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Lebanon and the Vatican: A Centuries-Old Bond

Lebanon and the Vatican share a relationship that predates modern diplomacy by nearly a millennium. One is a Mediterranean nation long defined by religious diversity; the other, the global center of the Catholic Church. Yet together, these two small states have forged a partnership with influence far beyond their size spiritually, culturally, and ...

Man City Edge Real Madrid To Leave Alonso On Brink

Manchester City came from behind to beat Real Madrid 2-1 on Wednesday in the Champions League and leave Xabi Alonso's position as coach of the Spanish giants in grave danger. Without injured superstar Kylian Mbappe, Madrid took the lead through Rodrygo Goes but Nico O'Reilly and an Erling Haaland penalty sent City in ahead at the break and ...

Lebanon Faces Donor Backlash After Decision Extending Disability Benefits to Hezbollah Fighters

Lebanon is facing mounting diplomatic backlash after the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) extended state and donor-funded disability benefits to the thousands of Hezbollah fighters wounded in Israel’s September 2024 operation targeting Hezbollah’s communication devices. What the ministry described as a humanitarian exemption is now being ...

Mediators Qatar and Egypt Call for Next Steps in Gaza Truce

Qatar and Egypt, guarantors of the Gaza ceasefire, called on Saturday for the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the deployment of an international stabilization force as the necessary next steps in fully implementing the fragile agreement. The measures were spelt out in the US- and UN-backed peace plan that has largely halted fighting, though the ...

Pope Leo XIV and Bartholomew Mark 1,700 Years Since Nicaea in Turkey

Pope Leo XIV will join the leader of the world's Orthodox Christians Friday to celebrate 1,700 years since one of the early Church's most important gatherings, on the second day of his visit to Turkey. The American pope began his four-day visit on Thursday in Ankara, where he urged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to embrace Turkey's role as a ...

Revolution, Power, and Repression: The Political Downfall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt

From the 2012 electoral victory to the upheavals that followed, the trajectory of the Muslim Brotherhood in contemporary Egypt reflects a decade of tensions, divisions, and radical transformation. On January 25, 2011, millions of Egyptians took to the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, and other major cities, demanding an end to Hosni Mubarak’s ...

‘End of an Era’: MTV Pulling Plug on Global Music Channels

MTV kick-started a new era of music and pop culture in 1981, when it went on air for the first time, emblematically playing Video Killed the Radio Star as its debut music video. More than four decades later, the channel, now owned by US media giant Paramount Skydance, will wind down its international music broadcasting by the end of the year as ...

Is Peace Now Possible Amid Collapse of Iran’s Imperialism?

The epilogue of the cascading wars that have taken place since October 7, 2023, was quite promising since the destruction of Iran’s regional proxy network was a good omen. For the first time, the region was able to imagine the possibility of extracting itself from the tight clasp of Iranian Shiite imperialism. Nonetheless, however bright the ...

Barrack's Glaring Error on Syria and Lebanon

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack keeps warning that Lebanon will be “reabsorbed” into Syria unless Hezbollah is disarmed, a historically unfounded threat from someone who derides the Sykes-Picot boundaries as colonial nonsense yet treats Syria’s borders as sacrosanct. His selective anti-colonialism spares Syria, disregards Kurdish and Druze ...

HIV and STIs: The Return of a Forgotten Threat Among 15–24-Year-Olds

Not long ago, the prospect of a generation largely untouched by HIV felt within reach: new diagnoses were falling, treatments were becoming more effective, and access to testing was expanding. Yet as 2025 draws to a close, public-health agencies are voicing growing concern. In all three countries, infections among young people are rising again. ...

Israel Awaits Return of Last Hostage Remains from Gaza

Israel awaited the return of the last hostage remains held by Palestinian militants in Gaza, as the military said on Thursday that those of a Thai national had been identified after they were handed over. Under the first phase of the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, militants were due to return all 48 hostages they held ...

Israel’s Power Vacuum Dilemma

On December 2 Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Israel Defense Forces soldiers wounded in recent fighting in southern Syria. Their injuries followed a November 26 IDF raid on the village of Beit Jinn in southern Syria, an operation that left several Syrians dead and wounded a number of Israeli soldiers. Netanyahu had a ...

Mona Zaki Takes on Iconic Role of Umm Kulthum in ‘El Sett’ at Marrakech Film Festival

It took Egyptian actor Mona Zaki more than a year's preparation to take on the hardest role of her career, the iconic singer Umm Kulthum, a legend in the Arab world. Marwan Hamed's El Sett (The Lady) premiered this week at the Marrakech International Film Festival, where Zaki told AFP about the daunting task she faced. "I was very scared at the ...

Sayyid Qutb: From the Muslim Brotherhood to Global Influence

Born in 1906 into a devout family in a village of Upper Egypt, he studied educational sciences, much like Hassan al-Banna, the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder. Alongside his career as a teacher and civil servant in the Ministry of Education, Sayyid Qutb gained recognition as a literary figure, moving within Egypt’s intellectual circles, including ...

Farewell to Martin Parr, Britain’s Relentless Chronicler in Colour

Celebrated British documentary photographer Martin Parr has died at his home in the western English city Bristol, his foundation announced on Sunday. He was 73. Famous for his kitschy colour-saturated images capturing all aspects of life in Britain and beyond, Parr had a sharp eye for mundane oddities, whether it was the rich at play or ...

At Least 13 Dead In Gaza As Winter Storm Byron Batters Displaced Population

Gaza's civil defense agency on Friday said at least 13 people had died in the last 24 hours, including three children who died from exposure to the cold, as a winter storm batters the territory. Heavy rain from Storm Byron has flooded tents and temporary shelters across the Gaza Strip since late Wednesday, compounding the suffering of the ...

Luck: Randomness or Quantum Secret? Science Is Just Starting to Look

Quantum physics has upended the very foundations of how we understand the world. For over a century, it has challenged the idea that randomness is merely a product of our ignorance, suggesting instead that it is woven into the fabric of the universe itself. Before observation, particles exist in a cloud of probabilities. Nothing is predetermined. ...

Syria’s Sweida on Edge: Clerics’ Deaths Expose Fractures in Druze Heartland

Four months after a ceasefire agreement halted a weeklong wave of clashes between Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters in Syria’s southern province of Sweida, insecurity continues to plague the region. The truce, reached on July 19 with U.S. and Jordanian mediation, remains volatile and has been repeatedly violated by renewed outbreaks of violence, ...

Syria's Sharaa Calls for United Efforts to Rebuild a Year After Assad's Ouster

President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Monday urged Syrians to work together to rebuild their country, still marred by insecurity and divisions, as they marked a year since the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad. The atmosphere in Damascus was jubilant as thousands of people took to the streets of the capital, AFP correspondents said, after mosques ...

Netanyahu: Trump Meeting to Focus on Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to arrive in Washington on Monday, December 29, for talks with President Donald Trump, focusing on regional developments, including the Trump administration’s plan for Gaza and rising tensions with Lebanon. On Sunday, Netanyahu said he expects the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan to be ...

Sale of F-35s to Riyadh: A New Test for U.S. Alliances in the Middle East

On the eve of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Washington, Donald Trump announced Monday his intention to approve the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. “We are going to sell F-35s,” the president declared from the White House, praising ties with Riyadh and describing the kingdom as “a great ally.” The announcement ...

The Hermes Kelly: Elegance Inspired by Grace Kelly

In the exacting world of luxury leather goods, few pieces have left as profound a mark on collective memory as the Hermes Kelly. No other bag so effortlessly unites French equestrian heritage with international glamour. Originally created in the late 19th century as a “Haut à Courroies” for carrying saddles, it evolved in 1935 into the ...

Fabergé’s Winter Egg Sets New Auction Record at £22.9 Million at Christie’s

Fabergé's The Winter Egg, considered one of his most beautiful creations, sold for nearly £23 million ($30 million) at auction Tuesday in London, smashing the sales record for the legendary jeweler of Imperial Russia. It is the third time the delicate bejeweled egg, which went under the hammer at Christie's auction house, has ...

Aoun Welcomes French Role in Mechanism Committee, Reaffirms Commitment to Diplomacy

President Joseph Aoun told French special envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian on Monday that Lebanon is open to an enhanced French role within the framework of the “Mechanism Committee,” stressing that any such involvement must support the committee’s core negotiation goals. During the meeting at Baabda Palace, Aoun outlined ...

Over 600 Artifacts Stolen From British Empire Collection In Bristol Museum Heist

More than 600 items, including military medals and jewelry from a collection documenting the links between Britain and countries in the former British Empire, were stolen from a UK museum in September, police said Thursday. Avon and Somerset Police have launched an appeal for information about four men captured on security cameras on September ...

Lebanon and Oman Reaffirm Strategic Partnership During Presidential Visit

Following a two-day official visit to the Sultanate of Oman, President Joseph Aoun and Sultan Haitham bin Tariq issued a joint statement underscoring the strength of relations between their countries and their shared commitment to enhancing bilateral cooperation. The leaders highlighted the historical ties and fraternal bonds between the peoples ...

'One Battle After Another' Leads Golden Globes Noms With Nine

Paul Thomas Anderson's politically charged "One Battle After Another" leads with nine nominations for the Golden Globes, organizers announced Monday, as the race to the Oscars kicked into high gear. Norwegian family dramedy "Sentimental Value" was second with eight, followed by period horror movie "Sinners" with seven and Shakespeare family drama ...

Paris Arthouse Cinemas Reinvent Themselves to Survive the Attendance Slump

Paris is one of the world's arthouse cinema hotspots, but falling attendance levels mean beloved independent operators must innovate and invest to survive. The centre of the City of Light has the highest density of silver screens in the world per capita and arguably one of the most cinephile local populations. That has long supported its dense ...

“Hope:” The Last Lifeline

“Young people of Lebanon, grow strong like the cedars and let the world blossom with hope!” With these words, Pope Leon XIV concluded his address to the 15,000 Lebanese youths gathered around him on December 1 at the patriarchal siege in Bkerke. “Hope”, a word charged with meaning and symbolism, invites us to revisit both its spiritual ...

Amnesty Accuses Hamas of Crimes Against Humanity on Oct 7 and Afterwards

Amnesty International on Thursday accused Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups for the first time of crimes against humanity, including extermination, during and after the October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war in Gaza. "Palestinian armed groups committed violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes, and crimes against ...