Hero
Roshan the camel, who travels between four Pakistani villages laden with books, functioning as a mobile library for children. After schools in Balochistan province were closed because of Covid, a local headteacher and her politician sister decided to trial a camel, which visits each village once a week. Another camel, Chirag, has just started providing a similar service elsewhere in Balochistan.
Villain
Takashi Miyagawa, a Japanese man who reportedly dated more than 35 women at the same time in order to receive more birthday presents. He has been arrested and is being investigated for fraud after the women discovered his infidelity and reported him to the police. He is alleged to have received gifts worth £668 in total, and to have given different birthday dates to the women to ensure a constant supply.
Villain
The beaver that chewed through an internet cable, cutting off web access in the Canadian town of Tumbler Ridge for 12 hours. In what the the internet provider called a “uniquely Canadian turn of events”, the beaver had also gnawed through the cable’s 4½in-thick protective tubing.
Hero
Gareth Wild, 39, from Bromley, southeast London – probably the first person to have parked in every space in his local Sainsbury’s car park. For six years, he says, he filled in a spreadsheet listing all the parking spots he’d used: “This week I completed my Magnum Opus!” I’m baffled by the odd fixations men have, says Telegraph columnist Judith Woods. Perhaps their “obsessive hobby disorders are a substitute for authentic emotional engagement”.
Villain
Idaho, which is proposing to cull 90% of its 1,550 grey wolves. The Trump administration removed the animal from an endangered species list in January, leaving states in charge of their management. A hunt in Wisconsin in March killed at least 216 wolves in 60 hours.
Heroes
A Taiwanese couple who got married, divorced and remarried four times in 37 days to capitalise on the paid “marital leave” they are entitled to by law. Taiwan is one of the few places in the world where citizens get time off (in this case eight days) for their wedding. When the man’s employer, a bank, refused to pay him for any more than one wedding’s worth of time off, he took it to a labour tribunal and won. The bank was fined $700 (it has since appealed).