your bathroom cupboard as we head into the cosier months.

Get 34% off the Cremo Spice and Black Vanilla Eau De Toilette on Amazon for a limited time only

“I can’t even begin to count how many compliments I’ve received while wearing this cologne,” one customer raved.

“Friends, colleagues, and even strangers have approached me to inquire about the irresistible fragrance I’m wearing. It’s an instant conversation starter and leaves a lasting impression on everyone I meet.”

Cremo Spice and Black Vanilla, WAS £30.95, NOW £20.56

Amazon

Another review reads, “After trying this cologne on a date with a girl, she would always lean in and hug me or get close to me and said she loves how good I smell and couldn’t get off me!”

“This is by far the most complimented and asked about cologne I have ever worn,” a third said. “No other cologne even comes close regardless of expense. Both men and women consistently ask me what I’m wearing every time I put it on.”

READ MORE: Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2026 LIVE: the best deals as they drop, updated all day

A third shared, “What a find… I’d never heard of the brand, so had no expectations, but I was blown away at the fragrance which is hard to define but hits all the right notes.

“I was going to use it just casually but now I’m putting aside as a preferred fragrance along with my other much more expensive colognes! Very expensive designer brands could learn a thing or two from Cremo!”

Cremo’s luxury scents and body washes are currently on offer (Cremo)

At the time of writing, there are huge discounts to be had across Cremo aftershaves and grooming products in the 2026 Amazon Big Deal Days sale here.

Whether you’ve got a big event coming up or want to impress a date, shop our top deals below.

Shop our top picks in the 2026 Amazon Big Deal Days sale below:

Bourbon and Oak Eau De Toilette, WAS £30.95, NOW £23.51

The perfect winter scent, Cremo’s Bourbon and Oak Eau De Toilette boasts dark notes of bourbon and oak.

One customer review reads, “Been using this brand Cremo Bourbon and Oak scent for years now. It’s been my girlfriend’s favourite since we started dating three years ago. That’s good enough for me. I do recommend it, it’s nice and clean yet has a manly wooden smell with a nice after scent as well.”

Cremo

Palo Santo Eau De Toilette, WAS £34.95, NOW £23.21

Palo Santo is one of the brand’s most coveted aftershaves and after one scroll of the reviews, it’s not hard to see why.

With thousands of five-star reviews, customers say the cult scent smells like ‘designer’, and it’s a fraction of the price.

The classic aftershave boasts bright cardamom, dry papyrus and Palo Santo.

Cremo

Tortoiseshell razor, WAS £19.95, NOW £16.95

If you have been in desperate need of a new razor for a while, this is your sign.

Designed to look good on the sink, the brand’s cult razor comes with a stylish tortoiseshell handle for maximum grip and control.

Each cartridge features five durable blades, three layers of comfort coating, a coated guard bar and lubricating pools to fight razor burn, nicks and irritation.

For those finishing touches before date night, it also comes with a pull-back trimmer, which offers precise edging and shaping of facial (and nose) hair.

Cremo

Original shave cream, WAS £12.04, NOW £8.31

No razor is complete without a decent shaving cream.

Cremo’s cult formula boasts a light citrus scent and is formulated to mix well with water, so your razor can glide effortlessly over the skin.

According to the brand, you’re looking at a clean, comfortable shave every time without any pesky nicks and bumps.

Cremo

Palo Santo body wash, WAS £14.24, NOW £9.44

If you can’t get enough of your Palo Santo aftershave, may we introduce its body wash counterpart?

Customers say it ‘lathers up well’ and ‘makes your skin feel very soft’. What’s more, you’ll smell great all day long.

Amazon

October 6, 2026
Chilling parallels between Russian plague outbreak and how Covid pandemic began

Experts have highlighted alarming parallels between the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and an outbreak of plague in Russia.

A 28-year-old lab worker named in local media reports as Daria Shipilova is reported to have died of pneumonic plague after accidentally breaking a test tube filled with the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which causes plague.

Shipilova was taken to hospital on 29 September, where she received treatment for pneumonia, but sadly died two days after being admitted.

Almost 200 people are believed to have had contact with Shipilova, and measures are reportedly being put in place to contain the outbreak, though due to suppression of the press in Russia more precise information is difficult to find.

Shipilova had worked at the Antiplague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East, which is located at the city of Shelekho in the Irkutsk region.

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon was formerly the commanding officer of the Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment in the UK, and warn that Russia’s lack of transparency may mirror that of the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, which started in China.

Daria Shipilova has died (Facebook)

“The Russian authorities have clammed up and lots of social media posts have been withdrawn,” told The Telegraph. “We know what happened when Covid emerged. The Chinese clammed up, four million people left Wuhan and the disease spread around the world.”

de Bretton-Gordon also raised concerns about the measures which were being put in place at the laboratory as well, saying that there should have been precautions in place to prevent someone in Shipilova’s job being vulnerable to the condition.

“For a lab technician working with plague to die from plague is extraordinary,” he said. “She should have been vaccinated, there should have been medical countermeasures.”

The opacity of the Russian authorities around the incident has also meant that the basic facts around the outbreak are still not clear.

Filippa Lentzos, is a biosecurity expert at King’s College London, and said: “Russian authorities seem to be denying that the woman died of plague or that there was a laboratory accident. So the basic facts are not yet settled.”

Concerns have been raised about the safety protocols in the lab (Getty Stock)

Igor Kobzev, the regional governor of Irkutsk, said on Monday that an expert commission found that Shipilova’s cause of death was ‘pneumonia of undetermined aetiology’, adding that the investigation had said that ‘no microorganisms linked to the young woman’s professional work were found in her biological samples’.

All three forms of Plague are caused by the bacterium Yersinia Pestis, though the form of plague varies depending on how it is spread and the part of the body it affects.

Pneumonic Plague is a rare but extremely dangerous form of plague affecting the lungs, with the other two types being Bubonic Plague, which is spread by infected rodent fleas and affects the lymph nodes, and Septicaemic Plague which affects the blood.

While Pneumonic Plague is rarer than Bubonic Plague, UK heath security guidance advises that it is almost always fatal when not properly treated, and even when treatment is started promptly it it fatal around 30 percent of the time.

Pneumonic Plague can be come about as a development from a case of Bubonic Plague, but is more commonly contracted by inhaling infectious particles.

October 6, 2026
Witness to Christa Pike’s execution shares eerie way they all knew she was still alive after curtains closed

One of the members of the media who witnessed the botched execution of Christa Pike says everyone knew she was still alive after the curtains to the execution chamber were closed because they could hear her snoring.

The press are permitted to attend executions and among the group observing it was Catherine Sweeney, who explained in NPR that there were seven reporters invited to watch and cover the death penalty being carried out.

Pike was expected to enter the execution chamber at 10am, but proceedings were delayed by a stay of execution and it was around 6pm when the press were told they could enter their viewing area, which had loudspeakers connected to microphones inside the chamber.

Windows looking into the execution chamber have curtains which are drawn to hide the identities of the people who attach the IV and administer the lethal injection.

Sweeney, who had attended executions before, explained that typically witnesses will be sat with the curtains closed for between 10 and 15 minutes while the IV line is set up.

Christa Pike is still alive, having survived her lethal injection (Tennessee Department of Corrections)

The execution team then goes into a hidden chamber where they cannot be seen but can administer the drugs from, the reporter explained that in Pike’s case it was about 45 minutes with the curtain closed and the microphones turned off.

“After half an hour, it was clear the IV team must have been struggling,” she wrote.

At 7:27pm the curtain was drawn back and they could see Christa Pike on the gurney, facing the other viewing room where prosecutors and the family of the victim sit.

Also in the room was Mikey Noechel, her spiritual advisor, who is allowed to be in the execution chamber as the lethal injection is administered.

Pike said her arm was burning and asked if it was normal, with Sweeney noting that the lethal injection drug is an alkaline that ‘burns like drain cleaner if it touches skin’ but such a feeling was unlikely if the IV was correctly administered.

Christa Pike, pictured in 1995, could be heard snoring after the curtain to the execution chamber was drawn (WBIR10)

The reporter explained that Pike and Noechel were speaking ‘for what seemed a shocking amount of time’, and that a few minutes after the drugs are administered prisoners tend to show signs of being sedated.

In Tennessee they use the rather abnormal practice of putting a rock on a platform which signals it will be five minutes before they close the curtains and a doctor comes in to pronounce the executed prisoner dead.

The rock was placed at 7:41pm and by 7:44pm Pike was still awake and speaking to Noechel, which was the point Sweeney was convinced ‘something was very wrong’.

After the five minutes the curtain closed and Noechel was sent to the witness bay, but then he was asked to return to the execution chamber, a sign that they were going to attempt the execution again with the curtain opening again.

“Pike stopped talking. She started snoring,” Sweeney said of the second attempt to administer the lethal injection.

Christa Pike was still speaking with her spiritual advisor a couple of minutes before a doctor was supposed to come and pronounce her dead (Tennessee Department of Corrections)

“She continued to snore after the rock was put out the second time and the curtain closed again. We continued to hear her snore over the loudspeaker.”

The curtain closed again at 8:16pm and the reporters ‘listened to Pike’s snoring for 40 minutes’, until at 8:53pm when they were told to leave.

When they went out they could see emergency vehicles arriving and one left with its sirens on, a sign that Pike was still alive.

The death row inmate has since been hospitalised, with her lawyers saying she is still on life support.

October 6, 2026
Crypto Sleuth ZachXBT Fronted $350K to Pose as a Client of Lazarus’ Chinese Launderers
In brief

ZachXBT says he fronted 349.7K USDC on March 6, 2025, and accepted a 5% loss on each order while posing as a client of a Chinese laundering syndicate.

He says the operation exposed a $12M+ cluster of Bybit exploit funds, and that Tether later froze 442K USDT linked to it.

He says he has helped action $75M+ in freezes tied to North Korean incidents since 2022, and funds his work through grants and donations.
Most on-chain sleuths trace stolen crypto from the sidelines. The pseudonymous ZachXBT says he wired $349,700 of his own money to the people moving it.

“Posing as a client, I gathered intel that helped action freezes for the Feb 2025 Bybit exploit and attribute illicit activity onchain.” he wrote on X. ZachXBT explained the group was a Chinese gang working for North Korea.

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That exploit he is referencing caused $1.5 billion in losses to the crypto exchange Bybit. The FBI attributed the incident to North Korean hackers it tracks as TraderTraitor. The alleged launderers, ZachXBT says, were not exactly hiding.

For those who don’t spend their days on “Crypto Twitter” tracking the everyday goings on of crypto hacks and exploits, ZachXBT is likely the best-known and most prolific on-chain investigator in the space. The mostly pseudonymous 20-something-year-old has spent years tracing stolen crypto and naming the people behind scams and hacks. His threads lean on public blockchain data that anyone can check, and he’s kept on with his investigations even after a former target sued and doxxed him in 2023.

1/ How I infiltrated a Chinese organized crime syndicate that has laundered $1B+ across multiple exploits for Lazarus Group.

Posing as a client, I gathered intel that helped action freezes for the Feb 2025 Bybit exploit and attribute illicit activity onchain. pic.twitter.com/jauRRt8875

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 5, 2026

“In Feb 2025, shortly after the $1.5B Bybit exploit attributed to the DPRK-linked group ‘TraderTraitor,’ I observed a pattern of 15+ accounts asking for help with orders directly tied to stolen funds in public groups on Telegram and Discord,” he wrote today in post on X.

He saw the same thing last week after the $387 million Bitget hack, which Bitget’s CEO and blockchain tracing firms Ellipic and Chainalysis have linked to North Korea.

His North Korea record is pretty relevant. On the day of the Bybit hack, he connected it to Lazarus Group using on-chain data, and the FBI backed that attribution days later. He also showed that wallets used to launder the Bybit funds were tied to earlier Lazarus attacks, including the Phemex and BingX hacks.

In 2024, his tracing of the theft of roughly 4,100 BTC from a Genesis creditor helped lead to arrests. Paradigm hired him as an incident response advisor in February 2025, with co-founder Matt Huang saying he had returned more than $350 million to victims of hacks and scams. ZachXBT says grants from foundations and donations from individuals are what let him take on riskier cases like this one.

Back in 2025, ZachXBT started messaging the accounts complaining about Bybit-linked orders. One went by “Jimmy Green” on Telegram.

Screenshot of a conversation between ZachXBT and “Jimmy Green.” Image: ZachXBT

“On Mar 6, 2025, I funded a new address with 349.7K USDC on Ethereum in preparation to conduct several transactions with Jimmy Green,” he said. Jimmy gave him an address to send the USDC to, in exchange for USDT on Tron.

That address, ZachXBT wrote, had been funded with gas by a wallet that “is directly traceable to Bybit exploit funds and is labeled on the public Bybit exploit blacklist site.”

“I completed several additional transactions with him in order to build up trust,” he said. “After that, Jimmy began to talk about moving Bybit funds for DPRK in advance of it happening, along with basic details about their operation in [Hong Kong] and mainland China.”

BitcoinBTC · USD

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The proof, per ZachXBT, was that “one day prior he stated funds would be moved to Solana and the next day they were.”

Staying in the hunt cost money. “At this point, I realized I needed to continue losing 5% per order and gamble on capturing as much actionable intel as quickly as possible,” he wrote.

“For this case, I fronted $349.7K and lost 5% on each order, with no guarantee Jimmy wouldn’t disappear with the funds, and an unknown amount of personal risk from dealing with the syndicate,” he said.

Jimmy was eager for more. On March 10, he kept pinging the fake persona until ZachXBT said, in character, it made him “lose trust in your business.” Jimmy’s answer was that “the team has prepared $1 million and is ready to start work at any time!”

Screenshot of a conversation between ZachXBT and “Jimmy Green.” Image: ZachXBT

In another chat, Jimmy explained the team’s setup: “We have different divisions of labor. We take the u and distribute it to different acceptors.” The “u” is apparently shorthand for USDT, the stablecoin issued by Tether.

The chats paid off on-chain. ZachXBT wrote that on March 12, 2025, he matched a screenshot Jimmy sent of himself bridging funds to an order created within minutes of the message, using amounts and timing on the Thorchain explorer, a public log of swaps on the decentralized protocol that moves coins directly across blockchains.

Jimmy then shared three Solana addresses. They exposed a cluster of more than $12 million in Bybit loot being swapped in real time, hopping from Bitcoin to Ether to Solana and finally to Tron. Tether later froze 442,000 USDT linked to the cluster.

Jimmy also dropped details ZachXBT could check. He said a team he knew had around $300K frozen in 2024, and ZachXBT found the freeze on-chain. The real figure was 332,000 USDC, stolen in the Poloniex exploit, the November 2023 hack that drained more than $100 million from the exchange and that researchers have tied to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

Then came the Cambodia link. Jimmy also said he had laundered $3 million in fraud proceeds for a different client, and ZachXBT traced those funds to a hot wallet used by Huione Guarantee, a Telegram marketplace where criminals sold laundering services and stolen data.

Huione Guarantee is part of Huione Group, the Cambodian conglomerate the U.S. Treasury’s FinCEN targeted over alleged laundering of at least $4 billion. Telegram banned the marketplace in May 2025, and Chinese authorities arrested former Huione Group chairman Li Xiong after Cambodia deported him.

Not all of it was crime talk. “Throughout our conversations, Jimmy and I had a lot of small talk in between discussing laundering for DPRK,” ZachXBT said. “He talked about playing mahjong, hunting wild rabbits, food, his fat reducing meal, family life, and vacations at Disney.”

The sting is not a one-off. “Since 2022, I have helped action $75M+ in freezes related to DPRK incidents,” ZachXBT wrote. He said his findings went immediately to trusted private-sector investigators and to the law enforcement assigned to the case, and that sensitivity around the investigation kept him from publishing sooner.

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October 6, 2026
‘Carmen,’ a Carmen Miranda Bio From Esmir Filho, to Shoot Next Year in U.S. and Brazil (EXCLUSIVE)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — “Carmen,” the Portuguese and English-language biopic of iconic Hollywood’s Golden Age Brazilian star Carmen Miranda, will shoot in the second half of 2027 in Brazil and the U.S.

Esmir Filho will helm the feature, a major production for local standards, with a 61 million reais ($20 million) budget, one of the largest ever in Brazilian cinema. Producers have raised 80% of the budget through Brazilian incentives, producer Tatiana Issa told Variety.

H2O Films plans to release “Carmen” in Brazilian theaters in the second half of 2028. Giovanna Lancellotti will play the leading role of Carmen Miranda and also serve as one of the pic’s producers.

Set to be unveiled on Oct. 7 at RioMarket, the business section of the Rio Film Festival, “Carmen” is based on a screenplay by Mariana Bardan and Eduardo Melo and produced by Julio Uchôa’s Ananã Produções, New York City-based Producing Partners (run by Issa and Guto Barra), Lancellotti’s GL Filmes and H2O.

In addition to Brazil, the producers aim to release the biopic theatrically in the U.S., Europe and Asia, where Miranda remains an icon, Issa said.

Miranda emerged as one of Brazil’s biggest radio, recording and film stars in the 1930s. Her U.S. career began in 1940 on Broadway, where she starred in musicals. Her distinctive costumes, turbans, platform shoes and rapid-fire singing style became instantly recognizable trademarks and opened the doors to Hollywood. She starred in 14 features until her death from a heart attack in 1955.

“Carmen became the highest-paid actress in the U.S. She would go into the office of Darryl F. Zanuck, the powerful head of production at Twentieth Century-Fox, and personally negotiate her contracts,” Issa said.

“She brought samba to the U.S. and turned it into something pop. Carmen was responsible for creating Brazil’s soft power at a time when the term did not even exist. Before Pelé and Brazil won soccer World Cups, she was the one who helped shape the international image of Brazilians as a joyful and colorful people,” she added.

Issa stressed Filho’s credentials to helm “Carmen” following his direction of “Homem com H,” the 2025 bio of Brazilian singer Ney Matogrosso, which was acclaimed by critics and achieved a solid box office performance.

Lancellotti, who has starred in local telenovelas and films, spent the past years preparing herself for the role of Miranda. She took singing lessons with musical performance director and vocal coach Felipe Habib and body preparation and choreography classes with Márcia Rubin and Vanessa Garcia.

“I immersed myself in Carmen Miranda’s story starting in 2021. I memorized the songs and began humming them every day,” she told Variety. “Carmen created an identity that, 70 years after her death, is still present in music, the arts and fashion.”

In addition to Brazilian actors, the pic’s cast will include English-speaking actors to play the roles of Zanuck, Broadway producer Lee Shubert and David Sebastian, Miranda’s only husband.

The film will shoot on location in New York City (for sequences chronicling her arrival by ship and her Broadway musicals), the Brazilian city of Maricá (standing in for Los Angeles) and Rio. The municipality of oil-rich Maricá, located about 35 miles away from Rio, is one of the production’s investors. According to Issa, the L.A. home scenario will eventually house the Carmen Miranda museum in Maricá.

Carmen Miranda in “Week-End in Havana”

October 6, 2026