SpotlightWhen AI Defies Orders… and Won’t Shut Down

Bélinda Ibrahim 09/06 17:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Artficial Intelligence AI OpenAI Anthropic Defiance

In a recent study reported by the Wall Street Journal, OpenAI’s experimental AI model O3 altered its own script to prevent automatic shutdown within a simulated environment. Even more troubling, when explicitly commanded to shut down, the AI refused to comply in 79% of cases. This controlled test aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of safeguards ...

ExplainerHow Can Your Phone Be Compromised in Seconds?

Chelsea Al Arif 09/06 14:30 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Unit 81 Israel Spy Hacking Pegasus

A recent investigative video aired by the Israeli Broadcasting Authority offers a look at just how easily a phone can be hacked, revealing the capacities of Unit 81, Israel’s military tech unit. In a controlled demonstration, a cybersecurity expert shows how quickly and discreetly a phone can be taken over: camera, microphone and location, all ...

Don't Let Deep sea Become 'Wild West', Guterres tells World Leaders

This is Beirut 09/06 12:25 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Donald Trump Emmanuel Macron United Nations Oceans Nice

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday the world could not let the deepest oceans "become the wild west", at the start in France of a global summit on the seas. World leaders are attending the UN Ocean Conference in Nice as nations tussle over contentious rules on mining the seabed for critical minerals and the terms of ...

InterviewsMan Who Let Snakes Bite Him 200 Times Spurs New Antivenom Hope

This is Beirut 08/06 09:20 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

USA

Tim Friede was feeling particularly down on the day after the September 11 attacks, so he went to his basement and let two of the world's deadliest snakes bite him. Four days later, he woke up from a coma. "I know what it feels like to die from snakebite," Friede told AFP via video call from his home in the small US town of Two Rivers, ...

SpotlightDoping on the Loose, Health Under Threat

Karl Hajj Moussa 06/06 13:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

On May 26, 2025, the president of the Lebanese Order of Pharmacists, Joe Salloum, called on the authorities to “put an end to the unchecked sale of performance-enhancing stimulants in gyms and on social media.” In gyms and across social media, doping stimulants are being openly sold under the guise of dietary supplements. These ...

Pharmaceutical Counterfeiting: Lebanon Sick from Its Own Medicines

Makram Haddad 06/06 11:00 - Reading : 6 minute(s)

Medicines Lebanon Mounjaro Pharmaceutical Counterfeiting

It heals; it soothes; it saves. Or at least, that’s what we think. Because not all medicines sold in Lebanon are what they claim to be. Many products escape control: copies without active ingredients, or made from toxic substances disguised in a reassuring appearance. A Medicine Almost Like Any Other The World Health Organization’s ...

ExplainerScreen Addiction: Understanding the Message Behind the Symptom

David Sahyoun 04/06 18:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Psychoanalysis Addictions Therapy Culture

The underlying logic of “mindset therapy” is the reinforcement of the self. It urges individuals to push their limits, reinvent themselves, “raise their vibration” – as if the essence of psychic life were a relentless pursuit of performance. But for Freud and Lacan, desire is never aligned or resolved. It remains blocked, unstable, ...

SpotlightSegmented Sleep: Rethinking the Myth of Uninterrupted Rest

This is Beirut 04/06 12:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Segmented Sleep Health Naps Sleep Patterns

For decades, the standard was clear: a good night’s sleep had to be long, uninterrupted and last between seven and nine hours. This is what we call monophasic sleep. Yet, this way of sleeping is neither as universal nor as natural as we might think. In reality, our ancestors didn’t sleep the way we do, and recent research suggests that ...

Time Machine: How Carbon Dating Brings the Past Back to Life

This is Beirut 03/06 09:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Carbon Dating Paris Notre Dame

From unmasking art forgery to uncovering the secrets of the Notre-Dame cathedral, an imposing machine outside Paris can turn back the clock to reveal the truth. It uses a technique called carbon dating, which has "revolutionised archaeology", winning its discoverer a Nobel Prize in 1960, French scientist Lucile Beck said. She spoke to AFP in ...

SpotlightIn a Hotter Future, what Comes After Coral Reefs Die?

This is Beirut 02/06 09:35 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

coral reefs

The fate of coral reefs has been written with a degree of certainty rare in climate science: at 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming, most are expected to die. This is not a far-off scenario. Scientists predict that the rise of 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) will be reached within a decade and that beyond that point, many coral simply cannot ...

SpotlightSkin, Hair, Nails: Beauty Begins on Your Plate

Bélinda Ibrahim 01/06 18:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Skin Beauty Nutrition Food

Every day, the cosmetics industry promises us radiance, firmness, hydration and purity, with a heavy dose of high-tech molecules and luxurious packaging. Yet, more and more scientific studies are pointing to a fundamental truth: skin beauty begins in the gut. American dermatologist Whitney Bowe, in her book The Beauty of Dirty Skin, describes the ...

At Saint Joseph Hospital, a Tobacco-Free Day... Full of Breath

Makram Haddad 31/05 20:10 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Leila Abou Habib Elsa Yazbek No Tobacco Day

In the bright hall of the Saint Joseph University Hospital, it wasn’t the sound of carts or the hurried footsteps of medical staff that one could hear this Friday, but bursts of voices, laughter and at times, softly whispered confidences. To mark World No Tobacco Day, the establishment had traded the silence of care for the lively buzz of a ...