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A key institutional figure and a major painter, César Gemayel stands as one of the pillars of modern painting in Lebanon. His career is defined by a transition from rigid, static academicism to a more sensuous and Oriental form of expression. He helped shift Lebanese art from purely religious or documentary forms toward a more personal expression, transforming traditional Lebanese forms of art into a modern visual language shaped by Impressionist and Parisian influences. The Man César Gemayel was born on February 9, 1898, in Aïn el-Touffaha, a small village in Mount Lebanon near Bikfaya, then under Ottoman Empire, into a family of notable standing.

In a surprise move late Thursday, April 9, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced, following a meeting of the country’s security cabinet, that he had instructed his government to initiate direct negotiations with Lebanon without delay. He also took the opportunity to publicly welcome a decision by his Lebanese counterpart, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, whose cabinet, meeting Thursday at Baabda Palace, approved a resolution mandating the Lebanese army and security forces to prohibit any illegal armed presence in the Beirut governorate. The move effectively seeks to enforce the principle of the state’s monopoly over arms.

“When will the war end? I say: when we meet again.” Mahmoud Darwish I am by nature an optimist, without being armoured against sadness. Yet, despite the darkness and brutality of the war, I find myself living through one of the most hopeful periods of my life — contrary to many around me. I believe we are witnessing Lebanon’s last wars, and in the quiet of the night my thoughts drift toward “the day after the war.” I think, with genuine compassion and without seeking to blame anyone, in near-total neutrality, about the shock that will strike households whose members were raised in a deep hatred of Israel, its people, and Jews in general — Arab nationalists, Syrian nationalists, communists, Islamists of every stripe.

If I write these words today, it is not out of ethics, friendship, or politeness, but out of the immense respect I hold for a man who gave so much to Lebanon and who remained an unknown soldier. This man's name is Mohammed Hussein Shamseddine, and from 1992 to 2026 he thought and drafted the majority of the political literature that formed the cornerstone upon which we built the narrative of this country's sovereignty and independence. For Mohammed Hussein Shamseddine, sovereignty and independence were always bound to national unity, upon which they directly depended. And whenever that national unity was broken, whatever the reason, it inevitably brought with it a rupture in the country's independence and sovereignty.

Forty days ago, Mohammed Hussein Shamseddine passed away. An exceptional mind, a Shia democrat, a thinker of the living together, and an inveterate supporter of preserving Greater Lebanon. This article is not so much a tribute as it is a precise testimony of everything this man—humble, discreet, and unknown to the general public—was and what he brought to the public debate. He is a calm, slender, taciturn man. Every day, in the early afternoon, he arrives at the March 14 general secretariat, settles in quietly and gives himself over to his reflections, his readings, his writings. A new initiative, no doubt, is taking shape, worked out with his fellow travellers Samir Frangieh and Fares Souaid. The ideas Frangieh puts to paper, in French or in Arabic, pass through Shamseddine's hands — he reflects, reciprocates, adds his comments and observations. The intellectual and political osmosis between the two men, intensely human, is total, and the result always substantial, carried by a philosophical, humanist, profound vision of conviviality.

A torrent of iron, fire, and blood – unmatched in recent years, except for the August 4 explosion at Beirut’s port – rained down Wednesday across Beirut, its southern suburbs, and countless towns and villages throughout Lebanon. According to initial figures from the Lebanese Ministry of Health, more than 180 people were killed and nearly 800 injured in a wave of simultaneous Israeli airstrikes, which struck roughly a hundred targets nationwide in just ten minutes. The attacks came even as a regional two-week truce had been announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, coinciding with the opening of Washington-Tehran negotiations on a comprehensive agreement aimed at a lasting cessation of hostilities.