• Lebanese University administration announced student elections will return on Fri⁠day, Mar⁠ch 27, 2026, after a 17-year suspension caused by political instability.
• Traditional political parties dominated student councils for decades, essentially converting them into party extensions rather than independent student representation bodies.
• The Secular Club is fielding candidate Ahmed Daher in the Social Sciences Institute, promising to break traditional party monopolies over student spaces.
• Daher's platform focuses on improving university transport services, securing subsidized basic goods cards for students, and updating curricula to match job market demands.

The backstory: Student elections stopped around 2005 due to intense political divisions, security concerns, and the university's organizational crises—now they're back as a test of post-crisis democratic culture.

Why it matters: This marks a potential shift toward independent student politics at Lebanon's largest public university, challenging decades of partisan control.

• A heated sectarian debate dominated Mon⁠day's Cabinet session over Lebanese University faculty appointments, with ministers using "harsh sectarian language."
• The proposed list of 1,653 professors for tenure included only 35% Christians, violating constitutional requirements for sectarian balance in Category One positions.
• The Cabinet approved the tenure process in principle but delayed reviewing names until a later session after the dispute extended the meeting until 11 P⁠M.
• Faculty will be divided into four batches over four years, with 400 professors in each of the first three batches and remaining numbers in the fourth.

Zooming out: Even routine university appointments become sectarian battlegrounds, highlighting how Lebanon's confessional system paralyzes basic governance functions.

• Lebanon's agriculture sector sustained $742 million in damages from Israeli attacks, with the South bearing the highest losses at $286 million.
• Farmer Ahmed Ismail from Aita al-Shaab lost his entire season after six plastic greenhouses burned, reducing his cultivation from 100 to 10 dunums.
• Israeli forces used approximately 284 phosphorous shells, burning around 47,000 olive trees and destroying crucial agricultural infrastructure across border villages.
• Government support remains limited to $300-800 cash payments and small olive saplings, inadequate for farmers who need immediate reconstruction capital.

What to watch: Whether international reconstruction funds will reach small farmers quickly enough to prevent permanent abandonment of border agricultural communities.

• Mehdi Mahmoudian, co-writer of Oscar-nominated "It Was Just an Accident," was released Tues⁠day from Iranian prison after 17 days detention for condemning Supreme Leader Khamenei.
• Mahmoudian was nominated for best original screenplay alongside director Jafar Panahi, with the film also competing for best international feature as France's submission.
• Two other signatories of the anti-regime statement, Vida Rabbani and Abdollah Momeni, were also released on bail from Nowshahr prison Tues⁠day.
• Director Panahi criticized the regime for criminalizing "thought, silence criticism, and instill fear in society" through charges of insulting the supreme leader.

The bigger picture: The release highlights ongoing tensions between Iran's artistic community and authorities amid continued crackdowns on dissent following recent nationwide protests.

• Bank of Beirut UK completed a 15-month migration to Temenos Core Banking and Payments platform, upgrading from legacy infrastructure to support expanded corporate banking operations.
• The upgrade provides unified services for retail, commercial, and deposit operations, plus enhanced trade finance capabilities for clients across UK, Europe, Africa, and Middle East markets.
• Implementation was delivered in partnership with LTIMindtree, aligning the UK subsidiary more closely with parent Bank of Beirut's existing Temenos relationship.
• CEO Sophoklis Argyrou said the modernization allows the bank to "scale our trade finance business and strengthen our corporate and retail banking proposition" with improved efficiency.

What to watch: Whether the technology upgrade enables Bank of Beirut UK to successfully expand its corporate banking footprint in competitive international markets.

• Immigration judge rejected Trump administration's attempt to deport Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian activist arrested for Gaza genocide protests.
• Mahdawi, a lawful permanent resident from occupied West Bank who lived in Vermont for 10 years, was detained Apr⁠il 14 at citizenship meeting.
• The decision was made "without prejudice," meaning Trump administration could refile deportation case against the philosophy student and Palestinian society founder.
• Human rights advocates describe the targeting of foreign-born student activists as campaign to chill free speech on university campuses nationwide.

Zooming out: The case reflects broader tensions over campus activism and immigration enforcement as universities face federal investigations over pro-Palestinian protest movements.