The news that has you in a tight grip

SOUTH Africa once again has a world champion in a combat sport that is taken seriously by most people. He is Dricus du Plessis, and the memes are flowing.

Du Plessis has American Mixed Martial Arts analysts scratching their heads. They can't figure out what he does to keep winning.

One mmasound puts it this way:

DDP is going to be the hardest fighter to explain in MMA history:

This guy was middleweight champion during the mid-2020s.

Was he an elite striker? “No!"

Top wrestler? “No!"

Brazilian jiujitsu master? “No!"

What was he good at then? “Beating elite middleweights."

Eben Etzebeth and Siya Kolisi, in Australia for the rugby Tests against the Wallabies, went to support their friend in the ring in Perth. Here is an American seeing Eben for the first time …

Donald vs Kamala – the battle intensifies

At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week, the first shots were fired from the Dems' trenches to portray Donald Trump as a lawless villain, with a melodramatic Law & Order-like recap of his run-ins with the law.

Michelle Obama had her say, reminding the world that her priceless potential still waits in the Democratic piggy bank to be tapped.

Barack Obama also got his turn, targeting Trump where it hurts the most – the size of things.

Cheeky!

Comedian Chelsea Handler gave free rein to her fertile imagination.

Good heavens, Martha, look at this!

A thread on X with the last or only photographs or film footage of extinct animals, starting with the Tasmanian tiger, which disappeared in 1936. Also present is a Barbary lion from Morocco and a Tarpan horse in 1886.

China trumps America with the first house robot

Arnaud Bertrand, expert in cutting-edge technology, entrepreneur and political commentator, considers the imminent launch of the G1 commercial home robot by the Chinese company Unitree to be a turning point in the technological race between China and the US.

It's similar to what the Ford Model T was for America against Europe at the time, he says. The US is still more than two years away from introducing a robot that can compete with the G1 – for example, Tesla is working on the Optimus, and according to Elon Musk it can start limited production only at the end of 2025, after which it will be another year or two until commercial production begins.

Dashing handbag disrupts picnic

Few people have been to the Kruger National Park without drinking tea or barbecuing at the Nkuhlu picnic site on one of the park's best wildlife viewing roads along the Sabie River between Skukuza and Onder-Sabie (H4-1). Last week, however, a few people choked on their tea when a leopard came to visit ...

A wasp thief like this flew from the Free State to Finland at a surprising time.

Hasty hawk

The British journalist James Melville posts on X about a girl from the Free State, described in Afrikaans as a “wasp thief” (a large type of falcon related to the “fox bird", or European honey buzzard), who flew like lightning from Reitz in the Free State to Finland. That's 10,000 km in 42 days: an average of 238 km every day.

Laugh a little ...

Empathetic criminals

Only in Mzansi

Legs together now, men

England also has an aunt Emsie Schoeman. His name is William Hanson, and he is teaching the rest of the world how to be as civilised as the British. For example, he reckons men should not sit with their legs wide apart. British men probably did not line up in the same queue as South Africans, because had Hanson been able to look at the stand at a cattle auction in Volksrust he might have swallowed his tongue in shock.

Blaaaasphemy in the pipe

Nige could have sworn no-one had talked bad about Sweet Jesus before he was dumped in the back of the yellow van.

Nearly mercurochromed from pain

This stuff got thousands of little boys and girls over the shock of the bicycle accident, because suddenly the shock of the burning red liquid was worse.

Nice old advert

If you remember this ad, you're giving away your age. It was one of the first commercials on South African television, which places it in the late 1970s, but we have not been able to pinpoint an exact date. Maybe readers can help?

Old but gold

The amazing Australian musical comedian and actor Tim Minchin received an honorary doctorate from the University of Western Australia, his alma mater, 10 years ago, and his acceptance speech is a sweetly demotivating one. Hope you haven't seen it yet!

♦ VWB ♦

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