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Lebanon is taking an important step toward safeguarding the individual right to life by abolishing the death penalty, at a time when the region lives to the rhythm of news of war, death and destruction, in a reality that at times resembles the collective execution of human beings. The abolition of the death penalty is not merely a legal amendment or a legislative measure. It is a human-rights act that places the right to life above the state’s right to punish and sides with the individual against the power to inflict death. From this perspective, Lebanon’s decision to embark on this path carries significance beyond the legal text itself by strengthening the protection of the individual. Abolishing the death penalty thus amounts to recognizing that the state should not kill in the name of the law, even as wars, conflicts and political and social collapse turn death into a daily practice both within and outside the law.

Some people spend their lives accepting their lot, while others take their destiny into their own hands. This is all the more difficult for a woman living in a man’s world. And yet… some women chose to fight, succeeding in breaking the taboos of their time. Whether they wielded a brush, a pen, scientific instruments, or their voices, they made their mark on their century with a boldness that at times bordered on scandal. From Artemisia Gentileschi, defying Italian society and the courts five centuries ago, to George Sand, who traded the corset for the freedom to write; from Camille Claudel, the deeply wounded artist, to the rigor and genius of Marie Curie, and the universal voice of Oum Kalthoum… these women succeeded in overcoming social prejudice.

The United States launched major strikes against Iran on Tuesday night for the second time in a matter of days, with CENTCOM announcing that it had "begun operations against targets belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps." U.S. President Donald Trump went so far as to threaten an even more devastating future attack: "If the failing nation of Iran retaliates against this perfectly justified attack, it will be struck again, far harder," he wrote on his Truth Social platform. Despite the American warning, Tehran in turn announced a "decisive" response, directly threatening U.S. interests: "American bases and interests in the region are being targeted by Iranian missiles and drones."

This is the second in a three-part series that follows the manifesto as both a form of writing and a way of intervening in the world. The first article stayed with the right to declare, and with the peculiar authority speech can acquire once it enters public space. Here, the question shifts. What happens when that speech moves beyond the person who utters it and begins to speak in the name of others? The third article will return to the question that began this journey, and ask what remains of the manifesto when its forms and purposes keep changing. By the end of the first article, the whole path had narrowed to a word almost too small for the history that had led us there: we .

Three political poles currently dominate Israel’s day-to-day political life in the run-up to the elections for the twenty-sixth Knesset, scheduled for October 27. The first is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, allied with the most extreme currents of religious Zionism. Facing him is Naftali Bennett of the nationalist right, in alliance with centrist Yair Lapid. The third, emerging from the military establishment, is former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, who may prove to be Netanyahu’s most dangerous rival. Opinion polls shift constantly. Yet one fact has remained unchanged so far: none of the three poles appears capable of achieving the breakthrough needed to form the next government.

It is a war of attrition in every sense of the word. Yet much of the time, it is being kept simmering at a low level, as was the case overnight from Sunday into Monday and in the early hours of the new week. Late Sunday evening, the U.S. military said it had detected – most likely by satellite – Islamic Revolutionary Guard militiamen preparing two rocket launchers capable of dispersing mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Shortly after the announcement, the U.S. military launched overnight raids on Revolutionary Guard positions on Larak Island, killing and wounding several people, according to sources within the Revolutionary Guards.