British Foreign Office’s ‘Chief Mouser’ retires

Palmerston, the British Foreign Office’s famous feline ‘Chief Mouser,’ announced he is retiring to “spend more time relaxing away from the limelight.”

A letter addressed to Sir Simon McDonald, permanent under-secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, was posted to the Palmerston’s official Twitter account to announce the cat’s retirement from hunting mice at the Foreign Office’s headquarters in London.

Palmerston, named for two-time Prime Minister Viscount Palmerston, arrived at the office as a rescue in 2016 and quickly gained fame for catching mice and appearing in photos with visiting diplomats.

The Foreign Office praised Palmerston for his service in a Twitter post.

“We’ll all miss him paw-fully, but wish him a purr-fect retirement,” the tweet reads.

Longest Hot Wheels track

An Australian radio host set up a Hot Wheels track on a rural road and broke a Guinness World Record by making a toy car travel down about 2,624 feet of track.

Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli, one half of Nova FM radio duo Fitzy & Wippa, made initial attempts at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo and Centennial Park, but they failed when the toy car didn’t stay on the track for the entirely of the run, which needed to break the previous record of 2,176 feet, 2 inches, set in 2019 in Pennsylvania.

Wipfli said it took more than 20 attempts on his third day of trying for the record, which took place on a rural road in Oatley Park.

Record of solving Rubik’s cubes underwater

An Indian man, Illayaram Sekar, took on the Guinness record for most Rubik’s cubes solved underwater in a single breath, when he solved six Rubik’s cubes in 2.17 minutes.

The previous record was set by Anthony Brooks in 2014 when he finished five cubes before coming up for air.

“I am the first person to attempt this record in Asia,” Sekar told. “I am working in a school currently in Chennai. I want to inspire my students to do more. Pandemic will come and go but our mind and spirit should reach a higher level to face anything in life,” he said.

Disney’s cloth masks are here

Just because we have to wear masks when outside doesn’t mean we can’t sport some style too. This is the idea behind Disney’s new line of cloth masks.

There are hosts of options for fans from Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars characters. You’ll find Baby Yoda, Rey, Mickey Mouse, Forky, The Hulk and so many more characters. And they come in small, medium and large size options.

Disney is also donating one million masks to Medshare, a humanitarian organisation that delivers medical equipment and supplies to communities in need around the world. Plus, up to one million dollars of the profit from these masks will go to the organisation.

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 22nd, 2020