400-Year-Old Rubens Found in Paris Mansion

This is Beirut 2025-09-10 20:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Painting Rubens Discovery France Netherlands Culture

A long-lost painting by 17th-century Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens has been found in a Paris mansion, a French auctioneer said on Wednesday. "It is a masterpiece," said Jean-Pierre Osenat, who had made the discovery, referring to the sketch of Jesus Christ on the cross painted in 1613. "It was painted by Rubens at the height of his talent," ...

Robert Redford on Screen: Classic Roles That Shaped Hollywood

This is Beirut 2025-09-17 10:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Nawaf Salam Film Robert Redford Icon Culture Cinema

US screen legend Robert Redford, who died on Tuesday, aged 89, was one of the most successful stars of his generation as well as an Oscar-winning director. Here are some of his most famous films: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Redford formed one of Hollywood's greatest double acts with Paul Newman in his breakthrough film, a hippy ...

France Launches Appeal to Acquire Proust’s ‘Madeleine’ Writings

This is Beirut 2025-09-17 18:20 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Literature Auction Proust France History Culture

France's National Library launched a public appeal for donations on Wednesday to acquire hundreds of unpublished documents belonging to Marcel Proust, including some showing how the famed writer settled on one of his most famous lines. Some of the roughly 900 documents were put up for show by the auction house Sotheby's on Wednesday morning and ...

“My Father’s Shadow”: Nigeria’s First Cannes-Winning Film Returns Home

This is Beirut 2025-09-19 19:35 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Film Nigeria Cannes Culture

Now back in Lagos for the film’s local release, Davies reflects on the film’s deeply personal themes and its resonance with a nation still grappling with the legacy of its political past. Akinola Davies, the director of My Father's Shadow, Nigeria's first film to win an award at the Cannes film festival, is savoring his return to Lagos, the ...

Venezuela: Caracas Rocked by 6.3-Magnitude Quake Felt Over 600 km Away

This is Beirut 2025-09-25 09:20 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Venezuela Earthquake Caracas

A 6.3-magnitude quake shook northwestern Venezuela late Wednesday, following a slightly smaller tremor in the area, the US Geological Survey reported. The epicenter of the quake was at a depth of 14 kilometers (8.7 miles), 27 kilometers from Mene Grande, an oil town in a sparsely populated area of the state of Zulia. The most recent earthquake ...

'Titanic:' Behind the Myth of a Cult Film, the Actors’ Ordeal

Bélinda Ibrahim 2025-09-20 19:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Titanic Movie Hollywood James Cameron Culture

Today, the movie is remembered as a cinematic fairy tale. With its 11 Oscars, iconic scenes and unforgettable love story, Titanic still floats in the collective imagination as the height of glamour. Yet behind the cameras, the shoot was more of a grueling trial than a red carpet. Icy water, sleepless nights, injuries and constant stress made the ...

MAGA Gathers for Charlie Kirk Tribute in Arizona

This is Beirut 2025-09-21 05:50 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

United States Donald Trump Charlie Kirk Politics

The entire leadership of Trumpism, starting with President Donald Trump and his Vice President JD Vance, will gather on Sunday for the memorial ceremony of assassinated ultraconservative influencer Charlie Kirk, in a stadium of more than 60,000 seats in Arizona. Charlie Kirk, 31, was assassinated on September 10 by a gunshot to the neck while ...

The Metropolitan Opera Reimagines Itself with New Themes and Celebrity Stars

This is Beirut 2025-09-21 10:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

New York Art Opera Culture Museum Stars

The iconic Metropolitan Opera of New York is continuing its evolution amidst financial challenges, launching its new season this Sunday with a politically charged opera featuring a comic book superhero. The season also welcomes actress Sandra Oh, known for her roles in Grey's Anatomy and Killing Eve, in a beloved opera-comique. The Met is ...

France Confirms Loan of Bayeux Tapestry to British Museum Amid Conservation Concerns

This is Beirut 2025-09-22 17:20 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Museum Bayeux Tapestry Heritage France Britain Culture

French President Emmanuel Macron's office stressed Monday that the planned loan of the nearly 1,000-year-old Bayeux Tapestry to Britain next year was a surmountable challenge following expert outcry over the diplomatic gesture. Several heritage advisors have argued that the extremely fragile 11th-century masterpiece depicting the Norman conquest ...

Claudia Cardinale, Iconic Italian Actress and Muse of Fellini and Visconti, Dies at 87

This is Beirut 2025-09-24 09:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Obituary Claudia Cardinal Icon Film Italy France Culture

Sixties screen siren Claudia Cardinale, who died on Tuesday aged 87, entranced audiences across the globe with the sultry gaze that made her the muse of Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini. With her fierce beauty and husky voice, Cardinale not only captivated Italy's greatest filmmakers, but she also played opposite most of the leading men of ...

Love and Loss Lead the Way on the 2025 Booker Prize Shortlist

This is Beirut 2025-09-24 17:25 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Literature Booker Prize Shortlist 2025 Britain Culture

Three authors writing about love and loss have made the Booker Prize shortlist for the first time, among the six chosen as contenders for this year's prestigious award. The works explore "the ties that bind families together, and the moments of crisis that can pull them apart," the prize organizers said late Tuesday. The shortlist ...

Richard Linklater Says AI Can’t Capture Human Genius in Film

This is Beirut 2025-10-31 13:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

AI Film Broadway Cinema Culture Art

Can great art be made without human genius and all its flaws? It's a vital question at a time when artificial intelligence threatens to subsume Hollywood. Through new movies Nouvelle Vague and Blue Moon, director Richard Linklater offers an answer—delving into the lives of two brilliant, volatile men whose films and plays shaped French New Wave ...

Egypt Unveils Grand Egyptian Museum Near Ancient Pyramids

This is Beirut 2025-11-02 10:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Egypt Museum Culture Art Giza Egyptian museum

Egypt officially opened on Saturday the Grand Egyptian Museum, a long-awaited, billion-dollar showcase of pharaonic grandeur that Cairo hopes will revive tourism and boost its battered economy. "Today, as we celebrate together the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, we are writing a new chapter in the history of the present and the future," ...

Matthew McConaughey and Jamie Lee Curtis Bring Paradise Wildfire Heroism to Life

This is Beirut 2025-09-06 17:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Cinema Matthew McConaughey Canada Festival Toronto International Film Festival Culture

For Hollywood stars Matthew McConaughey and Jamie Lee Curtis, making an action film about the deadliest wildfire in California history hits close to home. The Lost Bus tells the harrowing true story of a school bus driver who risked his life to save 22 children from the inferno that destroyed the town of Paradise in 2018. The movie's world ...

Operation Epic Fury: Over 1000 Iranian Targets Struck

This is Beirut 01/03 23:05 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

United States Pentagon Iran Operation Epic Fury

On Sunday, the U.S. Central Command announced that its ongoing operations are targeting more than 1000 sites across Iran in “Operation Epic Fury.” The types of targets singled out in these strikes range incorporate various assets linked to Iran’s defensive and offensive capabilities. Among those listed are integrated air ...

Real-Life Horror to TV Drama: Feared Syria Sites Become Sets for series

This is Beirut 2025-12-11 16:42 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Saydnaya Syria Mazzé TV

At a Damascus airbase once off-limits under Bashar al-Assad, a crew now films a TV series about the final months of the ousted leader's rule as seen through the eyes of a Syrian family. "It's hard to believe we're filming here," director Mohamad Abdul Aziz said from the Mazzeh base, which was once also a detention center run by Assad's air force ...

UN Visit to Sudan's El-Fasher Finds Traumatised Civilians in 'Unsafe Conditions'

This is Beirut 2025-12-29 16:50 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

United Nations Sudan Conflict Aid

Traumatised civilians left in Sudan's El-Fasher after its capture by paramilitary forces are living without water or sanitation in a city haunted by famine, UN aid coordinator Denise Brown told AFP on Monday. El-Fasher fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in October after more than 500 days of siege, and last Friday a small UN ...

U.S. Strike in Venezuela a Blow to Hezbollah’s Revival Efforts

Ian Talley 13/01 15:30 - Reading : 218 minute(s)

Hezbollah Lebanon Democrats Donald Trump Europe

The United States dealt Iran and its proxy Hezbollah a strategic blow over the weekend by seizing key ally, Venezuela’s strongman Nicolás Maduro. While the dominant narrative of the complex military strike has focused on its framing as a counternarcotics operation and aggressive energy politics, coverage has largely missed a critical strategic ...

IDF: Israel Ready on All Fronts if U.S. Strike on Iran Triggers Retaliation

This is Beirut 26/01 10:35 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Israel Donald Trump USA Gulf Hezbollah

IDF Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo said Sunday that the military is preparing for the possibility that a U.S. strike on Iran could trigger Iranian retaliation against Israel. “We don’t know where this is heading,” Milo said in remarks broadcast by Channel 12 News. “We see the force buildup the Americans are ...

CENTCOM Confirms Launch of Operation “Epic Fury” Against Iranian Targets

This is Beirut 28/02 20:45 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Israel Bahrain Iran Kuwait UAE SaudiArabia Qatar Gulf RegionalWar

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said it launched Operation “Epic Fury” on February 28 on orders from the President of the United States, striking key elements of Iran’s security apparatus. According to CENTCOM, U.S. and allied forces began attacks at 1:15 a.m. ET (06:15 GMT), targeting Revolutionary Guard command ...

Three U.S. Service Members Killed, Five Seriously Wounded in Operation Epic Fury, CENTCOM Says

This is Beirut 01/03 17:00 - Reading : less than a minute

Three U.S. service members have been killed in action and five others are seriously wounded as part of Operation Epic Fury, CENTCOM announced Sunday. Several additional personnel sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions and are in the process of being returned to duty. Major combat operations are ongoing, and U.S. forces continue their ...

Breaking the Crowdfunding Myth: The Digital Architecture Funding Iran’s Proxy Wars

Ian Talley 02/03 16:05 - Reading : 674 minute(s)

Lebanese Forces USA G7 Hamas Hezbollah Iran

For years, Iran’s use of cryptocurrency was written off as pocket-change militant fundraising. A slew of enforcement actions now shows something far more consequential: Tehran and its terror allies have woven digital assets into the core financial architecture that bankrolls their war machines. By integrating crypto into their control of ...

“iCloud” by Julie Bou Farah on View at Janine Rubeiz Gallery

This is Beirut 2025-12-04 18:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Julie Bou Farah Janine Rubeiz Gallery Exhibition Paintings Lebanon

With “iCloud,” Julie Bou Farah transforms the gallery into a space where memory takes on tangible form, navigating between presence and absence, gentleness and pain, reverie and reality. Rooted in childhood and imagination, her pictorial world offers a sensory re-reading of memory, intimacy, and the passage of time. Describing her approach, ...

Karoline Leavitt to TIB: Operation Epic Fury Expected to Last Four to Six Weeks

This is Beirut 06/03 22:15 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Donald Trump Hezbollah United States Washington White House

The United States is on track to meet its objectives in Operation Epic Fury, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told This Is Beirut and other reporters on Friday, as Washington continues efforts to weaken Iranian military capabilities following recent esclation. Speaking to reporters, Leavitt emphasized that she would not get ahead ...

U.S. Temporarily Lifts Sanctions on Iranian Oil, Two Tankers Load at Kharg Island, Sources Say

This is Beirut 21/03 16:45 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

USA Republicans Tehran White House

The U.S. has lifted sanctions on some Iranian oil for 30 days to ease surging oil prices driven by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. The U.S. treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said the waiver would bring about 140 million barrels of oil to global markets and help relieve pressure on energy supply. In a statement on X, Bessent said “In ...

Iran Retains Significant Missile Capabilities Despite Strikes: Report

This is Beirut 03/04 10:25 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Donald Trump Israel Tehran United States Washington

According to a CNN report, despite more than five weeks of daily US and Israeli strikes, roughly half of Iran’s missile launchers remain intact and thousands of one-way attack drones are still operational, highlighting Tehran’s continuing ability to threaten the region. Recent intelligence assessments indicate that about half of Iran’s ...

Decapitation of Iranian Military and Intelligence Leadership: Timeline and Structure

Ralph Atrach 06/04 23:40 - Reading : 8 minute(s)

Lebanon Hezbollah Israel Middle East Tehran

Since the outbreak of the U.S.-Israel war on Iran on February 28, a series of coordinated strikes by both countries has dramatically reshaped Iran’s military and political command structure. The U.S.-led Operation Epic Fury and Israel’s Operation Roaring Lion have systematically targeted senior Iranian officials, top advisors, ...

Arrival of Third U.S. Carrier Marks First Triple Deployment in Middle East Since 2003

This is Beirut 27/04 11:10 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Middle East United States USA

For the first time since the 2003 Iraq War, the United States has deployed three aircraft carrier strike groups simultaneously to the Middle East, marking a major escalation in its military posture in the region, according to the United States Central Command. The latest deployment follows the arrival of the USS George H. W. Bush strike group, ...

'Angry Birds'-Style Video Caricaturing Hezbollah Draws Rebuke

This is Beirut 03/05 05:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Hezbollah Nawaf Salam Lebanon Bechara Rai Israel

A video published by a Lebanese TV outlet caricaturing Hezbollah's leaders and fighters as characters from the "Angry Birds" mobile phone games drew a rebuke from the group, which called the clip "offensive" on Saturday. On social media, Hezbollah's supporters condemned what they considered the ridiculing of leader ...

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

This is Beirut 2025-12-08 15:40 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Martin Parr Photographer Death Culture Britain

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 ...