In Israel, Tuesday’s national elections have produced no clear winner, with more than 90% of the votes counted. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party received the most votes, but Netanyahu’s political bloc is likely to fall short of the 61 seats needed to form a government. The leading opposition bloc headed by Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party is projected to win just 48 seats. Israel’s Arab parties are on track to win an unprecedented 19 seats in the Knesset, driven by a surge in turnout by Palestinian citizens of Israel. They are now in a position to help the opposition form a ruling coalition, but it’s unclear if Eisenkot is open to partnering with Palestinian parties. Netanyahu has accused Arab parties of stealing the election, while providing no evidence. This is the leader of the Palestinian-dominated Joint List, Yousef Jabareen.

Yousef Jabareen: “Our power in the Knesset is very decisive, is very crucial. And as we have promised our community, we would like to use this power to facilitate getting rid of Netanyahu’s government and, hopefully, helping to change the political situation in Israel.”

In Gaza, four Palestinians were killed and at least 15 wounded in an Israeli strike on the Ministry of Economy building in al-Mawasi, west of Rafah. Since last October’s so-called ceasefire, about 1,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks.

Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, U.S. journalist Jasper Nathaniel and activists Adele Shoko and Andrey X were beaten by armed Israeli settlers, who stole equipment and personal items. Nathaniel was arrested. Earlier this month, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers harvesting olives and beat up and robbed Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine, who was covering the attack. Nathaniel helped save Levine. Click here to see our interview with Jasper Nathaniel describing Levine’s attack.

In Massachusetts, Cambridge city councillors voted 5-4 on Wednesday to divest from businesses that are profiting from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and its assault on the Gaza Strip, which a U.N. commission of inquiry and international human rights experts have condemned as a genocide. The proposal was co-sponsored by Cambridge City Councilor Ayah Al-Zubi.

Ayah Al-Zubi: “We just made history. We divested from complicit companies that are contributing and orchestrating the genocide in Palestine as perpetuated by the state of Israel. And this is a huge win, because we’re taking a stand as a city and telling that if the federal government doesn’t want to act and the state government doesn’t want to act, that we will, because we, in Cambridge, we want to actually align our values with our actions. And that’s what we did today.”

Iranian officials say three ⁠oil tankers ⁠are on fire after they struck sea mines while attempting to ⁠cross the Strait of Hormuz. The latest reported attacks came as a massive oil spill fouled beaches in northern parts of the United Arab Emirates. Satellite images show a more than 20-mile-long oil slick flowing from a tanker that was struck two weeks ago. On Wednesday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he had been in close contact with mediators on a proposed seven-day plan that would pave the way for the Strait of Hormuz to reopen.

The cost of President Trump’s war of choice against Iran has ballooned to at least $47 billion — an increase of more than $3 billion since last month. That’s according to a U.S. Central Command estimate shared with Congress. The majority of the cost, some $29 billion, is for munitions replacement, as the Trump administration is reportedly prepared to escalate U.S. attacks after next week’s midterm elections.

Alaska’s governor is ordering a criminal investigation into Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola’s campaign, after The New York Times reported that operatives linked to Peltola successfully recruited a second Dan Sullivan to draw votes from Republican Senator Dan Sullivan on the state’s four-person ballot. The effort, called the “ballot composition project” by Peltola’s campaign, reportedly began in the summer of 2025, when campaign aides told a staffer to search voter records for Alaskans named Dan Sullivan. Months later, Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher, announced his candidacy for Senate, switching from unaffiliated to Republican just before the deadline to run.

According to the Times, the scheme also involved the Peltola campaign’s lawyers, as well as senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Both Peltola and the DSCC have denied the New York Times report. A former campaign manager told the Times that Peltola was not involved but was definitely aware of the plan. It comes as President Trump ordered the Justice Department to block the certification of the election results if Republican Senator Sullivan loses. Trump has also called for Peltola to be removed from the ballot and to be prosecuted.

President Donald Trump: “They said they didn’t do it, and we caught them cold. And Mary Peltola should resign from the race. I think she should be prosecuted criminally for what she did.”

In Tennessee, a Republican candidate for Congress has acknowledged that he sent unsolicited nude photos in the recent past. State Senator Brent Taylor described them as “youthful indiscretions” that his wife has forgiven. But one woman said she had received a nude photo from Taylor as recently as 2021, when Taylor was 53. Taylor has campaigned as a Christian family man and devoted husband. Taylor’s Democratic opponent, state Representative Justin J. Pearson, said, “Taylor’s belief that sending unwanted naked photos of himself to women at 53 years old is 'youthful indiscretion' is a ridiculous and dangerous mischaracterization of the type of predatory behavior that needs to be rooted out of our society and politics.” Pearson is running as a progressive who supports Medicare for All, gun controls, climate justice, a higher minimum wage and more. Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District was redrawn by the state’s GOP to heavily favor Republicans by diluting Memphis’s voting power to include majority-white rural areas.

A federal judge has rejected the Trump administration’s effort to force California to immediately set aside 20,000 ballots from people it claims are “likely noncitizens.” U.S. District Judge David Carter ruled the move would “wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway, create a chilling effect on election workers and voters alike, and discount the votes of United States citizens.” Wednesday’s ruling came two days after the Trump administration similarly asked Washington state to set aside hundreds of ballots it claimed were assigned to noncitizens.

State prosecutors in Minnesota have charged right-wing activist and provocateur James O’Keefe and an associate with election fraud, after they entered multiple polling places and identified themselves using the names of registered Minnesota voters, all while dressed in what they called Muslim clothing and speaking in fake accents. Their attempts to discredit Minnesota elections came as President Trump has continued to attack Minnesota’s Somali American communities as “garbage” and “low IQ people.” This is Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty.

Mary Moriarty: “Free and fair elections are the bedrock of democracy, and their protection is one of our highest priorities. Mr. O’Keefe and Mr. Higby entered polling places in multiple instances, identified themselves using names of registered voters in those precincts without those voters’ knowledge or permission. … But Minnesota law states clearly that no individual shall intentionally misrepresent their identity in applying for a ballot.”

The popular political commentator Hasan Piker has filed a $72 million defamation lawsuit against Scott Jennings, accusing the CNN commentator of deliberately distorting his remarks to make it appear that he supported lynching Black people. The complaint filed in federal court Wednesday says Jennings “took a false, fabricated, and manipulated video of Mr. Piker, added a made-up quotation that Mr. Piker never uttered, and then made accusations that went beyond even what the manipulated footage purported to show.” Hasan Piker is one of the most prominent online influencers on the left, with millions of followers and subscribers. He’s drawn fire from Republican candidates and Democratic Party leaders for endorsing democratic socialists and other progressives.

The legendary labor organizer, feminist and civil right activist Dolores Huerta has died at the age of 96. She worked closely with Cesar Chavez. They were both co-founders of the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 and then the United Farm Workers of America in 1966. The United Farm Workers was formed as a merger of the National Farm Workers Association and the Filipino-led Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee. From 1965 to 1970, the union organized the historic Delano grape strike, which ended in major gains for farmworkers’ labor rights. In later years, Huerta became heavily involved in the women’s liberation and immigrant rights movements and became a major supporter of the Democratic Party.

Shortly after a New York Times investigation into Chavez’s history of sexual abuse of women and girls involved in the farmworkers’ movement, Huerta revealed that she had been raped by Chavez in the 1960s. Huerta said the assaults led to the births of two of her children. She concealed the pregnancies and had kept the children’s paternity secret. We’ll have more on the life and legacy of Dolores Huerta later in the broadcast.

The U.N. General Assembly condemned the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba for the 34th year Wednesday. It comes as the Trump administration has repeatedly threatened military intervention to change Cuba’s political system, as the country has suffered power outages, shortages and financial trouble due to U.S. sanctions. The U.S. first imposed its embargo on Cuba back in 1960, after Fidel Castro toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista and nationalized properties belonging to U.S. interests. This is Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.

Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla: “The United States has openly resorted to the threat of use of military force and has imposed dozens of new economic coercive measures, in addition to the ones that have existed for decades. These have been ratcheted up to extreme levels since 2019 and have now grown into a sort of quasi-medieval siege since January.”

The chief judge for the Southern District of New York has died. Alvin Hellerstein was 92 years old. He had been overseeing the case against Venezuela’s former President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, the former leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly. The couple were abducted from Caracas during a U.S. military raid in January. Their trial is scheduled for June of next year. Earlier this month, the couple pleaded not guilty to additional charges of conspiracy to commit torture, following an earlier indictment on narcoterrorism, cocaine trafficking and weapons offenses.

In Spain, at least 68 people are dead after one high-speed train slammed into another that had stopped on the tracks on Wednesday. Dozens more were left injured. It was the second deadly rail disaster in Spain this year and came just one month ahead of national elections. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has declared three days of national mourning. He spoke from the crash site.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez: “If we need to further strengthen safety in order to restore confidence in our high-speed rail system, we will do so, because it is unacceptable for a country like Spain to suffer two high-speed rail accidents in the same year, as we have.”

Here in New York, the Alexander brothers — Alon, Oren and Tal — were each sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for sex trafficking on Tuesday. Earlier this year, they were convicted of drugging and raping dozens of women over more than a decade. Prosecutors say that the brothers had begun sexually assaulting women when they were in high school, later exploiting their wealth and access to luxury real estate to drug and rape women. In court, one woman said, “It took one night, only a few hours, one invitation to completely wreck the girl I once was.”