All posts tagged: UNESCO

What a Muslim folk trickster can teach us about the danger of holding a single worldview

What a Muslim folk trickster can teach us about the danger of holding a single worldview

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told CNN in January 2026 that “we live in a world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power” – what he called the “iron laws of the world.” This “might-makes-right” mindset, which seems to permeate the Trump administration, sees the world through a singular prism and leaves little room for understanding others or their perspectives. Although President Donald Trump later said that he did “believe” in international “niceties,” his administration has focused on the exercise of raw power – as seen in its military operations against Venezuela and Iran – while cutting programs that seek to foster understanding. In September 2025, for example, the Department of Education terminated US$86 million in Title VI funding for foreign language and area studies programs at universities across the country, calling them “inconsistent with administration priorities.” Consider also the drastic cuts to international exchange programs and the administration withdrawing the country from 66 global cooperation organizations, including UNESCO, the …

More UNESCO Sites Damaged in Isfahan and Lebanon

More UNESCO Sites Damaged in Isfahan and Lebanon

Published by José Betancourt

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter. The Headlines IRANIAN LANDMARKS HIT. More news of damage to historical sites in Iran is coming through as the war drags on in the region, reports The Art Newspaper. Following the UNESCO-listed Chehel Sotoun in Isfahan and the Golestan Palace in Tehran, other landmarks have been hit by American-Israeli airstrikes. They include sites in Isfahan’s historic center, notably its 17th-century Naqsh-e-Jahan Square and the Dawlatkhaneh complex. According to local reports, damaged buildings include the Ali Qapu Palace and the Jame Abbasi Mosque, the Rakeb-Khaneh pavilion originally for royal stables, the Ashraf Hall, and the 15th-century Teymouri Hall that was converted into the Natural History Museum. Isfahan was home to the Safavid dynasty (1501-1736), and it holds some of Iran’s most prized cultural monuments, as well as densely populated areas. Meanwhile, a Friday strike on the ancient city of Tyre in Lebanon damaged the perimeter of a UNESCO-listed Al-Bass archaeological site, according to the Lebanese government. LIBRARY OF BRIBERY? Democratic leaders are probing what happened to the roughly …

Lebanese Minister of Culture Appeals to UNESCO for Extra Protections

Lebanese Minister of Culture Appeals to UNESCO for Extra Protections

Published by José Betancourt

Lebanon’s Ministry of Culture has appealed to UNESCO to provide additional protection for the nation’s cultural heritage as the U.S.–Israel–Iran conflict spills into its southern borders. According to a ministry statement on Wednesday, Culture Minister Ghassan Salamé spoke by phone with Khaled El-Enany, director-general of UNESCO, urging the United Nations agency to intervene on Lebanon’s behalf. The minister reportedly told El-Enany: “In light of the current security situation in Lebanon and in the region, [we ask you] to intervene with neighboring states or belligerent parties to remind them of the need to take all preventive measures, during this armed conflict with Lebanon, to protect and preserve Lebanese cultural heritage and refrain from targeting it.” Related Articles Ghassan Salamé directly appealed for greater protection of the National Museum of Beirut, a repository of thousands of years of Mediterranean history, as well as Lebanon’s archaeological and historical sites, including Baalbek, a triad of Imperial Roman temples and UNESCO World Heritage Site; the eighth-century city of Anjar; and the Ouadi Qadisha (the Holy Valley), one of the earliest …

Pieces of Gaza | Madeleine Schwartz

Pieces of Gaza | Madeleine Schwartz

Published by José Betancourt

Until 2024, the objects on display in “Trésors sauvés de Gaza” (“Treasures Saved from Gaza”), an exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris that closed last December, had been sitting in crates in Geneva for seventeen years awaiting their return to the Gaza Strip, where they were destined for a museum not yet built. More than five hundred items were “ready for departure,” as the show’s curators put it in an introductory text: a Roman jar with a human face, pieces of Byzantine columns, a lintel with sumptuous leaves. Many of them—some 260—came from the collection of a businessman named Jawdat Khoudary, a construction company owner in Gaza City who would set aside artifacts his team found as they built. (Later he expanded his holdings with purchases.) In the fall of 2006 he shipped hundreds of items to the Geneva Museum of Art for an exhibition, hoping for their prompt return. But the following year, after its victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections, Hamas took over the Strip and Israel imposed a blockade. …

Macron backs UNESCO bid for French bistros and cafés

Macron backs UNESCO bid for French bistros and cafés

Published by Sam Flores

French President Emmanuel Macron has backed a campaign to have France’s bistros and cafés recognised as part of Unesco’s intangible cultural heritage, putting them on a par with the baguette. The push follows a 2024 initiative by the Association of French Bistros and Cafés, which argues these venues are enduring social spaces that link generations. Keywords for this article Source link

French bistros and cafés: Should they get UNESCO intangible heritage status? – Entre Nous

French bistros and cafés: Should they get UNESCO intangible heritage status? – Entre Nous

Published by Sam Flores

To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Accept Manage my choices One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Try again ENTRE NOUS © FRANCE 24 Issued on: 14/01/2026 – 15:33 06:37 min From the show Reading time 1 min In this edition of Entre Nous we dive into the bid to make France’s bistros and cafés part of UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list. We discuss how the bistrot got its name and how they are different from brasseries, bouillons and restaurants. We also discuss how alcohol consumption and wine’s powerful lobby in France may represent a weakness for the bid, but also why these gathering places are needed more than ever. By: Source link