Man disappointed by reward for finding £4m cheque
And other stories from the stranger side of life
A man who discovered a lost cheque worth £4m to Haribo was given “just six packets of gummies as a reward”, reported Metro. The man, from Frankfurt, Germany, spotted the cheque on a train platform and was stunned when he realised it was worth €4,631,538.80. “There was such a large sum on it that I couldn’t even pronounce it,” he told local media. But he was not blown away by his paltry reward, saying: “I thought that was a bit cheap.” Haribo said: “It was our standard package that we send as a thank you.”
Underpass for otters during rocket launches
Soundproof holes will be dug for otters on the Shetland Islands and launches will be paused during nesting season for seabirds when rockets start blasting off from Britain’s first “vertical” spaceport next year. The SaxaVord Spaceport team has promised “to avoid disturbing birds during the critical incubation and early brooding period”. It has already built an underpass for otters. There are plans for “up to 30 launches per year”, said The Times.
Fake airport sign brought down after 20 years
A prankster who spent £25,000 on a fake airport sign in Wales is bringing the joke to an end after 20 side-splitting years. The billboard for the non-existent Llandegley International has been a landmark near the Powys village for two decades but the owner has decided it's time to take it down. “Loads of people love it, some people might not get it,” Nicholas Whitehead told the BBC. “But as far as I know, nobody is upset or angry about it. That's a first for me.”
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.
For more odd news stories, sign up to the weekly Tall Tales newsletter.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
Why quitting your job is so difficult in JapanUnder the Radar Reluctance to change job and rise of ‘proxy quitters’ is a reaction to Japan’s ‘rigid’ labour market – but there are signs of change
-
Gavin Newsom and Dr. Oz feud over fraud allegationsIn the Spotlight Newsom called Oz’s behavior ‘baseless and racist’
-
‘Admin night’: the TikTok trend turning paperwork into a partyThe Explainer Grab your friends and make a night of tackling the most boring tasks
-
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
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
How Bulgaria’s government fell amid mass protestsThe Explainer The country’s prime minister resigned as part of the fallout
-
Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal