War simplifies and clarifies everything. When one’s own life or the very survival of family, friends and country is at stake, one learns to think quick and to act straight, to sweep away routine, clichés, and dead paradigms - and stick to fundamentals. 

Tensions between the United States and Iran are no longer simmering quietly in the background. They are front and center, raw and escalating. Military deployments, sharp rhetoric and urgent diplomacy are converging into what looks increasingly like a defining moment.

The resignation of Jack Lang as head of the Institut du Monde Arabe (The Arab World Institute) marks a troubling moment for France’s political and cultural establishment.

Parisian brasseries are more than restaurants. They are part of France’s cultural fabric, places where time slows, waiters glide between tables in long aprons, and the menu rarely strays from the classics. 

Phuket, Thailand’s flagship island destination, is stepping up efforts to diversify its tourism markets. 

Ras Al Khaimah welcomed 2026 with an impressive 15-minute New Year’s Eve show combining drones and fireworks, earning a new Guinness World Records title for the largest aerial phoenix formed by multirotor drones.