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Real Hair, Real Nails ... Really Creepy? Auction For Inflatable Doll Tops $100,000

CLARÍN

Worldcrunch

SÃO PAOLO - “The Girl from Ipanema” made Brazilian women famous for their beauty but now, it seems, the South American country has a new fetish for a different kind of woman says Clarín.

For three days, São Paolo will host the first Inflatable Doll World Congress, organized by an online sex shop, Sexônico.

Enter, Valentina. She’s the newest model made of silicone from the Real Dolls company and there will be an auction for her, beginning at a cool $50,000. Bidding, which closes at the end of the month, has already topped $100,000, according to the Sexônico website.

She has skin that is almost identical to a real human’s and has new, unprecedented functions for an inflatable doll. This creation by Real Dolls aims to reach maximum similarities to a real, human woman. Asides from her buxom body, she has real nails, teeth and human hair -- that must be washed with shampoo, obviously.

The auction for spending “the first night” with Valentina includes spending a night with her in a Presidential Suite in a 5-star hotel, together with an aromatherapy bathtub -- compete with rose petals and French Champagne -- to get you “in the mood”.

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FOCUS: Israel-Palestine War

What Are Iran's Real Intentions? Watch What The Houthis Do Next

Three commercial ships traveling through the Red Sea were attacked by missiles launched by Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels, while the U.S. Navy shot down three drones. Tensions that are linked to the ongoing war in Gaza conflict and that may serve as an indication as to Iran's wider intentions.

photo of Raisi of iran speaking in parliament

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at the Iranian parliament in Tehran.

Icana News Agency via ZUMA
Pierre Haski

-Analysis

PARIS — It’s a parallel war that has so far claimed fewer victims and attracted less public attention than the one in Gaza. Yet it increasingly poses a serious threat of escalating at any time.

This conflict playing out in the international waters of the Red Sea, a strategic maritime route, features the U.S. Navy pitted against Yemen's Houthi rebels. But the stakes go beyond the Yemeni militants — with the latter being supported by Iran, which has a hand in virtually every hotspot in the region.

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Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the Houthis have been making headlines, despite Yemen’s distance from the Gaza front. Starting with missiles launched directed toward southern Israel, which were intercepted by U.S. forces. Then came attacks on ships belonging, or suspected of belonging, to Israeli interests.

On Sunday, no fewer than three commercial ships were targeted by ballistic missiles in the Red Sea. The missiles caused minor damage and no casualties. Meanwhile, three drones were intercepted and destroyed by the U.S. Navy, currently deployed in full force in the region.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for these attacks, stating their intention to block Israeli ships' passage for as long as there was war in Gaza. The ships targeted on Sunday were registered in Panama, but at least one of them was Israeli. In the days before, several other ships were attacked and an Israeli cargo ship carrying cars was seized, and is still being held in the Yemeni port of Hodeida.

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