An Irish High Court Justice recently appointed a guardian ad litem to represent the best interests of a farmer who sold his property and gave most of the money to the poor because God told him he would go to Heaven.

Giving to charity is commendable, but some people’s generosity can seem suspicious in certain situations. Take the case of an Irish farmer in his 40s who sold his property a few months ago for about €600,000 ($700,000) and has already given more than half of that money to the poor. The farmer, whose name has not been revealed by the media, had allegedly been told by God to give away all of his money, and if he did so, he would get to heaven. Taking that heavenly message to heart, he sold his farm and has been busy giving away his fortune ever since. Justice Michael Twomey heard that just last week, the farmer gave €1,000 cash to a homeless woman he met, and that in a matter of weeks, his bank account balances had dropped significantly.

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A 28-year-old Malaysian woman recently shared the dramatic transformation she suffered during her pregnancy, when her face became inflamed and full of wrinkles, like an old woman’s.

Farah Faizal, a marketing manager living in Malaysia, caused a stir on social media when she posted an image of her incredibly deformed face while pregnant at the end of June. Her face looked like that of an old woman, with deep wrinkles, an enlarged nose and ears, and pustules everywhere. The skin routine she had relied on for years was completely ineffective, and things worsened in the later stages of her pregnancy. Every morning when she woke up, new pustules appeared on her face, and her skin was itchy and inflamed. The whole experience was deeply traumatic, and Farah credits her husband for helping her overcome it while maintaining her sanity.

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A Chinese man was recently scammed by a Hangzhou gym into spending more than 870,000 yuan ($121,000) on hundreds of years of gym memberships and private lessons.

The average life expectancy in China is around 78 years, but one Hagzhou man will have to figure out a way to live a lot longer if he plans to take full advantage of the 300-years-worth of gym memberships he was scammed into paying a fortune for. The victim, referred to only as Jin by Chinese media, had been training at the Ranyan Fitness gym in his home city for three years, when he was approached by a salesperson with an offer he simply couldn’t refuse. Mr. Jin was told that Ranyan was launching a special offer for loyal members only, selling them cheap long-term memberships that they would then resell to new members for double the price. As it often happens, it all turned out to be too good to be true.

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Scientists at China’s Zhejiang University have developed a new type of thin, transparent glass that can clean itself with the help of built-in electrodes that create an electric field.

Surface particle pollution has long been a problem that science has struggled to solve. From dirty windows in inaccessible places to photovoltaic panels in the middle of the desert, dealing with dust, sand, and other particles is often difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. But what if glass surfaces could simply clean themselves regularly? It sounds like the kind of technology you’d expect to see in a sci-fi blockbuster, but a team of researchers in China claims to have invented a type of self-cleaning glass that can remove up to 98% of surface particles in just a few seconds, without the use of water and chemicals.

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There is a bizarre stress-relief trend sweeping through China these days – thousands of grownups are relying on adult pacifiers to mitigate stress symptoms like anxiety and insomnia.

From work-related stress and financial burdens like mortgages and car payments, to complex interpersonal relationships, modern life is full of anxiety-inducing problems, but who would have thought that the humble pacifier could help mitigate these issues? Well, apparently, Chinese adults have, because the popularity of adult pacifiers has turned into a full-blown craze in the Asian country, with thousands of young adults spending between 10 and 500 yuan ($1.40 and $70) on plastic pacifiers. They are often sold as stress and anxiety relief products or sleep aids, and for many people overwhelmed by daily life, these simple marketing phrases are enough to trigger a buying impulse. Chinese e-commerce platforms are full of offers for adult pacifiers, and the most successful stores sell thousands of them every month.

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A South Korean student’s mother and her tutor were recently arrested after trying to break into the girl’s school in order to steal exam papers and ensure that she aced her tests.

South Korea’s education system was recently rocked by a scandal involving illegal tutoring, breaking and entering, as well as attempted theft of exam papers by a parent and a teacher with the goal of maintaining a student at the top of her class at any cost. On July 4, at around 02:00 in the morning, the alarm went off at a girls’ school in Andong, North Gyeongsang, and security camera footage showed two women trying to access an office where printed copies of school exams were being stored. The perpetrators were arrested the following day, and an investigation found that one of them was the mother of a valedictorian student at the school, and the other was a former teacher there who had been tutoring the same student for years.

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An Argentinian man recently won a legal battle against tech giant Google after being photographed naked in his own yard and then posted on Google Street View for everyone to see.

Although the lawsuit filed by the unnamed man only recently ended, the incident goes back to 2017, when a Google Street View car passed through  Bragado, a small Argentinian town about 200 kilometers from Buenos Aires, right when a local man was out completely naked on his property. The photos taken by the car’s advanced camera system caught him from behind, showing his derriere in all its glory, and even though the man’s face wasn’t visible, the very clear street address in the captures made him the laughing stock of the town. Sick of putting up with the mockery, the man took Google to court for violating his privacy.

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A 16-year-old girl from Central China’s Hunan province almost lost her life after attempting a dangerous diet of just vegetables and laxatives to lose weight fast.

In a desperate attempt to fit into a new birthday dress, the Chinese teenager, identified only as Mei, adopted a crash diet that landed her in the hospital. For two weeks, Mei only consumed small portions of vegetables and laxatives and was eventually rushed to the hospital after suddenly losing strength in her arms and legs, and developing shortness of breath. Emergency blood tests showed that Mei’s blood potassium levels had dropped to dangerous levels, resulting in a condition called serious hypokalaemia. If left untreated, the life-threatening condition can cause respiratory failure and sudden cardiac arrest.

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Indian police have arrested a man accused of running a fake embassy in a rented building in Ghaziabad and impersonating an ambassador of made-up countries like ‘Seborga’ or ‘Westarctica’.

Ever dreamed of working in exotic countries like Ladonia, Westarctica, Seborga, or Poulvia? Unfortunately, you’re not the only one. An Indian scammer managed to defraud dozens of individuals and companies by posing as an ambassador of made-up micronations, promising employment and lucrative business deals in exchange for hefty fees. Harshvardhan Jain had set up a fake embassy in a lavish bungalow in Ghaziabad’s upscale Kavi Nagar area, where he presented himself as a wealthy and well-connected diplomat, using fake documents, forged car plates and made-up foreign connections to trick his victims.

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Japanese authorities are on high alert after up to 16,000 plastic toy guns used as prizes in claw machines across the country were deemed able to fire live ammunition.

Japan’s National Police Agency (NPA) recently issued a warning that thousands of illegal firearms were being offered as prizes in claw machines all around the Asian country, adding that authorities were scrambling to recall them. The ‘Real Gimmick Mini Revolver’ was imported into Japan from China as prizes in crane games, but although the brightly-colored plastic toy seemed harmless, its technical specifications suggested that ot was capable of being used as an actual firearm. The toy comes with eight plastic bullets that can be used to ping various objects or even prank people, but the NPA found that the gun could also potentially be used to fire live ammunition.

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A Taiwanese women’s football coach has come under fire for allegedly forcing students to donate blood hundreds of times in order to receive school credits mandatory for graduation.

Zhou Tai-ying, a prominent women’s football trainer, has been dubbed the “vampire” coach by Taiwanese media, because during her time at the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), she allegedly forced students to give blood numerous times, on consecutive days, donations that she claimed were linked to 32 school credits necessary for graduation. Terrified of not being able to finish school unless they did the coach’s bidding, some students had their blood collected hundreds of times in a matter of days, with some claiming that harvesters could no longer find viable veins.

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A man in Rayong, Thailand, died surrounded by over a hundred empty beer bottles after shunning food and living on the alcoholic drink alone for over a month.

Last week, rescue workers from the Siam Rayong Foundation were called to a house in the Ban Chang district of Rayong to help a man who had reportedly suffered a seizure and later became unconscious. Unfortunately, by the time they arrived on the scene, the patient had already passed away. He was identified as 44-year 44-year-old Thaweesak Namwongsa, a divorced local man and father to a 16-year-old boy. According to the teenager, Namwongsa had been drinking only beer for over a month, and when he came home from school one day, he found him having a seizure in his bed, surrounded by empty beer bottles.

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A Chinese man recently incurred the wrath of animal lovers after showing off an unusual car hood ornament featuring live fish and crustaceans.

The owner of a Li Auto L9 luxury SUV from Liaoning, China, has been accused of animal cruelty after turning a transparent layer of plastic on the hood of his car into a mobile aquarium full of large fish and crabs. Watching the viral Douyin (TikTok) video of the man’s car for the first time, you’d be tempted to think it was AI-generated, but several Chinese news outlets have confirmed that it’s a real thing. The man who came up with the ingenious idea was even interviewed about his bizarre invention and said that he came up with it during a fishing trip when he forgot to bring a container for the fish. He noticed the transparent plastic layer on the hood of his SUV and thought to himself that he could keep the fish in there.

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A Chinese man was recently sentenced to three years and three months in prison and fined 10,000 yuan ($1,400) for repeatedly spiking a colleague’s drink with a ‘truth serum’ to steal their work plans.

Chinese media recently reported the strange case of a Shanghai man who ended up in prison for reportedly mixing a ‘truth serum’ in a workmate’s drink on multiple occasions so he could find out his work plans. The man, surnamed Li, allegedly came across the truth serum during a business trip and was intrigued by the vendor’s claims that only a few drops could untangle anyone’s tongue and reveal all their secrets. Li bought the miracle product and decided to use it on his colleague, Wang, whose secrets he wanted to learn.

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A 38-year-old Australian woman who has been living in a retirement home for a year claims moving there as a way to start over was the best decision she ever made.

After her long-term romantic relationship with her partner came to an end, the 38-year-old woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, decided it was time for a fresh start and moved out of their shared apartment in Melbourne. She spent two months living in an Airbnb, which proved costly, and when she started looking for an apartment she could actually afford, she found the places on offer weren’t very enticing. But when she visited her aunt at a retirement village and told her that she was looking for a place, the elderly woman asked her if she wanted to try an apartment that had just opened up in the village. Her relatively young age wouldn’t be a problem, the woman’s aunt said, so she decided to fill up the paperwork and give the retirement home a chance. It turned out to be the best decision she ever made.

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