TikToker turns up to his own funeral

(Image credit: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

published 15 June 2023

A TikToker has faked his own death and then turned up to his own funeral. David Baerten, from Belgium, decided to prank friends and family members to find out what they really thought of him. His family, who were in on the stunt, took to social media to post tributes to the 45-year-old. During the funeral, near the city of Liege, a helicopter landed and Baerten stepped out alongside a camera crew, who were filming for TikTok. Some mourners were “confused and perplexed”, said Sky News.

Man spots snake while sitting on the loo

An Australian man sitting on the toilet in his home had quite a fright when he spotted a nearly 10-foot python on top of his shower. The snake catcher who was called to deal with the serpent found the episode more amusing than the man who first discovered it. “After I stopped having a laugh for a few minutes, I got the hook and took it down and then it was cranky,” Anthony Jackson told News.com.au. The snake has been released into the wild.

AI collaborates on ‘final’ Beatles song

The Beatles’ final single will be released this year after being completed with the help of artificial intelligence, said Paul McCartney. The rock legend told the BBC that AI technlogy has “extricated” John Lennon’s vocals from a rough track and he has polished the recording into what he has termed the “final Beatles record”. The track, thought to be named Now And Then, is one of several on a cassette recorded by Lennon before his death and handed to McCartney by Yoko Ono in the 1990s.

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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.