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The spotlight is on Lebanon’s socioeconomic and financial issues, where the Banque du Liban (BDL) announced on Thursday the opening of a special account intended to collect funds stemming from “embezzlement or illegal transactions” that may be recovered following “judicial decisions, amicable settlements, or any other proceedings initiated abroad.” According to the BDL, the aim is to return to depositors the funds that are rightfully theirs. At the same time, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam announced, in a message addressed to the Lebanese people, a series of ongoing or planned projects in areas that directly affect their daily lives: electricity, transport, housing, and the cleanup of public finances, including through the recovery of arrears owed to the state. The speech was primarily intended to reassure, but also to defend his 2027 budget proposal, which has been sharply criticized by the Lebanese Forces.

III. From Saada to Sanaa: The Paradoxical Alliance and the Seizure of Power The Erosion of the Saleh System For more than three decades, Ali Abdullah Saleh governed through a system of tribal patronage. He relied on a pact concluded in 1978 with Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar, leader of the Hashid confederation, and General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, commander of the 1st Armored Division. His own clan, the Sanhan, a branch of the Hashid confederation, held the key military and security commands. This system rested on oil revenues, which accounted for as much as 75 percent of state resources in 2002. The decline in production, around 40 percent after that peak, reduced the resources available for redistribution. Lesser sheikhs saw their subsidies cut or even eliminated. At the same time, the Houthis had resources of their own and a legitimacy independent of the tribal structures. They were therefore able to recruit among frustrated tribes, particularly within the Bakil confederation, which had long demanded equality with Hashid.

In Lebanon, moderation is summoned whenever the country approaches the brink of explosion, only to recede once the distribution of power begins. Moderates are asked to calm tensions, smooth over differences, and keep the doors of dialogue open, while the forces most capable of obstruction are left to determine the terms of the settlement. In this sense, moderation is assigned a role in containing crises without necessarily having the ability to alter the conditions that produce them. This is where its fundamental crisis lies. A moderation that limits itself to preventing the worst remains bound by other people’s agendas. It waits for escalation before calling for calm, for obstruction before seeking a way out, and for division before proposing common ground. These roles may be necessary in moments of danger, but they are not enough to build a future. Lebanon needs a form of moderation that has a vision of government, that can take the initiative, confront challenges, and organize, and that can explain to people what will change in their lives if they place their trust in it.

Warnings about the risks associated with the development of artificial intelligence are mounting and, with increasing urgency, are overtaking every other threat in the news, whether war, environmental and climate concerns, or financial collapse. Progress in this field is advancing at such a rapid pace that there seems to be no turning back, with machines emerging from laboratories every day that are capable of moving independently, working in teams, and making complex decisions. This technological revolution now threatens to give rise to an ideology of its own, a form of technological totalitarianism carrying immense promises and dangers that cannot be ignored. Most recently, images of robots in the streets breaking free from control and seizing the power of their developers have sounded alarm bells in more than one quarter. How can a robot trained in a laboratory escape and kill humans? Is it not dangerous to continue manufacturing robots equipped with increasingly powerful guns, such as the “ThunderMax 9000,” which is to equip the future “Death-Machine-8,” currently in the testing phase? Likewise, should laboratories really continue designing highly capable, extremely autonomous, and heavily armed defense systems? And should financial interests ever be allowed to prevail over humanity’s ethical imperatives?

From Gaza to Yemen, via Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, the deadly attack by the Palestinian Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, will remain in the collective memory as the starting point of military and political upheavals all pointing toward the establishment of a new regional order. In Israel, where the memory of the attack—which killed more than 1,200 civilians—was marked by several commemorative ceremonies on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “complete the mission” launched on October 7, 2023, referring to Tel Aviv’s relentless war against Hamas. He spoke of a “settling of accounts that is not over,” without specifying, however, whether this “mission” is limited to Hamas or also includes its backer, Iran, which is held responsible for this large-scale operation.

An alliance activated for the first time The geopolitical landscape of the Middle East is undergoing a profound transformation as the Yemen issue within the Mecca Pact officially shifts from a theoretical security agreement to an active military operational plan. Following a major Houthi strike near the holy city of Medina and aggressive advances by the group along the strategically vital Red Sea coast—advances that have been reversed in recent days—Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan convened an emergency meeting in Riyadh on October 5, 2026. This critical gathering triggered the first-ever invocation of the alliance's mutual defense pact since its initial signing in August 2026, marking the start of concrete military coordination and a series of military deployments: Pakistani forces, long deployed on Saudi soil, are set to reinforce their presence, while Turkey, whose involvement had been limited to military advisers, is preparing to send troops.