Culture

A collection of 33 posts

Parthenon Row: Sunak Cancels Meeting with Greek PM

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday voiced his ‘annoyance’ at his UK counterpart Rishi Sunak’s last-minute cancellation of a meeting to discuss the future of the Parthenon Marbles — Greek sculptures exhibited at the British Museum that Athens has long sought be repatriated.

Culture

Russian Artist Sentenced to 7 Years for Anti-War Messages

Russian artist Alexandra Skochilenko was sentenced to seven years in prison Thursday for swapping supermarket price tags with messages critical of the war in Ukraine....

Crime & justice

Spanish Police Seize Ancient Jewelry Worth $64M Taken From Ukraine

Spanish police have recovered 11 pieces of ancient gold jewelry that were taken out of Ukraine illegally in 2016. Five people were caught when they attempted to sell the artifacts in Spain — including two Ukrainians, one of whom is an Orthodox Church priest — and three Spaniards....

Crime & justice

China Hosts Bashar al-Assad for Summit

Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad arrived in China's city of Hangzhou on Thursday. It's his first visit to the PRC since 2004 as he continues his efforts to end his country's diplomatic isolation since 2011....

Politics

UNESCO Adds Site Near Jericho to World Heritage List

The United Nations voted on Sunday to designate prehistoric ruins at Tell es-Sultan, a site near the West Bank city of Jericho, as a World Heritage site. The ruins date back to the ninth millennium BC....

Culture

US Commemorates 22nd Anniversary of 9/11

On Monday, Americans and their elected officials honored the 22nd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Vice President Kamala Harris, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams attended the name-reading ceremony for victims in Lower Manhattan, with Pres. Joe Biden ...

Politics

India: Speculation Mounts About Potential Name Change to 'Bharat'

Invitations for guests at the G20 summit dinner refer to Indian Pres. Droupadi Murmu as the 'President of Bharat,' while a senior spokesman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called Prime Minister Narendra Modi the 'prime minister of Bharat' in a recent tweet....

Politics

France: Top Court Upholds Abaya Ban in State Schools

On Thursday, France's highest court upheld the government's decision to ban abayas [robe-like outer garments that some women in the Muslim faith wear] in state-run schools.

Culture

Flooding and Mud Disrupts Burning Man Festival

On Saturday, the Pershing County Sheriff's Office in Nevada announced that an investigation had been launched into a death that occurred at the notorious Burning Man Festival.

Culture

UNESCO: Venice Should Be Put on Endangered List

A new UNESCO report released on Monday has recommended adding Venice to its list of World Heritage in Danger to secure the historic city and its lagoon from climate change and mass tourism.

Social issues

Netflix Hiring AI Expert Amid Hollywood Strikes

Netflix is looking to hire an artificial intelligence (AI) expert at the same time Hollywood’s unions are striking in part over concerns that innovations in AI will impact pay in the entertainment industry.

Media

Slumping Anheuser-Busch Laying Off Hundreds

Beermaker Anheuser-Busch, reacting to a second straight month when it wasn’t the top-selling US beer, Thursday announced it will be laying off hundreds of positions — less than 2% of its US workforce.

Culture

CMT Pulls Controversial Jason Aldean Music Video

On Tuesday, Country Music Television (CMT) removed the music video for singer Jason Aldean's song "Try That in a Small Town," which covers the topic of alleged lawlessness in the US.

Culture

Philippines Allows Barbie Film with Blurred South China Sea Map

Government censors in the Philippines said on Wednesday that they will allow the "Barbie" movie to be shown in theaters after asking the movie's distributor to blur lines on a world map drawing that allegedly endorsed China's territorial claims to the disputed South China Sea.

World

Klimt Painting Sells for Record $108M

On Tuesday, Gustav Klimt's painting titled Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan) became the most valuable work of art to ever be sold at a European auction, fetching $108M (£85.3M) at Sotheby's in London.

Culture

Record-Breaking Hajj Pilgrimage Starts in Saudi Arabia

Roughly 2M pilgrims on Monday flocked to the tent city of Mina to mark the 1444th Hajj. The five-day religious journey is one of the five pillars of Islam which all Muslims — who are physically and economically able — must to complete at least once in their lifetime.

Culture

UK: Experts Reconstruct Face of 1,300-Year-Old Anglo-Saxon Girl

The face of a girl who died more than 1.3K years ago and whose skeleton was found buried on a wooden bed with a gold and garnet cross on her chest at Trumpington, Cambridgeshire, UK, has been facially reconstructed by forensic artist Hew Morrison.

Culture

Acclaimed Novelist Cormac McCarthy Dies at 89

Cormac McCarthy — acclaimed US author of works such as Blood Meridian, The Road, and No Country for Old Men — has died at the age of 89. His publisher announced Wednesday that he passed away in his home in Santa Fe of natural causes.

Culture

Korean Student Eats $120K Banana Artwork

A South Korean art student has eaten a $120K art installation featuring a banana that was duct-taped to a wall at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul— a piece created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan known as "Comedian" and presented in his "WE" exhibit.

World

Max Orders Decade-Long Harry Potter TV Adaptation

US streaming service Max confirmed on Wednesday that it has ordered a decade-long television adaptation of the Harry Potter books written by JK Rowling....

Culture

Taliban Confirms Conditional Reopening of Pakistan-Afghan Key Trade Route

A Taliban official announced on Friday that the Torkham crossing, a key Afghanistan-Pakistan trade route closed over the last five days, has been conditionally reopened after Kabul and Islamabad agreed that they will only allow their citizens to cross the border....

Afghanistan

Google Blocking News Content From Some Canadian Users

On Wednesday, Google said it's blocking approximately 4% of its Canadian users from viewing news content as a test of their response to the legislation 'Bill C-18,' also known as the Online News Act....

Culture

Roald Dahl Edited to Make Language More Inclusive

New editions of famed children's author Roald Dahl's books have been reviewed to alter text referring to weight, mental health, gender, and race for inclusivity. The changes were first reported by the Telegraph newspaper....

Culture

First Palestinian Woman Ordained in Jerusalem

On Sunday, in a Lutheran Church ceremony in Jerusalem, Sally Azar became the first female Palestinian pastor in the Holy Land

Israel

Japanese Firm Defends Owning Van Gogh's Sunflowers Amid Lawsuit

Sompo Holdings has defended its ownership of Van Gogh's Sunflowers, after the family of its former owner filed a US lawsuit demanding the painting's return and the payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

World