Gaza

• The U.S. chided Israel for its heavy-handed tactics on two fronts of war. First, a State Dept. spokesman said the U.S. "has concerns with" the "scope and nature" of Israel's airstrikes on Beirut, where Israel is hunting down what's left of Hezbollah's leadership.
• Second, SecState Blinken and SecDef Austin ordered Israel to improve aid flows to Gaza within 30 days - or face new restrictions on weapons shipments. September's humanitarian aid flows to Gaza were the lowest since the war began and down 50% from their peak.
• Nonetheless, the threat to withhold U.S. weapons is a somewhat empty one because in 30 days the U.S. will have a new president-elect with new policy plans. And until then, U.S. weapons shipments will continue: the first parts of a THAAD anti-missile system and the U.S. troops that will operate began to arrive this week.

Hezbollah

• Meanwhile in the north, Hezbollah's acting leader, Naim Qassem, vowed to keep fighting Israel until Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza.
• In recent weeks as Israeli assassinations of its leaders threw Hezbollah into disarray, the group had seemed to delink its own fight with Israel from the ongoing war its fellow Iranian proxy, Hamas, is fighting against Israel in Gaza. Qassem's new statement seems to reinstate Hezbollah's demand for a Gaza ceasefire as a condition of its own peace with Israel.

DRC

• The WSJ reported that U.S. officials are trying to convince three American companies - Kobold Minerals, First Quantum Minerals, and Orion Resource Partners - to buy Congolese cobalt producer Chemaf and secure a non-Chinese supply of the critical mineral for electric vehicle batteries. None of the three seem to be jumping at the opportunity yet.

North Korea

• North Korean state media claimed that 1.4 million young people volunteered to enlist or re-enlist in its army since Monday, when state propaganda ratcheted up talk about a possible war with South Korea.
• That's probably numerical hyperbole: it would more than double the size of the current active military - which is already the world's largest on a per capita basis.
• Separately, Ukrainian media claimed that around 18 of the North Korean soldiers seconded to Russia's side in Ukraine have gone AWOL. North Korean athletes and diplomats have long sought to use foreign trips as opportunities to defect; perhaps some of the new volunteer soldiers will also see deployment as a chance to escape the hermit kingdom.

Venezuela

• The UN issued a new 161-page report accusing Pres. Maduro's government of crimes against humanity during its violent crackdown of post-election demonstrations The UN specifically called out Maduro and his top deputies, stating that the documented abuses were "instigated by the highest civilian and military echelons of the state, including President Maduro."
• Separately, Maduro claimed - without evidence - that opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has fled the country and called the opposition "cowards."
• It's true that Machado didn't attend an opposition rally on Sep. 28, but given the outstanding warrant for her arrest and Maduro's desperation to silence her, she's wise to stay in hiding and avoid rallies that government agents expect her to attend.