Latest news with #Syrian-born
Fashion Network
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Fashion Network
Dior to skip next Paris couture July season, as Maison Margiela and Iris van Herpen return
The house of Dior will sit out the next Paris couture catwalk season in July, even as and Iris van Herpen return to the runways in the French capital, according to a provisional calendar released Monday. See catwalk The decision by Dior is not unexpected, since the house only announced the appointment of new creative director Jonathan Anderson for menswear, womenswear, and haute couture earlier on Monday. Anderson will, however, make his runway debut for Dior this month, with a menswear runway show on the afternoon of June 27. Balenciaga will present the final collection by its departing creative director, Demna of Georgia, in July. His successor, Pierpaolo Piccioli, will stage his first show for Balenciaga during the Paris women's ready-to-wear season this fall. The next couture season will take place from Monday, July 7, to Thursday, July 10. It will kick off with a show by one of Paris' most legendary houses, Schiaparelli, and climax with a show by Rami Al Ali, a critically admired Syrian-born couturier. Known for his fresh take on classical couture gowns, Al Ali has dressed many stars and celebrities, including Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, Amal Clooney, Helen Mirren, Naomi Campbell, and Sharon Stone. All told, there are 25 couturiers listed on the haute couture calendar, including Chanel and Giorgio Armani, who will both stage two shows apiece. This will mark the last show staged by Chanel where no designer will take a bow, since the collection, like the last five presented by Chanel, will be designed by an in-house studio team. Chanel's new creative director, Matthieu Blazy, will make his debut in October during the next women's ready-to-wear season in Paris. See catwalk Though the season's most keenly anticipated debut will be Glenn Martens, who succeeds John Galliano at Maison Margiela—a tricky act to follow, seeing as the UK designer's January 2024 show under a bridge on the Seine was the single best couture show in Paris this decade. The season will also welcome back French couturier Adeline André and two guest houses, ArdAzAei and Robert Wun, according to a new calendar released by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, French fashion's governing body. Separately, the Fédération noted that two Paris fashion houses will stage runway shows on the eve of couture: Celine at 2:30 p.m. and Patou at 5 p.m. on Sunday, July 6. Despite the flurry of no-shows, studio-designed collections, and a clientele of fewer than 5,000 women, Paris haute couture remains the supreme example of creativity in fashion—the great laboratory de la mode. A busy week where the boulevards of the City of Light will be crammed with limousines ferrying the richest women in the world to the most reserved fashion shows on the planet.
Fashion Network
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Fashion Network
Dior to skip next Paris couture July season, as Maison Margiela and Iris van Herpen return
The house of Dior will sit out the next Paris couture catwalk season in July, even as Maison Margiela and Iris van Herpen return to the runways in the French capital, according to a provisional calendar released Monday. See catwalk The decision by Dior is not unexpected, since the house only announced the appointment of new creative director Jonathan Anderson for menswear, womenswear, and haute couture earlier on Monday. Anderson will, however, make his runway debut for Dior this month, with a menswear runway show on the afternoon of June 27. Balenciaga will present the final collection by its departing creative director, Demna of Georgia, in July. His successor, Pierpaolo Piccioli, will stage his first show for Balenciaga during the Paris women's ready-to-wear season this fall. The next couture season will take place from Monday, July 7, to Thursday, July 10. It will kick off with a show by one of Paris' most legendary houses, Schiaparelli, and climax with a show by Rami Al Ali, a critically admired Syrian-born couturier. Known for his fresh take on classical couture gowns, Al Ali has dressed many stars and celebrities, including Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, Amal Clooney, Helen Mirren, Naomi Campbell, and Sharon Stone. All told, there are 25 couturiers listed on the haute couture calendar, including Chanel and Giorgio Armani, who will both stage two shows apiece. This will mark the last show staged by Chanel where no designer will take a bow, since the collection, like the last five presented by Chanel, will be designed by an in-house studio team. Chanel's new creative director, Matthieu Blazy, will make his debut in October during the next women's ready-to-wear season in Paris. See catwalk Though the season's most keenly anticipated debut will be Glenn Martens, who succeeds John Galliano at Maison Margiela—a tricky act to follow, seeing as the UK designer's January 2024 show under a bridge on the Seine was the single best couture show in Paris this decade. The season will also welcome back French couturier Adeline André and two guest houses, ArdAzAei and Robert Wun, according to a new calendar released by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, French fashion's governing body. Separately, the Fédération noted that two Paris fashion houses will stage runway shows on the eve of couture: Celine at 2:30 p.m. and Patou at 5 p.m. on Sunday, July 6. Despite the flurry of no-shows, studio-designed collections, and a clientele of fewer than 5,000 women, Paris haute couture remains the supreme example of creativity in fashion—the great laboratory de la mode. A busy week where the boulevards of the City of Light will be crammed with limousines ferrying the richest women in the world to the most reserved fashion shows on the planet.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Jewish Students Punished in the Name of Jewish Safety
'I sat in that hearing, and I sobbed.' C, a Jewish senior at Columbia University's Barnard College, said she found out she had to attend a disciplinary hearing two days before her senior thesis was due. She was being called in, she was told, because she attended a demonstration earlier in the semester and because she had, a few weeks later, chained herself to a campus gate. (As she and other Jewish students have been doxed for their participation in pro-Palestine protests, I am not using her real name in this piece.) The demonstration she and several other Jewish students attended was a protest of the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian-born Palestinian green card holder, recent Columbia graduate, and her friend, by ICE. She and several other Jewish students had chained themselves to a campus gate demanding to know 'the names of the Columbia trustees who facilitated the abduction of our beloved friend by collaborating with the Trump administration.' She and her fellow Jewish students had felt that, 'as Jewish students, we were the only ones who could do this safely,' she told me, 'AND send a message: This does not keep us safe.' Weeks later, she was in a disciplinary hearing, trying to explain to a conduct officer what had happened. 'My friend was abducted. My university was complicit. This was done in the name of the religion I love and care about.' 'I didn't expect to break down that much,' she told me. Her degree conferral has been deferred until October. Hers is one of several similar cases: Jewish students disciplined by a university that has said, publicly and repeatedly, that it is attempting to demonstrate that it takes Jewish safety seriously. She was able to walk at graduation, she said, even though the administration was withholding her degree. But the victory, such as it was, was a hollow one. 'I just felt so angry at my commencement, and I feel sad because I worked so hard for four years. I wanted to feel good and proud. And I just couldn't feel anything but frustration and anger.' 'I think it's both highly problematic and unfortunate,' James Piacentini, a Jewish adjunct assistant professor in urban planning and architecture at Columbia, told me, 'that the university and school administrators have become so warped in their thinking that they're purporting to believe that undermining free expression of Jewish students is somehow combating antisemitism on campus.'Barnard is not the only college—and Columbia not the only university—to use graduation and the awarding of a degree as a way to push back against students protesting for Palestinian rights. The universities say it is a matter of enforcing rules; their critics, that they are chilling speech. The backdrop to all of this is, of course, the Trump administration, which is threatening to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars from a number of universities, including Columbia, if they do not do what the administration tells them to in order to 'fight antisemitism.' This series of demands includes turning over a university's academic independence to the federal administration (Columbia has tried to acquiesce; Harvard is tied up in court). And so, with millions intended for scientific research hanging in the balance, ostensibly for the good of Jewish students, universities entered graduation season locked in an existential battle and firmly under the national spotlight. The universities say that they are upholding their own rules and policies and keeping campus safe for all. New York University decided to withhold the diploma of a student speaker, Logan Rozos, who delivered an unapproved graduation speech on 'the atrocities currently happening in Palestine' that quickly went viral. 'He lied about the speech he was going to deliver and violated the commitment he made to comply with our rules,' an NYU spokesperson said in a statement. 'NYU is deeply sorry that the audience was subjected to these remarks and that this moment was stolen by someone who abused a privilege that was conferred upon him.' George Washington University, meanwhile, announced an investigation after commencement speaker Cecilia Culver delivered a speech, also different from the one she submitted, encouraging her peers not to donate to the university until it divests from Israel. Culver (and the dean who followed her and thanked her for sharing her perspective) were denounced by some for antisemitism; Culver has since 'been barred from all GW's campuses and sponsored events elsewhere,' per the university. Barnard, for its part, insisted in a statement that 'no students were disciplined or had their degrees deferred as a response to the content of their speech or expression.' Instead, 'disciplinary measures were taken in response to vandalism, course disruption, and other actions that violated Barnard's Student Code of Conduct and interfered with the core academic mission of the college.' Others see the response of these colleges and universities as little more than a scare tactic meant to chill free speech. 'The College is using degree deferral to scare students into silence,' Debbie Becher, an associate professor of sociology at Barnard, who is Jewish, said in an email. 'It accomplishes what the administration wants: a show of force with no regard for due process. There is no warrant for this. The College has the power to revoke a degree, so it could wait until due process has been followed. Instead, it chose to impose a punishment before the process.' I put to Becher that some would say that rules were indeed broken and that there should be consequences when policies are not adhered to. 'There needs to be a sound conduct process for breaking rules; this would include judgment by peers, transparency, accountability, reasonable sanctions, and protection of student rights. Barnard has none of this,' she replied. There's just centralized power and harsh punishment. Piacentini also suggested that people take more extreme action when other, arguably milder forms of protest have been taken from them. Perhaps if Jewish and non-Jewish pro-Palestinian groups weren't kicked off campus, he said, 'other forms of protest might not be necessary.' But they were, and so 'people are putting their ideas, their bodies on the line because other mechanisms have been taken away from them.' H, a Jewish recent graduate of Barnard who was also disciplined for chaining herself to the gate, said that the administration talks 'about wanting to build community.' 'I have tried to do that,' she continued. 'The university has made that difficult at every turn.' She tried to organize Shabbat gatherings for Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist Jewish group. 'But the university suspended the club.' She felt that it was difficult to be Jewish on campus—because her administration 'has decided that we are not.'Jewish students are not the only, or even primary, individuals caught up in crackdowns against pro-Palestinian speech and criticism (including often harsh criticism) of Israel. After all, the reason C chained herself to the gate, she said, is that she thought she'd be safer than many of her peers. In our conversation, she repeatedly stressed that her Palestinian and Arab peers in particular are 'subjected to worse' than what she faces as a Jewish student. Piacentini too made clear that Jews are not the most impacted by policies that challenge pro-Palestinian speech and protest—many others are 'more at risk than we are.' There are dramatic examples of that risk: Khalil is still detained. Palestinian Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi was also arrested and detained (though he has been released and was able to walk at graduation). H noted that her own discipline was essentially 'an art project'—she had to write an essay with visual accompaniment about how to properly register events on campus. She believes that, if she were not a white Jewish student, her punishment would have been worse. Still, as Becher put it, 'the punishment of Jewish students for these protests reveals the hypocrisy of the claim that the college or federal administration wants to protect us. The punishment of Jewish students instead betrays a disregard for their safety.' The administrations at Barnard and Columbia alike, she added, have 'ignored Jewish students, scholars, and community members who have told them repeatedly that they must adopt a definition of antisemitism as hatred against Jews for being Jews, not a definition that connects Jewish identity to Israel. The definition of hatred against Jews for being Jews would lead to policies that actually defend Jewish safety.' There are, after all, many types of Jewish students at Barnard, and Columbia, and every campus: students who relate differently to Israel and Palestine and Zionism and anti-Zionism and Jewish institutions of various stripes. (Studies suggest that the majority are neither agitating for Zionism and Israel nor for Palestine.) Piacentini said that, while he considers himself anti-Zionist, even Jewish colleagues and students who don't but are critical of Israel's war feel 'primarily threatened and targeted by people with power who claim to be trying to protect us from antisemitism.' Listening to C, I thought of how Jewish students should have the right to go to class and extracurriculars and parties and protests and feel safe. I thought about that as I listened to her tell me how she and her fellow Jewish students had been doxed and harassed and accused by a Jewish faculty member of being not dissimilar to the Judenrat, councils that acted as go-betweens for the Nazis and Jewish communities. I listened as she talked about trying to finish her senior thesis, crying in her disciplinary hearing, and attending musical theater class while worrying about her friend Mahmoud, sitting in a prison in Louisiana. Was the point of all of this to make sure that Jewish students can learn safely? So they can focus on being students? If the education of Jewish students had been disrupted on campus, who had disrupted it? C told me that she had chosen Barnard because 'I wanted to be around people who would encourage me to stand up for what I believe in.' And she loved so much of her experience. But in the end, she said, she felt her identity and beliefs—those of an anti-Zionist Jewish student—were ignored. 'If it wasn't so dangerous and sad, it would be bordering on a farce,' said Piacentini. ''The best way to protect Jewish students is to silence them, arrest them, and take away their degrees.' How can you say that out loud and not hear you're wrong?'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The Syrian entrepreneur gunning to be Ukraine's drone king
Drone warfare has become central to Ukraine's defense against Russia, where cheap, nimble aircraft are being deployed to counter superior firepower. What began as modified hobbyist drones have evolved into a large industry which experts say could position Ukraine as a leading supplier of low-cost weapons for the drone age. Riding that wave is Khaled Alfaiomi, a Syrian-born cybersecurity expert and entrepreneur, operating under a pseudonym for safety reasons. He leads a Kyiv-based maker of long-range surveillance aircraft and short-range loitering munitions: Ukraine has agreed to buy up the company's full output during the war and for up to two years after the conflict ends, Alfaiomi told Semafor in an interview. Even as the war rages, Alfaiomi is focused on expansion. He said the company is building a €1 billion ($1.1 billion) factory in an undisclosed European country, citing security concerns. Unmanned aircraft are viewed in military and government circles with a mixture of awe and FOMO. At the Qatar Economic Forum last week, former CIA Director and retired US General David Petraeus called Ukraine's drone warfare progress 'breathtaking.' A week prior, US President Donald Trump lamented the disparity in cost between Iranian-made kamikaze aircraft — about $40,000 — and what a US contractor recently proposed: $41 million. The Iranian drones are 'very good, and fast and deadly,' Trump said. 'You hide behind a tree and it circles you with fire. You don't have a chance, and the tree comes down also.' Alfaiomi is building capacity to fill the demand for weapons that are both lethal and affordable. His company's main product is a fixed-wing surveillance aircraft with a 260-kilometer (160-mile) range and 4-hour flight time, capable of identifying and tracking targets, and guiding strikes. A kit of three drones and control systems sells to NATO customers for €350,000 — and to Ukraine for €250,000 — with the cameras alone costing €100,000. He said the total price was half the cost of comparable systems from other countries. The company also sells suicide, fixed-winged drones — in packs of 10 — for $20,000 to $65,000, depending on specifications. It developed a model with a 1,500-km range and around a 100-kg payload, which is an indication of how quickly the capabilities are advancing. Alfaiomi didn't plan to be in Ukraine. He said he left Syria after high school, studied in Germany and the US, and worked in the UAE and Ukraine. In 2013, as the Euromaidan protests erupted, he joined demonstrators calling for the ouster of Moscow's ally Viktor Yanukovych. 'I sat with them in the snow and cold. I'm a revolutionary — I'm used to it from Syria,' he said. Many of the protesters he met there ended up in government. He said he was granted Ukrainian citizenship a few months after Yanukovych was deposed. A cybersecurity firm he ran landed contracts with embassies and government agencies. He also invested in EV charging infrastructure, benefiting from Ukraine's decision to waive import taxes on electric vehicles. The war prompted a pivot. Ukraine's government provided strong incentives to spur domestic production of defense equipment: guaranteed margins, purchase commitments, streamlined customs approvals, and military exemptions for factory workers. Alfaiomi said his company now employs 550 people and produces four reconnaissance aircraft a day — and many more of the suicide drones — with over 700 units in service. He is cautious about publicity. He declined to be photographed during our meeting in Abu Dhabi and was vague about his time in the US, worried it could reveal his real identity. In Ukraine, he wears a mask, wary of Russian targeting. (An industry event was hit by an airstrike in 2023). He declined to name the company he leads, but provided video proof of the production facility and documents related to the drone's specs. The drone revolution is making warfare cheaper, faster, and more precise, flattening the battlefield. There's no shortage of footage online showing soldiers attempting, in vain, to escape suicide drones. They are legitimate targets — there's no moral argument against killing combatants during war — but the capabilities raise concerns that human restraint in conflict is eroding: Our impulse for mercy, exhaustion, or compromise are what often bring wars to a halt. In a future shaped by AI-driven autonomous weapons, conflicts can become perpetual. The advantage will lie for a period with those who master the technology, but as it proliferates, it could increase instability. Ukraine is currently ahead, thanks to wartime urgency, and US and European support. But this edge will likely be short-lived. Most of the tech isn't proprietary. Others will catch up. As Semafor columnist Omar Al-Ubaydli argues, proliferation of the technology may create mutual deterrence, and hence more stability. He writes that the best defense against swarms of unmanned systems is a credible offensive deterrent. Air defenses alone won't stop precision attacks: 'Deterrence by capability is the rational option,' he writes. First-person view drones are driving a military revolution, argues US Army Officer Antonio Salinas in a War on the Rocks essay. 'It feels as if there are a thousand snipers in the sky.' Ukraine's use of drones has had a multiplier effect on its combat power, and is changing the nature of warfare, The New York Times' C.J. Chivers reports from the frontlines.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Graduates Boo Columbia President Over Mahmoud Khalil's Absence
Columbia University's acting president has now faced a massive chorus of boos from this year's graduating class for the second day in a row, receiving a particular wave of anger on Wednesday while noting the absence of Mahmoud Khalil — a student who would have graduated this week if federal immigration agents had not detained him for peacefully protesting on campus against Israel's ongoing destruction of Gaza. Upon stepping to the lectern Tuesday to deliver her graduation speech, acting President Claire Shipman was met with at least a full minute of boos and loud jeering. 'Good morning, Class of 2025. I know that many of you feel some amount of frustration with me, and I know you feel it with the administration,' Shipman said to more boos, captured in videos circulating social media. 'And I know that we have a strong, strong tradition of free speech at this university,' she continued while gesturing to the students. 'And I am always open to feedback, which I am getting right now.' Later in her Tuesday speech, the crowd began chanting 'Free Mahmoud,' in reference to the Syrian-born Palestinian who was one of many students and faculty targeted by Columbia for their activism during last year's nationwide protests against the U.S.-supported war in Gaza. The university faced particular backlash for violently responding to students by bringing New York police on campus to quell the demonstrations, which Khalil helped organize. Columbia was again embroiled in controversy earlier this year when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Khalil — and, eventually, other foreign students around the U.S. — without charge for his pro-Palestinian activism. Instead of attending Wednesday's commencement celebration, the graduate student and legal permanent resident is now fighting detention and deportation from an ICE holding center in Louisiana. Khalil has called himself a political prisoner. 'We firmly believe that our international students have the same rights to freedom of speech as everyone else and they should not be targeted by the government for exercising that right,' Shipman said during her commencement address on Wednesday to intensifying boos from the crowd. 'Let me also say that I know many in our community today are mourning the absence of our graduate Mahmoud Khalil.' Columbia was the first major university to cave to the Trump administrationin what critics have called an assault on academic freedom and free speech, implementing the administration's alarming policy recommendations while ICE agents continue to detain students. One of those students is Mohsen Mahdawi, who was recently released after ICE detained him at his citizenship interview for protesting with Khalil at Columbia. Mahdawi attended graduation on Tuesday, donning his cap, gown and a Palestinian keffiyeh. 'I don't know how they will be able to face me. They let me down as a student, they let me down as a partner who is working on peacemaking and bridge-building, and they let me down as a Palestinian who grieves so many family members,' Mahdawi told CBS News before Tuesday's ceremony began. 'So the message, I don't know what they will make out of it, but I am here. I'm not going anywhere.' On the same day Shipman acknowledged Khalil's absence, the activist's legal team said that ICE denied him the right to a contact visit with his child, who was born while he was in detention. His wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, said she flew from New York to Louisiana with their newborn son, Deen, just so Khalil could meet and hold him for the first time. 'I am furious at the cruelty and inhumanity of this system that dares to call itself just,' Abdalla said in a statement about the denial, which comes just weeks after ICE prevented Khalil from being physically present to support his wife during childbirth. 'This is not just heartless. It is deliberate violence, the calculated cruelty of a government that tears families apart without remorse,' said Abdalla, who is a U.S. citizen. 'And I cannot ignore the echoes of this pain in the stories of Palestinian families, torn apart by Israeli military prisons and bombs denied dignity, denied life. Our struggle is not isolated. This system is unjust, and we will fight until Mahmoud is home.'
