Political negotiations between Lebanon and Israel have entered a freeze, officials tell Al Modon, likely until Israel's Oct⁠ober 27 election. Israeli shelling in the south hasn't paused, and the UNIFIL replacement question just got messier.

• A new round of military talks is being floated for Oct⁠ober 20-22 in Florida, but Lebanon has not been told of a confirmed date.
• Whether Simon Karam heads the Lebanese delegation is undecided, especially if Beirut fields military representation to mirror Israel's.
• Washington is lukewarm on a replacement UN force. It prefers direct channels between the Lebanese Army and Israel.
• On the ground, Israeli forces carried out massive bombings in Mansouri, and warplanes struck Bani Hayyan twice.

What to watch: Florida could become the testing ground for the post-UNIFIL model Washington wants, direct army-to-army contact under American patronage, so the delegation's makeup matters as much as the date.

Lebanon's power plants may soon run on cheaper gas instead of fuel. The plan rides on a regional pipeline revival through Syria, with Qatar acting as financier and guarantor.

• Once maintenance on the Lebanese stretch of the Arab Gas Pipeline wraps, the Deir Ammar plant will run on gas, cutting production costs by more than 40%, sources say.
• Cheaper generation could mean more Électricité du Liban supply hours, since fuel prices keep climbing.
• Cabinet approved an IFC study for an investor-financed regasification vessel, which would make Lebanon its own gas hub.
• Qatar's UCC Holding is rehabilitating the 186-kilometer Homs-Aleppo pipeline, with completion expected in Aug⁠ust 2028.
• Qatar also financed a $63.75 million project to pipe gas from Jordan to Syria. About $400 million is allocated to Lebanon's energy sector.

The bigger picture: Lebanon's cheaper-power hopes depend on Syria's pipelines, Qatar's money, and investors' willingness to trust a country that, per sources, still struggles with exactly that.

Cabinet signed off on the 2027 state budget Thurs⁠day, plus a decree setting how public sector transport pay is calculated. That's the news since our earlier coverage of the draft and the allowance formula.

• The allowance now equals five liters of gasoline per day, with a floor of 500,000 LBP (about $6) and a ceiling of 800,000 LBP (about $9).
• Fuel prices shift roughly twice a week, so the allowance will need frequent recalculation.
• The IMF has signaled that a new program requires a medium-term fiscal framework and bank resolution reforms.
• Analysts see mostly more of the same: temporary patches, not structural governance change.

Why it matters: A budget approved on paper still has to prove it can satisfy the IMF's reform checklist, which Lebanon has been working through since a preliminary deal in Apr⁠il 2022.

Greece and Bulgaria formally exchanged a "treasury" of religious relics and a medieval ruler's bones in Thessaloniki, ending a cultural dispute that took decades to settle. Greece's prime minister says the deal should strengthen its push for the Parthenon marbles held in London.

• Bulgaria returns 48 icons, crosses and church vessels that its troops took from northern Greek churches and monasteries during World War I.
• Greece hands over remains believed to be Tsar Samuel's, found by archaeologists more than 60 years ago in a Greek border area.
• The tsar's bones flew to Sofia on a military aircraft with a jet escort and a 21-gun salute.
• Kyriakos Mitsotakis said monuments "cannot be treated as spoils of war." Greece, he added, won't accept arrangements implying foreign sovereignty over its treasures.

The bigger picture: The Parthenon sculptures have been at the British Museum since 1816, and Athens now has a freshly signed precedent to point to.

King Mohammed VI picked Marrakech mayor Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri to lead Morocco's government after Sep⁠tember's elections. Moroccans are split on whether it marks real change or just a symbolic first.

• Mansouri beat Fouzi Lekjaa, Morocco's football federation head, for the job. Both belong to the PAM party, which won the most seats.
• She will lead the so-called "World Cup government" as Morocco prepares to co-host the 2030 tournament with Spain and Portugal.
• She becomes the third woman to lead a government in the Arab world.
• Her party's manifesto had only three women-focused policies, and the family code hasn't been updated since 2004.
• Watchers say a symbol won't serve women's rights as much as legal reform.

What to watch: How many women join her cabinet, what powers they get, and whether the pending family code reforms finally land.

Hadeel Zourob fled Gaza and, with other displaced teachers, started classes for children stranded in El-Arish. It has grown into the region's only Palestinian school, serving kids who've lost years of schooling.

• The free school now has nearly 400 students aged six to 18, up from around 150 in its first year.
• Rent and supplies are covered with support from the Misr El Kheir Foundation, one of Egypt's largest charities.
• UNICEF says more than 14,000 school-age Palestinian children have been displaced to Egypt since the war began.
• Back in Gaza, UN agencies estimate about 98% of schools are damaged or destroyed.
• Most of Gaza's roughly 658,000 school-age children have had little regular schooling for over two academic years.

Why it matters: Aid agencies warn of a "lost generation," and classrooms like this one are the stopgap keeping a Palestinian curriculum and school routine alive.