News of the World: What you missed this week internationally

SWEDEN

Pro soccer club Mjällby AIF, which plays in a fishing village of around 1,500 inhabitants, won its first ever Allsvenskan title, making history for being the smallest community to ever win the championship of the top-tier professional soccer league. The win means the team qualifies for the 2026/27 UEFA Champions League, Europe’s premier soccer tournament.

AUSTRALIA

Close to 100 million red crabs began their annual migration from their forest home to the shores of Christmas Island in order to lay their eggs on its beaches. Roads are overrun with the crustaceans, so locals keep leaf blowers and rakes in their cars in order to steer the critters to safety and build bridges to aid them in their journey. Radio stations also provide listeners with status updates on the migration, which culminates with the females releasing their spawn into the ocean at high tide in mid-November.  

CHINA

Moviegoers are criticizing the Chinese film “731,” which centers around the Japanese Imperial Army’s Unit 731. The film includes scenes such featuring a procession of high-ranking prostitutes in an internment camp and was released on the day of China’s infamous “Mukden Incident,” a 1931 episode in which the Japanese military staged an explosion on a railway track ahead of an invasion. Some are taking to social media to demand refunds for the movie, which also features a female Imperial Japanese Army officer. The Chinese newspaper Heilongjiang Daily, however, reported the film was accurate according to historical documents.

COLOMBIA

A group of 29 senior women, mostly grandmothers, celebrated the quinceañeras they never had. The lucky ladies, aged 60 to 85, were selected through an open call on social media from the Sueños Hechos [Dreams Come True] Foundation for the belated 15th birthday celebrations, a tradition in Latin American culture. The women, who rode in limos through northwestern Bogotá and walked a red carpet that led to the party’s community hall venue, were unable to participate in the rite of passage when they were teens because their families could not afford to host them.

SOUTH AFRICA

South African rowers recently made sports history as the first to compete in the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, the first crew of color from the nation to compete internationally. Their participation is part of a multinational effort to diversify rowing, one of the most elite and white sports, as well as the competition, the world’s largest three-day rowing event held annually on the Charles River.

With Wires