Culture

'The Shed at Dulwich': The Hoax That Topped TripAdvisor
Spotlight'The Shed at Dulwich': The Hoax That Topped TripAdvisor

No menu. No chef. No real kitchen. Just a shed, a mobile phone, and a lot of nerve. In just a few months, The Shed at Dulwich became London’s top-rated restaurant on TripAdvisor, outranking thousands of Michelin-starred, gourmet, and trendy venues. Except it never actually existed. This brilliant hoax was the brainchild of a young British ...

Julia Roberts, Jude Law to Feature at Star-Packed Venice Film Festival
Julia Roberts, Jude Law to Feature at Star-Packed Venice Film Festival

US megastar Julia Roberts is to make her debut at the Venice Film Festival this year, which will also feature Jude Law playing Russian leader Vladimir Putin and a hard-hitting film about Gaza. Roberts is one of many A-listers set to appear at the increasingly influential Venice film extravaganza from late August for the premiere of her latest ...

Malcolm-Jamal Warner from 'The Cosby Show' Dies in Drowning Accident
Malcolm-Jamal Warner from 'The Cosby Show' Dies in Drowning Accident

American actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner, best known for his supporting role on The Cosby Show, has died after accidentally drowning in Costa Rica, local police announced Monday. The 54-year-old actor played Theo, the youngest son in the Huxtable family, on the iconic 1980s sitcom. He was nominated for an Emmy Award, the television equivalent of the ...

Superman Flies High Again, Soars Past $400 Million Worldwide
Superman Flies High Again, Soars Past $400 Million Worldwide

The Man of Steel has staying power: Superman topped the North American box office for a second week running and surpassed the $400 million mark worldwide, industry estimates showed Sunday. Riding largely positive reviews, the latest big-budget action film featuring the iconic superhero from Warner Bros. and DC Studios earned $57.3 million in the ...

Martin Solveig Ends Career With Rainy, Joyful Farewell Show
Martin Solveig Ends Career With Rainy, Joyful Farewell Show

French DJ Martin Solveig, who hit worldwide success with smashes including All Stars and Hello, has hung up his decks, announcing his retirement onstage at a concert watched by 70,000 people. "It's a special moment. All my life, each time I came onstage I told myself: «Play like it's your last concert». Just until that moment arrives," the ...

Errollyn Wallen: King’s Composer Breaking Barriers in Music
Errollyn Wallen: King’s Composer Breaking Barriers in Music

Told she would never belong in the world of classical music, Errollyn Wallen has risen to become the composer to King Charles III and the first person of color in the historic role. The 67-year-old became the Master of the King's Music last year, a 400-year-old post and one of the classical world's top honors that involves composing works for ...

Summer 2025: Second-Skin Swimsuits with a Spirit of Nature
Summer 2025: Second-Skin Swimsuits with a Spirit of Nature

In countries where swimming lasts from May to October, sometimes longer, a swimsuit is not a vacation whim but a wardrobe staple. It moves from long seaside days to poolside breaks between meetings, from weekend getaways to Monday mornings. This year, it evolves quietly. It softens without losing its sensuality, reinvents itself without resorting ...

Slop: The Digital Waste Flooding Our Feeds
Word of the weekSlop: The Digital Waste Flooding Our Feeds

As generative artificial intelligence (AI) surges, a new term is gaining traction: slop. No longer just a word for literal mud or lukewarm food, in digital lingo it now refers to a rising wave of unwanted, AI-generated content, vacantly produced, algorithmically amplified, and clogging up social media. From Messy Mud to Messy Media In ...

Ancient statue returns to Turkey 65 years later
Ancient statue returns to Turkey 65 years later

Turkey has repatriated an ancient statue believed to depict Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius from the United States as part of efforts to recover antiquities illegally removed from the country, the government announced on Saturday. The bronze statue, smuggled from the ancient city of Boubon—now the province of Burdur in southwest Turkey—in the ...

From Empire to Nation
SpotlightFrom Empire to Nation

In the Levant, Islam took root in the major Mediterranean coastal cities—Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Sidon, Beirut, Tripoli, Tartus and Latakia. Surrounded by Christian and Jewish hill communities or overshadowed by dominant Christian mountain ranges, these urban populations never felt isolated. Instead, they saw themselves as fully integrated into the ...

Venice Film Festival: Italy Kicks Off with Sorrentino’s 'La Grazia'
SpotlightVenice Film Festival: Italy Kicks Off with Sorrentino’s 'La Grazia'

The acclaimed director will launch the festival on August 27, 2025, with this highly anticipated work, fifteen years after leaving a mark with Il Divo or La Grande Bellezza. Early commentators have described La Grazia as a “love letter to Italy, to cinema and to powerful women.” The world premiere will take place at the historic Palazzo del ...

France Museum Visitor Eats Million-Dollar Banana Artwork Again
France Museum Visitor Eats Million-Dollar Banana Artwork Again

A visitor to a French museum bit into a fresh banana worth millions of dollars taped to a wall last week, exhibitors said on Friday, in the latest such consumption of the conceptual artwork. Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan — whose provocative creation entitled Comedian was bought for $6.2 million in New York last year — said he was ...