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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.”

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Varieties

Japanese City Suspends 94 Schools after First-ever Bear Sighting

This image made from the security camera footage provided by the Fukushima Steel Works, shows a bear, right, chasing a person, second right, on its premises in Fukushima, Japan, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (FUKUSHIMA STEEL WORKS via AP)
This image made from the security camera footage provided by the Fukushima Steel Works, shows a bear, right, chasing a person, second right, on its premises in Fukushima, Japan, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (FUKUSHIMA STEEL WORKS via AP)
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Japanese City Suspends 94 Schools after First-ever Bear Sighting

This image made from the security camera footage provided by the Fukushima Steel Works, shows a bear, right, chasing a person, second right, on its premises in Fukushima, Japan, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (FUKUSHIMA STEEL WORKS via AP)
This image made from the security camera footage provided by the Fukushima Steel Works, shows a bear, right, chasing a person, second right, on its premises in Fukushima, Japan, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (FUKUSHIMA STEEL WORKS via AP)

The Japanese city of Utsunomiya has suspended all 94 of the primary and middle schools that it operates on Monday after its first-ever bear sighting, a municipal official said.

According to Reuters, the city of half-a-million residents about 100 km (60 miles) north of Tokyo said the bear was first seen in a residential area near a park on Saturday evening. It remains at ⁠large after the last ⁠sighting early Monday morning about half a kilometer from a middle school.

Bear attacks, including in urban areas, have been on the rise in Japan, prompting the government to set ⁠up a task force this year to reduce casualties.

Last week, a bear attack in the northeastern city of Fukushima left at least four people injured.

Security footage from Fukushima Steel Works shows a black bear chasing a worker by the entrance of the factory and throwing him to the ground.

Asiatic black bears are ⁠listed ⁠as a vulnerable species globally, but their numbers are estimated to have tripled in Japan since 2012, helped by a decline in hunting.

Experts say climate change has reduced harvests of bears' natural food like acorns and beechnuts, while the depopulation of rural areas and the proliferation of abandoned farmland have emboldened them to seek food near human settlements.

Varieties

Hundreds of Charlie Chaplin Lookalikes Gather in Switzerland

Some of the 429 people dressed as "The Tramp" pose for a photo during the 10th anniversary of Chaplin's World, the museum dedicated to the life of Charlie Chaplin, in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, 07 June 2026. (EPA)
Some of the 429 people dressed as "The Tramp" pose for a photo during the 10th anniversary of Chaplin's World, the museum dedicated to the life of Charlie Chaplin, in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, 07 June 2026. (EPA)
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Hundreds of Charlie Chaplin Lookalikes Gather in Switzerland

Some of the 429 people dressed as "The Tramp" pose for a photo during the 10th anniversary of Chaplin's World, the museum dedicated to the life of Charlie Chaplin, in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, 07 June 2026. (EPA)
Some of the 429 people dressed as "The Tramp" pose for a photo during the 10th anniversary of Chaplin's World, the museum dedicated to the life of Charlie Chaplin, in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, 07 June 2026. (EPA)

More than 400 people donning black bowler hats, toothbrush moustaches and canes gathered in Switzerland Sunday seeking to break the record for the biggest ever assembly of Charlie Chaplin lookalikes.

The unusual rally, drawing Chaplin fans of all ages, took place at a museum dedicated to the legendary filmmaker at his former home in Corsier-sur-Vevey in western Switzerland.

Timed to mark the 10th anniversary of the museum's opening, the gathering in the end drew 429 Chaplin lookalikes, falling short of the world record set there in 2017, when 662 people took part.

But that did not dampen the mood.

Under a blazing sun, the Chaplins crowded together to form a giant number 10 on the lawn stretching before the large manor where the English movie icon spent the last 25 years of his life.

"I am sincerely the happiest man alive," said Anthony Champeil, a dapper 36-year-old Frenchman who looked the spitting image of Chaplin, explaining that he was an actor who often played the film legend on stage.

"We are at Chaplin's place with people who are passionate about Chaplin," he told AFP.

Suggesting that Chaplin had wanted to encourage people to maintain a childlike capacity for wonder and play for as long as possible, he mused that the actor would have enjoyed having hundreds "of big kids gathered here today".

"I find it marvelous."

The museum is set on the vast estate of Manoir de Ban, about 26 kilometers (16 miles) from Lausanne, where Chaplin lived with his wife Oona and their eight children until his death in 1977, at age 88.

He had moved to Switzerland after being barred from the United States in the 1950s over suspicions that he had communist sympathies, at the height of Cold War paranoia about Soviet infiltration.

Alice Kauffmann, who had brought her young children to participate as miniature Chaplins, said Sunday's gathering was "moving" to behold.

She and other participants said the event brought to mind the humanistic ideas Chaplin promoted with iconic films such as "The Great Dictator", "The Kid" and "Modern Times".

"He defended love, respect and beautiful values," she said.

Sophie Teteule, 52, agreed.

"I love Charlie Chaplin, and I love this place," she told AFP.

"I think it is magnificent that we can gather today, so long after he left us. It is a marvelous moment in his honor."

Organizers of Sunday's event also did not seem too bothered that it had failed to break the world record, which the museum already holds.

"Nothing is lost," spokeswoman Olivia Baliguet told AFP.

"Who knows, we may try again next year, or for the 20th anniversary."

Varieties

Bernadette Chirac, France’s Dedicated and Determined Ex-First Lady

French First Lady Bernadette Chirac listens to a speech by Queen Elizabeth II at the Senate in Paris 06 April 2004, on the second day of a three-day state visit to mark the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, the colonial-era promise of cross-channel friendship between Britain and France. (AFP)
French First Lady Bernadette Chirac listens to a speech by Queen Elizabeth II at the Senate in Paris 06 April 2004, on the second day of a three-day state visit to mark the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, the colonial-era promise of cross-channel friendship between Britain and France. (AFP)
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Bernadette Chirac, France’s Dedicated and Determined Ex-First Lady

French First Lady Bernadette Chirac listens to a speech by Queen Elizabeth II at the Senate in Paris 06 April 2004, on the second day of a three-day state visit to mark the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, the colonial-era promise of cross-channel friendship between Britain and France. (AFP)
French First Lady Bernadette Chirac listens to a speech by Queen Elizabeth II at the Senate in Paris 06 April 2004, on the second day of a three-day state visit to mark the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, the colonial-era promise of cross-channel friendship between Britain and France. (AFP)

Bernadette Chirac, who has died aged 93, stood by her late husband, former French president Jacques Chirac, during 12 years as first lady, but also forged her own, more discreet, political career.

Quiet, traditionally Roman Catholic and always immaculately turned out in classic suits and styled hair, she dedicated herself to the career of the man she married when she was 22 years old.

Jacques Chirac died on September 26, 2019, aged 86, after serving as president from 1995 to 2007.

"She is the woman of my life, we have accomplished so much together," Jacques Chirac -- who also served as prime minister and mayor of Paris -- wrote in his memoirs in 2012.

Current President Emmanuel Macron said Bernadette Chirac "changed so many lives with discretion and determination" and "left her mark on our history".

"An era comes to an end with her passing. I feel, like so many French people, a deep nostalgia," added Jacques Chirac's successor and protege, Nicolas Sarkozy.

- 'Not always easy' -

The couple met at Paris's political science university Sciences Po in 1954 and married two years later -- a match considered below the rank of Bernadette, who was born on May 18, 1933 into the aristocratic Chodron de Courcel family.

The marriage, during which she had two daughters, was not always easy, with Chirac admitting publicly to having a weakness for women and rumors abounding of affairs.

In her book "Conversation" (2001), she spoke about her Catholic faith and her opposition to abortion -- but also with unusual frankness about the tests through which a family can be put by a husband's infidelity.

Describing Jacques Chirac as a "handsome man" who had "enormous success with women", she wrote: "Nowadays at the first difficulty people just give up. But as far as I was concerned, I hesitated because I had children, and also because I was the prisoner of certain family traditions.

"Convention had it that in this sort of situation you put up a front and just kept going. In any case I warned him often enough: the day Napoleon left Josephine, he lost everything."

Jacques Chirac was elected head of state in 1995 and 2002, his 12 years in the job making him France's second longest-serving president after his Socialist predecessor Francois Mitterrand.

- 'Turtle' -

Bernadette described herself as a mere "wagon" hooked onto her powerhouse "engine" spouse, while he referred to his determined and sometimes authoritarian wife as "a turtle".

But she was also seen as an electoral asset in his campaigning, with her cheerful personality and charity work for sick children boosting her image, while her conservatism reassured right-wing voters.

Her discretion and immaculate appearance also made Bernadette into something of an icon herself. In 2023 French screen legend Catherine Deneuve starred in a film about her years as first lady, titled simply "Bernadette".

Besides being patron of several charities, she carved out her own modest political career as long-time elected councilor for the couple's rural home department of Correze and a member of the municipal council of the department's small village of Sarran.

In darker times in later life, a protective Bernadette closely guarded information about Chirac's deteriorating health as a degenerative neurological disorder took hold and he was confined to a wheelchair.

She lived to see her husband become the first president to be convicted for graft when he was given a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for syphoning off public money to pay people working for his political party while Paris mayor.

After his death Bernadette, by then said to be in frail health, attended a private funeral service but was not present at the main ceremony attended by dozens of world leaders.

In 2016 their eldest daughter, Laurence, died aged 58, after a heart attack, having suffered with anorexia since 1974.