• A tender for cars at Beirut Port was awarded to RYMCO—a company owned by Minister of Public Works Fayez Rasamny—after two rounds of bidding in which it was the sole bidder, triggering a firestorm over conflict of interest.
• The port's own terms of reference, Article Four paragraph "Z," explicitly bar bidders with financial ties to the supervising authority—yet the administration declared its procedures "compliant with the law," while Gherbal Foundation and legal expert Ziyad Baroud called the mere submission of the bid a violation.
• RYMCO ultimately withdrew under public pressure, but the port administration confirmed the terms of reference will not change for the upcoming re-launch, meaning the underlying conditions remain intact.
• Critics say the technical specifications were so narrowly drawn that they effectively applied only to brands represented by RYMCO—explaining why no other company bid across two separate tender rounds.

The backstory: Beirut Port lost most of its vehicle fleet in the Aug⁠ust 4, 2020 explosion and has not replaced cars since. The port operates under the Ministry of Public Works, giving the minister indirect supervisory authority over its procurement decisions.

What to watch: Whether the re-launched tender attracts new bidders or again produces a single submission will be the clearest signal yet of whether Lebanon's new procurement framework has teeth beyond the letter of the law.

• Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health received 14 tons of medicines and medical supplies at the Karantina Central Warehouse, delivered by the United Nations Population Fund in cooperation with the European Union.
• The shipment is designed to ensure comprehensive healthcare and safe delivery for approximately 13,500 displaced women in public hospitals, and includes blood transfusion and family planning equipment.
• UN Population Fund Deputy Executive Director Andrew Saberton confirmed the humanitarian airlift has now supplied more than 325 centers and hospitals with emergency supplies, and praised coordination between the Ministries of Health and Social Affairs.
• The delivery comes days after the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution to protect medical teams by a majority of 95 votes—giving Lebanon's battered health sector rare international diplomatic backing.

Why it matters: With field challenges still preventing full price and data collection across southern governorates, this shipment represents one of the most concrete international commitments to Lebanon's displacement crisis in recent weeks.

• Diana Tabbarahhhh won the presidency of the Makassed Philanthropic Islamic Association in Beirut by acclamation—the first woman to lead the 148-year-old institution—after only one list ran in the election.
• Tabbarahh says she had braced for objections but was instead overwhelmed by support, noting that Makassed's very first school, founded nearly a century and a half ago, was for girls and run by a Christian woman—a detail she uses to push back against the association's image as a closed sectarian body.
• Her priorities include developing health centers, modernizing schools and the university inside and outside Beirut, upgrading the vocational institute, and elevating the Women's Empowerment Center to a core institutional focus.
• Tabbarahh acknowledges the recent war forced two schools and the university to partially suspend studies to host displaced people from the South, describing the psychological toll as "a very big problem in the country."

The bigger picture: Tabbarahh's election at one of Beirut's oldest civic institutions reflects a slow but visible shift in how Lebanese civil society is renegotiating the relationship between sectarian tradition and modern governance.

• Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, has emerged as a central figure in shaping Iran's negotiating position with the United States, according to experts and a regional official with direct knowledge of the mediation.
• Vahidi, who was not seen publicly for months after Feb⁠ruary 8, recently appeared in Iranian newspapers meeting Pakistan's interior minister in Tehran—who carried messages regarding US-Iran negotiations—signaling his return to visible influence.
• The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War assessed that Vahidi and his inner circle have "likely consolidated control" over both Iran's military response and its negotiations policy, amid deep uncertainty about the condition of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
• Iran's war strategy has focused on maintaining a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and Vahidi has held out against US demands to surrender Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, betting on outlasting Washington in the standoff.

What to watch: Whether the Vahidi-led negotiating posture produces any shift in the stalled US-Iran talks—or hardens the deadlock—will shape the wider regional conflict that directly affects Lebanon's security situation.

• Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan told Middle East Eye he is willing to enter talks with the UAE, provided Abu Dhabi ends its support for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been at war with his Sudanese Armed Forces since Apr⁠il 2023.
• Burhan's recent visit to Bahrain was part of an attempt by Bahrain to facilitate communication between Sudan's army-backed government and the UAE, though diplomatic sources say efforts have not been successful so far.
• A senior regional diplomat told MEE that the UAE remains deeply suspicious of Sudan's military leadership and sees "little reason to engage under the current circumstances," while divisions inside the four-party Quad mechanism—comprising the US, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt—have become increasingly visible.
• Saudi Arabia has quietly expanded outreach to Sudanese civilian political groups since Ramadan, seeking to build a coalition aligned with Burhan's administration and counter growing Emirati influence over Sudan's political landscape.

Zooming out: Sudan's war, now in its second year, has drawn in Gulf powers, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and Turkey, each backing competing factions—making coordinated international pressure toward a settlement increasingly difficult to achieve.

• A study presented to the American Society of Clinical Oncology analyzed more than 12,000 patients with seven types of cancer and found that patients taking GLP-1 drugs—such as Ozempic and Wegovy—showed lower rates of metastatic progression in six of the seven cancers studied.
• Lung cancer patients taking GLP-1 drugs were 50 percent less likely to progress to stage four, while breast cancer patients were 43 percent less likely, according to NBC News citing the study.
• The research was observational, meaning it cannot prove that GLP-1 drugs directly slow cancer spread, but lead author Mark David Orland of Cleveland Clinic's Taussig Cancer Institute said it "provides early evidence that future studies are worth pursuing."

The bigger picture: GLP-1 drugs, originally developed for type 2 diabetes and now taken by 1 in 8 US adults for various conditions, are accumulating a growing body of research suggesting effects that extend well beyond weight loss and blood sugar control.