Lebanon's parliament did something almost no one expected it to do this fast: pass two major, overdue laws in a single session. The general amnesty law and the banking reform law both cleared parliament this⁠ week, capping two days of heated debate — and one very awkward cabinet standoff.

• The amnesty law covers crimes committed before Mar⁠ch 1, 2026 and will release every detainee who has spent 12 years or more behind bars without a final judgment — with trials continuing after release.
• Death sentences are converted to life imprisonment, now capped at 17 years — a direct consequence of linking the amnesty to the abolition of the death penalty.
• MP Imad al-Hout said 79 Islamist detainees will be freed out of 194; cleric Ahmad al-Assir is among those expected to walk after roughly a year and a half.
• Major exclusions: intentional murder, terrorism, corruption, banking crimes against depositors, rape, human trafficking, torture, and enforced disappearance are all kept out of the amnesty's scope.

Why it matters: The banking reform law's passage — with IMF involvement — and a comprehensive amnesty in the same week signals a legislative push that Lebanon's creditors and international partners have been waiting years to see move off paper.

Earlier this⁠ week, Reuters reported Lebanon and Israel had agreed on Britain, Italy, Switzerland, and Indonesia as candidate countries for a new post-UNIFIL verification force. Then came the pushback — fast and official.

• Senior US and Israeli officials told the Walla news portal there is "no agreement" on which countries will monitor Hezbollah's disarmament or oversee Lebanese Army operations in the pilot zones — directly contradicting the Reuters report.
• Israel's embassy in Washington confirmed negotiations over the verification body are "ongoing" with no deal reached; Switzerland said it is "exploring" ways to support stabilization but declined specifics.
• What Rome did produce: shared definitions for "verification" and "clearing," common maps, and a roadmap — progress on methodology, not on who actually does the verifying.
• Lebanon is expected to present more detailed plans on securing new pilot-zone areas in the next round of talks, with no date yet confirmed.

Zooming out: The gap between what Reuters reported and what Washington and Tel Aviv denied reflects how live — and contested — the core question of the post-UNIFIL framework still is.

Energy Minister Joe Saddi announced in May⁠ that Lebanon would build two new gas-fired power plants for an estimated $2 billion total. A global turbine shortage is now threatening to blow that figure apart before a single brick is laid.

• Financial expert Mike Azar told L'Orient To⁠day that under current market conditions, Lebanon could end up spending roughly $6 billion — three times the ministry's estimate — to secure the turbines it needs.
• GE Vernova told L'Orient To⁠day it is "effectively fully sold out through 2030" and is currently contracting for 2031; Siemens Energy confirmed lead times have lengthened significantly, driven by AI data center demand in the US.
• Lebanon currently generates only around 500 MW against a nationwide demand of roughly 3,000 MW — the two existing operational plants, Deir Ammar and Zahrani, are running well below their combined 900 MW capacity due to fuel costs.
• Experts recommend transitional fixes: run existing plants more efficiently, connect to energy infrastructure in Syria and Iraq, and accelerate solar development — rather than waiting on turbines that may not arrive until the 2030s.

The bigger picture: Decades of delayed reform have left Lebanon needing to build major energy infrastructure at the precise moment global competition for the components has made it most expensive to do so.

Tunisia's President Kais Saied built his political career on fierce anti-normalization rhetoric. So it's notable that four activists who actually sailed toward Gaza to deliver aid have been sitting in a Tunisian prison for more than four months — while charges of financial fraud against them crawl through the courts.

• Wael Nawar, Nabil al-Shanoufi, Ghassan al-Hinchiri, and Ghassan al-Boughdiri have been detained since Mar⁠ch 6, 2026 — over 140 days — after organizing the 2025 Global Fleet of Steadfastness, which sailed toward Gaza before being intercepted by Israeli forces.
• Charges include forgery, fraud, and money laundering; lawyers say detention warrants were issued before several accused were even interrogated, and key investigative steps remain incomplete.
• Three other activists were released with movement restrictions; one detainee, al-Hinchiri, reportedly suffers ongoing head injuries sustained during Israeli detention.
• An international petition demanding their release has gathered hundreds of signatures from dozens of countries.

What to watch: Whether Tunisia's judiciary moves toward a referral or dismissal — or leaves the case in indefinite limbo — will signal how far the gap between official pro-Palestinian rhetoric and the treatment of actual Palestinian solidarity activists can stretch.

Ein al-Auja, a natural spring north of Jericho that once flowed at more than 1,000 cubic metres per hour, has lost between 50 and 70 percent of its flow in recent years — and the Bedouin community of more than 100 families that depended on it has been displaced entirely.

• Since early 2024, at least 38 documented settler attacks were recorded in the area in a single year, compared to just 2 between 2017 and 2023, according to the UN's OCHA.
• An environmental researcher told Middle East Eye that Israeli authorities deepened state-managed wells to nearly 1,000 metres and added a fourth, collectively extracting an estimated 4 to 6 million cubic metres annually from the deep aquifer feeding the spring.
• Irrigated land in the area has shrunk from more than 30,000 dunums to around 3,000 dunums.
• In Feb⁠ruary, an Israeli court ordered authorities to help families return — but by Apr⁠il the deadline had passed unmet.

The bigger picture: The Ein al-Auja case illustrates how water access, settler violence, and legal delays can combine to make displacement effectively irreversible long before any formal eviction order is issued.

Iran's central bank governor announced this⁠ week that Tehran would soon join the New Development Bank — the multilateral lender backed by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — as the country searches for financial lifelines outside the reach of US sanctions.

• Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati made the announcement at the BRICS finance meeting in Jaipur on Aug⁠ust 11-12; the bank itself has not confirmed that Iran's membership is imminent.
• The NDB launched with $100 billion in authorized capital — significant, but dwarfed by earlier estimates placing Iran's wartime infrastructure damage at roughly $270 billion.
• Egypt joined the NDB in 2023 under similar circumstances and currently has no active NDB-backed projects listed on the institution's website.
• Tehran is simultaneously pursuing bilateral monetary arrangements with BRICS members and pushing to connect national payment systems to reduce dollar dependence.

Zooming out: Iran's NDB push is as much a political signal — that the country is actively cultivating non-Western financial architecture — as it is a practical solution to a reconstruction bill its war economy cannot currently cover.