World's Highest Bridge Opens in Guizhou, China

On Sunday, an engineering marvel, which is the world’s highest bridge opened to traffic in China’s mountainous southwestern province of Guizhou. 

The suspension bridge, which took three years to build, crosses the Huajiang Grand Canyon and is intended to cut travel time across the gorge from two hours to just a few minutes – the claim made is 2 minutes! – state news agency Xinhua reported. 

The Beipan (or North Winding River) is the only waterway in the world to have not one, not two, but now three successive world’s highest bridge records. The first was in 2003 when the Beipanjiang Guanxing Bridge became the first suspension bridge in the world to surpass the 1,000 foot height barrier. Then in 2016 the Beipanjiang Duge Bridge blew past the 500 meter height barrier with a cable stayed span that was built with an innovative truss traveler. Now, almost 10 years later, the deepest part of the Beipan River has been crossed with the longest high level bridge in history while also shattering the 2,000 foot height barrier for the first time.

Guizhou is already home to almost half the world’s 100 tallest bridges, and this latest project, the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge rises 625m (2,050ft) from the river below to its bridge deck. That's around the same height as the Shanghai Tower or twice as tall as the Shard in London, UK!

World No. 7 Sivasangari Subramaniam breezed into the quarter-finals of the Qatar Classic with an impressive win over Belgium's world No. 11 Nele Gilis on Monday. 

The seventh seeded Malaysian won the second round match 11-5, 11-5, 11-8 in 33 minutes. It was Sivasangari's second win over Gilis in six meetings. 

She will face world No. 2 Hania El Hammamy of Egypt next. Hania has beaten Sivasangari five times in seven meetings.

SAS Kelas 3 Maju

On Saturday-Sunday, I was in Putrajaya, together with Ahmad Fakhri and the team for a Persuasive Speaking Skills for Teenagers workshop. It was organized for Kelas 3 Maju students of Sekolah Sultan Alam Shah, a fully residential school in Precinct 1. And I should highlight that both teachers and parents came together to make this happen.

But this particular workshop was unlike the others we were involved in. We were confronted with a testing and taxing challenge. To put it simply, there was a direful degree of disruption because some students had to excuse themselves for half a day, either on Saturday morning or afternoon or the whole of Sunday itself. This dynamic situation obviously presented issues for us – but to our credit, we coped with the evolving situation remarkably well. 

No matter what, we did our job! And a good job, if I do say so myself. It wasn't just self-praise because students, teachers and parents agreed too. 

Photos taken over the two days:

And the final turnout for the Speech Showcase saw fifteen contestants:

German Cafe Owner Declares War On Matcha

A centuries-old Japanese tradition, matcha, seems to have taken over the world by storm thanks to its versatility and buzz-worthy health benefits. 

But more than that, matcha has become a lifestyle symbol with even celebrities following the trend. Cafés and influencers have turned it into a fad, making the bright green drink a must-have for those who want to be part of the crowd.  

Amid the growing craze around matcha, a café owner in Germany has gone viral for taking a bold stand against the matcha craze – and people online can't get enough of it, with his post racking up over 900,000 likes on social media. 

Dritan Alsela, a well-known barista who owns three cafés and even runs his own barista school, is typically celebrated online for his impressive latte art. But this time, it's his open disdain for matcha that's stealing the spotlight. 

Launching what he calls an "anti-matcha campaign", Dritan first shared cheeky slogans on Instagram like, "Coffee lovers of all nations, unite against matcha". 

Now declaring war on the green powder, the barista has shared another post showing that he has taken the protest offline. The slogan reads: "Matcha drinkers not permitted. This is a coffee establishment. Respect the beans". 

Social media users had a field day with the post. While some joked and shared memes, others applauded the café's humorous stand on matcha. 

One user wrote, "Matcha is so overrated, people just following the crowd like lemmings these days". 

Another user supported, "As a coffee lover, I agree". 

"I don't care much about matcha drinkers but I would most definitely visit you just for this sign", wrote one Instagram user. 

"I don't understand how people love matcha. I mean, honestly I really wanted to like it but it tastes like grass", another user joked. 

At the $231,500 Qatar Classic in Doha on Sunday, world No. 7 Sivasangari Subramaniam sealed a place in the second round with a 11-5, 11-7, 11-6 win over world No. 48 Nadine Shahin of Egypt. 

Our Malaysian squash darling will face Belgium's world No. 11 Nele Gilis for a place in the quarter-finals.

Marine Life Thrives in Explosives-infested Waters

Scientists shocked as marine life found living on WWII  

An undersea submersible has discovered crabs, worms, and fish thriving on World War II explosives in a location previously considered toxic to marine life. Scientists found more creatures living on the warheads than the surrounding seabed at a former weapons dump. 

Andrey Vedenin (right), a study author with Germany’s Senckenberg Research Institute, expressed his surprise: "We were prepared to see significantly lower numbers of all kinds of animals... But it turned out the opposite". 

Past conflicts have left their mark on the world's oceans. German waters alone contain about 1.6 million tons (1.5 million metric tonnes) of dumped weapons, mostly from the two world wars. These relics can contain nuclear and chemical remnants, as well as explosives like TNT. This is the latest example of wildlife flourishing in polluted sites, with previous research showing shipwrecks and former weapons complexes teeming with biodiversity. 

In the new study, researchers filmed networks of anemones, starfish and other underwater life in the Bay of Lübeck off the coast of Germany. They were lurking on pieces of V-1 flying bombs used by Nazi Germany. 

“Normally, one does not study the ecology of bombs”, said University of Georgia ecologist James Porter, who was not involved with the research. 

The research was published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth and Environment. 

Why would sea creatures make their home on contaminated weapons? They could be drawn to the hard surfaces, which are in short supply in the Baltic Sea. The seafloor is mainly a flat bed of mud and sand because stones and boulders were fished out of the water for construction in the 1800s and 1900s, Vedenin said. 

The area is also fairly isolated from human activity because of the chemicals, creating a somewhat protective bubble for the critters to thrive despite some toxic tradeoffs. 

Scientists hope to calculate how much contamination was absorbed by sea life. Another important next step is to see what happens after the critters settle and whether they're capable of reproducing, Porter said. 

Studies like these are a testament to how nature takes advantage of human leftovers, flipping the script to survive, said marine conservation biologist David Johnston with Duke University. He recently mapped sunken World War I ships that have become habitats for wildlife along the Potomac River in Maryland, USA. 

“I think it’s a really cool testimony to the strength of life”, Johnston said.

Pokémon Unhappy Over DHS Use of 'Gotta Catch ‘Em All’ ICE Raid Stunt

Pokémon have revealed that the US Department of Homeland Security shamelessly used their branding without permission in their “Gotta Catch ’Em All” ICE raid deportation campaign. 

DHS triggered a culture-war firestorm after posting a Pokémon-themed montage of immigration raids – set to the franchise’s famous theme and capped with mock “cards” for arrestees – on Monday. 

The stunt includes a video clip from a raid attended by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (right) where US citizens were cuffed outside a shattered door – footage critics say should never have been turned into content, and could land Noem in legal trouble. 

In the post on X, DHS captioned the package “Gotta Catch ’Em All”, and Customs and Border Protection even piled on with a gif of a dancing Pikachu, the yellow, mouse-like mascot of the globally popular franchise. 

The campaign mirrored the anime’s opening sequence and card-game tropes, right down to listing “weakness” as the ICE emoji and “retreat” as an airplane. 

Now the company behind the global kids’ brand are crying foul. 

A spokesperson for the Pokémon Company International told the Daily Beast, “We are aware of a recent video posted by the Department of Homeland Security that includes imagery and language associated with our brand. Our company (were) not involved in the creation or distribution of this content, and permission was not granted for the use of our intellectual property”.

Legal or illegal, right or wrong, DHS definitely found a way to get everyone's attention! 

Fans of the anime cartoon have demanded the Pokémon Company International – of which Nintendo are a major co-owner and platform holder – sue DHS over the flagrant abuse of their intellectual property. 

However, Don McGowan, Pokémon’s former chief legal officer, told the gaming website IGN that he “wouldn’t touch this”, predicting it would “blow over in a couple of days”, citing the company’s aversion to publicity and noting “many of their execs in the USA are on green cards”! 

When asked by the Beast whether they intended to take legal action against the Donald Trump administration over the piracy, the Pokémon Company International declined to comment. 

At the time of publication, the DHS video remained online. FYI, in August, DHS christened an Indiana detention facility the “Speedway Slammer”, prompting the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar to distance themselves from the branding and request their imagery not be used. 

DHS are already beginning to get a reputation for riding roughshod over IP in their attempt to promote their immigration blitz. 

NYC's Rat Czar Resigns

Great news for NYC rodents! New York City’s “rat czar” is scampering out of City Hall. 

Kathleen Corradi, who was hired by Mayor Eric Adams in April 2023 as the citywide director of rodent mitigation, will resign from her post effective October 10, the mayor’s office announced Wednesday. As per the Gothamist on September 24, 2025.

She was heralded as the worst enemy of New York City's rats when she took the newly created role. [I did blog about this – my posts "Wanted: Director of Rodent Migration" and "TikToker Offers Tours of NYC Rat Infestations" published December 06, 2022 and September 15, 2023 respectively].

Anyway, Adams reportedly credited Corradi with a citywide drop in rat sightings, though the exact scope of her $176,000-a-year position was never made clear. The mayor’s office billed her job as one that coordinated several city agencies around the sanitation department’s effort to containerize the city’s garbage and eliminate the piles of trash bags on sidewalks that act as a major food supply for rats. 

Corradi also led the city’s “rat pack”, a program designed to educate New Yorkers on rat behavior and techniques to reduce the rodents' presence. 

And she even hosted the city’s first ever rat summit last year, which brought together leaders from across the country to trade notes on killing rodents. 

A freedom of information law request by Gothamist seeking Corradi's daily schedules has gone unfulfilled since June 2024. 

FYI, Corradi will move to a new job overseeing resident services as a senior vice president at NYCHA, a spokesperson for the agency confirmed. She will manage about 200 people at the public housing agency, with a core mission of connecting residents to economic opportunity. 

lt's safe to say that the rats have won the battle! 

And NYC's war on the rodents is still ongoing. A six-month trial run of rat birth control began in April of this year, but there has been no announcement regarding its effectiveness as of yet. The contraceptive program, as well as "rat mitigation zones", were spearheaded by City Council member Shaun Abreu and will continue regardless of the apparent dissolution of the rat czar position. And which proves that the rat menace is still very much entrenched in NYC. 

Both my teams were big disappointments yesterday.

Celtic dropped Scottish Premiership points for the second time this season – and slipped to second place in the table – as they were held to a stalemate by a stuffy Hibernian.

And down south, Liverpool finally tasted defeat. They had been less than impressive thus far and were fortunate to have won. This time, their luck ran out and Crystal Palace triumphed 2-1 and deservingly so. Methinks, it served as a timely wake-up call for the Reds. 

In fact, they thought they had rescued a point through substitute Federico Chiesa's 87th-minute equaliser, which cancelled out the 9th-minute opener by the Eagles. 

But it was not to be because the latter produced a last-gasp winner! 

Truth be told, this was the Reds’ poorest performance of the season by some distance, lacking cohesion in attack and consistently leaving the other side's players free in dangerous areas. 

Just because Liverpool are supposedly packed with "superstars" do not guarantee victory.

6 Meals on a 3-Hour Flight

A routine three-hour flight from Chiang Mai, Thailand to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia turned into an unexpected all-you-can-eat buffet experience when one lucky passenger encountered what might be the most enthusiastic flight attendant in aviation history. 

The passenger, identified on Facebook as 靠北奥客, flying Malaysia Airlines flight MH773 on a Boeing 737-800, initially ordered just one meal – “Nasi Bunga Telang with Gulai Ayam” (traditional Kelantanese-style butterfly pea rice with Malay-style chicken curry – figuring he’d only have a small taste since he’d already eaten breakfast at his hotel. 

That’s when things got wonderfully out of hand. After finishing his first dish, the passenger heard the male flight attendant making rounds, asking other passengers if they wanted seconds. Everyone else politely declined. But when asked, our hungry hero said he’d be willing to “try a little more, though I might not finish it all”. 

Big mistake. Or maybe the best mistake ever. 

The flight attendant’s eyes apparently lit up like he’d found his target audience. What followed was a relentless parade of airline cuisine that would make any food lover weep with joy: 

• Meal #2: “Nyonya Asam Pedas Fish” (Malaysian Peranakan-style fish in spicy and tangy gravy) 
• Meal #3: Sambal shrimp coconut rice 
• Meal #4: Wonton Noodle served with honey BBQ chicken, fried shrimp wonton, mixed vegetables and barbecue sauce 
• Meal #5: Indian meal set 
• Meal #6: Baked Eggs with Hollandaise Sauce, accompanied by chicken sausage, potato cutlet, creamed spinach and cherry tomatoes 

Some of these dishes weren’t even supposed to be on this flight. The attendant was apparently serving surplus meals from the previous Kuala Lumpur to Chiang Mai route.

As if six main courses weren’t enough, the enthusiastic crew member also provided: 

• Two small cakes for every passenger 
• Honey lemon tea 
• Half a cup of pulled tea ("teh tarik") 
• Two bread rolls per person initially 
• A final care package of 10 hot bread rolls to take home 

The passenger admitted he was worried about being labelled a “difficult customer”, but the overwhelming Malaysian hospitality left him “stuffed to the brim” and oddly grateful. 

The story, shared on the “靠北奧客” (Complaining About Difficult Customers) Facebook page on September 16, 2025, has gone viral with netizens calling it everything from “eating from takeoff to landing” to “an all-you-can-eat flight experience” and declaring “this trip was totally worth it!” 

The post included photos of the "feast" and even showed the final haul of peanuts and dates collected across four different flight segments:

Malaysian Football is Ranked #123

Sinar Daily had erred in their calculations and so, they got Malaysia's FIFA ranking all wrong. [Refer my September 12 post "Malaysia's FIFA Ranking is Expected to Improve"].

Malaysia's national football team, nicknamed Harimau Malaya, is ranked 123rd globally with 1,148.23 points, moving up just two spots from their 125th position in July. As per the FIFA update on September 18.

And if they continue their winning streak, they can certainly expect to break into the world's top 120 teams. 

Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order laying out a proposed deal for a US version of TikTok that would see Chinese ownership reduced to 20 percent and put control in the hands of the president’s allies. 

At a signing ceremony at the White House, Trump said the US version of the app would be run by “highly sophisticated” investors including Larry Ellison, the founder of cloud giant Oracle, tech investor Michael Dell and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. Investment firm Silver Lake Management and Silicon Valley powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz are also thought to be part of the deal. 

“The proposed divestiture would allow the millions of Americans who enjoy TikTok every day to continue using it while also protecting national security”, Trump stated in the order, which affects TikTok’s approximately 170 million American users. 

The president confirmed that the US version of TikTok would feature a homegrown model of the app’s prized algorithm, often described as TikTok’s “secret sauce” that helped it grow into one of the world’s most popular platforms in just a few years. 

The new set-up for TikTok is in response to a law passed under Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, that has forced its Chinese owner ByteDance to sell its US operations or face a ban in its biggest market. US policymakers, including Trump in his first presidency, have warned that China could use TikTok to mine data from Americans or exert influence through its state-of-the-art algorithm. 

Trump has repeatedly delayed enforcement through successive executive orders, most recently extending the deadline until December 16, 2025. Thursday’s order extended that deadline still further, granting a 120-day enforcement delay to complete the transaction by January 23. 

Vice President JD Vance, the one-time venture capitalist who led the team to find a solution for TikTok, said the US entity would be valued at about $14 billion (which, I think, is undervalued), though he added that it would ultimately be up to the investors to figure out its price. 

When asked if the Chinese authorities had signed off on the deal, Trump claimed that President Xi Jinping gave his green light in a phone call on September 19, 2025. 

TikTok did not respond to a query seeking comment and confirmation, and Beijing has remained largely silent on any deal. 

After the Trump-Xi call, state broadcaster CCTV said Xi emphasised to his US counterpart that China supports market-based negotiations that align with Chinese laws.

I just think the US is getting ahead of itself. 😜😜😜

And Many More Diamond-and-Pearls Sets Sold

As I've said before, we're certainly happy to keep selling more of the Diamond-and-Pearls sets. Two books in one singular effort.

Since our last sales report on September 05, we've now let go another nine and five copies from our TPOYS and TDIYS stockpiles respectively – and our todate sales stand as follows:

Thank you to everybody who gave their support. We're very appreciative. 💖💖💖