A rare 16-foot sea creature linked in folklore to natural disasters has washed ashore in South America, prompting online speculation that a powerful earthquake could strike the seismically active region.

The giant oarfish, known in Japanese folklore as a “Doomsday fish,” was discovered Tuesday on a beach in Mejillones, northern Chile.

The elusive sea serpent is rarely seen by people. Since the 1600s, sightings have featured in Asian legends, where the creatures were often viewed as warnings from mythical deities.

Scientists have found no meaningful evidence connecting oarfish appearances with natural disasters. Nevertheless, beach strandings have repeatedly been associated by the public with deadly earthquakes and tsunamis that occurred weeks or months afterward.

The latest sighting comes as South America and the Caribbean experience a series of major earthquakes, fueling fears that Chile—or even the vulnerable US West Coast—could be next.

“Not a good omen,” one person wrote. Another claimed, “An earthquake is coming to the north.”

Geophysicist Stefan Burns, who has predicted that a major earthquake could hit the California coast by 2030, also reacted to the discovery, writing: “Here we go again.”

At least two other oarfish sightings have been reported in 2026, and both were followed within days by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.

On August 25, a dead oarfish washed up on a beach along the southeastern coast of Indonesia’s Komodo Island.

Six days later, six Indonesian volcanoes either erupted or displayed signs of eruptive activity at the same time.

A magnitude 5.2 earthquake struck the same region in early October. No injuries or deaths were reported following any of the incidents.

In late February, two American tourists experienced what was described as a “one-in-a-billion chance” encounter when two live oarfish came ashore at a beach in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

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The simultaneous appearance of two oarfish is considered exceptionally rare. The species normally lives more than 3,000 feet beneath the ocean surface, in the so-called “Twilight zone,” one of the least explored environments on Earth.

After the unusual discovery, a magnitude 4.1 earthquake was recorded less than 15 miles from Cabo San Lucas on March 23. There were no reports of injuries or significant damage.

The region was later hit by several hurricanes, including Polo, Simon and Rachel in September and October. The storms caused flooding, landslides and deaths along the Pacific coast.

Chile’s most recent major earthquake struck offshore slightly more than a year ago, on October 10, 2025. The magnitude 7.6 quake occurred in the Drake Passage, south of the country, triggering tsunami alerts along the coasts of South America and Antarctica.

‘The earthquake is coming!’ one commenter claimed after the Marine Fauna Research and Cetacean Watching Center in Chile announced the discovery on social media Tuesday.

However, despite the apparent timing of some oarfish strandings, a 2019 study found no credible evidence that the creatures are harbingers of disaster.

A team from Tokai University in Japan examined 336 reports of deep-sea fish appearances and 221 earthquakes stronger than magnitude 6.0 around the country between 1928 and 2011.

Their findings, published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, did not find a statistically significant link between the appearances of Doomsday fish and natural disasters, calling the myth an ‘illusory correlation’ rather than a reliable warning sign.

In the US, a 2018 study published in the Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences had found that there were only 19 oarfish strandings or sightings along the California coast over the last century.

Although scientists have claimed there is no connection to a future earthquake along the South American coast, Chile sits along one of the world’s most active tectonic boundaries capable of producing massive shockwaves.

The oceanic Nazca Plate has been steadily sliding under the South American Plate, which continues to build up the Andes Mountains, fuels volcanic activity and stores enormous stress along the two connecting plates.

AOC launches effort to reactivate tens of thousands of inactive New York City voters

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is urging her activist supporters to help locate as many as 80,000 “inactive” city voters and encourage them to participate in upcoming elections that could benefit Democratic candidates.

A voter’s registration is automatically designated inactive if they do not vote in two consecutive federal elections or fail to respond to a Board of Elections notice concerning a change of address.

“These voters are at risk of being purged from the voter file. In New York City alone, there are over 80,000 inactive voters,” Team AOC said in a message to supporters about the New York City edition of its “Project Reactivation” program.

However, the city Board of Elections said its rolls include 446,479 voters listed as inactive.

“This does not prevent you from voting. Your name will still appear in the poll pads and you could still vote on the machines,” said BOE spokesman Vincent Ignizio.

“But, if you are in inactive status and you miss two successive federal elections, the law says that you are then removed from the rolls and you would have to re-register to vote.”

AOC’s campaign staff is scheduled to hold a training session Monday focused on mobilizing “the most unlikely voters.”

“The stakes are too damn high,” the AOC email blast, obtained by the Post, said. “Every Democrat’s vote must be counted, so we are calling on you to join us for a training in New York City on how YOU can help inactive voters protect their right to vote and update their registration status from inactive to active.”

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“The pathway to win back the House is increasingly proving to be through New York State.”

The initiative comes as Ocasio-Cortez appears to be exploring a potential 2028 campaign for president or the US Senate. She recently began an upstate tour that included stops in Buffalo, Syracuse, Binghamton and Ithaca.

Her upstate tour also included the launch of the “inactive voter training” program.

Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of Queens and The Bronx, is now turning her attention to inactive voters in her home territory through Project Reactivation NYC.

Voting experts cautioned that the effort could face significant challenges because many, and possibly most, people on the inactive list no longer live locally—or are deceased.

“In most cases they moved or they died,” said Jerry Skurnik, a senior consultant with Engage Voters US, which maintains voter databases and sells them to clients.

Skurnik said Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign will probably succeed in reengaging only a small number of voters.

He added that many candidates do not purchase inactive voter lists because they can be unreliable, difficult to reach and not worth the expense.

Ignizio said the number of inactive voters generally remains stable from year to year. Some voters are removed after officials receive evidence that they moved or died, while others are added to the inactive list.

One afternoon in the park, while watching her grandchildren play, Becky Tucker realized her life needed to change.

The four children were running around, but Becky, then 48, did not have the energy to join them. Looking back, she describes the moment as a wake-up call.

The risk management consultant from Dorset, England, was experiencing the fatigue, anxiety, mood swings and hot flushes associated with perimenopause.

She had also endured severe, debilitating migraines for roughly a week each month for as long as she could remember, with the attacks linked to her menstrual cycle.

Becky had struggled with her weight throughout her life. Weighing more than 168 lbs and with a BMI of 29—close to the obese range—she had spent the previous 25 years trying different weight-loss plans.

Although the diets initially worked, the weight returned when she went back to her regular eating habits, which included chocolate bars and what she describes as “beige stodge.”

It is a familiar pattern for many people in midlife: the pounds gradually accumulate until losing them begins to feel impossible.

Three years later, however, Becky has undergone a dramatic transformation. Around 56 lbs lighter and full of energy, she says she feels like a completely different woman—and, as the photographs show, is almost unrecognizable.

She has lost more than four dress sizes, moving from a size 12 to a size 4 or 6. Her migraines, which had persisted for most of her life, have disappeared, along with the menopause symptoms that once restricted her daily life.

Most importantly, Becky can now run around the park with her grandchildren instead of remaining on the sidelines.

What makes the change particularly striking is that Becky says she achieved it, almost apologetically, “without really trying.”

There was no strict regime, calorie counting or constant hunger. Instead, Becky changed the way she ate with support from ZOE, a gut health science company co-founded by Professor Tim Spector. Spector has led research into the links between diet, gut health, overall health and, increasingly, mood.

Research by Professor Spector, an honorary consulting physician and expert in epidemiology at King’s College London, suggests that simple changes to our food choices can have remarkable benefits – from helping us lose weight without going hungry to improving our mood, boosting energy and potentially protecting our brains against the effects of ageing.

And now, in an exclusive new six-week newsletter series launching on Monday, October 26, the Daily Mail’s readers can discover how to put his research into practice – with the chance to feel happier and healthier within days, and potentially as a bonus even lose up to 14 lbs in time for the holidays.

Based on Professor Spector’s research at ZOE, and including recipes from his new cookbook Good Mood Food, the series will guide you, step-by-step, through a new way of eating that could transform not just your waistline, but most importantly how you feel every day. 

You’ll discover the surprisingly simple foods that nourish the trillions of bacteria living in your gut, why these microbes may hold the key to better mood and brain health, and how to feed them.

We’ll show you what to put in your shopping cart – and what to leave on the shelves – and how to build delicious, filling meals.

There will be exclusive recipes, from hearty breakfasts and satisfying dinners to indulgent desserts, along with expert advice on eating to support your mood and thinking as you get older.

Half-way through, Professor Spector will make a live appearance on dailymail.com to answer readers’ questions and talk about his cookbook. 

And with the holidays fast approaching, he’ll reveal how to enjoy your favorite festive foods without undoing all your hard work – and, crucially, how to make these changes stick for life.

Indeed, research by Professor Spector’s gut health company ZOE found that 35 per cent of around 5,000 participants lost at least five percent of their body weight in just three months.

Their approach to diet has become a global phenomenon, refined through years of research involving hundreds of thousands of people.

Although more personalized recommendations are available to ZOE subscribers, anyone can follow the basic principles, for free. 

These include eating 30 different plants a week, by making simple tweaks such as sprinkling seeds, nuts or fresh herbs over a salad or soup, or adding chopped fruit or greens to a plate. 

Professor Spector encourages dieters to swap meat, particularly processed meat such as sausages, bacon and salami, for plant-based proteins including beans, lentils and chickpeas, and to aim for at least 30g of fiber a day.

However, chicken, lean meat and especially oily fish can still be enjoyed as part of his approach.

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) – industrially-produced foods lacking in nutrients and containing cosmetic additives designed to make food irresistible to eat – are discouraged. 

Instead, meals should be based on whole foods, with a rainbow of different-colored plants to maximize nutrients.

‘Studies have found that people who eat healthy diets, full of fruit, vegetables and whole grains, significantly improve their mood,’ Professor Spector says.

‘On the other hand, people who eat the most UPFs such as crisps, biscuits, sausages, sugary soft drinks, chicken nuggets and sugary cereal, have the biggest risk of mental health problems and dementia.

‘When people have moderate depression, giving them a gut-friendly diet can improve or reverse symptoms in a significant proportion of them.’

Despite this, processed foods such as baked beans, Weetabix and high-fiber or seeded bread are on the menu. 

Fermented foods, including natural yogurt, sourdough bread, kefir, sauerkraut, kombucha and kimchi, also have a role to play, as do dark chocolate and peanut butter. Most of these feature in the cookbook.

‘It’s not about restriction or cutting out all processed foods,’ he explains, ‘it’s about cutting back on the worst unhealthy ultra-processed foods and replacing them with real whole plants.’

Eating more whole foods increases fiber intake – only five percent of American adults get the recommended 30g a day, which can help protect against bowel cancer, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

All ZOE studies to date have shown improvements in mood and energy within the first two weeks in the majority of people.

High-fiber foods also make you feel fuller for longer and can stimulate the release of GLP-1, the appetite-regulating hormone mimicked by weight-loss drugs.

Becky, now 52, is proof of how powerful these changes can be – with benefits she never expected.

From eating less than 10g of fiber a day, she now regularly reaches 60g-75g. She even competes with – and often beats – Professor Spector to see how many different plants she can fit into her diet, notching up more than 75 most weeks.

As she says: ‘This hasn’t just changed what I eat, it has changed how I live. I’m not just lighter physically, it’s mentally that a weight has come off too.

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‘The transformation really has been quite extraordinary, which anyone who knows me will say. And while I don’t want to be one of those people who is evangelical about their diet, I will be!’

Becky had struggled with her weight since giving birth to her first child at 17. She would regularly go on Weight Watchers, lose around 14 lbs, then regain it through binge eating. As she got older, that regain became double what she lost. 

But despite her weight struggles, it was a desire to improve her long-term health that brought her to ZOE in 2023.

Her monthly migraines were ‘horrendous,’ and although she had started HRT it had not fully resolved her hot flushes, anxiety, poor sleep and mood swings.

She says: ‘I was approaching 50 at the time, and I was thinking, “What is going to serve me well for the future?” I was also finding I wasn’t participating in my grandchildren’s lives in a way that was fully immersive. 

‘We would go to the park and I had such little energy I would just sit on the bench and watch them.’

She started the ZOE program in April 2023, gradually introducing more vegetables to her meals and sprinkling nuts and seeds over dishes. Crisps and milk chocolate were swapped for raspberries, nuts or very dark chocolate.

She experimented with vegetables she’d never tried, such as eggplant, bok choy and sweet potatoes, and mixed mashed butter beans into her mashed potato before eventually phasing out the potato.

She also made sure her plates were colorful, adding salad leaves and purple and red vegetables rich in polyphenols, antioxidants which can protect cells from damage.

Becky still doesn’t eat breakfast, but a typical lunch now involves roasted vegetables, houmous, salad and nuts. 

A similar recipe is found in the cookbook called the Roasted Red Pepper and Lentil Salad.

Dinners include lentils, chickpeas or beans with vegetables and salad, or one of Professor Spector’s recipes. Her favorites are eggplant parmigiana – similar to the Stuffed Aubergine Traybake found in the cookbook – and his high-protein, high-fiber cookies. A dollop of kimchi accompanies most meals.

‘Within a month the migraines had gone,’ Becky says. 

‘I put it down to a happy coincidence, but they’ve never come back. Within three months I felt more energized and less anxious, and the remaining menopause symptoms had gone.

‘And I noticed that my weight was dropping off. It just happened naturally – and it was the icing on the cake.

‘I’m running around the park with my grandchildren now, and we recently went to Disneyland Paris together, which was incredible. 

‘It was easy – I kept up with them, I had fun, and I wasn’t having to think about my energy levels. I can’t describe how good it feels.’

Becky has had no problem sticking to her new regime and has kept the weight off.

‘What’s been most powerful is that these changes feel sustainable,’ she says. ‘This isn’t a short-term fix, it’s a completely different way of understanding how food supports my body.

‘I feel more in control of my health and better equipped to manage this stage of life. I can’t imagine ever stopping.’

Please note: All recipes use UK measurements, so American readers may wish to use an online converter. 

Good Mood Food by Tim Spector (Vintage £30) is out October 22. To preorder a copy for £27 (offer valid to 31/10/26; UK P&P free on orders over £25) click here or call 020 3176 2937

The parents of a Canadian teenager were thrown into a panic after discovering their son was missing. They later learned he had traveled to a controversial “looksmaxxing” bootcamp and was now considering $40,000 facial surgery, according to a report.

William Munro, 19, of Ontario, secretly flew to Los Angeles to attend “Camp Looksmax,” a retreat centered on the Gen Z trend of improving male attractiveness through intensive grooming, physical changes and cosmetic procedures, USA Today reported.

Munro was among 15 young men who took part in the seven-day event, which was organized by the embattled influencer Clavicular. The online figure has faced criticism over misogynistic comments, his association with Andrew Tate and rape charges that were later dropped.

“It was a super radical decision,” Munro, who paid $7,000 to attend, told the outlet. “I just thought, I’m a young kid. Money comes and goes. So might as well get the experience out.”

After noticing that he was missing from his bedroom, Munro’s parents called him at the airport. He said he offered them a “really basic explanation” of looksmaxxing and falsely claimed he had won the trip through a YouTuber’s giveaway.

Munro, a business major at Western University, now says he is considering a major facial operation that could cost $40,000, according to the outlet.

He described himself as a “decent-looking guy” with a good physique but said he wanted to place “more focus” on his “actual aesthetic face-wise,” the outlet reported.

During the camp, Munro learned about double jaw surgery, a procedure that repositions the upper and lower jaws to correct issues such as underbites. Although it can be medically necessary, some people pursue it primarily to change their appearance, and the operation can carry risks.

The looksmaxxing movement first gained traction in online incel and manosphere forums. It has since drawn criticism for promoting cosmetic surgery and dangerous do-it-yourself practices, including the disturbing technique known as “bonesmashing.”

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Bonesmashing involves striking the jaw with a hammer in the belief that it will create a sharper jawline. There is no evidence that the practice works.

Munro registered for the camp while rape charges against Clavicular were still active, but said he believes the influencer’s denial.

Clavicular was facing the charges during the camp, but they were dropped on Oct. 13.

Munro said he funded the $7,000 bootcamp fee with money he had earned over several years doing “odd jobs,” according to the outlet.

The first week of Camp Looksmax was promoted as an educational retreat and livestreamed around the clock on Clavicular’s Kick channel beginning Oct. 1.

Clavicular presented the event as an opportunity for aspiring male influencers to stay in a mansion with a private chef while receiving advice on grooming, fashion and flirting with women.

Munro said attending the camp also changed how he approaches women.

“You go see a hot chick. Go try to hit on her, like, it doesn’t matter,” he said.

“You just got to go out, talk to people, make connections. You know, you see people you think are cool. Just go say anything. Go say hi.”

He said most of his friends “think it’s real cool” that he attended the camp, adding that “probably every person” his age knows Clavicular’s name.