Art and entertainment

Newly elected Miss Lebanon Perla Harb poses on stage after winning the Miss Lebanon 2025 pageant, in Zouk Mosbeh, north of Beirut, on Oct. 4, 2025.

Culture

Miss Lebanon 2025 crowned in ceremony highlighting culture, heritage

Lebanon crowned Perla Harb as the country’s new beauty queen in a grand ceremony highlighting Lebanese culture.

Installation view of CONVERGE in Seven Contours, One Collection at MACAAL © Ayoub El Bardii.

Culture

Marrakech's African Contemporary Art Museum reinvents itself two years after quake

Marking the two-year anniversary of the 2023 earthquake, Marrakech’s Museum of African Contemporary Art highlights the city’s recovery and its growing role as a hub for African art.

An image of “Tarboush Jedde Maallak”.

Culture

Lebanese play explores struggle between exile and staying in Lebanon

“Tarboush Jedde Maallak” is currently playing in Beirut, bringing to life the enduring struggle of exile that has resonated with every Lebanese for nearly five decades.

Manifest

Culture

Turkey's women, LGBTQ artists top targets of Erdogan's drive for cultural hegemony

From pop stars to performers, Turkey’s secular arts scene faces increasing pressure under Erdogan’s conservative push.

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Culture

London photography exhibition documents daily life in wartorn Gaza

Against erasures

Gaming giant Electronic Arts taken private in $55B Saudi-backed buyout

EA office building in Austin, Texas, USA.

Saudi Arabia's PIF buys $2B majority stake in entertainment giant MBC

The Public Investment Fund is present during the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 13, 2024, in Indian Wells, California.

Culture

Saudi Arabia dreams of Hollywood as $150M epic 'Desert Warrior' debuts

A general view during the Red Sea International Film Festival 2024 on December 12, 2024 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Ernesto S. Ruscio/Getty Images for The Red Sea International Film Festival)

This photograph shows paintings by Ankara Metropolitan Municipality's artists bearing Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Hero or villain? Disney ignites fury with ill-fated series on Turkey’s revered Ataturk

Disney is thought to have caved to pressure from the US-based Armenian lobby to cancel the biopic on the founder of the Turkish Republic.

Adam

Culture

Artist Adam HajYahia explores desire, sexual deviance in Palestine

A Palestinian artist and curator sheds light on the history of Palestine’s underworld in a recent exhibition.

An undated image of the exhibition at Feshane.

Turkey Islamist group calls for art expo's closure for 'blasphemy,' LGBTQ 'propaganda'

Islamist media and AKP members attacked Istanbul Municipality’s inaugural exhibition of top Turkish artists at Feshane, a recently renovated 19th-century factory.

Bradley Beal, #3 of the Washington Wizards, drives around Jared Rhoden, #8 of the Detroit Pistons.

Qatar to buy stake in Washington Wizards, Capitals: reports

The move follows the National Basketball Association allowing sovereign wealth funds to invest in teams and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund merging its LIV Golf league with the PGA Tour, demonstrating Gulf investors' interest in US sports.

Kurt Tocci attends the world premiere of "Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse."

Culture

Saudi Arabia bans new Spider-Man movie that features transgender flag

A few issues of censorship of LGBTQ content have occurred in the Gulf recently, though Saudi authorities did not say exactly why “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” will not be shown.

Turkish actress Merve Dizdar poses during a photocall after she won the Best Actress Prize for her part in the film "Kuru Otlar Ustune" (About Dry Grasses) during the closing ceremony of the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 27, 2023.

Turkey's conservatives lash out at actress Merve Dizdar after Cannes win

Angry reactions to actress Merve Dizdar’s acceptance speech at the Cannes film festival may foreshadow more crackdowns on the liberal arts sector as Erdogan and a new conservative parliament takes the reins.

Arab Idol Winner (2012) Mohammed Assaf conducts interviews for The Idol co financed by the Doha Film Institute on day 2 of the Ajyal Youth Film Festival 2015 on November 30, 2015 in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)

Culture

What's behind removal of Palestinian Mohammed Assaf's song from Spotify?

Spotify says the Gazan artist’s song was removed from its streaming service by "the distributor." Social media users call the act discriminatory and part of the ongoing censorship of Palestinian content masked under the guise of eliminating anti-Israeli sentiment.

Pictured in this undated photo is Egyptian director Morad Mostafa.

Culture

Egypt's ‘Eissa’ debuts at Cannes with spotlight on Africa’s refugee community

Egyptian critics and activists praised "I Promise You Paradise," a short film directed by Egyptian director Morad Mostafa, highlighting untold stories of immigrants living in Egypt, with a focus on African refugees.

Turkish pop star Gulsen performs during a concert in Aydin, Turkey on March 27, 2022.

Turkey hands pop star Gulsen jail sentence over religious schools joke

The sentence is widely seen as the epitome of the culture wars that the country has witnessed under Erdogan.

The sarcophagus of Pharaoh Ramses II is displayed on the opening day of the exhibition titled "Ramses the Great, the Gold of the Pharaohs" at the Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris, France, April 7, 2023.

Culture

Egypt archaeologists refute Ramses II-Exodus connection

The display of the sarcophagus of Ramses II at an exhibition organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism in Paris has revived the debate of whether the Exodus occurred during the era of the king.

Men walk past a mural in the Iranian capital Tehran, on October 11, 2022. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

In Iran, hardliners successfully orchestrate takeover of state TV

Iran's state TV has been taken over by hard-line figures who use it to transmit ideological and hard-line views targeting the Reformists and opposition, including in entertainment shows.

US Treasury Department

UK sanctions Lebanon art dealer accused of financing Hezbollah

Already sanctioned by the United States back in 2019, Lebanese art dealer Nazem Said Ahmad was sanctioned by the British government on Tuesday.