Indy Mellink, a Dutch card fan, was explaining a game to her cousins last summer when she asked herself: why should a king be worth more than a queen?

The 23-year-old forensic psychology graduate, encouraged by her father, decided it was time to break with the centuries-old tradition of sexual inequality in playing card decks that rank men above women.

“If we have this hierarchy that the king is worth more than the queen then this subtle inequality influences people in their daily life because it’s just another way of saying ‘hey, you’re less important,” she said in an interview. “Even subtle inequalities like this do play a big role.”

After a lot of trial and error, she designed a genderless deck in which the images of a king, queen and jack were replaced with gold, silver and bronze.

Friends and family snapped up the first 50 decks of GSB (Gold, Silver, Bronze) cards, which have images of gold bars, silver coins and a bronze shield. Mellink had more made and began selling them online.

Within a few months, she had sent out around 1,500 packs, including to Belgium, Germany, France and the United States. Game shops have also shown interest, she said.

Mellink has been testing the cards out on players, who said they had never been conscious of sexual inequality in decks before. Switching would take some getting used to.

“It is good that we reflect on gender neutrality,” said Berit van Dobbenburgh, head of the Dutch Bridge Association, while playing with the new cards. It would be complicated to make a formal switch because that would require updating the rules, she said.

“I wonder if it’s worth it. But gender neutrality, I am all for it! It’s great that someone of this age has noticed this. It’s the new generation.”

Tired of COVID-19 confinement and seeking both communion and emotional release, some Israelis have taken to group screaming.

A record vaccine rollout has done little to ease Israel’s pandemic curbs. Next month’s election – the fourth in two years, due to coalition infighting and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal woes – has many complaining of malaise.

While some Israelis take part in street demonstrations, others take to nature and shout to the heavens.

“We decided to meet, our group together, in order to take the group screaming so that we can release our bad energies,” said Mary Peery, leading 10 mostly elderly companions on a yell-punctuated hike through an orange orchard and over a hilltop.

“When we do it in a group it’s like a prayer … and maybe God will hear us and release us from this COVID-19 curse.”

To scream, the group stood in choric proximity and removed their masks, drawing looks from passersby. One of the organisers played down any health risk, however, saying everyone in the group had either recovered from COVID-19 or been vaccinated.

A popular chain of Chinese tea shops has apologised for a range of cups and teabags sporting sexist slogans, after they sparked widespread outrage on the internet, the Shanghai Daily reported on Monday.

Modern China Tea Shop, based in southern China’s Hunan province, was selling tea bags captioned with “the mouth says no but the body says yes,” and “my dear, I want you.”

One mug referred to women as a “big bargain,” saying that customers could pick up an unexpected deal by meeting beautiful women while they wait for their tea.

Modern China apologised on Saturday, saying it took responsibility for offending women and would not mistake sexist jokes for creative ideas in the future, Shanghai Daily reported.

The offending items are no longer on sale, the newspaper added.

Police in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, are deploying an armed rollerblading unit to curb theft and harassment on its teeming streets.

Gliding in a circle with their weapons pointed inwards, and lifting and lowering the guns in unison, the 20-member unit clad in black undergoes rigorous training.

“We felt we needed to come up with an innovative approach to control street crime,” said Farrukh Ali, chief of the unit, explaining that officers on rollerblades could more easily chase thieves on motorcycles through the city of 20 million.

Ali conceded that rollerblading police could not be deployed across many parts of Karachi due to the poor road conditions and uneven footpaths, but said they would be sent to public places with a higher incidence of theft and harassment.

“This is just the beginning,” said Aneela Aslam, a policewoman on the unit. “This rollerblading will really benefit us. With this training, we can reach narrow alleys very quickly where it is usually difficult to go.”

Safety concerns were raised when initial footage of the Karachi unit’s training showed officers carrying heavier weapons, but Ali said the unit would only carry handguns, reducing the risk of bullets richocheting.

The rollerblading police – who follow in the footsteps of similar units in Europe and elsewhere – are expected to begin officially next month, but they were recently spotted outside the venue of the Pakistan Super League cricket tournament.

And they have already begun patrolling Karachi’s bustling beachfront.

“Seeing them here in clean uniforms since the morning gives us a sense of security, as even in daytime, snatchings occur here,” said pedestrian Muhammad Azeem.

A 19-year-old Pakistani student who shot to fame after her five-second video went viral on social media across the subcontinent, hopes numerous renditions of her monologue will translate into more dialogue between rival neighbours India and Pakistan.

The short video shot by Dananeer Mobeen in the Nathaigali mountains of northern Pakistan and uploaded onto Instagram shows a group of youngsters enjoying themselves by a roadside.

Swinging around the device she is filming on, Mobeen gestures behind her and says in Urdu, “This is our car, this is us, and this is our party taking place.”

Seemly innocuous, she deliberately mispronounces the English word “party” as “pawri” to poke fun at South Asians who adopt Western accents. It immediately struck a chord in both India and Pakistan, sparking top trending hashtags on social media, and garnering millions of views and hundreds of spin-offs.

“It was the most random video. I initially had no intention of uploading it,” Mobeen said, expressing surprise at how viral it had gone and adding the trend showed the power and reach of social media.

“Pawri” monologue renditions have been used by police in India and the Delhi Commission for Women in their social media outreach campaigns.

In one video, two Indian soldiers deployed in snowy mountains give it their own spin with “This is us, this is our gun, and we are patrolling here”, while popular Bollywood actors Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone each did a version that also went viral.

Indian dairy company Amul, known for inculcating trendy takes on current issues in its advertisements, did a “this is our pav-tea” version https://twitter.com/Amul_Coop/status/1362262247809028100?s=20, in a nod to a popular bread snack eaten with tea.

Even politicians jumped on the bandwagon, with a leader from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party using the catchy hook at an election rally.

“I’m honoured and grateful for all the love across the border,” said Mobeen, expressing her happiness at fostering some rare friendly cross-border dialogue.

India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed nations, have fought three wars and often had tense relations since gaining independence in 1947.

Relations had most recently soured over developments in the northern region of Kashmir, which both countries control in parts but claim in full.

Last week, their militaries released a rare joint statement saying they had agreed to observe a ceasefire along the disputed Kashmir border, after exchanging fire hundreds of times over past months.

Since the video went viral, Mobeen said she has been inundated with acting and modelling offers, along with requests for product endorsements. Instead, she says she aspires to join Pakistan’s foreign services.

When your favorite Mexican restaurant is struggling to stay alive, what else would you do but sit in a pool of bean dip outside for 24 hours to attract diners?

To drive the point home, stuntman Hunter Ray Barker is wearing a T-shirt and mask with the Los Toros restaurant logo which features three bulls, and getting his arm tattooed with the image during the marathon.

“We have a golden opportunity to grab the bull by the horns and support local businesses in a big explosive way and so why not?” said Barker, a Taurus, who visited the restaurant for family celebrations while growing up.

His idea stunned Nicolas Montano, the owner of Los Toros, which was founded in 1967 in the Chatsworth community in northwest Los Angeles.

“I was like ‘Are you sure? Are you sure you want to do this?'” Montano said. “And he goes, ‘Yeah, I think it would be fun and it’s something I want to help the business.'”

Barker’s devotion does not waver even when nature calls.

“The big thing that people asked was ‘What are you going to do when it comes to going to the restroom?'” he recalled while soaking in his original bean dip recipe.

“I do have a funnel that’s connected to me right now so any time I do have to go No. 1, that is connected to a bag that’s attached to my body. For No. 2, that is a different story. We will just have to wait and see.”

Barker’s support for small businesses hurting in the pandemic impressed Los Toros customers and passersby. Said diner Rick Brantley: “He’s going to sit in that for 24 hours, it’s totally crazy. I wouldn’t do it but you know what? If it’s going to help Los Toros and the community, I’m all for it.”

A dance troupe’s performance at an Australian navy event created a furore on Thursday as initial criticism over apparent twerking at dignitaries turned into a story of inaccurate media coverage and criticism of the national broadcaster by the prime minister.

The Defence Department found itself in hot water over reports of inappropriate entertainment at the commissioning of a A$2 billion ($1.5 billion) naval ship in Sydney last weekend.

A seven-woman troupe dressed in black shorts, red crop tops and berets performed a dance routine that included twerking in front of the auxiliary vessel, HMAS Supply, on April 10, according to footage shown by the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) on Wednesday.

Video of the performance by the 101 Doll Squadron prompted criticism that it was too risque for a formal occasion.

The ABC report cut between shots showing the dancers and a crowd of dignitaries including Governor-General David Hurley, Queen Elizabeth’s representative in Australia. However, Hurley had not arrived at the time of the routine, a spokesman for the Australian Defence Force said.

The dance troupe, which the ADF said was hired as part of its engagement with the local community, were critical of the ABC, saying the report was “deceptive” and they were hurt and disappointed by their portrayal and resulting controversy.

“The media which purports to support women have been the most virulent,” the troupe said in a statement.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was disappointed over the “misreporting” that had misled people.

“I think that was disrespectful to the performers to suggest te Governor-General or others were in attendance,” he said at a news conference in Perth.

In a statement, the ABC said it had updated its footage to reflect the fact that the Governor-General and Chief of Navy were not in attendance for the dance routine, and apologised to its viewers and both men for the error.

Some might cringe, but at one Maryland chocolate shop, 17-year-old insects are flying off the shelves.

Sarah Dwyer, of Chouquette Chocolates in Bethseda, started coating cicadas in chocolate and selling them when the periodical Brood X emerged this spring for the first time since 2004.

Now her chocolate shop has a ten-day backlog for cicada orders. They are delicious, she says.

“When you combine the chocolate, the cinnamon, and the nuttiness of the bugs, it really gives you that holiday feeling of when you’re walking around a big city and they’re roasting nuts on the sidewalk, that cinnamon smell, it’s really what it tastes like,” Dwyer said.

Dwyer and her employees gather the cicadas from a copse of trees behind their chocolaterie. The bugs are so numerous, they land right on the employees. The cicadas are then put in a paper bag and placed in the freezer, where the cold temperature puts them to sleep before they die. She then boils the cicadas to clean them, and crisps them in an air fryer.

Once the cicadas have been fried, Dwyer sprinkles them with either cinnamon or savory Old Bay seasoning and they are ready to be covered in chocolate.

“I did go to pastry school in Paris to learn my dipping technique. I’m pretty sure no one thought I would be using it on cicadas,” she said.

For Dwyer, this is a chance for consumers to become more familiar with a type of protein she thinks will be a lot more popular by the next time these insects start to sing again.

“There’s not enough protein to go around, and I think, I really do think that in 2038, people will not think twice about eating a bug at all,” Dwyer said.

Police in South Australia urged drivers on Wednesday to step up efforts to protect their cars, as thieves target the catalytic converters that scrub exhaust emissions, amid a surge in prices of precious metals.

The converters, which strip particulate matter from emissions, contain high volumes of the precious metals platinum and palladium, whose prices touched records this year.

“Thefts have occurred in residential driveways, public carparks and on main roads with public presence not seeming to deter offenders,” state police said in a statement, adding that the devices were then sold on the secondhand market.

After several arrests, they are encouraging owners to mark or engrave the devices with the vehicle identification number, as well as making them harder to remove, for instance by welding in the retaining bolts.

Other measures include parking in locked or well-lit areas, near walls or fences with the car bonnet facing a solid object to discourage access to the converter.

Prices of platinum are up 38% from a year ago at $1,173 an ounce, while palladium is up 43% at $2,758 an ounce.

It looks like a bus that has taken a wrong turning, speeding down a slipway into the River Seine, scattering swans and prompting screams from the passengers. But when the splash subsides, the bus floats serenely along the river.

Welcome to one of the French capital’s newest tourist attractions: an amphibious bus that drives along the city streets, and then converts instantly into a river-going pleasure boat.

“It was very different from the usual,” said Giulia Gallo, a 12-year-old girl from Italy on board the bus this week. “But it was very nice.”

Amphibious tour buses — commonly known as ducks — have been used for years to ferry tourists around other cities in the world. They are often modified military sea-borne assault craft. Some have made headlines by sinking, or catching fire.

REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier

REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier

REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier

REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier

But the version in use in Paris is a new purpose-built design constructed largely in France, and, according to its operators, it is the first amphibious vehicle to gain a license to carry tourists on the roads and waterways of Paris.

The tours have been run since this summer by a firm called “Canards de Paris”, French for ducks of Paris.

On an excursion this week, the vehicle in conventional bus mode carried passengers past sights including the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower.

Later, the bus switched to boat mode, engaging its propeller at the rear to float along the River Seine. Life vests were suspended from the ceiling, and an anchor was stowed in a box on the side of the bus.

Marcel Pinault, an 8-year-old from a suburb near Paris who was on the bus with his mother, said it was “very different from other boats, and other buses. It’s a mix of both.”

For many, a table at Sydney‘s Opera Bar overlooking the blue water of its world-famous harbour is prime real estate during the summer.

But seagulls swooping in to pick at meals forced the bar’s administrators to enlist trained dogs to ensure patrons enjoy themselves at the venue trying to recover after Covid lockdowns and restrictions.

Sammy McPherson, general manager of the Opera Kitchen adjoining the bar, said they have noticed an 80-85% reduction in the aerial attacks since the dog patrols were first trialled in 2018.

“It’s been a gamechanger, you could say, in hospitality,” McPherson told Reuters. “We’re not having to chase after birds and the amount of food replacement, broken glasses, broken plates. It’s been absolutely amazing.”

The dogs and their handlers patrol the promenade in front of the waterfront establishments and chase away seagulls. The company that provides the service has 12 to 13 canines on rotation, rostered on every day with double shifts on the weekends.

Dog handler Carla Shoobert said they use dogs naturally inclined to pursue the gulls, such as Australian kelpies and border collies (R).

“People look at you in confusion for the first hour of your shift, trying to figure out what you’re doing,” she said.

“Then you’ll go on your five-minute break … and you come back and then they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s what she’s doing’ because the birds come back. Then they generally pull you aside and they’re like, ‘This is amazing’.”

Despite the presence of other birds like pigeons, the dogs only focus on seagulls. And with the gulls in full retreat, the Sydney Opera House has signed up the canines to carry out their duty for the foreseeable future.

Diners said the dogs gave the venues a more pleasant atmosphere.

“We don’t need to be covering our food constantly and we don’t need to be shooing away seagulls or stomping, and you can actually enjoy your time here at the Opera Bar,” Sydney resident Banita Sarkhosh said.

San Francisco police were left scratching their heads after they pulled over a car earlier this month for driving without headlights at night and found no one inside.

In what otherwise would have been a great April Fools’ Day joke, San Francisco police officers pulled over a driverless car operated by General Motor Co’s GM.N Cruise unit on April 1 and found no one behind the wheel. The resulting video footage has gone viral online.

The two officers, who were not identified, pulled the car over and were puzzled by the lack of humans inside, according to a video posted on Instagram that has been viewed almost 80,000 times.

“Ain’t nobody in it. This is crazy,” said one of the officers, who tried to open the vehicle door before walking back to his cruiser. The car subsequently drove through the intersection and stopped again in the next block as bystanders laughed.

The video illustrated what Cruise Chief Executive Kyle Vogt previously said was one of the biggest challenges for autonomous vehicles – how to interact with humans.

Cruise, which blamed human error for the lack of headlights, said it works closely with the police on how to interact with its vehicles and has a dedicated phone number for police to call. Once the officer was clear of the vehicle, Cruise said the car relocated to the nearest safe location.

Cruise is operating a small number of vehicles to give full driverless rides to the public free of charge at night in San Francisco. The company is seeking the last regulatory approval required to launch commercial driverless service in the densely populated city.

Ironically, Cruise CEO Vogt last month had said a scenario where a police officer pulls over a driverless car has to go smoothly.

“You are kind of papering over all the weird stuff that can happen when there’s no driver,” he said at a Morgan Stanley MS.N conference.

The San Francisco police department said the officers were able to make contact with the vehicle’s remote operator and a maintenance team took control. Cruise was lucky in another respect.

“No citation was issued during the traffic stop,” the police department said.

Social media had fun with the incident.

“Insane that no citation was issued,” Twitter user Theodectes said. “Why was this driverless car behaving as if it was completely drunk?”

“IT WAS DRIVING WITHOUT ITS HEADLIGHTS!!! Cops weren’t confused, they we’re probably questioning why cutting edge technology somehow can’t turn its own lights on,” Albino Guidedog said on YouTube.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has spoken with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson about a “new phase” of military aid, including the provision of heavy weapons, the president’s deputy chief of staff Andriy Sybiga said on Saturday.

Speaking on national television, Sybiga said the pair also talked about further financial support for Ukraine on the call.

 Ajax Amsterdam has banned fans from bringing signs into Johan Cruyff Arena asking players for their shirts after matches, Dutch media reported on Tuesday.

The club has told the Ajax supporters association that they had noticed an increasing number of such signs at games, mostly being held by children.

It was no longer possible for the players to fulfil all the requests and when players walked by without handing over a shirt they were often criticised as arrogant, the club said.

The cardboard used also posed a fire hazard, the club said, and several signs were confiscated on Saturday when the stadium hosted the season-opening Super Cup match between Ajax and PSV Eindhoven.

South Korea on Thursday passed laws to scrap its traditional method of counting ages and adopt the international standard – a shift which will make its citizens either 1 or 2 years younger on official documents.

Koreans are deemed to be a year old when born and a year is added every Jan. 1. This is the age most commonly cited in everyday life.

A separate system also exists for conscription purposes or calculating the legal age to drink alcohol and smoke, in which a person’s age is calculated from zero at birth and a year is added on Jan. 1.

Since the early 1960s, however, South Korea has for medical and legal documents also used the international norm of calculating from zero at birth and adding a year on every birthday.

The confusing array of systems will disappear – at least on official documents – when the new laws that stipulate using only the international method of counting ages take effect in June 2023.

“The revision is aimed at reducing unnecessary socio-economic costs because legal and social disputes, as well as confusion, persist due to the different ways of calculating age” Yoo Sang-bum of the ruling People Power Party told parliament.

Jeong Da-eun, a 29-year-old office worker, is happy about the change, saying she has always had to think twice when asked overseas about her age.

“I remember foreigners looking at me with puzzlement because it took me so long to come back with an answer on how old I was.”

“Who wouldn’t welcome getting a year or two younger?” she added.

A virtual event with Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller was canceled on Thursday after the Zoom video conference was “hijacked” by a participant who displayed pornographic images.

“We were a victim of a teleconference or Zoom hijacking and we are trying to understand what we need to do going forward to prevent this from ever happening again. It is an incident we deeply regret,” said Brent Tjarks, executive director of the Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America (MBCA), which hosted the event via a Zoom link. “We have had various programs and this is something that we have never had happen to us.”

He said that he suspects one of the security switches that mutes those watching an event was set incorrectly, but he was not sure of the details. The decision to cancel was made in consultation with the Fed after the intrusion.

A few minutes before the event was to start, one participant using the screen name “Dan” began displaying graphic, pornographic images, according to a Reuters reporter on the call.

Microphones and video were not muted by the organizer upon joining.

More than 220 participants were on the Zoom <ZM.O> call at one point before it was terminated.

“We have been deeply upset to hear about these types of incidents, and Zoom strongly condemns such behavior,” Zoom spokesman Matt Nagel said in a statement. “We take meeting disruptions extremely seriously and, where appropriate, we work closely with law enforcement authorities.”

The use of Zoom mushroomed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The service has come under fire over privacy and security issues, including incidents of “Zoom bombing” in which uninvited users entered and disrupted meetings.

In March 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Boston office issued a warning about Zoom, telling users not to make meetings on the site public or share links widely after it received two reports of unidentified individuals invading school sessions.

In response to the disruptions, Zoom introduced major upgrades, including end-to-end encryption for video calls.

The Fed said the event, which was to feature a speech by Waller as well as a question-and-answer session, was canceled due to “technical difficulties.”

Fed events are typically highly choreographed and security is usually tight.

MBCA’s roughly 100 members include banks with between $10 billion and $100 billion in assets.

New York City’s unending war on rats has a new commanding general.

Mayor Eric Adams announced that Kathleen Corradi, an education department employee, has been appointed New York’s first-ever “rat czar,” part of Adams’ effort to combat a growing rodent population in the county’s most populous city.

“You’ll be seeing a lot of me – and a lot less rats,” Corradi, whose official title is “citywide director of rodent mitigation,” said at a news conference. “There’s a new sheriff in town.”

Adams, who has often expressed a deep hatred for rats, posted the job last year, seeking someone “somewhat bloodthirsty” with a “general aura of badassery” and offering an annual salary between $120,000 and $170,000.

Corradi, a former teacher, is not new to the fight against rats. She previously oversaw rat mitigation efforts in the city’s public schools.

Rat sightings have jumped in recent years, according to city data. Some officials have said the proliferation of sidewalk dining – a concession to the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down the city’s restaurants – contributed to the problem.

The size of the city’s rat population is unknown. A 2014 study put the figure at around 2 million, or one for every four residents.

Adams has implemented other measures aimed at what he called New York’s “No. 1 enemy.”

In recent months, his administration has limited the number of hours that trash bags can sit on sidewalks awaiting pickup and launched a curbside composting program intended to reduce food waste.

But the brown rat, which likely arrived in New York sometime during the Revolutionary War era, has proven a crafty adversary, thriving despite numerous attempts to eradicate it from the city’s warrens of subway tunnels and alleyways.

Handcuffed, a knife still sticking out of his overalls, the Chucky doll hunches against the wall as police hold him by his bright orange hair to take his mug shot.

In a bizarre twist, Chucky and his owner were taken into lock-up in a town in northern Mexico earlier this week.

The puppet master, identified only as Carlos “N” under Mexican norms, allegedly used the “demon doll” to scare people and demand money, local media reported.

Both were charged with disturbing the peace and putting others’ integrity at risk.

One officer at the police department in Monclova, in Coahuila state, was seen laughing as she held up the long knife taken from Chucky.

Mexican media reported the officer who put Chucky in cuffs was later reprimanded for not taking her job seriously.

Carlos “N” was later released, local outlets reported, though the Chucky doll’s whereabouts are still unknown.

Maltese government plans to allow 16-year-olds to serve as mayors have drawn humour, revulsion and little apparent support on the Mediterranean island.

The plans were announced on Wednesday by local government minister Owen Bonnici. Electoral law already allows candidates as young as 16 to stand for local council elections, but mayors to date needed to be at least 18.

Malta, which has the smallest population among European Union countries, will become the first to allow council members aged 16 or 17 to serve as mayors and deputy mayors, Bonnici told reporters.

“It reflects our confidence in young people,” he said, adding that ultimately it was up to voters to decide who would head their town or village.

Malta has 68 local councils, with the largest representing some 30,000 people. They are responsible for waste collection and have limited public order, planning and road maintenance roles.

A Times of Malta online poll opened immediately after the announcement showed 97% of respondents against the plan, which was widely ridiculed on Facebook and newspaper comment boards.

“So a 16-year-old mayor would be able to officiate a marriage, but he needs his parents’ permission to himself get married at that age,” one message read.

Under Maltese law, a person must be 18 to get married but a 16- or 17-year-old may marry with parental consent or court authorisation.

“The council meeting has been delayed while the mayor waits for his mother to drive him to the office,” another commenter said. Motorists in Malta cannot hold a driving licence before turning 18.

Bonnici said he started his political life at 20, and back then people saw that as strange.

“In the past few years, we have seen youths given not only the right to vote at 16 but also to contest local government elections. Now we are giving them the right to be elected mayors.”

Russia’s foreign ministry will summon Israeli ambassador Simona Halperin over “unacceptable comments” she made in an interview, the TASS news agency cited the ministry as saying on Monday.

Halperin, according to the ministry, misrepresented Russia’s foreign policy stance in the interview with Russia’s Kommersant daily, published on Sunday.

The ministry described her comments as “an extremely unsuccessful start” to her diplomatic posting, which began last December.

In the interview, Halperin criticised Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for playing down the importance of the Holocaust and said Russia was being too friendly with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.