Julia Buckley, CNN Everyone loves a good train ride, and in 2022 the world did rail fanatics proud with new routes, new operators and a new need for speed across the globe. From a night train taking you from Austria to the Italian Riviera to the new semi high-speed line across Laos, from a luxurious
Continue Reading By Francesca Street, CNN It wasn’t the honeymoon they planned. Instead of exploring the South Pacific on the cruise of a lifetime, newlyweds Jay and Carmen Martinez found themselves stuck at sea with no end date in sight. The Martinezs boarded the Norwegian Jewel on February 28, 2020. Pre-departure, the couple — two twenty-somethings from
Continue Reading Jacqui Palumbo, CNN In the weeks after photographer Rachel Papo gave birth to her son, Ilan, in the summer of 2013, she monitored herself. She watched for signs of anxiety, insomnia or loneliness, for the fog that had blanketed her brain for months after the birth of her daughter, Zohar, three years prior, making it
Continue Reading By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN Ayda Zugay clasps her hands together, trying to keep her nerves in check. She’s been waiting for this day for decades. At any moment the woman she tried to find for so long will finally be here. It’s been more than 23 years since a stranger on an airplane gave
Continue Reading By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN Ayda Zugay clasps her hands together, trying to keep her nerves in check. She’s been waiting for this day for decades. At any moment the woman she tried to find for so long will finally be here. It’s been more than 23 years since a stranger on an airplane gave
Continue Reading By Issy Ronald, CNN An image of a 3-month-old lion cub falling out of a tree has been named the overall winner of this year’s Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. The moment was captured by Jennifer Hadley in the Serengeti, Tanzania, late one afternoon, and the image fought off competition from 5,000 other entries. “It didn’t
Continue Reading Alaa Elassar, CNN On a warm evening last week, Leila Giries sat in her California home, took a deep breath and pressed play on a film she says forced her to relive the most traumatic moment of her life. “Farha,” released December 1 on Netflix, is inspired by the story of a young Palestinian girl
Continue Reading Oscar Holland, CNN In a drone photograph by Yevhen Samuchenko, Lake Lemuria, the so-called “Dead Sea of Ukraine,” takes on a surreal, otherworldly quality. Its waters turned pink by algae, its shoreline streaked with white salt deposits, the body of water might easily be confused for an abstract painting were it not for the presence
Continue Reading Oscar Holland, CNN In a drone photograph by Yevhen Samuchenko, Lake Lemuria, the so-called “Dead Sea of Ukraine,” takes on a surreal, otherworldly quality. Its waters turned pink by algae, its shoreline streaked with white salt deposits, the body of water might easily be confused for an abstract painting were it not for the presence
Continue Reading By Lilit Marcus, CNN It already looks like 2023 is going to be a year of “revenge travel,” with people who were cooped up during the pandemic taking the long-overdue dream vacations they’ve been saving up for. However, while most of the world is open again and operating like before, not every attraction survived the
Continue Reading Zoe Sottile, CNN If you’ve logged on to any social media app this week, you’ve probably seen pictures of your friends, but re-imagined as fairy princesses, animé characters, or celestial beings. It is all because of Lensa, an app which uses artificial intelligence to render digital portraits based on photos users submit. Lensa’s highly stylized,
Continue Reading Eva Rothenberg, CNN In photographer Peter Merts’ images of California’s Arts in Corrections program, a smiling man is pictured with an acrylic portrait of Pope Francis. It is a fitting choice of subject in a photo series that explores rehabilitation and redemption in America’s prison system. Even before the California Institution for Men established an
Continue Reading Toyin Owoseje, CNN The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has revoked an honorary doctorate awarded to Kanye West, as the fallout from the rapper’s offensive remarks about Black and Jewish people continues. The prestigious art college announced the decision on Thursday, saying in a statement that “the School of the Art Institute
Continue Reading Jacqui Palumbo, CNN Former First Lady Michelle Obama is in the middle of a month-long book tour and, as always, her style choices are making headlines. But there’s been a noticeable shift in her clothes, from the classic silhouettes she’s known for to more playful, cool-girl styles. On Tuesday, in Atlanta, she took the stage
Continue Reading Jacqui Palumbo, CNN The artist Samara Golden has spent months painting guts — lurid, swollen, sinuous forms in bloody red, purplish-blue or a sickly yellow. Made of expandable foam, encased in balloons like misshapen sausage links, they are layered onto large-scale panels that loom above viewers. One installation saw the multicolor intestines surround humanoid foam
Continue Reading Mayumi Maruyama Smoke began to drift out of a box as the winner of Japan’s “dish of the year” was revealed. But it wasn’t a beautifully plated mackerel or an immaculate dessert that took top honors. Instead, the hosts unveiled a variety of frozen meats and pizzas — still in their air-tight bags. Every year,
Continue Reading Jacqui Palumbo, CNN After much speculation over the fate of Netflix’s docuseries “Harry & Meghan,” the first three episodes finally arrive Thursday, offering an intimate look at the lives of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and, as the trailers suggest, further insight into why they stepped down from their royal duties. But who is
Continue Reading Lianne Kolirin, CNN As a librarian, Chelsea Banning must have known the life of a writer is a lonely one. Even so, she was shocked when she discovered for herself just what that solitude could look like. After spending years working on her first novel, “Of Crowns and Legends,” she was excited to launch it
Continue Reading Francesca Street, CNN What do you do when your evening flight is canceled, you really need to be somewhere in the morning and there are no other available flights? In the case of 13 total strangers in Orlando, Florida late Sunday, you hire a minivan, form an impromptu community and go on a “crazy” road
Continue Reading By Forrest Brown, Gregory Wallace and Karla Cripps, CNN For passengers who are booked with Southwest Airlines this week, the much-needed conclusion to the carrier’s troubles is still several agonizing days away. As the beleaguered airline continues to sort out stranded passengers, uncollected baggage and out-of-position airplanes, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has taken the
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