Lebanon is stuck in a holding pattern. Our earlier editions reported that the US-led track had disappointed: repeated rounds, including the latest in Tampa, drained the momentum from the framework agreement, the document meant to guide Lebanon-Israel talks. Now an Israeli government formation and a US-Iran standoff will decide what comes next, according to Annahar.

• Gadi Eisenkot has been tasked with forming a new Israeli government. Politicians cited in Annahar are watching whether he tries to advance the security arrangements in the framework agreement and what approach he takes toward southern Lebanon.
• The same politicians say Lebanon squandered the direct interest US Secretary of State Marco Rubio showed in the file over recent months.
• Trust is thin at both ends. The column argues the country has lost much of its external friends' confidence, and Lebanese trust in their own state is no higher.
• It also notes protests in the south, particularly among Shiites, against paying the cost of regional wars.

What to watch: Whether Eizenkot's coalition holds, and whether Washington's talks with Iran help or cost the Lebanese state, will set the next phase.

Lebanon's Internal Security Forces, the national police, are running a heavy security load while political tensions run high. An opinion column in Lebanon 24 praises Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar for how he is handling the file, citing an explosives seizure at a checkpoint and a push against street robberies.

• At the Dahr al-Baydar checkpoint, officers seized a car containing explosives and arrested two people inside it.
• Al-Hajjar visited the Beirut Police Unit Command and met Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Raed Abdallah. He then announced reinforced patrols and more investigative and intelligence work, coordinated with the army, against robbery and snatching.
• The column credits him with refusing to portray the security situation as out of control while still admitting that crimes need serious treatment.
• It adds that the police need political backing and must stay above polarization.

Why it matters: Visible street security and checkpoint work are one of the few state functions citizens can test daily, and the interior minister's public posture is shaping that trust.

Lebanon's Foreign Ministry publicly sided with Saudi Arabia after the Houthis, the Yemeni armed group, fired two ballistic missiles toward Riyadh. The statement is short, but it signals where Beirut wants to stand with its Gulf partners.

• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants condemned in the strongest terms the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, the latest being two ballistic missiles launched toward the capital.
• It said targeting vital and civilian installations is a flagrant violation of international law.
• The ministry reaffirmed Lebanon's full solidarity with the Kingdom and said it stands by Riyadh against anything targeting its security, stability and territorial integrity, according to Lebanon 24.

The bigger picture: Lebanon is publicly backing Riyadh while it tries to keep the Gulf engaged and out of regional wars it did not choose.

Saudi Arabia's capital took another direct hit from Yemen's Houthis on Sun⁠day. The Houthis are an Iran-aligned armed movement that controls much of northern Yemen and has long fought a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's internationally recognised government. Debris from an attempted attack blew out windows across several floors of the Aramco Tower, the Saudi oil giant's corporate office in Riyadh's financial district. Reuters reports the Houthis have opened what amounts to another front in the wider US-Israeli war with Iran.

• The energy ministry said damage was limited, with no injuries or deaths, and did not assign blame. The Houthis claimed responsibility.
• The Saudi-led coalition said its air defences intercepted Houthi missiles over Riyadh and a separate missile over the Eastern Province, where most of the kingdom's oil and gas lies. It said it also destroyed ballistic missile launchers in Saada and Sanaa.
• The renewed fighting intensified after the Houthis advanced in Sep⁠tember toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key shipping chokepoint. Since then they have stepped up missile and drone attacks on Saudi ports and airports. An Oct⁠ober strike on Riyadh's airport killed 13 people and wounded more than 300.
• Yemen's Houthi-run health ministry said at least 40 people died in Saudi air strikes near Sanaa. Saudi authorities said they were investigating.
• Many Saudi schools returned to in-person classes Sun⁠day after weeks of home learning.

What to watch: Riyadh is courting both military help abroad and talks with Tehran, so the next strikes will test whether either track slows the escalation.

A drone hit the LPG storage tank at Khor Mor, one of the largest gas fields in Iraq's Kurdistan region, halting production on Sun⁠day. The field supplies gas for regional power generation, so the outage shows up quickly in the electricity supply. Nobody has claimed the attack, which lands as Iraq struggles with the fallout of the wider US-Iran confrontation.

• Two electricity ministry sources told Reuters a single drone caused a fire at the storage tank that was still burning. Staff were moved to shelters inside the facility.
• The region's electricity ministry said 2.8 gigawatts of generation was lost.
• Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said initial assessments showed no casualties. The region's natural resources and electricity ministries called it a "terrorist attack" and said they were working to limit its impact.
• Joint operator Dana Gas had already shut the main facilities in Jul⁠y over credible security threats before restarting later that month.
• Baghdad is trying to balance ties with Iran and the US. Tehran has struck Iranian Kurdish opposition groups in northern Iraq, and Iran-backed militants in Iraq earlier attacked Gulf neighbours.

Why it matters: Kurdistan's power grid leans on this one field, and Iraq is also among the countries hit hardest by Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

A passenger train from Giza to Fayoum crashed into the rear of another service heading south from Cairo to Aswan on Sun⁠day, in Giza's Al-Ayyat area. Seven people died and more than 100 were hurt, the health ministry said. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ordered an urgent investigation. The same area saw Egypt's worst-ever rail disaster, and the crash revives questions about the country's ageing network.

• The health ministry said 112 people were injured, with injuries ranging from bruises to fractures of the limbs, pelvis and vertebrae, and head and chest wounds. 45 had been discharged by the evening.
• Witnesses told AFP that six carriages overturned around 1:⁠30 p⁠m. Villagers and railway workers dug beneath a carriage to reach trapped passengers, according to Al-Monitor.
• Sisi said anyone found negligent would be held to account.
• In 2002, a fire on a train carrying holiday travellers south of Cairo killed more than 370 people. Multiple crashes in the same area killed dozens in 2009.
• Egypt has poured billions into new highways and high-speed rail, but much of its older network has yet to be overhauled.

Zooming out: Egypt's rail network, one of Africa's largest, serves 110 million people, so failures on its ageing lines reach a very wide public.