enca - 26 days ago

Funny old world: the week s offbeat news Norman Cloete Fri, 01/23/2026 - 13:00 From the badass power of mirror shades to a bottom-warming success story... Your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world.- Eye of the tiger -Never in the field of human conflict have so many owed so much to a broken blood vessel.The Terminator shades French President Emmanuel Macron wore to cover his sore eye as he stood up to Donald Trump in his speech at Davos have been hailed as possible saviours of Western civilisation. Can Macron s sunglasses save the West? Britain s Daily Telegraph asked. Testosterone is the primary currency in Davos, and the French president s aviators have placed him at the top of the pecking order. Trump mocked the look, saying, I watched him sort of be tough in those beautiful sunglasses as Macron said France rejected bullies . What the hell happened? the US leader asked.What happened was Trump walked back his threats to annex Greenland. Or was it Iceland? Trump seemed to confuse them four times during his speech, though thankfully White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt was on hand to tell us our ears were wrong.Macron, a keen boxer, may have been channelling Rocky as he limbered up for the showdown. He told French troops earlier in the week after Trump leaked one of their personal messages that he was calling his injury the eye of the tiger . Demand for the Henry Jullien sunglasses hit the roof after his speech, crashing the French eyewear maker s site. - Greenland embraces MAGA - AFP | Alessandro Rampazzo From a distance it looked like all Donald Trump s wildest dreams had come true. Dozens of Greenlanders taking to the snowy streets wearing red MAGA hats. Except the MAGA on the baseball caps at protests in Nuuk against Trump s plans to grab Greenland stands for Make America Go Away .- That s what you call a hot seat - AFP | Philip FONG Shares in Japanese toilet maker Toto, famous for their hi-tech heated thrones, - made a big splash this week, thanks to their loo s little-known part in the AI boom.Their electrostatic chucks are also a key component in the semiconductors powering the artificial intelligence revolution, leaving Toto flush, its shares jumping nearly 10 percent in one day.Eight out of 10 Japanese homes have electric bidet toilets. But they now have a growing following abroad, with celebrities such as singer Drake and the Kardashians warming their A-lister derrieres on them.And surely the White House extension would not be complete with a gold one.- That s where it is - POOL/AFP | Yoan VALAT Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, a self-declared Trumpist , has become the butt of jokes at home after buying an expensive globe to find Greenland .The billionaire told reporters he had splashed out $720 on a lovely, large one to see exactly where this Greenland is. With it, he saw how close it is to Russia, if there were a conflict, heaven forbid , he said.Social media wags pounced immediately, telling Babis he should use his new toy to look for Ukraine to see how close the war is , after he had rejected military aid to help his neighbour resist the Russian invasion. Some (people) are laughing at me because their brains are different from mine, a chastened Babis said later.

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