CHICAGO – October 29, 2026 -- Illinois residents shopping for 2027 health coverage can start enrolling Nov. 1, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL) is adding new plan options and a wellness rewards program worth up to $100 a year.

BCBSIL adds plan designs and a catastrophic option

For individuals and families, BCBSIL will offer Blue Choice Preferred PPO, Blue Precision HMO, BlueCare Direct HMO and MyBlue Plus POS plans in various Illinois markets. New plan designs are coming to the BlueCare Direct HMO portfolio, and MyBlue Plus POS gains a new catastrophic option.

The Blue Choice Preferred PPO network includes more than 210 hospitals and nearly 100,000 providers statewide.

Eligible members can earn up to $100 for healthy activities

Through GO Wellbeing and Go Points, members age 18 and older can earn up to $100 each year for taking part in certain healthy activities.

Hall-Wattens – October 29, 2026 -- Visitors to Tyrol's Hall-Wattens region can see the three oldest nativity scenes in Austria this Christmas season, and from about December 22, 2026, locals will guide them through private crib displays.

Tulfes shepherds wear Lederhosen

The village crib in Tulfes features carved wooden jointed figures with movable arms and feet. Its shepherds wear traditional Tyrolean dress, including Lederhosen, instead of Middle Eastern clothing.

The display goes up before the third Sunday of Advent and stays until shortly before Sebastian's Day on January 20. The Christ child in Tulfes parish church can be seen from December 24.

Hall and Thaur hold 17th-century cribs

The crib in Hall's Jesuit church dates to 1609 and counts among the oldest in Central Europe. The Maxnhof in Thaur holds the oldest surviving private crib, dated to the first half of the 17th century.

WASHINGTON – October 29, 2026 -- LUNGevity Foundation's Every Breath Forward campaign will plant 60,000 white flags on the National Mall on November 1. During Lung Cancer Awareness Month, anyone can join through a home display, a volunteer shift, or a virtual dedication.

Each flag honors two lives lost to lung cancer

Each flag represents two of the more than 120,000 people who die from lung cancer in the United States every year. Volunteers will plant the flags, and a Survivor Rally will honor survivors and call for greater awareness and research.

On November 10 at 10 a.m., LUNGevity will hold a press conference on the National Mall with policymakers, survivors, advocates, researchers, and healthcare experts. Participants will call for sustained federal research funding, expanded access to lung cancer screening and early detection, and equitable access to advances in care.

Tübingen – October 29, 2026 -- Children who brush twice a day from their first milk tooth get one of the most regular taste experiences of early childhood, and many kids' toothpastes are deliberately intensely sweet. A dental prevention researcher now asks whether that daily routine could influence which flavors children prefer later.

Three learning factors meet at the bathroom sink

Research on "flavour learning" indicates that taste preferences begin forming during pregnancy and in the first years of life, with repeated taste exposure playing an important role. Toothpaste is used twice daily and stays in the mouth for a while during brushing. Parents often add praise, attention and playful rituals.

That combines repetition, intense sweetness and positive emotional reinforcement, three factors that can support learning. The release frames this as a question rather than a proven effect.

Munich/Leipzig – October 29, 2026 -- The 32nd José Carreras Gala airs live from Leipzig on Wednesday, December 16, at 8:15 p.m. on MDR, HR and SWR, with a parallel livestream in the ARD Mediathek. It is the first time three ARD broadcasters have carried the charity event together.

Carreras turns 80 on December 5

The tenor and foundation founder celebrates his 80th birthday on December 5, and the organizers say the performers backing him this year are the best present. The gala raises money for the fight against leukemia and related diseases. Hosts Stephanie Müller-Spirra and Sven Lorig, both foundation ambassadors, return to present the show alongside Carreras.

Frankfurt am Main – October 29, 2026 -- Six new Wonka sweets, from hat-shaped chocolates to a hollow milk chocolate Oompa-Loompa, are on sale across Germany for a limited time. Ferrero is behind the range, which it says offers unusual combinations of flavor, color and texture.

Ferrero has held the Wonka candy rights since 2018

Ferrero secured the exclusive confectionery rights to the Wonka brand in 2018. Its research and development teams worked with the company's creative teams to test recipes, flavors, textures and shapes for the range.

Four flavors of Magic Hats lead the lineup

The hat-shaped Wonka Magic Hats come in four varieties:

Mainz – October 29, 2026 -- German public broadcasters ZDF, 3sat and phoenix will cover the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Turkey, from November 9 to 20, 2026, with daily news segments, documentaries and streaming premieres.

Turkey hosts the 31st UN climate conference, while Australia chairs the negotiations. The source notes that the Pacific region and its island states are especially threatened by climate change, and that implementation and financing of projects will be debated heavily this year.

Reporters on the ground in Antalya

ZDF environment reporters Winnie Heescher and Elisa Miebach are on site, as is "NANO" presenter Gregor Steinbrenner for 3sat. ZDFheute adds fact checks, explainer articles, an updated KlimaRadar and information on the new Climate Change Performance Index. Reels, galleries and graphics will run on ZDF's social channels.

BELGRADE – October 29, 2026 -- Players can now check in real time which online casinos draw complaints and how much money gets recovered, thanks to a new Casino Complaints Dashboard from AskGamblers.

The dashboard draws on the AskGamblers Casino Complaint Service

The tool visualises data from the AskGamblers Casino Complaint Service (AGCCS), which mediates between operators and users. It covers general stats, resolution processes, casino rankings, common player issues, current trends, money recovered and affiliate program complaint statistics.

Filters run from seven days to the full archive back to 2009

Users can choose a period from seven days up to one year, or view all-time historical data going back to 2009, when the service was established. The dashboard updates as complaints are submitted and resolved.

Berlin – October 29, 2026 -- A new civil protection center in Luckenwalde, in the Teltow-Fläming district, can supply up to 5,000 people from transportable containers, according to German Red Cross (DRK) President Hermann Gröhe.

The center works like a mobile small town

Gröhe described the facility as a small town in containers that can be transported and then set up. He said it answers one of the major challenges Germany faces now: caring for up to 5,000 people at once.

The Red Cross is acting before the state asks

Speaking on rbb24 Inforadio on Thursday, the day the center opened, Gröhe said the DRK is going in with advance effort. He framed the center as an offer to help the state with a core task of government.

Gröhe also said Germany neglected civil protection in more peaceful times. The new center is meant to take a key role in national crisis preparedness.

LONDON – October 29, 2026 -- Pet owners moving between the US and Europe can now book Vicuna Air flights through December 5, 2027, with Brussels as the airline's European hub.

First Brussels flights carried more than 14 pets

Vicuna Air flew its first continental European services on October 7 and 9, between New York and Brussels. Two of the animals leaving New York were rabbits in Biscuit Class. They travelled in the cabin without their owners, accompanied by a Vicuna Concierge for the whole journey.

Seven bookings continued beyond Brussels. Vicuna's connecting service, Waypoints, took those pets onward by road, some to Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Others arrived from as far away as Stockholm to join the return flight. On the New York to Europe route, a pet never enters the hold.