Lebanon hasn't executed anyone since 2004, but the death penalty has stayed on the books — a legal ghost haunting a country that stopped using it. Now, after nearly three decades of campaigning, activist and legal scholar Ogarit Younan may finally see it gone for good.

• The draft abolition law — prepared by Younan and rooted in a campaign she launched in 1997 alongside the late thinker Kamal Salibi — has passed through the Council of Ministers, the Administration and Justice Committee, and the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee.
• 112 countries have permanently abolished the death penalty from their legislation; about 60% of OIC member states no longer apply it or have legally abolished it, along with 41 African countries.
• Younan's core argument: the death sentence is irreversible — no opportunity for review or rehabilitation — and applying an absolute judgment to a perpetrator who bears only partial responsibility is legally incoherent.
• She frames it as a question of state identity: "I do not accept living in a state of gallows and killing, because killing a human being is not the right of any human being."

Why it matters: If passed, abolition would mark a rare, concrete philosophical shift in how the Lebanese state defines the limits of its own power — a meaningful signal amid broader questions about what kind of country Lebanon is rebuilding itself to be.

French President Emmanuel Macron phoned Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to discuss Israel's continued military operations in southern Lebanon, reaffirming Paris's commitment to Lebanese sovereignty and reconstruction while Berri pushed for urgent international action.

• Macron reaffirmed France's support on "various fronts," including backing for the Lebanese army and reconstruction assistance, and expressed readiness from France and other friendly countries to help Lebanon through its current difficulties.
• Berri stressed the need for "urgent and exceptional" international efforts to compel Israel to end its war and withdraw from occupied Lebanese territory to the international border.
• Berri also called for UNIFIL's continued presence in the south and its role in implementing all provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
• On the economy, Berri told Macron that Parliament is working to complete the legislation required to finalize a deal with the IMF.

Zooming out: France has historically positioned itself as Lebanon's principal Western patron, and Macron's personal outreach to Berri — rather than the presidency — reflects the complex diplomatic geometry that defines Lebanese politics right now.

Lebanon's Finance Committee has spent over a year inching toward a banking restructuring law that could unlock an IMF deal and begin repaying the billions lost to depositors in the 2019 financial collapse. This⁠ week, that law got within one session of completion — with a significant catch.

• Committee chairman Ibrahim Kanaan confirmed the committee has completed review of all 29 articles of the draft bank resolution law after more than a month of discussions; only a one-and-a-half page annex on the hierarchy of required funds remains, to be settled in a final session Mon⁠day.
• The draft departs from IMF requirements — modifications pushed under Central Bank Governor Karim Souaid may not be acceptable to the Fund, which Lebanon has been courting since 2020.
• The Finance and Budget Committee separately pledged to launch an initiative ensuring the government doesn't delay amending the deposit recovery law, stressing the two laws must be linked so depositors can actually recover their money.
• Finance Minister Yassine Jaber and Justice Minister Adel Nassar both attended Thurs⁠day's session.

What to watch: Mon⁠day's final session will show whether the committee can close the annex cleanly — and then comes the harder question of whether the IMF will accept a law that reportedly drifts from the conditions it set.

In a development that's been discussed for months and dismissed nearly as many times, Hamas and other Palestinian factions have signed a document agreeing to a phased disarmament plan in Gaza, with a precise roadmap to be prepared within 14 days.

• Under the agreement, weapons held by police would be transferred first, followed by the decommissioning of heavy weapons; all military activity in Gaza would have to stop, with Hamas handing arms over to a National Committee set to administer the territory, according to Al Jazeera, which received a copy of the agreement.
• Trump called it "a monumental step" and framed it as part of the ceasefire deal he brokered in Oct⁠ober, saying an International Stabilization Force would replace Israeli forces once disarmament is complete.
• Hamas negotiator Ghazi Hamad made one thing clear: disarmament is conditional on Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and progress on reconstruction.
• Palestinian Islamic Jihad said reports of an agreement were "inaccurate" and that it had reservations about the wording being circulated. No comment yet from Israel.

What to watch: The 14-day window to produce an actual disarmament roadmap — and whether Islamic Jihad's reservations harden into a formal rejection that unravels the deal before it starts.

Voice of America spent more than 80 years broadcasting news to people living under authoritarian regimes — Soviet dissidents, Iranians during the revolution, Ukrainians during the Russian invasion. Then, in early 2025, the Trump administration effectively shut most of it down.

• After Trump issued an executive order slashing V.O.A.'s parent agency, Kari Lake put 1,042 of its 1,147 staffers on paid leave in Mar⁠ch 2025; the agency, which previously broadcast in 49 languages to a weekly audience of more than 350 million people, now operates in just 7 languages.
• V.O.A.'s Persian Service, which once reached close to a quarter of Iran's adults, was down to a few dozen people when the latest Israel-Iran war began — with programming limited to an hour a day.
• Paying sidelined employees to sit at home has so far cost taxpayers around $140 million, according to Senator Jeanne Shaheen's Senate testimony.
• The House voted to fund V.O.A. at $199.5 million for 2026 — down from $260 million in 2024, but far above what the President requested.

The bigger picture: As Russia and China expand their international broadcasting — with China reportedly offering free trips to local broadcasters in Latin America — the reduction of America's counter-programming leaves a gap that rivals are actively moving to fill.

In Iraq, Article 409 of the 1969 Penal Code has long provided legal cover for so-called "honor killings" — allowing perpetrators to receive reduced sentences or escape punishment entirely. A new investigation gives voice to three women who survived attempts on their lives by their own families.

• One survivor from Wasit governorate ironed her brother's shirt the same evening he drove her to an isolated area to kill her over a false tip — she was saved only because a phone call arrived announcing a relative's death; she has lived under the same roof as her would-be killer ever since.
• A second survivor from Dhi Qar fled to Baghdad after a judge — unable to apply the law against her influential tribal uncles — whispered to her: "Run away immediately to the capital, my daughter, there is no place for you here."
• Human rights activist Ruaa Khalaf of the Iraqi Women's Network told Assafir Al-Arabi that the core crisis is the absence of political will: "There is great political fear that women will take their space," she said, calling for safe houses with legal, psychological, and health support.

Zooming out: International bodies have repeatedly recommended abolishing Article 409, but with women's rights in documented decline across the region, advocates say the realistic near-term goal has shifted from legal reform to simply building shelters where survivors can exist without living alongside the people who tried to kill them.