Zookeeper mauled to death by lions after stepping out of car at safari park in Thailand


A zookeeper was killed in a lion attack in Thailand, officials said Wednesday, raising questions over safety and the legitimacy of the safari park's lion ownership.

The mauling happened at Safari World Bangkok, which calls itself one of Asia's largest open-air zoos and offers lion- and tiger-feeding trips for around $37 per person.

"The deceased is a zoo staff member who usually fed the lions," Sadudee Punpugdee, wildlife protection director of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, told AFP.

He was apparently mauled by six or seven of the big cats when he stepped out of his car, he said.

Tavatchai Kanchanarin, a doctor and zoo visitor who witnessed the attack, said "a man got off an uncovered car and stood alone with his back turned to the animals, which I thought was weird."

I will call out any rancid bullies who get a pride parade cancelled, whether they're far left OR far right. THAT is consistency.

Internal conflicts have hit the board of directors of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), a multinational convoy of several dozen vessels aiming to breach Israel's naval blockade of Gaza.

Alleged “wokeness”, political activism and in particular LGBTQ activism has led to serious discontent.

Le Courrier de l'Atlas, a French-language monthly magazine and online outlet covering Maghreb affairs, reported on September 16 that local GSF co-ordinator Khaled Boujemâa announced his resignation in protest at the presence of LGBTQ activists in the flotilla, including Saif Ayadi, who identifies as a “queer activist”.

Other figures, including activist Mariem Meftah and presenter Samir Elwafi, condemned what they saw as an attempt to impose a cultural progressive agenda unrelated to the Palestinian cause, describing it as a “red line crossed” and an attack on “societal values”.

Brussels Signal reached out to the GSF but had not received a reply at the time of writing.

On September 15 Facebook, Meftah wrote that being gay was a private matter, no one else's business and that no one should be discriminated or targeted for it.

But she stressed that such activism is viewed as incompatible with Islamic beliefs and warned against using “the sacred cause of Al-Aqsa” to advance unrelated agendas.

Also on Facebook the same day, Elwafi wrote: “Palestine is first and foremost the cause of Muslims, and it cannot be separated from its spiritual and religious dimension — with Jerusalem at the heart of its symbols and destiny.

“So why involve in it dubious activists serving other agendas that do not concern us and have nothing to do with Gaza, such as homosexuality!?

“Why do we hear the voices of these discredited and rejected figures in a flotilla meant to represent our societies and their solidarity with Gaza!? Why divide people over the very cause that unites them!?

“Why all these financial, moral, ideological, and security suspicions surrounding a flotilla that is supposed to embody Arab sentiment and the conscience of humanity!?

“What do you expect an Arab Muslim to think when he hears the slogans of this ‘queer' movement within a flotilla launched in the name of his most sacred and central cause, only to see it degraded in this way!?”

An Evangelical pastor in Honduras ignited a heated online debate after asking a parishioner to hand over his land to the Church by divine command.

In a viral video that has been doing the rounds on Latino social media for weeks, Jorge Pompa, an evangelical pastor from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, can be seen pressuring a local parishioner to sign over his property to the Church, as a test of true faith that would ultimately see him rewarded greatly. Speaking in front of his congregation, Pompa tells the confused man that God had spoken to him the other night, ordering him to tell the parishioner that He wanted him to give up his land. Despite the man's evident hesitation to answer the request, the pastor continues to pressure him, claiming that he would only be giving God what was already His.

“God spoke to me last night and said, ‘Tell him that I gave him life, I gave him his children, and I can give him more than he has now if he gives me that land.' If he gives me the land, he'll only keep $130,000, but if he gives it to me, I'll give him $500,000. Only if he can have the faith to believe,'” Jorge Pompa told the parishioner.

“What do you want? Money or God's blessing? (...) I want your papers and I want the land, now. Are you ready? Now tell him that I have asked him for the land. How can you want to sell something to God, if he gave you everything?” the pastor added.

Lol.

Queers for Palestine has always been THE most hilarious group.