InterviewsFrom Beirut’s August 4 Tragedy to 'Blooming Joy' by Rana Hatem Slim

Marie-Christine Tayah 2025-08-04 19:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Painting August 4 Beirut Culture Art Beirut

Gemspace Art Gallery, tucked in the heart of Beirut, is hosting the solo exhibition of artist Rana Hatem Slim. Titled Blooming Joy, the collection invites visitors into a luminous, sensory world where color and emotion intertwine to celebrate joy in all its forms. Rana Hatem Slim spoke to This is Beirut about her work. In the gentle chaos of ...

Italy’s Fast Fashion Hub Turns Into Chinese Mafia Crime Battleground

This is Beirut 2025-08-04 13:30 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Fashion Italy China Culture Art Fast-fashion

When Zhang Dayong lay in a pool of blood on a sidewalk in Rome after being shot six times, few suspected a link to Italy's storied textile hub of Prato. But a "hanger war" is raging in the city near Florence — turning Europe's largest apparel manufacturing center and a pillar of Made in Italy production into a battleground for warring Chinese ...

'Fantastic Four' Holds Box Office Lead for Second Weekend

This is Beirut 2025-08-04 10:30 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Cinema Film Box Office Culture Art

The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Disney’s debut of the rebooted Marvel Comics franchise, continued to outperform the competition for a second straight weekend at the North American box office, industry estimates showed Sunday. Actor-of-the-moment Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Emmy-winner Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn star as the titular ...

SpotlightClothing the Silence: Widows' Attires Around the World

Bélinda Ibrahim 2025-08-03 18:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Widows Dresses World Rituals Mourning

The death of a husband never left women untouched in terms of dress. From Victorian black crepe to Hindu white saris, a widow’s clothing is a signal. It embodies absence. It draws a line between before and after. It imposes on the female body a way of existing in the world, between pain, modesty and sometimes submission. And while mourning is ...

Word of the weekMicro-influencer: Trust Over Fame

Sana Richa Choucair 2025-08-03 15:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

In the ever-evolving landscape of social media, a new type of influencer has emerged: not the celebrity with millions of followers, but the relatable figure with a smaller, more engaged audience: the “micro-influencer.” The rise of this term says a lot about how influence is being redefined in the digital age. What Does “Micro-influencer” ...

Indian Filmmakers Rush to Cash In on Cross-Border Conflict

This is Beirut 2025-08-03 10:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Cinema India FIlms Pakistan Culture Art

Indian filmmakers are locking up the rights to movie titles that can profit from the patriotism fanned by a four-day conflict with Pakistan, which killed more than 70 people. The nuclear-armed rivals exchanged artillery, drone, and air strikes in May, after India blamed Pakistan for an armed attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir. The ...

Taylor Swift’s Madame Tussauds Wax Glamour Dazzles in Zuhair Murad

This is Beirut 2025-08-02 14:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Fashion Luxury Zuhair Murad Music Taylor Swift Culture

Madame Tussauds celebrates Taylor Swift’s iconic career with its most ambitious project to date: a historic simultaneous launch of 13 wax figures, across four continents, each capturing a unique era. In New York, the Midnights era figure takes center stage, all dressed up in a custom Zuhair Murad design recreated with couture precision. The wax ...

Archaeological Surprise: 1,000-Year-Old Mummy Discovered in Peru’s Capital

This is Beirut 2025-08-02 11:00 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

  Archaeology Discovery Mummy History Peru Culture

A crew of workers accidentally discovered a mummy more than 1,000 years old while installing gas pipes in Peru's capital Lima, their employer and archaeologists said Thursday. The mummy was found last week in a tomb underneath a street north of Lima, said archaeologist Jesus Bahamonde. The mummy was covered in a shroud in a seated position, arms ...

SpotlightAugust 4: Families Revive Memory With Olive Trees

Bélinda Ibrahim 2025-08-01 18:25 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Lebanon August 4 Port of Beirut Beirut Blast Olive Trees

When justice falters, memory remains. A memory planted with bare hands into a soil still shaken by anger and silence. For five years, families of August 4, 2020 explosion victims have waited in vain, expecting answers, accountability, and convictions. But waiting led nowhere. So, some have stopped waiting. Not out of vengeance, but to stand their ...

Liam Neeson, a Dim-Witted Cop in a Noir Parody

This is Beirut 2025-08-01 16:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Cinema Film Liam Neeson Pamela Anderson Culture Art

Liam Neeson, in full-on comedy mode: the actor known for Schindler’s List, his reinvention as a violent avenger in Taken, and as a Jedi Master in The Phantom Menace, now plays a clueless, blundering cop in The Naked Gun: Save the World?, opening Wednesday in France. In this send-up of film noir, the Northern Irish star joins Pamela Anderson to ...

Steven Knight to Write Next James Bond Film with Villeneuve

This is Beirut 2025-08-01 16:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Cinema James Bond 007 Movie Culture Art

Steven Knight, the creator of gritty TV crime series Peaky Blinders, will write the highly anticipated next James Bond movie, studio Amazon MGM announced Thursday. Knight will work alongside previously announced director Denis Villeneuve, best known for Dune, to bring the world's most famous fictional spy back to the big screen after a prolonged ...

Jenna Ortega Returns in Darker, Bolder 'Wednesday' Season Two

This is Beirut 2025-08-01 15:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Series Netflix Tim Burton Culture Art Cinema

Jenna Ortega returns to screens next week for a second series of Wednesday, Netflix's spin-off of The Addams Family that launched her career and revived Gothic fashion. The first installment of the quirky series in 2022 became Netflix's second most-watched show after Squid Game, clocking up 252 million views. Ortega's deadpan and witty portrayal ...