Viral

Russia beat the U.S. into orbit in the '60s, and might have thought they beat us in COVID-safe fun -- but looking at these images of paddleboarders packed together, we gotta say ... nyet.

This stand-up paddleboarding festival went down over the weekend in St. Petersburg, which drew thousands of paddleboarders to the canals of the Fontanka River. Unfortunately, they were all smashed together at the start and finish of the event, and definitely NOT socially distant.

Some folks are standing, others are sitting ... and to be fair, once they got out and about paddling on the water most everyone was exercising at a safe distance. Looks like good, clean virus-free fun.

The one thing we're not seeing a whole lot of ... masks. Win some, lose some, and truth is that would be fine since they're all spaced out.

But, that bottleneck when they're all crowded into a canal is Dr. Fauci's worst nightmare come true.

BTW, Vladimir Putin's claiming to have the first coronavirus vaccine up and running -- despite skepticism from U.S. scientists. If he's right though, these paddle boarders should be first in line!

The wild black bear caught on camera taking a big ol' up-close whiff of a woman in a nature park has paid a dear price -- he's been captured and castrated.

The juvenile animal underwent the painful procedure after authorities deemed him a threat to visitors at the Chipinque Ecological Park in Mexico, where the bear was known for his close encounters with humans.

As we reported ... video last month showed the curious bear getting on its hind legs to sniff a woman's hair as she calmly took a selfie. The bear also put a paw on her and seemed to nuzzle her.

Folks who live near the park reportedly call the animal "the friendly bear" ... and officials are coming under fire for their decision to capture and castrate the young bear, which weighs 212 pounds.

The black bear was captured by officials from Mexico's federal environmental protection agency while sleeping in someone's backyard. Not the best way to wake up from a nap.

The boy in the video allegedly punched his teacher in the chest and cops were called to his school, Gerald Adams Elementary, and arrested him on a felony battery charge ... this according to the police report obtained by TMZ.

The report says the kid cursed at the teacher and told her "my mom is going to beat your a**" before punching the teacher in the chest with his right hand. The teacher says it all started when the kid wasn't properly sitting on a bench.

The alleged incident happened on Dec. 14, 2018 and the status of the case is unclear. The video started circulating Monday and Key West Police Chief Sean T. Brandenburg told the Miami Herald his officers didn't do anything wrong.

Here's police in Florida scaring an 8-year-old boy into straightening up his act ... by slapping handcuffs on him and taking him to the slammer.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump claims the boy Key West police tried to scare straight has special needs, and he's ripping cops for their tactics.

As you can see in the video, the young boy is so small his hands are too tiny for the cuffs and they fall off his wrists. Crump says the kid is only 3.5 feet tall and 64 pounds.

Police body cam footage also shows officers lecturing the boy as they lead him out of his elementary school and into the back of a squad car. Crump says the kid was then taken to a real jail for processing. Ya know, just like an adult.

U.S. politician Julian Castro also shared the shocking footage on social media, calling the incident "unbelievable" and saying "police should have no role in punishing our kids or pulling traumatic stunts like this on our schools."

We reached out to Key West cops to find out what led up to the arrest, but so far no word back.

A Louisiana woman's lucky to be alive after a frightening encounter with mother nature when a lightning strike obliterated a tree, sending thousands of pieces flying ... and it was all caught on video.

The incident went down in the small town of Morgan City, Louisiana -- about 86 miles west of New Orleans -- where home security footage captured the moment Sarah Ribardi came incredibly close to being struck by wood shrapnel that came flying in her direction after the tree near her home was reduced to rubble in less than a second.

Watch the video ... it's incredible the woman was able to immediately run back inside after the huge tree splintered. The video, shot Friday, shows a nanosecond of a bright flash ... and then a deafening crack.

Fans were really down to insert Viola Davis into Cardi B's new song -- even at the expense of Kylie Jenner -- and the actress was all about it ... CB was too.

Viola posted a couple different fan tributes that creatively embedded her into Cardi and Meg Thee Stallion's music video for "WAP" -- one of which swapped VD's face and body for Kylie's. Viola seemed to think it was funny -- she wrote, "Who did this?" and added emojis.

She posted another fan rendition, which spliced in a scene of "How to Get Away with Murder" ... seamlessly syncing up Viola dancing to the "WAP" beat in the background. Viola liked that one too, reposting it and adding flamenco emojis with the hashtag #HowToGetAwayWithWAP.

That last shout-out caught the attention of Cardi herself, who appeared pretty starstruck with the love Viola was showing. She retweeted Viola's post with the caption, "I'm so fan out right now ya don't even know." Looks like both ladies are pretty fond of each other. Who knew?!?

The video's taken off since it was released last week ... it's already got 59 million-plus views, and it's spurred meme after meme after meme, including the Viola one you see above. Like we told you, the purpose of the project was to showcase women empowerment and solidarity.

The L.A. County Sheriffs are under fire again after pointing guns at three black teens who actually needed their help following several 911 calls.

The incident went down Friday in Santa Clarita, about 35 miles north of L.A., and you see in the video a bunch of deputies roll up as several other deputies are already pointing high-powered weapons at the teens, who have their hands up.

Tammi Collins, the mother of one of the teens, says her son and a couple of friends were sitting at a bus stop when a homeless man asked if they had any crack and then tried to steal their stuff. She says the man became super aggro, ripped his shirt off and pulled a knife on them, and attempted to stab them.  She says the kids fended the man off with their skateboards.

Tammi says several 911 calls were placed and all but one claimed the boys were the victims, but one caller, she says, told the dispatcher "two black guys were attacking a homeless man."

The deputies have their weapons trained on the teens, as bystanders explained they were the victims, but the cops were unmoved. It's unclear if the teens were placed under arrest. We have no idea if the cops detained the homeless man, or if he was even around when they arrived.

We reached out to the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. ... so far, no word back.

A volcano in Indonesia exploded in spectacular fashion this week, sending a tower of ash flying three miles high ... leaving surrounding villages and communities shrouded in darkness.

Mount Sinabung erupted Monday on Indonesia's Sumatra Island, sending a massive column of volcanic ash spewing thousands of feet into the sky -- 16,400 to be exact. Luckily, no one was killed or seriously hurt from the explosion, but there were warnings of lava flows.

Folks were advised to stay at least three miles away from the crater's mouth, where lava could literally hijack the landscape. And, although the immediate area around the volcano has been roped off for years, people were still covered in ash below.

The AP reports up to 2 inches of ash gathered in some of the abandoned villages along the volcano's slopes. People further out carried on like normal, apparently -- except for the fact they had to turn on their car headlights to see through the darkness.

Mount Sinabung had been dormant for centuries before first erupting again in 2010 ... and since then, it's been active and experienced explosions a handful of times in the years to follow. The 2010 eruption killed two, 16 more were killed in 2014 and 7 died in 2016.

A pro-police group beat a group of Black Lives Matter counter-protesters ... and you actually hear someone from the pro-police group say don't use weapons but punching is encouraged.

The group -- Back the Blue -- was holding a rally in Fort Collins, Colorado Saturday when some Black Lives Matter protesters showed up.

It appears the Back the Blue crowd went after the BLM protesters, and you hear someone shout, "Everybody keep their hands off their weapons. Keep punching each other in the face. Don't shoot anybody."

Someone from the BLM group said, even though they were not the aggressors, they were detained by cops but were never told why.

Tech N9ine got on the mic for a bunch of never-ending partiers down in Missouri -- and the joint looked about as packed as any of their shindigs lately.

The rapper put on a homecoming show Saturday night at the Regalia hotel in Lake of the Ozarks -- he's from Kansas City, BTW ... so it was definitely a special occasion to have Tech come out and perform. He took to the stage in front of what we're told were upwards of 1,000 people.

That didn't seem to bother Tech N9ne though -- ditto for the concert promoters and the hotel folks hosting the event. As you can see ... it looks eerily similar to all the other Ozark water ragers we've seen of late. No masks, little distancing ... and just a whole lot of bodies.

Aside from the bad idea of hosting any type of large gathering like this -- indoors or out -- the fact Tech N9ne is in the mix here seems to signal something else that's fairly troubling ... the idea that in-person concerts are coming back with more regularity, slowly but surely.

We've seen some well-known artists over the past couple months performing to large crowds -- sometimes with blatant disregard for safety, and other times letting things get out of control despite their best intentions ... looking at you Chase Rice and the Chainsmokers.

Granted, Keith Urban seemed to have a bit more success with his own drive-in show -- in any case, it's clear artists are getting restless too and are trying to secure that concert bag.

Cleveland was more See-Where-You-Land Saturday night -- 'cause a guy parachuted into the downtown night scene ... and smacked himself against a building only to be left dangling.

Check out this crazy video that was taken right in the heart of downtown Cleveland, where some bozo glided down from the night sky and ran right into an apartment complex, which luckily snagged his 'chute toward the top and kept him from plunging two stories down.

Like we said, the guy kinda splats into the wall here -- but, surprisingly, he seems to be okay(ish) ... except the fact he's got no way to get down potentially falling. As he squirms around to free himself, the videographer notes that he and his friend should probably help.

Of course, they seem to take their sweet time as they watch the funny scene unfold and a crowd begins to gather below. This could've turned out a lot worse, but considering the man appears to be fine up there (for the most part), ya can't knock 'em for soaking it in.

BTW, the guy eventually got rescued by firefighters -- and later, he told cops he and a few friends jumped from a plane, although it's unclear from where originally. The others reportedly landed safely in a nearby park, but this joker ended up breaking his leg in the whole ordeal.

You wanna see someone disgusting ... check out this anti-masker who castigates a supermarket employee ... essentially calling her a loser because of her job.

It went down in Long Island, New York when an employee at a King Kullen market apparently told this shopper to wear a mask. Well, that set her off, threatening to "beat the f***ing s***" out of the employee, warning, "Don't pull your communist bull**** on me."

She then gets personal and insulting ... remember, the employee is an essential worker who, aside from enforcing the rules in the store, presumably is trying to keep her family and herself safe. That didn't stop the anti-masker from some loathsome insults.

And, check this out ... this video was shot at a restaurant in North Carolina where an employee got into it with a Grubhub driver. The employee claims the guy came up to the window without a mask and was chowing down on a Burger King sandwich. She says when she asked why he wasn't wearing a mask, he started screaming and spitting with food in his mouth.

This is hysterical ... a wedding proposal on a boat goes horribly wrong because the would-be fiance's wingman has a TERRIBLE throwing arm!!!

We don't know their names or exactly where they were, but it doesn't matter. The ring, inside the ring box, goes in the drink and a guy -- presumably the thrower -- jumps in to retrieve it.

We don't know if he got the ring back, but you gotta say ... it's a memorable proposal. We're assuming she said yes, even sans bling.

And, this is funny ... an NFL meme page posted the video with the caption, "When you ask Mitch Trubisky to help you with your proposal ..."

2020 has brought us a deadly pandemic, a devastating hurricane, tornados, shocking examples of police brutality ... so really, how surprising is a big earthquake in North Carolina?

A 5.1 quake rocked Sparta, NC Sunday, just after 8 AM. The epicenter is near the Virginia border and was felt in South Carolina and Georgia.

It's the biggest earthquake to hit the area in more than 100 years.

Check out the video ... the beauty salon surveillance video shows the force of the quake as items all around sway back and forth.

The Mayor of Sparta said the quake was so loud it sounded like a train roaring down the track.

Fortunately, no injuries and only minor damage, but the shaking was real.

A 5.1 is a big quake, but typically significant damage usually occurs when a quake is in the 6's or higher. Of course, depending on the way buildings were constructed ... a 5.1 could do serious damage ... though not the case here.

Cardi B's giving a lot of love to one of the famous female faces that appeared in her new music video -- giving fans a sneak peak at Normani's viral dance moves.

CB posted a video Saturday that showed behind-the-scenes footage of how the video for her new single 'WAP' was shot -- especially the dance solos featured by several different women ... including Fifth Harmony's Normani, who had the internet ablaze with her sexy number.

Turns out, the whole thing was shot on a green screen with the main song playing in the background. It's funny though ... Cardi was singing the lyrics to Normani's own song, "Motivation," over the 'WAP' beat -- giving her a little extra juice/hype for the performance.

Normani also posted incredible photo stills from the shoot -- and naturally, her fans (and her contemporaries) loved it. Her cameo was definitely one of the more notable standouts, according to Twitter anyway. Other appearances weren't as well-received, unfortunately.

As we reported ... the whole idea behind 'WAP' was women empowerment -- that's why Cardi and Meg had cameos from a bunch of different famous ladies across the entertainment industry, in an attempt to show solidarity.

Americans are far from the only ones going stir-crazy -- because chaos can be found anywhere these days ... notably, Belgium, where cops are fighting their own citizens.

Check out this insane brouhaha that broke out Saturday at a Blankenberge beach -- where cops were sent in to break up a crowd of young'ns who were sitting on the breakwater ... this after a lifeguard had told them to scram since it was prohibited.

Welp, when the cops showed ... all hell broke loose. The video picks up right in the middle of the action -- officers were creeping upon beach-goers with batons drawn and face masks on, but the crowd was quick to strike back early and often ... against the cops and even against themselves.

You see some people trying to stop the violence, to no avail. People are hurling beach chairs and umbrella poles and umbrellas. Speaking of the latter, watch how one guy straight up swings a giant beach umbrella at a cop, who doesn't flinch.