The best tabloid stories of 2025

Life in the fast lane

A Chinese man who refused to sell his house to make way for a new motorway has ended up stranded in the middle of the four-lane bypass. Huang Ping, who lives in Jiangsu province with his young grandson, was offered £180,000 to vacate the property. He declined, apparently assuming a better offer would follow, but none did. “I do regret it a bit,” he admitted. “If I could turn back time, I would agree to the demolition conditions they offered. Now it feels like I lost a big bet.”

Speak of the devil

A couple from North Yorkshire defended their decision to name their son Lucifer. Jess Bell and Stefan Wake explained that they had settled on the name after enjoying the Netflix series “Lucifer”, about the fallen angel. “The name is lovely and it actually means ‘light bringer’, which is exactly what he has done for our lives,” Bell said. “We are just normal, loving parents and certainly have no interest in associating our son with the devil.”

Rule-bending bridge

Seven engineers working on an infrastructure project in Bhopal, India, were suspended after images of a road bridge with a near-right-angle turn went viral. The engineers said there had not been enough land for a more gradual turn, but an inquiry deemed the bridge, over a railway line, a safety risk, and ordered that major corrections be undertaken.

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The pull of potholes

Residents of a village near Wrexham became so irate about the state of one of the local roads, they turned it into a pothole theme park. A sign at the entrance to the road in Pontfadog said that “Pothole Land” boasted “the deepest, longest, widest” potholes in Wales, and that visitors would have the chance to enjoy “two kilometres of award-winning potholes with very little actual road to spoil your fun”. The attraction was closed after the council began work to fill in some of the potholes.

Putting up a fight

A Malaysian man was reported to be offering his services as a “villain for hire” for men who wanted to come across as heroes – by fighting him off in front of their girlfriends. Shazali Sulaiman, 28, said he started his business after being told that his unkempt hair and biker clothes made him look like a gang member. “Are you tired of your partner thinking you are weak? For a reasonable fee, I can help you prove them wrong,” he promised on social media. Clients can decide the precise time and place for the confrontations, he said. “It is all just an act,” he added. “No one gets hurt. I am the only ‘loser’.”

Hard times

Bryan Johnson – the tech millionaire known for his strict anti-ageing regimen – claimed this year to have the “penis age” of a 22-year-old. The American entrepreneur told Mail Online that he’d used a sensor to measure his erections through the night, and the data had shown that his penile health was on a similar level to that of his 19-year-old son, whose erections he’d also assessed. “His duration is two minutes longer than mine,” he clarified on X. “Raise children to stand tall, be firm, and be upright.”

Taken for a ride

A man who bought a £20,000 car to replace his stolen Honda Civic discovered that his new car was actually his old car. Ewan Valentine, 36, from Solihull, woke up in February to find that his Honda had gone. He later spotted the same model, with a lower mileage, on sale some 70 miles away, and went to pick it up. It was only when he was on his way home that he noticed some familiar-looking items – a tent peg and Mars bar wrappers – lying around in the vehicle, and found his parents’ address in the satnav. “I nearly crashed, to be honest,” he said.

Crushed by candy

A lorry driver from Barnsley had to spend six days in intensive care after eating 3kg of cola bottles in 72 hours. Nathan Rimmington, 33, ordered a bulk bag of the sweets after developing a sudden “hankering” for them – and found that he “couldn’t stop eating”. By the end of his binge, he was sweating profusely and was in so much pain that he couldn’t walk. In hospital he was treated for inflammation of the intestine – diagnosed as acute diverticulitis. “It was really stupid,” he admitted.

On-the-game name

A woman in the US who wanted to name her baby girl in honour of both of her grandparents decided to combine their names – Charlotte and Harvey – and thus ended up with a daughter called “Harlotte”. The 20-year-old mother is said to have got the birth registration documents finalised – and only then revealed her choice to her wider family. “You named the baby ‘whore’?” a horrified relation exclaimed – at which point the upset mother “started screaming”.

Puppy popularity

Tourists started to flock to a stretch of the Yangtze River in Hubei province, China, after a local man noticed that the cliff edge looked like the outline of a dog’s head. He called it “Puppy Mountain”, and posted a photo of it on social media that attracted 120,000 likes in 10 days. “It is so magical and cute,” said Guo Qingshan. “The puppy’s posture looks like he is drinking water, or looking at some fish.”

Inappropriate behaviour

A Dublin woman called for the city’s statue of Molly Malone to be raised onto a plinth, as so many people have stroked the fictional fishmonger’s ample bosom for luck that the bronze there has lost its patina. “People clamour around her, kiss her cheek, kiss her boobs, it’s all inappropriate,” Tilly Cripwell lamented. “I walk by the Oscar Wilde statue every day. You don’t see people rubbing his crotch for good luck.”

White fright

A cruise company issued an apology after footage circulated of several of its crew members dressed in what looked like Ku Klux Klan (KKK) costumes. P&O Cruises Australia explained that its staff were actually dressed as “upside-down snow cones” for a festive event on the trip, last December, and said that the individuals in question had “never heard” of the KKK. One passenger told the media that the event had generated a lot of excitement, but when the staff came trooping out in their all-white boiler suits and pointy hats, everyone went “very quiet”.