World

Who's had a week to forget, and a week to remember?

One person's fortune is often another person's misfortune. And so while someone, somewhere, is having a good week, someone elsewhere is bound to be having a bad one.

Who around the world has had a week to remember? And who has had a week to forget?

Good week: This new employee

Image copyright CBS

Walter Carr was about to start his first day working for a removal firm on Monday, but had one big problem - his car had broken down, and his new workplace was 20 miles (32km) away.

So Walter decided to walk all night through the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama, to get there in time. When his new boss heard about Walter's journey, he thanked him by giving him his own car as a gift.

You can watch Walter's reaction here - it's worth it.

Bad week: One canal boat passenger

Rule number one of canal boating is a pretty obvious one: remember not to leave the locks open. If you don't close the locks, it's like pulling the plug out of the bath, as one canal boater discovered this week.

This was the scene on the Kennet and Avon Canal in Wiltshire, in the west of England, this Tuesday:

Image copyright David Maguire
Image caption Oops...

It was an accident, the canal's managers said, and luckily, they were able to replenish the water levels soon afterwards. No fish were harmed, local reports said.

Good week: Jeff Bezos

How much money did you make in the past year? How about $60bn (£46bn)? Thought not.

That's how much the net worth of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos grew in the past year, making him the world's richest man.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who has given away 700m shares and $2.9bn in cash since 1996, drops down into second place.

It wasn't all good news for Mr Bezos this week though, as Amazon employees in some European countries went on strike over working conditions.

Bad week: Elon Musk

Billionaires didn't have it all their own way this week, which is not a sentence one gets to write very often.

Tech guru and spiky Twitter commentator Elon Musk had been in the news for a week because of his offer to supply a mini-submarine to help rescue 12 Thai boys and their coach from a cave complex.

They were all eventually saved, but thanks to men, rather than a submersible robot. One of those men, Vern Unsworth, dismissed the sub as a "PR stunt". Mr Musk chose to respond by alleging to his 22m Twitter followers, with no basis, that Mr Unsworth was a paedophile.

One legal threat later, Mr Musk apologised to Mr Unsworth.

Good week: Mankind

Image copyright Reuters
Image caption "Why shouldn't we open it? What's the worst that could happen?"

It could all have gone so, so wrong (or so, so right, depending on how you view the world these days).

When archaeologists discovered a huge 2,000-year-old sarcophagus in Egypt three weeks ago, they decided to do what any foolish explorer would do in a horror film: they opened it.

Thankfully, no curses or plagues were unleashed and the world did not end when the three-tonne sarcophagus was opened on Thursday.

Having said that, one thing did emerge: an unbearable smell coming from a sloppy rust-coloured liquid (if you must know what that looks like, you can see it here, but don't say we didn't warn you...).

Bad week: Montenegro

Image caption Montenegro: "Very aggressive people" out of shot

The prospect of the tiny Balkan country of a little more than 600,000 people provoking World War Three was discussed this week, by no less a figure than the US president.

Montenegro is a new member of Nato, and if it were to be attacked, other Nato members would be obliged to step in and defend it.

"Why should my son go to Montenegro to defend it from attack?" Fox News' Tucker Carlson asked President Donald Trump.

"They're very strong people, they're very aggressive people," the president said. "They may get aggressive and, congratulations, you're in World War Three."

His comments didn't go down well on the streets of Podgorica. "Stupid statements," one official said. "The strangest president in the history of the United States," said another.

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