US President Joe Biden raised eyebrows when he hinted that cannibals on the island of New Guinea might have eaten his uncle’s body after he was shot down during World War II.
The White House and official records on Thursday indicated that — as with many a family legend — the facts might indeed be a bit different.
Biden paid tribute to his uncle, Second Lieutenant Ambrose Finnegan, after visiting a war memorial during a campaign trip to the president’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday.
Photo: AFP
The 81-year-old president, who was aged one when his uncle died in 1944, reached out to touch Finnegan’s name which was engraved on the monument.
“He got shot down in New Guinea, and they never found the body because there used to be a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea,” Biden later told an audience of steel workers in Pittsburgh.
Biden also repeated the story to reporters, adding that “he got shot down in an area where there were a lot of cannibals in New Guinea” and that the US government had recovered parts of the downed plane.
The problem?
His account of his uncle’s death, and his possible cannibalization, differs from US defense records.
The official Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said that Finnegan’s plane was headed to New Guinea on a courier flight and was “forced to ditch in the ocean” off the island’s coast “for unknown reasons.”
The aircraft hit the water hard and three crew members failed to emerge from the sinking wreck, while one survived and was rescued by a passing barge, it said on its Web site.
“An aerial search the next day found no trace of the missing aircraft or the lost crew members,” it said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that Finnegan “lost his life when the military aircraft he was on crashed in the Pacific after taking off near New Guinea,” not over land, but she defended Biden, saying it had been “incredibly emotional and important” to the president to be able to honor his uncle at the memorial.
Biden “highlighted his uncle’s story” to show support for veterans and draw a contrast with election rival former US president Donald Trump, who reportedly disparaged military members killed in war as “losers” and “suckers” while president, she said.
Historically, cannibalism has been reported in Papua New Guinea, the nation that occupies the eastern half of New Guinea.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other