News of the World: What you missed this week internationally

ITALY

Italy has changed an 1865 law which deemed a child born to an Italian citizen to also be an Italian citizen. On Thursday, the country’s constitutional court declared it would not allow citizenship to children born abroad even if their parent is an Italian native. The law was first brought to the court last year, but was challenged by four judges.

Children of Italian natives are no longer automatically Italian citizens. Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

AUSTRALIA

Australian basketball player Josh Giddey of the Chicago Bulls made history Friday in his game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. In the matchup, the 23-year-old guard made 19 assists, the most by an Australian in a single NBA game. He dethroned fellow Melburnian Ben Simmons, whose previous record was 17.

MEXICO

Mexico’s monarch butterfly population has risen by more than 60% from last year, however experts warn they are still at risk of becoming extinct. Mexico’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources reported the surge of the insects, which spend the winter in the country’s high‑elevation forests. However, the species’ population is still down by more than 80% since the 1990s due to factors such as use of insecticides in their habitat, climate change, and extreme weather.

Mexico’s monarch butterfly population has risen by more than 60%. Adam – stock.adobe.com

JAPAN

A new limited-time only train with views of Japan’s tallest peak, Mount Fuji launched on Thursday. The locomotive, which connects Mishima and Fujinomiya stations in Shizuoka Prefecture, is part of a tour that includes a bus visit to the shrine at the foot of Mount Fuji, as well as wasabi fields and waterfalls. Mount Fuji, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, is an active volcano that stands at 12,389 feet tall.

CANADA

Canada fell to 25th place in the annual World Happiness Report released on Thursday. The country has experienced a decade-long downward trend in the report, which asks participants to rate the quality of their life on a scale of 0 to 10. One of the reasons for Canada’s decline in the report, published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, is presumed to be the increase in social media use among young people under 25. Finland topped the list as the happiest country in the world for the ninth year in a row. The US came in at 23rd out of the 140 countries polled.

With Wires