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Much has been said about the modern day ‘It’ girl. Shorthand for an ineffable aura – one that embodies the cultural zeitgeist and reflects it back to us in sartorial flare and memeable moments – lately it’s become a bit of a misnomer. Probably because the elusive archetype is so hard to…
Kevin O’Leary is one of North America’s most successful business entrepreneurs, a business commentator, as well as a star on ABC’s Shark Tank. Known for telling it like it is, with his matter-of-fact commentary on business issues, ‘Mr. Wonderful’ is truly one-of-a-kind in the world of b…
Interestingly, Olivia Crouan, the Chief Brand Officer for Audemars Piguet, hasn’t always been a watch person. She spent most of her career (almost 20 years) working with brands in the wine and spirits division of LVMH. In fact, she only joined the horological world after moving to Genev…
It’s crazy to think that Greta Thunberg, the Swedish environmental campaigner and pioneer of the school strike movement, is already 18. It feels like only yesterday that she appeared on the international stage – an impish 15-year-old prophet of doom telling world leaders they were steal…
Having been appointed Honorary Chair of the World Refugee & Migration Council (WRMC) earlier this year, we sat down with HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan in order to discuss the state of affairs in our region. YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, CONSIDERING THAT EACH COUNTRY SEEMS TO HAVE …
SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY INSTANTLY? The sunrise. Instantly is very specific… A MOVIE THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY? ‘The Philadelphia Story’ is a movie that makes me happy, to think about or to watch. Your happiness tips? First to be kind to others. Second, to surround yourself…
Both for countries across the Middle East and around the world, life as we know it came to a grinding halt in early March 2020. As a result it has become crystal clear how fragile our existence is. Talk about a reality check. Despite all the technology we’ve implemented, the complex fin…
It’s been quite a rollercoaster ride for Saudi businesswoman Princess Deena Aljuhani Abdulaziz. The former Editor of Vogue Arabia has moved on from her dramatic and highly publicised ousting but she’s holding on to her crown as one of the Middle East’s main fashion protagonists. As far …
Linda Sarsour is a Palestinian-American who simultaneously criticises Israel while working on the campaign of a Democratic candidate who might well be the first Jewish US president. Few phrases in the world of politics are wheeled out more commonly than the cry of anti-Semitism. While m…
Women couldn’t drive in Saudi Arabia until last year, but race driver Reema Juffali is taking her right to drive to the next level. Against all odds, she’s forging a trailblazing career in the male-dominated world of motorsports. Five years ago, no one would have believed that a Saudi w…
Karen Wazen’s eyewear label is infiltrating the global fashion market with designer products at high-street prices plus a very of-the-moment digital marketing strategy. Dubai-based Instagrammer Karen Wazen could easily have been content with her lot as a social media influencer wh…
With a plan to launch Libra in 2020, a cryptocurrency that could change global commerce and finance for good, there’s plenty for Facebook to be optimistic about. Ramez Shehadi is leading the company’s foray into the Middle East, and there’s little standing in his way. If you think Faceb…
Emily Penn is a remarkably tireless activist who founded eXXpedition in 2011 and is now a leader in inspiring individuals to make their communities take action on stopping plastic pollution. Like a deadly assassin, stealth and foreboding, the issue of ocean plastic has gradually crept u…
There’s a little known place in Dubai’s residential Nad Al Sheba neighbourhood where magic happens. Well, it might not exactly be magic, but it certainly comes close: Tashkeel is where some of the region’s most talented designers go to turn their artistic visions into reality. The embod…
After years of dire predictions and on the other side, libertarian, tech-loving and science-driven transhumanists rooting for the victory of machine over nature, AI has made its way into almost all aspects of our lives. Think about it, we’ve all experienced that strange feeling when som…
This human rights lawyer seemingly has it all – intelligence, looks, a career, George Clooney, twins , and let’s not forget an enviable wardrobe. 1. Amal might sound perfectly English with her cut-glass accent but, as the daughter of a Lebanese couple – Ramzi and Baria Alamuddin …
What inspired you to become a Formula One driver? I used to watch the Grand Prix races with my dad growing up, and I wanted to be Ayrton Senna. Everyone should dream big, and I’ve never stopped pursuing mine since then. If you could be anything other than a racing driver, what would it …
California-based Dr. Molly Maloof wants to perfect people’s health and improve performance using the latest technology and a few unorthodox substances. Some cautionary advice: this may cause munchies. In terms of shaping the modern world, you could say that Silicon Valley is the world’s…
After almost three decades of being banned by FIFA and it might be just what the Arab nation needs to help turn the page on decades of war.
Any conversation of cryptocurrencies has to begin with an explanation of blockchain and why it’s so revolutionary. In essence, blockchain changes the way we transact with each other and allows us to move from a world of cloning (in which we have to make copies of files we want to send o…
Let’s take a moment to look into the not-too-distant future. Imagine that a robot has stolen your job and pushed you into a lower-wage occupation, if not out of the workforce altogether. Now, this isn’t science fiction, for a University of Oxford study estimated that due to advances in …
It’s hard to believe Instagram was launched only eight years ago. Before that, “no filter” was an expression used to describe a loose-lipped party guest, and “blessed” was how you felt inside when something really good happened. There were no “Followers” and “Influence…
On September 12th, 1962, John F. Kennedy told the United States, “We choose to go to the Moon.” What JFK and the American public didn’t know yet was that by investing in its space programme, it was also getting memory foam, precision GPS, the cardiac pump, food safety …
With enough money, you can buy almost anything – even a bold new dawn.
Supreme’s 50 per cent sale to Carlyle Group didn’t just represent a rags to riches story of a NY skateshop capitalising on anti-capitalism, it constituted the first ever investment by a large private equity firm in a streetwear brand. When James Jebbia founded Supreme in the SoHo neighb…
There’s something about meeting Salwa Chalhoub that gives you an irrepressible urge to collect art. She floats into the three-storey Opera Gallery in Downtown Beirut with her long dark silky smooth hair and the rhetoric of a young, cool and seemingly seasoned capitalist, and of course y…
DERMATOLOGY USED TO BE ABOUT PIMPLES AND RASHES. HAS THIS CHANGED? WHAT ARE YOUR CLIENTS NOW LOOKING FOR? At its essence, dermatology has been and will always be a branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatments of skin disorders. However, there is clearly growing interes…
On Twitter (where she has 7.1 million followers), she describes herself as “a mum and a wife with a really cool day job”. That job is being queen and she looks the part with her fabulous designer clothes, long glossy hair and teeny-tiny waist. Her Instagram account (3.5m followers) ofte…
“Happiness is waking up and knowing,” Isaac Carew says, a little cryptically. Tall, chiselled, blessed with classical good looks, and at 29 years of age on the cusp of a successful television/YouTube career, little wonder the green-eyed chef-turned-model-turned-chef again is so confiden…
The latest groundbreaking project by award-winning author Hassan Blasim is ‘Iraq+100’, for which he edited the work of ten Iraqi writers asked to imagine their country in the year 2103. Citing a lack of contemporary sci-fi and contemporary genres in Iraqi literature, Hassan Blasim and B…
War, terror, people smugglers, storms, nothing could get between Syrian swimmer Rami Anis and his dream of sporting glory. Meet one of the athletes who competed in the Refugee Olympic Team in Rio 2016. Rami Anis rolled to one side of his single, carelessly made bed, then to the other. H…
At last year’s Davos World Economic Forum, John Defterios caught up with the Managing Director and CEO of King Abdullah Economic City, Fahd Al Rasheed, so we could learn more about their 100 billion USD megaproject in Saudi Arabia that’ll one day span an area the size of Washingto…
Not everyone is fortunate enough to gain access to the inner sanctum of the Patek Philippe world. For those who do, it becomes ever so clear how this prestigious brand has attained its eminent status. Standing in front of the Patek Philippe Manufacture at Plan-les-Ouates in Geneva, I ad…
Perfumer Francis Kurkdjian may hail from an Armenian family from Aleppo but everything else about him is resolutely French. Paris is where he started in the business, creating some of the most successful perfumes for major designers, it’s also where he co-founded the esteemed Maison Fra…
Born in Dakar and raised in Kuwait City, Fatima Al Qadiri is a genre-mixing phenomenon in the world of electronica. The New York-based visual artist and composer’s works pivot around the politicised axes of gender, consumerism, military action and cultural stereotypes. “I believe in dji…
At first sight, you’ll never guess that Marianne Hoayek is the right hand of one of the world’s strongest and most respected central bank governors. Ignore those good looks and youthful exuberance because underneath lies a powerfully intelligent and determined person. Marianne Hoayek ma…
Seven years on, Philippe Massoud’s ilili , the New York-based Mediterranean fusion restaurant is busy redefining the concept of Lebanese cuisine. New York City is now several years deep into its fascination with Brussels sprouts. In a town known for its seasonal food fads – think pork b…
The Egyptian feminist writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist, Nawal El Saadawi, has braved prison, exile and death threats in her fight against female oppression. It’s a fight she wants to see through to the end. The first thing Nawal El Saadawi does when we speak for the first ti…
Currently chairing the jury responsible for selecting, each year, one of the most prestigious recognitions of architectural mastery, the Pritzker Prize, Lord Peter Palumbo spends much of his life travelling the world, visiting the great works created by today’s shapers of space. For dec…
A passionate audiophile who grew tired of today’s tinny sound, Princeton professor Edgar Choueiri is determined to bring high-fidelity sound to brand new depths. Naturally, my conversation with Edgar Choueiri begins with space. I’m sitting in the Lotos Club in New York’s Upper East Side…
Dr. Anthony Atala is at the forefront of regenerative medicine. Along with his team at the Wake Forest Institute in North Carolina, he’s using 3D printing techniques to produce human organs in the lab, a technique that promises to revolutionise our ability to heal ourselves. In 2011, Dr…
Nassim Taleb, the controversial thinker who predicted the 2008 financial crisis hates bankers, academics and journalists. He also eats like a caveman and goes to bed each day at 8pm. Intrigued, we took the risk of meeting him. How much does Nassim Taleb dislike journalists? Let me count…
Sebastião Salgado’s journeys have taken him to the farthest reaches and most remote communities of the planet and the photographs he’s brought back tell tales of humanity in all its wonder. With his latest book ‘Genesis’, the Brazilian photographer presents an intimate portrait of our w…
In another life, Ahd Kamel might have been a lawyer. She might have been an animation artist. Or she might have stayed right home in Jeddah. But in this life, Ahd is a filmmaker and actor, readying herself for the world stage. The filmmaker/actress known simply as Ahd is at the helm of …