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‘I Want to Design a Crown for Youth of Lebanon,’ Fred Mouawad Tells Asharq Al-Awsat

Miss Universe 2023 pictured with her crown, designed by Maison Mouawad. (Maison Mouawad)
Miss Universe 2023 pictured with her crown, designed by Maison Mouawad. (Maison Mouawad)
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‘I Want to Design a Crown for Youth of Lebanon,’ Fred Mouawad Tells Asharq Al-Awsat

Miss Universe 2023 pictured with her crown, designed by Maison Mouawad. (Maison Mouawad)
Miss Universe 2023 pictured with her crown, designed by Maison Mouawad. (Maison Mouawad)

Who knew that the crown that adorned the head of Miss Universe 2023 was a Lebanese creation?

The rare piece, worth around $6 million, was created by Maison Mouawad at the initiative of Fred Mouawad, a fourth-generation member of the atelier founded in 1890.

Named the eighth richest diamond owner in the world by Wealth-X in 2013, Fred Mouawad adores gemstones, especially the colored ones. Passionate about his career from a young age, he oversees every little detail of their designs, and following the journey of every gemstone.

“I consider the story and value of every gemstone we use, then I make my decision about the design that suits it,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Mouawad noted that his wide knowledge of gemstones peaked after he studied the field at the GIA, Gemological Institute of America.

Fred started working with his father when he was 21, and gained his expertise quickly. His first adventure with gemstones was in Sri Lanka, where he bought a 27-carat sapphire, polished and refined it, and then sold it for a good sum. This was the start of his story in the gemstones trade.

The Miss Universe crown wasn’t named “Force for Good” by coincidence; its unique design symbolizes positive change.

The handmade, fully-crusted crown contains 108.44 carats of sapphire and 48.12 carats of white diamonds. The wave-like swirls resemble the head of a snake, symbolizing challenges.

Moving up from the base, the sharpness of the white diamonds is softened by the sapphires, whose intensity increases gradually and ends with an astonishing, royal blue pear-like 45.14 carat sapphire, symbolizing the power of good.

“The hues and tones of the colors clearly express change and its long, exhausting route. That’s why the colors start with white, then pale blue, and end with royal blue with the pear-like stone at the top,” Fred explained to Asharq Al-Awsat.

“The snake-like base emphasizes that change cannot be achieved without resistance. That’s why the crown says: ‘resist and do never surrender’,” he added.

“My home country is always in my heart despite the distances. I was born in Saudi Arabia, then I moved to a boarding school in Switzerland. I studied in the US, and today, I am based in Thailand. But deep down, I will always be Lebanese from a Lebanese family,” he said.

“This love we feel for Lebanon was born with us and we hold it in our genes. The entire country wants change, especially the youth. The idea of the crown was inspired by the circumstances we are living, simulating the aspirations of people on this planet, and so, we chose a sapphire as a symbol for this change,” he added.

Maison Mouawad is planning to design another crown for Miss Universe and her runner-up. In a year or two, it might consider making more crowns for the pageant. “We believe we are still in the beginning, we must develop our thought and use our imagination to make more creations,” Fred said.

Maison Mouawad has made crowns for many celebrities and famous figures, but given the chance, Fred said he tomorrow’s generation is the most deserving of a crown.

“It belongs to the youth who love Lebanon, and to every person who is ready to give anything for the country’s evolution. Every one who feels proud of Lebanon deserves to receive this crown. It might not be one person, it could be a whole generation,” he said.

Asked what the crown would look like, he replied: “I envision green symbolizing hope, and yellow symbolizing the bright sun of a better future. I care about making a crown for Lebanon and its youth so it gives the Lebanese people hope, life, and continuity.”

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Varieties

US: Shark Attack on Alabama Teen Inspires Start of National Alert System

This undated photo courtesy of the Gribbin family shows Lulu Gribbin, who lost her hand and part of her leg in a shark attack off the coast of Florida in 2024. (Courtesy of Gribbin family)
This undated photo courtesy of the Gribbin family shows Lulu Gribbin, who lost her hand and part of her leg in a shark attack off the coast of Florida in 2024. (Courtesy of Gribbin family)
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US: Shark Attack on Alabama Teen Inspires Start of National Alert System

This undated photo courtesy of the Gribbin family shows Lulu Gribbin, who lost her hand and part of her leg in a shark attack off the coast of Florida in 2024. (Courtesy of Gribbin family)
This undated photo courtesy of the Gribbin family shows Lulu Gribbin, who lost her hand and part of her leg in a shark attack off the coast of Florida in 2024. (Courtesy of Gribbin family)

Lulu Gribbin was 15 when she survived a shark attack off the coast of Florida. She lost her left hand, part of her right leg and almost her life.

What she didn’t know when she entered the water on that day in 2024 was that another woman had been bitten by a shark 90 minutes earlier and just 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) down the beach. Had she known about the earlier attack, there is no way she would have been swimming, she said.

Gribbin’s story has inspired new federal legislation to authorize emergency alerts to mobile phones to warn beachgoers when a shark has bitten someone in the area.

President Donald Trump last week signed “Lulu’s Law,” which requires the Federal Communications Commission to allow the emergency messages. The legislation, which Gribbin advocated for, authorizes the warnings by classifying a shark attack as an event for which an emergency alert can be issued. It is up to states to implement the warnings.

Gribbin’s home state of Alabama approved such a warning system last year.

“It’s really just common-sense legislation. It says that whenever there has been a shark attack in a certain area where you are near, it will send an alert to your phone, exactly like how an Amber Alert system works when a child is abducted,” The Associated Press quoted her as saying.

Gribbin said she hopes the alert system will help prevent attacks like hers. “I definitely see this law working in the future and I'm really excited to hopefully save lives,” she said.

A fight to survive Gribbin was one of three people bitten by a shark on June 7, 2024, off the Florida Panhandle.

She was on a mother-daughter trip to the Florida Panhandle. Gribbin said she and her friend had been diving for sand dollars.

“All of the sudden my best friend yelled, ‘Shark!’ and so we all started swimming for our lives,” Gribbin recalled. She said she remembered that sharks are attracted to frantic splashing and yelled for everyone to be calm. Gribbin, who was closest to the shark, was bitten.

“The shark bit off my hand first, and I raised my arm out of the water, and there was just flesh and bone there,” Gribbin said. The shark then latched onto her leg. A man punched the shark off her and strangers on the beach rushed to help. She was flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital.

Doctors were able to save the teen's life but had to amputate part of her right leg.
Choosing positivity throughout her recovery In the hospital, Gribbin made a deliberate decision to choose joy and to never give up.

Gribbin was fitted with prosthetic limbs, quickly regained her ability to walk, returned to sports and got her driver’s license. She has gone back in the water and learned to surf, meeting Bethany Hamilton, a professional surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack.

US Sen. Katie Britt, the Alabama Republican who sponsored the legislation, said the legislation happened because of the teen's “courage, perseverance, and advocacy to protect future beachgoers.”

“Because of her strength, lives will be changed. We should all be inspired by her,” Britt said.

Varieties

Three Wallabies Saved from Spanish Cannabis Farm Hell

Children cool off at an urban beach of Madrid Rio park in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)
Children cool off at an urban beach of Madrid Rio park in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)
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Three Wallabies Saved from Spanish Cannabis Farm Hell

Children cool off at an urban beach of Madrid Rio park in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)
Children cool off at an urban beach of Madrid Rio park in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)

Three traumatized wallabies living far from their usual Australian habitat were recovering in a Spanish zoo on Thursday after being rescued from a rural cannabis plantation full of rotting animals, AFP reported.

Police said the marsupials, similar to but smaller than kangaroos, were saved alongside 14 dogs, three calves and two deer from their ordeal in the central municipality of Malagon on Tuesday.

During their raid, "the officers came across an unusual scene when they found dozens of animals in woeful hygiene and sanitary conditions", police said in a statement.

The trapped animals lived alongside the corpses of other creatures, "some of them in an advanced state of decomposition", including "hundreds of chickens" who were tossed in bags to the dogs as food.

The wallabies and the deer shared a garden used by the suspects and their young children, the police added.

The wallabies were later taken to a zoo in the central province of Toledo.

Officers seized almost 1,000 cannabis plants from the site, which included an underground production area and was illegally connected to the power grid.

Two suspects were arrested on charges including animal abuse and offences against flora, fauna and public health.

Varieties

French Scramble to Find Air Conditioners before Next Heatwave

A sign reading 'During intense heat protect yourself' is seen inside an air-conditioned room open to the public inside the 17th district city hall as temperatures rise in Paris, during a heatwave affecting a majority of the country, in France, June 25, 2026. REUTERS/Alice Sacco
A sign reading 'During intense heat protect yourself' is seen inside an air-conditioned room open to the public inside the 17th district city hall as temperatures rise in Paris, during a heatwave affecting a majority of the country, in France, June 25, 2026. REUTERS/Alice Sacco
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French Scramble to Find Air Conditioners before Next Heatwave

A sign reading 'During intense heat protect yourself' is seen inside an air-conditioned room open to the public inside the 17th district city hall as temperatures rise in Paris, during a heatwave affecting a majority of the country, in France, June 25, 2026. REUTERS/Alice Sacco
A sign reading 'During intense heat protect yourself' is seen inside an air-conditioned room open to the public inside the 17th district city hall as temperatures rise in Paris, during a heatwave affecting a majority of the country, in France, June 25, 2026. REUTERS/Alice Sacco

Hundreds of people were besieging Lidl supermarkets in and around Paris Thursday, with scuffles and shouting matches breaking out as residents scrambled to get their hands on bargain air-cooling units before the next heatwave hits the French capital.

With few air conditioners on sale elsewhere for less than 1,200 euros ($1,400), police were called to at least two stores as huge crowds descended on Lidl supermarkets trying to get their hands on basic models on sale for as low as 179 euros, AFP said.

Mousa Traore, who had been waiting for more than an hour along with some 200 other customers at a small Lidl store in a northern Paris neighborhood, said he had been told there were only two units on sale, AFP .

"But then the police came and we were told there were none. The police officers took them I think," he said laughing.

France has just been through a record heatwave that led to excess deaths, overwhelmed hospitals, closed schools and cancelled music festivals, and weather services are forecasting another round of hot weather this coming weekend.

Due to historically mild summers, few homes and schools in France are equipped with air conditioning, making them ill-equipped to face increasingly frequent heatwaves that scientists say are linked to human-induced climate change.

- 'It's madness' -

Even so, the crowd at the Lidl store was mostly good-humored, but some disputes broke out as people tried to jump the queue.

"I am not opening the store unless you leave," a manager shouted, as customers harangued her, with another member of staff telling AFP only two air conditioners had been delivered.

He refused to say if they had already been sold.

Hundreds more descended on a supermarket in Sevran, with cars queuing for the store blocking the center of the poor northern suburb. It was much the same story in nearby suburb of Livry-Gargan.

"I give up, it's madness. I abandoned my car several streets away to get there on foot but there is already a huge queue of people in the car park. It's impossible," one local called Lolo told AFP.

The rush for cooling units comes despite longstanding skepticism towards air conditioning in France.

Eight in 10 people view it as environmentally unfriendly, according to a survey of more than 1,000 people published last month.

But attitudes appear to be shifting as temperatures climb, with cooling units flying off shelves.

In the midst of the heatwave on June 22, hypermarket operator Carrefour had sold 30,000 units by 6:30 pm - "a thousand times more than on a normal day", CEO Alexandre Bompard said.

The share of French households equipped with air conditioning rose from 18 percent in 2023 to 24 percent in 2025, according to the state environment agency Ademe.

Air conditioning has emerged as a political weather vane in France, with the main far-right opposition party criticizing the government for not having prepared for hotter weather, and ecologists warning of the heavy energy demands of running air conditioners.