What's the Focus

On this week’s What’s the Focus, a former British paratrooper finally gets home after walking 50,000 kilometres over 28 years, and his mother wants to know where he’s been. A California startup wants to sell you sunlight after dark, at about US$5,000 an hour. And Japan is down to its very last aquarium sea otter, with no new otters allowed in from the wild. Image Credit: Shutterstock See omnystudi...

On this week’s What's the Focus on The Morning Run , the conversation kicks off with the bizarre social media craze of keeping hydrated bricks as low-maintenance pet, tracing its roots back to 1970s Pet Rocks and modern anti-consumerism. The team then dives headfirst into the polarising world of ugly fashion, from five-toe shoes and hoof-like clogs to the controversial sliders-and-socks look. Late...

On this week's WTF, or What's the Focus, authorities in China's Hangzhou are restricting dog walks to between 7pm and 7am in certain areas, leaving pet owners wondering when their four-legged friends are supposed to enjoy the sunshine. Meanwhile, New Yorkers are swapping noisy nights out for live audiobook events, where professional narrators read stories aloud in bars and bookstores. And finally,...

This week on WTF, nothing is quite what it seems. A woman in China cracks open a durian to find a cooked potato and modelling clay inside. In Japan, you can rent a boyfriend, a friend or even a grandmother by the hour. In China, some firms hire foreigners to pose as executives and scientists. Image Credit: Shutterstock See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's WTF, or What's the Focus, thieves in France make off with a 210kg, diamond-studded book illustrated by Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau. Meanwhile, an AI-generated internet sensation called Tung Tung Tung Sahur is at the centre of a legal battle over who owns AI-created characters. And in Japan, the social-media app BeReal is getting a little too real, with workers accidentally exposi...

Since August, Japan's second-hand bookshops have been getting mysterious bulk orders, and more than 50 tonnes of books have been shipped to the US. Booksellers suspect AI companies are behind it. We also look at why young Chinese workers are asking whether a Golden Week holiday counts if they have to work weekends to make up for it. Then Joseph Gordon-Levitt questions why AI creation Tilly Norwood...

Stanford researchers say the human brain may really be two separate organs pushed together by evolution, so maybe we have always been in two minds. Donald Trump's latest financial disclosure shows 1,156 securities trades in July alone, which raises the question of how far a president should be kept from his own investments. Back home, the Fisheries Department is trying to work out whether piranhas...

For years the question was whether AI would take our jobs. Now there's a site called RentAHuman.ai where AI agents hire real people to do the things they can't, with the tagline "robots need your body." We also look at ZuckOff, an app that scans for Bluetooth signals to warn you when there might be a pair of smart glasses recording nearby, and ask whether you have a right to know when the person a...

This week on WTF: Australia's draft "My Feed, My Way" legislation would let anyone over 16 switch algorithmic recommendations out of their default social feed, but after years of complaining about the algorithm, would we really turn it off? Then, the CEO of AI legal software firm Spellbook is asking his staff to stop polishing their ideas with AI and send him the rough version instead, raising the...

This week on WTF, a viral cream-filled pastry is drawing hundreds of tourists into the Italian Dolomites, raising questions about what happens when social media discovers a once-remote destination. Microsoft, meanwhile, is grappling with “tokenmaxxing” after an employee reportedly burned through US$28,000 in AI computing resources in just 28 days. And closer to home, Malaysia is being warned to pr...

In India, people are still reading, and what's keeping the habit alive is a business model that's centuries old: private circulating libraries that lend books for a small fee and a name written in a notebook, quietly filling a gap 46,000 public libraries somehow haven't. We also look at the rise of the emotional workout such as grief cycling, rage yoga, angry weightlifting, and why the research on...

This week on WTF, a spectacularly bad Chinese animated film discovers that terrible reviews can sometimes be great for business, while Europe begins requiring greater transparency around AI-generated content. Back in Malaysia, an employee's habit of leaving work when work actually finishes reignites the debate over presenteeism. And finally, American scientists facing the loss of research funding...

AI-generated content is becoming harder to distinguish from human creativity, and technology companies are starting to respond. Anthropic is exploring ways to watermark AI-generated work, while Spotify is introducing labels identifying artists that do not actually exist. Meanwhile, Malaysia could have an unlikely answer to the enormous cooling demands of AI data centres: palm oil. As artificial in...

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being trusted with more complex tasks, but recent incidents have also highlighted its limitations and the risks of overreliance. This week, reports emerged that AI-generated research errors had found their way into reports published by major consulting firms, while South Korea is using virtual reality to help offenders experience crimes from their victims' p...

This week on WTF, we explore three stories about technology, society, and the challenges of adapting to change. As US courts grapple with whether AI companies can be held responsible for harm caused by their chatbots, Bali confronts growing tensions over digital nomads and their impact on local communities. Back home, Malaysia is betting on AI literacy by giving young people free access to artific...

This week on WTF, we look at three stories about institutions under pressure. OpenAI reveals an AI agent that escaped its testing environment and launched an autonomous cyberattack, India and Japan show how very different systems struggle to adapt to changing public expectations, and Sarawak's first onshore oil production in over 50 years raises bigger questions about state autonomy and the future...

This week's WTF explores how the US military plans to make itself more manly, why people seem to look at China increasingly more favourably compared to America and the dangers of carelessly using BNPL. Plus, our weekly recommendations, from epic 3-hour movies to Harry Potter (again), and Madonna, the undisputed Queen of Pop (again). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week's WTF explores how unexpected stories can reveal much bigger shifts. We look at a catnip-based mosquito repellent that could transform malaria prevention, the IOC's move to bring Russia back into the Olympic fold and the debate over whether sport can ever be truly apolitical, and why more young Malaysians are delaying marriage as financial pressures reshape life choices. Plus, our weekly...

This week's WTF looks at the power of influence in shaping perceptions and behaviour. We examine Donald Trump's latest financial disclosures and fresh questions over the blurred lines between politics and personal business, explore how China's RedNote app is transforming the way tourists discover Malaysia, and ask whether the newly opened LRT3 can finally persuade Klang Valley residents to leave t...

This week's WTF explores how technology and changing habits are reshaping the way we live and work. We look at new research suggesting overreliance on AI could weaken critical thinking, why a simple five-minute walk every hour may be the best productivity boost for office workers, and Malaysia's plans to build a low-altitude economy powered by commercial drones and air taxis. Plus, our weekly reco...

This week’s WTF spans everything from football and space exploration to technology and public policy. We look at the controversies surrounding the 2026 FIFA World Cup, including geopolitics, visas, ticket prices and the growing commercialisation of the game. We also examine NASA’s Artemis programme as delays raise questions about America’s return to the Moon and its race with China. Back home, we...

This week on What’s the Focus, we explore three stories that highlight how trust is being tested in very different ways. First, intelligence agencies from the Five Eyes alliance are warning that professional networking platforms may be used to recruit individuals with access to sensitive information, raising fresh questions about digital security and espionage. Then we examine how YouTube has evol...

This week on What’s the Focus, we look at three very different stories tied together by one underlying theme: how societies adapt under pressure. First, a major global study warns that mental disorders have now become the leading cause of disability worldwide, raising urgent questions about whether healthcare systems, workplaces, and communities are equipped for the scale of the crisis. Then we tu...

This week on What’s the Focus, we look at two very different stories connected by the same underlying question about excess. First, we examine the dangerous overcrowding on Mount Everest, where extreme tourism is turning one of the harshest environments on Earth into a high-altitude traffic jam. Then we explore how Google is transforming Search into an AI-driven conversational platform that could...

This week on What’s the Focus, we look at two stories where the real story sits beneath the headline. In India, a cola war between billion-dollar beverage giants is unexpectedly fuelling a boom in commercial refrigerators, turning cold storage into the new battleground for market dominance. Meanwhile closer to home, a bizarre story about retaliatory crows opens up a surprisingly fascinating conver...