Woman Scales Statue of Liberty in Protest of Donald Trump

The Statue of Liberty in New York City was shut down for most of July Fourth this week after a woman actually managed to hoist herself all the way up to the robes of this iconic pretend woman.

(To be accurate, seven protesters holding a banner that read "Abolish I.C.E." actually stood at the base of this national monument prior to tha above incident, prompting officials to close the statue to tourists.

But it was the woman and her climb that got all the national attention.)

Not until the woman was apprehended by authorities did we learn her name and a little more about her background.

Her name is Therese Okoumou and she is a native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

According to various news outlets, Okoumou told police that she scaled all the way up this monumentto protest the separation of immigrant children from parents who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

This has been a prominent issue of national debate for weeks now, with stars such as Amber Heard making their opinions on the topic well known.

The activist group behind the Abolish I.C.E. sign, Rise and Resist, Tweeted that the climber wasn’t connected to its demonstration and expressed concern for her safety, although we believe she did not suffer any injuries.

Okoumou, 44, has lived in The Big Apple for the past 10 years.

Police with safety ropes had to go up, grab her and bring her down as she sat under the sandal of the statue for several minutes late yesterday afternoon.

She was eventually tethered between two officers and climbed down to the promontory via a ladder to safety.

“No one in the group knew this was going to happen,” Rise and Resist member Jay Walker told the New York Daily News, adding:

“We don’t know if she did it on the spur of the moment or if she had been planning it beforehand."

Once she reached her destination, Okoumou held up a T-shirt that supported her case, as you can see in the photo above.

"At first, she wasn"t friendly with us, but we took the time to get a rapport with her so that took a while," Officer Brian Glacken said in a news conference Wednesday evening, elaborating as follows:

"She just kind of mentioned the kids in Texas. I guess the whole debate that"s going on about that. In the beginning, she threatened to push us off, push the ladder off, but we stayed with her…

"She actually apologized to us for having to go up and get her."

Watch the video at the top of this post to learn more and to see this protest/rescue in action.

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Raccoon Scales Skyscraper, Keeps Entire Internet on Edge

The MPR Raccoon is safe!

We repeat: The MPR Raccoon is safe!

As anyone with an Internet connection knows, it was a tense night on Tuesday for those who tracked the unexpected actions of this creature, who sky-rocketed to viral fame thanks to a climb we"re guessing he really wanted to make.

The animal was discovered by employees at Minnesota Public Radio (hence the hashtag "#MPRraccoon"), whose building sits next to the 23-story office tower in St. Paul that this raccoon decided to scale after he got scared by a window cleaner.

Climbing higher and higher, the critter apparently realized after awhile that he couldn"t simply jump down without risking life and limb…

… so he simply kept going.

My picture from the 13th floor around noon. Hope he makes it down OK! #mprraccoon, read the caption to this amazing photo.

When maintenance workers attempted to coax the raccoon down, he became frightened and scampered so far up the skyscraper that he was out of reach of any human helper.

At various points, the raccoon stopped for a break, sitting on ledges directly outside the windows of various workers and Twitter users.

To wit:

"He is on the ledge on our floor," explains the above individual, who snapped a rather adorable photo of the animal and added:

"He seems to be doing well. We’ve been told that the building has live traps on the roof and are trying to get him to go up there. We all just have to keep our fingers crossed.. #mprraccoon."

Indeed, an entire World Wide Web crossed its collective fingers, unsure how this saga would end, not especially anxious to see a raccoon plummet to his death off the side of a tall building.

(It"s here where we must acknowledge the power of a cute face. Because, let"s face it, raccoons aren"t exactly the most cuddly creatures around.)

Local television station KARE11 in Minnesota started streaming the raccoon’s movements on Tuesday evening, while MPR was constantly updating its story throughout the day on Twitter and Facebook.

The story even reached national levels of attention with a segment on Good Morning America, which we"ve included below.

So… did MPR Raccoon reach the roof and the live trap set there with cat food safely?

YES!

The animal will soon be released into the wild and we"ll be forced to scour New York City for the next milkshake squirrel in order to track down the next four-legged Internet sensation.

Check out footage of this wayward raccoon below!

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Real-Life Spider-Man Scales Building and Rescues Child: WATCH!

Mamoudou Gassama is a freaking hero. In fact, he"s being compared to one fictional superhero in particular for his very real heroic deed.

With a child dangling off of a balcony, he took action and raced up the building — by climbing its exterior.

His extraordinary actions saved the child. And his good deed is not going unrewarded.

Mamoudou Gassama is 22 years old. He is an undocumented Malian immigrant to France.

On Saturday afternoon, he became famous for the best of reasons.

In under 40 seconds, he scaled the facade of a Parisian building to rescue a small child, who was hanging on for dear life from the fifth floor balcony.

This is a feat that many have hailed as superhuman, and some have likened him to the Marvel superhero, Spider-Man.

But Mamadou is a human, and his actions show not only the potential of the human body, but the motivations of human compassion for total strangers.

In under a minute, mamadou had lifted the 4-year-old child to the safety of the balcony.

The crowd thta watched Mamoudou climb was impressed. And within hours, the video of his heroics had racked up millions of views.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted:

"Congratulations to him for his bravery that saved the life of a child last night. I was pleased to speak with him today by telephone, in order to thank him warmly."

In a follow-up tweet, Hidalgo added:

"He explained to me that he had arrived from Mali a few months ago, dreaming of building his life here."

Her reply commended him for his wonderful works.

"I replied that his heroic gesture is an example for all citizens and that the city of Paris will obviously be committed to supporting it in its efforts to establish itself in France."

Hidalgo was not the only French politician to take note of his selfless act.

French President Emmanuel Macron invited Mamoudou to meet with him.

"I just didn"t have time to think, I ran across the road to go and save him," Gassama told Macron during their sit-down.

He credits his faith for giving him the strength to scale the building.

"I just climbed up and thank God, God helped me."

He says that, as he went up, his confidence increased.

"The more I climbed the more I had the courage to climb up higher, that"s it."

Those are humble words from a compassionate man.

Macron heaped praise upon Mamoudou,s aying:

"You saved a child. Without you, no one knows what would have become of him."

Probably nothing good, though we would point out that others were trying to help.

"You need courage and the capability to do that."

Macron gave Mamoudou a medal and certificate for his bravery.

He also offered him French citizenship — and a job with Paris fire brigade.

Mamoudou transformed too lives that day — stopping one life from ending at 4, and making his dream of a new life in France into a reality.

As you can imagine, people have some serious questions about how a 4-year-old child could be left to dangle from a balcony like this in the first place.

The boy"s mother was not in Paris at the time.

Police have questioned the boy"s father over why exactly he left his 4-year-old unattended.

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