Culture
Latest stories
Berlin gay Muslim faces racism and homophobia

For Ali Darwich, the deadly attack on the Berlin Pride Festival was an attack on the city of Berlin and everything it stands for: its diversity, its tolerance and its belief in freedom.

On a personal level, it also was an attack on everything the Berliner embodies.

W140 Full Story
Gay belly dancer turns grief into joy after fatal attack on Berlin's Pride festival

Haidar Darwish, a Syrian belly dancer and artist, took the stage at Berlin's Museum Island wearing a flamboyant hoop skirt and red fez. He asked the audience for a moment of silence and then said the show must go on — despite a fatal attack on the city's Pride celebrations that has plunged the LGBTQ+ community into mourning.

"Yesterday there was an attack and a hate crime on our community in Berlin during the Pride Parade," he told the crowd Sunday night, struggling to keep his emotions in check.

W140 Full Story
Make smoking cool again? Pop culture reboots the vice

From beauty mogul Kylie Jenner lighting up on the cover of Vanity Fair to cigarette trays at singer Dua Lipa's wedding, the pop culture-verse has rebooted cigarettes as the accessory du jour, health risks be damned.

W140 Full Story
UNESCO adds Lebanese castles to World Heritage List despite Israeli objections

A United Nations committee voted Friday to inscribe a major archaeological site in the West Bank and a set of castles in southern Lebanon as World Heritage sites, despite objections from Israel, which had urged the committee to reject the bids.

The decision at a U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization meeting in South Korea came days after Israel's Foreign Ministry urged the committee to reject efforts to designate the small West Bank town of Sebastia and the Lebanese castles, calling the nominations a "weaponization of cultural heritage."

W140 Full Story
Ancient Lebanese city of Tyre added to heritage danger list

Tyre, an ancient Phoenician city in southern Lebanon hit in recent months by Israeli bombardment, was on Wednesday added to the UNESCO list of world heritage sites in danger.

"The site has been directly hit and has sustained damage. Furthermore, its state of conservation is a cause for growing concern, particularly given the possibility of further impacts," the organization said.

W140 Full Story
Hitler's Austrian birthplace transformed into police station

Austria opened a new police station in Adolf Hitler's former house on Wednesday, in the hope of deterring today's ascendant far-right extremists from making the pilgrimage to the Nazi dictator's birthplace.

W140 Full Story
Lebanese-American who stabbed Rushdie to go on trial again

The Lebanese-American man who was convicted of trying to kill Salman Rushdie is going on trial again in the United States, this time in a federal terrorism case that is probing deeper into what allegedly motivated the stabbing on a lecture stage in 2022.

Opening statements are set for Wednesday in Hadi Matar's trial in the federal courthouse in Buffalo, New York. It's about 70 miles (113 km) from the arts and intellectual retreat where the renowned author and free-speech advocate was attacked as he was about to discuss writer safety.

W140 Full Story
In a Lebanon museum, 'keys without homes' evoke destruction in south

Tears streamed down south Lebanon resident Fatima Hajj Ali's face as she stared at a host of keys hanging like windchimes from the ceiling of a Beirut museum -- each one symbolizing a home, like her own, destroyed by Israel.

W140 Full Story
UN to list south Lebanon historic castles as 'in danger' from conflict

The United Nations looks set to list a Biblical site, Lebanese castles, an antelope migration path and the world's deepest lake as world treasures under threat, including from war or climate change.

W140 Full Story
How an Italian sculptor created the World Cup trophy that became an icon

The Italian sculptor who designed the FIFA World Cup trophy wanted to capture three sporting emotions in a single spiraling form: the athlete's struggle, the fan's jubilation and the moment of victory.

On Sunday, either Spain or Argentina will lift the trophy after the 2026 World Cup final.

W140 Full Story