culture

Netflix Takes Center Stage at the Venice Film Festival

For several years, Venice has served as the discreet yet decisive battleground between traditional cinema and streaming giants. In 2025, Netflix makes a striking return to the Lido, shaking up the hierarchy of studios and auteurs alike. Three high-profile world premieres in official competition, carefully crafted productions and a calculated ...

Assaad Awad, a Spanish-Lebanese Visionary of Wearable Art

Spanish-Lebanese multidisciplinary artist Assaad Awad is redefining wearable art. Renowned for his collaborations with Lady Gaga, Hermès, Mugler, and Balenciaga, he fuses traditional leather-making with cutting-edge technologies like 3D printing and scanning. His creations show that sustainability, innovation, and tradition can coexist in ...

Cracker Barrel Logo Change Sparks Cultural Backlash Across U.S.

Cracker Barrel has a special place in the hearts of many Americans, offering homestyle American cuisine in a folksy "Old Country Store" setting complete with rocking chairs and occasional country music performances. But an attempt to rebrand the storied US chain has sparked a firestorm of opposition online and opened a new front in the culture ...

'KPop Demon Hunters' breaks Netflix records and hits theaters

After shattering viewership records on Netflix and climbing to the top of global music charts, the animated musical KPop Demon Hunters is now making its big-screen debut. This summer hit follows a trio of young Korean pop stars who battle demons using high-energy songs and synchronized dance moves. Since its Netflix release on June 20, the film ...

With 'Mother', Mitevska Restores Mother Teresa’s Humanity

Who was the real Mother Teresa? In Mother, Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska reexamines the legend to reveal a woman far beyond the clichés. Premiering in the Orizzonti section at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, the movie focuses on seven pivotal days in 1948 that forever changed Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, the woman who would become Mother ...

US R&B Singer Joins Russia’s Intervision Revival in Moscow

An American R&B artist will take part in Russia's revival of a song contest billed as a rival to Eurovision, which has excluded Russian singers since the Ukraine offensive, organizers said Thursday. Brandon Howard, known professionally as B. Howard, is mostly famous for his resemblance to Michael Jackson—sparking media speculation in the past ...

Adidas Apologizes for Cultural Misstep Over Mexican Sandals

Sportswear giant Adidas apologized to an Indigenous community in Mexico Thursday for using their traditional sandals as inspiration for a new design, after an outcry by officials and President Claudia Sheinbaum. Local authorities had complained that the Oaxaca Slip-On sandals were a reinterpretation of huarache sandals, particularly one found ...

Agnès Varda’s Paris: Intimacy, Poetry, and Eternal Street Life

Paris’s backdrop transformed into a mirror, a playground, and a living studio for Agnès Varda, where life and art were inseparable. The exhibition Le Paris d’Agnès Varda, de-ci, de-là reveals Varda as a photographer, far from the film set yet already shaped by the eye that made her one of cinema’s boldest pioneers. At the heart of this ...

Sweden Moves Iconic Arctic Church Amid Mine Expansion

A historic red wooden church considered one of Sweden's most beautiful buildings resumed its slow move across the Arctic town of Kiruna on Wednesday, inching toward its new home to allow Europe's biggest underground mine to expand. Kiruna's entire town center is being relocated because of the giant LKAB iron ore mine that dominates the region, ...

Fading Faces: Why Young Hindu Women in Pakistan Are Abandoning Traditional Tattoos

Grinding charcoal with a few drops of goat’s milk, 60-year-old Basran Jogi peers at the faces of two young Pakistani sisters preparing for their first tattoos. The practice of elder women needling delicate shapes onto the faces, hands, and arms of younger generations stretches back centuries in the Hindu villages that dot the southern border ...

'Ketamine Queen' to Plead Guilty in Matthew Perry's Death

A dealer dubbed the "Ketamine Queen" has agreed to plead guilty to supplying the drugs that killed Friends’ actor Matthew Perry, the US Department of Justice said Monday. Jasveen Sangha, 42, will admit several charges, including one of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury in relation to the late star. Sangha, ...