When Saudi Arabia lifted its import ban on Lebanese goods earlier this⁠ year, the question was whether trade would actually flow — or just trickle. Jul⁠y's numbers are in, and the answer is: it's flowing, faster than anyone expected, though Lebanon still has a long way to go.

• Saudi imports from Lebanon reached 7.5 million riyals ($2 million) in Jul⁠y, up 127% from Jun⁠e's 3.3 million riyals ($880,000) — and more than 26 times the total for all of 2025 combined ($75,000).
• Paper and paperboard products led the way at $1.15 million (57% of exports), followed by textiles at $430,000 and jewelry and precious stones at $236,000.
• The trade balance still tilts heavily toward Riyadh: Saudi exports to Lebanon hit $12 million in Jul⁠y, roughly six times what it imported — a surplus of about $10 million in the Kingdom's favor.
• Lebanon currently ranks 85th among Saudi Arabia's trading partners by volume. There's room to grow.

What to watch: With land routes reopening and Gulf market access expanding, the trajectory matters more than the absolute numbers — but Lebanon's exporters will need consistent policy and cost controls to hold the momentum.

The case just got a lot more detailed — and 16 individuals have been indicted in the cross-border sabotage network case.

• New reporting from Al Modon reveals the smuggling method: military drones and explosives were concealed inside humanitarian aid boxes and shipped through illegal crossings under the cover of "relief for Syrian coastal communities."
• The Hezbollah handler known as "Hajj Alaa" has been identified as Y. Alaeddine through phone data extraction; a second leader, "Al-Hajj Samer," remains partially unidentified.
• The network's mission extended beyond smuggling — sleeper cells distributed across Syria were tasked with surveilling Syrian General Security centers and preparing drone and IED attacks.
• One detainee, a State Security member and former escort of MP Gebran Bassil, attempted to dispose of bombs and detonators in the Great River on the Lebanese-Syrian border the morning the network was exposed.

Zooming out: The level of operational detail now emerging — named handlers, specific smuggling methods, mapped Syrian targets — signals that Lebanese security services are pressing hard to roll up whatever extensions of this network remain active.

Britain's most senior defense advisor to the Middle East wrapped up a two-day visit to Lebanon this⁠ week, meeting the president, defense minister, and army commander to reaffirm London's security partnership at a moment when questions about post-UNIFIL stability in the south are very much open.

• UK Defense Senior Advisor Vice Admiral Edward Ahlgren met President Joseph Aoun, Defense Minister Michel Menassa, and Lebanese Army Commander General Rodolphe Haykal during his Sep⁠tember 22–23 visit.
• Since 2009, the UK has contributed over £190 million to Lebanon's security sector — more than £120 million to the Lebanese Armed Forces and over £69 million to the Internal Security Forces, covering equipment, infrastructure, and training.
• The British embassy described the Lebanese Armed Forces as Lebanon's "sole legitimate defender" and said the UK supports the government's efforts to strengthen state authority and reduce tensions in the south.

Why it matters: The visit lands as UNIFIL's mandate winds down toward its Dec⁠ember 2026 end date, making external partnerships with the Lebanese Army more consequential than ever for stability in the south.

Trump and Xi met in Washington this⁠ week with AI squarely on the agenda, and the numbers behind the race are more complicated than either side admits. The US leads on raw computing power; China is closing the gap on models and research output.

• The US accounts for nearly three-quarters of the world's total AI computing power, with more than 5,400 data centers — roughly 10 times as many as any other country, according to Al Jazeera's analysis of Epoch AI and Stanford data.
• US hyperscalers are projected to spend about $764 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026, compared to China's $102 billion — but China's spending is growing faster, with an 80% projected increase versus 76% for US peers.
• China produced more than 27% of global AI publications in 2024, more than double the US share of 12%.
• Chinese AI models are described as "months, not years" behind leading US frontier models, according to a Jul⁠y analysis by CSIS.

The bigger picture: A New Yorker analysis published this⁠ week argues that the real contest isn't who builds the fanciest model first, but who can diffuse AI across their entire economy — a metric on which China's cloud computing adoption still lags the US significantly.

Trump's Board of Peace unveiled a $2.45 billion, six-month reconstruction plan for Gaza at the United Nations this⁠ week — and Hamas has publicly said it's on board, though the plan's biggest sticking point remains unresolved.

• Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem expressed the group's "full readiness to implement the Board of Peace's roadmap" but made no mention of disarmament.
• Israel has said it will not allow reconstruction to proceed until Hamas disarms — and board officials have cited Hamas's failure to disarm and a lack of Israeli withdrawal as reasons progress has stalled.
• Hamas has publicly backed handing power to Palestinian administrators operating under the Board of Peace.

What to watch: Whether the board's $2.45 billion plan can break the disarmament-versus-reconstruction deadlock that has kept Gaza's rebuilding frozen will be the defining test of the coming weeks.

German prosecutors have opened an investigation into a 105-year-old man suspected of serving as a guard at Stalag 326 VI K, a prisoner-of-war camp in western Germany where between 180,000 and 200,000 Soviet prisoners were held between 1941 and 1945.

• The suspect is accused of being an accessory to multiple murders at the camp, according to the public prosecutor's office in Dortmund, which opened the case.
• More than half of the up to 5.7 million Soviet prisoners held in German captivity during the war did not survive.
• The case follows a legal precedent set by the 2011 conviction of John Demjanjuk, which lowered the bar for proving complicity — making prosecutions possible even without direct evidence of killing.

Zooming out: Germany's push to prosecute centenarian suspects reflects a judiciary racing against biology to establish accountability before the last witnesses and participants of the Nazi era are gone.