Life

Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN Saudi Arabia may be trying to reduce its dependency on oil, but that hasn’t stopped the Arabic kingdom from using its petroleum industry as inspiration for a brand new tourist attraction. The Middle Eastern country has announced plans to convert an oil rig into a 150,000 square meter “extreme park” and resort

By Evan Simko-Bednarski, CNN A vote by a little-known New York City committee on Monday signals the end to a two-decade effort to remove a statue of Thomas Jefferson from the chambers of the New York City Council. The Public Design Commission, which oversees the city’s collection of public art, voted 8-0 Monday to relocate

By Lilit Marcus, CNN Flight to nowhere. Cruise to nowhere. And now … a bus ride to nowhere. Hong Kong’s residents are among the most travel-starved people in the world. As other cities throughout Asia and the Pacific loosen travel restrictions and emerge from lockdowns, any Hong Konger who wants to leave the city is

Megan C. Hills, CNN Over a century since it was last seen in public, a vibrant Vincent van Gogh painting once seized by the Nazis is heading to auction. The watercolor of a harvest scene, titled “Meules de blé” (“Wheat Stacks”), depicts women working in the fields at Arles, France, and is expected to sell

Francesca Street, CNN The Airbus A380 is designed for long-haul flying, thanks to its hefty size and famously quiet inflight experience. But come November 2021, Singapore Airlines will deploy a superjumbo on a short-haul flight lasting a mere 60 minutes. Travelers heading on certain flights from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia will board what is

Elliott Gotkine, CNN With desert peaks stabbing the sky and a thin blue ribbon of Dead Sea shimmering in the distance, the ghostly figures of around 200 men and women — painted head to toe in white — began appearing from behind an outcrop. Each and every one of them was naked. Which could only

Noah Sheidlower, CNN Jazz artist and composer Terence Blanchard never thought his work would be performed on the Metropolitan Opera Stage. Adapted from Charles M. Blow’s memoir of the same name, Blanchard’s opera “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” tells of a Black boy growing up in rural Louisiana, where he faces poverty and sexual

Hannah Ryan, CNN The city of Vienna is taking an offbeat approach to the censorship of art and has turned to using the adults-only online platform OnlyFans to put its most “explicit” artworks on full display. The tourism board for the Austrian capital is now presenting art from four of Vienna’s most revered museums on

Hannah Ryan, CNN Cambridge University is due to return a Nigerian artifact looted during a British raid to its country of origin, in a historic first. Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments will receive a Benin bronze cockerel from Cambridge’s Jesus College later this month — in a move the university called the “first

Story by Reuters Sydney will end its Covid-19 quarantine for fully vaccinated international travelers from November 1, New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said on Friday, October 15 foreshadowing the full return of overseas travel after more than 19 months. Australia closed its international borders in March 2020 in response to the pandemic, allowing entry

By Maureen O’Hare, CNN When it comes to instantly recognizable cinematic universes, “The French Dispatch” director Wes Anderson has it nailed. Now the auteur known for his distinctively hued vintage whimsy has entered into a chef’s-kiss-perfect design partnership with luxury travel company Belmond. Anderson has redesigned the 1950s-era Cygnus carriage aboard the world-famous Belmond British

Francesca Street, CNN When Airbus announced plans to cease production of its A380 aircraft back in 2019, heartbroken aviation fans found solace in the fact that the superjumbo wasn’t set to stop flying anytime soon. Production on this much-loved aircraft was due to continue for another couple years, and plenty of airlines had active A380s

Megan C. Hills, CNN Luxury brand Coach announced that it will no longer destroy damaged or “unsaleable” goods returned to its stores, after a viral TikTok video claimed the label intentionally “slashed” unwanted items for tax purposes. Without directly referencing the allegations, the American brand wrote on Instagram Tuesday that it had “ceased” destroying in-store

By Christina Zdanowicz, CNN A larger-than-life marble statue of civil rights pioneer Mary McLeod Bethune is replacing one of a Confederate general in the US Capitol’s Statuary Hall. The daughter of former slaves, Bethune became an influential Black educator and civil and women’s rights leader. She opened a boarding school for Black children in 1904,

By Amy Woodyatt, CNN Iron Age Europeans enjoyed foods that are still part of our diet today — like blue cheese and beer — new research studying ancient poop has shown. As a rule, human fecal matter doesn’t tend to last for thousands of years, except in a few specific places such as dry caves,

Julia Buckley, CNN Over a decade ago, when Francesco Galietti had to travel from his native Rome to Milan for work, he used to fly the nearly 400-mile route. Today, he takes the train. Galietti — CEO of Rome-based political risk consultancy Policy Sonar — is not alone. Figures released in 2019 by Italy state

Celine Alkhaldi, CNN Residents of Kabul can read the writing on the wall. “Don’t trust the propaganda of the enemy” says one freshly painted sign. The message replaced a mural of US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar shaking hands, marking the signing of the 2020 agreement to withdraw American troops

Leah Dolan, CNN Canadian artist Cassils has been set alight on stage, wrestled a 2,000-pound block of clay in the pitch dark and trained as a bodybuilder on a cocktail of steroids, raw eggs and protein. If art exists to hold a mirror up to humanity, then Cassils’ performances speak to the extremes we can

By Simran Vaswani, CNN From Hollywood blockbusters to Wong Kar-wai movies, neon signs have been an iconic representation of Hong Kong. First introduced in the 1920s, these signs flourished in the later half of the 20th century amid the city’s economization. Restaurants, hotels, nightclubs, pawn shops and even mah jong parlors hung up neon lights