• An IMF technical assistance report obtained by Al-Modon concludes that the legal framework governing Banque du Liban is outdated, failing to protect the central bank's independence or ensure adequate accountability from its own leadership.
• The report flags that the Minister of Finance can suspend Central Council decisions, call the Council to convene, and that government representatives sit on the Council itself—creating structural overlap between monetary policy and executive authority.
• Decision-making power is heavily concentrated in the Governor, who both manages the bank and chairs the body meant to oversee him, while external auditing and financial disclosure fall short of international standards.
• The IMF calls for a comprehensive legislative overhaul: new appointment mechanisms, clearer separation between management and oversight, and stricter transparency and auditing requirements.

The backstory: Banque du Liban sits at the center of Lebanon's financial collapse. Reforming the bank's legal framework has been a longstanding IMF condition for any recovery program.

Why it matters: The IMF's diagnosis makes clear that Lebanon's financial recovery hinges not just on new leadership at BDL, but on rewriting the rules that allowed political interference to hollow out the institution in the first place.

• An Iraqi citizen named Tareq al-Nasrawi, who works at a sweets and juice shop in Khalde, spent two years impersonating a colonel and security attaché at the Iraqi embassy, building relationships with senior Lebanese intelligence officers, according to Megaphone.
• al-Nasrawi is reported to have met the Director of Intelligence in Beirut and the Director General of State Security, Major General Edgard Lawandos, accessing security offices and allegedly helping release a frozen Iraqi bank deposit through a Lebanese bank president.
• The General Directorate of General Security denied its director general met al-Nasrawi, but did not address meetings with lower-ranking officers; he has since been arrested alongside "Abu Omar," another impersonator detained since Jan⁠uary 2026.
• The scandal follows the earlier "Abu Omar" case—Mustafa al-Hussiyan, who impersonated a Saudi prince and mobilized deputies, ministers, and clerics for financial and political gain.

The bigger picture: Two high-profile impersonation scandals within months of each other—both penetrating Lebanon's security apparatus—raise pointed questions about institutional resilience at a moment when the state is trying to project credibility in ceasefire negotiations.

• Around 60 activists staged a sit-in last⁠ week outside the long-disused Tariq al-Jadideh wholesale market in Beirut, demanding it be opened to the estimated 3,000 displaced people with disabilities who cannot be adequately housed in standard shelters, according to L'Orient To⁠day.
• Sylvana Lakkis, president of the Lebanese Union for People with Physical Disabilities, says existing government shelters are largely inaccessible—no ramps, narrow doors, non-adapted bathrooms—forcing some disabled individuals to stay in bombed villages rather than move to unsuitable facilities.
• The Tariq al-Jadideh market, built by former P⁠M Rafik Hariri in the 2000s, was completed but never opened for reportedly political reasons; equipment theft has already cost an estimated $600,000, though the building has elevators and 140 large rooms suited to wheelchair users.

What to watch: Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud has promised new meetings on accessibility, but with the produce vendors' union insisting the market is finally set to open as a commercial space, the standoff leaves thousands of families in a legal and logistical limbo.

• With Israel barring cement and all building materials from entering Gaza since Oct⁠ober 2023, a small network of entrepreneurs has begun grinding bombed-out factory ruins and crushed concrete into a substitute cement, sold in flour sacks at roughly 2,000 shekels (£506) per bag—compared to 40 shekels before the war, according to The Guardian.
• One operation in Khan Younis, employing around 30 people, produces between half a tonne and two tonnes per day; the final mix is roughly 60% cement dust, 15% lime, 10% gypsum, 10% calcium, and a bonding agent—wood glue when supplies run short.
• A civil engineer overseeing hospital renovation works estimates current production amounts to less than 1/1,000th of Gaza's temporary finishing needs alone, with priority going to hospitals and public infrastructure.
• By Oct⁠ober 2025, satellite imagery found approximately 81% of all structures in Gaza damaged, with more than 123,000 destroyed outright, and the UN estimates 61 million tonnes of rubble generated.

The bigger picture: A joint EU, UN, and World Bank assessment puts Gaza's recovery cost at $71.4 billion over the next decade—making improvised cement in flour sacks a vivid measure of the gap between what reconstruction requires and what the blockade currently allows.

• Amnesty International recorded at least 2,707 executions worldwide in 2025—a 78% jump from 2024 and the highest figure Amnesty has logged since 1981, when 3,191 executions were recorded, according to Deutsche Welle.
• Iran alone accounted for at least 2,159 executions, representing roughly 80% of the global total and more than doubling compared with the previous year, making it by far the world's leading executioner among countries that disclose data.
• Saudi Arabia recorded at least 356 executions, many linked to drug offenses, while the United States put 47 people to death—its highest figure since 2009—with Florida alone accounting for nearly half.
• The figures exclude China, which Amnesty believes executed thousands but refuses to disclose data; 54 countries still retain the death penalty, though 113 have fully abolished it—up from just 16 in 1977.

Zooming out: Despite the record surge, the longer trend toward abolition continues—most of the world has moved away from capital punishment over the past half-century.

• Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers ordered six Chinese-linked shareholders to divest their stakes in Northern Minerals within two weeks, citing concerns that Chinese investors had attempted to take control of the company developing Australia's Browns Range rare earths project.
• The project targets significant reserves of dysprosium and terbium—heavy rare earth elements critical for high-performance magnets used in hybrid vehicles, wind turbines, and defense applications—with a new refinery under construction that would make Australia the first significant non-Chinese source of processed dysprosium.
• China currently mines around 60% of raw dysprosium and refines an estimated 95–98% of global supply, giving it a near monopoly; Australia had already used foreign takeover laws in 2024 to force five separate investors to sell Northern Minerals shares, and took one to court in 2025 for defying that order.

What to watch: Whether the forced divestment holds—given that a prior 2024 sell order was defied and litigated—will signal how effectively Western governments can enforce critical minerals protections against determined foreign capital.