And finally…

To mark the start of the holiday season and the 12 days of Christmas, we present 12 of our best and pun-niest ‘And finally’ news stories from the Monday Briefing in 2025. The Monday Briefing is taking a break until Tuesday, 6 January, when we will discuss the results of our latest CFO survey. In the meantime, the Deloitte Economics team wishes you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

21 humanoid robots participated in a half-marathon in Beijing in April, the first time that robots have run alongside humans. The winning robot, named Tien Kung Ultra, completed the race in 2 hours and 41 minutes – Usain nuts-and-bolts

The World Conker Championships is investigating the winner of its men’s tournament after a steel chestnut was found in his pocket. The veteran, known as 'King Conker', dismissed claims that he cheated after winning his first men’s title since he started competing in 1977 - he came, he saw, he conkered

In March, a UK court heard how thieves stole a fully functioning, 18-carat gold toilet from Blenheim Palace outside Oxford in just five minutes. The artwork, titled “America”, was worth approximately £2.8m at the time it was stolen in 2019 – loo-ted

In Australia, a domestic flight from Melbourne to Brisbane was delayed by over two hours due to stewards finding a stowaway snake in the luggage hold. The snake, initially thought to be venomous, was eventually captured and the flight was able to take off – Boeing constrictor

Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen quit the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in December (last year) following a dispute over breaching the tournament’s dress code for wearing jeans – rook-ie mistake

The annual Wimbledon tennis grand slam took place in the UK over the first two weeks of July, with over 500,000 spectators and 55,000 tennis balls used. The unusually warm weather was a notable feature of the tournament, even causing UK actor Hugh Grant to fall asleep during the men’s quarter-final match – love:40-winks

In a shock footballing upset, UK Premier League team Manchester United lost a cup match against League Two side Grimsby Town, ranked 56 places below and representing the town famous for its maritime and fishing heritage – battered

More than 50 experts attending a cyber-security event in Singapore fell for a mock scam that offered the chance to queue-jump by scanning a QR code. The stunt, set up by the event organisers, was intended to highlight that everybody is at risk of being scammed – giving in to QR-iosity

Researchers in British Columbia used hidden cameras to find out who had been damaging lobster traps. A pack of wolves had been swimming out to retrieve the traps, dragging them to shore and stealing the bait – lobster thermi-paw

A small French town broke the world record for gathering the largest number of people dressed as Smurfs. A total of 3,076 people, with painted blue faces and white hats, were involved – sacre-bleu!

A lorry containing $800,000 worth of US dimes overturned while driving through Texas, spilling the newly minted coins across the highway. The Texas Department of Public Safety closed the road for several hours while the coins were collected – loose change

The journal Science reports that pumpkins may have gone extinct if it were not for human intervention. The seeds of the ancestors of pumpkins, gourds and squashes were spread by large mammals such as giant sloths and mammoths that have since gone extinct. Were it not for the domestication of plants by the peoples of the Americas it is likely we would not have the orange fruits to enjoy today – carving out an existence