The cache seized on the Bekaa road weighed 780 kg, not the half a ton we first reported. Suspects now say it started in Baalbek, was ordered by a Hezbollah leader, and was bound for the Southern Suburbs.

• Update on our earlier figure: the load included TNT and plastic C4, plus nails and metal balls and 2 wireless devices, according to Al Modon's security source.
• The two detainees say a party leader nicknamed "Sajed" handed over the material and a contact named "Zulfiqar" was to receive it.
• They claim they were only couriers and don't know where the explosives came from.
• Government Commissioner to the Military Court Claude Ghanem is expected to indict them early next⁠ week and ask agencies to identify both men.

Why it matters: Investigators have floated two scenarios, attacks on Israeli forces in the south or assassinations, and say the purpose isn't yet established, which keeps the stakes of the "Sajed" and "Zulfiqar" trail high.

Direct flights between Beirut and the US have been off the table since 1985. Washington has now scrapped the legal basis for that restriction, which turns a Jul⁠y promise into a paper trail.

• Trump cancelled four presidential decisions issued between 1985 and 2007 that underpinned US limits on air transport with Lebanon.
• President Joseph Aoun welcomed the move and thanked Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
• A Beirut Airport source expects Beirut-New York to come first.
• No launch date yet. Timing depends on airline schedules, seasons, and remaining operational and security approvals.

What to watch: We reported MEA targeting late 2027 or 2028, so the remaining approvals and airline scheduling, not the law, now set the clock.

Riad Salameh, the former central bank governor now jailed in two cases, is back in the headlines alongside banker Antoun Sehnaoui. A French probe into Sehnaoui's Monaco bank, plus a contested amnesty law, are the threads Megaphone pulls together.

• French judges opened an investigation in Apr⁠il 2026 into Richelieu bank in Monaco, covering money laundering, tax evasion, and breach of trust.
• Intelligence Online reviewed documents showing Salameh moved his accounts there from 2021, and the bank only partly complied with a French freeze order, blaming a "system" error.
• Megaphone's account says Salameh bought $250,000 of Netflix shares in Apr⁠il 2022 through the bank.
• The Legal Agenda says the amnesty law's loopholes could drop several of his cases. That's an opinion piece's reading, not a court finding.

The bigger picture: The amnesty law and the bank restructuring law are where Salameh's cases and the banking sector's exposure meet.

Germany would be NATO's main corridor if Russia attacked the Baltics, and it just ran its biggest drill yet. A classified blueprint, the Operations Plan Germany, lays out how allied troops would cross the country.

• "Red Storm Charlie" shut down parts of Hamburg for three days in late Sep⁠tember 2026, with about 1,700 participants, including 500 soldiers.
• One planner told DW the working figure is 800,000 soldiers and 200,000 vehicles passing through within six months.
• The plan runs over 1,000 pages, and no federal state gets the full document, only need-to-know excerpts.
• Analyst Aylin Matlé flags ageing Cold War-era bridges and roads as a weak point for heavy military loads.

Why it matters: The plan only works if soldiers, police, local authorities, and relief groups can cooperate without leaking transit routes, a balance Berlin is still testing drill by drill.

As governments scale up for a possible war with Russia, labor groups across Europe are using strikes and union votes to contest the cost. An opinion piece in Middle East Eye, written by an author who opposes the buildup, tracks the pushback.

• Airbus workers in Spain struck from 1 Jul⁠y, and the author says the action slowed military and commercial output.
• On 1 Oct⁠ober, 77% of those voting backed an improved offer with inflation-linked raises and protected remote work.
• The Trades Union Congress passed a motion opposing higher arms spending for the second year running.
• Dockworker unions in at least six countries plan an action on 30 Oct⁠ober over Gaza.
• More than 45,000 German students walked out in Sep⁠tember against compulsory military screening.

What to watch: Whether the 30 Oct⁠ober port actions and further school strikes widen into sustained disruption, or fade after the Airbus settlement.

Yousof Azizi, a Virginia Tech PhD student and Persian-language political commentator, lived in the US for nearly 13 years. In Apr⁠il, ICE agents arrested him outside his Baltimore home, and by Jun⁠e 30 he had left for Iran with his family.

• Azizi told Middle East Eye authorities claimed he served in the Basij paramilitary from 2007 to 2010. He says he never did, and no evidence was presented.
• He alleges he was shackled for 13 days across transfers between facilities in several states.
• His lawyer gathered 250 support letters from US professors.
• The National Iranian American Council says 418 Iranians were detained between Jun⁠e and Dec⁠ember 2025.
• DHS denied any Israeli role in deporting Iranians.

The bigger picture: This is Azizi's own account plus advocacy-group claims, with DHS disputing the Israel link, so the central allegations remain unproven.