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Both blocs claim upper hand in crucial Israeli election | First Thing <p>Benjamin Netanyahu vows to form new coalition while opposition bloc leader says result shows prime minister should step down. Plus, a scathing review of Elon Musk’s AI-generated version of The Odyssey</p><p>Good morning. Israel could be in for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/28/israel-election-exit-polls-suggest-netanyahu-eisenkot-blocs-tied-ntwnfb">weeks of political haggling</a> after exit polls and partial official results showed neither Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition nor the opposition bloc led by the former general Gadi Eisenkot had won enough seats to form a government.</p><p>With 70% of the vote, or 4m ballots, counted so far, the Netanyahu bloc had 54 seats, the Eisenkot-led Change bloc 47 seats, and the Palestinian parties 19 seats. Sixty-one seats are needed for a majority.</p><p><strong>What have the two leaders said so far?</strong> Israel’s longest-serving prime minister vowed to assemble a coalition through agreements between his Likud party, far-right factions and Jewish religious parties. Eisenkot had said earlier in the evening that “people decided in favour of change” and Netanyahu should have “announced today his retirement from politics”.</p><p><strong>What does the increase in the Palestinian bloc mean?</strong> The election was marked by a record participation by Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin, a discriminated minority that makes up about 20% of the country’s population. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/27/palestinian-parties-knesset-election-exit-polls-redraw-israel-political-landscape">Julian Borger explains from Nazareth</a> that opposition leader Eisenkot will have to work with Arab-Israeli leaders to have a hope of governing. Millions of other Palestinians living under Israeli rule in the occupied West Bank and Gaza cannot vote.</p><p><strong>Here is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/28/israel-election-results-what-we-know-so-far-ntwnfb">what we know about the declared results so far</a>.</strong> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/oct/28/israel-election-results-live-updates-exit-polls-netanyahu-likud-eisenkot-latest-news">Our live coverage continues on the website</a>.</p><p><strong>What else has Trump been saying about fossil fuels?</strong> Trump suggested on Tuesday that Venezuela would become the 51st US state as the president <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/27/trump-oil-tanker-venezuela">showed off a tanker</a> he claimed had “1m barrels of oil on it” from the country, nine months after deposing its president.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/28/first-thing-israeli-election-elon-musk-ai-odyssey">Continue reading...</a>
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Dementia cases in US projected to rise dramatically by 2050, study finds <p>Increase will add strain on healthcare system already struggling amid cuts by Trump administration, experts say</p><p>The number of people with dementia in the United States is projected to increase dramatically over the next 25 years, which will place increasing strain on a healthcare system already struggling to help them amid cuts by the Trump administration, experts say.</p><p>According to a <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/article-abstract/2854983">new study in Jama Neurology</a>, the annual incidence of new dementia cases globally will more than double, from 11.4m in 2023 to 24.7m in 2050. In the United States, the number of adults diagnosed with dementia each year will increase from 514,000 in 2020 to 1m by 2060, according to <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2830201">a Jama study</a> published in 2024.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/28/dementia-cases-increase">Continue reading...</a>
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Bafta trustees may have broken charity law by accepting free guest tickets <p>Chair of membership council says legal advice obtained at own expense suggests offences could have been committed</p><p>Bafta trustees may have breached charity and company law by accepting free tickets for guests at the organisation’s awards ceremonies, the chair of its membership council has claimed.</p><p>Michael Pritchett told members at Bafta’s annual general meeting that legal advice obtained at his own expense suggested offences could have been committed by trustees who approved the charity’s accounts, which stated that no trustees had received remuneration or benefits.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/oct/28/bafta-trustees-charity-law-accepting-free-guest-tickets">Continue reading...</a>
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