600 Lebanese Heritage Gems Ravaged, UNESCO Mobilizes

Beirut blast destroys Sursock Palace. Getty
Beirut blast destroys Sursock Palace. Getty
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600 Lebanese Heritage Gems Ravaged, UNESCO Mobilizes

Beirut blast destroys Sursock Palace. Getty
Beirut blast destroys Sursock Palace. Getty

An estimated 8,000 buildings have been damaged by the horrific blast that shook Beirut last week, including hundreds of the city’s Levantine villas.

The numbers are rough estimates, as the Ministry of Culture continues to update the international bodies concerned with cultural heritage.

UNESCO held an online meeting with the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the UNESCO, the General Directorate of Antiquities and organizations concerned with cultural heritage, to coordinate efforts aimed at protecting cultural sites and Beirut’s landmarks that have been damaged or destroyed by the blast, and determine how the international community can best support Lebanon.

Ernesto Ottone Ramirez, UNESCO’S Assistant Director-General for Culture Sector, Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Center Mechtild Rossler, and Lazar Alundo, its Director for Culture and Emergencies, stressed UNESCO’s commitment to “standing by Lebanon and protecting its threatened heritage in Beirut.”

They pointed out that UNESCO and its partners moved immediately for this purpose.

The UNESCO office in Beirut stressed that this meeting is the first in a series of meetings.

The Director-General of Antiquities, Sarkis El-Khoury, gave a presentation to survey the damage. It showed that most of the damaged buildings date back to the Ottoman era and the French mandate, and are modern architectural heritage sites, especially in the districts of Gemmayze, Mar Mikhael and Ashrafieh, as well as in Zuqaq Al-Blat and Mina Al-Hosn.

Up to 600 buildings may have been affected and the estimated cost of repairing and restoring them will not come out to less than 300 million dollars.

The Permanent Representative of Lebanon to UNESCO, Ambassador Sahar Baassiri, thanked the agency for its quick response.

She went on to say that "saving the heritage in Beirut that is under threat today is not an initiative for Lebanon only, but rather an (initiative that will) save part of humanity's heritage for us and future generations."

UNESCO’s partners - ALEF Fund, ICCROM, ICOMOS, Regional Center for World Heritage (based in Bahrain), International Committee of the Red Cross and Blue Shields - also gave their input.

All participants expressed their commitment to support Lebanon and help it protect its damaged heritage gems, and stressed the “importance of achieving the mission in steps, starting with the most urgent, especially buildings with destroyed roofs or foundations, which need to be fixed before winter starts.”



Mexico Awaits New Response from Google on Dispute Over Gulf of Mexico Name Before Filing Lawsuit 

The Gulf of Mexico branded as Gulf of America is pictured through a magnifying glass on the Google Maps app on a computer in Bogota on February 11, 2025. (AFP)
The Gulf of Mexico branded as Gulf of America is pictured through a magnifying glass on the Google Maps app on a computer in Bogota on February 11, 2025. (AFP)
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Mexico Awaits New Response from Google on Dispute Over Gulf of Mexico Name Before Filing Lawsuit 

The Gulf of Mexico branded as Gulf of America is pictured through a magnifying glass on the Google Maps app on a computer in Bogota on February 11, 2025. (AFP)
The Gulf of Mexico branded as Gulf of America is pictured through a magnifying glass on the Google Maps app on a computer in Bogota on February 11, 2025. (AFP)

Mexico said Monday it is awaiting a new response from Google to its request that the tech company fully restore the name “Gulf of Mexico” to its Google Maps service before filing a lawsuit.

President Claudia Sheinbaum shared a letter addressed to her government from Cris Turner, Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy. It says that Google will not change the policy it outlined after US President Donald Trump declared the body of water the Gulf of America.

“We will wait for Google’s response and if not, we will proceed to court,” Sheinbaum said Monday during a morning press briefing.

As it stands, the gulf appears in Google Maps as “Gulf of America” within the United States, as “Gulf of Mexico” within Mexico and “Gulf of Mexico” (Gulf of America) elsewhere. Turner in his letter said the company was using “Gulf of America” to follow “longstanding maps policies impartially and consistently across all regions” and that the company was willing to meet in person with the Mexican government.

“While international treaties and conventions are not intended to regulate how private mapping providers represent geographic features, it is our consistent policy to consult multiple authoritative sources to provide the most up to date and accurate representation of the world,” he wrote.

Mexico has argued that the mapping policy violates Mexican sovereignty because the US only has jurisdiction over around 46% of the Gulf. The rest is controlled by Mexico, which controls 49% and Cuba, which controls around 5%. The name “Gulf of Mexico” dates back to 1607 and is recognized by the United Nations.

In response to Google's letter, Mexican authorities said they would take legal action, writing that “under no circumstance will Mexico accept the renaming of a geographic zone within its own territory and under its jurisdiction.”

The renaming of the body of water by Trump has flared tensions between Mexico and the US at a pivotal time for the neighboring allies.

Sheinbaum has had to walk a fine line with Trump amid threats of tariffs and Mexico and other Latin American countries have braced themselves for promised mass deportations, the brunt of which has still not been felt.

Along with the legal threat to Google, the Mexican president also announced Monday that Mexico and the US would hold high-level meetings this week on trade and security in an effort to maintain a “long-term plan of collaboration” between the two countries.

It's the latest round of talks between the two countries in which Mexico hopes to hold off a larger geopolitical crisis.