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A version of The Suprême croissant at Lafayette Bakery in New York. Photo: Instagram/lafayette380
Food and Drinks

Cronuts so yesterday now there’s croissant pizza, cookie, brownie, hot dog

The pastry of New York is the bagel, right? Not so fast. What about the croissant crossovers, from pistachio fillings to pigs-in-a-blanket?

Music

How ‘cheap trick’ helps monkeys yodel better than humans

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History

Discover secrets and tools of real-life James Bonds at MI5 exhibition

NBA

German glass company aims to challenge NBA’s long-time hardwood-floor foundation

‘We’re at the initial stages of the iPhone being launched,’ says ASB GlassFloor boss, who sees glass courts as a tech-driven alternative.

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A glass court used at the 2024 NBA All-Star Game weekend in Indianapolis, United States in February last year. Photo: Getty Images
Artificial intelligence

Lost your phone? Now you can ask your Samsung fridge to find it

The latest Samsung Bespoke fridges’ AI-enhanced Bixby assistant responds to voice commands to find missing phones and activate appliances.

Fashion

A vest that can power a neck fan? Check it out at Osaka World Expo 2025

A Toyota subsidiary will trial vests with solar cells that generate electricity to power devices such as neck fans at the Osaka World Expo.

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Egypt

What is sock ball? How the game played on small streets got big

The first type of football played by many in Egypt, sock ball has become a show of celebration during Ramadan in the country.

Essam Bakkar prepares the ball on the day of a sock ball match on a street in Alexandria, Egypt, on March 23, 2025. Photo: Reuters
Food and Drinks

Spanish sharpen knives and skills for ‘World Cup of butchery’

World Butchers’ Challenge at Paris Expo will see teams prepare chicken, beef, pork and lamb. Newcomers Spain say they have a ‘secret weapon’.

Wellness

Meet the Irish farmer using alpacas for animal therapy for the elderly

With their ‘huge brown eyes’, camelid therapy animals ease anxiety among nursing home residents and those with special needs, farmer says.

Music

Meet Marcin, the guitar genius so good people think he’s faking it

Marcin Patrzalek, 24, plays percussion, melody and rhythm at the same time on his acoustic guitar, and is an Instagram sensation.

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Percussive finger-style guitarist, composer, and social media star Marcin Patrzalek. Photo: AFP
US-China relations

China hails US YouTube star who had 10 million views on Beijing, Shanghai

Influencer is seen praising the people who greeted him enthusiastically, clean streets and internet connectivity on the subway.

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US YouTuber IShowSpeed with his fans in Vietnam. Photo: X/iShowSpeedHQ
Food and Drinks

Take a hammer to a US$48,000 whisky? Scotch distiller’s smashing gimmick

Amid a dip in the rare whisky market, The Glenrothes has made its exclusive The 51 single malt ‘effectively impossible to resell’.

Art

Painting attributed to a male artist for years was woman’s work

Lavinia Fontana, a leading woman painter of the Italian Renaissance, now credited with work a museum in Douai, France, believed was Flemish.

Japan

There’s a rat in my soup! Dead rodent hurts Japan restaurant chain’s stock price

Zensho Holdings, which operates the Sukiya chain, saw its shares fall as much as 7.1 per cent after it revealed the grisly discovery.

An image shared on social media shows the dead rodent that was found in a bowl of Sukiya soup. Photo: X/yhp_m
New Zealand

Ghostly guides invoke tragic tales of New Zealand’s parliament

Visitors who take part in the ‘spooky tours’ hear spine-chilling stories of mysterious deaths and late-night apparitions in Wellington.

A tour guide retells the haunted history of New Zealand’s parliament library in Wellington on Thursday. Photo: AP
Food and Drinks

Italy’s oldest barista, still serving at 100, asks: ‘Why should I stop?’

Since her last holiday 67 years ago, Anna Possi has opened her cafe in northern Italy every day. ‘I’m around people. I feel good,’ she says.

Thailand

Ghostbusted: bungling burglar with ‘Scream’ mask arrested in Thailand

The 21-year-old man was planning to steal from a gold shop in Chiang Mai, wearing a ‘Ghostface’ mask and a black cloak to hide his tracks.

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Food and Drinks

Why Germany’s Wine Queen could be dethroned by a man for the first time

Since 1949, only women have been allowed to compete in an annual contest that crowns ambassadors for Germany’s wine industry. Not any more.

Charlotte Weihl, the current German Wine Queen. Photo: Instagram/_charlottewe_
Music

Why Sufi music lovers in Kashmir still swear by cassette players

Listened to by artisans as they work or at gatherings of Sufi music aficionados, cassette players hold sway in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Art

Statue of Liberty, Big Ben models made of scrap in underwater art show

A Swedish art project aims to create an underwater city of the world’s most famous buildings to highlight the threat from rising sea levels.

Art

When this 9-year-old tattoo artist grows up, he wants his own parlour

His dad started teaching him to tattoo to get him off his phone. Now Napat Mitmakorn wants to do it for a living when he grows up.

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Napat Mitmakorn goes by the nickname “Knight”. Tattooing is a centuries-old tradition in Thailand. Photo: AFP
Australia

Australian woman admits trying to sell human toes she found in dog vomit

Joanna Kinman was working at an animal shelter at the time. She faces a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

The woman working at an animal shelter in Victoria state when two dogs reportedly regurgitated the toes and other human remains in February 2024. Photo: Shutterstock
Food and Drinks

Cappuccino after noon? 100-year-old barista in Italy thinks it’s fine

Coffee with milk in the afternoon is a no-no for many Italians. Not Anna Possi, a barista since 1958 who’ll happily pour it past midnight.

Music

‘Pretty neat’ or ‘gimmicky collector bait’? New Bon Jovi LP splits fans

The special limited-edition vinyl disc reissue of the rock band’s bestselling Slippery When Wet album features actual liquid in the record.

United States

Dog shoots US man in bed after ‘paw stuck in trigger’

The man from Tennessee escaped serious injury with a graze to his left thigh.

A pit bull dog. An American dog owner was shot by his pet after it jumped on his bed this week. File photo: Shutterstock
Australia

His heart will go on: Australian man survives for 105 days with titanium heart

The artificial heart uses magnetic levitation – the same technology used in high-speed trains – to pump blood around the body.

A BiVacor artificial heart. Its makers say the long-term goal is for patients to live with the device indefinitely without needing a transplant. Photo: BiVacor
TV shows and streaming video

Meet ‘Daechi mom’, education-obsessed Korean helicopter parent

She wears Moncler, drives a Porsche and speaks English to her 4-year-old. Comedies about Korean tiger mums are a hit online and on TV.

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Art

An art print that only costs US$1? Head to one of these vending machines

Aided by Instagram and TikTok, artist Anastasia Inciardi has started a bit of a trend in the US – vending machines that sell art prints.

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