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Libya Observer
22-05-2025
- General
- Libya Observer
Urbanism Forum and Italian Design Day 2025
by Anas Thu, 22/05/2025 - 14:51 The Shahat Hall at the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli has hosted the Urbanism Forum 2025, coinciding with Italian Design Day. The event was attended by the Italian Ambassador to Libya, a number of heads of Libyan heritage and urbanism institutions, as well as a group of Italian architects and experts. The forum's dialogue sessions addressed prospects for Libyan-Italian cooperation in the field of preserving architectural heritage, particularly historic buildings with an Italian character. Discussions also focused on exchanging expertise and strengthening partnerships between engineers and restoration specialists from both countries. Culture Tagged:
Time Out
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning': a travel guide to the globe-spanning blockbuster
Ethan Hunt is back to save the world again – and this time it really needs saving. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, the eighth and biggest Mission movie yet, sees Tom Cruise's agent pushing at the boundaries of gravity and physics once again in an attempt to foil the megalomaniac plans of evil AI The Entity and its human handmaiden Gabriel (Esai Morales). Luckily, Ethan has back-up in the equally mad/daring form of Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames), Grace (Hayley Atwell), Paris (Pom Klementieff) and new guy Theo (Greg Tarzan Davis). The action, as our review will testify, is on another scale and the stakes are even higher. Fans of the franchise will not be shortchanged. Behind the scenes, the film's production story was not a lot less bananas, with the film's shoot overlapping with that of previous instalment Dead Reckoning, Hollywood strikes and about a bajillion moving parts for director Christopher McQuarrie and his stuntman star Cruise to corral into place. Here's how – and where – they did it, and how to visit the movie's incredible locations. Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning filming locations Trafalgar Square, London If there's one thing the Mission: Impossible franchise loves even more than self-destructing messages and fast-burning fuses, it's the city of London. From Brian De Palma's opening entry back in 1996, which had a key scene inside Liverpool Street Station, to Mission: Impossible – Fallout, which featured a nutso foot chase across the city's rooftops, Ethan Hunt has been parking his tanks on 007's lawn for years. Liberties, however, have been taken. Hunt's sprint across Westminster Bridge under the shadow of Big Ben is strictly by the A-to-Z, but Final Reckoning also cheekily invents an entirely new Tube station. The film opens with Hunt and his team emerging from 'Trafalgar Square Station' and into the eye of a storm. Good luck with that IRL. Nearby Charing Cross Station's agent will be having words. Travel tip: London needs little introduction but visitors looking to push the boat out and get close to the Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning action should check into the opulent Corinthia Hotel a short spring away from Trafalgar Square. It even has an espionage past of its own. A wander through Trafalgar Square will take you to The National Gallery and the historic St Martin-in-the-Field church. For extra Cruise heritage, it's here that the star hopped off that chopper in Edge of Tomorrow. Middleton Mine, Derbyshire Derbyshire hasn't had too much airtime on the big screen but this Mission: Impossible two-parter has been busy putting that right. Dead Reckoning 's climactic train crash was filmed in Darlton Quarry in the Peak District and Final Reckoning returned to the area in March 2024 to film a series of key tunnel sequences 15 miles away in Middleton Mine. Travel tip: To visit Middleton Mine you probably need to be making a blockbuster of your own – the 26 miles of limestone tunnels are not open to the public – but the mines are situated in an area of outstanding beauty that's still well worth a visit. The nearby town of Matlock, a Peak District oasis full of independent shops and restaurants, is a perfect base for walking the local limestone valleys. Longcross Studios, Surrey It's not open to the public but England's busy Longcross Studios plays a crucial role in the movie's production. The underwater scenes involving Hunt boarding sunken Russian sub The Sevastopol were all filmed in the studio's water tanks, with director Christopher McQuarrie donning scuba gear and diving in to join his star underwater. Svalbard, Norway The new Mission: Impossible also heads to the roof of the Earth for a key sequence involving a CIA listening station and that missing submarine. The scenes were filmed on the startlingly beautiful Norwegian island of Svalbard, a previously unfilmed location that brings a frostbitten isolation to the movie's middle stretch. Temperature reached -40 and hairdryers were employed on set to keep hands from freezing. 'It's a very difficult landscape to shoot in,' remembers Hayley Atwell. 'That kind of adds to the suspense and the drama of it. The sense of risk and stakes just to be able to be there filming – I think it translates beautifully on camera.' Travel tip: Far more hospitable in real life, Svalbard boasts the world's most northerly food festival and an annual jazz fest. There are flights to the island from Oslo (three hours) and Tromsø (90 minutes), and it'll take about seven hours from London. There are six hotels to pick from in the island's main town of Longyearbyen. Head to the official Visit Svalbard website for the full low-down Blyde River Canyon, South Africa The spectacular 26km-long river canyon, the third largest green canyon in the world, is the backdrop for Final Reckoning 's extraordinary aerial sequence in which Hunt and Gabriel grapple for control of a biplane – the only mode of transport that can't be hacked by the busybody AI. 'That sequence is almost like Top Gun meets Mission: Impossible – the best of both worlds,' notes stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood stunt coordinator who first suggested the location. Travel tip: The area is home turf for Eastwood – the movie's legendary stunt coordinator hails from Durban – and he recommends Kapama River Lodge as a luxe base to strike out for the area. The lodge even has its own private aircraft and airstrip for high-altitude sightseeing, although wing-walking is not encouraged. The Wild Coast, South Africa The plane sequence actually uses a patchwork quilt of South African landscapes. Alongside Blyde River Canyon, where the scene opens, the Drakensberg mountains in KwaZulu-Natal Province form the backdrop for the middle stretch, before the two adversaries soar out over the Indian Ocean above the Wild Coast. Including prep time and hundreds of hours of rehearsals at England's Duxford Airfield, the sequence took four and half months to film. Travel tip: A 155-mile stretch of dunes, rocky cliffs and plunging waterfalls, the Wild Coast is a lesser-known gem on South Africa's tourist map. Book into Mbotyi Lodge, an affordable, beachside family hotel right that's a great base for visiting Waterfall Bluff, a stunning set of falls which appear in the movie. A more opulent alternative base is Umngazi hotel and spa. When is Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning in cinemas? You can catch it in worldwide cinemas – and in IMAX – now. Watch the trailer below.
Daily Mail
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Inside Mark Wright and Michelle Keegan's first night out since becoming mum and dad to baby Palma - and how it was nearly ruined by a 'wardrobe disaster'
Smiling in her floor-length black dress, new mum Michelle Keegan looked forward to her first night out since giving birth to baby girl Palma. The actress posed alongside husband Mark Wright at London's five star Corinthia Hotel on Thursday night, as they prepared to make their way over the road to The Savoy. They were there to support the former TOWIE star's sister Jess Wright 's charity event in aid of her son Presley, who was born with a life-threatening heart condition. Michelle, 37, was also there to cheer on Mark who was hosting the night, the Have a Heart gala, to raise money for Brompton Fountain, which supports the treatment and care of seriously ill children at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, which has been credited with saving little Presley's life. He was diagnosed with congenital heart disease called 'Bicuspid Aortic Valve when he was a tiny baby. But Michelle decided to avoid the fanfare of the red carpet by slipping in the side entrance - perhaps to make sure the attention was on Jess rather than her. Instead Mark posted on Instagram, writing alongside a picture of the couple, who married in 2015: 'Sharing the snap to Instagram, Mark penned: 'Mum and Dad just got scrubbed up, ready for our 1st night out.' Regardless, Mark and Michelle wanted to ensure that they looked the part so she got fully glammed up by getting ready at the Corinthia, after all, it had been several months since she enjoyed a night out on the town. Meanwhile, Mark had to make a last minute dash the shops when he realised his white shirt was a little on the snug side. A source said: 'Mark and Michelle wanted to support Jess, it was so important to them and the rest of the Wright family. 'Things have been difficult for Jess but she has received a lot of help and she wanted to give back by holding the event. 'Mark and Michelle travelled to London and Michelle got ready while Mark had to rush out and save his own day with a new, slightly bigger shirt. He saw the funny side.' They joined guests such as Denise Van Outen, Kimberley Walsh and Zoe Hardman, while Britain's Got Talent winner Sydnie Christmas reduced guest to tears with a poignant rendition of Tomorrow. There was also an auction during which guests could bid for prizes such as BGT final tickets. One guest told MailOnline: 'Many of us were in tears as we heard some terribly sad stories about children affected by heart conditions.' Last August Jess, 40, revealed that Presley has the disease, writing on Instagram that it was 'something he was born with & happens to a small 1% of us.' She added: 'Essentially, instead of having three leaflets in his aortic valve, like most, he only has two. 'This condition affects how blood flows from the heart to the rest of the body and will require monitoring & care over time. 'I won't go into the full details right now, but while this is please God not a fatal disease, we are coming to terms with the fact that our son will need intervention at least twice in his life.'
Asharq Al-Awsat
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Inside Sudan's Presidential Palace in Khartoum…Fresh Blood and Destruction
At the battle-scarred presidential palace in the heart of Sudan's shattered capital, soldiers gathered under a chandelier on Sunday afternoon, rifles and rocket launchers slung over their shoulders, listening to their orders. Then they trooped out, down a red carpet that once welcomed foreign dignitaries, and into the deserted center of the city on a mission to flush out the last pockets of resistance from the paramilitary fighters with whom they have been clashing for two years. Since Sudan's military captured the presidential palace on Friday, in a fierce battle that left hundreds dead, it has taken control of most of central Khartoum, marking a momentous change of fortunes that is likely to change the course of Sudan's ruinous civil war. By Sunday, the military had seized the Central Bank, the headquarters of the national intelligence service and the towering Corinthia Hotel along the Nile. Journalists from The New York Times were the first from a Western outlet to cross the Nile, into central Khartoum, or to visit the palace, since the war erupted in April 2023. 'What we saw there made clear how decisively the events of recent days have shifted the direction of the war, but offered little hope that it will end soon,' they said. Mohamed Ibrahim, a special forces officer, said 'We will never leave our country to the mercenaries,' referring to the RSF — the paramilitary force. As our vehicle raced down a deserted street along the Nile that until a few days ago had been controlled by the RSF, the scale of the damage in one of Africa's biggest cities was starkly evident. Trees lining the road had been stripped bare by explosions. A mosque was peppered with gunfire. Towering ministries and office blocks, some built with money from Sudan's vast reserves of oil and gold, were burned to a shell. The military headquarters, where a group of senior generals were trapped for the first 18 months of the war, had been shredded by bombs. Khartoum University, once a hub of political debate, had been looted. And an area where tens of thousands of young Sudanese mounted a popular uprising in 2019 that ousted the country's leader, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, was deserted. All that remained of those hopeful times was a handful of faded, bullet-pocked murals. Instead, some of those pro-democracy protesters have picked up guns to fight in the war; they were assembled in the ruins of the presidential palace on Sunday. The Chinese-built presidential palace, only a few years ago shared by the country's warring military leaders, had been reduced to a battered husk. Dust and debris covered ministerial suites and state rooms. Ceilings had collapsed. Gaping holes looked out over the Nile. On the grounds of an older palace next door, erected a century ago by British colonists, soldiers napped under the charred arches of a bombed-out building. Piles of bloodstained rubble on the palace steps testified to the ferocity of the battle on Friday. On the steps of the palace, a fresh bloodstain marked the spot where an RSF drone-fired missile had killed four employees from Sudanese state TV and two military officers on Friday morning. As the military closed in, the RSF leader, Lt. Gen. Mohammed Hamdan, issued a video message imploring his troops to stand their ground. When the final assault began, at least 500 paramilitary fighters were still inside, several officers said. But when they tried to flee, they ran into deadly ambushes. A video filmed half a mile from the palace, and verified by The Times, showed dozens of bodies scattered along a street, beside incinerated or bullet-pocked vehicles. 'This is the season for hunting mice,' declared the officer who took the video, dating it to Saturday. RSF fighters stationed on Tuti Island, at the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile Rivers, tried to flee on boats, soldiers said. It was unclear how many escaped. Without offering details, a Sudanese military spokesman said that 'hundreds' of paramilitary fighters had been killed. But dozens of the military's forces also died, soldiers said privately, in RSF drone attacks and in other fighting. Alan Boswell, director of the Horn of Africa project at the International Crisis Group, said it was 'just a matter of time' before Sudan's military took the entire city, forcing the RSF to retreat to its stronghold in the western region of Darfur. 'Quite a fall from where they were for the first year and a half of the war, when they held most of Khartoum,' Boswell said. Few believe the war is nearing an end, though. Both the RSF and the Sudanese military are backed by powerful foreign powers that have poured weapons into Sudan over the past two years. Sudan's deputy leader, Malik Agar, recently estimated that there are now 36 million small arms in the country, which had a prewar population of 48 million.
New York Times
23-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Sudan's Military Sweeps Across Capital, Hoping to Turn the War
At the battle-scarred presidential palace in the heart of Sudan's shattered capital, soldiers gathered under a chandelier on Sunday afternoon, rifles and rocket launchers slung over their shoulders, listening to their orders. Then they trooped out, down a red carpet that once welcomed foreign dignitaries, and into the deserted center of the city on a mission to flush out the last pockets of resistance from the paramilitary fighters with whom they have been clashing for two years. Since Sudan's military captured the presidential palace on Friday, in a fierce battle that left hundreds dead, it has taken control of most of central Khartoum, marking a momentous change of fortunes that is likely to change the course of Sudan's ruinous civil war. By Sunday, the military had seized the Central Bank, the headquarters of the national intelligence service and the towering Corinthia Hotel along the Nile. Journalists from The New York Times were the first from a Western outlet to cross the Nile, into central Khartoum, or to visit the palace, since the war erupted in April 2023. What we saw there made clear how decisively the events of recent days have shifted the direction of the war, but offered little hope that it will end soon. 'We will never leave our country to the mercenaries,' saidMohamed Ibrahim, a special forces officer, referring to the R.S.F. — the paramilitary force that Sudan's army once nurtured, but is now its rival for supreme control. As our vehicle raced down a deserted street along the Nile that until a few days ago had been controlled by the R.S.F., the scale of the damage in one of Africa's biggest cities was starkly evident. Trees lining the road had been stripped bare by explosions. A mosque was peppered with gunfire. Towering ministries and office blocks, some built with money from Sudan's vast reserves of oil and gold, were burned to a shell. The military headquarters, where a group of senior generals were trapped for the first 18 months of the war, had been shredded by bombs. Khartoum University, once a hub of political debate, had been looted. And an area where tens of thousands of young Sudanese mounted a popular uprising in 2019 that ousted the country's autocratic leader, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, was deserted. All that remain of those hopeful times was a handful of faded, bullet-pocked murals. Instead, some of those pro-democracy protesters have picked up guns to fight in the war; they were assembled in the ruins of the presidential palace on Sunday. The Chinese-built presidential palace, only a few years ago shared by the country's warring military leaders, had been reduced to a battered husk. Dust and debris covered ministerial suites and state rooms. Ceilings had collapsed. Gaping holes looked out over the Nile. On the grounds of an older palace next door, erected a century ago by British colonists, soldiers napped under the charred arches of a bombed-out building. The war started as a feud between rival generals, but quickly enveloped the entire country, bringing suffering on an epic scale. The conflict has forced 12 million people from their homes, killed tens of thousands, and set off the world's worst famine in decades, the United Nations says. Foreign powers like the United Arab Emirates and Russia fuel the fight by supplying weapons to either side, and many worry it could spiral into a regional conflict by drawing in fragile neighboring countries like South Sudan or Chad. American efforts to broker peace in Sudan last year failed. It is unclear if President Trump will take any interest, although supporters say the country's vast mineral resources could draw his attention. Piles of bloodstained rubble on the palace steps testified to the ferocity of the battle on Friday. As the military closed in, the R.S.F. leader, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, issued a video message imploring his troops to stand their ground. When the final assault began, at least 500 paramilitary fighters were still inside, several officers said. But when they tried to flee, they ran into deadly ambushes. A video filmed half a mile from the palace, and verified by The Times, showed dozens of bodies scattered along a street, beside incinerated or bullet-pocked vehicles. 'This is the season for hunting mice,' declared the officer who took the video, dating it to Saturday. R.S.F. fighters stationed on Tuti Island, at the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile Rivers, tried to flee on boats, soldiers said. It was unclear how many escaped. Without offering details, a Sudanese military spokesman said that 'hundreds' of paramilitary fighters had been killed. But dozens of the military's forces also died, soldiers said privately, in R.S.F. drone attacks and in other fighting. Alan Boswell, director of the Horn of Africa project at the International Crisis Group, said it was 'just a matter of time' before Sudan's military took the entire city, forcing the R.S.F. to retreat to its stronghold in the western region of Darfur. 'Quite a fall from where they were for the first year and a half of the war, when they held most of Khartoum,' Mr. Boswell said. Few believe the war is nearing an end, though. Both the R.S.F. and the Sudanese military are backed by powerful foreign powers that have poured weapons into Sudan over the past two years. Sudan's deputy leader, Malik Agar, recently estimated that there are now 36 million small arms in the country, which had a prewar population of 48 million. International efforts to broker a negotiated end to the conflict have collapsed, and the country's military chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, recently said he preferred to fight, not talk. . On the steps of the palace, a fresh bloodstain marked the spot where an R.S.F. drone-fired missile had killed four employees from Sudanese state TV, and two military officers on Friday morning. As we visited on Sunday, another drone hovered overhead, prompting soldiers to jog between buildings. They urged us to follow quickly. Col. Algoney Ali Eseil, a commander leading a group of pro-democracy protesters turned fighters, said the R.S.F. drones were being flown from bases in Darfur and Chad, where they were operated by the United Arab Emirates, the R.S.F.'s main foreign sponsor. Colonel Eseil offered no evidence to support those claims, but The Times reported last year that the Emirates was operating Chinese-made Wing Loong 2 drones from an airstrip in Chad that is within striking range of Khartoum. Sudan's military has also relied heavily on drones and other foreign help. Last year it acquired Iranian drones that helped it capture ground in Khartoum. Also last year it acquired eight Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones, which American officials say are especially prized in African conflicts, according to documents obtained by The Times. The documents were first reported by The Washington Post. With the city center cleared out, the battle for Khartoum has now moved to the international airport, a mile and a half from the palace. Satellite images show that its runways are pocked with shellfire and littered with the remains of passenger airliners destroyed after fighting broke out in 2023. As the city switches from R.S.F. to military control, human rights officials are concerned that civilians accused of collaborating with the rebels may face reprisals. In January, the army was accused of brutal assaults on suspected R.S.F. sympathizers after recapturing the city of Wad Madani. Volunteers with the Emergency Response Rooms, which runs hundreds of soup kitchens across Khartoum, said they feared they could also be targeted. If the army succeeds in Khartoum, the focus of the war will likely shift to to Darfur, where R.S.F. fighters are laying a punishing siege on the famine-stricken city of El Fasher, the only city in Darfur that it does not control. On Friday, they seized the town of Al Malha, about 130 miles north of El Fasher. Residents of the city said the occupying fighters were preventing them from leaving, amid reports of arrests and killings.
