During the 2018 midterm elections, the US essentially cyber body-slammed the Russian intelligence agency responsible for the 2016 interference.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun tasked former prime minister Saad Hariri on October 22 with forming a government, but the powerful Hezbollah movement has been delaying the process.

The Kurdistan Regional Government condemned an apparent Kurdistan Workers Party attack on peshmerga soldiers in Dahuk province; the KRG and the PKK had a turf dispute earlier this year.