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Designer Amina Muaddi celebrates another year with flair

Designer Amina Muaddi celebrates another year with flair
Amina Muaddi turned 38 this week. (Getty Images)
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Updated 01 June 2024
Arab News
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Designer Amina Muaddi celebrates another year with flair

Designer Amina Muaddi celebrates another year with flair
Updated 01 June 2024
Arab News
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DUBAI: Birthday tributes from friends and family poured in this week for celebrity-loved footwear designer Amina Muaddi, who celebrated her 38th birthday.

The shoemaker, who is of Jordanian and Romanian descent but grew up in Italy, appeared to celebrate her birthday with an intimate boat ride. She shared a picture of what seemed to be a mangrove forest with water and grass, walking down an aisle to board a boat.

“BDAY,” she captioned the post on her Instagram story.




The shoemake appeared to celebrate her birthday with an intimate boat ride. (Instagram)

The subsequent posts were reshared heartfelt messages and posts from friends and family who left the birthday girl warm wishes for her special day on their Instagram stories.

Giorgia Tordini, the creative director and co-founder of Italian fashion label The Attico, shared a picture of both of them and wrote: “HB my forever bestie.” In the second picture, she expressed how much she missed not being with Muaddi on her birthday.

Venice-born and Paris-based DJ Fiona Zanetti wrote a touching message for Muaddi: “Happy birthday my love. Words can’t express how much I cherish your beautiful soul and our friendship. You are everything. Going through pictures made me super emotional to relive all the beautiful memories we share. Can’t wait for hundreds more. Here’s a photomathon from six years ago, baby us. I love you so much.”




Instagram/ @LoriHarvey

US model and socialite Lori Harvey took to Instagram to share pictures. “Happy birthday to my favorite girl. Been stuck like glue since day one,” Harvey said.

Muaddi has been occupied with celebrating the launch of her new summer-inspired BRITO capsule collection, featuring six varieties of the BRITO slipper in muted-to-neon colorways.

The designer hosted a launch event in Milan in May that was attended by her loyal A-list fans, including French model and actress Tina Kunakey, who has Moroccan heritage; Italian singer and actress Elodie; and Tordini, among many others.

For the event, the designer wore a bright orange latex dress featuring a wrap-around skirt that tied at her waist. She paired it with matching orange BRITO heels, which are created from a single block of plexiglass carved into the designer’s signature flared heel.

Besides orange, the handcrafted square-toed heels, made in Italy, also come in hues of neon pink, electric green, bright blue, black and transparent.

Topics: Amina Muaddi

Spanish, Belgian broadcasters say Eurovision televoting ‘encourages manipulation’ after Israel’s result at contest

Spanish, Belgian broadcasters say Eurovision televoting ‘encourages manipulation’ after Israel’s result at contest
Updated 20 May 2025
Arab News
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Spanish, Belgian broadcasters say Eurovision televoting ‘encourages manipulation’ after Israel’s result at contest

Spanish, Belgian broadcasters say Eurovision televoting ‘encourages manipulation’ after Israel’s result at contest
  • Israeli contestant Yuval Raphael unexpectedly came in second place
  • ‘A system in which everyone can cast up to 20 votes is a system that encourages manipulation,’ says Flemish parliamentarian
Updated 20 May 2025
Arab News

LONDON: Spanish and Belgian broadcasters have accused Eurovision Song Contest organizers of “encouraging manipulation” after the Israeli contestant won their public vote and came second in the 2025 competition.

RTVE, Spain’s public broadcaster, and the Flemish VRT have filed complaints with the European Broadcasting Union, the organizer, requesting an investigation into last week’s televoting system results.

Israeli contestant Yuval Raphael unexpectedly came in second place after Austria’s JJ, who won Eurovision with 436 points with his song “Wasted Love.”

Raphael, who was at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel when Hamas attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, earned 357 combined points from the jury and public at the Eurovision final on May 17. Her result included 12 points, each awarded by the televoters in Spain and Belgium, despite the countries’ juries giving Israel a score of zero.

The Eurovision televoting system allows viewers to vote up to 20 times for a small fee charged for each vote via text or phone call. Each country’s contestant can earn a maximum of 12 points from either a jury or the public vote. To ensure fairness, contestants do not receive points from their own countries.

Katia Segers, a Flemish parliamentarian, said: “A system in which everyone can cast up to 20 votes is a system that encourages manipulation.

“Whether this manipulation occurred in our country and all other participating and non-participating countries must be investigated.”

She added: “The VRT must take the lead in requesting this investigation, and in holding the debate on the televoting system within the EBU, and on Israel’s participation.”

It was Israel’s second year participating in Eurovision while its military forces continue ongoing attacks in the Gaza Strip, which have killed over 52,000 Palestinians since October 2023.

More than 70 former Eurovision participants earlier this month accused Israel’s public broadcaster KAN of being “complicit in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza” and demanded the exclusion of Tel Aviv from the European contest.

Last week’s final performance by Raphael in Basel, Switzerland, was disrupted by pro-Palestine protesters who attempted to storm the stage. The winner, Austria, will host the 2026 edition.

RTVE’s coverage of the event displayed for 16 seconds a black screen with white lettering in Spanish and English that read: “When human rights are at stake, silence is not an option. Peace and Justice for Palestine.”

The message was perceived as a stance against Israel’s participation. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday called for Israel to be treated the same way as Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and to be banned from future contests.

Managing Director of Eurovision Martin Green confirmed that the organization was taking Spain and Belgium’s complaint “seriously.”

He said: “It is important to emphasize that the voting operation for the Eurovision Song Contest is the most advanced in the world and each country’s result is checked and verified by a huge team of people to exclude any suspicious or irregular voting patterns.

“An independent compliance monitor reviews both jury and public vote data to ensure we have a valid result. We remain in constant contact with all participating broadcasters of the Eurovision Song Contest and take their concerns seriously.”

Topics: Eurovision Song Contest Israel

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The Smashing Pumpkins to make UAE debut this October

The Smashing Pumpkins to make UAE debut this October
Updated 20 May 2025
Arab News
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The Smashing Pumpkins to make UAE debut this October

The Smashing Pumpkins to make UAE debut this October
Updated 20 May 2025
Arab News

DUBAI: Alternative rock icons The Smashing Pumpkins are set to perform in the UAE for the first time, with a one-night-only concert at Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena on Thursday Oct. 9, 2025. The show is part of the band’s global “Rock Invasion 2025” tour and marks their  Middle East debut.

Led by founding member Billy Corgan, with longtime bandmates James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin, the Chicago-born group will deliver a setlist spanning their three-decade career. Fans can expect to hear beloved classics such as “1979,” “Tonight, Tonight,” and “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” alongside newer tracks like “Beguiled” and “Empires.”

The Abu Dhabi stop is the final leg of their regional tour, which also includes performances in Tokyo, Seoul, Manila, Bangkok, Singapore, and Bahrain. The tour follows the release of their ambitious rock opera “ATUM” and their latest album “Aghori Mhori Mei,” released in late 2024.

Tickets for the Etihad Arena show go on sale through Live Nation Middle East, with artist and presale tickets available starting May 21, and general public sales opening on May 23 at 12 pm.

Topics: The Smashing Pumpkins Abu Dhabi Etihad Arena

Gazan twins in Cannes warn ‘nothing left’ of homeland

Gazan twins in Cannes warn ‘nothing left’ of homeland
Updated 20 May 2025
AFP
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Gazan twins in Cannes warn ‘nothing left’ of homeland

Gazan twins in Cannes warn ‘nothing left’ of homeland
Updated 20 May 2025
AFP

CANNES: Twin Gazan filmmakers Arab and Tarzan Nasser said they never thought the title of their new film “Once Upon A Time In Gaza” would have such heartbreaking resonance.
“Right now there is nothing left of Gaza,” said Tarzan when it premiered on Monday at the Cannes film festival.
Since militants from Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, more than 18 months of Israeli bombardment has ravaged large swathes of the Palestinian territory and killed tens of thousands of people.
Israel has vowed to “take control of all” the besieged territory of more than two million inhabitants, where United Nations agencies have warned of famine following Israel’s two-month total blockade.
Israel allowed in several aid trucks on Monday but the UN said it was only “a drop in the ocean” of needs.
The Nasser brothers, who left Gaza in 2012, said their new film set in 2007, when Hamas Islamists seized control of the strip, explains the lead-up to today’s catastrophic war.
“Once Upon A Time In Gaza,” which screened in the festival’s Un Certain Regard section, follows friends Yahia and Osama as they try to make a little extra cash by selling drugs stuffed into falafel sandwiches.
Using a manual meat grinder that does not rely on rare electricity, student Yahia blends up fava beans and fresh herbs to make the patty-shaped fritters in the back of Osama’s small run-down eatery, while dreaming of being able to leave the Israeli-blockaded coastal strip.
Charismatic hustler Osama meanwhile visits pharmacy after pharmacy to amass as many pills as he can with stolen prescriptions, pursued by a corrupt cop.


Israel first imposed a blockade on Gaza in June 2006 after militants there took one of its soldiers, and reinforced it in September 2007 several months after Hamas took power.
“The blockade was gradually tightened, tightened until reaching the genocide we see today,” said Tarzan.
“Until today they are counting the calories that enter,” he added.
An Israeli NGO said in 2012 that documents showed Israeli authorities had calculated that 2,279 calories per person per day was deemed sufficient to prevent malnutrition in Gaza.
The defense ministry however claimed it had “never counted calories” when allowing aid in.
Despite all this, Gazans have always shown a love of life and been incredibly resilient, the directors said.
“My father is until now in northern Gaza,” Tarzan said, explaining the family’s two homes had been destroyed.
But before then, “every time a missile hit, damaging a wall or window, he’d fix it up the next day,” he said.
In films, “the last thing I want to do is talk about Israel and what it’s doing,” he added.
“Human beings are more important — who they are, how they’re living and adapting to this really tough reality.”
In their previous films, the Nasser twins followed an elderly fisherman enamoured with his neighbor in the market in “Gaza Mon Amour” and filmed women trapped at the hairdresser’s in their 2015’s “Degrade.”
Like “Once Upon A Time in Gaza,” they were all shot in Jordan.

As the siege takes its toll in “Once Upon A Time In Gaza,” a desolate Yahia is recruited to star in a Hamas propaganda film.
In Gaza, “we don’t have special effects but we do have live bullets,” the producer says in one scene.
Arab said, long before Gazan tap water became salty and US President Donald Trump sparked controversy by saying he wanted to turn their land into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” the coastal strip was a happy place.
“I remember when I was little, Gaza actually was a riviera. It was the most beautiful place. I can still taste the fresh water on my tongue,” he said.
“Now Trump comes up with this great invention that he wants to turn it into a riviera after Israel completely destroyed it?“
Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 53,486 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health authorities, whose figures the United Nations deems reliable.
Gaza health authorities said at least 44 people were killed there in the early hours of Tuesday.

Topics: Gaza Cannes Film Festival

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Met returns looted Mesopotamian artifacts to Iraq after investigation

Met returns looted Mesopotamian artifacts to Iraq after investigation
Updated 20 May 2025
Arab News
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Met returns looted Mesopotamian artifacts to Iraq after investigation

Met returns looted Mesopotamian artifacts to Iraq after investigation
Updated 20 May 2025
Arab News

DUBAI: Three ancient Mesopotamian artifacts once housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York have been returned to Iraq after an investigation into art trafficking linked to the late British antiquities dealer Robin Symes, authorities announced on Monday.

The return was confirmed in statements by the Met and the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which led the criminal investigation. The artifacts — a Sumerian gypsum vessel from about 2600-2500 BC and two Babylonian ceramic heads dated about 2000-1600 BC — were among 135 looted antiquities linked to Symes and seized earlier this year.

According to The New York Times, the male head sculpture was sold to the Met by Symes in 1972, while the female head and the Sumerian vessel were gifts from a private collection in 1989. All three are believed to have originated from ancient Mesopotamian sites, including Isin and Ur, now in modern-day Iraq.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. said the seizure and return are part of broader efforts to undo the “significant damage traffickers have caused to our worldwide cultural heritage.”

The repatriation was formalized in a ceremony in Lower Manhattan attended by Iraqi officials and Met representatives. The museum said that it had acted upon “new information” received through the DA’s investigation that clarified the artifacts’ illicit provenance.

Authorities estimate the value of the 135 items trafficked through Symes and recovered in New York at $58 million.


 

Topics: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lyna Khoudri-starring film ‘Eagles of the Republic’ premieres at Cannes

Lyna Khoudri-starring film ‘Eagles of the Republic’ premieres at Cannes
Updated 20 May 2025
Arab News
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Lyna Khoudri-starring film ‘Eagles of the Republic’ premieres at Cannes

Lyna Khoudri-starring film ‘Eagles of the Republic’ premieres at Cannes
Updated 20 May 2025
Arab News

DUBAI: French Algerian actress Lyna Khoudri’s film “Eagles of the Republic” premiered this week at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, and it received a coveted standing ovation following the screening.

Directed by Swedish Egyptian filmmaker Tarik Saleh, the film is the final chapter in his acclaimed “Cairo Trilogy,” which includes “The Nile Hilton Incident” (2017) and “Boy From Heaven” (2022), the latter earning him the Best Screenplay award at Cannes.

Set in Cairo, “Eagles of the Republic” follows George El-Nabawi, a fading movie star who reluctantly agrees to play a role in a political biopic.

(L-R) Alexandre Desplat, Lyna Khoudri, Amr Waked, Sherwan Haji and Tarik Saleh at the premiere. (Getty Images)

Khoudri portrays Donya, a journalist who becomes entangled in the political intrigue surrounding the film’s protagonist, Fahmy.

The movie also features Swedish Lebanese actor Fares Fares — a longtime collaborator of Saleh — in the lead role, alongside French Moroccan actress Zineb Triki as Suzanne, the Western-educated wife of Egypt’s defence minister, and Egyptian actor Amr Waked as presidential adviser Dr. Mansour.

For the premiere, Khoudri wore a sculptural strapless Chanel dress featuring a voluminous skirt, a structured bodice, and folded detailing along the neckline. The gown was cinched at the waist and flared into pleats. She completed the look with white open-toe heels and a sleek bun.

She attended the premiere alongside Saleh, Waked, French film composer and conductor Alexandre Desplat, and Kurdish Finnish actor, filmmaker and writer Sherwan Haji, who also stars in the film. 

Khoudri, 32, first rose to prominence in her role as Nedjma in Mounia Meddour’s critically acclaimed drama “Papicha.” For her work in the film, she won the Orizzonti Award for best actress at the 74th Venice Film Festival, and she was nominated in the Cesar Awards’ most promising actress category.

Khoudri also starred in the 2019 mini-series “Les Sauvages” and in 2016’s “Blood on the Docks.”

She was also cast in Wes Anderson’s 2021 comedy “The French Dispatch” alongside Timothee Chalamet, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton and Owen Wilson.

The actress also stars in Martin Bourboulon’s Afghanistan evacuation drama “In The Hell Of Kabul: 13 Days, 13 Nights,” alongside Danish Bafta-winning “Borgen” star Sidse Babett Knudsen, Roschdy Zem (“Chocolat,” “Oh Mercy!”), and theater actor Christophe Montenez.

Topics: Lyna Khoudri Eagles of the Republic Cannes Film Festival

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