New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez has ignored pleas from his colleagues to resign after being indicted on federal bribery charges earlier this week. 

Menendez, 69, and his wife Nadine, 56, are facing three criminal counts each for their part in an alleged bribery scheme after a year long investigation. 

After the indictment against the beleaguered senator, who has previously been indicted, was released on Friday, numerous colleagues asked him to stand down. 

In statements, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy called the allegations ‘deeply disturbing’ and asked the senator to stand down. 

In similar fashion, Republican Bill Pascrell Jr, one of the most senior members of the state’s congressional delegation said the gravity of the charges was the difference.

Pascrell said: ‘This is a sad day for our great state. The senator deserves his day in court. 

‘But given the gravity of these charges I do not believe that Senator Menendez can continue to carry out the important duties of his office for our state.’ 

Governor Phil Murphy released a statement saying: ‘The allegations in the indictment against Senator Menendez and four other defendants are deeply disturbing. 

‘These are serious charges that implicate national security and the integrity of our criminal justice system. 

‘Under our legal system, Senator Menendez and the other defendants have not been found guilty and will have the ability to present evidence disputing these charges, and we must respect the process. 

‘However, the alleged facts are so serious that they compromise the ability of Senator Menendez to effectively represent the people of our state. Therefore, I am calling for his immediate resignation.’

Despite this, Menendez fought off calls for him to step down from his role, saying: ‘Those who believe in justice believe in innocence until proven guilty. 

‘I intend to continue to fight for the people of New Jersey with the same success I’ve had for the past five decades. I am not going anywhere.’

After the indictment was released, Menendez claimed he had been the victim of a racist witch hunt against him. 

He said: ‘Those behind this campaign simply cannot accept that a first generation Latin American from humble beginnings could rise to be a U.S. senator.

‘I have been falsely accused before because I refused to back down to the powers that be and the people of New Jersey were able to see through the smoke and mirrors and recognize I was innocent.’

He added he would not be ‘distracted by baseless allegations’ but continue his work as senator.

Multiple gold bars were found during a court-authorized search of the couple’s home in June 2022. 

The gold bars were part of the hundreds of thousands in bribes the couple are accused of accepting, which totaled over $400,000.

Agents also discovered over $500,000 worth of cash stuffed into envelopes and in jackets belonging to the senator.  

The criminal indictment claimed the New Jersey senator Googled ‘How much is one kilo of gold worth?’ after arriving home from a trip to Egypt in October 2021. 

Menendez Googled the price of gold another time, soon after his wife thanked Fred Daibes, a New Jersey businessman and longtime Menendez associate, for ‘Christmas in January,’ according to the document.

Daibes is an old friend of Menendez, has fundraised for his Senate campaign, and allegedly has ties to the Genovese mob family. 

The indictment alleges that Menendez tried to disrupt a federal criminal prosecution of Fred Daibes in exchange for the money and other items of value. 

Daibes and two others, Wael Hana and Jose Uribe, were involved in paying ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes’ in exchange for the senator using his power to secretly benefit the Egyptian government, according to the indictment.

Uribe allegedly bought Menendez and Nadine the luxury vehicle, a Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible worth more than $60,000.

In exchange, Menendez ‘agreed and sought to interfere in a New Jersey state criminal prosecution of an associate of Uribe,’ the indictment states. 

The couple face three criminal counts each: conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right. 

The three businessmen face charges of conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to commit honest services fraud.

The indictment also charges the senator with providing ‘sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt.’

The probe also looked at other bribes allegedly paid to the couple. ‘Those bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value,’ the indictment said.

Menendez and his wife reportedly sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold bars despite having faced foreclosure just three years earlier and neglecting to initially disclose it on their ethics filings.

Businesswoman Nadine Arslanian, 56, cashed in up to $400,000 worth of gold last spring, in a sale that occurred just months before a federal investigation into the New Jersey Democrat was announced to the public.

Damian Williams, attorney with Southern District of New York, outlined the charges and supporting evidence during a press conference Friday morning.

Williams said the  couple used Menendez’s ‘power and influence to protect and enrich the businessmen and benefit the government of Egypt.’

He noted investigators ‘executed a search warrant and discovered over $500,000 worth of cash stuffed into envelopes and the senator’s jackets’ and a ‘lot of gold’.

David Schertler, a lawyer for Nadine Menendez, said she ‘denies any criminal conduct and will vigorously contest these charges in court.’

The indictment charges Menendez ‘promised to and did use his influence and power’ to pressure President Joe Biden to nominate a U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey who Menendez ‘believed could be influenced by Menendez with respect to the federal criminal prosecution of Fred Daibes.’

A record number of doctors applied to be certified to treat obesity this year amid the soaring popularity of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.

Nearly 1,900 doctors signed up for the annual exam this October, the medical board behind the test said, which was a 50 percent increase compared to the previous year.

Passing the exam distinguishes doctors as competent in treating obese patients and could set them on A path to rake in higher salaries.

It comes after official data showed a record 40 percent of adults are now obese in three states — West Virginia, Louisiana and Oklahoma — while every state had seen a rise in rates compared to just a decade ago.

Weight loss drug prescriptions have surged in the US with five million written last year, up 2,000 percent in 2019. 

Analysts suggest this market will be worth $56billion by 2030, with doctors who have specialized in obesity medicine likely able to charge more to patients. 

Data from the American Board of Obesity Medicine revealed a record number of doctors had signed up to take the exam this year.

Back in 2012 — when the accreditation scheme was set up — barely 200 doctors applied.

Healthcare workers do not need the obesity certificate in order to treat obese patients, but it can make them more competent in caring for the patients. 

It can also serve as a stepping stone to doctors signing up for further training as bariatric surgeons — or a doctor who has specialized in performing weight loss surgeries such as a gastric bypass.

This would require another one to two years of training on top of the initial four required to become a doctor plus the three-to-seven-year residency.

Bariatric doctors earn about $450,000 per year on average, statistics suggest, compared to $412,000 for general surgeons. In some cases, they can be paid upward of $700,000.

The ABOM says doctors are expected to become certified by them in order to become a bariatric surgeon. 

Modules taught to doctors in the course look at the causes of the disease and how to help patients lose weight through diet changes and exercise.

They may also be taught about ‘pharmacotherapy’ for helping patients reduce their waistlines, which may include being taught about popular weight-loss drugs.

Dr Kimberly Gudzune, the medical director for the ABOM, told Insider: ‘As there’s more awareness of both obesity as a chronic disease and all of the effective treatment options, patients are coming into their physicians and saying: “I want to be treated”.

‘And I think that that is oftentimes the trigger for a lot of busy practitioners to say, “I really need to know how to do this”.’

She added: ‘We’re working to address that gap [on obesity knowledge among doctors].

‘But it does take time, and I think that the growth does speak to us working in that direction.’

There are more than one million doctors in the US, of which nearly 7,000 — or 0.007 percent — have the board certification to treat obesity.

The specialization is not needed in order to be allowed to treat obese patients, but it will give doctors advanced knowledge.

As well as their busy schedules, doctors will also need to complete at least 30 hours of lectures and another 30 of studying before taking the exam.

A gold rush is currently on among pharmaceutical giants to tap into the nascent weight-loss medications market.

Novo Nordisk — which is behind semaglutide used in Wegovy and Ozempic — raked in a record $5.5billion last year after investing in factories to manufacture the drug in the United States.

It is also behind a number of drugs for diabetes patients and some medicines for hemophilia patients.

Eli Lilly has also cashed in on the market with its obesity treatment tirzepatide, projected to make $48billion once approved.

Pfizer — which made billions with its Covid vaccine — is also developing its own class of weight-loss drugs in order to access the market.

Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine Arslanian Menendez have been indicted by a federal grand jury over corruption allegations in an investigation that focused on a luxury car, $400,000 in gold bars and an apartment allegedly received by Menendez and his wife.

The indictment claims the couple had an improper relationship with three New Jersey businessmen: Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, who allegedly paid the couple in exchange for Menendez to use his influence in Washington D.C. to their benefit.

The couple face three criminal counts each: conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right. 

The probe also looked at other bribes allegedly paid to the couple. ‘Those bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value,’ the indictment said.

A June 2022 raid on their New Jersey home found ‘over $480,000 in cash – much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe,’ the indictment notes, addding Nadine had over $70,000 in a safe deposit box. 

It also found two one-kilogram gold bars and eleven one-ounce gold bars.

The indictment alleges that Menendez tried to disrupt a federal criminal prosecution of Fred Daibes in exchange for the money and other items of value. Daibes is an old friend of Menendez, has fundraised for his Senate campaign, and and allegedly has ties to the Genovese mob family.

The indictment charges Menendez ‘promised to and did use his influence and power’ to pressure President Joe Biden to nominate a U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey who Menendez ‘believed could be influenced by Menendez with respect to the federal criminal prosecution of Fred Daibes.’

Menendez recommneded and Biden later nominated Phillip Sellinger as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, the top federal prosecutor in the state. 

New Jersey authorities have tracked high-ranking mobsters meeting with Daibes repeatedly over the last decade, the Daily Beast reported. 

Daibes provided the couple with gold bars and envelopes of cash, the indictment states. 

‘Multiple gold bars provided by Daibes were found during the court-authorized June 2022 search; of the couple’s home, the indictment states. It also says the senator performed a web search for ‘how much is one kilo of gold worth’ and that the envelopes of cash had the fingerprints of Daibes and his driver. 

The indictment also charges the senator with providing ‘sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt.’

Menendez has denied all the charges. 

The investigation also focused on 40-year-old New Jersey businessman, Wael Hana, who has known Nadine since before she started dating Menendez.

Hana, who is originally from Egypt, operated the company IS EG Halal in New Jersey and it soon became the sole entity authorized to certify that any halal food product imported into Egypt from anywhere in the world had been prepared according to Islamic law. 

According to the indictment, Menendez ‘improperly advised and pressured an official at the United States Department of Agriculture for the purpose of protecting a business monopoly granted to Hana by Egypt and used in part to fund the bribes being paid to Menendez through Nadine Menendez.’ 

The designation of IS EG Halal surprised U.S. agriculture officials. Previously, several other companies had been doing that certification, but they were dismissed by Egyptian agriculture officials in favor of IS EG Halal, which had no previous experience in the field.

The indictment charges Menendez with using the power of his position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to influence the State Department regarding policy in Egypt.  And with sending Nadine ‘highly sensitive’ about Egypt that he got in Senate briefings that she, in turn, gave to Hana.

Now that he is indicted, Menendez will have to step down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Rules for the Senate Democratic caucus say that any member who is charged with a felony must step aside from a leadership position. 

Hana allegedly promised money to Nadine via a no-show job with his company. And, after months of nonpayment, she complained about not receiving the promised funds. 

The indictment includes a text from Nadine to a friend: ‘I have been so upset all morning. [Hana] left for Egypt yesterday supposedly and now thinks he’s king of the world and has both countries wrapped around his pinky. I really hope they replace him.’

Records show Arslanian was battling foreclosure on her Bergen County property in 2018. When she and Menendez got engaged, it began a period of financial turnaround for her.

Within weeks of their engagement, she incorporated a business, Strategic International Business Consultants LLC, according to state records. Her foreclosure case was dismissed soon after. The following year, her assets included gold bars valued between $100,000 to $250,000, according to a Senate disclosure form amended by Menendez in March of 2022.

Between April and June of 2022, the couple sold between $200,000 and $400,000 worth of gold bars, while keeping at least $250,000 worth of them. 

Businessman Jose Uribe allegedly bought Menendez and Nadine the luxury vehicle, a Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible worth more than $60,000.

In exchange, Menendez ‘agreed and sought to interfere in a New Jersey state criminal prosecution of an associate of Uribe,’ the indictment states.  

This is the second time Menendez faces a corruption charge. A 2015 case ended in mistrail after a jury failed to reach a verdict on all counts and a judge acquitted him on some charges. 

Menendez is running for re-election for his New Jersey Senate seat and already facing at least one Democratic challenger in the primary.

If Menendez were to step down before the end of his term, New Jersey’s Democratic governor, Philip Murphy, would appoint a successor.

The son of Cuban immigrants, Menendez has held public office continuously since 1986, when he was elected mayor of Union City, New Jersey. He was a state legislator and spent 14 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2006, Gov. Jon Corzine appointed Menendez to the Senate seat he vacated when he became governor. 

Dua Lipa shows off her incredible figure in a skimpy gold bikini as she lounges by the pool during her balmy Ibiza getaway

By Kate Dennett For Mailonline

Updated: 09:23 EDT, 2 September 2023

Reports of ‘seven-foot-tall aliens‘ terrorizing villagers in Peru stunned the world this week, with local leaders describing the ‘armored’ and ‘floating’ menaces as impervious to bullets.

The locals also compared their attackers to ‘green goblins’ and local Peruvian superstitions about ‘los Pelacaras,’ (‘the Face Peelers’) ― but now Peruvian law enforcement has offered a new suspect.

Illegal gold-mining crime syndicates, they said, are to blame: branches of the storied drug cartels like Brazil‘s ‘O Primeiro Comando da Capital,’ Colombia’s ‘Clan del Golfo,’ FARC, and others who have ravaged Latin America for decades.

Peru’s National Prosecutor’s Office, which is now investigating the ‘alien attacks,’ has pointed the finger at these gold ‘mafias,’ who have been partially ejected from Brazil and Colombia by their militaries.

Now in Peru, these jetpack-flying gold cartels hope to inspire fear with their bizarre campaign of ‘alien’ terror, according to prosecutors, keeping the locals in their homes and away from the cartels’ illegal gold pits.

Prosecutors suspect that these illegal mining cartels first used their jetpacks to prospect for gold deeper into the unforgiving jungles surrounding Peru’s Nanay river.

Members of Peru’s small Ikitu population are surrounded by dense jungle in rural Alto Nanay, where gold has deposited itself like silt into the riverbeds along the Nanay river tributaries that flow into the Amazon. 

The Ikitu told reporters that this summer’s ‘alien’ siege began on July 11, with locals facing vicious attacks by flying, 7-foot-tall mysterious beings in dark-colored hoods ever since.

‘These gentlemen are aliens,’ one Ikitu leader, Jairo Reátegui Ávila, told the local broadcaster Radio Programas del Perú (RPP).

‘I have shot him twice and he does not fall, but rises and disappears,’ Reátegui Ávila confessed to the local radio broadcaster. ‘We are frightened by what is happening in the community,’

But another key witness for prosecutors, a school teacher, reported seeing these eerie beings rise off the ground via much more terrestrial means. 

The illegal mining cartel was using propellers and high-tech equipment, according to this teacher, Cristian Caleb Pacaya, and other prosecution witnesses. Peruvian law enforcement have described the devices as ‘jetpacks.’ 

‘They would be using state-of-the-art technology, such as thrusters that allow people to fly,’ Carlos Castro Quintanilla, the Peruvian government’s prosecutor investigating the case, told RPP

Pacaya, who works in the nearby San Antonio de Pintuyacu community, told news outlet RPP Noticias that he witnessed the illegal miners attempt to kidnap a 15-year-old girl on July 29.

The teenager reportedly sustained cuts to her neck and other injuries during the attempted kidnapping and is now being treated locally.

Quintanilla, Loreto’s Specialized Prosecutor for Environmental Matters, told RPP that these ‘mafias de extranjeros’ or foreign mafias operate their gold extraction enterprise out of towns in Loreto, the northmost region of Peru.

Quintanilla said that 80 percent of these illegal gold mining operations are located in the Nanay river basin, a territory northwest of Loreto’s capitol and home to the Ikitu.

As Loreto’s environmental crime watchdog, Quintanilla told the outlet that he suspects these illegal gold miners may have first used the jetpacks to explore deeper into the dense Peruvian jungle for promising new riverbed gold deposits.

‘We have investigated that these gentlemen would be using this suit to reach those places,’ he said.

By this theory, the gold cartels’ use of the jetpacks to stage their violent, otherworldly attacks would have been something of an afterthought.

The Ikitu have begged the Peruvian military to intervene amid the past month of extraordinary, ‘Scooby Doo’-esque attacks on their home in Alto Nanay.  

Locals had initially described the attackers as silver-colored beings with enormous heads, who were impervious to the tribe’s hunting weapons.  

‘They seem armored like the green goblin from Spider-Man,’ Ikitu leader Ávila said. 

Ávila went on to describe the attackers shoes as ’round in shape.’

‘With that they rise up,’ he explained. ‘They float one meter high and have a red light on the heel.’ 

‘His head is long, his mask is long, and his eyes are half yellowish. With that they see you well and they leave,’ according to Ávila’s statements, as quoted by RPP. 

‘They are experts at escaping,’ he said. 

Unable to carry on with their daily lives in the village, which is approximately 10 hours by river from Loreto’s capital Iquitos, the Ikitu have now organized night patrols to hunt down their high-tech attackers until Peru’s military can intervene.

Besides the ‘7-foot-tall extraterrestrial attackers’ theory, some locals referred to the groups as ‘los Pelacaras’ after the alleged organ traffickers known in the region, a winking reference to the face-peeling monsters of local legend. 

While gold-mining has been part of Peru’s economy for centuries, the practice of highly unregulated, so-called ‘artisanal mining’ in the region boomed during the 2008 global financial crisis, amid a long spike in gold prices.

‘In some countries,’ according to a 2016 assessment by the international law enforcement body INTERPOL, ‘the illicit trade in gold would be more profitable than drug trafficking and seen as low risk by criminals, likely due to the strong law enforcement response to drug trafficking in the region.’

As more and more investors have fled national currencies due to market instability or inflationary pressures, the value of gold has continued to entice organized crime into expanding these illegal mining operations. 

While quantifying the true value of this black- and grey-market gold has been difficult, the nonprofit Artisanal Gold Council (AGC) estimates that these activities make up about one fifth of total gold production worldwide.

‘Artisanal gold mining,’ as AGC describes it, is somewhere between a $30 billion and $40 billion industry all by itself.

Illegal, unregulated and ‘artisanal’ gold miners produced approximately 500 metric tons annually as of AGC’s 2023 estimates, steady growth from the roughly 330 metric tons that this nebulous gold mining underworld produced in 2011.

Peru is currently the largest gold producer in Latin America, unearthing about 150 metric tons of ‘artisanal gold’ every year, by AGC’s analysis.

The devastation and pollution caused by these gold cartel operations have become so expansive that their impact on the Peruvian jungle can be seen from space. 

On Christmas Eve 2020, one astronaut was able to photograph eastern Peru’s glittering gold prospecting pits while orbiting with the International Space Station. 

As later explained in a post by NASA’s Earth Observatory, these gold prospecting pits are comprised of hundreds of tightly packed water-filled basins, carved out of deforested and de-vegetated flats of mud.

Environmental regulators, local citizens and many others have expressed concern over how these illegal gold miners use mercury, and its no-less-toxic sister compound methylmercury, to separate gold ore from the surrounding soil.

Mercury, synonymous in Victorian times with ‘mad hatters,’ is a potent neurotoxin which can ravage local wildlife, plant life and people as it seeps into ponds, waterways and underground aquifers. 

Worse still, once that pure mercury is in the soil and the water, bacterial and microbial processes inevitably convert it into super-toxic methylmercury, allowing it to persist and furthering its damage.

From orbit, however, the illegal gold pits gleam in an otherworldly, ominous kind of beauty while reflecting the sun’s rays.

South of Loreto, in the region or ‘department’ of known as Madre de Dios, the Peruvian government declared a ‘state of emergency’ in 2019 ― deploying 1,500 police and soldiers to crack down on criminal gold mining. 

According to a 2022 USAID report, the Madre de Dios area alone had roughly 6,000 gold miners working with formal permission from the Peruvian government. 

But nearly six-times more, about 40,000 illegal gold miners, were also operating in Madre de Dios by USAID’s estimates.

So far in 2023, Quintanilla and his Environmental Prosecutor’s Office in Loreto report that they have managed to destroy 110 illegal gold dredges and 10 mining camps. 

This past weekend, Peruvian Navy fighters faced fire with illegal miners near the Pucaurco and Alvarenga communities, RPP reports, where they succeeded in destroying oil drums, a gold-pit water suction system, and other equipment used by the criminal gold miners.

But no jetpacks were reported as recovered from those weekend raids. 

Queen Máxima of the Netherlands brought all the glamour to the red carpet as she attended a state dinner in Belgium this evening. 

The Dutch royal, 52, is currently on an official state visit to the country with her husband Willem-Alexander, 56. 

This evening, King Phillippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium hosted a state dinner for the visiting royal couple.

As she arrived for the occasion in Brussels, Máxima looked sensational in a one-shouldered pleated gold gown.

The sophisticated dress had a short train and was cinched in at the waist with a glistening belt. 

Off-setting the tone of her gown, Máxima wore a chunky diamond necklace with a large amber pendant.

The royal styled her blonde hair in lose waves and opted for her signature brown smokey eye. 

Braving the 24 degree heat this evening, Maxima carried a small white fan and finished off her outfit with a square gold clutch bag.

Meanwhile, Queen Mathilde, 50, opted for a glistening silver floor-length gown with floral appliques. 

The European royal swept her hair into a chic up-do and wore a pretty floral diamond necklace. 

What’s more, both King Phillipe and King Willem-Alexander looked dapper in black tuxedos for the occasion.

It comes as both Queen Máxima of the Netherlands and Queen Mathilde of Belgium were twinning in floral dresses as they attended the Climate Tech Forum earlier today. 

Both queens looked typically glamorous as they stopped to chat at the cafe in the Serre d’hiver.

Queen Mathilde looked chic in a green floral ensemble which she paired with a dusty pink hat.

She completed her ensemble with matching pink heels, gloves and a leather clutch bag.

Máxima’s stylish gown featured a colourful pattern and was paired with a sophisticated matching hat. 

The royal completed her look with beige heels and added a bit more glamour with gold earrings. 

The Queens were joined by their husbands Dutch King Willem-Alexander and King Philippe of Belgium for the tech forum.     

It comes after the royals attended a gala dinner in Brussels yesterday evening.

Hosted by the Belgian royals at their official residence, the Castle of Laeken, the gala dinner took place on the first night of Queen Máxima and King Willem-Alexander‘s three-day state visit to Brussels.

Looking effortlessly elegant, Queen Maxima sported a dusty pink gown, which featured a beaded bodice and a full, ruffled skirt.

With her hair brushed back, the Dutch Queen wore the Stuart Tiara dating back to 1897 for the momentous occasion. 

Queen Máxima previously wore the elaborate tiara for a state banquet at Buckingham Palace in October 2018. 

The finishing touches of an ornate diamond necklace and matching diamond drop earrings made Queen Máxima dazzle. 

Meanwhile, her host, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, looked equally elegant in an embellished pale blue strapless gown. 

 The 50-year-old mother-of-three wore a long lace shawl draped over her shoulders and carried a small clutch bag.  

Also wearing a tiara, a diamond necklace and diamond earrings, Queen Mathilde’s jewellery was just as spectacular as Queen Máxima’s, 

The two Heads of State, King Phillipe and  King Willem-Alexander, both of whom were due to deliver speeches, looked smart in white tie and tails.

Later today, the King and Queen of the Netherlands will travel to Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Waterloo and Charleroi, before heading to Leuven and finishing in Antwerp.

The state visit aims to reaffirm the excellent ties between the two neighbouring countries, which have strong historical, social and economic links. 

Along the tour, the two royal couples will visit many different centres, museums and companies that are working towards a sustainable future in which energy is green and affordable. 

A necklace ‘made from the tooth of a megalodon shark’ has been revealed in new images from the wreckage of the Titanic. 

The stunning artefact was identified in footage taken last summer by Guernsey-based firm Magellan Ltd.

The footage was shot during efforts to capture the first digital scans of the shipwreck, which present it in detail – almost as if it’s been retrieved from the water. 

Other objects surrounding the necklace have not been identified, although it appears to be near a collection of small ring-shaped beads. 

Magellan Ltd, which is working with Atlantic Productions on a documentary about last year’s expedition, is prohibited from retrieving them from the sea floor, however.

An estimated 1,517 of the 2,224 people on board Titanic were killed when the luxury ocean liner sank on April 15, 1912. 

Magellan Ltd sent submersibles to survey all parts of the wreck, which lies about 13,000ft under surface of the North Atlantic Ocean, about 350 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. 

The submersibles spent more than 200 hours last summer taking 700,000 images of every angle of the ship to create the 3D reconstruction. 

Now, the company has noticed the distinctive shape of a shark tooth in the footage, and on closer inspection realised it was a necklace. 

Richard Parkinson, director of Magellan, described the find as ‘astonishing, beautiful and breathtaking’. 

‘We found a megalodon tooth which is fashioned into a necklace – it’s incredible, it’s absolutely incredible,’ he told ITV News. 

Teeth of the extinct megalodon – one of the largest fish ever to exist – are known to reach over seven inches in length.

It’s unclear how Magellan was able to identify the tooth in the necklace as that of a megalodon, although MailOnline has contacted the firm for more information. 

Catalina Pimiento, a paleontologist at Swansea University who specialises in sharks, said it’s hard to tell if it’s a megalodon tooth without other identifiable objects for scale. 

‘The tooth seems to have a “neck”, which is the darker area between the tooth crown and the root,’ she told MailOnline.

‘But because the picture is so low quality, it is hard to see if this is the case.’ 

Megalodon teeth vary in colour – from from pink to blue and black – due to depositional sediments in the location where they were found, as well as size. 

‘They are of course very large, but you can also find teeth of very young individuals, which can be small, or from the back of the jaw,’ Dr Pimiento said. 

Michael Benton, a professor of vertebrate palaeontology at the University of Bristol, said it’s ‘more likely it would be a tooth from a modern shark rather than a fossil’. 

‘Megalodon teeth cover your hand,’ he told MailOnline. ‘Whether it’s a great white or other modern shark probably can’t be said for sure.’ 

Just like the thousands of personal items at the wreck, the original owner of the necklace is unknown, although it was likely a first-class passenger. 

Magellan now plans to use artificial intelligence to identify the owners of the necklace and other objects, and to contact ancestors of the 2,200 people onboard Titanic when it sank.

The AI will study footage of passengers, focusing on their faces and the clothes they were wearing when they boarded the ship, a few days before the Titanic hit the iceberg in the evening of April 14, 1912.

Titanic was cruising at almost full speed – around 22.5 knots or 25 miles per hour – when lookouts spotted the iceberg at 11:40pm that evening. 

Despite efforts to steer her around the obstacle, Titanic struck the iceberg, generating six narrow openings in the vessel’s starboard hull, believed to have occurred as a result of the rivets in the hull snapping. 

Titanic began sinking bow-first, with water spilling from compartment to compartment as her angle in the water became steeper. 

The great ship broke in half just before it made its final plunge in the early hours of April 15, 1912, and now two parts of the ship – the bow and the stern – lie 2,600 feet apart.

Both halves are surrounded by a field of debris consisting of bits of metal, pieces of furniture, shoes and even unopened champagne bottles. 

Experts believe that there are still facts about the sinking yet to be established, more than a century after the tragedy, such as the exact mechanics of how it struck the seafloor. 

‘What is not widely understood is that the Titanic is in two parts,’ Parkinson told ITV. 

‘There’s a sort of three-square-mile debris field between the bow and the stern, which is what we’ve mapped in incredible detail.’ 

Titanic analyst Parks Stephenson previously told the BBC that the new scans will hopefully answer ‘basic questions’ about the ship and its demise. 

‘It allows you to see the wreck as you can never see it from a submersible, and you can see the wreck in its entirety, you can see it in context and perspective,’ he said.

‘And what it’s showing you now is the true state of the wreck.’

Thousands of items have been brought to land from Titanic’s wreckage since it was discovered in 1985, but now an agreement between the UK and the US prevents private firms from doing so.

US wreck salvage firm RMS Titanic Inc is the only entity legally permitted to remove items from Titanic’s remains. 

While some shipwrecks have been brought to land, it’s likely this will never happen with Titanic.

Experts think it is too delicate to be moved due to deterioration from corrosion, biological activity and deep ocean currents. There would be moral implications, too. 

British Titanic survivor Eva Hart, who lost her father to the disaster, said shortly before her death in 1996: ‘I hope severely that they will never attempt to raise part of it. 

‘I do hope they will remember this is a grave – a grave of 1,500 people who should never have died, and I don’t think you should go down there and rob graves and I’m very much opposed to it.’ 

Ron DeSantis hosted Gold Star and military families, veterans and victims of 9/11 for a Memorial Day BBQ on Sunday where they shared with the Florida governor frustrations with Donald Trump hosting the same weekend a Saudi Arabian-funded golf tournament.

The Navy veteran and his wife and Florida first lady Casey DeSantis had 500 people at the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee and made time for a more than hour-long conversation with families of those who lost loved-ones in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The 2024 candidate also delivered remarks in Jacksonville, Florida on Monday honoring the fallen.

Meanwhile, the former president was hosting at Trump National in Sterling, Virginia – just outside of Washington, D.C. – the LIV golf tournament, which is bankrolled by Saudi Arabia. 

DeSantis met on Sunday with eight families who lost loved ones in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and heard from those upset that Trump held the tournament.

Brett Eagleson, who was 15 when he lost his father in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11, said that he appreciated DeSantis hearing their concerns and was disappointed in the former president.

‘We shared with [DeSantis] our past dealings with President Trump and we just laid out what a stark contrast it was between what he was doing that day; hosting Gold Star family members, members from the 9/11 community and active members of the Military at the Florida governor’s House. Compare that to what a former president is doing that same weekend; right outside the Pentagon, he’s hosting the Saudis in a Saudi-funded golf tournament,’ Eagleson, 37, detailed to DaillyMail.com.

‘But just think that, you know, that stark contrast doesn’t need more explanation as to how DeSantis feels versus how Trump feels,’ he added. ‘So I thought it was really powerful and it sent a significant message as to where the Governor’s priorities are at least.’

Eagleson is president of the organization 9/11 Justice and has spent seven years fighting for more information about Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in the attacks.

He confirmed to DailyMail.com that the families in the meeting Sunday shared with DeSantis how they felt about Trump’s golf tournament – and said that DeSantis seemed willing to meet with the group in the future.

‘I brought that up personally,’ Eagleson said. ‘I wanted him to be aware of that.’

‘Kudos to you, Mr. Governor for hosting us and Goldstar families on Memorial Day, honoring the lives of the people that give their lives for this country while President Trump is hosting a Saudi funded golf tournament.’

DeSantis lamented that the families are still scouring for answers more than two decades after the terrorist attack.

‘They’ve had a lot of frustration about getting justice based on the 9/11 attacks,’ DeSantis told Fox and Friends on Monday morning. ‘They’re suing Saudi Arabia, they’re trying to get more documents.’

‘They’ve been made promises in the past about getting help, and then, basically, some of our elected leaders have reneged on those promises,’ the governor added. ‘And so, I think that they’ve been punched in the gut a number of times. And I think it’s been difficult to now be two decades later and still trying to get full justice.’

Ron, Casey and their three children – Madison, five, Mason, four, and Mamie, two – appeared for a BBQ celebration honoring fallen service members in Tallahassee, Florida on Sunday.

The family mingled with the 500 guests before the Florida first couple leaves for Iowa this week to start the governor’s first campaign swing to early primary states after announcing his 2024 Republican presidential primary run last week.

DeSantis’ campaign kick-off will start in Des Moines, Iowa on Tuesday and continue in four more cities in the first-in-the-nation primary contest state on Wednesday.

He and Casey will then head to New Hampshire for a four-city swing on Thursday, followed by the final stop in South Carolina on Friday.

Before taking off for the midwest, Gov. DeSantis delivered three-minute remarks at the Veterans Memorial Ceremony in Jacksonville.

The social media influencers are out in force at Cloud 22. One is raising her body out of the infinity pool, overlooking the Dubai skyline, just enough so that her bronzed derriere is on show and her partner can snap it on his phone.

A DJ stands inside a gigantic head-shaped structure made from silver shards and pumps out heavy disco tunes, his head bouncing up and down to the music whenever he notices someone is filming.

That’s no surprise. Look-at-me hedonism is what makes Dubai, well, Dubai. 

And here is its latest effort. Perched more than 300ft in the sky among the clouds (although we don’t see a single one during our stay), Cloud 22 is Atlantis The Royal’s crowning glory: a rooftop infinity pool and lounge with sweeping views over the Palm – Dubai’s famous artificial tree-shaped archipelago and the city’s forest of sparkling skyscrapers.

It is big, bold and brash. The numbers speak volumes: there are 795 rooms and suites; 17 restaurants and bars; 17 high-end boutiques; 7,000 fish in three giant tanks in the lobby; a wellness space spanning 36,000 sq ft and a team of 2,100 staff from 100 different countries. And the pools? I lose count at 26 (but there are 92).

The hotel gained attention long before it began welcoming guests, when in January it put on a Grand Reveal, inviting big names and anyone who’s anyone to a celebration in which 4,200 bottles of Moet & Chandon were consumed. 

More than £100 million (with Beyonce paid a reported £20 million to perform) was spent on the occasion.

Until this year, the most famous hotel launch in history was in 2008, when the Atlantis’s big sister The Palm, opened just next door. In 2008, Kylie Minogue performed and ‘the world’s biggest fireworks display’ could apparently be seen from space.

Spread over six towers and arranged in Tetris-style blocks, Atlantis The Royal is already at 75 per cent occupancy. 

Guests come from everywhere, but most fly in from North America, Russia and Britain. Celebrities are flocking here, too. Idris Elba has stayed with his wife, as has the Prince of Morocco. And they’re the only ones the hotel can talk about.

I’m here with a friend for a lavish weekend. We’re staying in a Palmscape room 20 levels up which is furnished in blue and white and comes with two giant beds, dark wood sliding doors, a balcony overlooking the Dubai skyline and drippings of gold. Even our toothbrushes and nail clippers are caked in the colour.

People-watching is a pastime of mine. And there’s no better place to do this than the Atlantis. Here, men with partners young enough to be their daughters canoodle by the pool. There are sweaty, stressed out nannies pushing prams around the pristine grounds. I even see one man dressed in an Erling Harlaand-style pyjama suit carrying a paint pot.

On closer inspection, it’s a Louis Vuitton handbag. And a quick Google search reveals it cost £2,385. Back at the infinity pool, we spend the afternoon sipping on Aperol spritz while helicopters whirr endlessly above in the white Arabian sky, dropping off the hotel’s latest VIP guests. The immaculately-dressed pool butlers deliver plates of oysters and fruit platters on ice, stopping to adjust umbrellas as the sun moves across the sky.

In an attempt to find a more authentic Dubai, we drag ourselves away from the beefed-up bodies and big lips the next morning. A short taxi ride takes us to Madinat Jumeirah where we dive into the souks and barter over handwoven cushion covers, medjool dates the size of kiwis, and, of course, gold.

Authentic Dubai fix complete, we head back to the hotel with plastic bags overflowing with goods, cool down with a dip in the sea and dry off on the sun loungers which line the hotel’s mile-long stretch of imported golden sand.

But despite the bling and mind-boggling scale of the hotel (with rooms starting at £464) the service is intimate and impeccable (every member of staff is adamant on pronouncing my surname correctly) and the food is superb.

We dine on spicy kebabs and smoky five-herb stews in the Persian restaurant. 

At beachside Milos, we devour stuffed calamari, fried aubergine with creamy Greek cheese and the tastiest, zingiest tomato salad. 

And, at our striped sun loungers at Nobu by the Beach, we’re delivered oysters on ice and buttered black cod on gem lettuce.

Evenings, meanwhile, are spent nibbling on tiny vegan tacos stuffed with deceivingly meaty pineapple that’s been cooked for 20 hours at Heston Blumenthal’s Resonance bar. 

The drinks are a treat, too. There’s every cocktail imaginable, including several tequila versions designed by American supermodel Kendall Jenner. 

But I’m most impressed by the non-alcoholic cocktails. There are various versions of zero per cent gin and negroni mocktails that make me want to pretend I’m teetotal for the weekend.

So, did Atlantis live up to the hype? Absolutely. Would I come again? Definitely (if my lotto ticket comes up). I just need to remember to pack my fancy pyjama set – and buy that designer paint pot.

• Doubles at Atlantis The Royal cost from £464 a night (atlantis.com).

The Beechgrove Garden is not just one of the UK’s best-loved TV gardening programmes, it’s also a personal favourite of King Charles. This weekend, viewers across the country can tune in, as Aberdeen-based Beechgrove plants the King’s favourite blooms, delphiniums, in honour of the Coronation.

Beechgrove is produced by Tern TV, a subsidiary of Aim-listed Zinc Media. The company makes dozens of top-rated programmes and the shares, at 83p, should go far.

Zinc is headed by Mark Browning, a media veteran known for taking troubled businesses and turning them around. Browning helped Heart Radio to become London’s most popular radio station and a leading force in the country today. He moved on to ITN, turning it from a news producer for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 into a broad-based media production business.

Now he is engaged in a similar exercise at Zinc. Originally the brainchild of Bob Geldof, under the name Ten Alps, the business was renamed Zinc Media back in 2016. It evolved into a TV production company, but the transition was tricky and Browning was appointed in 2019 to fix it.

Early progress was hindered by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent challenges but Zinc is now in full growth mode. 

Turnover rose 72 per cent to £30.1million in 2022 and the company made a small underlying profit of £100,000. Further gains are predicted, especially as the group has already secured more than £25million of revenues so far this year, with considerably more in the pipeline.

The surge in sales reflects a change in strategy, initiated by Browning shortly after he joined. In the past, Zinc focused on documentaries. While these were often well regarded, they were mostly one-off commissions so sales and profits could be unpredictable from one year to the next.

Now, the group has expanded its remit to cover any kind of factual entertainment. 

Documentaries are still integral to the business, with high-profile programmes including Putin vs The West, Afghanistan: Getting Out and Tom Daley’s Illegal To Be Me. But Zinc makes long-running series too from Beechgrove Garden to Bargain Loving Brits to Sunday Morning Live.

Most programmes are made for the BBC, ITV and Channels 4 and 5, as these still account for the majority of TV commissions in the UK. 

But Sky is a big client too, alongside American broadcasting giants, such as Netflix, Disney+ and Discovery.

Following some astute acquisitions, Browning has added several new customers to his client list – organisations that want to use films and videos to promote what they do, train staff or simply raise their profile.

Drinks group Red Bull commissioned Feeling Supersonic: Felix Baumgartner to commemorate the Austrian skydiver’s extraordinary space jump in 2012. Lego City Stuntz brings a Lego range to life. Saving Lives At Sea charts the work of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

Some companies fund major TV productions too, such as Best Laid Plans, developed with the insurer Hiscox. And there are podcasts in the mix as well, including Cunningcast by former Baldrick actor, Tony Robinson. Not that long ago, TV production firms turned their noses up at commissions from anyone other than mainstream broadcasters. 

Today, the lines are far more blurred, with big TV channels, businesses, streaming services and governments all keen to make distinctive films and distribute them on any kind of screen, from TV sets to mobile phones.

Browning believes that success for Zinc lies in appealing to anyone in search of a high-quality production outfit that can turn facts and feats into compelling stories.  

The opportunity is certainly vast. In the UK TV market alone, around £1billion a year is spent on factual programmes, with company-funded films taking the total considerably higher. If Zinc can capture even a fraction of that market, revenues and profits should rocket.

Browning is also keen to start paying dividends, as the business becomes more established.

Midas verdict: Zinc Media shares were nudging £3 before the pandemic and economic uncertainty sent them tumbling to just 83p. Mark Browning is determined to reverse that trend and recent results suggest he is on the right path. The Hollywood screenwriters’ strike could help the business too, as US networks look beyond California for new commissions. Buy now and watch the shares move forward.

Traded on: AIM Ticker: ZIN Contact: zincmedia.com or 020 7539 2000