“Votes were being counted as dawn broke in Israel on Wednesday morning, but exit polls suggested that its momentous national election left no clear winner. That likely meant the beginning of weeks of wrangling among parties to form a governing coalition and declare a new prime minister. In the meantime, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains as interim caretaker head of the government. Exit polls released by major Israeli TV stations right after polls closed on Tuesday night and revised overnight indicated that neither Netanyahu’s political bloc nor that of his main rival, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, secured the 61 seats needed for a majority in the parliament, known as the Knesset. … With 60% of votes counted, Netanyahu’s Likud party has 21.4% and Eisenkot’s Yashar has 16.2%, according to official election data.” (10/28/26)
“A ceasefire that began with the aim of getting food and medicine to the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky has been extended across the wider southern region of Kherson, according to sources. Several thousand residents are trapped in the city with no access to food, water and electricity. On one side is the Dnipro river, while Russian forces are on the other and all the roads out are too dangerous. However, no breaches of the truce that began early on Tuesday have so far been reported. US First Lady Melania Trump, who helped broker the ceasefire along with Pope Leo XIV, said on Tuesday that the area involved had been expanded to provide ‘safe passage’ for humanitarian convoys.” (10/27/26)
“Datavault AI (DVLT) shares plunged nearly 50% on Tuesday after a filing revealed that the company had been unable to withdraw bitcoin from crypto exchange Biconomy since June and would have to restate its financial results. The stock closed at $0.067, down 49.55%, with roughly 244 million shares traded. The problem traces back to a September 2025 agreement with Scilex Holding Company, which agreed to purchase $150 million of Datavault shares and warrants using bitcoin.” (10/28/26)
“An Egyptian court on Tuesday ordered the closure of independent news website Mada Masr after convicting its editor-in-chief, Lina Attalah, of operating without a license. Attalah, one of Egypt’s most prominent journalists, was detained for several hours following the verdict before being released after paying a fine. The court imposed a fine of 3 million Egyptian pounds (around $53,400; €48,112), the maximum penalty for the offense. It also ordered the website to shut down and its equipment to be confiscated. Mada Masr, founded in 2013, is one of Egypt’s few remaining independent news outlets. It is known for investigating corruption, human rights violations and the military’s powerful role in the country.” (10/27/26)
“The Justice Department failed to secure an indictment against Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who testified about President Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, multiple media outlets reported Tuesday. … She testified that she had been told Trump lunged at a Secret Service agent who refused to drive him to the Capitol, that Trump knew some of his supporters were armed, and that former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows had been warned of potential violence on Capitol Hill. … Republicans have long disputed Hutchinson’s testimony, and Secret Service agents she identified as familiar with the events of that day have also said they do not recall some of the incidents she described. Earlier this year, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) sent a criminal referral of Hutchinson to the Justice Department for investigation.” (10/27/126)
“Ripple has struck a deal with Robinhood to expand the reach of its digital dollar, RLUSD, strengthening trading and financing links between their institutional businesses and improving Robinhood’s internal money management. The partnership involves using RLUSD to settle institutional trades, automate Robinhood’s treasury operations and expand access to digital asset trading and financing through Ripple Prime and Bitstamp, the global crypto exchange acquired by Robinhood last year. It also helps meet Robinhood’s ambition of becoming a global financial superapp, centralizing its customers’ financial lives while expanding the underlying infrastructure that can serve both retail and institutional clients.” (10/27/26)
“The mounted skeleton of a newly-identified dinosaur once mistaken for a young Tyrannosaurus rex has sold at auction for a colossal $47.3m (£35.5m). Nicknamed Jodi, the roughly 10-foot-tall (3m) skeleton was auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York. The sale comes a year after researchers confirmed that the skeleton belongs to a distinct genus. The Late Cretaceous carnivore was expected to fetch at least $9m when it went under the hammer on Tuesday. The auction comes after Sotheby’s sold a Tyrannosaurus rex, dubbed Gus, for a record $50.1m in July. The sale has reignited debate in the scientific community over whether dinosaur remains should be sold privately or displayed publicly. Sotheby’s described Jodi as an ‘excellent exhibition-ready’ skeleton with about 191 fossil-bone elements and ‘a beautifully preserved, virtually complete skull’.” (10/27/26)
“New orders for key U.S.-manufactured capital goods increased in September and shipments of these products surged, suggesting business spending on equipment maintained a robust growth pace in the third quarter, though doubts are mounting over the huge cost of building out AI infrastructure. Non-defence capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending, rose 0.5 per cent last month after an unrevised 1.6-per-cent jump in August, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said on Tuesday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast these so-called core capital goods orders would advance by 0.7 per cent.” (10/27/26)
“Federal law enforcement agents searched a Beverly Hills home early Tuesday as part of an investigation into Eric Swalwell, who resigned from Congress amid a wave of sexual misconduct allegations, two people familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press. Agents searched the home of wealthy developer and Swalwell donor Stephen Cloobeck, where the ex-Congressman spent time before resigning from office in April, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation. Swalwell [D-CA] has denied criminal wrongdoing. Messages seeking comment were left for Swalwell’s lawyer and for a lawyer who represented Cloobeck in another matter. Cloobeck, who founded the Diamond Resorts International timeshare company and ran last year for California governor, contributed more than $23,000 to Swalwell’s congressional campaigns since 2017, federal campaign finance records show. He told the New York Post in April that he cut ties with Swalwell as accusations against him mounted.” (10/27/26)
“A court in India has ordered the takedown of an online documentary posted by Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and billionaire Gautam Adani of cronyism, after Adani Enterprises sued, calling it defamatory. Adani’s flagship firm, Adani Enterprises, told the High Court in the eastern city of Kolkata that the documentary, which garnered millions of views on social media in recent days, was riddled with false content and had prompted inquiries from some investors in the company, whom the court order did not name. The documentary ‘is not a news report or an account of proceedings. It is a dramatised narrative’, the court’s takedown order for YouTube, X and Meta Platforms issued late on Monday said.” (10/27/26)
