Israeli Elections, Tennessee Prison Break, and Bloomscrolling

Good morning, it's Wednesday, Oct. 28. Israeli elections have ended without a clear winner. First time reading? Join millions of insatiably curious readers. Sign up here.

Also in today's Digest: Melania Trump's local ceasefire (Need To Know), a spike-thumbed dinosaur (Sci. & Tech.), US visas for Flávio Bolsonaro and his family (Pol. & World Affairs), the power of bloomscrolling (Etc.), and much more. 

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 Need To Know 

Israeli Election Deadlock

Exit polls suggest no clear winner in Israel's first election since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks and the war in Gaza, likely setting the stage for weeks of negotiations.

Israelis turned out in record numbers for an election widely seen as a referendum on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nearly uninterrupted 17-year rule, amid wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran. Neither Netanyahu's nationalist-populist coalition nor a centrist coalition led by his former military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot appears to have secured a parliamentary majority. Arab-led parties emerged as the next largest bloc. Both Netanyahu and Eisenkot's coalitions have previously refused to partner with them but may need to reconsider to secure a governing majority. 

Israelis vote for parties rather than individual candidates. A party leader must build a majority coalition to become prime minister. Learn how Israeli elections work here (w/video).

Humanitarian Ceasefire Begins

Russia and Ukraine began a localized ceasefire yesterday in Russian-occupied Oleshky, allowing aid and evacuations for roughly 2,000 residents facing dwindling supplies. The White House credited first lady Melania Trump with brokering the agreement, which is expected to last through at least Saturday.

Oleshky, located along the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine's Kherson region, fell to Russian forces in February 2022 and was devastated by flooding following a dam collapse in 2023. The river separates Russian and Ukrainian forces, and land mines and drone attacks have made escaping dangerous. The area has received no food by road since late May, according to UN human rights groups. Aid workers plan to deliver food, water, and medicine before opening evacuation routes.

The agreement marks an expanded diplomatic role for the first lady, who previously helped reunite 34 children with their families and used contacts established through those efforts to negotiate the ceasefire.

Tennessee Prison Break

A multistate manhunt is underway for a convicted murderer who escaped from a Tennessee prison late Sunday. Security footage allegedly shows 28-year-old Jacob Allen Morley stealing a truck from a nearby farm; watch here.

Morley was convicted of first-degree murder for killing his coworker Cody Birchfield in 2022. The two worked at a pallet manufacturing company before Birchfield’s body was discovered in a metal box under Morley’s house; forensic analysis suggests he was killed by a gunshot wound to the head. Before Sunday, Morley’s supervision level at the prison was listed as “low.” The incident marks the latest escape by a Tennessee inmate in recent weeks; a 69-year-old prisoner convicted of robbery fled a Nashville hospital earlier this month but was quickly recaptured.

There are hundreds of prison breaks per year in the US. Many involve low-risk inmates, with an estimated one-fifth of incidents involving violence—most likely at the time of escape.

 In The Know 

Science & Technology

> Scientists identify spike-thumbed, plant-eating dinosaur species roughly 25 years after fossil was unearthed at an English quarry (More, w/rendering) | Nanotyrannus skeleton is auctioned for nearly $47.3M; species is smaller relative of T. rex (More)

> Ebola cases surpass 10,000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a death toll of nearly 5,000; on track to be the largest and deadliest Ebola outbreak on record (More) | Watch how healthcare providers protect themselves from Ebola (More)

> Apple unveils 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 chip designed for AI workloads ahead of product event today, where the company is expected to announce a touch-screen laptop (More) | Customers are complaining about faulty iPhone Duo screens (More)

Business & Markets

> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +0.6%, Dow +0.0%, Nasdaq +1.2%) as tech investors await third-quarter earnings reports from Microsoft as well as Google's parent company Alphabet (More) 

> Consumer confidence index rebounds to 91.7 this month, rising 7.5 points from September dip that marked the lowest level since 2014, Conference Board survey reveals (More) | Why are grocery prices fluctuating? (More, w/graphs)

> JetBlue shares climb 18.9% as airline reports $2.8B in third-quarter revenue, a 21% increase compared with the same period a year ago, despite shouldering a 57% surge in fuel expenses (More) | Which US airlines rank highest for punctuality? (More) 

Politics & World Affairs

> US State Department to grant Flávio Bolsonaro and his family US visas after the former Brazilian presidential candidate skirts recent court order to surrender passports amid money laundering probe (More) | See previous write-up (More)

> UK officials charge two British men as part of an alleged Iranian-linked plot to target RAF Fairford, a military base in England the US has used in its war with Iran (More)

> CDC Deputy Director Dr. Jennifer Shuford resigns after four months in the role (More) | FBI raids the California home of billionaire Stephen Cloobeck, a former donor to California Rep. Eric Swalwell (More)

In-Depth

> Dominican Baseball Factory

ProPublica | Gus Garcia-Roberts. The Dominican Republic produces more MLB players than any country outside the US. Many are recruited as young as age 11 with informal, multimillion-dollar deals exploited by shady moneylenders. (Read) 

> Generational Grooves

Stat Significant | Daniel Parris. Our music taste is largely shaped by what we listened to in middle school, but how we listen evolves as we age. Are your listening habits in line with your peers? (Read, w/charts) 

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