DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
A man living in an LA billboard. PICTURE: Screenshot via Reuters TV
• A man took up temporary residence inside a furnished living room built into a billboard off of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles last week as part of a promotional campaign for Netflix’s new sci-fi thriller The Last House. The furnished living room was built into a billboard promoting Netflix’s new sci-fi thriller The Last House. The elevated installation, roughly nine metres above the street, was designed to recreate the central premise of the film, which premiered on Netflix on Friday (7th August). The stunt, which began Thursday and continued through to Saturday, had the performer inhabiting the billboard and attempting to maintain a sense of normal life while confined to the enclosed set above the bustling intersection below. Rather than speaking directly to passersby, he communicated using a whiteboard. Netflix posted a video to its X social media account of the billboard with the caption, “There’s a guy in there,” but released no details about the identity of the man. – Reuters TV
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A participant in Tan Shie Boon’s parkour class. PICTURE: Screenshot via Reuters TV
• Parkour. The word may conjure images of rowdy teenagers swinging from building to building in urban settings, but a coach in Singapore is using those same techniques to improve the physical balance of the elderly. Tan Shie Boon, the 33-year-old instructor and founder of Movement Singapore, teaches seniors to vault over railings, roll down slanted surfaces and jump off platforms. His unconventional classes have gone viral online, showing participants in their 60s and 70s mastering moves that would challenge people half their age. He began training the elderly in November, 2017, in parkour after a 64-year-old lady expressed interest in adopting the sport to help with her balance. After two months of practice, she no longer needed to hold on to a trolley to walk to class. “The types of exercises that seniors normally do, like Zumba or Tai chi, it’s just not enough to combat this problem because they don’t build their strength and they don’t learn how to break their fall,” Tan said. “Whereas in parkour, it’s a very intense discipline. You train your whole body, you train your awareness, your reaction speed, and you’re falling all the time.” For 69-year-old retiree Betty Boon, three years of parkour classes have transformed her daily life. She can now carry her own luggage up steep staircases in Japan’s train stations, whereas she previously depended on her husband or son to help. “That was wonderful, I just discovered that I could do that,” she said after executing a perfect roll from a platform jump. – Reuters TV
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney tours the Port of Vancouver in Delta, British Columbia, Canada, on 30th July, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters/Jennifer Gauthier
• When his teleprompter malfunctioned on Wednesday in the middle of a news conference on housing policy, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney smiled and took a swift jab at US President Donald Trump, saying, “I do not view this as a conspiracy”. Carney’s remark was an apparent reference to Trump’s demands for an investigation after he encountered a halted escalator and a non-functioning teleprompter last year at the United Nations General Assembly, where he delivered a speech. “I would like to inform you that the teleprompter has ceased to function. Unlike a certain world leader, I do not view this as a conspiracy,” Carney said to laughs at the news conference in Toronto. Carney’s office and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Relations between Canada and the US have been fraught since Trump returned to the White House last year, slapping broad tariffs on the northern neighbor and calling for it to become the 51st US state. Carney, who has said he would fight Trump’s trade policies, has worked to lessen Canada’s diplomatic and economic dependency on the US. He also drew international attention for declaring the end of a rules-based global order and criticising great powers for using “economic integration as weapons.” – WA LONE in Toronto and ISMAIL SHAKIL in Ottawa, Canada/Reuters
