No, you did not read that headline wrong. Yes, a beaver took a man hostage in Latvia.

According to the editor of the local paper in Daugavpils, Latvia, a man named Sergei was walking through the city streets late at night when a beaver ran out of the shadows and sunk its teeth into the man's leg. Sergei apparently tried to fight back and ended up falling; on the ground, he got pinned by the beaver, which would bite him every time he tried to get back up.

Sergei managed to get ahold of his phone and called rescue services — who promptly hung up on him because "I am being held hostage by a beaver right now" definitely sounds like a bad prank call.

So Sergei then called his friend, who, after some convincing, was persuaded to come to the rescue. Only — yes, it gets worse — the friend was then pulled over for speeding on the way to save Sergei. The friend then had to convince the police officer of the hairy situation and, after what one can imagine was a very awkward breathalyzer test, the police officer decided the friend was telling the truth and radioed in animal welfare officers to help.

Beavers are protected in Latvia, and so the critter was shooed off alive (and to this day, it still haunts the dark streets of Daugavpils, presumably). Sergei fared less well, requiring 15 stitches in his leg.

Mihails Pupiņš, director of the Daugavpils Zoo, told LSM that beavers can indeed be very aggressive in the spring and pose a danger to humans as the males search for new territory. Pupiņš suggested that if you ever find yourself being pursued by a beaver, the best course of action is to run away. Jeva Lange

At least 82 people were killed and 110 injured after a fire broke out Sunday in the intensive care unit of the Ibn al-Katib Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq. The ICU was reserved to treat patients suffering from the most severe cases of COVID-19. The fire, which is now under control, reportedly spread quickly beyond the ICU because the "hospital had no fire protection and false ceilings allowed the flames to spread to highly flammable products."

There's no official word on what sparked the fire, but Al Jazeera cites doctors at the scene who believe the source was an accident that caused an oxygen tank to explode. Most Iraqi hospitals do not have a central supply of supplemental oxygen, Al Jazeera notes, which means patients who need it (which would be common among people with severe COVID-19 infections) are given a cylinder placed by their bed. Because of staff shortages, relatives visiting patients are sometimes tasked with changing the cylinders, a doctor told Al Jazeera.

Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has called for an immediate investigation into the fire and quickly dismissed the director-general of the Baghdad Health Department in the al-Rusafa area, where the hospital is located, as well as the director of the hospital and its director of engineering and maintenance. Meanwhile, the government's human rights commission said the incident was "a crime against patients exhausted by COVID-19" and urged al-Kadhimi to also fire Hassan al-Tamini, the country's health minister. Read more at Al Jazeera and BBC. Tim O'Donnell

Louisiana State Sen. Troy Carter defeated fellow Democrat and state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson (no relation) in a special election in the state's 2nd congressional district to fill the U.S. House seat vacated by former Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), who's now a senior adviser to President Biden. Carter had Richmond's backing, as well as the support of top leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus, Politico notes.

Carter also sought Republican votes during his campaign because the Black-majority district is safely Democratic, leaving GOP voters without a candidate of their own in the runoff. Peterson, who The New York Times notes is "rooted" in the Democratic Party's establishment wing but embraced the support of progressives throughout the race, attempted to link Carter to former President Donald Trump because of his Republican outreach.

In the end, though, it was Carter's strategy that paid off. He picked up 56 percent of the vote, overall, and "routed" Petersen in the New Orleans suburbs, where he touted a key Republican endorsement, the Times reports. Peterson, on the other hand, was not able to meaningfully consolidate the votes that went to the first round's progressive candidate, Gary Chambers Jr.

Carter's arrival in Congress will give House Democrats, who hold a slim majority, a little more breathing room. Read more at Politico and The New York Times. Tim O'Donnell

Israel continues to provide what appears to be a real-time look at the success of its COVID-19 vaccination strategy.

For the first time in 10 months, Israel did not record a single COVID-19 death in a 24-hour period on Friday. The last time this happened, the country had enacted strict lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, but that's not the case now. Infections are plummeting even as Israel has gradually lifted restrictions, including an outdoor mask mandate. "Israelis are joyously resuming routines that were disrupted more than a year ago," The Washington Post writes, noting that restaurants and schools are both back to pre-pandemic capacity.

So far, evidence suggests the decline is largely thanks to a swift and successful vaccine rollout. Israel has the highest vaccination rate in the world, having administered around 120 doses per 100 people, and about 53 percent of the population has received two doses, which is required for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that's been in use in the country. Read more at BBC. Tim O'Donnell

While addressing Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on Saturday, Biden said "the American people honor all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today." The statement fulfills a campaign promise Biden made to Armenian-Americans, and makes him the first president in 40 years to call the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 a genocide.

Biden's gesture is significant for Armenia and its diaspora, and it's not controversial among most historians, who estimate that 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed in 1915. But, as is often the case, politics have rendered the language debate more challenging for the U.S. For instance, former President Barack Obama also made a campaign promise to call the killings a genocide; ultimately, though, he refrained from using the politically-charged term. Former President Ronald Reagan was the last commander-in-chief to do it, but he too backtracked, Bloomberg notes. Their reason? Turkey, the successor state to the Ottoman Empire and a strategic, complicated U.S. ally that claims the killings were in response to an armed Armenian rebellion.

There's no doubt Biden's decision to follow through — despite the fact that he warned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about what was coming — will drive a wedge between Washington and Ankara. Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has already said the government rejects Biden's statement, and his ministry said the U.S. had "opened a deep wound that undermines our mutual trust and friendship."

Ryan Gingeras, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School who focuses on Turkey, writes in The Washington Post that Biden's willingness to break with his predecessors likely stems from the fact that that his administration is losing patience with Turkey and its worsening human rights record. The decision "is as much a testament to changing political realities as it is a clear vindication of historical truth," he writes. Read more at Bloomberg and The Washington Post. Tim O'Donnell

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) remains very determined to debate Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

On Saturday, while speaking at the America First Rally at the Indian River County Fairgrounds in Florida, Greene recounted an apparent conversation the congresswomen had when Greene approached Ocasio-Cortez in the House chamber about going head-to-head on national television over the contents of the Green New Deal, which Greene believes will destroy the U.S. economy.

While telling her version of the story, Greene mockingly impersonated Ocasio-Cortez, who she claims has "no clue" what she's talking about because she hasn't owned a business. The crowd certainly seemed to enjoy the narrative, but Greene's critics did not, comparing it to something a middle schooler would tell, rather than a sitting congresswoman.

The Bulwark's Jim Swift thinks Greene has just had too much time on her hands of late. "When you don't have any committee assignments, this is how you spend your taxpayer funded time," he tweeted Saturday, referring to the fact that Greene was removed from her two assignments because of comments she made spreading violent and hateful conspiracy theories before she was elected.

In case you're wondering, Ocasio-Cortez has not commented on the proposed debate publicly, let alone confirmed Greene's version of events. Tim O'Donnell

President Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal strategy received an unexpected endorsement Friday, Politico reports.

James Baker III, who served as chief of staff to former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, as well as Reagan's treasury secretary and Bush's secretary of state, told his biographers Susan Glasser and Peter Baker (no relation) during a virtual event Friday that he supports Biden's plan to exit Afghanistan by or before Sept. 11, 2021 because "21 years is long enough." Baker, who Politico notes is considered an elder statesman in the GOP, said he's "always been one who felt that one sure way to doom a presidency is to commit to an endless conflict," adding that "you couldn't pick a tougher place to go and fight a land war" than Afghanistan.

Still, Politico writes, Baker's comments come as a bit of a surprise — Republican voters are mostly on board with the withdrawal, but GOP lawmakers have been more critical, especially those with more traditional GOP foreign policy views, like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Baker would seemingly fall under that umbrella, as well, given that he supported both invasions of Iraq, and often favored the U.S. taking on an active role in geopolitics while advising Bush on foreign policy.

At the same, he supported former President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. On the surface, that would appear to be another reason why praise for Biden was unexpected, but Trump was similarly a proponent of leaving Afghanistan. Read more at Politico. Tim O'Donnell