Our World: The week of Oct. 19, 2026

World Update: Global Affairs and Human Stories from October 19‑25, 2026

Oct. 19, 2026, 5:00 a.m. ET — 2 min read
“I want to keep going and make history.” That’s 11‑year‑old Bodhana Sivanandan of north‑west London, the youngest woman to earn the world chess grandmaster title. Sivanandan captured the rank while representing England at the 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, last month. “Chess links to countless school subjects,” she says, noting that playing with a booster seat during tourneys makes the discipline especially valuable. —Tim Backshall

Colombia cuts reintegration aid for ex‑guerrillas. For over two decades, Colombia has collaborated with former guerrilla fighters to disarm and reintegrate them into society. President Abelardo de la Espriella’s current administration has slashed funding for the Agency for Reincorporation and Normalization (ARN) and pledged to stop future allocations. The government maintains that former combatants should surrender weapons and comply with Colombia’s conventional legal system rather than benefit from exceptional treatment. ARN runs counseling services, skill‑development programmes, and initiatives assisting ex‑combatants to rebuild familial and community ties. –Whitney Eulich

“They have clearly become a burden,” Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim declared while discussing Rohingya refugees on a recent episode of the podcast *Sembang Ohh Yeahh*, prior to the government’s launch of a large‑scale repatriation effort to war‑torn Myanmar. The administration points to economic strain and growing anti‑migrant hostility as motivations for sending back tens of thousands of displaced persons. Critics, however, warn that the returns risk lives, exposing Rohingya — a predominantly Muslim minority comprising the bulk of Malaysia’s refugee population — to violence, discrimination, and compulsory military service. –Lindsey McGinnis

Exhibition shines light on difficulty of Sami life. “Muatalus sámiid birra (An Account of the Sami)”, a seminal 1910 prose work penned by Johan Turi in the native Sami language, is the earliest documented account of Sami daily life and inspired the new exhibit “On the Ugly and the Beautiful,” now at the Kin Museum of Contemporary Art in Kiruna, Sweden. Curator Maria Lind explains that Turi authored the book to inform Swedes of the struggles faced by the Sami in the early twentieth century. The show coincides with a Truth Commission report detailing systemic abuses by the Swedish state against its indigenous Sami peoples. –Matthew Bell

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