Samir Kuntar, the Lebanese militant freed from an Israeli jail in 2008, later ran a Hezbollah-linked group in southern Syria until Israel killed him in 2015. Leaked Syrian intelligence reports, obtained by the investigative outlets Daraj and Siraj, say rockets he supplied ended up with smugglers who also armed Jabhat al-Nusra, the jihadist faction fighting the Assad regime.

• The documents say Kuntar secured about 40 Grad rockets, launch timers and monitoring devices for his group, headquartered in the village of Arnah in the Jabal al-Sheikh area.
• The group's local leader, identified only as "J.A.", fired about 18 rockets in 3 failed batches, then moved some into Lebanon without telling anyone.
• After Kuntar's death, leftover rockets were handed to relatives in the smuggling trade, and one holder sold them.
• Per the report, the rockets stayed with smugglers until 2022. Local smuggling sources didn't deny trading weapons with "any party capable of paying."

The bigger picture: The reports, filed in 2024, show Damascus trying to track where Hezbollah-bound weapons went, while sources in Arnah describe Israeli weapons sweeps there since the regime fell.

A professor has asked the State Shura Council, Lebanon's top administrative court, to cancel the decree keeping Bassam Badran as president of the Lebanese University. We first covered this in Sep⁠tember: the Constitutional Council had struck down the provision letting Badran run while still in office, citing a clear conflict of interest, and a legal analysis then called his bid for a second term null.

• Dr. Kazem Zibara, a stem-cell researcher at the university, filed the appeal, the only one lodged among 13 candidates for the post.
• It rests on 6 grounds, including that Badran drew up the candidate list himself and that the minister forwarded all 13 names instead of the legal 5.
• The university has two weeks to respond.
• Sources expect the court's Fourth Chamber to consider suspending the decree. If it does, Dean Mohammad Hajjar would step in as president until a ruling.

What to watch: The suspension decision comes first, and it could change who runs Lebanon's only public university well before the court rules on the merits.

A day after Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem rejected disarmament talks, a senior political source hit back in the newspaper Nidaa al-Watan. Qassem had called the Jun⁠e framework agreement with Israel unconstitutional and said the resistance would continue while Israeli attacks and occupation persist.

• The source accused Qassem of putting war-and-peace decisions outside state institutions, "as if the country were the property of a single faction."
• He argued that refusing to put weapons on the table destroys any real dialogue on the state's monopoly on arms.
• Southerners, the displaced and owners of destroyed homes are still waiting for safety and reconstruction, he said.
• The Jun⁠e agreement calls for Hezbollah's disarmament, a gradual Israeli pullback and an army deployment south, yet Israeli strikes continue.

Why it matters: The exchange shows how far apart Hezbollah and its critics remain over who decides on arms, with the Jun⁠e agreement stuck between them.

Morocco's Sep⁠tember 23 election made Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri the country's first woman head of government, after her Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) came first. But turnout was only 38%, and the new cabinet takes over just as the country races to prepare for the 2030 World Cup.

• PAM won 97 seats. Its four-party coalition holds 207, and the party's program promises one million net jobs and 7% unemployment by 2031.
• Turnout fell from about 50% in 2021. Voters aged 18-24 made up only 4% of those registered, according to Assafir Al-Arabi.
• Women won 107 of 395 seats, mostly through reserved lists, while only 7 of 32 cabinet members are women.
• The IMF puts transport and tourism spending for 2024-2030 at about $19 billion. Youth unemployment is 37.2%.
• A Tangier ballot-paper incident, nicknamed the "PAM bag", is under judicial investigation. The party rejects any link and suspended two local officials.

The bigger picture: The cabinet will be judged on whether World Cup spending turns into lasting jobs for young Moroccans, the group least visible at the ballot box.

Online scam compounds in Cambodia have trafficked hundreds of thousands of people, many lured by fake office jobs and then forced into fraud. Amnesty International now says serving police and military officers worked as private guards at these sites. Cambodia says its crackdown, begun in Jul⁠y 2025, has already disciplined officers, and Amnesty calls the industry there "dormant".

• The report draws on 151 survivor interviews and visits to 82 compounds, and links five politically connected security firms to the abuses.
• The firm Leap Somnang is tied to at least 15 compounds in 8 provinces. Colonel Ban Sophat, named by Amnesty as its chair, denies any ownership or management role.
• Survivors describe guards using electric batons, dark-room detentions and hunting down escapees.
• Cambodia's interior ministry says it disciplined 77 officers and detained 17 officials.

Why it matters: Annual losses to this fraud are estimated near $100 billion, so the question of who guards the compounds, not only who runs them, now sits at the center of the crackdown.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told Reuters that a maritime boundaries deal between Turkey and Libya's eastern parliament is "null and void", saying it ignores Greek islands. The pact dates to 2019. Libya's eastern parliament approved it last⁠ week, drawing condemnation from Athens, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE.

• Mitsotakis accused Ankara and Libya of creating a "fait accompli" that disregards the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Turkish President Erdogan says the objections have no legitimate basis.
• A Greek-owned container ship was sunk by naval drones off Bulgaria on Wednes⁠day.
• He called for an international truce to protect Black Sea shipping.
• He also urged more EU warships for Aspides, the Red Sea mission, which has six vessels.

What to watch: Mitsotakis wants Libya to negotiate directly with Athens, and he says Greek gas exploration off Crete will not be challenged.