Many continue to question the possibility of a link between illicit transactions, terrorist financing and money laundering, yet the figures speak for themselves.

In 2022, the use of cryptocurrencies for illicit transactions was estimated at over $20 billion.

No Money for Terror is a slogan launched in April 2018 as part of the fight against Daesh and Al-Qaeda. It was then pretty much forgotten amid the health and energy crises, but it is now back in the public eye.

The UAE, which will host the COP28 climate change conference in November and December, is not the first state in the Middle East to host the Conference of the Parties. Indeed, COP18 was organized in Doha and last year’s COP27 took place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

While the drums of war are beating in many regions of the world, the peace that deserted the Middle East for so long has just burgeoned. The new agreement on their maritime border signed by Lebanon and Israel is an extraordinary step that cannot be overlooked.

Paris is still buzzing from the visit of UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, and now eagerly awaits Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is heading to the French capital close on the heels of his meeting with US President Joe Biden.

Many of us, myself included, did not imagine that the crisis in Ukraine would come to this.

Much has already been written about this summer’s scandalous international defeat in Afghanistan, which suddenly left the Afghan people, especially women, in the hands of illiterate and obsessive butchers.

Since Aug. 4, 2020 — the day of the tragedy at the port of Beirut — many have looked on at Lebanon’s pain, a slow agony so deeply inscribed in its contemporary history that many are unaware that Lebanon was once the peaceful and prosperous Switzerland of the Middle East.