‘Face condom’: pandemic inspires new German words

The Covid-19 pandemic has inspired a whole host of new words in Germann. “Coronamutationsgebiet” is a mashup of the words for “corona”, “mutation” and “area”. It refers to a place where new variants of the virus are spreading. “Coronafußgruß” means “corona-foot greeting” and describes the alternative to handshakes, while “gesichtskondom” means “face condom”.

Mum arrested over vote-rigging claim 

A teenage girl and her mother have been arrested in Florida after allegedly hacking hundreds of student accounts to fraudulently vote for the teen as homecoming queen. Laura Rose Carroll, 50, and her 17-year-old daughter, Emily Rose Grover, were arrested after hundreds of votes for Tate High School’s Homecoming Court were flagged as fraudulent. Suspicions were raised when nearly 120 votes came from the same IP address within a short period of time.

Snake curls up in asthma inhaler 

 An Australian girl was shocked to discover a venomous snake hiding inside her asthma inhaler. The teenager was bringing in her washing in Queensland, Australia, when she spotted the red-bellied black snake slither out of the clothes. She did not know where it ended up, but later noticed it curled up inside the open top of her blue inhaler. She called a team of snake catchers, who safely captured the reptile and rehoused it.