Anxious Israelis watched election results take shape after the highest turnout in over a quarter-century, as no clear winner emerged and weeks of negotiating could lie ahead.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot has a clear path to forming a government.
With 85% of votes counted, Netanyahu’s Likud party has 20.8% and Eisenkot’s Yashar party has 16.1%. The official count does not indicate how many seats each will have in parliament, the 120-seat Knesset.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is in the Philippines for a quick visit, where he’s slated to meet with counterparts from across the region at a major Association of Southeast Asian Nations defense ministers gathering.
He is visiting the Philippines, which is hosting the gathering, at a sensitive moment for the Trump administration.
The U.S. military balances multiple hot zones around the world, even as it looks to bolster regional deterrence against China’s increasing military ambitions in the Pacific.
The Pentagon said in a statement that Hegseth’s focus at meetings Wednesday and Thursday will be “to reaffirm America’s commitment to peace through strength in the Pacific.”
One of Democrats’ first moves if they win control of Congress will be to permanently expand Affordable Care Act subsidies to lower out-of-pocket premium costs for people who purchase health insurance through the public marketplace.
The plan, which could cost as much as $350 billion, is one of the few concrete proposals Democrats have offered as they campaign to lower the cost of living.
The base version of the tax credits still exists. It was Democrats’ pandemic-era expansion, which made the subsidies more generous and extended them to people earning above 400% of the federal poverty level for the first time, that expired last year.
President Trump is trying to remind Americans that he’s had success in negotiating lower prescription drug prices in a final push before the midterms.
Many voters won’t know whether they’re benefiting from the discounts, and overall inflation and foreign wars have overshadowed the issue, creating a mismatch between Trump’s hopes and campaign realities.
Many voters won’t be affected by the policy, which primarily impacts Medicaid and medicines sold on TrumpRx, a website for direct-to-consumer purchases that do not involve insurance.
An illegal immigrant has pleaded guilty to faking an ICE kidnapping last year.
Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon admitted that she told people she was grabbed by masked men and then disappeared for days before staging her own “release” — in an effort to taint the immigration agency at the height of the Los Angeles enforcement surge.
The 43-year-old had kept her phone turned off even as ICE was trying to track her down — evidence that federal prosecutors later used to dismantle her claim, culminating in her guilty plea Monday to a charge of conspiracy.
And finally … The administration of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has surprised international analysts with a series of moves that signal warming relations with Russia.
They include South Korea facilitating the sale of Russian fuel, a new trade route deal using Russia’s Arctic sea lanes and an escalating diplomatic feud with Ukraine.
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