Meer | English edition

Thursday, October 1, 2026

Musandam’s fjords were shaped by the tectonic uplift of the Hajar Mountains, erosion, and sea-level rise that flooded ancient valleys

After Oman expelled the Portuguese, the castle became an Omani stronghold, residence of the local governor, and even a prison before being restored and converted into a museum

A group of tourists sailing the green waters of Musandam, Oman

A quiet, remote landscape with almost no modern development in Musandam, Oman

The Khasab Castle is a 17th-century fort originally built (and later expanded) by the Portuguese to control the Strait of Hormuz

The “Norway of Arabia”

Trekking in the Musandam Peninsula of Oman is worth the effort

Khan Younis Vegetable Garden at Full Moon, watercolour, 16 × 12 centimetres, Mark Weighton, 2026

Art, science, and the creative ape

The human imperative to pattern chaos and communicate meaning

Portraits of Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka, two leading figures of Austrian Expressionism whose artistic rivalry, shared networks, and pursuit of recognition helped shape the course of modern art in early twentieth-century Vienna

Schiele and Kokoschka’s modern vision

How two Austrian artists redefined portraiture and the representation of the self

Sudanese refugees carrying their belongings move through a crowded Cairo street as many seek safety and legal status amid tightening asylum policies and growing uncertainty about their future in Egypt

Economy & Politics

Egypt’s new asylum law raises fears for refugees

As parliament debates stricter migration rules, Sudanese refugees face arrests and possible deportation

On the Street

Archival footage used in "Colossal" blurs the line between memory and myth

Inside Colossal with Nayibe Tavares-Abel

The filmmaker turns her family history into a reflection on truth and democracy

Big coat energy: redefining elegance through volume, texture, and fearless individuality

Winter 2025–26 fashion trends

Oversized freedom, everyday glam, and no-pressure style

Hands extended in trust, reflecting the vulnerability of wanting to be part of the world again

Reaching for a connection

Learning that needing love doesn’t make you weak—it makes you alive

How do you stop getting nervous?

Too Nervous to Talk?

3 key things you should know

Artificial Intelligence has changed our world

Science & Technology

Artificial Intelligence has changed our world

AI has gone from a science-fiction dream to a critical part of our everyday lives

Reese's Cookie Dough Cupcakes by 1 Fine Cookie © Jasmin Fine

Food & Beverage

Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes

A New Twist on a Classic Flavor

Architecture & Design

Night view of a busy street in Shinjuku, Tokyo, illuminated by vibrant neon signs and crowds of pedestrians, Japan

The semiotics of visual culture

Signs, symbols, branding, and digital media in the construction of modern meaning

Normann Copenhagen design furniture displayed in an exhibition

Tom Dixon and the art of creative salvage

Punk attitude, recycled materials, and improvisation shaping British design in the 1980s

Art

Do U Dare! is an exhibition at Palazzo Marin in Venice featuring a film trilogy by visual artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat, Italy

Shirin Neshat and the unbearable need to be seen

"Do U Dare!" explores exile, loneliness and the distance between being watched and being understood

Catalina Rivera standing in front of Gustav Klimt, Life and Death, 1908-1915. Oil Paint on Canvas. Leopold Museum, Vienna

The Leopold Museum: Vienna’s modernist heart

Encountering Schiele’s raw intensity and the brilliance of Austrian fin-de-siècle art

Culture

Indian moulders at work under the supervision of a colonial official near Qutb Minar, 1856. Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK

The colonial invention of the Indo-Greek civilisation

James Prinsep, archaeology, and the politics of knowledge in British India

Street peddlers selling goods in Boston, USA, around 1915

The peddler’s burden and the meaning of success

A journey from rural hardship to modern pressure, questioning what truly matters in life today

Economy & Politics

A violent scene depicting a man restraining a woman and covering her mouth during a physical assault

Drug-facilitated sexual assault in the digital age

Online communities, pornography networks, and legal gaps driving organised abuse

A shattered city street bears the scars of conflict, as smoke rises in the distance and silence settles over the ruins of everyday life

War and economic consequences

The financial strain of military spending, infrastructure loss, and disrupted markets

Entertainment

Sergei Parajanov was a Soviet film director and screenwriter known for his poetic, symbolic, and non-linear filmmaking style. He was born on January 9, 1924, in Tbilisi and died on July 20, 1990, in Yerevan at the age of 66

Sergei Parajanov and the soul of the Caucasus

The fusion of Armenian and Georgian traditions into a visionary cinematic language beyond borders and ideology

Keanu Reeves reflects on turning 50 and recalls his first-ever paid acting job during an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live

Keanu Reeves and the meaning of what remains

Why his timeless response reveals the emptiness of the Cushion Economy and the importance of slowing down for genuine inner work

Fashion

A woman carefully comparing garments in her closet, reflecting the challenge of finding clothes that truly fit and flatter

When did getting dressed become so complicated?

A designer explores the frustrating difference between clothes that technically fit and clothes that actually work with a changing body

A woman wearing flowing white traditional attire against a desert landscape, representing cultural identity shaped by heritage and place

The silent language of political fashion

How clothing communicates power, identity, solidarity, and resistance without a single word being spoken

Feature

Like the tide, these poems capture moments that almost slipped away

In love with maybes

Fragments of a younger self, remembered in poetry

On 28 March 1941, Virginia Woolf ended her life by walking into the River Ouse with stones placed in the pockets of her overcoat. The image recreates this moment in the 2002 film The Hours, directed by Stephen Daldry

Picking rocks with Virginia Woolf

A fictional dialogue on death, beauty, madness, and the silence both women seek

Food & Beverage

Close-up of a fitness enthusiast tying running shoes beside a green smoothie before a workout session

The rise of plant-based athletes

How vegan and plant-forward diets are reshaping modern sports performance

The cozy and inviting interior of Le Petit Dep in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Why Montreal’s coffee and brunch scenes outshines Toronto

The architecture of leisure

Science & Technology

An antique sundial engraved with zodiac symbols under natural light, representing how scientific observation and pseudoscientific belief have long shared visual traditions

The rise of pseudoscience

How misinformation imitates science and why distinguishing evidence from opinion has never been more important

D-Orbit’s General Expansion Architecture, a system designed to service and support satellites in orbit

The AI operating system for space

Why autonomy is becoming essential for managing orbital infrastructure at scale

Sport

Driven by this unique talent, he maintained decades of world-class performance while remaining an extraordinarily humble legend. Illustration by Paola Bilancieri

Lionel Messi and the dog who played football

Overcoming a childhood growth deficiency and isolation in Barcelona, Messi rose through sheer resilience and an innate, childlike focus on the ball

A girl figure skating gracefully on the ice

The science of ice skating performance

How biomechanics, physics, and psychology shape the elite skater

Travel

Illuminated buildings lining the Fontanka River at twilight in Saint Petersburg, Russia, representing the beauty and complexity the author discovered beyond the familiar Russian postcard

The Russia I had to unlearn

How a series of journeys across Russia offers new perspectives on its people, cities, industries, history and global role

The facade of the Six Senses Rome hotel, which includes Palazzo Mellini, part of the Monastery of the Servite Order, and Palazzo Decarolis

Rome, inside and out: timeless magic

Immersing in the perfect blend of relaxation and exploration

Wellness

Long brunette hair accented by soft silver strands, reflecting the biological changes that influence hair pigmentation

Your first gray hairs are telling a bigger story

Early graying isn't always about age. It can reveal clues about stress, nutrition, hormones, and genetics

A woman sitting in silence in visible doubt, representing the uncertainty that can arise before taking an important step

When self-doubt becomes the thing holding you back

How hesitation, overthinking, perfectionism and fear can quietly prevent you from taking the steps you are capable of taking

Explore the Calendar

Worldwide Lisbon Pittsburgh Copenhagen Sidney Tallinn Washington Munich Honolulu Mexico City Sydney Denver Buenos Aires Curitiba San Francisco Montreal Stockholm Krakow Madrid Ottawa Venice Bloomington Ljubljana

Sun, moon and five peaks. Courtesy of British Museum

1 Oct 2026 — 31 Jan 2027 at the British Museum in London, United Kingdom

Lucas Blalock, Film-object (Mouth) (detail), 2025, from
Tête-à-tête-à-tête-à-tête-à-tête. Courtesy of the artist and George Eastman Museum

2 Oct 2026 — 11 Apr 2027 at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, United States

Thierry Boutonnier, Comment expliquer les objectifs de la production laitière aux vaches (detail), 2005. Courtesy of Dom Museum

Animals and humans

2 Oct 2026 — 22 Aug 2027 at the Dom Museum Wien in Vienna, Austria

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Third family, 2011. Courtesy of Moderna Museet

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian's exhibition

3 Oct 2026 — 28 Feb 2027 at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden

Felicia Chiao, Slice of life (detail), 2026. Courtesy of Harman Projects

3 — 24 Oct 2026 at the Harman Projects in New York, United States

Marshmallow Laser Feast, All that is unseen, exhibition view. Courtesy of Media Majlis Museum

All that is unseen

4 Oct 2026 — 21 Jan 2027 at the Media Majlis Museum in Doha, Qatar

Giovanni Chiaramonte, Via Dolorosa Gerusalemme (detail), 1988. Courtesy of Viasaterna

Giovanni Chiaramonte. Alight

5 Oct — 11 Dec 2026 at Viasaterna in Milan, Italy

Mary Cassatt, Fillette dans un fauteuil bleu [Enfant dans le salon bleu] (detail), 1878. Courtesy of Musée d’Orsay

Mary Cassatt: l'indépendante

6 Oct 2026 — 31 Jan 2027 at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France

Seba Calfuqueo, Itrofill mongen, opacidad del agua (detail), 2026. Courtesy of Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

Seba Calfuqueo. Cautín

6 Oct 2026 — 17 Jan 2027 at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, Spain

Zurbarán. 1598–1664. Courtesy of Louvre

Zurbarán. 1598–1664

7 Oct 2026 — 25 Jan 2027 at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France

Sculpting colour. Courtesy of Louvre Museum

Sculpting colour

7 Oct 2026 — 25 Jan 2027 at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France

Swab’s 2025 edition, exhibition view. Courtesy of Swab

Swab’s 19th edition

8 — 11 Oct 2026 at Swab in Barcelona, Spain

Unknown, Help children in need through the Youth Red Cross’s cardboard boxes, Switzerland (detail), 1965. Courtesy of Musée International de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge

Humanitarian, by design?

8 Oct 2026 — 29 Aug 2027 at the Musée international de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge in Geneva, Switzerland

Jordan Nassar, The bursting of shape, 2026. Courtesy of the Third Line

No history of shapes ( ﻻلﺎﻜﺷ ﻸﻟ ﺦﯾرﺎﺗ)

8 — 24 Oct 2026 at The Third Line in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Elizabeth Magill, I’ve never felt magic, crazy as this (detail), 2026. Courtesy of Kerlin Gallery

8 Oct — 14 Nov 2026 at the Kerlin Gallery in Dublin, Ireland

Romuald Hazoumè, Kongo, 2024-25. Courtesy of October Gallery

8 Oct — 21 Nov 2026 at the October Gallery in London, United Kingdom

Ralf Kokke, Candy for crocodiles. Courtesy of Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery

Candy for crocodiles

8 Oct — 7 Nov 2026 at the Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in London, United Kingdom

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