Life

CNN staff (CNN) — Nearly a dozen recent incidents involving United Airlines planes. A fiery runway collision in Tokyo. And the alarming mid-air blow out of a door plug on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9. It’s been an inauspicious start for aviation in 2024. Are you worried? We’d like to hear from you.

By Scottie Andrew, CNN (CNN) — A pair of ruby slippers, famously donned by Judy Garland (in character as Dorothy Gale) in “The Wizard of Oz,” has been returned to its owner years after the shoes were stolen from a museum dedicated to the actress. FBI agents on Monday reunited collector Michael Shaw with the

Photos and interviews by Moeri Karasawa, Himari Semans and Getty Images; Text by Oscar Holland, CNN Tokyo, Japan (CNN) — Tokyo Fashion Week concluded perhaps its most successful edition since the Covid-19 pandemic, with more international guests and buyers returning to Japan’s capital for the Fall-Winter 2024 edition. The event’s 35 physical shows featured Finnish

By Zoe Whitfield, CNN (CNN) — “My God, it’s dull,” said interior designer Steven Thomas of the British retail landscape in 2024. As the creative force behind the look of the wildly popular 1970s London fashion store Big Biba, Thomas knows a thing or two about engineering excitement. Big Biba — a daring, 20,000 square

By Oscar Holland, CNN (CNN) — Shigeichi Negishi, the entrepreneur who invented the world’s first karaoke machine, has died aged 100. Negishi, whose 1967 “Sparko Box” prototype is among several devices credited with ushering in Japan’s karaoke craze, died from natural causes in January. His death, which was made public last week, was confirmed to

By Rebecca Cairns, CNN (CNN) — When Mohamad Orfali was a child, his favorite meal was breakfast. At his family home in Aleppo, Syria, his grandfather would prepare “Treet Bel Laban” — an omelet with meatballs, served on top of garlic yogurt, and eaten with warm bread. “I have so many memories of food,” says

By Amy Woodyatt, CNN (CNN) — The FBI has returned a trove of looted Japanese art to its country of origin after a family found a stash of artifacts in their late father’s Massachusetts attic. The family of a deceased World War II veteran contacted the FBI after discovering the items, which they determined to

By Terry Ward, CNN (CNN) — For all the stories of American families who’ve bid adieu to the United States to give their kids a different upbringing in France, decamped to Italy for a better lifestyle or made the move to Portugal to afford health care and retire on the cheap, there are plenty of

By Christian House, CNN (CNN) — As accidental adverts for art shows go, a giant pooch made of flowers is a crowd pleaser. Outside the Guggenheim Bilbao in northern Spain, Jeff Koons’ much-loved flower 1992 sculpture “Puppy,” shows how Pop art — that high kick of counter-intuitive artistic expression so often equated with the 1960s

By Matt Villano, CNN (CNN) — Visitors love Las Vegas for the glitz, glam and garishness of the resorts that line the 4.2-mile Las Vegas Strip, but the most exciting neighborhood in the city right now is all about art. This area, fittingly called the Arts District, has become a haven for local creatives. It’s

By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN (CNN) — Look at almost any modern high-horsepower supercar and you will see the work of auto designer Marcello Gandini. Sharp lines, a low stance, doors that swing up; all were influenced by Gandini’s seminal work, the Lamborghini Countach. The Countach and its predecessor, the Lamborghini Miura, are widely regarded as

Essay by Yemisi Aribisala, CNN (CNN) — Femi Oyebade, a Nigerian diasporan for more than 30 years and a Guinness beer connoisseur, assures me that there is a stark difference between Irish Guinness and Nigerian Guinness. Chalk and cheese won’t suffice in defining the distance between the two. Nigerian Guinness has weight in your mouth

By Francesca Street, CNN (CNN) — Long lines. Feeling bleary-eyed and exhausted after an overnight flight. Scrambling to get your documents ready. For most international travelers arriving in the US, going through immigration and customs is another step in the travel process – and it can take a little while. But international travelers arriving from

By Lilit Marcus, CNN (CNN) — Tourists to the Galapagos Islands will be asked to pay twice as much in entry fees from this year amid concerns that a rise in visitor numbers is putting pressure on the ecologically sensitive destination. Ecuador’s Ministry of Tourism has announced the new fees, which will take effect on

By Jennifer Hauser, CNN (CNN) — Royal Caribbean is suspending cruise ship ports of call in Labadee, on the northern coast of Haiti, as violence escalates in the Caribbean country. “The safety and security of our guests, crew, and communities we visit are our top priority. Our Global Security and Intel Team is closely monitoring

By Steffi Cao, CNN (CNN) — At the turn of the millennium, web-based technology was in a state of chrysalis. Google was just one of several mainstream search engines, not yet a monopolistic empire. Dial-up internet (and its iconic dial tone) was still a thing in many American homes. File-sharing services like Napster and LimeWire

By Leah Dolan, CNN (CNN) — While there was an abundance of daring looks at the Oscars red carpet this year, one of the evening’s most memorable outfits came from Hollywood newcomer Sandra Hüller. The German actor’s arresting performances in “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest” — two movies nominated for the

By Issy Ronald, CNN (CNN) — The disastrous Willy Wonka-inspired experience held in Glasgow, Scotland, last month has already been immortalized in an endless stream of meme-orabilia that will forever live on a corner of the internet. And now, some of the physical memorabilia that provided sparse decoration for the event’s venue has been preserved

By Hilary Whiteman, CNN Brisbane, Australia (CNN) — For more than a decade, Australian billionaire Clive Palmer has been the driving force behind plans to build Titanic II — a replica of the ill-fated ship that sank in 1912 with more than 2,200 people on board. Only about 700 survived, making it the world’s most

By Lyn Slater (CNN) — In the fall of 2019, I received an e-mail from a group of Parsons Fashion Design and Society MFA students who had been given the assignment to make a collection of clothes for “seniors,” as part of a course that involves creating designs that focus on disabled, plus-size, transgender and

By Yoonjung Seo, CNN (CNN) — Ever since her 2020 birth, Fu Bao has been one of South Korea’s biggest celebrities, with fans eagerly following every milestone of her life at Everland Resort’s Panda World, a theme park in Yongin city. But the country’s most famous and beloved giant panda is set to bid South

CNN By Kathleen Magramo, Manveena Suri and Alex Stambaugh, CNN (CNN) — The pilot of a terrifying flight from Australia to New Zealand told those on board he temporarily lost control of his Boeing 787 after one of its instruments failed, a passenger said Monday, as authorities investigate what caused a sudden drop that threw travelers around

By Catherine Nicholls, CNN (CNN) — Three Belgian climate activists who were previously sentenced to prison for a protest targeting Johannes Vermeer’s painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” will no longer face any punishment for their actions, a Dutch court of appeal ruled on Monday. The demonstrators, who are part of the campaign group Just

By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — Archaeologists in Turkey have discovered groundbreaking evidence connecting prehistoric facial piercings to the bodies of the people who wore them. Personal adornment — including earring-like objects thought to be worn as piercings — has been documented among Neolithic or late Stone Age peoples in multiple locations across southwest Asia, with

By Leah Dolan, CNN (CNN) — There was something uncanny about Sydney Sweeney’s look at the Vanity Fair Oscars party last night. The wavy ‘lob’ she cut last week had been sheared into a soft, blown-out bob; while her plunging, cream-colored halter-neck dress looked more like it should be wafting over a subway grate than

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN (CNN) — An awards ceremony curveball indeed: Emma Stone, winner of the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in “Poor Things,” dealt with a sartorial snafu just moments before she took the stage to accept her trophy. “My dress is broken,” Stone appeared to mouth while en route to receive

By Jacqui Palumbo, CNN (CNN) — The cast of “Barbie” will go down in red-carpet history for their dedication to method dressing, as stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling diligently showed up to press events, premieres and award shows in outfits that could have been borrowed straight from Barbie and Ken’s dollhouse closets. But at

By Marianne Garvey and Jacqui Palumbo, CNN (CNN) — Billie Eilish, Finneas, Mark Ruffalo, Ava DuVernay, Ramy Youssef and Quannah Chasinghorse are among the latest stars to step onto the red carpet in matching red lapel pins — this time at the Academy Awards. And though he did not walk the carpet, actor Mahershala Ali

By Ray Sanchez and Carlos Suarez, CNN (CNN) — Miami Beach may be breaking up with spring break, but spring break isn’t moving on just yet. It’s a complicated, sometimes toxic, affair. City officials and business owners have had to balance the billions of dollars generated by visitors with successive years of unruly crowds and

By Alex Rees, CNN (CNN) — Besting 111 of her fellow titleholders from across the globe, Krystyna Pyszková of the Czech Republic was crowned Miss World 2024 on Saturday in Mumbai, India, where the international pageant was held this year. Across a series of events during the pageant’s preliminary competition, including fitness, beauty, talent and

By Julia Buckley, CNN (CNN) — How do you connect to the internet while barreling through the sky at 500 miles per hour? How can you brew hot food and drinks at high altitude? And most important of all, how does a toilet work at 40,000 feet? We often think about how planes work –