Viral

The U.S. Mint's decision to put the American Samoan fruit bat on the back of 2020 quarters probably seemed perfectly innocent ... pre-coronavirus, but now it's kinda creepy.

Here's the deal ... the 2020 quarter, which was put into circulation in February, honors America's Pacific Island territory, and features a cheerful-looking mama fruit bat and her pup hanging upside down.

The National Park of American Samoa is home to the species ... hence the currency shout-out. Only problem is we're all a bit freaked out about bats, considering one widely held scientific belief that the virus jumped to humans from bats sold in Wuhan's wet markets.

Before its release, the U.S. Mint said ... "The image evokes the remarkable care and energy that this species puts into their offspring. The design is intended to promote awareness to the species’ threatened status due to habitat loss and commercial hunting."

Blah, blah, blah ... y'know everyone just see bats and thinks pandemic.

The odd timing of the bat quarter's release is already fueling the conspiracy theory that the government plotted the COVID-19 outbreak.

For those who choose to believe that keep this piece of scientific fact in mind -- the Samoan fruit bats live far, far away from Wuhan's wet markets.

Carole Baskin wants to be a cool cat and kitten herself, so she submitted a clip for Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande's new music vid ... but she didn't make the final cut.

Here's the deal ... Justin and Ariana have a new music video for their quarantine-themed song, "Stuck With U," dropping tonight, and they've been asking for fan submissions to be included in the vid.

Carole and her husband sent one in, dancing to the tune with their cat and wearing animal print robes. Justin shared it on social media to promote his video, but that's as far as she's getting.

Sources close to JB tell TMZ ... Justin and Ariana will NOT be using Carole's submission in the final cut.

Carole Baskin tells TMZ ... some of Justin's friends asked if they would submit a clip for the music video, so she and Howard dressed up in their old Fur Ball gala outfits and filmed a dance with their cat, Pearlie.

Missing the final cut is news to Carole ... she says they weren't told one way or another if they made the cut, but she's happy Justin shared it with his followers and she hopes "it doesn't attract too many of the haters who have been bashing us since being misled by 'Tiger King.'"

Ariana perhaps summed up the whole thing best ... "for the record, I did not allow or approve this clip to be in the actual video. but. nonetheless. it exists and that's ..... unique."

Okay, so maybe murder hornets aren't THAT dangerous ... or maybe it's praying mantises we should truly be worried about. Either way -- nature is damn scary!!!

Here's video of an apparent Asian giant hornet (aka murder hornet) going head-to-head with a mantis and losing its head ... as the greenish-brown beast quickly strikes, kills and starts chomping away.

The years-old video has resurfaced online on the heels of the alarming news that deadly "murder hornets" have arrived in the U.S. and were first spotted in Washington state this past fall.

As we reported ... these giant Asian hornets are a threat to the bee population, as they tear up entire colonies by decapitating them and feeding the bodies to their young. Oh, and this is what one of them did to a mouse.

They also can kill humans with their venom -- reportedly up to 50 people a year die from their stings -- so it's easy to understand why folks are freaking out about them ... even if the executioner wasp is more dangerous.

Little did we know, we just need to sic praying mantises on their asses.

A man running from cops was gunned down by police after bailing from a car ... and the officer-involved shooting was captured on the dude's live stream.

The wild scene unfolded Wednesday afternoon in Indianapolis ... and the video picks up with the man behind the wheel of a car, calling out the street he was on ... and pleading for someone to "come get my stupid ass." All of this as he live streamed from a phone.

After bailing from the car, he started running on foot. It sounds like someone yelled, "Stop, stop." Then you clearly hear him respond, "F**k you" ... and then a flurry of gunshots rang out as the man fell to the ground. The phone's camera came to rest pointed up toward the sky ... and continued streaming.

That was followed by tons of police sirens and someone screaming, "Oh my God!"

Indianapolis police confirm there was an officer-involved shooting at the intersection the man yelled out on the video. It's unclear if the man was armed or why he was even on the run. Police say no officers were injured.

Much of the video is shaky and there's no perspective as to what was happening around him, but police say they're investigating what led up to the gunfire.

Story developing ...

Here's something nice for a change -- Takoda the black bear's unconcerned with the troubles of the world, and is just enjoying a dip in a cold tub ... REALLY enjoying it.

The 400-pound bear's splashy bath time is a springtime staple at the Oregon Zoo, where they bust out a 300-gallon wading pool as the weather gets warm and sunny ... and let him go to town.

Takoda -- whose name means "friend to all" in Sioux -- is 10 years old and arrived at the zoo in November 2010, after being found dehydrated and hungry as an orphaned cub in Montana.

Fortunately, he was nursed back to health and found a new home at the zoo's Black Bear Ridge.

Amy Cutting, a director at the zoo, says ... "He’s quite a goofy bear. He was just cooling down and having some fun on a nice spring day.”

The Oregon Zoo describes Takoda's antics as "the kind of stuff the internet was made for, especially in times like these."

Couldn't agree more.

Kim Jong-un might not be alive after all and instead has a convincing body double -- so says one former member of parliament ... who appears to be pushing actual fake news.

Louise Mensch -- who used to serve in the UK government as a conservative a while back -- sent the body double theories into hyper-drive on Friday after she posted a would-be, side-by-side comparison that she claimed proved the guy who took that factory tour in Pyongyang last week wasn't actually KJU -- but another person entirely posing as him.

She pointed out the different brow, and other facial features ... but much of her claim was on the teeth themselves. In her photo, they certainly do look different. The problem ... her photo of Kim at the fertilizer plant isn't authentic and is almost certainly a doctored image.

We know this because we downloaded the high-res image itself and zoomed in with our own gear -- and it does NOT show what this woman's pic depicts ... namely, mangled and mashed up teeth that are vastly different from Kim's famous Bugs Bunny-like chompers.

As you can tell in an actually zoomed-in photo, those two long incisors are the same here ... it definitely looks like Kim -- and not whoever that other guy is up there in Louise's comparison.

That said, we still don't know when these photos were actually taken -- and it's hard to take government-run media there at their word that he's a perfect picture of health ... especially after international reports pegged him as either dead, brain dead or on his death bed.

We'll keep an eye out for Kim ... real or otherwise.

You can breathe a huge sigh of relief, Asian "murder" hornets are highly unlikely to kill you or your loved ones ... according to wildlife expert Coyote Peterson, so you know it's legit!!!

The Animal Planet star showed up on "TMZ Live" and schooled us on the latest buzz surrounding the deadly insects threatening to wipe out human civilization and bee populations as we know them.

Coyote says don't believe the hype ... these little buggers don't even have the most painful sting in the animal kingdom -- that's reserved for the executioner Wasp -- and they're highly unlikely to kill any Americans, despite their menacing moniker and penchant for decapitating bees.

As we told you ... sightings of Asian "murder" hornets are spiking in Washington, but reports from everyday citizens are mostly false.

Coyote says it's important to remember only a single hornet has actually been found in the United States, and it's dead. CP says entomologists are working to find a potential colony, and if they do, the hornets will be eradicated before they can wreak havoc on humans and bees.

As for the hornets' potent venom -- described as hot metal driving through skin -- and the dozens of people who get stung and die each year ... Coyote tells us why that's a little misleading, and why you're unlikely to be another statistic.

Asian "murder" hornets arriving on America's doorstep are creating a mass panic we haven't seen since ... well, last month, and one state is already inundated with mostly false reports ... TMZ has learned.

The Washington State Dept. of Agriculture tells us ... its office has received HUNDREDS of reported sightings from all over the country. The flood of calls came in the last few days ... in the wake of a NYT story about the first confirmed encounters with the giant insects in the Pacific Northwest.

That's scared the crap out of people, but fortunately, we're told most if not all of the reports to the WSDA have been erroneous. It's usually not the Asian giant hornet (gov't name for "murder" hornets) folks are seeing, but instead ... its Western cousin, the European hornet -- which isn't nearly as scary.

The main differences between the two are pretty noticeable -- so hopefully this helps people chill out and STOP blowing up phones at the WSDA. The agency wants people to contact their own local agriculture agencies. We're told staffers are even getting calls from Great Britain.

As for how to tell which is which -- the European hornets, a dime a dozen in the States, are actually LARGER than the Asian "murder" hornets, and they look different too, if you look closely. European hornets' thoraxes and abdomens feature more yellow, while the Asian hornet is mostly black/dark brown in appearance ... with a yellow stripe closer to its stinger.

Of course, that all assumes you can safely observe the bugger up close.

For an even closer look at what European hornets look like -- here's a shot of one a Philly-area resident took over the weekend, mistakenly thinking it was Asian. He reported it to the Pennsylvania Dept. of Agriculture ... and they assured him it wasn't a "murder" hornet.

Cosmetic surgery is back in full swing wherever this woman -- who, shocker, goes by "Real-Life Barbie" -- got a serious balloon job done on her lips!!!

The patient is 22-year-old Andrea Ivanova from Bulgaria, and just try to look at her kisser. Painful, right? That's because she just got her 20th round of lip filler injections, and despite the fact they look like they're about to pop ... Andrea wants her lips even bigger.

Clearly, she's digging the work docs did for her ... as you can see in a video she posted of the aftermath. BTW, she's become a mouth breather ... the center of Andrea's lips can't even touch anymore

Of any future lip injections, Andrea says ... "My doctor said he will do more injections for me, but said I have to wait for at least two months," going on to explain that she while she loves her permanent duck face -- she admits it's been difficult to eat properly. You don't say!

She goes on to say, "I think my lips are lovely, I love them. I am not sure if they are the biggest lips in the world but they are one of the biggest, I think."

What's even crazier about this is what Andrea used to look like before all the work. Completely different person, and pretty normal ... relatively speaking.

There's probably a lesson here ... and whatever it is, we're thinking Andrea hasn't learned it yet.

What appears to be an Asian "murder" hornet took a mouse's life within seconds in a wild struggle that was captured on video ... seemingly proving how deadly these things are.

This video just resurfaced this week and is spreading in light of the news that the deadly version of these insects from across the world has touched down in our own backyard here in North America in the past few months.

A new influx of hornets from Asia -- which have NOT been seen here in the States until recently -- pose a massive risk to our domestic bee population, not to mention humans. With them roaming the wild ... much of the natural order of the animal kingdom is in danger

It's unclear if this is, in fact, a murder hornet -- as we don't know exactly when the clip was shot, or where -- but it certainly seems to reflect what these giant bugs are said to do ... MURDER.

It's crazy to see the mouse fight for its life and try to squirm away -- but it's no use, 'cause the hornet is all over it and stinging/biting away until finally ... the mouse stops. The hornet then flies away and starts coming for the cameraman -- that's when the video cuts out.

Thank God these grownups got the monkey off this toddler's back -- because a fierce primate was about to make off with them in a wild, would-be kidnapping getaway.

Check out this video that was supposedly taken in an alleyway in Indonesia, where it shows a circus-like, small simian rolling up to a group of kids on a mini motorbike ... which it jumps off of right in front of them, and then attempts to take the runt of the litter.

It's a wild scene -- something out of a damn movie, but this rogue little bastard does his own stunts! -- and it only gets scarier the more you watch. The monkey, at first, loses its grip on the child (who's screaming) but then goes back and starts dragging them by the hand.

The monkey decides yanking the kid by the hair would make for a better escape and tries that -- and it even gets pretty damn far with the child too ... before some reasonable adults FINALLY step in and scare it off. You can hear it shrieking in the distance as it runs off.

Now, for a little context ... the guy who shot this video spoke to a local media outlet, and said owning monkeys is actually illegal out there -- but people still do keep 'em as pets and use them for entertainment 'cause the consequences are so minimal.

If anything, hopefully, this serves as a wake-up call to Indonesian officials -- these hominids don't just play nice and play accordions ... they're literally capable of taking your children.

Monkey see ... monkey abduct!!!