Weird News

Rudy Giuliani's impromptu Philly news conference at the Four Seasons -- the landscaping company, not the hotel -- gave an adjacent sex shop a raw deal ... and it's none too pleased.

An employee named Jacob at Fantasy Island Book Store -- an adult entertainment shop a couple of buildings over from Four Seasons -- tells TMZ ... Giuliani's Saturday event cost him and his partners some good cash.

He says they opened at 9 AM and by 10:30 AM, their parking lot was swarmed by Giuliani and his posse ... plus all the media/security tagging along to see what he was going to say about President Trump and the election.

With all the hubbub and cameras, Jacob says customers were spooked and couldn't get to Fantasy Island's front door.

He says they didn't get any warning about Rudy's plans, and it sounds like Four Seasons wasn't given notice either ... although it's reaped some benefit, selling out merchandise after becoming Giuliani's backdrop.

No such luck for Fantasy Island.

Jacob says all they got was a flood of phone calls from reporters asking if Giuliani swung by the adult store. That's a "no" ... BTW.

The Huntington Beach Bad Boy is now a Huntington Beach City Council member.

MMA legend Tito Ortiz dominated the competition in Tuesday's election -- clinching 1 of the 3 available City Council seats in his home town.

The 45-year-old UFC Hall of Famer finished with 34,901 votes (14.3%) -- the most amount of votes out of the 15 candidates running for the open seats.

The next closest was Dan Kalmick, Huntington Beach Planning Commissioner, who finished with 11% of the vote.

Ortiz celebrated with a small gathering in Huntington Beach -- passionately thanking the locals for supporting him.

Tito is a hardcore Trump supporter who previously told TMZ Sports he received political support from the Trump family.

Before the election, Ortiz pushed a COVID conspiracy theory -- explaining why he believes the virus was created by man and is being weaponized by "the left."

"It's population control by the left," Tito said last month on the "I Only Touch Greatness" podcast.

"They’re trying to take out all of the older people who are getting social security and so forth."

The Biden vs. Trump race results are in ... and it's BIDEN BY A NOSE!!!

... a horse nose!

Because "Biden" and "Trump" are horses!

Yep, meet "BidenHisTime" and "SuperTrump" -- two racehorses who competed in the Betfair, Race To The White House Stakes at Lingfield Park in the U.K.

Will the winner actually predict the U.S. Presidential election? Maybe! Who knows?

What we do know ... it was a super-tight race with a wild photo finish!

Trump -- a chestnut and blonde racehorse -- jumped out to an early lead ... before the grey racehorse, Biden, made a charge down the stretch!

"What a ding-dong finish here," the announcer yelled as the horses raced neck-and-neck to the finish line!

In the end, BidenHisTime took the W -- prompting the announcer to make this joke:

"There’s your winner, not so 'sleepy' today!"

By the way, a Betfair rep tells us ... the U.S. election is getting a TON of betting action around the world -- the gaming site has already taken in over $352 MILLION in wagers!!!

Lotta action!

President Trump and Joe Biden are hoping to get the votes of millions of Americans, but some first names are better than others for each candidate -- and, naturally, Karens are right in the middle of the action.

According to a new NY Times study of 102 common first names ... women named Karen in 18 battleground states are 60 percent likely to vote for Biden, which was the highest among the top 10 most common female names.

On the Trump side of the coin ... Nancy is most likely to vote for him, at 57 percent.

When it comes to the men in these states, Trump is a favorite among the Richards -- y'know, tricky Dicks -- at 64 percent, with Thomas trailing closely behind at 61 percent.

In fact, most of the top 10 most common male names prefer Trump, but Christophers and Josephs are 50/50 on the candidates.

As for the names outside of the top 10, here's a fun one -- Donalds love Donald the most ... at 68 percent. Patricks, on the other hand, are the most pro-Biden at 65 percent.

Janets are most likely to be Trump supporters at 64 percent, and Sarahs go with Joe 68 percent of the time.

Of course, what's really in a name? It's kinda ridiculous to draw a correlation between your political stance and the name your parents randomly gave you decades ago. Anyway, it's at least entertaining.

Scientists returned to the scene of the crime to finish the job they started last week -- and it appears they succeeded, snatching not just one, but TWO queen murder hornets.

Officials from the Washington State Department of Agriculture went out on another mission earlier this week to remove a tree they suspected still had quite a fair amount of hornets in its trunk, not to mention at least one queen that escaped their clutches last time around.

Turns out, they were right and then some ... not only was there a queen still burrowed in there, but there was a second fully-grown one as well. And, the crew got both!

Check out this video that documents their process. First, they cut the tree in question down, wrapped in plastic, sawed down the middle, pumped its innards with carbon dioxide to stun the hornets and then pried it open with heavy-duty tools to remove what they found.

What that was ... two massive queens, whose size you can see from the tubes they were housed in after the fact. Scientists believe one might be a newbie queen, and one might be the OG ... which helped spawn the hive -- where several other almost fully-developed were growing in what the crew calls white-capped cells. It's gnarly all around ... watch.

No one's laughing about the rising COVID death toll, which is why this is a total WTF moment -- a senior health official announcing grim numbers ... while rocking a clown costume.

Try not to be distracted by the full clown makeup, red tie, polka dot shirt and yellow pants the official was wearing as she somberly rattled off the tally for COVID cases and deaths in Oregon.

The answer to your question -- who's this clown? She's reportedly Claire Poche from the Oregon Health Authority. We know it's Halloween and all, but Claire never addresses her attire in the video.

Officials are reportedly dismissing it as just a costume, but that doesn't square with the fact the video was recorded Oct. 14, making it 2 weeks old now and pretty early for a Halloween. Plus, the sign language interpreter isn't in a costume ... so, Claire really stands out.

A morbid, bloody and frightful Halloween display at a Texas man's home is eliciting more than gasps from his neighbors ... he's getting police visits too.

Artist Steven Novak turned the front yard of his Dallas residence into a gory scene straight out of a horror movie -- or several of them -- using dummies, props, and more than 20 gallons of fake blood.

Check it out -- there's a man killed by a chainsaw, another killed by a safe dropped on his head, one more with a knife to the skull, an apparent dead body in a bag ... and a wheelbarrow full of severed limbs!!!

Steve really went all out.

The shocking and way-too-realistic display might take the cake for 2020's best Halloween decorations, but it's also prompted several complaints from locals ... and cops have been called to the fake massacre location multiple times.

Novak says he's been home twice when police showed up, and the officers told him they just had to check it out because they received calls ... but they thought it was cool.

A police officer was killed during a raid on an illegal cockfighting event in the Philippines ... when a rooster with a blade on it's leg slashed the cop, causing a fatal wound.

It all went down on Tuesday when cops descended on an illegal cockfight in Northern Samar -- where the "sport" has been outlawed due to the COVID pandemic.

FYI, before COVID times, cockfighting was allowed in the Philippines (at licensed venues) on Sundays and on certain holidays.

Officials say Lieutenant Christian Bolok had picked up a rooster while collecting evidence during Tuesday's raid, when he was sliced by a steel razor blade attached to the bird's leg.

Bolok was hit in the left thigh -- with the blade reportedly slicing through his femoral artery, which ultimately caused him bleed out.

The officer was rushed to a nearby hospital but it was too late -- he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The local police chief, Colonel Arnel Apud, commented to the AFP news agency -- describing the incident as "a piece of bad luck that I cannot explain."

"I could not believe it when it was first reported to me. This is the first time in my 25 years as a policeman that I lost a man due to a fighting cock's spur."

Washington officials would've really liked to say, "off with her head" ... as it relates to the queen bee hornet in that nest they destroyed ... but, sadly, they can't just yet.

The Washington State Department of Agriculture has confirmed their team from the Pest Program who ventured into the woods this weekend did NOT retrieve the mother of the hive -- the queen remains in the tree as far as they can tell ... implication being, she's alive.

An official for WSDA also told 'GMA' the tracker they recently placed on another one of those hornets was also still in the trunk ... so clearly, there's still some buggers in there somewhere. They say they sucked out roughly a hundred or so with their high-tech mission.

You'll recall ... about ten of those folks went out there at the crack of dawn Saturday in a sneak attack of sorts -- hoping to catch the hornets off guard by wrapping the area where their nest was in plastic wrap, filling it with a substance and then sucking 'em out dry.

They captured quite a lot in their haul -- but it appears the most important one remains ... and they might need to head back for a 2nd go. The WSDA official adds ... there are probably a handful of other nests they need to locate in the state, so the job's definitely not done.

Here's another scary factoid about these little bastards ... apparently, they can sting you with their venom multiple times. Not only that, but they can SPIT IT TOO!!! Worst of all, the hornets have a habit of wiping out bee colonies -- which can affect our crops/food supply.

Take heed, y'all.

Humans are going back to the moon for the fist time in a long time ... and this time a woman will be leaving her footprint on that giant rock in the sky.

NASA just announced a new space mission they're set to embark on over the next few years with the intent of getting boots on the lunar ground by 2024 to study water they discovered recently, and see if it's usable.

The thinking is the H20 -- now found could be a sign of life, 'cause that's technically what an organism on Earth would need to thrive. Then again, it could just be mutant space water, so that's what they're gonna check out.

NASA hasn't announced the crew members' names yet.

There's more to this trip than just agua ... NASA says not only is it going to study the water, but the new U.S. moon missions -- dubbed Artemis -- will also try to establish a long-term presence there by the end of the decade, and use it as a springboard to our neighbor ... MARS, baby!!!

BTW, if you're wondering why we haven't been back to the moon more regularly -- the last time we set foot there was in '72, during the Apollo missions -- the space agency has chalked it up to politics, support and funding, or a lack thereof. It wasn't because they couldn't do it.

In total, humans have been to the moon 6 times. Get ready to put another notch in our space belts.

The First Lady was cheerfully tagging along with the President on his way to the debate this past week ... or so it seems, because an awful lot of people don't think it was actually her.

Here's a photo that was taken Thursday ahead of the debate in Nashville between Donald Trump and Joe Biden ... in which DT is seen boarding a chopper with who appears to be his wife, Melania, already on board, smiling at the crowd that was bidding them a farewell.

We say appears because a crap ton of folks have studied this photo and others captured in the same few seconds ... and they believe this lady's a FAKE stand-in, not the real Melania at all. Prepare yourself -- this is a deep dive, but stupidly important work nonetheless.

Some have gone to the extreme lengths of zooming in and comparing the lines around her mouth ... not to mention playing dentist and seeing differences in the teeth. By most accounts, the mugs here just don't match up -- from chomper size to the curve of her smile ... many Twitter truthers simply aren't buying this is the real McCoy, but rather ... a look-alike.

BTW, this isn't the first time a "fake Melania" theory has surfaced. It's cropped up at least twice before -- most notably, in 2019 ... when Trump and Melania visited tornado-stricken Alabama to survey the damage. She was rocking massive shades then too ... but many said there's no way that was FLOTUS -- speculating she's got a few different body doubles.

Sure, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is alive and well, but the same can't be said right now for his wife ... who hasn't been seen in public since January.

Ri Sol-ju was last with Kim for a public event at the Samjiyon Theatre in Pyongyang during a Lunar New Year celebration, but after she missed a military parade she usually attends on October 10 ... speculation's swirling about why, and where in the hell she is now.

Along with the darkest guess that immediately comes to mind, there are 3 main theories that are less disturbing -- but also maybe less believable.

One is that she's taking care of Kim's aunt who is ill. Another, from experts in South Korea, is that she's afraid of getting sick herself amid the COVID-19 pandemic due to lack of social distancing and masks at events.

And finally, there are reports she stepped out of the public eye to take care of her daughter, who's believed to have been born in 2013.

It should be noted -- about a year ago there was similar concern for Ri after she wasn't seen in public for 4 months, but then she was ... and people speculated she may have given birth.

Of course, it's hard to know what to believe when it comes to North Korea ... as we learned this past summer about her husband.

Asian murder hornets have made their way to Washington State ... authorities just found a nest, the first one discovered in the U.S., and now humans wanna kill the deadly insects ASAP!!!

The Washington State Dept. of Agriculture says they've located an Asian giant hornet nest on a private property in Blaine ... and as you can see, the murder hornets set up shop inside a tree.

The WSDA says they're gonna try and destroy the nest Saturday, after plans to wipe it out Friday were dashed due to inclement weather. It's 2020, did you really think murder hornets would go out that easy?!?

Entomologists from the WSDA found the nest after a trapper caught two live murder hornets Wednesday using a new type of trap. Two more hornets, also living, were found in another trap Thursday and entomologists attached radio trackers to the big buggers, which led them to the nest.

It's pretty scary ... the nest is inside a tree near an area cleared for a residential home, and authorities counted dozens of hornets entering and exiting the tree. These murder hornets usually nest in the ground, but sometimes they pick a dead tree for their home base.

As we've reported ... the WSDA has been on the hunt for murder hornet nests since the first insect was caught earlier this year, and authorities had to navigate a ton of false reports.

The hope here -- eradicating murder hornets before they decimate our bee population, not to mention any human casualties along the way.

Twitter's not buying what a Dutch man's selling -- that he hacked President Trump's account by guessing a very simple password, which is lucky for him ... legally speaking.

A spokesperson for Twitter's vehemently denying Victor Gevers, a Dutch security researcher, got into Trump's Twitter account last week when he guessed POTUS' password as "maga2020!" Twitter says, "We've seen no evidence to corroborate this claim, including from the article published in the Netherlands today."

It should be noted ... if Victor did, in fact, hack Trump's account -- giving him access to tweets and direct messages sent to and from the leader of the free world -- it's a federal crime under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. That explicitly states it's against the law to intentionally access social media accounts without proper authorization. See, huge no-no.

According to a TechCrunch report ... Victor claims he notified Homeland Security's cyber unit division to inform them about the security breach. Victor also claims Trump's password was then changed shortly thereafter. What's more ... Victor shared what he claims to be a screenshot inside Trump's Twitter account.

The security expert told TechCrunch he guessed Trump's password on the 5th attempt. He also claims to have done the same back in 2016 when he discovered Trump's LinkedIn password was "yourefired."

A man let it all hang out to show his disdain for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in New Mexico ... and we do, in fact, mean all of it.

Check out this dude walking up to a home in Albuquerque this weekend in the dead of night -- without a trace of clothing anywhere -- dead set on ripping a Biden-Harris 2020 sign out of a front yard.

It's like a horror movie -- "Invasion of the Butt Naked Body Snatchers," perhaps? Sure.

Ain't much more to it ... a Ring camera captured the politically charged streaking. The guy went straight for the sign, no hesitation, like he knew it was there, and what he was gonna do.

The sign did not come out of the ground easily, but he eventually got the cardboard off the metal frame. He settled for that because, as they say ... nekkid beggars can't be choosers. Weird stuff.

So far, he's gotten off scot-free (like his clothing), but the person who posted the video say they're reporting nature boy to the police.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is warning earthlings, an asteroid may be heading for our planet before election day, but it's probably not going to kill us ... but maybe something else will.

The famed astrophysicist posted a photo of the giant rock hurtling toward Earth, with the caption, "asteroid 2018VP1, a refrigerator-sized space-rock, is hurtling towards us at more than 25,000 mi/hr."

He goes on to say it could have a brush with Earth at an ominous time ... "It may buzz-cut Earth on Nov. 2, the day before the Presidential Election. But it’s not big enough to cause harm. So if the World ends in 2020, it won’t be the fault of the Universe."

Neil, who hosts the new Fox show, “Cosmos: Possible Worlds," didn't say what else could end the world as we know it, but we have ideas.

As for the asteroid ... NASA has confirmed it's on a trajectory to possibly hit the U.S. on Nov. 2. It's 6.5 feet in diameter and there's only a 1% chance it will hit somewhere in the country, but still ... it's 2020.