Internal Security Forces stopped a car on the Bekaa road and found roughly half a ton of explosives inside. Per a security source, the two men in the car are Hezbollah members, and the seizure is considered very large.

• The haul was about half a ton of C4 and TNT, found during an inspection in the Dahr al-Baydar area a few days ago.
• The two men, identified only by initials (A.K. and H.A.), were handed to the military police.
• Investigators want to know where the explosives were headed and what they were for. They also want to know how the material got into Lebanon.
• That question carries weight because the army has intercepted other TNT shipments in recent days at the northern and northeastern borders with Syria.

What to watch: The military judiciary is running the case, and Government Commissioner Claude Ghanem is expected to prosecute the detainees and anyone else implicated once the investigation review is finished.

Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri chairs the national committee that has compiled a 232-page report on Israeli violations during the war. Lebanon has no war-crimes law and no easy route to international courts, so he argues the value is moral and political first.

• The report keeps growing, with special files on razed villages like Blida, Yaroun and Rashaf. Mitri says destroying a town to make it uninhabitable may amount to a war crime.
• A UN fact-finding mission spent three months in Lebanon. Its report is expected within a month or so, and Mitri would then present it in Geneva alongside UN rights chief Volker Türk.
• On courts: the International Court of Justice route is closed, and Lebanon is not an International Criminal Court member. Mitri says strong opposition blocks joining. Lebanese holding dual nationalities could sue abroad.
• On Syria, he says ties are advancing on electricity, ports, oil transit and rail links, built on shared interests.

Why it matters: Documentation won't compensate a family in a flattened village, and Mitri says so himself, but it preserves evidence for any future legal opening.

A town on the coast near Byblos now has a train again. BARATRAIN is a small electric line built on a stretch of the old railway, and it's a rare piece of public-transport news that's about something running instead of something promised.

• The train covers about 3.5 kilometers of old track at 15 to 20 km/h, carrying around 45 passengers.
• Public Works Minister Fayez Rasamny launched it at a ceremony near the town's port.
• He said extending the route could be explored with neighboring municipalities.
• Work continues on the roughly 35-kilometer Tripoli–Aboudieh line, which would link the port to Syria's rail network. Rasamny also announced a push to expand the bus network and add electric buses.

The bigger picture: Rasamny pitched the project as proof that municipalities with real powers and budgets can deliver, and he tied it to a wider northern rail and port vision.

South African jurist Navi Pillay, 85, won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on international law. She chaired the UN inquiry that concluded Israel is responsible for genocide in Gaza, a finding Israel disputes, which gives the award extra political weight.

• The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited her "exceptional courage and integrity" in making sure war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted.
• Nelson Mandela nominated her in 1995 to the UN tribunal for Rwanda, where she later served as president.
• That tribunal produced the first genocide convictions in history. The ruling she helped write established that rape can be an act of genocide.
• She is also a founding judge of the International Criminal Court. She now sits as an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice.

The bigger picture: The committee noted that judges are now being sanctioned and their institutions attacked, framing the prize as a statement about the courts themselves.

Isaias, the first Atlantic hurricane of an unusually quiet 2026 season, came ashore near Destin, Florida, as a category 2 storm. Millions were under evacuation orders across several Gulf states.

• Landfall came around 9:⁠30 p⁠m ET with winds of 105 mph. The National Hurricane Center warned of a "life-threatening" storm surge of up to 7 feet along the Alabama-Florida line.
• Nearly 500,000 customers had lost power in Alabama and Florida by Fri⁠day evening.
• Florida deployed roughly 5,000 National Guard troops. Offshore oil and gas producers shut down a significant share of Gulf output.
• It ties for the latest-forming Atlantic hurricane on record, a record set in 1905. El Niño's wind shear helped keep the season quiet.

What to watch: Isaias is an early test of FEMA's response after the agency lost about 17% of its workforce in fiscal 2025, though FEMA says its teams are already deploying.

What began as a blockade at one Paris-suburb high school has spread across France. Students want repairs, smaller classes and more teachers, and a Le Figaro poll found 62% of French people think their actions are justified.

• The movement started Sep⁠tember 17 at Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Créteil, driven by leaks, clogged toilets and sweltering classrooms.
• Roughly 640 high schools and 30 universities in 40 cities have joined, per The New Yorker.
• About 7,000 protesters, mostly minors, have been arrested. Two children were seriously hurt by police grenades.
• Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu suspended stun-grenade use and the education minister announced 3,000 substitute teachers, though he said the state lacks money.
• Another day of action is planned for Oct⁠ober 13.

Why it matters: With France under fiscal strain and the 2027 presidential race ahead, a youth movement over school conditions is landing in an already polarized political season.