Life

By Lana Lam, CNN London (CNN) — The Coliseum in London’s West End is used to staging epic theatrical productions. But even for the capital’s largest theater, this was unique. With a cast of more than 70 actors, dancers and musicians, “The Mongol Khan” is a riot of color and sound. But the political backdrop

By Lianne Kolirin, CNN London (CNN) — Airbrushing and beauty filters may feel like a modern phenomenon, but conservation work to a portrait painted in the 17th century has revealed that touch-ups to images are nothing new. English Heritage, an organization that manages more than 400 historic buildings, monuments and sites in England, has discovered

By CNN Staff (CNN) — How creative would you get to shave $500 off a flight? For those kinds of savings, some flyers engage in the practice known as skiplagging. Also called hidden-city ticketing or throwaway ticketing, it’s a way some travelers work around an often-counterintuitive airline booking system, shaving money off the price of

By Lianne Kolirin, CNN (CNN) — Fragments of musical scores discovered at Auschwitz will be played for the first time next week after being painstakingly restored by a composer. Leo Geyer, 31, who is also a conductor, said he stumbled upon the collection of musical manuscripts by accident during a visit to Auschwitz in 2015.

Words by Jane Sit, videos by Kevin Broad, CNN Bulgan, Mongolia (CNN) — It’s early morning and an orange glow has filled the sky as the sun slowly rises over a seemingly endless desert landscape. Every few hours, herders walk into view, hundreds of sheep and goats in tow as they make their way to

By Blane Bachelor, CNN (CNN) — Stephen Lewis and Christian Scali met the old-fashioned way, as Scali likes to call it: at a Starbucks in Los Angeles’ West Hollywood neighborhood. It was spring of 1997, and Scali, a law student, was buried deep in his textbooks. Lewis, who at the time was in private practice,

By Maureen O’Hare, CNN (CNN) — Prepare to chortle, titter or even guffaw, for this is the biggest moment of the year for fans of funny animal photos. The judges of the UK-based Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards have studied more than 1,800 images submitted from 85 countries, assessing whether they are chucklesome, rib-tickling or an

By Leah Dolan, CNN (CNN) — What’s the color of the year? Pantone is still deciding, but sometimes all the evidence you need for the next must-have shade is sitting on the top of celebrities’ heads. In August, Billie Eilish revived her signature hairstyle — an all-over black gloss with a striking root dye job

By Nell Lewis, CNN (CNN) — A herd of buffaloes wander parched land amidst a drought, a farmer and his cows wade knee-deep through floodwater, and people walk across a bridge over a multicolored river of trash. All three scenes were among the winning images of the Environmental Photographer of the Year 2023 competition, and

By Trey Taylor, CNN (CNN) — There is something fascinating about a young man in the public eye — an actor — putting himself so squarely and so specifically in the purview of gay desire that he becomes, as “Saturday Night Live” star Bowen Yang recently termed it, “gay famous.” The 26-year-old actor Jacob Elordi

By Forrest Brown, CNN (CNN) — Computer glitches. Air traffic controller shortages. Awful weather. Holiday crunches. Accidents and investigations. So many things can cause a flight to be delayed or canceled. It’s no wonder travelers are wary about making it to their destinations on time – or at all. (And even if they make it,

By Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN (CNN) — There’s nothing quite like a festive market to bring out the Christmas spirit in people. While these events can be traced back to Vienna – the city’s first recorded December market was in 1298 – the tradition has spread across the world over the centuries. From Germany and Switzerland

By Faye Bradley, CNN (CNN) — Remember when Angelina Jolie’s right leg became a viral sensation? It was 2012, and the actress arrived at the 84th Academy Awards in a strapless black velvet dress by Atelier Versace. But this was no ordinary gown: It bore a daring thigh slit — one so high that it

By Tara Subramaniam, CNN Hong Kong (CNN) — Elsa, Anna, Olaf and Sven have a new home on a subtropical island in Asia. World of Frozen, Disney’s first-ever themed land dedicated to the “Frozen” media franchise, opened at Hong Kong Disneyland on November 20. The new land at the park on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island

By Cath Pound, CNN (CNN) — Soheila Sokhanvari’s retrospective “We Could Be Heroes…” takes its name from David Bowie’s 1977 classic “Heroes,” a song which has particular resonance for the Iranian born, UK-based artist. Like the two lovers separated by the Berlin Wall in Bowie’s song, Sokhanvari was separated from everything she knew and loved

CNN By Steve Almasy, Carlos Suarez and Denise Royal, CNN (CNN) — American Airlines said it is reviewing a video posted on TikTok that shows a baggage handler releasing a passenger’s wheelchair to slide down a jet bridge chute, where it crashed into a metal barrier, flipped over and tumbled onto an airport tarmac. The post, which has millions of views, has

By Steve Almasy, Carlos Suarez and Denise Royal, CNN (CNN) — American Airlines said it is reviewing a video posted on TikTok that shows a baggage handler releasing a passenger’s wheelchair to slide down a jet bridge chute, where it crashed into a metal barrier, flipped over and tumbled onto an airport tarmac. The post, which has millions of views, has brought

By Xiaofei Xu, CNN Paris (CNN) — Displayed in a room overlooking the Seine that was filled with the smell of warm butter and baked flour, an opéra pastry in the form of a diving platform perched in a shiny, blue pool was awarded the best pastry of Paris title on Tuesday. A panel of

By Tiffany Ap (CNN) — Back in February, Nattawin Wattanagitiphat’s fans spared no expense in marking the Thai actor’s 29th birthday. Videos that made their way onto social media showed ‘Apo,’ as he is affectionately known, wading through a sea of flower bouquet stands, multiple cakes towering over six feet tall, gold bars, cash and

or all the buzz Alaska gets for summertime’s wildlife adventures and busy cruising season, visiting the state during the quieter winter months has a unique appeal that goes beyond the chance to see the northern lights.

By Kristen Rogers, CNN (CNN) — Once you’re finally on vacation, it’s no fun when suddenly not being able to poop keeps you from enjoying your trip. This predicament is known as travel constipation, when people who typically don’t have digestive problems at home develop “the characteristic symptoms of constipation” while they’re traveling, said Dr.

By Harmeet Kaur, CNN (CNN) — The people of Pembroke, North Carolina, don’t shy away from their Native identity. In fact, some of them wear it on their sleeves — be it a feather-patterned blanket draped around the shoulders or a baseball cap emblazoned with the words “Native Pride.” These kinds of markers are everywhere

By Issy Ronald, CNN (CNN) — Anonymity lies at the center of the mythology surrounding the elusive street artist Banksy, but he may have revealed his name in a resurfaced interview. First recorded in 2003, the interview was released Tuesday as a bonus episode of the BBC podcast series “The Banksy Story.” When former BBC

By Tom Marsden, CNN (CNN) — Brimming with natural resources and in a prime spot at the frontier of Europe and Asia, the transcontinental country of Azerbaijan has a fascinating multi-layered history. The “Land of Fire” has been coveted by everyone from legendary conquerors like Alexander the Great and Timur to expansive empires such as

By Arya Jyothi, CNN (CNN) — Wildlife is under unprecedented threat from human activity, but research suggests that given space and time, even animal and plant species on the brink of extinction can bounce back. A 2022 report commissioned by the non profit Rewilding Europe found many European bird and mammal species were making a

By Tom Marsden, CNN (CNN) — Brimming with natural resources and in a prime spot at the frontier of Europe and Asia, the transcontinental country of Azerbaijan has a fascinating multi-layered history. The “Land of Fire” has been coveted by everyone from legendary conquerors like Alexander the Great and Timur to expansive empires such as

CNN By Tara Subramaniam, CNN Hong Kong (CNN) — Elsa, Anna, Olaf and Sven have a new home on a subtropical island in Asia. World of Frozen, Disney’s first-ever themed land dedicated to the “Frozen” media franchise, opened at Hong Kong Disneyland on November 20. The new land at the park on Hong Kong’s Lantau

By Christy Choi, CNN (CNN) — The stars were not quite out in force at the Billboard Music Awards last night, which was held in several live venues across California. Instead, the occasion was a disparate affair with stars appearing remotely from “global locations, in the midst of sold-out tours, and in custom venues,” organizers

By Scottie Andrew, CNN (CNN) — Behold, a woman fuming. Though she’s dressed in an opulent, fur-trimmed gown in a palatial French home sometime in the mid-19th century, her silent fury is recognizable to women the world over who’ve contained their ire to an eye roll. She’s “The Hesitant Fiancée,” the eponymous subject of the

By Alex Rees, CNN (CNN) — Sheynnis Palacios of Nicaragua was crowned the 2023 Miss Universe at the culmination of the annual beauty pageant, which took place on Saturday night in El Salvador’s capital, San Salvador. Anntonia Porsild of Thailand placed as first runner-up. Palacios’ win marks the first-ever time a Nicaraguan woman has won

By Alex Rees, CNN (CNN) — The 2023 Miss Universe pageant will take place tonight in El Salvador’s capital, San Salvador. (It will air in the United States from 8 p.m. ET on the Roku Channel.) Eighty-four contestants — each representing their home countries — will be in contention, but most only briefly: at the

By Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN (CNN) — There are few things Italians do better than dreaming big against the odds. Take the multi-million-dollar plan that’s been in the works since the 1990s to build the world’s longest suspension bridge across the Straits of Messina in the heart of Mafia land. Or the very existence of

By Chris Lau, CNN (CNN) — The Philippines has banned for life an American traveler whom it accused of writing “profane words” on a digital immigration form and being rude to immigration officers. Anthony Laurence, 34, was refused entry and put on a blacklist permanently following his allegedly “disrespectful” behavior, the Philippine Bureau of Immigration

By Francesca Street, CNN (CNN) — Heart-shaped hot tubs surrounded by rose petals, circular beds with ceilings that replicate a starry night sky and jaw-dropping, seven-foot-tall champagne-glass whirlpools for two. Welcome to the Cove Pocono Resorts in Pennsylvania, once known as the “Honeymoon Capital of the World” thanks to its array of adults-only hotels and

By Julia Buckley, CNN (CNN) — There are short runways, bumpy runways and runways that are notoriously buffeted by crosswinds, but here’s a new one for nervous flyers to get alarmed about: an ice runway. Norse Atlantic Airways landed a Boeing 787 Dreamliner in rather different conditions than usual on Wednesday. The destination: Antarctica. The landing strip:

By Jenny Marc, CNN Tanomah, Saudi Arabia – (CNN) — Abdulrahman Alabdu hangs off the side of a cliff, drilling into the rock and placing stainless steel bolts in each hole. In this remote corner of Saudi Arabia, his tools are the only sound piercing the silence. He estimates that just 30 to 50 people from

By Alex Rees, CNN (CNN) — What do dictionaries, fighter planes, plantains and the Swiss Guard have in common? That’s a serious question, but with a delightfully nonsensical answer: All served as inspiration for national costumes on display during the 2023 Miss Universe pageant’s preliminary competition. (Specifically, those were the looks donned by Miss Great

By Christy Choi, CNN Hong Kong (CNN) — A golden face with patinaed turquoise eyes stares out of the darkness. Illuminated around it stand three other bronze heads — some have flat tops, others round — all looked over by a giant bronze statue almost 9 feet high. All have the same piercing, angular eyes.

By Marnie Hunter, CNN (CNN) — Swifties are invited to set sail to the Bahamas next year on a four-night fan cruise from Miami. But Taylor Swift fans shouldn’t expect to see their idol aboard the ship, Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas. The cruise’s organizers, travel agents at Marvelous Mouse Travels, are careful to

By Harmeet Kaur, CNN (CNN) — As the National Book Awards came to a close on Wednesday, finalists for the prestigious literary prizes took the stage in New York to speak about the Israel-Hamas war, with others at the ceremony also choosing to address banned books. Aaliyah Bilal, who was nominated for the fiction award