Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, long one of Hezbollah's most consequential political patrons, has publicly condemned the U.S.-brokered agreement between Beirut and Tel Aviv, arguing that the deal risks inflaming domestic divisions and may never be carried out. His denunciation underscores the fragile, contested ground on which any ceasefire architecture in southern Lebanon must stand - and raises serious doubts about whether American diplomatic efforts can hold without bringing Iran to the table.

Iran is now enduring the longest nationwide internet shutdown yet documented, with the blackout nearing 50 days even after the Iran war ceasefire. That fact matters beyond censorship alone: it has cut families, journalists, and dissidents off from one another while making independent reporting from inside the country far harder.

The blackout also exposes a larger reality. In modern authoritarian crises, control over connectivity is not a side issue but a core instrument of state power, and satellite internet has become one of the few tools capable of weakening that control.