elephant

Laura and Ste Knowles, from St Helens in Merseyside, were left red-faced after a hilarious incident was caught on camera during their holiday in Tenerife, Spain

A couple were left in stitches after one of them was caught on camera face-planting onto the pavement while attempting to ride a plastic elephant at a Spanish holiday resort.

Most people will have recollections of doing something daft and amusing after having had a tipple too many. For one pair, from St Helens in Merseyside, this recently occurred during their getaway in Tenerife in Spain, which resulted in them face-planting on the street. Laura and Ste Knowles had indulged in “a few champagne cocktails” before the comical accident, which was recorded and subsequently posted on social media. After finding the bright yellow elephant outside a shop, 42-year-old Laura challenged her partner Ste, 44, to clamber on top for an amusing snap.

If you’ve previously visited Tenerife, you might recognise the yellow elephant, as it’s the renowned logo of the Fund Grube department store chain, which sells an extensive range of cosmetics, perfumes, and jewellery at prices frequently lower than in other European nations, and can be discovered in numerous locations throughout Tenerife.

However, the pair’s boozy dare rapidly transformed into a catastrophe as Ste lost his footing and tumbled forwards, causing both him and the elephant to crash to the pavement.

The tumble left the furious shop owner absolutely livid, as Laura remembered: “She chased us up the street a bit.”

The duo, from St Helens, Merseyside, had been wandering along the Veronicas strip in Playa de las Américas, Tenerife, Spain, when they encountered the plastic creature. Laura went onto reveal it was her idea for Ste to climb onto the elephant.

“We’d had a few champagne cocktails and I stupidly suggested to Ste to climb on the elephant for a photo,” Laura explained. “I thought it was like the Superlambanana sculpture in Liverpool.

“But it wasn’t held down and it was as light as a feather. So he fell and hit the deck, taking it with him,” Laura added. “The shop owner was livid.”

She continued to say: “It had a few bumps on it so obviously it had happened before, but she chased us up the street a bit.”

The pair’s clip became an internet sensation on TikTok, amassing more than 370,000 views and hundreds of responses from entertained followers.

“It didn’t gone so well,” one viewer commented, while another jokingly penned: “Us Brits just love to say sorry! Now was he saying sorry to the elephant for knocking it over?”

“Darling hold my hand… Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday,” another person quipped.

Nevertheless, not everyone was amused, as some grumbled it was ‘typical’ holidaymaker behaviour that residents usually detest, which has recently sparked demonstrations across numerous popular holiday spots in Europe, including Tenerife.

“Quality tourism,” one person moaned, while someone else added: “Tourist Go Home.”

NEW YORK — Imagine this: You’re home for the evening, winding down. There’s a knock at the door.

Who’s there? It’s Anthony Weiner. And he wants your vote.

Yes, that Weiner: The guy whose once-promising political career was derailed by sexting scandals and then seemingly ended forever when he was imprisoned for sending sexually explicit messages to a 15-year-old girl.

But now Weiner’s hoping to convince enough voters in Lower Manhattan that he deserves yet another chance in a comeback bid — for a seat on the New York City Council.

On a recent weekday at an apartment complex on the Lower East Side, the former congressman, 60, was knocking on doors, reintroducing himself to voters and reminding them about the election. And, on that Thursday at least, the would-be constituents aren’t slamming their doors in the registered sex offender’s face.

“It’s Anthony Weiner!” the candidate said after knocking on a door.

A man opens the door, his face lighting up with surprise.

“It is Anthony Weiner!” the man said, a big smile spreading across his face.

After some pleasantries and a reminder about the race, the man had an important question for the candidate: “Mind if I get a picture with you?”

And so it went as Weiner walked down floor after floor, knocking on doors. A quick hello here, a fast thank you there. Campaign literature flowed into hands. People seemed happy to see him.

It isn’t always this friendly. Weiner said he still struggles with how to speak about his scandal, calling it the “fundamental, unsolvable problem of the campaign.”

“Sometimes it’s with like real painful, kind of, honesty about what happened and sometimes it’s a little bit defensive, and sometimes, like, a woman at this street fair last week, she’s like, ‘I love you and I’m going to vote for you, but I voted for you before and how can I ever trust you?’” he said.

But, he notes, some people would rather talk about anything else.

“They’re like, ‘I don’t want to hear about that. I want to hear about me and I want to hear about how come there aren’t cops on the street and I want to hear about why my taxes are so high,’” he said.

From Congress to prison

Weiner, a brash and ambitious politician whose New York accent and wily, kinetic style made for solid theater on the House floor, was once someone worth watching in the Democratic Party. Back then, he represented a district in parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

His latest return to the political stage — this time for a City Council seat that covers Union Square and the East Village — pits him against state lawmaker Harvey Epstein, whose name’s unfortunate proximity to convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein inspired a “Saturday Night Live” bit, along with a handful of other low-key candidates.

The primary, on June 24, is considered the defining contest of the election, given the district’s heavy Democratic bent. It’s hard to know how it’ll turn out in a low-turnout, early-summer primary where there’s no deep political polling.

The comeback attempt comes more than a decade after his career imploded for sending a lewd picture of himself to a college student over Twitter in 2011.

He first tried to claim his account was hacked but eventually admitted to having inappropriate online interactions with at least six other women and resigned from Congress after serving there for more than a decade.

After leaving Washington, Weiner mounted a campaign for New York City mayor but was again undone after it was disclosed that he sent explicit photos under the alias “Carlos Danger” to at least one woman after leaving the House. The revelation tanked his mayoral bid.

Along the way, his marriage collapsed.

In 2017, his scandal entered the criminal realm after prosecutors said he had illicit online contact with a high school student. During the proceedings, his lawyer said Weiner probably exchanged thousands of messages with hundreds of women over the years and had been communicating with up to 19 women when he encountered the student.

He eventually pleaded guilty to transferring obscene material to a minor and was sentenced to 21 months in prison. He was required to register as a sex offender after his release in 2019.

Since then, he’s worked as the chief executive of a countertop company in Brooklyn and hosted a radio show where he would muse about politics, eventually finding himself ginning up his own ideas and wondering: Why not get back in the game? He opened a campaign account and donations started flowing in. He’d go out on the street and people wanted to sign his petitions.

“I knew I had things I wanted to say and I knew that I thought it was important that everyone try to do something at this point,” he said.

The elephant in the room

Still, his scandals are so much an elephant in the room that his campaign recently started circulating a mailer that, on one side, features a massive elephant alongside the text “Anthony Weiner knows you may have questions.” On the other side, a note from Weiner reads: “Since I am asking you for your vote again, I want to address the elephant in the room.”

It goes on: “I accepted responsibility, I did my time (literally) and paid my debt to society in full.”

A man who answered one of Weiner’s door knocks told the candidate that he saw the mailer and said it was a smart move to address the scandals head-on.

The two then dived into political issues, chatting about crime, the subway and homeless people. As the conversation was coming in for a landing, the man told Weiner that showing up at his door to speak with him showed that he cared. He declined to give his name to an Associated Press reporter who approached him after Weiner had said goodbye and taken off down a flight of stairs.

After a few more meet-and-greets, Weiner wrapped up for the day. He left the complex, hopped on a bicycle and zipped off down the street.

Izaguirre writes for the Associated Press.

SHOPPERS find there’s an elephant in the room — as a peckish pachyderm helps ­himself to grub at a grocery store.

The 25-year-old male munched on sweet rice cakes and chicken’s eggs after barging into the shop in Thailand on Monday.

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Even getting wedged under the low ceiling did not stop him as he searched the aisles for treats — without a shopping list, as elephants never forget.

Shopkeeper Khamploy Gakaew eventually took him to tusk, ushering the wild animal out of her store.

She said: “This was the first time an elephant had visited the store. I hope he doesn’t come back.

“I was worried about the damage he could cause.

“He ate sweet, crispy rice cakes and chicken eggs before walking out.

“I was surprised to see it eating sweet food, as elephants usually search for something salty.”

She added: “We see elephants occasionally, and they will bother street food vendors for food. But this was unusual.”

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