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In the 19th century, two theorists—Mahan, an American, and Corbett, a Briton—who remain pillars of strategic naval thought, put forward theories on “command of the sea” and “sea power” (sometimes confused with maritime power). Alfred Thayer Mahan argued that a nation’s greatness, prosperity, and global dominance depend directly on its ability to control the seas: command of sea routes and the defeat of the enemy fleet take precedence over everything else. “Sea power” refers to a state’s ability to use the seas and oceans for military, economic, and political purposes in order to project its power and safeguard its global geopolitical interests.

“Anything can happen with me,” President Donald Trump proclaims. And who would deny it? But the real question is what the United States would gain from such an erratic foreign policy. Let us pay close attention to the daily newspaper Le Monde , which took note of this with the headline: “China can only welcome Donald Trump’s United States losing credibility with Washington’s traditional allies.” Indeed, while the U.S. president is floundering in the Persian Gulf, he is—believe it or not—disengaging from the Red Sea. He did not come to Mohammed bin Salman’s aid, even though the latter was urgently requesting his support as, between September 9 and 11, Yemeni loyalist forces—backed by Riyadh, though apparently not sufficiently—were routed.

In light of the legislative elections held a few days ago, one can speak of a certain regularity in Morocco’s political life. The elections were calm and normal across the Kingdom. The results were perfectly clear and showed that the biggest winner was Morocco itself, under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, who laid the foundations of a modern state. They also revealed the extent to which the inhabitants of the Sahara provinces are attached to their Moroccan identity. This was clearly reflected in voter turnout in the Saharan provinces. In modern Morocco, elections are held on schedule and governments do not fall in the street. Change comes through the ballot box. Ultimately, the political system that emerged from the 2011 Constitution places the parties before their responsibilities, namely the obligation to fulfill the promises they made during election campaigns.

We are a long way, a very long way, from 2014, when Iranian leaders publicly boasted that they had succeeded in politically and militarily “linking” three capitals to the Iranian Revolution, explicitly naming Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut as the nuclei of an “empire” they dreamed of building. Twelve years later, the Islamic Republic finds itself resorting to all kinds of manoeuvres in an attempt to preserve a minimum of influence in two countries where its military instruments have been significantly weakened. The third, Syria, has completely slipped from its control. On Friday, Baghdad followed Beirut’s lead by closing its airspace to Iranian aviation, dealing a severe blow to Tehran, which regards Iraq as the natural extension of its “empire.”

On the first day of his apostolic visit to France, speaking at the Élysée Palace to President Emmanuel Macron, the authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps, Pope Leo XIV delivered an address in which he praised “cooperation between France and the Catholic Church in the service of Eastern Christians,” linking this stance to “a proper secularism” as understood and welcomed by the Holy See. “Proper secularism, therefore, does not consist in excluding religion from public life or education,” the Holy Father stated in his address, “but in working to ensure that the State and religious institutions engage in dialogue and join forces in the service of the common good, so that the world may have life.”

I do not know whether Thélyson Orélien wrote C’était ça ou mourir entirely by himself. I pause at that last phrase. By himself. Why does it suddenly feel more complicated than the accusation itself? What does it mean, really, to write alone? Where does that solitude begin, and where does it end? Orélien’s novel had just won the Prix du Roman Fnac when an anonymous account on X, followed by only a few dozen people, began posting screenshots from an AI-detection tool. Percentages appeared. Claims followed. Within hours, a writer who had just won a literary prize was being asked to prove that he had written the book carrying his name.