And Finally...

A Chinese zoo has admitted that the pandas in their exhibits were, in fact, “painted dogs.”

According to the New York Post, visitors at the Shanwei Zoo realized they were being bamboozled when the so-called pandas began panting and barking. Pandas are native to China and an international symbol of the country.

In one visitor’s video, one of the “pandas” was visibly panting while resting on a rock in a fence, while another clip had a panda with a long tail strolling about.

“It’s a PANdog,” one viewer wrote, while someone else joked: “That’s the Temu version of a panda.”

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After visitors publicized the ruse on social media, the organizers admitted they’d painted two Chow Chows — a fluffy dog breed originally from northern China — with black-and-white panda markings. Since then, visitors have demanded their money back for false advertising.

Previously:

• Zoo defends ‘panda’ exhibit after criticism for using dogs dyed black and white - a different Chinese zoo

This year, in a bizarre effort to make the Oklahoma State Fair smell even worse than it already does, Dent Source sponsored and organized a competition called the Stinkin’ Sentra Giveaway.

Similar to the B.O. GEO competition of years past, the premise is simple: four people are sent to live inside one Nissan Sentra in an outdoor fair exhibit. The contestants are only allowed to leave the car once every three hours for a 15-minute bathroom break, and anything they bring into the car—like discarded food, trash, or a carnie scalp—has to stay in the car. The last person to leave wins the car.

According to local media reports, the competition concluded this past weekend. The winner was Brian Richmond, who outlasted the other three contestants and, according to witnesses, looks like he smells like a Walmart:

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Brian’s victory in the Stinkin’ Sentra competition didn’t come without some smelly and disgusting controversy.

Meet Chris Deschner. He’s the guy who finished second in the competition, leaving the car after 80 hours of being trapped inside.

In a Facebook video, Chris claims he exited the vehicle only after Brian went full Mr. Hankey and brought a cup of human excrement from the port-a-potty into the car following a bathroom break!

Yep, you read that right. The winner brought a cup of human excrement from the port-a-potty into the car following a bathroom break. If you need to take a quick break to throw up in your mouth, feel free.

Chris protested Brian’s septic stunt to contest organizers, but after holding a quick tribunal—hopefully while wearing hazmat suits—the Dent Source team determined that bringing human excrement into the Sentra was a violation of competition rules, but not enough to disqualify Brian.

They removed the cup from the car and told Chris and Brian to resume play.

Unfortunately, Chris couldn’t mentally recover from this clear violation of the laws of man. Claiming he had “more self-respect than that,” he dropped out of the competition like a loose turd, handing Brian the victory and a new, shitty car.

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If you ask me, Chris probably realized he had no chance of winning once he witnessed the sewage-level depths his opponent was willing to go for victory, so he quit under protest to try to sneak a win and save face.

Honestly, I don’t blame Chris for this move. In fact, I consider him the winner! Not only does he still have his dignity, but even better—he won’t have to drive a Nissan Sentra.

A man who was charged with masturbating in his car as a schoolgirl walked past the window has told the district court that he was actually sanding the handle of a paint roller that was between his legs.

Prosecuting Inspector Tony O’Sullivan told Mallow District Court that Csaba Szentesi, 52, of Evergreen Buildings, Cork was charged with a single count of masturbating in public under Section 45-2-C of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017.

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Defence counsel John Colthurst BL acting for solicitor Killian McCarthy said that it was not the defence’s case that the girl was lying but that she was simply mistaken.

In a statement Mr Szentesi told the court that he was a painter by trade and was married with two children.

He said that he had arrived in Midleton that morning on his way to a job and stopped for something to eat and a cigarette.

Mr Szentesi said that he had a new paint roller that had a “glossy handle” and he was sanding it down because it was too slippery.

He told the court that it was between his legs and that anyone looking in the window might think it was a penis.

He said: “I am convinced what the young girl saw was the paint roller. Even an adult could confuse the situation.”

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Judge Colm Roberts commended the girl for how she conducted herself in court where she appeared by video link and in the video interview.

He said: “If this was decided on the balance of probabilities I would have no problem convicting this man but because of the seriousness of the charge it must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. On that basis I cannot convict because the evidence does not reach the required threshold.”

The judge said he found the defendant’s explanation novel and told Mr Colthurst: “If your client is cleaning handles again make sure he doesn’t do it near schoolchildren.”

The case was dismissed.

A Sydney homeowner who has become fed up with late-night drinkers using his property as a makeshift toilet has taken matters into his own hands, setting up an ingenious, and so far very effective, “wee trap”.

For far too long, Stephen Bodnar from Waverley in Sydney has had to deal with inebriated individuals using his driveway as a place to relieve themselves.

Men and women alike have stumbled from nearby pubs The Charing Cross Hotel and The Robin Hood Hotel and onto his property for years, leaving an unpleasant reminder of their visit.

“The worst was when I’d go away, out to dinner or something, and then drive into my driveway and they’d wee’d right where my door opens,” he told 7NEWS.

“It was an unpleasant feeling.

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Finally fed up, the electrician decided to install a $3,000 sprinkler and CCTV system to keep any perpetrators away - and it’s so far working like a charm.

“I’ve had no other option than to take matters (into) my own hands, I think,” he said.

The deterrent includes a motion detector which triggers a light and then a three-minute downpour between the hours of 6pm and 6am.

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But Bodnar’s solution seems to be working just fine, with CCTV capturing the shock experiences by multiple late night drinkers have had when they receive a surprise drenching.

“I’m really happy with the outcome,” he said.

The squirrels jumped on the Great Western Railway (GWR) 8.54am train from Reading to Gatwick on Monday, forcing passengers to flee to other carriages.

The passengers alerted staff, who tried to lure the squirrels off the train at Redhill with snacks, before trying to force them off with brooms - but to no avail.

They subsequently called the journey off entirely.

Former PC James Tillcock took loose change from a car he had searched after its owner was arrested in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, on 21 June.

He reported that no items were taken from the car but body worn video that Mr Tillcock recorded while searching it showed him taking the coins.

On being served with misconduct papers on 2 July, he admitted being "very silly" and said he took £2 to pay off the tuck shop debt.

According to Thames Valley Police (TVP), Mr Tillcock told investigators: "It's alright, I know why you are here. I was very silly. I was in debt for £2 to the tuck shop and took £2."

The remaining 50p was to "purchase chocolate bars for his children", the papers state.

Mr Tillcock, who was previously based in Bicester, received a caution for theft.

Two friends are causing a stir completing a six-day tandem bike ride completely naked. Neil Cox, 36, and his friend, J Antic, 25, set off on Saturday on a naked 260-mile journey from Gloucester to Land's End, Cornwall.

The pair are both naturists - meaning they like to spend time in the nude - and wanted to see some natural beauty across the south west of England. Neil and J have cycled naked through Gloucester to Bristol, taken a trip to the Mendips and stopped off in Glastonbury.

The pair have spent some nights camping and others in hotels or B&Bs, and even took some nude trips out shopping or to drink in bars while on their journey. Now in Cornwall, they're on the last leg of their cycle - and say the response to them so far has been "overwhelmingly positive".

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"People on social media always have opinions - but we haven't had many negative reactions. People in Glastonbury were overwhelmingly positive, it was a bit overwhelming. In Bristol people had a casual indifference, but that's what we want to be the case really.

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"Wherever we go, people do look over - I think some are just bemused about seeing two people on a tandem. So they find it even funnier to see two naked people on a tandem."

The search for an escaped capybara which fled a zoo four days ago is continuing "around the clock".

Cinnamon fled her habitat at Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World in Telford on Friday and entered woodlands within the zoo grounds.

The last sighting of her was on Saturday, after she managed to get beyond the perimeter fence.

Zoo owner Will Dorrell said he believed Cinnamon had made it to the Humber Brook river, near the attraction's northern boundary, where "she's probably living her best life".

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Cinnamon escaped when keepers entered the capybara enclosure to mow the paddock, as she was hidden in long grass near the gate, Mr Dorrell said.

When the gate was opened, she slipped around the side of a tractor to leave the enclosure.

"Our two young capybara here are always trying to work out a different way of trying to cause us headaches," Mr Dorrell said.

"They’re extremely intelligent which a lot of people might not necessarily appreciate.

"She seemed to know what we were going to do and was waiting there ready for that gate to be opened."

While a capybara has never escaped from the zoo before, Mr Dorrell said one managed to dig under a fence to get into an ostrich enclosure a few years ago, but quickly realised she wanted to come back

A twisted pervert who got a sexual thrill from pooing in front of women and girls in the street wept in court as he was spared jail.

Callum Fraser, 20, followed the victims and shouted disgusting comments as he opened his bowels before escaping on an electric Voi scooter. While performing a vile act in front of a 17-year-old girl in Kettering, Northants., on December 12 last year, he told her: “I’m just taking a shit for you, a nice sloppy shit.” Three days later on December 15, he followed a new mum who was taking her newborn baby out in a pram.

A court heard he walked in front of her before pulling out a plastic bag and defecating into it while staring at her. Fraser then targeted a 15-year-old girl on January 11 this year while she walked through Rockingham Pleasure Park to school. As he moved in front of her, he pulled down his trousers and defecated on the pavement, saying: “Nice shit, isn’t it?” He was later caught after police tracked him down using data from the Voi scooter and CCTV evidence.

Fraser admitted three counts of outraging public decency and one of sexual activity in front of a child at Northampton Crown Court. He was given a 24 month community order to include 40 rehabilitation requirement days when he appeared at court on Thursday. Fraser was also ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register and is banned from working with children and vulnerable adults.

edit: removed dirty language censorship as it was messing with the markdown.

One woman’s atypical relationship recently came to an end, and she’s now explained the reason why.

Michele Köbke is a 36-year-old woman based in Berlin, Germany who has previously stated she was in a long-term relationship with a Boeing 737-800 airplane, one that lasted for roughly nine years.

However, despite her previously shared ambition to marry the airplane, Köbke has now revealed that she is no longer in a relationship.

Michele explained her situation to Blide, a German newspaper, in an interview that was later translated by the DailyMail UK: “We are separated, but we're still friends.”

While considered peculiar by many people across the world, Michele is what experts call an objectophile, or someone who is attracted to inanimate objects.

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She once said of her relationship: "My cheeks hurt from smiling, I'm the happiest woman in the world - when I'm with him I have everything I need.

“It's like a normal relationship, we have relaxing evenings together and when we go to bed, we cuddle and fall asleep together.

“When I touch his wings, I get immediately sweaty palms and get excited.”

She also spoke about the time she did get the chance to be up close and personal with her beloved aircraft, saying: “The time in the hangar was the most beautiful moment of my life and when I was with him, we enjoyed our time together, we kissed and I caressed him.”

But like all relationships, they had their difficulties.

Michele previously said: "A relationship with a plane is not easy and at times difficult.

"I can only get close to him when I fly with him or when I can get to him in the hangar, which has only happened once in my life."

The Boeing 737-800, which Michele took to calling Darling, was a major part of her life for nearly a decade, making her decision to disengage in the unique relationship a shocking one.

However, she also has said that the time she did get to spend with Darling were some of the best experiences of her life.

Now, in the wake of her relationship ending, Michele has sold most of her belongings related to the airplane but has not fully disengaged from her atypical relationship type.

"I now love wearing knight’s armor," Köbke explained, now a devoted lover of the Middle Ages.

In a latrine in ancient Antiochia ad Cragum (modern-day Turkey), archaeologists uncovered mosaics that’ll make you laugh… or blush. These aren’t your average ancient art pieces; they are full-on dirty jokes! And they’re as cheeky as anything you’d find scrawled on the back of a bathroom door today.

The mosaics, dating back to the 2nd century AD, portray well-known characters from Roman and Greek mythology—only this time with a hilarious twist. One shows Narcissus, who’s supposed to be obsessed with his own reflection, but here? He’s ogling his private parts instead! Yeah, not exactly how you’d see him in a museum.

Then there’s Ganymedes, a handsome Trojan youth who, in mythology, was kidnapped by Zeus. The twist? Zeus appears as a heron instead of an eagle, using a sponge to clean Ganymedes’ genitals. Ancient Romans had no chill! They were clearly poking fun at the very myths they held dear, and it all happened in a public restroom!

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But it’s not just about the jokes. These mosaics offer a rare glimpse into the personalities of people who lived 2,000 years ago. According to Michael Hoff, one of the archaeologists leading the excavation, the humor in these mosaics connects us to those who lived in Antiochia ad Cragum in a way that buildings or temples can’t. It’s personal, relatable, and very, very human.

Who knew that a Roman toilet could be so revealing?

Adreanna Shelton and her nine year old daughter Gray were at the Dollar Tree on South Bend Avenue shopping for a gift for Gray's teacher when Gray reached for a candle on the shelf.

"We're smelling candles, and she picked up a candle to smell and tilted it back and it literally, liquid, went down her. At first we were like maybe it's just water, and as we were just walking through the store we get a foul smell and Gray goes, 'mom my shirt really stinks,'" said Shelton.

That smell was urine sitting in the candle on the store shelf.

Appalled by the stain and smell on her daughters shirt, Shelton went to a manager searching for answers.

The store manager offered her a shirt as a replacement.

"They have been telling me this has been happening over a month, and they're not able to catch the person doing it, and there's no cameras down the aisle where he is doing it, so the store employees, the manager, has asked corporate to put in cameras in those areas. And corporate just doesn't want to pay for those,"said Shelton.

One of the world’s rarest penguins has been crowned New Zealand’s bird of the year, in an unusually sedate year for the competition, free from the foreign interference and voting scandals of previous events.

The endangered yellow-eyed penguin, or hoiho, is the largest of New Zealand’s mainland penguin species and is distinctive for the pale yellow band of feathers linking the eyes.

The hoiho, meaning “noise shouter” in Māori due to its shrill call, lives along parts of the South Island’s east coast and in the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands. The shy, fishy-smelling species tends to live in native coastal forests, scrub or dense flax.

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Over the years, the contest has become a lightning-rod for scandal, from crowning a bat the winner in 2021, to accusations of Russian interference in 2019, and claims Australians attempted to rig the contest in favour of the shag in 2018.

The two-week competition attracted more than 52,000 verified votes – a significant drop compared with 2023’s event, which leapt to 350,000 votes across 195 countries after British-American comedian and talkshow host John Oliver ran a global campaign for the threatened pūteketeke – a grunting, puking bird with an unusual repertoire of mating rituals.

Oliver’s self-described “alarmingly aggressive” campaign, including buying up billboards in New Zealand, Japan, France, the UK, India and the US state of Wisconsin. A plane with a pūteketeke campaign banner also flew over the beaches of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

His efforts were rewarded when the pūteketeke was crowned the 2023 winner.

Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson had her purse stolen from the hotel where she gave a speech at a conference for senior police officers on Tuesday.

Thieves struck while Dame Diana was giving a speech blaming the Conservatives for an “epidemic of antisocial behaviour, theft and shoplifting,” at the annual Police Superintendents' Association (PSA) conference at a hotel in Kenilworth.

Andi Norton, 32, who also goes by the name Ben Havoc, said in an Instagram post earlier this month that he blew his nose and, “low and behold,” a Lego dot piece came out.

Havoc explained that, when he was six years old, he put the Lego dot up his nose.

The toy was “too small for me to reach in my nose and grab it,” he said. So, he said he “had the brilliant idea” of shoving a Lego man up his nose to collect it.

“At this point, I’ve panicked loudly and my mom came in and, in her panic, she’s looking at my nose and seeing there’s a Lego head stuck in my nostril,” he said.

His mom pulled out that second toy with a tweezer – believing it to be the only piece.

For the last 26 years, Havoc said he has suffered from multiple breathing issues including asthma and has recently been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea.

He said that his doctor had recommended he blow his nose in the shower during the summer months in order to take advantage of the steam and humidity.

After following that advice for the past six months, one day he got a big surprise when the Lego piece fell out of his nose.

The story grabbed headlines worldwide and has now led to a lawsuit against the Venetian Resort Las Vegas.

A California tourist who stayed in the Venetian’s Palazzo Tower over the 2023 Christmas holiday said he was stung by a scorpion — while he was sleeping — and woke up to a searing pain in his groin area.

8 News Now first reported on this incident in March 2024, and since then, Farchi, 62, said the poisonous sting to his testicles has caused him to suffer PTSD and emotional trauma for which he continues to seek treatment. The incident has had ramifications on Farchi’s sex life, the lawsuit stated.

“I can also indicate, as you saw in the complaint, we’re also making a claim for loss of consortium for Mr. Farchi’s wife,” said Brian Virag of “My Bed Bug Lawyer,” one of Farchi’s California attorneys.

“Consortium” means that Farchi’s wife is making legal claims that their sex life hasn’t been the same since the sting.

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Farchi shared with 8 News Now photos of the scorpion hanging on his underwear.

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Farchi shared a medical incident report with 8 News Now that he filed at the Palazzo on December 26. It showed his suite number and what he wrote to hotel staff that night, “bitten by scorpion on my groin/testicles.”

Farchi said the hotel staff didn’t take him seriously.

“(They were) just holding their groin area and laughing about it,” he said. “It was really embarrassing.”

Farchi went to Summerlin Hospital and was diagnosed with “Poisoning: Scorpion Sting,” according to the lawsuit.

Farchi was also treated at UCLA Medical Center, where doctors confirmed he was suffering from physical injuries, including erectile dysfunction, as a result of the scorpion sting, the lawsuit stated.

A police force has said it is not treating the death of a patient found in a hospital catering oven as suspicious.

The man was found dead at Kettering General Hospital in Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire Police said a report was being prepared for a coroner.

The hospital said staff were working with the police.

Northamptonshire Police said it was called to the "sudden death" of the man at the hospital on Friday.

It added in a statement: "We are not treating this death as suspicious and will be preparing a report for the coroner."

We recently took a look at a trio of calendars from Studio Ghibli. They’re all delightful creations for fans of the acclaimed animation house, but I know there are at least some people whose reaction is “Yeah, they’re nice and all, but I’m not really that big an anime fan. I’m more into cats…and specifically I’m more into cat testicles.”

And hey, no problem, we’ve got you covered, in an uncovered way, on that front too!

Preorders are currently open for the 2025 edition of the Nyantama Calendar. As always, I feel it’s my duty to explain the unusual linguistics involved. In Japanese, nyan is an onomatopoeia for a cat meowing, and by extension can be used to refer to cats themselves. Tama, meanwhile, means “orb” or “orbs” (Japanese doesn’t distinguish between singular and plural nouns), which is also a slang word for “testicles.”

So yes, the Nyantama Calendar is a calendar with pictures prominently presenting cat balls. But how did calendar maker Hagoromo come up with this idea? It all goes back to Nikkan Gendai, a long-running gossip tabloid magazine. Once a year, Nikkan Gendai does a gag issue that’s all about cats and includes a nyantama photo collection. Reader surveys later revealed that the nyantama section was one of their favorite parts, and that positive reaction ispired the creaiton of the calendar.

“Please feel soothed by the powered-up cat testicles,” says Hagoromo in the announcement that promises somehow-improved cat nuts compared to the previous iterations of the calendar, which has been published since at least 2022.

Prince Philip was meant to meet an alien called ‘Janus’ at a flat in Chelsea, a new documentary has rather casually claimed.

The King of UFOs, which will be streaming on Amazon and Tubi on September 20, described how the late Duke of Edinburgh’s engineering background made him passionate about all things extraterrestrial.

So meeting an alien was an offer that the husband of Queen Elizabeth struggled to refuse, apparently.

The film’s director, Mark Christopher Lee, told Metro.co.uk that the meeting was arranged by the Prince’s top aide at the time, Sir Peter Horsley.

‘Horsley actually met this Janus entity in a flat in Chelsea in 1954 – he claimed that it had an ethereal otherworldly quality and it could read his mind and extract information about flying saucers,’ Lee said.

The pair were pencilled in to meet at a flat along Smith Street, a small residential road about a 10-minute walk away from what is now Sloane Square Tube station, on a ‘winter’s evening’.

‘Horsley wanted Phillip to meet with this Janus as Janus had a message to give him that the world needed saving as Philip was a man of great vision,’ Lee added.

‘Philip didn’t go to the meeting – and it’s most likely that Janus could have been a Russian spy – but Horsley stuck to his belief that Janus was not of this world.’

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Horsley did mention this possible close encounter in his memoir, Sounds From Another Room, in which he described a serious ‘Mr Janus’ with an intimate knowledge of aliens that UFO experts have widely interpreted as being extraterrial.

Previously:

• Documentary claims 'paranormal library in Palace' as Charles seeks 'UFO truth'
• Wild claims King Charles 'flew UFO to save lives' in secret military mission

In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses.

After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure.

The team is among 10 recognised in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think”. They are not to be confused with the more lucrative and career-changing Nobel prizes to be handed out in Scandinavia next month.

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Other work honoured on the night included US research to house pigeons in missiles to help guide them to their targets; UK investigations which found that claims of extreme old age tend to come from areas that have short average lifespans and and a historical lack of birth certificates, and a French study which found that scalp hair tends to whorl in a clockwise direction, though less so in the southern hemisphere.

A 38-year-old man sought help from urologists after suffering redness, swelling and scabbing on his penis, which had persisted for the best part of a week.

Further investigations revealed that the troubling symptoms had begun soon after he'd suffered a bout of severe diarrhea and vomiting.

The doctors, at the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Lebanon, where he was treated, took a swab of the man's penis to test for infection.

They found evidence of the bacteria bacillus cereus, which is usually found in rice that's been left out at room temperature for too long and can cause sickness and stomach upsets if eaten.

The doctors concluded that the man's unusual genital infection had been caused by an episode of diarrhea and vomiting that occured almost immediately after 'vigorous sex' with his wife.

The intimate act can increase the risk of bacteria permeating the skin due to the change in blood vessels.

The bacteria was said to have made direct contact with the patient's groin.

The doctors remarked that it was 'unusual' to see bacillus cereus in the skin, let alone the genitals.

This was the 'first case in literature' of the food poisoning in the penis.

Archive

Reference:

Nasrallah, Oussama G. MDa; Mahdi, Jana H.d; Araj, George F. PhDb; El Sayegh, Noura MDb; El Zakhem, Aline MDc; Bachir, Bassel G. MDa (2024) "Bacillus cereus infection of the penis: an unusual infection". Annals of Medicine & Surgery 86 (9), 5600-5603. Full text (warning, contains photos)

According to Daily Mail, the lewd act with a cucumber took place around 5:30pm in the Truxton Circle neighborhood north of D.C. It was actually close to a high school so that might bring even more problems his way if he’s eventually caught. In the video posted to Reddit, the unidentified man is seen going into the driveway of the home before he then positions a cucumber in the front grill of a parked SUV. Then, he checks his surroundings to make sure nobody is looking (he didn’t spot the camera) and makes the cucumber into an adult toy seemingly putting it inside of himself.

The footage was shared to Reddit by the homeowner with the doorbell cam in hopes of identifying the culprit. Catherine Baker told DCNewsNow, “I was so disgusted, and freaked out. I want people, I want my neighbors to know and keep an eye out for this person. I want parents to be mindful. There’s a lot of kids, there are high school students, they walk themselves to and from school but we all have to be vigilant about this kind of thing.”

In the video, you can see him finally notice the security camera and that’s when he puts the cucumber back in his lunchbox and calmly walks away from the scene. Was he saving it for later? Why did he put it back in the lunchbox? Daily Mail reports that the man could face a fine up to $300 and faces 90 days behind bars if caught and convicted.

Pen-chan, a female Cape penguin born and raised in captivity, who had never swum in the open sea before or fended for herself, absconded from an event in the central Aichi region on 25 August.

Her keeper, Ryosuke Imai, said a team began scouring the area immediately but a powerful typhoon that brought record rains across Japan hampered the search.

Given Pen-chan’s lack of preparation for life in the wild, the team thought she would not get very far or survive for longer than a week.

But on 8 September, Imai received information that the bird had been spotted happily bobbing in the water at a beach 30 miles (45km) away.

“I thought she would look exhausted, but she was swimming as usual,” Imai said after the animal was recaptured. “It was beyond my surprise … It’s a miracle.”

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/41815012

It was the talk of the town. After the authorities sought to break a long-running heatwave in Chongqing by using cloud-seeding missiles to artificially bring rain, the Chinese megacity was blasted by an unusual weather event – an underwear storm.

Termed “the 9/2 Chongqing underwear crisis”, an unexpected windstorm on Monday brought gusts of up to 76mph (122km/h), scattering people’s laundry from balconies on the city’s high-rises. Douyin, China’s sister app to TikTok, was filled with videos of pants and bras flying through the skies, landing in the street and snagging on trees.

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One man bereft of his underwear said he was “laughing like crazy” but the rain storm in Chongqing had now turned him into a “lifelong introvert”.