News

The man who recorded the video of Ahmaud Arbery's slaying says he had zero involvement in what went down and is now in fear for his life.

William "Roddie" Bryan and his fiancee spoke to Action News in Jacksonville, and he says he and his family have been receiving death threats since the video leaked online last week.

Bryan, who was speaking out for the first time, doesn't explain why he was recording the vid ... which shows Travis McMichael -- with his father Gregory in tow -- shoot Ahmaud during a struggle back in February. Bryan says he's in "complete shock" because he's "never been involved in anything like that before."

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced Bryan and his video are under investigation. He was initially named in the police report as trying to block Ahmaud during the controversial chase but Bryan claims he had no involvement. As we've reported ... Georgia's Attorney General is asking the Justice Department to step in and help get to the bottom of all of this.

Bryan told Action News, “I had nothing to do with it. I'm trying to get my life back to normal, and it’s been smeared for the last week. I was told I was a witness and I’m not sure what I am, other than receiving a bunch of threats.”

A man who got stuck in a vortex of water while hiking has one resourceful officer of the law to thank for saving his life -- a moment that was captured on WILD video.

The 24-year-old Fresno-area man -- who has not been identified -- was hiking the Angel Falls crossing along the Willow Creek Trail near Bass Lake in Central Cali this weekend, when for some reason -- he ended up off the beaten path and right in the middle of a whirlpool.

Fortunately for him, an off-duty CHP officer named Brent Donley was hiking nearby and he rushed over to help. He was quick on his feet and MacGyvered a contraption that ended up rescuing the dude. Donley tied his backpack strap to a branch, tossed it to the kid, and with the help of others, safely yanked him to the edge of the rocks he was plopped on.

It's a pretty incredible scene -- and the best part is that Donley is actually trained for this type of thing ... he's been described as a search and rescue CHP officer, so literally the perfect man for the job.

CHP Fresno and the Madera County Sheriff's Office were obviously proud, posting videos of the actual rescue and the aftermath too -- showing they even got the guy's bag out of the water.

A California beach has been abruptly closed, but not because of coronavirus ... it's because a surfer was killed by a shark.

A 26-year-old man was surfing in the Santa Cruz area Saturday, around Monterey Bay, when the attack occurred. As for what type of shark ... so far, authorities don't know, saying it was an "unknown shark species."

The surfer was pronounced dead on the scene.

Authorities immediately closed a 1-mile stretch of beach for at least 5 days. They will presumably monitor shark activity in the area before reopening. Interestingly, officials are not banning water sports -- like jet skiing or kayaking -- but they are "highly discouraged."

A photog for KRON-TV in the Bay Area says he's been seeing lots of great whites swimming near shore. On the day of the attack, he says he spotted 15 great whites while boating.

The feathers were flying in Canada when a rogue goose took its frustrations out on an unsuspecting customer, and the video is .... well, hilarious.

You wouldn't think a goose is that aggressive, or at least most people wouldn't, but this goose was out for bear as shopper exited a store and walked to the parking lot waiting for her ride to roll up.

That's when she noticed a goose was on the loose, but who'd think it would go after her.  Well, it did ... repeatedly, as her ride approached.

The shopper runs around the car as the goose gives chase!!! She jettisons the bag and hops inside the car ... but guess who follows her in?

The driver is blindsided as the feathers fly and then jumps out of the car and falls on the pavement. The shopper somehow gets the goose out of the vehicle.

Mother's Day was brutal in Hong Kong, after riot police went wild on protesters at a shopping mall ... mercilessly pinning a child on the ground.

It was supposed to be a protest against human rights violations, with organizers calling for independence. They're also demanding the city's leader step down.

A gaggle of cops descended on the mall and broke up the crowd, but it got very intense and very physical. The most shocking image ... a small child held down on the ground with what appears to be significant pressure.

Authorities denied an application for the protest a few days ago, citing concerns over coronavirus.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is back in a hospital bed ... but she's still working her day job on the Supreme Court.

RBG was hospitalized Tuesday due to an infection caused by gallstones ... this according to the Supreme Court, adding the 87-year-old is resting comfortably and should be released from the hospital in a day or two.

According to a SCOTUS official ... Ruth underwent a non-surgical treatment for a benign gallbladder condition at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She originally sought medical care Monday, when the gallstone was discovered.

The procedure and hospitalization didn't keep RBG from her notorious work ethic ... she participated in telephone arguments Monday and Tuesday, and plans to do so again Wednesday -- the Justices are hearing arguments by phone due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As you know ... Ruth has been treated for cancer 4 times, but she keeps on chugging.

Stay healthy, RBG!!!

Originally Published -- 5/5 6:17 PM PT

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.

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.

North Korea's state-run media is apparently good enough for President Trump -- he's taking their word that Kim Jong-un has a clean bill of health ahead of him at face value ... congratulating the guy on his alleged bounce-back.

POTUS tweeted Saturday -- a day after photos surfaced of Kim at some ribbon-cutting ceremony at a factory there, which the media (that he and his regime control) claims were taken this weekend as proof that KJU is still kicking -- and didn't question the authenticity.

He wrote, "I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!" His words came in the form of a retweet from a user who put up the photos and a caption that reads ... "KimJongUn cut the tape at the ceremony marking the completion of Sunchon Phosphatic Fertilizer Factory in Sunchon. #NorthKorea." That same user also attached video that purportedly shows Kim walking around the factory grounds on his own two feet, smiling and taking it all in.

Of course, if the photos show what N. Korea says they show, it would be the first public appearance Kim's made since early April -- after which rumors swirled about his health. Some reports from overseas claimed he was actually dead at one point, while others hedged more, claiming he was either on his death bed, in "grave danger" or in a vegetative state.

Considering Kim and co. run a brutal dictatorship and control all the information that seeps out to the world, we, for one, are inclined to take their media's reporting with a grain of salt. Fact is ... we don't know for sure when this visit took place. And, we doubt many outside North Korea do either.