This is Beirut - culture

Salman Rushdie’s attacker to be sentenced this Friday

This is Beirut, 16/05 10:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Salman Rushdie Writer Iran Culture Art Justice

Hadi Matar will be sentenced on Friday for trying to kill novelist Salman Rushdie in a 2022 knife attack at a New York cultural center. Hadi Matar, 27, faces up to 25 years in prison after being convicted of attempted murder and assault charges in February this year. During the trial, Rushdie told jurors about Matar "stabbing and slashing" him ...

New Cannes Festival Policy Bans Actor Accused of Rape

This is Beirut, 15/05 18:15 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Cannes 2025 Film Celebrity Women Agresssion Culture

The Cannes film festival barred an actor in a prominent French film from the red carpet on Thursday because of sexual assault allegations, unveiling a new policy under pressure from lawmakers and activists. Theo Navarro-Mussy plays a police officer in a supporting role in the film Dossier 137 by Dominik Moll, which is to premiere on Thursday in ...

Eurovision 2025: Spotlight on the Second Semifinal’s 16 Competitors

This is Beirut, 15/05 14:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Eurovision 2025 Music Semi-Final 2 Switzerland Culture

Sixteen countries are competing in the Eurovision Song Contest's second semifinal on Thursday, with viewers deciding which 10 go through to the grand final. Saturday's showpiece event takes place at the St Jakobshalle in the Swiss city of Basel. Ten countries have already qualified from Tuesday's first semifinal. The so-called ...

Tom Cruise’s Death-Defying ‘Mission’ Lights Up Cannes

This is Beirut, 15/05 10:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Tom Cruise Cannes Cannes Film Festival France Culture Cinema

Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning made its big grandstand premiere at the Cannes Film Festival Wednesday, with the first reviews saying it more than lives up to its steamroller hype. "What a rush!" The Guardian declared in its five-star love letter to Cruise's $400-million behemoth, calling him a modern "superhuman action ...

Top chef Georgiana Viou: blending cuisine across continents

This is Beirut, 14/05 19:25 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Benin Food Michelin Bistronomy France Culture Georgiana Viou

Georgiana Viou calls herself a "UFO", championing free and daring cuisine straddling two continents, from Cotonou's lively street markets to the kitchens of her Michelin-starred restaurant in Nimes, southern France. In the alleys of the historic Saint-Michel market in Benin's bustling economic capital, unchanged since her childhood, Viou goes ...

‘To Exist Is to Be Different:’ Creativity as Self-Affirmation

David Sahyoun, 14/05 18:00 - Reading : 6 minute(s)

Psychoanalysis Exist Creativity Self-Affirmation Culture

For philosopher Jean Baudrillard, consumption is far more than an economic act – it is a system of communication and social control. We don’t consume merely to meet our needs; we consume to be like others, to belong to the collective. Behind the apparent abundance of choice hides an insidious conformity: you need to have this object to be ...

Ehdeniyat 2025: A 21st Edition of Musical Summits and Shared Emotions

This is Beirut, 14/05 15:50 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Lebanon North Ehden Culture Music

Ehdeniyat International Festival will celebrate its 21st edition in July, showcasing a diverse lineup of Lebanese and Arab artists through six captivating concerts from July 17 to August 3. The program includes Guy Manoukian, Abeer Nehme, Adam, Kadim El Sahir, Al Shami and Dancing Moon III, offering a varied musical experience blending magic, ...

Tom Cruise Has World Guessing as He Unleashes 'Mission: Impossible' at Cannes

This is Beirut, 14/05 15:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Cannes 2025 Entertainment Tom Cruise Star Film Culture

Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning powers into the Cannes film festival for its premiere on Wednesday on a steamroller of hype, with the world asking if this will be the final curtain for agent Ethan Hunt. With some fans fretting that the $400-million epic - the eighth in the high-octane franchise - could be the last, Cruise ...

Cannes 2025 Opens with Tribute, Emotion, and a Call for Reflection

Madeleine Cadoux, 14/05 09:45 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Cannes Film Festival France Cinema Culture Stars Cannes

From the very first minutes of the evening, the tone was clear: Cannes celebrates cinema and challenges its history, its myths, and its responsibilities. Honorary Palme d’Or to Robert De Niro One of the night’s most unforgettable moments came when Leonardo DiCaprio, 50, presented the honorary Palme d’Or to 81-year-old Robert De Niro, a ...

From Shadows to Spotlight: Enigmatic and Ever-Influential Mylène Farmer

Marie-Christine Tayah, 13/05 17:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Mylène Farmer Cannes Music France Culture Cannes Film Festival

Between her passion for cinema and loyalty to the stage, Mylène Farmer is reportedly preparing a surprise for the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival on May 13, 2025, and possibly unveiling a previously unreleased track. A look back at the path of an unparalleled artist. Among the most anticipated moments of this year’s opening ceremony, ...

'I thought I was going to die,' Kardashian tells in Paris robbery trial

This is Beirut, 13/05 16:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Trial Kim Kardashian Robbery Paris US Culture

American celebrity Kim Kardashian told a Paris court on Tuesday she feared she was going to be killed by masked men who robbed her at gunpoint of millions of dollars of jewellery during the French capital's fashion week. Ten suspects have been on trial since late April over the armed robbery in 2016, which saw jewellery worth some $10 million ...

Algeria Targets Author Kamel Daoud in Legal Dispute

This is Beirut, 13/05 13:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Algeria France Writer Culture Art

Franco-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud, who is the subject of two international arrest warrants from Algeria and a legal complaint in France, called the legal actions against him “a form of judicial persecution” in an interview with the French daily Le Figaro on Monday. Daoud, who won the 2024 Goncourt Prize, also described the legal saga as “a ...

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