News of the World: What you missed this week internationally

AUSTRALIA

A convicted murderer sentenced to life behind bars is suing his prison because they won’t let him eat Vegemite. Andre McKechnie, 54, said the Victoria jail deprives him of his right to “enjoy his culture as an Australian” by banning the traditional spread, made from yeast extract. He took his suit against Victoria’s Department of Justice and Community Safety to the Supreme Court of Victoria and his case is scheduled to go to trial next year.

Two jars of Vegemite on a store shelf, priced at $7.99. — An Australian prisoner is suing for his right to eat Vegemite. dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images

CHINA

Hong Kong’s soccer team, the 148th-best in the world, is attracting crowds of 50,000 thanks to its new stadium. The 50,000-seat Kai Tak Sports Park, built where an airport once stood, was unveiled in March and has brought big crowds cheering on the local team, which typically saw under 15,000 spectators.

Chan Shinichi of Hong Kong in a red jersey, with Lallianzuala Chhangte of India in a blue jersey on the ground with a soccer ball nearby. — Hong Kong’s soccer team is seeing larger-than-ever crowds. Getty Images

ITALY

Rome’s oldest coffee house, whose celebrity clientele included Charles Dickens, Orson Welles, Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren, was forced to close last month after its rent was raised by a staggering $120,000. The battle over the 200-year-old Antico Caffè Greco, located by the Spanish Steps, began in 2017, when its 80-year lease expired. “We would be ready to pay more rent to keep the café open but not six times the amount we’re paying now,” owner Carlo Pellegrini told CNN. “I feel very angry, but we will fight this.”

EGYPT

High-speed trains capable of traveling at 155 miles per hour were recently unveiled at the TransMEA 2025 show in New Cairo. Forty-one of the locomotives, which can hold 489 passengers, will be used on the 1,200-mile high-speed network the country is planning. The new rails will connect Egypt’s major cities across three lines and lower travel times for 90% of the population by up to 50%.

MEXICO

A self-portrait by Mexican painter Frida Kahlo has become the most expensive work by a female artist sold at auction, after raking in $54.7 million on Thursday at Sotheby’s in New York. “El sueño (La cama),” which translates to “The Dream (The Bed),” — which depicts Kahlo, who died in 1954 at the age of 47, sleeping under vines in a canopy bed — beat the existing record held by the late American painter Georgia O’Keeffe.