28 October 2026
Serbia held a snap parliamentary election on 25 October 2026 and President Aleksandar Vucic conceded that the Student List, which grew out of months of student protests, had won. The Student List took about 2.2 million votes against about 1.72 million for his Serbian Progressive Party. Vucic, speaking from a stratified sample, put the Student List at 135 to 140 seats and his own party at about 105, with three seats for the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians and one for Albanian parties. Final results were awaited, and it was not clear whether smaller parties had crossed the 3 per cent threshold. Celebrations continued in Belgrade for a second night.
Election date:
25 October 2026
Winning list:
Student List
Votes:
about 2.2 million against about 1.72 million
Entry threshold:
3 per cent
Why it matters for exams: A change of parliamentary majority in a European country: Serbia's capital, its 3 per cent entry threshold and the office held by Aleksandar Vucic are the examinable facts.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Snap election An election held before the scheduled end of a term — A vote called early, usually after the assembly is dissolved.
28 October 2026
A localised ceasefire took effect on 27 October 2026 in and around Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town in Ukraine's Kherson region, to allow an aid mission and evacuations. The Russian Ministry of Defence said the pause began at 01:00 GMT, and Russia suspended strikes on Kherson province. The ceasefire was announced on 23 October and was brokered with the involvement of United States First Lady Melania Trump, with Pope Leo XIV also involved. Oleshky lies on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, opposite Kherson city, which Ukrainian forces hold, and was seized by Russia in the first days of the February 2022 invasion. Its pre-war population was about 24,000, and the United Nations says up to 2,000 people remain, unable to leave because of mines and drone attacks. UN humanitarian coordinator Matthias Schmale said civilians were trapped without a guaranteed safe exit route. Negotiators plan to bring in doctors, medicines, food and water before opening evacuation corridors.
Town:
Oleshky, Kherson region
Ceasefire began:
01:00 GMT, 27 October 2026
Pre-war population:
about 24,000
People still in the town:
up to 2,000
Why it matters for exams: The Dnipro River, Kherson and the February 2022 invasion are the geography and timeline facts an examiner asks about the war in Ukraine.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Humanitarian corridor A route agreed for aid and evacuation — A route on which fighting stops so that aid can enter and civilians can leave.
28 October 2026
The European Space Agency extended its contracts for four more Galileo Second Generation satellites, taking the planned G2 fleet to 16. The contracts were signed with Thales Alenia Space in Italy on 23 October and with Airbus Defence and Space in Germany on 26 October 2026; each company already held a 2021 contract for six G2 satellites. The four new satellites are identical to the earlier ones and are due for delivery in 2031, with launch to follow. The G2 design carries fully digital navigation payloads, a better navigation antenna, inter-satellite links and an advanced atomic clock configuration. Integration and flight testing of the first G2 satellites begin in 2027, ahead of the first G2 launch in 2028. Galileo is managed and funded by the European Commission under the EU Space programme; ESA leads design, development and qualification and acts as technical launch authority, while the EU Agency for the Space Programme is the service provider and oversees operations.
New satellites ordered:
four
Planned G2 fleet:
16
Delivery:
2031
First G2 launch:
2028
Why it matters for exams: Galileo is the European Union's own satellite navigation system -- its funder, its technical agency and its service provider are the facts asked alongside GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and NavIC.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
EUSPA EU Agency for the Space Programme — The European Union agency that provides and operates Galileo services.
G2 Galileo Second Generation — The next series of Galileo satellites, with digital payloads and inter-satellite links.
28 October 2026
The 350th meeting of the Council of the European Space Agency was held at ESA Headquarters in Paris on 21 and 22 October 2026. The Council advanced preparations for the Intermediate Ministerial Meeting, to be held in Rome on 15 December 2026, and discussed the Director General's proposal 'Europe's Future in Space Exploration', which sets out a scalable European path in low Earth orbit, to the Moon and towards Mars. Member States also reviewed relations with the European Union, including preparations for the EU Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2034, the European Competitiveness Fund, the EU Space Act and the EUSPA regulation, and pressed for a clear division of responsibilities that avoids duplication. The Council approved two new directors with effect from 1 January 2027: Andrzej Banasiak for Commercialisation and Industry Partnership and Nicolaus Hanowski for Space Operations. ESA has 23 Member States, with Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia as Associate Members.
Council meeting:
350th, Paris, 21-22 October 2026
Intermediate Ministerial Meeting:
Rome, 15 December 2026
New directors from 1 January 2027:
Andrzej Banasiak and Nicolaus Hanowski
Member States:
23
Why it matters for exams: ESA's seat in Paris, its 23 Member States and the fact that it is separate from the European Union are the standard questions on European space governance.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
IMM Intermediate Ministerial Meeting — A meeting of ESA member state ministers held between the main ministerial councils.
28 October 2026
Harry Kane, the Bayern Munich and England striker, won the Ballon d'Or at a ceremony in London. He is the first Englishman to take the award since Michael Owen in 2001. Kane scored 61 goals in 51 games for Bayern Munich in the 2025-26 season and 73 for club and country in all. Alexia Putellas of Spain won the Ballon d'Or Feminin for the third time, after a treble-winning 2025-26 season with Barcelona; she moved to London City Lionesses in July after fourteen years at Barcelona.
Men's winner:
Harry Kane, Bayern Munich and England
Women's winner:
Alexia Putellas, Spain
Previous English winner:
Michael Owen, 2001
Kane's club goals:
61 in 51 games
Why it matters for exams: The Ballon d'Or is the best-known individual award in football; the winner, his club and the previous English winner are standard sports questions.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Ballon d'Or Feminin The women's Ballon d'Or — The women's edition of the award, first given in 2018.
28 October 2026
Huub Lelieveld, a Dutch scientist who spent six decades on food safety research, advocacy and institution building, received the World Food Prize for 2026. The award was presented at the opening ceremony of the Borlaug International Dialogue in Des Moines, Iowa. Lelieveld's work contributed to globally harmonised food safety standards. The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, QU Dongyu, said Lelieveld held a lifelong conviction that access to safe food is a universal right, and used the occasion to describe FAO's support for building food safety capacity in developing countries.
Laureate:
Huub Lelieveld, the Netherlands
Venue:
Des Moines, Iowa
Event:
Borlaug International Dialogue
FAO Director-General:
QU Dongyu
Why it matters for exams: The World Food Prize and the Borlaug International Dialogue are named after Norman Borlaug; the FAO Director-General is QU Dongyu and the organisation sits in Rome.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — The UN agency for food and agriculture, with its headquarters in Rome.
28 October 2026
The four volunteers of CHAPEA Mission 2, NASA's Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, are to leave their simulated Mars habitat on Saturday 31 October 2026 after 378 days of isolation. Ross Elder, Matthew Montgomery, Ellen Ellis and James Spicer entered the 3D-printed habitat of about 1,700 square feet at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on 19 October 2025. The mission is run by NASA's Human Research Program and simulates Mars operations under communication delays, limited resources and isolation, with simulated spacewalks, exercise, habitat maintenance and plant growing. The health and performance data gathered are to inform food system design, use of crew time, Deep Space Network bandwidth and medical and behavioural support for Artemis and later Moon and Mars missions.
Mission:
CHAPEA Mission 2
Duration:
378 days
Habitat:
3D-printed, about 1,700 square feet
Centre:
NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston
Why it matters for exams: CHAPEA is NASA's ground analogue for Mars missions, run from the Johnson Space Center under the Human Research Program -- a named programme, centre and acronym.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
CHAPEA Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog — NASA's ground-based simulation of a long Mars mission.
Analogue mission A mission simulated on Earth — A study that recreates spaceflight conditions on the ground.
28 October 2026
The Martian Moons eXploration spacecraft, MMX, lifted off on 20 October 2026 at 04:41 Japan Standard Time on a JAXA H3 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center. The mission is led by Japan's space agency JAXA in collaboration with NASA, France's CNES, Germany's DLR and the European Space Agency, and is due to reach Mars next summer. MMX is to study the two Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos. It will be the first spacecraft to orbit Phobos, the first to collect samples from its surface and the first to return to Earth from the Mars system. ESA supplied the spacecraft's deep space communication equipment and provides ground station support through its Estrack network, and European scientists appointed by ESA sit on the mission science team.
Mission:
Martian Moons eXploration (MMX)
Launch:
20 October 2026, H3 rocket, Tanegashima Space Center
Lead agency:
JAXA, Japan
Targets:
Phobos and Deimos
Why it matters for exams: Phobos and Deimos are the two moons of Mars, JAXA is Japan's space agency and the H3 is its launch vehicle -- the facts a paper asks about this mission.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency — Japan's national space agency.
Estrack ESA's tracking station network — ESA's network of ground stations that communicates with deep space missions.
28 October 2026
A vaccine trial named TUMAINI has begun in the eastern Congolese city of Bunia against the Bundibugyo Ebola virus, using a ring vaccination approach that immunises the contacts of confirmed cases. Four people were vaccinated at the launch, two rings are in place and results are expected in several months. The trial is led by Congolese authorities and managed by the National Public Health and Biomedical Research Institute. The first vaccine being tested is Ervebo, which has been effective against the Zaire strain of Ebola; whether it protects against Bundibugyo is not yet known. Technical advisory groups of the World Health Organization are evaluating two Bundibugyo-specific candidates, ChAdOx1 from the University of Oxford with the Serum Institute of India and mRNA-1469 from Moderna. The Democratic Republic of the Congo declared the outbreak on 15 May and its caseload is approaching 10,000. Kenya, which confirmed its first case on 6 October, has reported nine confirmed cases and two deaths in one connected group, with no evidence of community spread; 20 contacts were discharged after a 21-day monitoring period and 98 remain in quarantine.
Trial:
TUMAINI, at Bunia
First vaccine tested:
Ervebo
Outbreak declared:
15 May
Kenya's cases:
nine confirmed, two deaths
Why it matters for exams: Ring vaccination, the Ervebo vaccine and the Zaire and Bundibugyo species of the Ebola virus are the named facts behind every Ebola question.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Ring vaccination Vaccinating the contacts of confirmed cases — A strategy that vaccinates the people around each case instead of the whole population.
WHO World Health Organization — The UN health agency, with its headquarters in Geneva.
28 October 2026
NASA will show a lunar landing simulation at its Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley on 29 and 30 October 2026. The landing simulation was developed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and has been integrated into the recently upgraded flight deck of the Vertical Motion Simulator at Ames. The simulator gives astronauts and engineering support teams practice before crews pilot commercial human landing systems to the surface of the Moon under the Artemis programme. NASA is targeting the next lunar landing in 2028.
Centre:
NASA Ames Research Center, California
Simulator:
Vertical Motion Simulator
Developed by:
NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston
Next lunar landing targeted:
2028
Why it matters for exams: Ames Research Center, the Vertical Motion Simulator and the Artemis programme's target of the next crewed lunar landing are the named facts here.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
HLS Human Landing System — The commercial lander that will carry Artemis crews to the lunar surface.
28 October 2026
UNESCO is marking Global Media and Information Literacy Week 2026 on the theme 'MIL Cities for Enlightened Citizens', which is also the theme set for World Cities Day 2026. Local events run from 27 October to 3 November 2026 in Dubrovnik in Croatia and Al Rayyan in Qatar, and a central hybrid event is held on 3 November across the two cities, which co-organise it with UNESCO. The event is to launch the MIL Cities Chapter of the UNESCO MIL Alliance, a global platform for cooperation among cities. Cities are invited to commit to the UNESCO publication 'Operational Guidelines: Constructing UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Cities' of 2024. The MIL Cities initiative supports cities in building media and information literacy into everyday urban life.
Theme:
MIL Cities for Enlightened Citizens
Local events:
27 October to 3 November 2026
Host cities:
Dubrovnik and Al Rayyan
Launch:
MIL Cities Chapter of the UNESCO MIL Alliance
Why it matters for exams: UNESCO is the UN agency for education, science and culture, and World Cities Day is observed on 31 October -- both standing facts behind this week's theme.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
MIL Media and Information Literacy — The ability to find, evaluate and use information and media critically.
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — The UN agency for education, science and culture, with its headquarters in Paris.
Background
African heads of state are gathering with Russia's leadership in Moscow this week, with the chair of the African Union among those presiding, which makes the Union itself worth knowing. The African Union is a continental body of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African continent. It was officially launched in July 2002 at Durban in South Africa, succeeding the Organisation of African Unity, which functioned from 1963 to 1999. The African Union has its headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Member states:
55
Launched:
July 2002, Durban, South Africa
Predecessor:
Organisation of African Unity, 1963 to 1999
Headquarters:
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Why it matters for exams: The African Union's membership of 55, its launch in 2002 at Durban, its predecessor the Organisation of African Unity and its seat at Addis Ababa are asked directly in world-affairs papers.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
AU African Union — The continental union of African states, launched in 2002.
OAU Organisation of African Unity — The body that preceded the African Union, from 1963 to 1999.