Heatwaves prompt snake escapes

A snake — (Image credit: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Snake owners have been told to keep a close eye on their pets during the hotter months after the RSPCA said emergency calls about wayward serpents reached record levels during the UK’s latest heatwaves. “The warmer they are, the more active they are so that’s why they escape a lot more in summer,” RSPCA senior scientific officer Evie Button told The Sunday Times, adding that snakes are “excellent escape artists”. Reacting to the story, the Daily Star said that “sssome like it hot”.

Chef teased for £70 tart

A famous French pastry chef has been mocked after charging £70 for a tart topped with whole strawberries still attached to their leaves and stalks. Cédric Grolet, whose Cédric Grolet Opéra bakery in the centre of Paris still attracts three-hour queues four years after it opened, has “seen his reputation start to crumble” after a TikTok influencer criticised the tart, said The Telegraph. Clara Marz told her 600,000 followers that she was “super disappointed” by the expensive snack.

A “serial record-breaker” from Spain has run a 100-metre sprint while wearing high heels, UPI reported. Christian Roberto López Rodríguez, 34, wore 2.76-inch stiletto heels and ran the 100m in a record 12.82 seconds. He told Guinness World Records that “the preparation was very exhaustive and specific”. He added that “in Spain there are races like this, and they have always gone well for me”.

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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 news site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.