President Biden is proposing one of the most ambitious spending plans since the 1930s — a $3.5 trillion investment tackling everything from clean energy, to early education, to health care. A total overhaul of the American economy. The big question: How do we pay for it? Also, the cost of energy is hitting record highs in Spain. It's driven by the rising cost of gas and lower-than-usual winds (not pushing Spain's windmills). It's a problem across Europe as the continent transitions toward renewable energies. And, we look back at the legacy and impact of the classic Cuban album, "The Buena Vista Social Club,” which is now 25 years old.

Thousands of Haitians who had hoped to seek asylum in the US are arriving at Haiti’s main airport. Haiti’s fragile government has little aid to offer the arriving deportees. And COVID-19 continues to ravage Southeast Asia, with most countries’ borders more or less closed. In Thailand, the virus has killed more than 15,000 people and anger toward the Thai government is spilling into the streets. Also, meet Zandile Ndhlovu, South Africa’s “Black Mermaid.” Ndhlovu started the Black Mermaid Foundation to share her love of free diving with communities that lack access to ocean spaces due to South Africa's racist history.

The Taliban ordered all schools in Afghanistan to reopen this weekend after months of closure because of COVID-19 and political upheaval. But the future of education for millions of high school girls remains unclear because Taliban leadership banned them from returning to their studies. And a new security pact signed between the US, Australia and the UK took Paris by surprise. It means that a big military contract signed between France and Australia several years ago will be scrapped. Also, Afghans have been welcomed in Turkey over the last few decades. But recently, life has become more difficult for new refugees fleeing the Taliban takeover of their homeland.

It's been a month since the Taliban took over Afghanistan. But so far, no nation has recognized them as the official government there. Foreign powers are making their own calculations about how to proceed. Plus, President Joe Biden is asking world leaders to commit more money to help developing countries deal with climate change. It's the latest in a flurry of diplomatic efforts aimed at securing tangible results at the next UN climate summit that’s six weeks away. And remembering a folk singer often called the “Chicano Woody Guthrie.”

President Joe Biden appeared at a virtual joint news conference with Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison, the prime ministers of Britain and Australia, to announce a new security arrangement for the Asia Pacific region. Under the terms of the historic deal, the US will share nuclear submarine technology with Australia. Also, few international humanitarian groups remain in Afghanistan. And, France has declared a health emergency in New Caledonia, as COVID-19 cases there continue to surge. Meanwhile, a law is expected to pass this week in Paris that extends the health emergency to New Caledonia and French Polynesia until mid-November. Plus, in Kenya, entrepreneurs are trying to make camel milk, a traditional pastoralist beverage, the next big drink.