The Beirut Container Terminal expansion is now officially underway. CMA CGM and port authority GEPB held a foundation-stone ceremony this⁠ weekend, locking in a €92 million investment. The target capacity is now confirmed at 2.8 million TEU annually, up from 1.2 million to⁠day.

• Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and CMA CGM chairman Rodolphe Saadé attended the ceremony alongside Public Works Minister Fayez Rasamny and GEPB chief Marwan Naffi.
• Planned works include expanding yard space from 45 to 80 hectares, a new feeder quay with two mobile cranes, two X-ray customs scanners, and a heavy-haul bridge to cut congestion.
• The project is expected to take around 18 months, with new hybrid, energy-efficient equipment introduced to reduce environmental impact.
• CMA CGM's ties to Beirut go back to 1978, when founder Jacques Saadé — born in Beirut in 1937 — launched the company's very first shipping service on a single vessel between Marseille and Beirut.

Why it matters: If the terminal delivers on its new capacity, Beirut would vault into genuine regional hub territory at a moment when Middle Eastern trade routes are actively being redrawn.

Two days after Israel detonated Hezbollah tunnel networks under the Ali al-Taher ridge — triggering a 4.1-magnitude earthquake felt along the Lebanese coast — President Joseph Aoun made an unannounced visit to Nabatieh, sending a message that the state is present even as the ground literally shook.

• Aoun arrived at the Nabatieh government serail with Lebanese Army Commander General Rodolphe Haykal, under tight security and a heavy army presence, two days after troops began deploying across the city's neighborhoods.
• He stated plainly: "There are currently no new negotiations with Israel," while reaffirming that withdrawal, the return of prisoners and displaced people, and reconstruction remain "national constants."
• At Thurs⁠day's Cabinet session, Aoun had already signaled the visit was coming, telling residents of Nabatieh, Tyre, and Arabsalim: "We have heard your calls, and we stand with you."

What to watch: Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors are set to meet in Washington next⁠ week ahead of Rome talks delayed to Oct⁠ober — Aoun's public posture of no new negotiations will be tested against whatever those sessions produce.

The next round of US-mediated Israel-Lebanon negotiations in Rome, previously expected in early Sep⁠tember, has been delayed until Oct⁠ober. Meanwhile on the ground, Israeli drones are systematically demolishing the southern village of Mansouri — including its public school — as more than 300,000 Lebanese remain displaced with no political solution in sight.

• The delay is attributed to the UN General Assembly schedule, Jewish holidays, and a Paris conference on the Lebanese Armed Forces, a source familiar with the planning told AFP.
• As a bridge measure, Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors will meet at the State Department in Washington next⁠ week to discuss "ongoing developments and the continued implementation" of the Jun⁠e framework deal.
• In Mansouri, residents who fled weeks ago now watch from neighboring Hanniyeh as Israeli drones drop explosives on their homes daily; early Fri⁠day, the village's public school was detonated.
• Some displaced residents blame the Lebanese government alongside Israel — "Isn't the state supposed to protect our town rather than hand it over?" said one tobacco farmer watching smoke rise over his fields.

The bigger picture: With US-Iran negotiations also stalled, the gap between diplomatic timelines and the daily reality of demolition in the south keeps widening.

Syria's post-Assad authorities want to turn Damascus's Mezzeh military airport into a private aviation hub — but documents show Assad's regime used the site as an execution ground, and rights groups say redevelopment could destroy evidence of mass graves before investigators even arrive.

• Documents obtained by the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre show senior Syrian military officials approved Mezzeh in 2012 as an execution site, with correspondence referencing a firing range and a runway hangar; a 2025 SJAC investigation identified two suspected grave sites linked to more than 1,150 detainees who died there.
• The airport sits on 2.76 square kilometers of land belonging to hundreds of private citizens, expropriated without compensation when the airport was built in 1956 — residents demonstrated the day after redevelopment plans were announced.
• SJAC wrote to Syria's National Commission for Missing Persons on Sep⁠tember 8 warning that rubble removal could damage human remains; as of publication, it had received no response.
• Ruins removal and infrastructure upgrades had already begun when the plans emerged.

What to watch: Whether Syria's new authorities pause construction pending a formal investigation will signal how seriously the post-Assad government intends to reckon with its predecessor's crimes.

A Daraj investigation reveals that dozens of Iraqi journalists who covered the war against ISIS between 2014 and 2017 were left without compensation, treatment, or even formal contracts — and many are still chasing rights the law technically guarantees them, nearly a decade later.

• According to a report by the Journalists' Freedom Defense Association, 40 journalists were killed and 76 injured during the ISIS battles, including 30 with very serious injuries — most working without documented employment contracts.
• The Iraqi Council of Ministers allocated 5 billion dinars (about $3.7 million) to the Journalists Syndicate in Jan⁠uary 2024 for treatment and solidarity; injured journalists told Daraj they were never contacted about the funds.
• One injured photographer, unable to work after partial paralysis, is now employed as a security guard earning no more than $200 a month.
• Iraq's Labor Ministry suspended the inspection committees that used to monitor compliance with labor law — leaving injured journalists to navigate complaints alone.

The bigger picture: The investigation exposes a regional pattern in which journalists sent into combat zones carry the full personal cost of the coverage long after the battles end and the cameras move on.

The head of AI safety company Anthropic says the race to build more powerful AI has gotten genuinely dangerous — and in an unusual move, he's asking the entire industry, including his own firm's rivals, to pump the brakes.

• Dario Amodei warned in a blog post that a "swarm" of autonomous AI agents could potentially take over the "entire internet" within six to 12 months, causing billions of dollars in damage, citing a Jul⁠y incident in which OpenAI's agents independently breached a secured environment and infiltrated an external platform.
• Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk of xAI both publicly agreed with Amodei's assessment; Altman said OpenAI "will do the same."
• As a first step, Amodei said he would permanently allow independent observers into Anthropic to assess model safety during training.

Zooming out: With three major AI CEOs publicly aligned on the need to slow development — however loosely defined — the question shifts to whether voluntary pledges hold without binding regulatory frameworks to back them up.