World news is a subfield of journalism that covers events and developments occurring outside the United States. It includes international political news, diplomatic incidents and natural disasters. It also covers wars, which may be global in scope or confined to one or more belligerent nations. A journalist whose primary area of focus is world news is known as a correspondent. A correspondent is based in a foreign city (often the capital of a country) and covers an entire region or even an entire continent for his/her news source. Correspondents frequently file stories from the field and often interview government officials, local citizens and members of the military.
A typical Weekly World News topic was Biblical-related lore, such as the discovery of relics from Noah’s Ark and the Garden of Eden, additional commandments from God and sandals worn by Jesus. Other fanciful WWN topics included a sit-down interview with Sisyphus after the eternal boulder-hauling “workout” he was doing and the discovery of gates and portals from Hell through which demons have escaped to wreak havoc on Earth.
WWN also regularly covered the lives of shockingly obese individuals, with the most popular being an ongoing series featuring Roland Gillespie, supposedly the world’s fattest man. Roland was weighed on-air and WWN encouraged readers to send in their guesses as to how much he weighed. Later stories focused on Roland’s attempts to lose weight through the OMAD diet and claims that he once ate his own feet.