This is Beirut - Culture

Pope Leo XIV Shares His Favorite Films Ahead of Vatican Hollywood Audience

This is Beirut, 10:30 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Pope Leo XIV has revealed his four favorite films ahead of a special audience with Hollywood celebrities and Oscar-winning directors at the Vatican. Leo, the first pope from the United States, picked tearjerkers, including Frank Capra's classic 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life with James Stewart, in which an angel is sent from heaven to help a ...

Behind the Charts: The Real Cost of Brexit and AI for UK Artists

This is Beirut, 12/11 19:55 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Music AI Growth Britain Culture

Britain's music industry contributed £8 billion ($10.5 billion) to the UK economy in 2024, but the effects of Brexit and AI have clouded the sector's outlook, an industry report showed Wednesday. UK tours by Taylor Swift and Take That helped lift the industry's contribution to the UK economy last year, according to the annual report from UK ...

'Intersections': The Uk Film Festival in Lebanon Launches its First Edition in Beirut

This is Beirut, 12/11 14:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Cinema Beirut Film Culture UK Metropolis

Beirut welcomes a new landmark cultural event this November: Intersections – The UK Film Festival in Lebanon, a major collaboration between the British Council, the British Embassy in Beirut, and the Metropolis Cinema Association, supported by the UK Government’s Great Britain and Northern Ireland Campaign. Running from 13 to 19 November 2025 ...

Rise of an AI Country Star Shakes the Music Charts

This is Beirut, 12/11 10:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

AI Music Singer Country Culture Art

An artist suspected of being virtual, with a voice generated by Artificial Intelligence, has reached the top of one of the most popular country-music download charts in the United States, marking a first. Walk My Walk, by Breaking Rust, an act with no known identity, is now the most downloaded country track, according to the data published on ...

Music Rights: GEMA Wins Copyright Case Against OpenAI in Germany

This is Beirut, 11/11 18:10 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Music AI Copyright Court Germany US Culture

OpenAI has infringed copyright law in Germany by using song lyrics to train its artificial intelligence models, a court in Munich ruled on Tuesday. "Both the memorization in the language models and the reproduction of the song lyrics in the chatbot's outputs constitute infringements of copyright law," the court ruled in a case brought by the ...

Thieves Steal Ancient Treasures From Syria’s National Museum

This is Beirut, 11/11 14:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Museum Art Theft Ancient Artifacts Heritage Syria Culture

Thieves made off with several ancient gold ingots from Syria's national museum in Damascus, a security source and another close to the institution's management said Tuesday. The museum was spared during Syria's destructive civil war that ran from 2011 to late last year and houses priceless artifacts dating back to antiquity. The robbery took ...

Demon Slayer Surge Powers Sony’s Strong Profit Outlook

This is Beirut, 11/11 13:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Demon Slayer Tokyo US Culture Cinema Art

Shares in Japanese giant Sony jumped more than five percent Tuesday after it hiked full-year profit forecasts thanks to the latest Demon Slayer anime blockbuster. The company also attributed the improved forecasts to higher expected sales of its PlayStation console and a smaller-than-anticipated impact from US tariffs. For the 2025-26 financial ...

Iranian Actor Homayoun Ershadi, Star of 'Taste of Cherry', Dies Following Cancer Struggle

This is Beirut, 11/11 12:50 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Film Obituary Homayoun Ershadi Iran Culture

Iranian actor Homayoun Ershadi died at 78 on Tuesday after a battle with cancer, state news agency IRNA reported. Ershadi rose to international fame with his breakout role in the late Abbas Kiarostami's Palme d'Or-winning Taste of Cherry (1997), which tells the story of a hopeless man looking for someone to bury him after his planned ...

Netflix Unveils First Immersive Theme Parks Across the US

This is Beirut, 11/11 11:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Netflix US Film Culture Art Park

Pretending to be a pirate in an immersive game inspired by the manga One Piece, or wandering through a carnival hosted by Wednesday Addams, is now part of the experience offered inside Netflix’s first theme parks in the United States. For its first “Netflix House,” opening Wednesday, the American streaming giant chose one of the country’s ...

David Szalay Wins Booker Prize For Powerful Novel

This is Beirut, 11/11 10:20 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Booker Prize David Szalay Literature Culture Art Novel

British-Hungarian writer David Szalay won the Booker Prize on Monday for his novel Flesh, a tortured story of a Hungarian emigre who makes and loses a fortune. Szalay beat five other shortlisted authors, including Indian novelist Kiran Desai, who won in 2006, and Britain's Andrew Miller, to claim the £50,000 ($65,500) award at a ceremony in ...

Sabah: The Timeless Voice Lighting Up Lebanon’s Soul

Marie-Christine Tayah, 10/11 18:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Sabah Music Lebanon Culture Art Heritage

Sabah, born Jeanette Georges Feghali in 1925 in the hilltop village of Bdadoun near Wadi Chahrour—the mysterious “Valley of the Blackbird”—was destined for artistry. Poetry ran in her family; her uncle, Anis Feghali, earned the nickname Shahrour El Wadi for his mastery of the traditional Arabic poetic form, zajal. Jeanette inherited this ...

Bulatov, Pillar of Russian Contemporary Art Scene, Dies at 92

This is Beirut, 10/11 17:35 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Painter Erik Bulatov Obituary Contemporary Art Russia Culture

Erik Bulatov, a pillar of Russia's contemporary art scene known for works mocking Soviet propaganda, has died in Paris at the age of 92, the Russian Academy of Fine Arts told AFP Monday. Bulatov was best known as one of the creators of the Sots Art movement that made use of Soviet slogans and shot him to fame in the final years of the USSR. "One ...

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