Author: M Barbu

The General’s Dynamics

In an interview, Stéphane Malsagne discusses former Lebanese president Fouad Chehab, whose biography he has written.

Michael Young: Your book is a fascinating and much-needed biography of Fouad Chehab, Lebanon’s president between 1958 and 1964. But might I start with a disagreement? The subtitle of your book is “Une figure oubliée de l’histoire libanaise,” or “a forgotten figure in Lebanese history.” Yet not only is Chehab far from forgotten in Lebanon, many Lebanese often seem to be in perpetual anticipation of the return of a Chehabist figure. In using this subtitle, what were you trying to say?

Ukraine’s Critical Minerals, Plenty to Mettle With!

In his sudden haste to see Ukraine repay the US for the billions of dollars appropriated by Congress to the country in its war against Russian aggression, Donald Trump, aka “Mr. Art of the Deal,” has deployed his tactless “Trumplomacy” with its attendant extortive strongarm tactics to gain access to critical minerals that Ukraine has in abundance.

Abrahamic Ethics: A Framework for Global Problem-Solving

Exposing the superficial religious attitude, the prophet Isaiah recorded: “This people draw near to me with their mouths and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Isaiah 29:13) This piercing critique cuts through the veneer of hollow devotion like a knife through butter, revealing a faith that is skin-deep.

US Siding With Russia, Belarus in UN Vote Sparks Anger

United States opposition to a European-drafted United Nations resolution that condemned Moscow’s full-scale invasion has sparked anger on both sides of the Atlantic.

At the U.N. General Assembly on Monday, the U.S. joined Russia and Moscow’s closest ally Belarus, as well as North Korea, in opposing a resolution condemning Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

An Indifferent Media Is Failing to Report the 400,000 Dead in Gaza

Enough already of the media’s lazy indifference to the vast undercount of the Palestinian death toll from Netanyahu’s genocidal daily bombing and shelling of Gaza’s defenseless civilian population. I’m referring to all the media – the corporate media, the public media, and the independent media. They all stick with the Hamas Ministry of Health’s (MOH) count of named victims whose corpses have been identified by hospitals and mortuaries. For months there have been no operating hospitals and mortuaries to send their grisly data to the Health Ministry.

Call for military ‘independence’ from US puts spotlight on Europe’s vulnerabilities

The man poised to be Germany’s next leader delivered a jolt this week when he warned that the demise of NATO in its current form could be at hand and said Europe must chart a military course separate from the United States.

Friedrich Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union party won Sunday’s federal election, positioning him to lead a government that will grapple with how to deter Russian aggression in an era where American largesse is no longer a guarantee.