5 things we learned this week

1 There’s a new British record for sheep shearing. Lloyd Rees, a 28-year-old Welshman who has honed his skills since he was 16, cut 902 animals in nine hours. Beating the previous record of 881 set the week before, he raised more than £1,700 for charity.

2 Contraception in the Middle Ages was bizarre. A 12th Century guide advised women that it would help to carry around a weasel’s testicles wrapped in goose skin. Recommended alternatives included a mule’s ear, elephant dung or the small bone from a donkey’s vulva.

3 Emmanuel Macron is a night owl. In the small hours, the French President, below, goes through his notes, reads poetry or, according to the magazine Le Point, has ‘nocturnal conversations’ on the encrypted messaging app Telegram. From about 10.30pm to as late as 3am, he ‘consults, probes and solicits’ a network of informal advisers.

4 Receding water levels are revealing several treasures that are normally buried by Europe’s rivers. They include the remains of more than 20 German warships sunk in 1944 in the Danube; the Spanish ‘ghost village’ of Aceredo, below, which was flooded to create a reservoir in 1992; and what’s left of an ancient bridge in Rome, which may have been built by Emperor Nero in about 50AD.

5 Sperm whales have an odd sleeping position. When they want a snooze, they take a deep breath, dive to 45ft and slumber vertically. No one is quite sure why, but one theory is that it allows them to float near the surface and stay alert to potential predators.

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