Articles

“Charity begins at home” is an apt saying for describing the missteps of Greater Lebanon – missteps that Georges Naccache captured in one cutting, lucid line: “Two negations do not make a nation.” That sentence exposes the tragic shortcomings of the first generation of Lebanese, confronted with a Greater Lebanon still struggling to assert itself. Rooted in St. Augustine’s thought, “charity begins at home” simply means that one must meet one’s needs and obligations before seeking to help others. The concept is sometimes distorted to justify individualist behavior, a lack of generosity, or putting personal interests ahead of a collective cause. In fact, it stems from the theology of St. Augustine (4th century) and from his notion of ordo caritatis – the order of charity. St. Augustine held that charity, or divine love, must follow a logical hierarchy: one must love God first, then love oneself in a healthy, “ordered” way, for the salvation of one’s soul, before being able to love one’s neighbor.

Doctored images, sexualization, smear campaigns, and accusations of treason: in Lebanon, artificial intelligence is providing new tools for harassment targeting women who are visible in the public sphere. The case of a government minister and the testimonies of two journalists shed light on a global phenomenon that is outpacing the legal and technical measures designed to contain it. A red devil with horns, holding a trident — but with a familiar face: glasses, short bleached hair, and hoop earrings. This was no ordinary caricature, but one of dozens of AI-generated images that flooded social media platforms targeting Education and Higher Education Minister Rima Karamé. Her publicly stated insistence on going ahead with official exams despite the tense security situation surrounding the war had sparked a widespread wave of anger.

While Iranian-American talks remain stalled amid fierce rhetoric on both sides, it is the front in southern Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah that has seen a gradual escalation this week, reaching a peak on Saturday — pointing to potentially unpredictable developments in the days ahead. The week of August 10–16, 2026 was marked in South Lebanon by an escalation that built steadily until the bloody Saturday of August 15. There is a sense of déjà vu — the center of gravity of a regional conflict shifting once again toward a small country, at a time when, on the main front with Iran, the belligerents' war of words has replaced actual hostilities… at least for now.

The Feast of the Assumption, on Saturday, August 15, was marked by a serious escalation in southern Lebanon, as Israeli warplanes carried out deadly raids on the towns of El-Ansar and Deir Zahrani in the Nabatiyeh district, killing a total of 11 people — including a senior Hezbollah military commander — and wounding around twenty others. The Jewish state announced late in the day that these strikes were carried out in retaliation for an attack launched late Friday by the pro-Iranian militia against an Israeli unit in the Ali el-Taher area, in the Nabatiyeh region. Three Israeli soldiers were wounded, two of them seriously. Following that operation, the Israeli air force launched intensive strikes at dawn on Saturday against the heights of Ali el-Taher, but the deadliest airstrike took place in El-Ansar, where seven people were killed.

In April 2026, Wissam Saadé delivered four lectures at the University of Bologna. The first, at the invitation of Professor Giovanni Giorgini, entitled “The Prophet and the Philosopher: The Hierarchy of Knowledge between Avicenna’s Falsafa and al-Kirmānī’s Ismaili Neoplatonism,” is presented here in a revised and expanded version, published as a series of ten articles. The series explores the intellectual landscape of Islamic Neoplatonism through a comparative reading of Avicenna and al-Kirmānī. While both thinkers share a broadly Neoplatonic horizon, shaped by a metaphysics of emanation, a hierarchy of being, and a synthesis of Aristotelian and Platonic thought, they develop distinct philosophical projects: Avicenna within the tradition of Peripatetic falsafa , and al-Kirmānī within the framework of Ismaili theology. Despite these different intellectual contexts, their systems remain engaged in a continuous dialogue over the nature of knowledge, the relationship between reason and revelation, and the ascent of the soul. Their respective projects also embody contrasting conceptions of the political, illuminating different ways of understanding the place of philosophy in relation to authority, law, and the organization of the community. This article constitutes the fifth installment of this ten-part series.

"Enough is enough!" cried three countries that had come together in Mecca on August 7th. Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia — three complementary powers — have just formed a Sunni NATO, one that other states seeking military protection or a diplomatic umbrella would inevitably join. The announcement of this pact naturally came like a thunderclap. And simply following the Saudi press over recent days, one can detect a clear shift in tone toward the mullahs in Tehran. Gone are the days when Riyadh, the Saudi capital, swallowed its pride, stoically absorbed Iranian provocations, and opted for peaceful resolution of conflicts with its aggressors.