President Joe Biden is reported to have authorized Ukraine to use US-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) for strikes deep inside Russia. In interviews with both the UK's Times Radio and the BBC news program The World At One on Nov. 18, former Putin advisor and semi-official mouthpiece Sergei Markov responded to the move by warning of an imminent Russian nuclear strike—not just on Ukraine but on the United States and Britain. "In the worst scenario, the nuclear war happens before Christmas of this year," he told the BBC. "Probably you will not be able to say 'Merry Christmas' because you will stay in the hole trying to hide away [your] family from the nuclear catastrophe. It can develop very, very quickly."

South Korea and the EU condemned North Korea's contribution of military arms and personnel to Russia as illegal under international law in a joint statement on Nov. 5. The statement follows recent reports that Russia has deployed North Korean troops in its war against Ukraine. According to a White House press briefing, over 3,000 North Korean soldiers were moved to Vladivostok in October, and underwent training at sites in eastern Russia. This was the first dispatchment of an estimated 12,000 North Korean troops said to be readied for deployment to fight Ukraine. South Korea and the EU maintain that the deployment violates multiple UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions as well as Russian obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

With UN aid agencies and humanitarian organizations warning of an "apocalyptic" scenario in North Gaza, the Biden administration faces a lawsuit charging complicity with genocide. The "pause" that the White House has imposed on some arms shipments to Israel by no means absolves the administration of moral (or legal) culpability. However, it may have had the effect of restraining Benjamin Netanyahu's maximalist plans to cleanse the Gaza Strip of Palestinians altogether. President Trump meanwhile recognized Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights, recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and launched the "Abraham Accords"—predicated on betrayal of the Palestinians by the Arab leadership. His 2019 executive order officially embraced the propagandistic conflation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, and he now calls for complete repression (including by the military) of Palestine solidarity protests. Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law who was his Middle East pointman, is now openly backing the cleansing of Gaza of all Palestinians, while his ultra-Zionist former ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is an open advocate of Israeli annexation of the West Bank and destruction of al-Aqsa Mosque. As Trump accuses Biden of "holding back" Israel, it is clear that Netanyahu and his most hardline cabinet members like Itamar Ben-Gvir are openly rooting for him—as is the Israel Lobby in DC.

Turkey on Oct. 23 said it launched air-strikes on supposed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in Syria's Rojava autonomous enclave and Iraq's Kurdistan region in retaliation for an attack on the headquarters of a defense contractor in Ankara. Five were killed and two attackers reported "neutralized" in the explosion and armed assault at the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) facility in Ankara's Kahramankazan district. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Turkish authorities quickly blamed the PKK. Strikes were reported on the Rojava towns of Qamishli, Derik, Kobane, Tal Rifaat, and Manbij. Rojava's autonomous authorities said that at least four civilians were killed, including a five-year-old child, and 15 people injured. (Rudaw)

A UN report released Oct. 11 documented Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities and medical personnel in the Gaza Strip in violation of international human rights law, calling the attacks war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report—written by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel—also condemned Israeli treatment of detainees, citing instances of abuse, torture, sexual assault, and arbitrary detention.

UN officials on Sept. 26 warned of a rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis in Lebanon as death tolls mount from Israeli air-strikes. Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council:  "Hell is breaking loose in Lebanon and we should all be alarmed by the escalation." The warnings came just as Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu arrived in New York for the UN General Assembly. Human Rights Watch one day earlier called for urgent UN action, reporting that some 1,600 Israeli strikes have killed at least 558 people, including 50 children, and injured thousands in the span of two days. The UN's Refugee Agency revealed that some 90,000 Lebanese residents had been displaced in the span of 72 hours.

Chile filed a declaration of intervention Sept. 13 in South Africa's genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The South American country submitted its declaration under Article 63 of the Statute of the ICJ, which gives states a right to intervene in the interpretation of a multilateral convention. Chile's intervention focuses on the duty to prevent and punish genocide under the Genocide Convention.

Last week, a UN fact-finding mission for Sudan called for an independent and impartial force to be deployed "without delay" to protect civilians. Its case would not have been harmed by reports this week of a new set of grave human rights violations in the country. In southeastern Sennar state, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were accused of killing 40 people in artillery strikes on local markets and residential areas, while in North Darfur's famine-stricken Zam Zam displacement site, the RSF reportedly tightened a siege and arrested traders trying to supply the camp.