On a tranquil Mentonnais weekend, two weeks before the midterms rush, I boarded a train bound for Antibes. As I wandered through its cobbled streets, the Mediterranean shimmered next to me, breathing light into every corner of the city; a scene not so different from that of my hometown in Alexandria, Egypt. Apparently, this feeling of familiarity with this vast blue sea is nothing new—a feeling shared by many people no matter on which shore one is standing.

“If you want to eliminate values from past societies, you have to eliminate the artists.”, reflects Prince Norodom Sirivudh of Cambodia, in the 2014 documentary “Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll”, recounting the systematic erasure of music from Cambodian society under the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.

BRAT was summer. BRAT was coming to terms with your suppressed desires, the hate you bore and the complicated friendships you were a part of. The fun, the ugly and the embarrassing. It was about the euphoria of partying into the light of early summer mornings and the walks of shame back home. Drug abuse, sex, and all other kinds of highs of life was what BRAT encompassed. It encouraged difficult conversations about fertility and friendship, revealing that fame doesn’t equate feelings getting spared or receiving grace.

How does watching strangers fall in love on national television reflect the most complicated parts of our emotional lives – dating? The transition from heartful romcoms to dating shows such as Love Island, Love is Blind or Too Hot to Handle perhaps indicate romance has died.

Given country music’s association with the American South and its conservative majority, it is difficult to ignore the correlation of country music's revival with the rise of the far-right in the US. However, can one link these phenomena? Is country music inseparable from conservatism?

At the start of the 1920s, although hard to imagine today, the Riviera was practically deserted during the summer months. Hotels and restaurants catering to the European elite would close shop after spring, as their wealthy patrons would leave for colder climates. The Murphys were the first to convince hotels in Antibes to stay open during the summer months, as a way to host their American friends. Thus beginning the transformation of the Riviera into the summer destination it is today.

In Palestine, threads carry stories. Each stitch of tatreez — the traditional Palestinian embroidery — embodies memory, identity, and resilience. On a quiet afternoon, an elderly woman sits with fabric in her lap, weaving patterns passed down through generations.

The truth is this: Egypt has never ruled merely by sword or throne. Its empire was always one of imagination, where a pen could be sharper than steel, a song louder than artillery, and a camera brighter than any spotlight. The world may forget armies, but it remembers stories. And Egypt has always known how to tell them.

It’s time to embrace these styles as more than just ‘trends’, but as a long-lived facet of Black culture. Recognizing the enormous influence that Black communities have had on fashion and aesthetics will allow for the long-overdue dismantling of structural hegemonies, which not only ignore Black culture but also build an alarming double standard between races in the fashion industry.

The question of immorality does not pertain to the act of thrifting itself, but how the thrift environment has been redesigned to serve corporate interests at the expense of those it was initially designed to support.

In the digital age, the responsibility of verifying and trusting information falls on us, the users. While content under the branding of Save Europe might not be falsified, it is deliberately presented with emotional imagery, evocative music and slogans—blurring the line between political activism and propaganda.

Fasting in different religions does not divide us. It just makes us realize how similar we are, how we have the same needs, temptations and desires. And that’s precisely what I realized when I came to Menton, a campus full of diversity—ethnically, culturally and religiously. At the core, we are all the same…

If the campus is about 70% female and 30% male, and of the women, 75% are available and heterosexual, and of the men, about half are gay and maybe 25% are in a relationship, how many available, straight men does that leave for the single women, keen and looking? No need to do the math. We are not all EcoSoc majors. To put it simply, the answer is not a lot.

Sans qu’on puisse mettre un trait d’égalité entre le RN et la Nouvelle droite, il faut saisir l’apport essentiel de cette mouvance à l’extrême-droite tant sur le plan idéologique que sur la formation intellectuelle de ses cadres. La Nouvelle droite est une entreprise de blanchiment car derrière le ‘pluralisme’ dont elle se targue, se cache directement le nazisme et le néo-fascisme terroriste. La grande blanchisserie aujourd’hui est le Rassemblement national.

Feminism does not always require being vocal, an activist, or engaging in mass mobilization. Sometimes resisting is retreating—in the choice to withdraw from cultural pressures knowingly. Dissociative feminism expands the scope of what feminist action can entail.

The Oscars, once regarded as the highest award form of artistic recognition, have increasingly been subject to scrutiny over their selection process, inclusivity and cultural relevance. While the ceremony continues to attract global attention for viewers tuning in from all over the globe, one cannot help but ask: is the Academy truly honoring the best in cinema, or is it simply reinforcing the industry’s biases and political inclinations?

If the South is so deeply religious—it quite literally has been termed the ‘Bible Belt’ during cultural and political descriptions—why is it so drawn to horror? The answer lies in the paradox that envelops faith itself. To believe in heaven is to acknowledge that hell also exists. The belief in salvation is not complete without the recognition of sin. The South, with its religion and belief in divine punishment, has always and will always be a place where horror feels natural.

For us, Sciences Pistes, there are endless options, often just a click away on a lazy Monday morning, when the teacher is particularly uninteresting. The flight tickets are cheap, flying is fast and time is limited.
We, Sciences Pistes, are respectful, interested in different cultures and exploring the hidden gems—not just the touristy areas.

So what do the Golden Globes teach us about the film industry? Apart from the obvious elitism and unreasonable standards it sets in most aspects of our lives, it highlights the necessity of appreciating one's work. In some cases, it emphasizes the importance of sharing happy moments with those who understand and support you. Perhaps from a more career-focused point of view, the awards also present a wonderful opportunity for filmmakers, actresses, and actors to get widespread recognition.

“Sweet Caroline, Good times never felt so good” are the words that personify the pub, but as reality hits, how much longer will the croons of Neil Diamond sound true?