Villains
Viewers of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, who are indulging Matt Hancock’s masochistic streak by voting for him “to do all the most humiliating trials”, says Michael Deacon in The Daily Telegraph. Hancock hasn’t joined the show for cash or for noble political aims, but because he “actively enjoys” being ridiculed – see how he keeps trying to hog the limelight despite constant “public derision”. “In the old days, if an MP wanted to be humiliated, he would go to Soho and pay a prostitute to whip him. A much more respectable choice.”
Villains
The citizens of Perth, Scotland, who have chosen an exceptionally boring name for a museum at their city hall: Perth Museum. In a public poll, 60% of respondents chose the lacklustre label, rather than options including the Victoria Drummond Museum, in honour of a locally born marine engineer. “With that level of creativity,” says one Twitter user, “I can only imagine the native wonders which will be contained within.”
Hero
The Catholic Church, which encouraged eco-friendly eating way before it was cool. Cambridge researchers reckon that if the Pope reinstated the traditional Catholic rule of eating fish rather than meat on Fridays, it would save millions of tonnes of carbon emissions. When a quarter of England and Wales’s Catholics adopted the practice in 2011, after lobbying by local bishops, 55,000 tons of carbon were saved a year – equivalent to 82,000 fewer people taking a return trip from London to New York.
Hero
Lori Chavez-DeRemer (pictured), the Republican leading the race for Congress in Oregon’s 5th district, who is risking her marriage for the sake of public service. Her seat has a peculiar curse attached, says InsideHook: in the past 40 years, all five of its representatives have got divorced while in office. Chavez-DeRemer, who has been married to her husband for 31 years, says she is confident she can “elude the tradition”.
Villain
KFC Germany, which invited customers to commemorate Kristallnacht – the nationwide anti-Jewish pogrom of 1938 – by ordering fried chicken. The firm’s app sent out a notification headlined “It’s memorial day for Kristallnacht!”, which continued: “Treat yourself with more tender cheese on your crispy chicken.”