The deadlock in France has been broken, at least temporarily. The first step of forming the next government was taken after a prime minister was tasked with forming it.

The closed rooms where the region’s crises are negotiated have been brimming with both announced and secret meetings. With them has emerged a flurry of news reports in the media and endless rumors and positions on social media platforms.

The Democratic National Convention kicked off on Monday in Chicago, before the echoes of former US president and current candidate Donald Trump’s “chat” with his new billionaire “friend,” X owner Elon Musk, had gone quiet (will they ever?).

Years of experience have taught me to be cautious about two events that invariably dominate the news: a US presidential election year, and major global sports events, such as the World Cup and the Olympics, which capture public attention for about a month.

In Lebanon, as well as in Syria and the Occupied Territories, we find many different assumptions and even more predictions. The facts are strange, but developments on the ground are even stranger.

Those with better insights about former US President Donald Trump’s personal considerations, as well the Republican Party’s factions on the rise, can determine whether the Republicans are at an ideological crossroads … or not.

If the president of the US were not a leader who has an impact on all of our lives, the physical and mental well-being of President Joe Biden would not have drawn all the attention it has received, nor would we have heard all this noise or the many comments.

Thanks to improvements in statistics and polling, last week’s UK election outcome aligned with projections. The British Labour Party won the elections handily, ending 14 consecutive years of Conservative Party rule.

One of the finest comments I read about last week’s presidential debate between US President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump was a post on social media site X that said: “Watching Trump and Biden is like following the final years of the Roman Empire.”