Good morning, it's Wednesday, Oct. 28. Israel's election left Benjamin Netanyahu short of a majority but still in charge, just as the price of America's Iran war passed $47 billion.

Also in today's issue: A grand jury says no, Ballot fight moves north, Election watchdog goes dark, Murkowski crosses over, Methane rules loosened, Refugees get a pause.

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As dawn broke over Jerusalem on Wednesday, Israelis were still counting votes, and nobody had won. That stalemate matters far beyond Israel. One rule of Israeli politics now shapes a war Americans are paying for, and the bill just got bigger.

Start with the bill. U.S. Central Command now puts the cost of the Iran war to the U.S. military at $47.1 billion as of mid-October, according to an estimate obtained by CBS News. That's roughly $140 for every person in the country. About $29 billion of it goes to replacing bombs and missiles already fired. Three months ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers the cost was about $37.5 billion. It doesn't even count damage to U.S. bases hit by Iranian drones and missiles.

Now the vote. With roughly three-quarters of ballots counted, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc of right-wing and religious parties holds about 54 or 55 seats. That's according to the latest count reported by Ynet. Israel's parliament, the Knesset, has 120 seats, and a government needs 61. The bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot, a former army chief, has about 49. Arab parties, which belong to neither side, have about 16.

Netanyahu's party, Likud, is still the biggest single party. Early exit polls had Eisenkot slightly ahead, and he declared victory. Then the real count moved the other way. Hundreds of thousands of special ballots, including soldiers' votes, may not be counted until Friday.

Here's the rule that matters. Until a new government forms, Netanyahu stays in charge as a caretaker prime minister. Forming a coalition, a team of parties that together hold a majority, usually takes weeks in Israel. So the man who couldn't win a majority still runs the country, including its military. Eisenkot knows it. He urged Israel's security chiefs to stand firm.

That timing lines up with Washington's. The U.S. and Israel have drawn up plans for new strikes on Iran after America's Nov. 3 midterms. President Trump hasn't announced a decision. "We may do another little Epic Fury, or they'll agree," he told a Florida rally last week. Iran says it will return to talks only after the U.S. suspends sanctions, lifts its naval blockade and promises not to strike again.

Each side has a case. Netanyahu's backers say keeping him in place keeps pressure on Iran, and pressure may be what finally forces an agreement. Critics say a leader who just lost his majority shouldn't help restart a war while his own voters are still deciding who governs.

Trump shared a post Wednesday claiming his endorsement turned a likely Netanyahu loss into a stalemate, or even a win.

Watch two calendars. In Israel, watch the final count and President Isaac Herzog's choice of who gets the first try at forming a government. In the U.S., watch the week after Nov. 3. If strikes come while Israel's coalition talks are still open, a caretaker government will have helped restart a war. If they don't, the planning may have been leverage all along.

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A federal grand jury refused Tuesday to indict Cassidy Hutchinson. She's the former Trump White House aide who became a star witness for the House panel on Jan. 6. The Justice Department wanted to charge her with lying to Congress in 2022. Republicans have long disputed parts of her story, including a secondhand account of Trump lunging for the wheel of his car. Grand juries almost never say no. Prosecutors only need most jurors to agree. They can still try again, and the vote doesn't settle whether her account was true. Hours earlier, a judge threw out a new charge prosecutors had filed overnight against two former FBI officials. No judge had signed off. He said prosecutors had invented "their own category of charging" (NBC News).

The fight over flagged ballots moved north Tuesday. Federal prosecutors gave Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs until Wednesday to set aside ballots from 405 voters that Homeland Security says aren't citizens. Prosecutors called the list just "the tip of the iceberg." Hobbs said one record on it dates to 1994. He says the timing is meant to cast doubt on the results. Trump said Tuesday he'll respect the outcome "if they're honest elections." In Los Angeles, Judge David Carter said he's considering naming a neutral expert to review California's 20,000 flagged names. That review could run past Election Day. He said threats against election workers should stop. If fraud is this big, he told prosecutors, "go out and indict" (ABC News).

The Federal Election Commission's filing system has been offline since about 10 p.m. Monday after a reported hacking attempt. The FEC is the agency that tracks campaign money. The outage blocks the 24-hour and 48-hour reports that show who is spending on which races in the final days. The agency hasn't said who was behind it or whether any data was taken. It doesn't affect voting or vote counting. One campaign finance expert said he hadn't seen anything like it in 26 years. The timing stings, too. This cycle's political ad spending just hit $11.21 billion, the most ever, according to media tracker AdImpact.

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Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski endorsed Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins for governor of Alaska on Tuesday. He faces three Republicans, including Bernadette Wilson, whom Trump backed earlier this month. Murkowski praised his push to work with both parties. She said Alaska's future is "too important to be hamstrung by partisan divisions." Her father, former Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski, also backed him. Kreiss-Tomkins, a former state lawmaker, has promised a cabinet with Republicans and independents, not just Democrats. Polls show him in the lead. Murkowski isn't simply switching sides: she endorsed Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan for reelection this year. Days ago, Trump called her a "disgrace" after she spoke out against the Justice Department's lawsuit over Alaska's Senate race.

President Trump announced a sweeping rollback of methane rules for oil and gas producers Tuesday, at a Texas rally for Senate candidate Ken Paxton. Methane, the main part of natural gas, is a powerful heat-trapping gas. The changes would loosen leak rules for low-producing wells and ease limits on burning off extra gas. The administration says that saves $45 billion and unlocks 210 million more barrels of oil through 2050. That's about 10 days of U.S. oil use. Research suggests those small wells make only about 7% to 8% of U.S. natural gas but may cause about half of the industry's methane leaks. Paxton is locked in a close race with Democrat James Talarico.

A federal judge paused a new rule Tuesday that gave refugees just 10 days, instead of 30, to challenge losing their legal status. Judge Julia Kobick in Boston put the rule on hold through Nov. 6 while a colleague takes up the case. Homeland Security said the rule could affect up to 186,000 refugees. These are people let in after fleeing danger in their home countries. A lawyer for refugee groups said the order protects people who already got notices. The Trump team says it found an "alarming erosion" of screening under President Biden. The order doesn't stop its wider review of refugees, which goes on.

That's what a gallon of regular cost on average Tuesday, according to AAA, down about 22 cents in a month. Easing prices helped lift consumer confidence to 91.7 in October, well above forecasts. A year ago, the same gallon cost $3.05.

P.S. What would you want to know before a war restarts? Hit Reply — We Read Everyone.