POLITICS · LEAD
Israelis elect the 26th Knesset today, the first national vote since 7 October 2023. Every final poll left both blocs short of 61 seats. The 3.25% threshold, Arab turnout and a few small lists will decide what the arithmetic allows.
Israelis vote today in the election of the 26th Knesset, the first national vote since the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023 and the wars that followed. The Independent counts about half a million first-time voters. Benjamin Netanyahu, 77, goes into it with 19 accumulated years as prime minister since 1996. His main challenger is Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief, whose Yashar party led every one of the last four broadcaster polls.
You will hear a great deal today about who "wins". Keep one number in your head instead: 61. That is the majority of the 120-seat Knesset a government needs, and on the final polls nobody reaches it.
Politics & Institutions · 3 min · Read the piece →
MARKETS · DESK NOTE
Korea's economy grew 1.0% in the third quarter, more than three times the central bank's August forecast. The Kospi rose about 4%. Brent slipped below $115 and the US ten-year sat just under 5%.
Markets & Macro · 2 min · Read the piece →
GEO-ECON · DESK NOTE
While the diplomats talked in Tehran, the shipping desks kept counting. About 492 vessels wait outside Hormuz, assisted transits run at about a quarter of normal, and one attack reached the public record three days after it happened.
Geo-economics · 2 min · Read the piece →
PSYCHOLOGY · DESK NOTE
One in three young adults in a Rutgers survey asks AI about drugs and alcohol; nearly half of US AI users have treated it like a friend. Trust is running ahead of evidence.
Psychology & Behaviour · 2 min · Read the piece →
ENERGY · DESK NOTE Chart
Germany's day-ahead price for Tuesday cleared at €155.11 per megawatt hour, a third above Monday and almost twelve times storm Sunday. The wind eased, gas came back, and the evening hour costs six times the midday one.
Energy & Industry · 2 min · Read the piece →
MONEY · PODIUM VS PRINT Chart
The Fed chair says the Fed made clear it would deliver price stability, and declines to say what comes next. The two-year Treasury yield has been answering since February.
Money, FX & Committees · 2 min · Read the piece →
ORDINARY · DESK NOTE
Funeral services and cemetery fees in Germany rose 3.2% in 2025, a point above inflation. Fewer families needed the state to pay, but each paid-for burial cost the welfare office more.
Ordinary & Inherited Life · 2 min · Read the piece →
TECH · DESK NOTE
Three banks and Blackstone are putting $63 billion into a special vehicle that will buy Broadcom accelerators and lease them to Anthropic. The interesting line is who stands behind the hardware's value.
Tech & Compute · 2 min · Read the piece →
HEALTH · DESK NOTE
Germany's drug regulator logged fresh updates on Monday for two common antidepressants, X-ray contrast agents and a potassium binder. The register is dull, public and worth more than any reassurance.
Health & Care · 2 min · Read the piece →
SECURITY · DESK NOTE
Russian ballistic missiles hit a university area, a dormitory and the Southern Bridge in Kyiv late on Monday. Hours later, a US-negotiated truce was due to begin in occupied Oleshky, with no end date and no named monitor.
Security & Order · 2 min · Read the piece →
CLIMATE · DESK NOTE Chart
Storms turned streets west of the capital into rivers on Monday, the fourth flood alert of an unusually wet Greek October. Another low arrives on Wednesday.
Climate & Weather · 2 min · Read the piece →
