Priest accidentally plays grime during mass
And other stories from the stranger side of life
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
A priest in Ireland accidentally incorporated the work of a grime artist into a mass live-streamed from Kincasslagh and Burtonport parish in County Donegal. In his opening blessing, Father Pat Ward played the song by the artist Black the Ripper. On realising his error he said: “Black the Ripper ... A wee bit of rap in the morning, wakes you up. I hope that didn’t do anybody’s blood pressure any difficulty there.”
Firm turns corpses into compost
A new business is transforming human bodies into compost before sending it to loved ones. The boss, Micah Truman, left his lucrative career in finance after discovering that it was legal to compost human bodies in Washington state. Return Home turns corpses into compost by mixing the remains with wood chips, water, heat, sawdust and alfalfa to rapidly increase decomposition.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sausage solves nine-year-old case
Police in Germany say they have solved a nine-year-old burglary case thanks to DNA found on a half-eaten piece of sausage. Officers in Schwelm said the suspect appeared to have helped himself to a bite during the break-in in Gevelsberg in March 2012. However, the statute of limitations on the burglary has expired, so the Albanian suspect is unlikely to be extradited to Germany.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
Hong Kong jails democracy advocate Jimmy LaiSpeed Read The former media tycoon was sentenced to 20 years in prison
-
Japan’s Takaichi cements power with snap election winSpeed Read President Donald Trump congratulated the conservative prime minister
-
Seahawks trounce Patriots in Super Bowl LXSpeed Read The Seattle Seahawks won their second Super Bowl against the New England Patriots
-
Epstein files topple law CEO, roil UK governmentSpeed Read Peter Mandelson, Britain’s former ambassador to the US, is caught up in the scandal
-
Iran and US prepare to meet after skirmishesSpeed Read The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military