Male promiscuity to blame for bird divorce

published 5 July 2023

Birds may divorce due to promiscuity or long spells apart, said The Guardian. It is believed that more than 90% of bird species generally have a single mate over at least one breeding season but some monogamous birds switch to a different partner - a behaviour labelled by experts as “divorce”. The reasons for the break-ups have long baffled experts but now researchers said the key factors are male promiscuity and long-distance migrations.

‘Emotional’ man eats 62 hot dogs in minutes

A man has eaten 62 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes - averaging one every 10 seconds or less. The competitive eater Joey “Jaws” Chestnut “comfortably out-ate” his opponents at the New York eating contest, with runner-up Geoffrey Esper managing a measly 49 hot dogs. After his victory, the speed eater said it was a “rollercoaster, emotionally”. The Nathan’s Fourth of July hot dog competition drew hopefuls from England, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Brazil and Australia, noted Sky News.

Festivalgoers in the US were left hanging upside down on a rollercoaster for hours. Eight passengers were left suspended when a mechanical failure stalled the ride at the Forest County Festival in Crandon, Wisconsin, the Crandon Fire Department said. “Families are being reunited with people as they come down off of the ride with the rescuers and everybody seems to be doing as best as they can, given the circumstances,” fire department Capt. Brennan Cook told WJFW.

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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.