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How Syria Can Begin Integrating the SDF

Seth J. Frantzman 24/12 10:00 - Reading : 6 minute(s)

Turkey Syria SDF Kurds Ahmad al-Sharaa

Clashes erupted December 22 in Aleppo between Syrian government troops and the local Kurdish security forces (Asayish), killing at least three people and underscoring the challenges facing efforts to unify armed factions under the Syrian transitional government. Even as Damascus seeks to consolidate nationwide security and integrate armed ...

Seeing Is Believing: Army Unveils Realities South of the Litani

Natasha Metni Torbey 16/12 17:23 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Lebanon Hezbollah Israel Middle East United Nations

On Monday in southern Litani, the Lebanese army went beyond a routine field visit, staging a carefully orchestrated tour for its ambassadors, chargés d’affaires, and military attachés to showcase its operations.  From the sector command in the southern city of Tyre, the army’s commander-in-chief, General Rodolph Haykal, outlined to foreign ...

French Cinema Icon Brigitte Bardot to Be Buried in Saint-Tropez cemetery

This is Beirut 29/12 17:10 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Cinema Brigitte Bardot Icon Funeral France

Cinema icon Brigitte Bardot is to be buried in a graveyard in her hometown of Saint-Tropez, an official said Monday, as France wrestles with how to pay tribute to a cultural legend who in later years championed far-right views. Bardot, who died on Sunday aged 91 after decades as an animal rights campaigner, had said she wanted to be laid to rest ...

Why was Sharaa Invited to Washington, but not Aoun?

Hussain Abdul-Hussain 23/12 10:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Washington Lebanon Lebanese Army Syria Joseph Aoun Ahmad al-Sharaa

Until late 2024, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa was a U.S.-designated terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head for leading the al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. By contrast, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who served as commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) until his election in January 2025, was widely regarded as one of ...

Peace with Israel: Lebanon's Path to Economic Revival

Hussain Abdul-Hussain 30/12 10:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Lebanon Israel United Arab Emirates Baalbeck Bahrain

An unconditional peace treaty with Israel, inspired by the Abraham Accords' success, could reduce Lebanon’s security risks, unlock billions in foreign investments, revive trade, agriculture, and services, and create jobs—offering economic salvation while preserving Lebanon’s support of Palestinians.  Normalization could boost Lebanon’s ...

Lebanon Debate: Gap Law Risks Bankrupting Banks, Wiping out Depositors

This is Beirut 18/12 12:40 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Banks Central Bank of Lebanon Lebanon Banque du Liban Nawaf Salam

The following article, originally written on Thursday by Lebanon Debate, is reproduced here in full to highlight their analysis of the proposed financial gap bill and its potential impact on depositors and the Lebanese banking sector: “Once again, Nawaf Salam’s government is rushing to pass the financial gap law before the end of the year, ...

Artificial Womb: Is Japan Really on the Brink of Birth Outside the Human Body?

Bélinda Ibrahim 17/12 11:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Artificial wombs Science Japan Gestation

Since the summer of 2025, a series of announcements from Japan have set the global media landscape alight. Researchers are said to have developed an artificial womb capable of faithfully recreating the conditions of human gestation. Some headlines already evoke embryos carried to term outside the body, a redefinition of motherhood, or even the end ...

Lebanon Must Pick the Abraham Accords over the Muslim Brotherhood

Hussain Abdul-Hussain 15/12 14:25 - Reading : 8 minute(s)

Lebanon Hezbollah Abraham Accords Israel Iran Turkey

Lebanon must pick a side in the regional map of alliances. One seeks peace, prosperity and higher standards of living for all and consists of the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Bahrain, and Morocco, enshrined by the Abraham Accords. The rival alliance—Qatar, its ATM, and Turkey, its NATO muscle, as well as Syria, Algeria, and Tunisia—dismisses ...

The Path Is Made by Walking: How Each Step Creates the Way

David Sahyoun 10/12 18:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Psychoanalysis Path Desire Culture Way Culture

Within this framework, the statement can be read as an ethic of movement, desire, and fruitful incompleteness. It suggests that truth is not a fixed object, but a direction; not a trophy, but a process. Likewise, failing is not a mistake, but the condition of one who is on the journey. As Franck Pavloff, French writer and psychologist, puts it in ...

Deadly Clashes in Aleppo as Turkey Urges Kurds Not to Be Obstacle to Syria's Stability

This is Beirut 22/12 22:55 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Syria Syrian Democratic Forces Aleppo

The Syrian government and Kurdish-led forces on Monday ordered their fighters to cease fire following deadly clashes that came as Turkey's top diplomat urged the Kurds to integrate into the Syrian army. At least three people were killed in the clashes, which came ahead of a deadline for implementing a March 10 agreement between Damascus and ...

From Rockets to Reels: Iran and Hezbollah’s Fight for Survival through Propaganda

Salam El Zaatari 17/12 18:40 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah Lebanon Israel Palestine Iran

After the 2024 Israel–Hezbollah war, Iran and its main regional proxy faced a grim reality. Hezbollah survived the war, but its top leadership had been assassinated, much of its arsenal destroyed, thousands of its fighters killed, and it was forced to retreat from south of the Litani. In response, Iran and Hezbollah have shifted from kinetic ...

Gap Law: How the Lebanese State Erases Its Responsibility

This is Beirut 20/12 18:05 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Banks Lebanon Economy Gap Law IMF

Every financial crisis raises a central question: who should bear the losses? In a liberal economy grounded in responsibility, the answer is clear: those who decided, spent, borrowed, and ultimately failed. The Gap Law, however, offers a radically opposite answer. It methodically organizes the erasure of the Lebanese state’s responsibility and ...

The Damask Rose, Defiant Memory of a Wounded Syria

Bélinda Ibrahim 09/12 18:30 - Reading : 6 minute(s)

Damascus Syria Damask Rose Flower

South of Damascus, each spring returns with a scent that war could not wipe away. In the fields of Al Marah, the same quiet wonder unfolds again. The Damask rose blooms with stubborn grace. As every year, the steady ritual of renewal stirs a sense of hope, and Roula Ali Adeeb walks the rose-a tad tweaked but close lined paths, gathering each ...

AIDS in Lebanon: A Chronic Disease, A Stubborn Taboo

Makram Haddad 03/12 10:30 - Reading : 6 minute(s)

Lebanon AIDS

The history of AIDS officially begins in the early 1980s, when research teams, including that of Luc Montagnier at the Institut Pasteur, identified the human immunodeficiency virus. At the time, doctors had neither reliable tests nor effective treatment. Today, the situation has radically changed: triple and dual antiretroviral therapies control ...

Gap Law: Nawaf Salam and the IMF, Architects of a Legalized Spoliation

This is Beirut 20/12 16:05 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Lebanon Gap Law Economy Banks

By claiming on Monday a commitment to “deliver justice to depositors,” Prime Minister Nawaf Salam did more than distort reality: with the active backing of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he sealed one of the greatest financial and moral abdications in Lebanon’s history. The Gap Law, presented as a lifesaving legal framework, is in ...

The Law of Financial “Massacre”: When Nawaf Salam and “Kulluna Irada” Strip Depositors of Their Savings

Eleonore Stephan for Huna Lubnan 21/12 09:05 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Lebanon IMF Banks BDL Economy

At one of the darkest moments in Lebanon’s national life, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is promoting a so-called “financial gap law” as a technical solution, while in reality it legalizes suffering and formalizes the confiscation of Lebanese citizens’ savings. The so-called “Kulluna Irada” law does not merely steal money; it also ...

Gap Law: A Legalized Expropriation of Deposits

This is Beirut 21/12 12:05 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Banks BDL Lebanon Economy Gap Law

Wrapped in the technical language of financial restructuring, the Gap Law is presented as a necessary step to correct the imbalance of Lebanon’s banking system. Behind this rhetoric lies a far more serious reality: the legalization of a massive expropriation of bank deposits, in blatant disregard of property rights, legal certainty, and the very ...

BDL: IMF Concerns on Financial Gap Law Are Risky and Inconsistent

This is Beirut 18/12 14:15 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Central Bank of Lebanon International Monetary Fund Lebanon Banks Banque du Liban

The Central Bank of Lebanon (BDL) issued observations regarding the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s recent comments on the financial gap bill. BDL described the IMF’s remarks as risky and inconsistent with accounting and financial standards, noting that there is no historical precedent in a systemic crisis where a state first erodes the ...

Financial Gap Threatens Depositors Amid Government Inaction

Nadia al-Hallak for Houna Loubnan 13/12 20:12 - Reading : 6 minute(s)

Banks Central Bank of Lebanon Banque du Liban Middle East

Amid ongoing government debates over the draft law addressing the financial shortfall and the fate of deposits, concern is growing within economic and banking circles over the plan’s potential direction. Each new draft leak highlights a deep disagreement—over how losses should be allocated and the extent of the burden the state must shoulder ...

No More Free Passes: U.S. Ties Security Aid to Lebanese Action

Amal Chmouny 11/12 10:30 - Reading : 6 minute(s)

Lebanese Army Lebanon US congress NDAA Hezbollah Disarmament

The U.S. Congress has sent a clear, stern message to Beirut that Washington’s support for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) is no longer a blank check. The latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), up for a vote in the House of Representatives, imposes new conditions and restrictions on U.S. aid to the Lebanese army, ...

Gap Law: The Programmed Destruction of the Banking Sector

This is Beirut 21/12 15:05 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Lebanon Economy Banks BDL Gap Law

Presented as a restructuring measure, the Gap Law organizes a methodical liquidation of the Lebanese banking sector. Behind complex technical mechanisms—loss hierarchy, balance-sheet cleanup, recapitalization—lies a clear political choice: to sacrifice banks to settle a public crisis that the state refuses to assume. This text does not reform ...

Iraq on High Alert: Baghdad Warns of Imminent Israeli Strikes

This is Beirut 25/12 17:25 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Israel Middle East UN Security Council Iraq US

According to several corroborating reports cited by Israeli media, Iraqi authorities have been discreetly warned of the possibility of targeted Israeli strikes on their territory, aimed at pro-Iranian armed groups operating in the country. These warnings, described as “extremely serious,” are said to have been delivered through Western and ...

WASL: Riyadi Snatch a Thriller in Tehran, Gyokchyan the Clutch Hero

Makram Haddad 18/12 08:50 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Tehran Basketball WASL Riyadi Gorgan

Still reeling from their loss to Astana a few days earlier, the three-time West Asia champions responded in the best possible way, grinding out a prestigious 85–83 road victory over Shahrdari Gorgan. Hayk Gyokchyan delivered a masterclass in the money time to seal the win on Iranian soil. Some defeats leave scars; some responses reset the ...

“Gap Law” for Beginners

Mario Chartouni 18/12 12:59 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Banks International Monetary Fund Lebanon Banque du Liban Hezbollah

For several months now, the so-called “Gap Law” (law on financial gap) has been presented as the key to resolving Lebanon’s banking crisis. Its proponents argue that it would help restore order to the financial system and pave the way for an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But behind this technical ...

Syria Monitor Says US Strikes Killed at Least Five Islamic State Members

This is Beirut 20/12 14:32 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Syria Islamic State Group United States US Army

A Syria monitor said Saturday that five Islamic State jihadist group members were killed in US strikes overnight as Jordan confirmed it participated in the raids after a deadly attack on American troops last weekend. US forces said they struck more than 70 IS targets in what President Donald Trump described as "very serious retaliation" ...

From Gaza to Iran: Trump and Netanyahu Review Regional Flashpoints

This is Beirut 30/12 11:40 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Trump Netanyahu MiddleEast Gaza Iran Lebanon Syria Turkey

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held wide-ranging talks in Florida on Monday, addressing key regional crises including Gaza, Iran, Syria, and broader Middle East stability, as both leaders signaled continued strategic alignment despite ongoing regional tensions. The meeting, held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago ...

The Gentle Dictatorship of the Socio-Economic

David Sahyoun 03/12 18:00 - Reading : 6 minute(s)

Psychoanalysis Socio-Economic Dictatorship

Domination does not always present itself through harshness. Some forms advance gently, not through coercion but through the pull of seduction. They show no signs of authoritarian rule and present themselves instead as paths that promise freedom. The current socio-economic order belongs to this quiet family of tyrannies. It draws individuals into ...