Donald Trump ignores Europe’s far-right

PARIS — Europe’s far-right politicians are desperate to make friends with Donald Trump, but the U.S. Republican candidate is snubbing them — at least for now.

As Trump continues to dominate headlines — in the U.S. and in Europe — with provocative statements that women who seek abortions should be subject to “some form of punishment” or that NATO is “obsolete,” far-right and Euroskeptic groups from France to Italy to the Netherlands are trying to ride the billionaire’s momentum to make gains at home.

Matteo Renzi’s Pipeline Politics

Matteo Renzi at the Leopolda, Florence (photo via @Huffington Post)

MILAN — Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is expected to vent his frustration at the EU summit Thursday at what he sees as German duplicity about energy policy and sanctions on Russia.

A look from the square

Ahmed, the exuberant young activist protagonist of The Square (photo courtesy of @TheSquare)

Jehane Noujaim’s The Square has already generated a great deal of controversy in its short life. The recently-released documentary on the Egyptian uprising, which marked its Lebanese debut at the American University of Beirut (AUB) on Thursday, has yet to be released in the director’s native Egypt. 

 

Bottles up: how up-cycling is helping solve Lebanon’s waste problems

Wissam at work in his studio in Furn El-Chebbak, Beirut (photo courtesy of @TheKindergartenCollective)

Recycling is certainly not Lebanon’s forte. According to recent statistics, the country creates 4,200 tons of waste per day and, rather than confronting the problem directly, puts off the environmental reckoning by burying all of this trash underground. Last week the country’s waste dilemma became obvious to everyone. As environmental activists blocked access to the Naameh landfill where most of the capital and Mount Lebanon’s trash is brough to, waste piled up across Beirut’s streets.

Lebanon goes for a ride

 

 

Two bikes on a Beirut Street (foto via @Matt Saunders)

 

When you tell someone in Lebanon that you use a bicycle to get around Beirut, expect only one answer: a shocked silent face followed by an expression of dismay, a slow disapproving tilt of the head, and a final questioning of the state of your mental health. “Are you crazy?” “You are going to be killed if you go around by bike,” “Why are you doing it?” are some of the most common answers.

Art against mental illness

One of the art pieces that will be at the Embrace exhibition (foto via@AraAzad)

The numbers are heart-breaking: at least one Lebanese person in every five suffers from some form of mental health problem. But very few people, fewer than one in twenty, actively seek a way to help treat their condition.Things may, however, be finally taking a turn in the right direction.Embrace Fund, a Lebanese non-profit organization, in partnership with the Medical Center of the American Univerisity of Beirut (AUBMC), has decided to confront issues related to mental health in Lebanon head-on, through art.

Caravaggio’s biggest mistery

 

The front cover of Scarlini’s new book. (foto via @Sellerio)

 It’s a question experts, academics, or simply art aficionados have been asking themselves for the last 40 years: Where is Caravaggio‘s “Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence?” After decades of investigation still nobody knows.The only certainty Italian authorities have, is that the late Caravaggio masterpiece was stolen on the night of October 17, 1969. It had been resting untouched for 360 years in the Church of San Lorenzo in Palermo,Sicily. Valued at around $30 million, it tops the police’s most wanted art object list.