Is Moo Deng cake? Viral baby hippo becomes new inspiration for bakers

Internet darling Moo Deng’s influence doesn’t seem to be fading anytime soon as bakers all over the world have found that taking the sentiment “too cute to eat” literally can only end well.

Born in July in Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi, the playful baby pygmy hippo’s antics have captivated the internet, with millions on social media avidly following her simply going about her day, splashing about in water or enjoying belly rubs from her keeper.

Moo Deng, which translates to “bouncy pork”, has inspired fanart, zoo merchandise, makeup looks from Sephora, and now cake.

Bangkok’s Vetmon Cafe started the trend with a Moo Deng cake that has not only become popular but has sent their customers into a quandary—they think the cake is too cute to eat.

Owner Chalit Kulsaree said she started making the now-viral cake after a customer asked for it and the picture of the cake ended up in over a hundred preorders. The cafe has had to limit the number of orders due to overwhelming demand.

Mr Kulsaree handcrafts each cake, which is coated in chocolate fondant with a butter cake base and buttercream filling. “We have been sculpting cakes every day until morning. But it’s also made us hundreds of thousands of baht in just 10 days,” she told Reuters.

British cake artist Ben Cullen, popularly known as The Bake King, has now gone viral for his extremely lifelike cake of Moo Deng.

Using the “Is it cake” trend, the baker posted a video of himself cutting into a cake that looks extremely similar to the actual baby hippo, leaving commenters confused.

“This is illogically upsetting to me,” said one Instagram user. Another said: “Scared me! A no for me, 0/10. Viva Moo Deng!”

If being immortalised in cake wasn’t enough, a fringe cryptocurrency named after Moo Deng rose in value so sharply that a crypto trader was reportedly able to turn an $800 investment into $7.5m.

Moo Deng’s popularity, though, has not come without problems. It was reported that some visitors to the zoo were throwing water and other objects at the baby hippo to get her to react.

The zoo’s director threatened legal action against misbehaving visitors and warned that they had installed surveillance cameras in the area.

The pygmy hippo, native to West Africa, is an endangered species, with only 2,000-2,500 adults left, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Their numbers are decreasing due to hunting for bushmeat and habitat destruction.

The Khao Kheow Open Zoo faced backlash in 2021 for its elephant swimming shows. It featured performances where elephants swam, danced, and performed tricks as visitors watched through a glass enclosure. The zoo defended these shows, despite social media outrage calling it an example of animal cruelty.

Nepalese teenager sets record climbing all 14 of Earth’s highest peaks

An 18-year-old Sherpa from Nepal has become the youngest person to summit all 14 of Earth’s highest peaks.

Nima Rinji Sherpa set the record after reaching the top of Tibet’s Mount Shishapangma on Wednesday, Nepalese mountaineering company Seven Summit Treks said in a statement.

Following his historic feat, Nima expressed a desire to change the global perception of Nepal’s Sherpas.

“I dedicate this world record to my project, #SherpaPower. This summit is not just the culmination of my personal journey, but a tribute to every Sherpa who has ever dared to dream beyond the traditional boundaries set for us. Mountaineering is more than labour; it is a testament to our strength, resilience, and passion,” he wrote on Instagram.

Nepali climbers, predominantly ethnic Sherpas from the Everest region, have long been crucial to the Himalayan climbing industry, handling equipment, fixing ropes, and supporting international expeditions. Now they are increasingly gaining recognition for their own accomplishments.

“Through #SherpaPower, I want to show the younger generation of Sherpas that they can rise above the stereotype of being only support climbers and embrace their potential as top-tier athletes, adventurers, and creators,” Nima said. “We aren’t just guides, we are trailblazers. Let this be a call to every Sherpa to see the dignity in our work, the power in our heritage, and the limitless possibilities in our future.”

Nima, who started climbing at 16, previously set records by scaling the peaks of Everest and Lhotse within 10 hours. He was accompanied on his latest adventure by his climbing partner Pasang Nurbu Sherpa.

“Nima’s remarkable achievement began in September 2022 when he climbed his first 8000m peak, Mount Manaslu,” said Seven Summit Treks. “Over the subsequent two years and 10 days, he consistently scaled one towering summit after another.”

Climbing all 14 “eight thousanders” (peaks higher than 8000m) is considered the pinnacle of mountaineering ambition. These climbers traverse “death zones” where the oxygen levels are too low to sustain human life for extended periods.

“To humanity as a whole: let this climb remind us that the peaks we reach together, united, are far greater than any individual achievement,” Nima wrote after setting the world record.

“As a teenager, witnessing the division caused by borders, wars, racism and other conflicts, I call for love, respect, and harmony among all people.”

His father Tashi Sherpa said he had been confident that the young climber would achieve the feat because he had trained well.

“This is a proud moment for our country,” Nima Nuru Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, said on Wednesday.

“Nima broke all the stereotypes and his success has given a message that nothing is impossible if you have a strong determination.”

Rakesh Gurung, head of Nepalese tourism department’s mountaineering division, confirmed Mr Sherpa’s record on Thursday, The New York Times reported.

The previous holder of the record, Mingma Gyabu Sherpa, achieved the feat in 2019 at 30 years of age, according to Guinness World Records.

Man who embraced ‘depraved’ Isis ideology jailed for eight years

A court in Australia has sentenced a man to eight years in prison for terrorism after he lit bushfires and pledged allegiance to Isis.

Aran Sherani, 22, was seen smiling after justice Mandy Fox of the Supreme Court of Victoria gave him the sentence on Thursday, ABC News reported.

A jury last year found Sherani guilty of preparing for a terrorist act based on a video that he shot of himself in 2021. In it, Sherani, then 18, pleads allegiance to Isis while holding a knife up to the camera and bragging that he was on the run from police.

Though the jury acquitted him of attempting to commit terrorist acts by lighting the bushfires, he pleaded guilty to being a terror group member.

The court heard that Sherani was an informal member of Isis or had taken steps to become a member between January and March 2021. He possessed, accessed and engaged with material including propaganda videos of acts of terrorism such as beheadings and executions. The videos were found on his phone, according to reports.

Ms Fox said Sherani intended to threaten police with the knife he held in the video rather than actually use it to stab them. “While the plan remained afoot, you were committed to its execution,” Ms Fox said in her sentencing remarks.

“However, you voluntarily abandoned the plan and the ultimate arrest was made without resistance.”

Ms Fox said videos of Sherani lighting the bushfires showed the lengths he was prepared to go to join the group. “You embraced a depraved ideology and sought to advance the ideology through your own actions,” the judge said.

Ms Fox said Sherani was interested in the Kurdish plight due to his unstable family background, which led to him getting radicalised online during the Covid pandemic.

Sherani told the court in July he denounced the terrorist group and no longer believed Isis would help the Kurdish people, according to The Age.

“There remains a risk that you could again become radicalised and become dangerous,” the judge said.

Sherani was sentenced to eight years in prison but will be eligible for parole after six years.

His older brother, Ari Sherani, who allegedly helped him film the videos, was also charged with terrorism-related offences but was later acquitted.

Lobsters back on the menu for Australian exports to China

China has agreed to resume imports of live Australian lobsters this year, Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese said this week. It will remove the final major trade barrier in a four-year diplomatic spat between the two countries.

Mr Albanese announced the breakthrough in talks following a meeting with Chinese premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of the Asean summit in Laos on Thursday.

“I’m pleased to announce that Premier Li and I have agreed on a timetable to resume full lobster trade by the end of this year,” Mr Albanese told reporters.

China imposed a ban on Australian-caught lobster imports in 2020 as part of its efforts to downgrade diplomatic and trade ties with Australia. It came after the previous Australian government called for an independent investigation into the origins and handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In response, Beijing introduced a series of official and unofficial trade barriers on Australian products, including on beef, barley, coal, wood, and wine, resulting in an annual loss of trade worth AU$20bn (£10bn).

The return of Australian lobsters to Chinese seafood markets would mark a significant milestone for the Albanese administration, which has worked toward stabilising relations with China since his centre-left Labour Party entered government in 2022.

Mr Albanese said he and the Chinese premier had agreed to resume full lobster trade by the end of 2024, in time for Chinese New Year.

“This will be welcomed by the people engaged in the live lobster industry in places like Geraldton and South Australia and Tasmania and so many parts of particularly regional Australia,” Mr Albanese added.

China’s foreign ministry did not comment directly on the lifting of the ban but a spokesperson told a news briefing the country was willing to work with Australia to “properly resolve issues of mutual concern through dialogue”.

China was the biggest market for Australian rock lobster, accounting for 90 per cent of exports, before the ban. The lobster trade was worth more than £359m in 2019.

Lobster was one of the last major products banned by Beijing after it lifted prohibitive tariffs on Australian wine and restrictions on Australian beef in December 2023.

North Korea says it will permanently ‘shut off’ border with South

North Korea said it would permanently seal its border with South Korea and cut off all roads and railways linking the neighbouring countries but stopped short, for now, of formally declaring Seoul its chief enemy.

Pyongyang would “permanently shut off and block the southern border”, the official KCNA news agency reported, adding it would “fortify the relevant areas of our side with strong defence structures”.

The military called it a “self-defensive measure for inhibiting war and defending the security” of North Korea as “the hostile forces are getting ever more reckless in their confrontational hysteria”.

It was unclear how the decision would impact relations with South Korea, analysts said, given that travel and exchanges across the border had been suspended for years.

The decision came as the North’s parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, convened this week to announce key decisions. It was expected to formally change the country’s constitution to declare South Korea its “invariable principal enemy”.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared South Korea “No 1 enemy” early this year and said Pyongyang would no longer seek reconciliation and reunification with it.

Analysts were watching if the North would assert legal claims over the waters controlled by South Korea off its west coast. The poorly defined maritime boundary has been the site of several bloody naval skirmishes over the past 25 years.

Some experts suspected that North Korea might have delayed the constitutional revision while others speculated it had already amended the document without publicising it because of its sensitivity.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Wednesday they would not tolerate any attempt by the North to change the status quo on the border.

The South would “overwhelmingly punish” the North if it launched any provocation, it said in a statement.

Pyongyang’s latest decision, it claimed, was “a desperate measure stemming from the insecurity of the failed Kim Jong-un regime” and would “only lead to its harsher isolation.”

The South earlier said the North had been placing anti-tank barriers and reinforcing roads on its side of the border since April in a likely attempt to boost its frontline security posture and prevent its citizens from defecting away.

In a report to the parliament on Tuesday, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said that North Korea had been removing linkages on its side of the crossborder railways and planting mines.

Tensions have been rising on the Korean peninsula in recent years with the North continuing a run of weapons tests and the South expanding their military drills with the US.

The tensions spiralled earlier this year after the North dropped thousands of balloons filled with trash on the South in retaliation for the South sending across balloons filled with propaganda material.

Chinese political repression no longer limited to China, HRW warns

China’s political repression is extending beyond its shores as the Xi Jinping government intimidates citizens living in Japan, victims have told Human Rights Watch.

Chinese authorities are using “transnational repression” to target Chinese nationals living in Japan, particularly minorities from Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia, to deter them from protesting against the government or engaging in “anti-China activities”, the group said.

The group, based in New York, interviewed 25 people from Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and other places in China living in Japan who said they had received warnings from Chinese police, sometimes through their relatives back home. They had held public programmes to raise awareness about the Uyghur minority and promote Tibetan culture and organised a reading club discussion by Mongolian activists.

Such activities, even when conducted beyond its borders, are viewed by the Chinese government as “unfavourable or threatening to one-party rule”, HRW said.

“Chinese authorities appear to have few scruples about silencing people from China living in Japan who criticise Beijing’s abuses,” said Teppei Kasai, Asia programme officer at Human Rights Watch.

“The Japanese government should make clear to Beijing that it won’t tolerate the long arm of China’s transnational repression in Japan.”

One person said that they ceased participating in any politically sensitive activities after receiving a call from the Chinese authorities in 2024.

Several ethnic Uyghurs from Xinjiang said they were contacted by Chinese authorities through relatives back home as well as on WeChat to tell them to either stop anti-China activities or share information about the Uyghur community in Japan.

A person from Taiwan who had participated in activism related to Hong Kong while in a third country reported receiving multiple invitations from the Chinese embassy to go and “retrieve important documents”. They declined the embassy’s offer, fearing detention or reprisal.

Although Beijing’s critics have long accused it of using threats, detainment or coercion to silence dissenting voices and discourage others from speaking out, the fresh allegations have come from beyond its jurisdiction.

Reports in recent years have suggested that some affluent Chinese people have moved to Japan over frustrations with the political system and economic slowdown.

Japan had 822,000 Chinese citizens living in the country at the end of 2023, a rise of 60,000 over the previous year and the biggest jump in migration in recent years.

Beijing has not responded to the Human Rights Watch report but it has previously denied criticism of targeting citizens living abroad, insisting that it “respects other countries’ sovereignty”. “The Chinese government fully protects Chinese citizens’ legal rights and freedoms in accordance with the law and is fully committed to protecting the safety and lawful rights and interests of overseas Chinese citizens,” it has said.

The Independent has reached out to the Chinese embassy in Tokyo for comment.

Nato should evacuate former Afghan policewomen who faced sexual abuse

Nato member nations should evacuate Afghan policewomen who were sexually abused and harassed while they served under the previous Western-backed administration and now face a growing threat from the Taliban, Human Rights Watch has urged.

The US, Canada, Britain, Germany and other countries that contributed military forces to the 20-year war in Afghanistan must support the former policewomen with asylum and prioritise them for refugee resettlement, the human rights watchdog has said.

Some 3,800 women who served in the Afghan police after 2013, aiding Nato in carrying out law and order functions, feel betrayed not only because they were not evacuated but their grievances about sexual harassment claims went unheard, researchers at Human Rights Watch told The Independent.

In a report titled “Double Betrayal: Abuses against Afghan Policewomen Past and Present”, the group notes that threats from the Taliban have forced many of these former policewomen to go into hiding. While some have escaped to neighbouring Pakistan and Iran, thousands remain inside the country, the group’s Afghanistan researcher Fereshta Abbasi told The Independent.

The report urges the US, UK, EU, Canada, and Japan to settle these vulnerable women as refugees on a priority basis.

One former policewoman recounted her sexual abuse to Ms Abbasi. “The district police chief came to her house at night and raped her. Her husband was away that day. She cried in front of me. She said she couldn’t file a complaint because she feared her husband would divorce her and she would lose custody of her children.”

Another former policewoman, in southeastern Khost province, told the watchdog she witnessed male guards harassing women, stopping them and even touching them. “The head of intelligence for my station really harassed me. He told me that he could do whatever he wanted to me,” she said.

Fear of getting disowned by their families for working in police was already rampant before the Taliban took over and made the situation worse for these women.

“Almost all of them have received threatening calls from the Taliban, their houses have been raided. They are being threatened by the Taliban but also by their families because being a policewoman was never accepted in the Afghan society,” Ms Abbasi told The Independent.

A former policewoman said the Taliban called and asked her to return to her old job but didn’t specify what they wanted her to do. The Taliban have been found to harass and punish Afghans they consider to have collaborated with Western forces and the administration backed by them.

“I got scared and cut the phone call,” she said. “Again I received a phone call and this time I was asked, ‘Will you come by yourself or shall we come and drag you by the hair?”

The woman said she wears a mask and glasses when she steps out to avoid being recognised. “If people find out, they might rat me out to the Taliban that I used to work for police,” she told the watchdog.

Ms Abbasi said Afghan women serving in police until the Taliban took back the county were subjected to frequent sexual assault and harassment.

Many were propositioned by superiors for sex in exchange for promotions or to avoid dismissal. “I spoke to one of the former policewomen who said she served the government in the same job role for 20 years because she rejected demands of sexual favours,” she said.

“Now, they are asked to come back by the Taliban to do menial jobs as sweepers, prison guards or clerks, but nobody can ensure their safety.”

Many of the women interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported suffering from psychological distress and trauma, anxiety, depression and panic attacks from the abuse they experienced. They are unable to find or even afford psychosocial support as medical help is scarce under the Taliban, the group said.

“The conditions under the Taliban are abysmal and horrifying but that doesn’t mean these policewomen who served alongside the UK and the US among other nations don’t get to hold those who harassed them accountable,” Ms Abbasi said.

The Nato states that funded and trained Afghan policewomen should also press the Taliban to end abuses against women, she said.

UK auction house halts sale of horned human skull amid outcry in India

A human skull originating from the Indian state of Nagaland has been withdrawn from sale at an auction in the UK following a backlash led by the country’s tribal community.

A “19th-century horned Naga human skull” was among more than 20 items involving human remains listed for a one-day sale on Wednesday by the Swan Fine Art auction house in Tetsworth, Oxfordshire.

The auction house withdrew the skull listing following a backlash led by the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR), a group of church leaders and civil society members in the northeast Indian state.

The FNR condemned what it described as the dehumanising practice of selling Indigenous ancestral remains as items for “curious collectors”, and the case was picked up by Nagaland’s chief minister, who urged the Indian government to intervene.

The ancestral skull was listed as a part of the auction titled “The Curious Collector Sale” along with antiquarian books, manuscripts, paintings, film props, furnitures and ceramics.

The horned skull was given a guide price of £3,500 (Rs 384,000) to £4,000 (Rs439,000). Its provenance was traced to the Ex Francios Coppens Collection from Belgium.

“The auction highlights the impunity that descendants of European colonisers enjoy as they perpetuate a racist, colonial and violent depiction of Naga people,” the FNR said in a statement.

The auction came at a time when Indigenous communities across the world are pushing for former colonial nations to repatriate ancestral human remains.

“Can you imagine: in the 21st century there are bans on the sale of birds and animals and reptiles – as [there] should [be] – but not a ban on human remains,” Dr Dolly Kikon, a Naga anthropologist and professor at the University of California, told The Independent, adding that the sale was stopped just hours before the auction was due to begin.

“There has to be a change at the level of policy so that these human remains don’t resurface elsewhere. The dehumanising will continue until and unless we really put a stop to it legally and there’s an international ban on such things.”

Nagaland’s chief minister Neiphiu Rio wrote to foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, urging him to raise the matter with the British High Commission in New Delhi.

“You will agree that the human remains of any deceased person belongs to those people and their land,” Mr Rio wrote.

He said the sale was an act of “continued colonial violence upon” Indigenous people.

The FNR said the repatriation of Naga ancestral human remains should be made “a priority”.

Swan Fine Art has also withdrawn items involving human remains from the Indigenous communities of Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, Congo and Melawi that were included in the collection for sale on the auction house’s website.

The Independent has reached out to Swan Fine Art for comment.

In 2020, the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford removed its collection of shrunken heads and other human remains as a part of a “decolonisation process” after 80 years of displaying the remains. The museum said the decision was taken to address the museum’s problematic past.

Dr Kikon is a member of the museum’s Recover, Restore and Decolonise team, which says the process of examining the Pitt Rivers collection and considering items for repatriation “may take anywhere between eight to 15 years”.

The group says there are 214 pieces of Naga ancestral remains, which includes objects made with components such as human hair or bone, in the care of the museum.

Dr Kikon said there was a need for a community-first approach to the entire process. “In all repatriation cases around the world, it’s the communities who feel the need to heal and put remains to rest and it’s the communities who come together.”

Laura Van Broekhoven, director of the Pitt Rivers Museum, wrote on X that it was “outrageous to auction ancestral and human remains”.

“Completely unethical. Human remains from Naga, Shuar, Dayak, Solomon Islands and also Nigeria, Congo, Benin, PNG, … Please Stop this Auction,” she wrote.