With almost 90% of ballots counted, Netanyahu's bloc holds 53 seats and Gadi Eisenkot's opposition alliance 48, short of the 61 needed for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset. Arab parties are projected to win a combined 19 seats, and Likud has accused them of “stealing” the election through alleged criminal offences. Final results are due Thursday evening, with over 500,000 special ballots still to count, and President Herzog is set to consult party leaders next week.
The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark rate at 3.75 to 4 percent on a 10-2 vote, as September inflation rose to 3.7 percent from 3.4 in August, driven largely by energy prices. Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, who had called for a “wait and see” approach earlier this month, said she felt “no urgency for taking further action at this point”. President Trump, who has pushed for lower rates since taking office, wrote after last month's hike that rates “should be 1 percent or less”.
The UN General Assembly voted 130 to 17, with 25 abstentions, to call for an end to the US embargo on Cuba, the lowest support in three decades after more than 160 countries backed the same measure a year earlier. Germany, Italy and Latvia abstained for the first time in 34 years, as Washington keeps up pressure that in January included tariff threats on countries supplying oil to Cuba, which sharply cut fuel deliveries and contributed to the island's recent power cuts. US Ambassador Mike Waltz said Cuba's troubles are “exclusively the fault of this corrupt communist regime”, while Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the world “has once again spoken out overwhelmingly against the blockade”.
Source:
Euronews · Wednesday, 28 October 2026
