Indian villagers pray to ‘Goddess Corona’
And other stories from the stranger side of life
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Residents of an Indian village have erected a shrine to “goddess corona” and are offering her prayers in a bid to beat the deadly virus. Devotees in Shuklapur village, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, have also been offering holy water, and flowers at the bright yellow shrine where they have placed their idol of “Corona Mata”. The numbers have dropped in the village and are now sharply lower than they were at the height of the pandemic.
Fishermen swallowed and spat out by whale
A lobster fisherman in the US says he was almost swallowed up by a humpback whale. Michael Packard escaped with severe bruising to his legs after being accidentally engulfed by the feeding humpback off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The 56-year-old was 45 feet (almost 14 metres) below the ocean’s surface when he suddenly “felt this huge bump and everything went dark”. He says he thought he was going to die before the whale spat him out.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Ed Sheeran school video up for auction
A home video of a teenage Ed Sheeran singing in a school production of Grease is going up for auction. The two hours of footage shows Sheeran as a 15-year-old playing the character Roger or ‘Rump’. Auctioneer Paul Fairweather has high hopes for a significant sum. He said: “Over the last year or so we’ve seen an exponential increase in interest for memorabilia and collectables relating to contemporary artists, especially Ed Sheeran.”
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
My Father’s Shadow: a ‘magically nimble’ filmThe Week Recommends Akinola Davies Jr’s touching and ‘tender’ tale of two brothers in 1990s Nigeria
-
Send Help: Sam Raimi’s ‘compelling’ plane-crash survival thrillerThe Week Recommends Rachel McAdams stars as an office worker who gets stranded on a desert island with her boss
-
‘Longevity fixation syndrome’: the allure of eternal youthIn The Spotlight Obsession with beating biological clock identified as damaging new addiction
-
Epstein files topple law CEO, roil UK governmentSpeed Read Peter Mandelson, Britain’s former ambassador to the US, is caught up in the scandal
-
Iran and US prepare to meet after skirmishesSpeed Read The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East
-
EU and India clinch trade pact amid US tariff warSpeed Read The agreement will slash tariffs on most goods over the next decade
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire