Compiled by JAROD LIM, NAN HIDAYAT NAN AZMIE and R. ARAVINTHAN
Momo, of the South Korean girl group Twice, was spotted carrying a rare Pokemon card inside her transparent phone case worth about 340,000 yen (RM8,490), Sin Chew Daily reported.
Photos of Momo with the card at Incheon International Airport in South Korea quickly went viral among netizens and Pokemon card fans.
According to Pokemon Trading Card Game players, the card is a “Suicune ex”, a rare holographic card released in 2003 as part of the ADV series expansion pack.
Bearing a First Edition stamp, it is highly prized by collectors.
Momo has a particular fondness for Suicune, a Legendary Pokemon, and fans have previously spotted her collecting Suicune merchandise.
A netizen commented: “What’s in her phone case is worth more than the phone itself!”
> A woman shopping at a supermarket in Pasir Ris, Singapore, was left disgusted after discovering cockroaches crawling over sliced pumpkins, Oriental Daily reported.
She immediately alerted a staff member, who gasped at the sight and promptly removed the affected pumpkins.
Concerned about an infestation, the woman also informed a cashier and showed a photo of the incident.
The supermarket has since carried out a deep clean of the affected area.
> China’s plummeting birth rate is taking a growing toll on its education system, with around 8,000 primary schools closing last year – an average of 22 a day, China Press reported.
According to China’s Education Ministry, the number of primary schools has declined for six consecutive years, bringing the total number of closures to about 34,000 during that period.
Nursery schools have been hit even harder.
Since their peak in 2022, their numbers have fallen by nearly 60,000 in three years, including 21,400 closures last year alone – or nearly 59 a day.
Nursery enrolment also dropped from 48.18 million in 2020 to 32.26 million in 2025, down more than 30%.
Analysts say the shrinking student population is a long-term demographic trend rather than a short-term fluctuation.
(The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.)
