Therapy emu sparks police hunt

An emu

published 17 April 2023

A “therapy emu” sparked a police chase after he jumped over a fence and went on the run for a mile. The 11-month-old “very cuddly” Rodney, is used to give support to people struggling with their mental health. He was found after a five-hour rescue mission, noted The Telegraph. “If you can get past being completely weirded out by a six-foot bird with a massive beak right in your face, he is very cuddly and likes strokes and is good for the soul,” said his owner, adding that “he hasn’t got much between his big ears”.

Fake Madeleine McCann doubles down

A young Polish woman who claims she is Madeleine McCann has said she will do another DNA test, despite the first one disproving her claim. Julia Wendell’s first DNA test confirmed that her ancestry is Polish, and she couldn’t be the British youngster that went missing in May 2007, noted the Daily Star. However, she announced on Instagram, she will now take a second test. “I want to do this because I just want to do this and I don't even have to explain why but I think everyone knows why I want to do this,” she explained.

A former Dragons’ Den star has been told to close what she calls her “incredible vagina of land”, reported The Times. Rachel Elnaugh, who raised almost £1m from investors to buy the 70-acre plot in Cressbrook Dale, Derbyshire, has been ordered to pull down a sanctuary for antivaxers built on a site of protected ancient woodland in the Peak District. Elnaugh believes the Covid pandemic was a “great bio-weapon” unleashed by a “dark cabal” in Switzerland.

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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.