Maxime Marquette
MadMax is an independent bilingual news outlet based in Québec, publishing analysis on geopolitics, technology, democracy, and culture.
Our mission: rigorous, source-cited analysis carried out with full editorial independence — no sponsorship, no party line.
Our editorial standards: sources are cited inline, corrections are fixed and logged publicly, and any use of artificial intelligence is disclosed.
“Burn rather than rot. Write rather than stay silent.”
Fire first. Sentences after. No lukewarm takes.
Always answer the strongest version of the opposing point. No strawmen.
No commissioned pieces. No editorial masters. No compromise.
Columns by Maxime Marquette
4,540 columns published
FACT-CHECK: Did Iran's nuclear program really survive the American strikes
Five months after the war between Israel, the United States and Iran erupted over Tehran's nuclear program, and weeks after a fragile ceasefire framework…
REPORT: In the Gulf, the diplomacy of silence facing the Iran-US war
Since July 9, 2026, the Gulf has been living through a nightmare it spent years trying to avoid: becoming the actual battlefield of a…
INVESTIGATION: Hormuz shut down, the world holds its oil breath
On the night of July 11 to 12, 2026, the United States struck roughly 140 targets linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)…
ANALYSIS: In the Sahel, Russia's strategy bogs down in Azawad's sand
There is something obscene about the synchronicity of these images. While Sergei Lavrov shook hands with Burundi's president on July 10, 2026, wrapping up…
INVESTIGATION: The jihadist-Tuareg alliance that is shaking the Malian junta
For years, JNIM, the regional al-Qaeda affiliate, and Tuareg separatist movements pursuing the independence of Azawad were widely understood as rivals rather than partners,…
EDITORIAL: Anefis, the strategic lock that decides the fate of northern Mali
I want to be direct about something: until this past week, Anefis was not a name most readers outside Mali would have recognized.
REPORT: Wagner and Africa Corps surrounded, a bad week for Russian mercenaries in the Sahel
Between July 4 and 9, 2026, Russian mercenaries from Africa Corps, deployed in Mali alongside the national army, suffered a series of documented setbacks…
DECODING: Lavrov ends his African tour in Bujumbura, far from Mali's chaos
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov completed, between July 7 and 10, 2026, a four-country African tour that took him successively to Ethiopia, Niger, Mozambique…
REPORT: In Mali, a Russian mercenary convoy is ambushed in the desert
On July 9, 2026, a convoy carrying Russian fighters from Africa Corps and Malian soldiers was attacked in northern Mali, according to three security…