Young adults in China looking for a cheaper, low-maintenance alternative to having children or pets have found an answer: raising bricks.

Bricks may not be as cuddly as cats or as life-affirming as human offspring, but they also cost next to nothing. “No cats, no dating, I started raising a brick,” wrote one brick parent on social media. A hashtag related to the trend has attracted more than 5m views on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Chinese commentators have linked the trend to young people looking for low-effort routes to finding meaning in life; One brick “parent” even told Chinese media the hobby created “a sense of accomplishment no less than completing a long-term project”. Raising “brick babies” is easier than caring for house plants, involving spraying them with water a few times a day then waiting for moss spores already present in the atmosphere to attach themselves and grow. One Chinese media article described the bricks as being “practically immortal”. “If you forget to water them, the moss goes dormant. If you remember to water them again, the greenery returns.”

Young people in China are increasingly shunning the traditional expectations of society, such as having children and working long hours in strenuous jobs, assuming they can find one in the first place. Nearly one in five 16- to 24-year-olds, excluding students, are unemployed, according to official statistics. Some estimates put the unemployment rate much higher. The trend has become so popular that Chinese media have started to warn about the health risks; Xuedong Li, a retired professor of moss from Beijing’s Capital Normal University, urged people to keep their bricks in an enclosed environment, because cultivating moss could lead to the spread of mould, with some “brick parents” reportedly complaining of itchy eyes and runny noses.

Israel prime minister Netanyahu has resorted to increasingly alarmist rhetoric and reportedly put pressure on Israel’s military to take action against Iran as his far-right coalition narrowly trails in the polls ahead of Tuesday’s close-run elections.

He posted an AI-generated image of a nuclear mushroom cloud destroying Tel Aviv, telling Israeli voters to choose him or risk nuclear annihilation. Israel’s Channel 12 news also reported that the prime minister and the armed forces chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, clashed in recent days over a directive to the military which could “potentially spark an immediate conflagration with Iran at a very sensitive juncture”, by provoking a miscalculation by Iran.

Netanyahu denied the report, and the defence ministry later denied any intention to carry out military operations against Iran. On Monday however, CNN reported that Netanyahu had tried to convince Donald Trump to launch a renewed assault on Iran in recent weeks, renewing the war both men started in February.

Gadi Eisenkot, the leader of the opposition bloc and Netanyahu’s most likely challenger for the prime minister’s job, expressed his confidence in Zamir, stating that they won’t allow the IDF to be turned into a pawn in Netanyahu’s survival campaign. Most polls suggest the mainly centre-right opposition bloc led by Eisenkot is poised to win more seats in Israel’s Knesset than the Netanyahu coalition, but neither would be able to muster the 61 seats necessary for a majority government. The prime minister is also in the midst of a trial on corruption charges, and his legal jeopardy could increase if he loses his grip on power.

Israel prime minister Netanyahu has resorted to increasingly alarmist rhetoric and reportedly put pressure on Israel’s military to take action against Iran as his far-right coalition narrowly trails in the polls ahead of Tuesday’s close-run elections.

He posted an AI-generated image of a nuclear mushroom cloud destroying Tel Aviv, telling Israeli voters to choose him or risk nuclear annihilation. Israel’s Channel 12 news also reported that the prime minister and the armed forces chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, clashed in recent days over a directive to the military which could “potentially spark an immediate conflagration with Iran at a very sensitive juncture”, by provoking a miscalculation by Iran.

Netanyahu denied the report, and the defence ministry later denied any intention to carry out military operations against Iran. On Monday however, CNN reported that Netanyahu had tried to convince Donald Trump to launch a renewed assault on Iran in recent weeks, renewing the war both men started in February.

Gadi Eisenkot, the leader of the opposition bloc and Netanyahu’s most likely challenger for the prime minister’s job, expressed his confidence in Zamir, stating that they won’t allow the IDF to be turned into a pawn in Netanyahu’s survival campaign. Most polls suggest the mainly centre-right opposition bloc led by Eisenkot is poised to win more seats in Israel’s Knesset than the Netanyahu coalition, but neither would be able to muster the 61 seats necessary for a majority government. The prime minister is also in the midst of a trial on corruption charges, and his legal jeopardy could increase if he loses his grip on power.