A middle-aged Japanese man known as ‘Uncle Praise’ has been making a living by standing on the street and showering strangers with praises for a small fee.

Uncle Praise first made news headlines in Japan in September of last year when Fuji TV released a short documentary on his unique “profession”. The 43-year-old man reportedly used to work for a company in his hometown of Tochigi, but at one point in his life, he got so addicted to gambling that he lost both his family and his job. His father fell ill, he lost his job and couldn’t pay the mortgage anymore, his family eventually cut ties with him, and he found himself living on the street. It was a rude awakening that helped him beat his gambling addiction and really assess his life. The middle-aged man had always dreamed of being a street performer, but he had no special skills such as magic tricks or singing, so he came up with the idea of praising people for money.

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Fogvid-24 is a new conspiracy theory doing the rounds online, and it’s a doozie! People are claiming that the thick fog engulfing parts of the US these days is a man-made chemical weapon.

In the first days of 2025, large parts of the United States were blanketed by a “mysterious” that made some people experience strange smells, breathing problems, and unexplained fatigue. Viral videos of people shining their flashlights into the fog at night to show “unusually large particles” have been shared thousands of times on social media platforms like X and TikTok, sparking fears that this was no ordinary fog but a chemical-filled biological weapon. Some conspiracy theorists have linked the fog to the mysterious drone sightings around the country, while others reported a high number of chemtrails in the sky just before the fog set in.

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The Welsh village of Cyffylliog was “invaded” by bargain-hunting shoppers looking for a non-existent Aldi supermarket that internet trolls added to Google Maps as a prank.

The “add a missing place” feature on Google Maps can be very useful when used correctly, but when abused by pranksters, it can cause headaches for entire communities. Case in point, Cyffylliog, a quiet Welsh village in Denbighshire whose inhabitants have seen a flood of confused shoppers looking for a “phantom Aldi supermarket” that only exists as a pin on Google Maps. Believed to have been added by a local internet troll, the listing has so far led thousands of people to a grassy field, tens of miles away from the nearest checkout lane. After a milk truck became stuck on a narrow village truck trying to deliver its cargo to the phantom Aldi, locals said that they have been visited by vans trying to deliver groceries and bread to the non-existent supermarket, as well as confused shoppers led there by their smartphones.

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An Uzbek zookeeper tragically lost his life after going into the lion’s enclosure at a private zoo to film himself petting the large felines only to get mauled by them.

On December 17, 44-year-old F. Iriskulov was working the night shift at a private zoo in Parkent, Uzbekistan, when he decided to impress his fiancee by filming himself going into the lions’ enclosure to pet three full-grown African felines. A short clip retrieved from the man’s phone shows him unlocking the lion’s cage and casually walking in while talking to the lions and addressing them by name. At one one point, the felines, which had been lounging on wooden pallets, become alert and approach the zoo keeper who continues to film, seemingly unaware of the danger he is in. The video cuts off with Iriskulov screaming as one of the lions attacks him.

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A landlord in northern France is trying to force his tenants to leave in the middle of winter by removing the doors and windows on his property.

In France, as in many European countries, it’s illegal to evict tenants in wintertime, even if they are behind on rent. However, one landlord in Pas-de-Calais, a department in northern France, is trying to skirt around the law by forcing his tenants to vacate the property without actually asking them to leave. On December 20, a team of workers arrived at the property and started disassembling the doors and windows under the pretext of replacing them. However, the tenants claim that they just loaded up the old doors and windows in a car and drove away, leaving them to brave the cold and face potential intrusion at all hours of the day and night.

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55-year-old Hilde Dosogne of Belgium recently set a new world record for most consecutive marathons after running 366 full marathons (over 15,000 km) in 2024.

On May 30, 2024, Hilde Dosogne had already broken the women’s world record for most consecutive marathons – 150, set by Erchana Murray Bartlett – but she didn’t stop running until December 31st, when she recorded her 366th consecutive full marathon of the year. It’s a monumental achievement on par with that of the men’s category set in 2023 by Brazilian runner Hugo Farias who also completed 366 marathons. As you can imagine, running 42.195 km per day, every day, for a year is incredibly taxing on the body, but while Hilde had to overcome fatigue and bursitis (painful inflammation of the joints), she claims that the mental stress of having to show up at the starting line every day was her most difficult challenge.

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Liu Liange, former Chairman of the Bank of China, allegedly convinced his son to break up with his fiancée just so he could court and marry her instead.

Liu Liange most recently made news headlines in November of last year when he was issued a suspended death sentence with a two-year reprieve for accepting 121 million yuan ($17 million) in bribes and issuing illegal loans of over 3.32 billion yuan ($450 million) during his tenure Chairman of the Bank of China, but he previously became known for his love of young women. After divorcing his first wife, Liange remarried three times, with people remarking that his wives got younger and more attractive each time, culminating in his controversial fourth marriage to his son’s ex-fiancée.

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A team of Texas high school students is being sued for allegedly forcing players to do up to 368 pushups in under an hour during a grueling training session that put their lives at risk.

Former Rockwall-Heath High School coach John Harrell and a dozen assistant coaches stand accused of having junior varsity football players do nearly 400 pushups with no rest and no water breaks in a 50-minute training session that landed some of them in the hospital for several days. According to a lawsuit filed by one of the players’ parents, on January 6th, 2023, dozens of junior varsity players hoping to make the varsity team were punished for every mistake made during their 50-minute training session with 16 pushups. There were 23 mistakes counted, so they had to do a total of 368 pushups. Following the grueling workout, 26 players were diagnosed with or had symptoms of rhabdomyolysis, a potentially deadly medical condition that causes muscle tissue to break down and enter the bloodstream.

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A 32-year-old Indian man admitted to cutting off four fingers on his left hand to avoid having to continue working as a computer operator at a relative’s company.

Learning to say ‘no’ sounds easy, but for some people, it can be harder than crippling themselves for life. Case in point, a Gujarat man who staged an “accident” that left him missing four fingers on his left hand to avoid having to tell his boss that he wanted to quit his job. Earlier this month, Mayur Tarapara showed up at a police station in his native city of Surat to report that four mingers were missing from his left hand. He claimed to have been riding his motorcycle to a friend’s house when he suddenly felt dizzy and passed out on the side of the road. When he woke up 10 minutes later, four fingers on his left hand had been chopped off. Police initially believed that the man’s fingers had been stolen for black magic rituals, but their investigation found huge holes in Mayur’s story.

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An Indian devotee who accidentally dropped his iPhone into the collection box at a Hindu temple while making a donation was told that the phone was now the deity’s property and could not be returned.

Last month, a Chennai man who was visiting Arulmigu Kandaswamy Temple in Thiruporur with his family to offer prayers, felt his iPhone slip out of his pocket and into the hundial – a metal donation box – just as he was making offerings to the temple’s patron deity. The man, referred to only as Dinesh, approached temple officials and explained the incident, demanding that his handheld be returned. To his surprise, they refused, claiming that rules did not permit them to return anything placed into the hundial, willingly or accidentally, because it is the deity’s property.

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In a bizarre trend sweeping Chinese social media, young women pose with fake silicone belies to make sure they look their best in their pregnancy photos even though they aren’t yet pregnant.

There was once a time when being single and pregnant was considered a stigma in Chinese society, but today, young women go as far as to fake their pregnancy even if they’re not even in a relationship just to make sure they capture the special moment at their very best. In a craze that has been sweeping the nation, Chinese women in their early 20s pay for fake pregnancy photos to ensure they have beautiful maternity memories later in life when they may not have perfect figures and wrinkle-free faces. The so-called “premade maternity photos” started attraction online after a popular influencer shared her own fake pregnancy photo session online, but the trend has apparently been around for a while.

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A three-inch jawbreaker candy managed to live up to its name after causing a 19-year-old woman to literally break her jaw by trying to bite into it.

Canadian student Javeria Wasim had seen videos of people biting into small jawbreaker candies, but she had never seen anyone successfully bite through a big three-inch jawbreaker, so she decided to try it. It turned out to be the worst decision of her life because she only managed to dent the outer layer of the hard candy when she felt a piercing pain in her lower jaw. The young woman’s friend then pointed out that one of her teeth was chipped and when Javeria checked it herself, she realized that another tooth felt wiggly when touched. At this point, the 19-year-old student could barely open her mouth without screaming in pain, so her friend called an ambulance. An X-ray later showed that the reason her tooth was wiggly was that she had fractured her mandible in two places trying to bite into the jawbreaker.

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An English vicar stands accused of ruining Christmas for a class of Year Six students by saying that Santa Claus didn’t exist and their parents were the ones putting presents under the Christmas tree.

Last week, Rev Dr Paul Chamberlain was supposed to speak about the birth of Jesus in front of Year Six pupils from the Lee-on-the-Solent Junior School in Hampshire, England, but he somehow ended up talking about the existence of Santa Claus, a topic that many of the children weren’t ready for. He casually told the class that Father Christmas was not real and that it was their parents buying them presents and eating the cookies they left for Santa. Apparently, all this came as a shock for many of the kids, who started sobbing and later told their parents about the traumatic experience. The minister has since been forced to apologize to the children, their parents, and the school for his revelations.

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A 24-year-old Chinese man who got a skull tattoo on his face six years ago has been trying to get a job ever since.

The unnamed man, referred to only as Mr. A by Chinese media, was recently featured by Morning Star News and shocked the entire country with his unusual look. The 24-year-old man claims to have been a rebellious youth who also struggled with depression and found refuge in his tattoos. He first started getting tattoos on his body, but six years ago, he made the radical decision to get a skull tattoo on his face. The design featured dark holes around his eyes and on his nose, teeth around his mouth, and a brain pattern on his shaved head. He was happy with it at the time, but quickly realized that the design was going to make it very hard for him to lead a normal life.

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71-year-old Jin Hui recently became the first Chinese man over the age of 70 to run 100 meters in under 14 seconds during a competition that saw him winning five gold medals in his age group.

Jin Hui became known as China’s “hardcore uncle” after dominating the 2024 China Track and Field Masters, a competition that challenges athletes between the ages of 35 and 84 to compete in a variety of track and field events. It was Jin Hui’s second time competing in the prestigious event following his debut in 2023 when he finished second in the 100-meter race with a respectable time of 15.26 seconds, but he somehow managed to blow everyone away with his performance. Not only did the septuagenarian set a new national record for the 100-meter race in his age group, but he also snatched the gold medal in all the five events he participated in.

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