UNITED KINGDOM
McCartney fulfills wish
Paul McCartney fulfilled a lifelong wish yesterday when he appeared in the final print edition of Britain’s longest-running children’s comic, the Dandy, a favorite of the former Beatle when he was growing up in Liverpool. The comic that brought beloved characters, including pie-eating cowboy Desperate Dan and Korky the Cat, to millions of homes is going digital-only 75 years after it was first published. The weekly publication sold more than 2 million copies in its 1950s heyday, but with children lured by alternative entertainment from TV and video games, circulation has fallen to fewer than 8,000. McCartney contacted Dandy after the digital switch was first announced in August. He said that in an interview in 1963 he was asked what his personal ambition was and he replied that he wanted to have his picture in the Dandy. “I hope it’s not too late,” the 70-year-old wrote in a letter. McCartney leads the comic’s most famous characters in a sing-along of Hey Jude.
AUSTRIA
Woman told she is dead
Curious to discover why she was not on a list of registered voters, a 92-year-old woman was surprised when officials informed her that she had passed away months earlier, authorities confirmed on Monday. “It was rather a shock when they informed me at the town hall that I had died in the spring,” a sprightly-looking Johanna Franz, who says she keeps fit gardening, told the Heute daily. “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” the grandmother from Vienna quipped, quoting Mark Twain. A spokeswoman for the authorities, Sandra Frauenberger, confirmed the incident and said that Franz had been resurrected on the records. “This happening a second time can be ruled out,” Frauenberger said.
UNITED STATES
Beggar prefers unshod life
A New York police officer rocketed to overnight fame when a tourist filmed him giving new boots to a homeless man and posted the video online, but when a reporter caught up with the beggar, the man was shoeless again. What happened? “Those shoes are hidden. They are worth a lot of money,” the homeless man, identified as Jeffrey Hillman, 54, told the New York Times. “I could lose my life.” Hillman, who first arrived in New York 10 years ago, said he was surprised by all of the attention. “I was put on YouTube, I was put on everything without permission. What do I get?” he asked. “This went around the world and I want a piece of the pie. I appreciate what the officer did, don’t get me wrong. I wish there were more people like him in the world.” Hillman clearly prefers the unshod life — since he has been in the news a woman has come forward to say she bought him a pair of shoes a year ago.
UNITED STATES
Sex pioneer’s son charged
The 60-year-old son of sex research pioneer William Masters has admitted masturbating in Central Park. William Masters III pleaded guilty on Monday to misdemeanor public lewdness. He was arrested in May after a New York police officer reported seeing him expose his genitals and masturbate. Defense lawyer Irwin Rochman told the New York Post that his client has been in counseling. Masters avoids jail time, but if he gets arrested again he will face up to 90 days. Masters is also charged with exposing himself to a sheriff’s deputy and another woman on a Michigan river in September. That case is pending. Masters’ father and Virginia Johnson wrote the best-seller Human Sexual Response.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion