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Israel’s election exit polls showed no clear path to a majority for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or his opponents.

Elsewhere, the US will grant visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family, while a humanitarian truce has expanded in Ukraine’s Kherson region.

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Top 5 Stories

1️⃣ 🇺🇦 Kherson aid truce expands: A humanitarian ceasefire intended to get aid into Russian-occupied Oleshky has been extended across the wider Kherson region, according to Ukrainian officials. Aid deliveries are expected before evacuations planned for 30 October, and both sides said the truce was being observed.

2️⃣ 🇷🇺 🇸🇦 Satellite data linked to Saudi strikes: An AP investigation linked Russian satellite activity to 40 attacks on Saudi Arabia by Iran-backed groups. Officials described intelligence reaching the groups through Iranian advisers, while the satellite analysts said they had identified a consistent pattern but had not intercepted intelligence transfers. Russian officials did not immediately comment.

3️⃣ 🇧🇷 🇺🇸 US offers Bolsonaro family visas: The US will grant visas to Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro and his family following his presidential election defeat, a senior State Department official said. Bolsonaro faces corruption, money-laundering and tax-evasion investigations and had been ordered to surrender his passports. He denies wrongdoing, and the US official did not confirm his whereabouts.

4️⃣ 🇬🇧 🇮🇷 Fairford case reaches court: Two men appeared in a London court charged with national security offences in connection with the incident at RAF Fairford. Prosecutors alleged that a handler believed to be working for Iran directed men to drive petrol-filled vans to the base. One defendant is accused of assisting Iranian intelligence and the other of an earlier reconnaissance visit.

5️⃣ 🇹🇼 🇨🇳 Taiwan rejects Beijing’s anniversary message: Taiwan’s Defence Minister Wellington Koo accused China of using commemorations of Japan’s 1945 handover of the island for cognitive warfare. Responding to Beijing’s release of satellite images and a military poster, he said the People’s Republic of China did not exist until 1949. Taipei rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claim.

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Major Story

🇮🇱 Israel faces coalition deadlock

Israel’s main television exit polls showed no clear winner, leaving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc and the main opposition bloc without a projected parliamentary majority.

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud was projected to remain the largest single party.

Arab-led parties were forecast to make significant gains, but some parties in the main opposition bloc have ruled out forming a government with them.

A coalition needs at least 61 seats in the 120-member Knesset.

President Isaac Herzog will decide who gets the first chance to form a government.

Other News

1️⃣ 🇨🇳 China plans Middle East envoy visit: China said it would soon send a special envoy to countries affected by the Middle East conflict to promote dialogue and ease tensions. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun warned about the conflict spreading to the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea. He did not give a detailed itinerary.

2️⃣ 🇫🇮 🇳🇴 Nordic leaders split over Putin call: Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine during a joint call. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen criticised the initiative as uncoordinated, while Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he had low expectations for direct talks.

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