The mystery surrounding convicted serial killer Ed Vance stepped up a notch this week with the revelation that someone who barely knew him thought he seemed ‘a decent enough guy.’

Although the consensus generally leans towards the 43-year-old murderer of 13 people being a bad person, there was apparently more to him than met the eye.

Josh Combs, inexplicably being interviewed for comment, said he used to drink at the same bar as Vance in their hometown of Pitt, Wisconsin, and once received a cigarette from him. “He seemed like a sound, relaxed human being,” Combs said. “My heart goes out to his family.”

Vance was last year sentenced to life without parole after terrorising the American Midwest for years, killing innocent people in breathtakingly monstrous ways. He has since secured three book deals and launched a successful podcast co-hosted with Russell Brand.

“It’s just heartbreaking,” Combs went on, with no sense of irony whatsoever. “The guy had a wife, kids, and now they don’t get to see him any more. A family torn apart, lives ruined.”

Family members and loved ones of the victims were not approached for comment.

For seven glorious minutes, Gloria Stynham of The Silverton Bugle had an empty email inbox yesterday.

The milestone was reached at 11.56 in the morning, the culmination of hours of dedicated clearing time.

“It was an incredible feeling,” said Stynham, whose inbox has since ballooned to a more natural size of 134. “Memories are made of moments like that.”

Perhaps most incredibly of all, Stynham not only cleared her inbox but did so in a meticulous and professional way, reading through every one of them and responding where needed.

The achievement has had no clear positive impact on her work. If anything, the time required to do it has been denied more important projects and caused irreparable harm to the week’s edition.

Rishi Sunak today issued an apology for snatching a chocolate bar from a toddler's hands during a bizarre campaign event in Durham yesterday afternoon.

The prime minister has faced intense criticism after video surfaced of him struggling with Ben 'Buddy' Smith, 2, before eating the confectionary treat in front of him as the boy wept. He also neglected to help an old lady cross the road and jumped the queue during a photo op at Greggs.

“On reflection, it was a mistake to take the bar from the child like that – and I apologise,” Sunak said at an impromptu press conference during which several pigeons shat on him and a dog urinated on his leg.

When pressed on how he could do such a thing when millions of children in the United Kingdom are living in poverty, he said, “On reflection, it was a mistake to take the bar from the child like that – and I apologise.”

Visibly annoyed that his remorse was not being met with admiration and awe, the PM added, “On reflection, it was a mistake to take the bar from the child like that – and I apologise.”

Pre-election preparations continued today as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak joined the Labour Party and Keir Starmer switched to the Conservatives.

“The people of Great Britain and Northern Island deserve a new direction, and I’m going to give it to them,” Sunak said in a statement delivered in Downing Street this morning.

Dressed in skinny jeans and playing with a fidget spinner, the PM was in a bullish mood as he outlined his policy-free vision for the country’s future.

Starmer’s move is understood to be his latest effort to broaden appeal ahead of a general election.

Members of both parties are understood to view their new colleagues as opportunistic chancers, and all are even more confused than usual about who answers to who and who’s in charge of what.

“What the fuck is going on?” several MPs asked Whale-Lines reporters.

Tech giant Apple has hit back against criticism of new terms and conditions giving the company free reign to break the legs of App Store users who don’t pay additional fees.

The changes to the 34,000-word contract were rolled out last night, with app makers compelled to opt-in to handing over an additional 20% of their profits or else live with the legally protected consequences.

“We’re all friends here,” said CEO Tim Cook while idly swinging a baseball bat with a rusty nail hammered through it. “No one needs to get hurt.”

Other acts of retribution protected in the new policy are arson, forcible removal of major organs, and seven especially horrible types of biochemical warfare.

When asked how such changes could even exist in the face of EU legislation intended to level the playing field, consumer rights expert Paul Sap simply shrugged and walked off.

Rishi Sunak yesterday hit back against critics of leaked Tory proposals to send refugees and asylum seekers into outer space in rockets, calling the backlash “hyperbolic and absurd.”

Documents found in a central London drug den last week revealed secret government plans to appease xenophobic voters - playfully referred to as ‘xenos’ - by cramming newly arrived refugees into rocketships and sending them into Earth’s orbit.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” Sunak said at the second of five emergency press conferences held yesterday. “The rockets would come down eventually and their passengers would be able to start building new lives wherever they land.”

Around 30,000 have crossed the English Channel by boat in 2024, according to the Home Office, while legal migration for the year is projected to hit 745,000.

When pushed on the costing for the project - at least £8 billion - and whether it might be cheaper, simpler, and altogether better for the soul to assimilate people trying to build a better life, Sunak laughed nervously and said, “Next question.”

Leader of the opposition Keir Starmer vaguely condemned the plans while refusing to rule out the possibility of doing the same thing himself.

The film watching public has been left furious by the revelation that Kurt Bilindeross, star of the upcoming film Pumpkin Pache, is not in fact a pumpkin himself.

What’s more, he isn’t orange or looks good after being disembowelled and having a lit candle placed inside him. He’s not even a vegetable for god’s sake.

“It’s a disgrace, an insult to pumpkins everywhere,” said Jeff Lazings, a vocal social media activist. “I dare say it speaks to institutional prejudice in Hollywood.”

When informed that Bilindeross’s co-star Linda Soot is also a human and not a sentient bucket as her casting suggests, Lazings for a time became speechless with rage and had to sit down.

“It makes one despair,” he said after gathering himself. “How can audiences be expected to look beyond their own experiences when actors aren’t playing characters from exactly the same demographic as themselves?”

In addition to petitioning for the film to be scrapped, campaigners have proposed a vetting process whereby biopic films can only star the people they’re about, playing themselves.

The film industry has been left reeling by the revelation that a supposed surefire moneymaker rehashing the first film of [BELOVED FRANCHISE] has bombed at the box office.

Numbers released yesterday by Box Office Funk showed that a remake of [CLASSIC FILM] grossly underperformed during its opening weekend, rubbing salt in the proverbial wound after a series of breathtakingly scathing reviews.

“I just don’t get it,” said studio head Willam B. Bland. “People loved the film the last time we made it. Why they aren’t flooding into cinemas to watch an inferior version is beyond me.”

Hopes had been high that the film, which reimagines [CLASSIC FILM] using stop motion animation and features a star-studded cast of non-voice actors, would be a runaway hit and lay the groundwork for even more remakes.

Following crisis talks last night studio executives revealed a bold new direction for [BELOVED FRANCHISE] - shifting focus to prequels and origin stories for every single insignificant detail in the original films.

It is understood that all key decision makers will be retaining their positions and receiving a tidy bonus.

Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury retained his WBC belt last night with a professional display against a seven-foot tall can of finely chopped Italian tomatoes.

Fury, 34, kept his cool fighting in front of a Wembley crowd of 80,000 fans to win a split decision against the aluminium container, which was unable to put him under sustained pressure despite holding the centre of the ring for vast portions of the fight.

"It was a battle for the ages," Fury said afterwards. "The people in the crowd will be able tell their grandkids they were here tonight. That's priceless. This is another brick in the temple of my legacy."

There has been talk of an immediate rematch, but failing that Fury hinted he'd be interested in a fourth fight against home favourite Derek Chisora.

Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi film A.I. Artificial Intelligence is set to be completely reshot to reflect the realities of the technology, Warner Bros. announced today.

In the wake of the release of technologies like ChatGPT and Bard the consensus has been that the 2001 film had been far too generous in its depiction of androids, be they sex workers or neglected children.

“We were way off the mark,” said Spielberg in a statement released yesterday. “This decision may seem premature given the film is set in the 22nd century, but it’s already clear artificial intelligence is going to be much seedier than we’d imagined.”

A revamped version of the script leaked to the Whale-Lines reveals a number of crucial tweaks, including the ‘mecha’ robots inexplicably making things up and doubling down when called out on it.

The presence of love in the film - synthetic or otherwise - has also been edited out and replaced with more surface level gratification like sex and shopping.

Other dystopian elements from the original, like rising sea levels and the eventual extinction of the human race, have remained untouched.