29 October 2026
Israel has completed counting the votes of its legislative election, and no side reached a majority. The bloc led by Benjamin Netanyahu stands at 53 seats and the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot at 48, while Arab list parties together hold 19. The Knesset, Israel's single-chamber parliament, has 120 seats, so 61 are needed for a majority. The results are certified and announced by Israel's Central Elections Committee. Because neither bloc crossed the halfway mark, a government can only be formed through negotiation among parties. Israel elects its Knesset by proportional representation with the whole country as one constituency, which is why coalitions are the rule there.
Netanyahu's bloc:
53 seats
Opposition bloc:
48 seats
Arab list parties:
19 seats
Why it matters for exams: The Knesset has 120 seats and needs 61 for a majority; after the completed count Netanyahu's bloc has 53, Eisenkot's bloc 48 and Arab list parties 19.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Knesset Knesset — Israel's single-chamber parliament of 120 members.
Central Elections Committee Central Elections Committee — The body that certifies and announces Israel's election results.
29 October 2026
Canada hosted the Canada-European Union Summit at Montreal in Quebec from 29 to 30 October 2026. Prime Minister Mark Carney worked with Antonio Costa, President of the European Council, and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. The two sides had launched the New EU-Canada Strategic Partnership of the Future at their summit in Brussels on 23 June 2025, where they also signed a Security and Defence Partnership. Canada has since become the first country outside Europe to join the European Union's Security Action for Europe initiative. The Montreal talks looked at lowering costs for consumers, opening export markets and letting young people live, work and study on either side. A joint statement was prepared covering closer association, a connectivity initiative linking Europe, Canada and Asia including new subsea cable infrastructure, and a feasibility study on Canadian liquefied natural gas exports to Europe.
Venue and dates:
Montreal, Quebec, 29-30 October 2026
Earlier partnership:
EU-Canada Strategic Partnership of the Future, launched 23 June 2025
SAFE:
Canada is the first non-European country to join
Why it matters for exams: At the Montreal Canada-EU Summit the EU was represented by European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen; Canada is the first non-European country to have joined the EU's SAFE initiative.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
SAFE Security Action for Europe — An EU defence financing initiative that Canada joined in February 2026.
European Commission European Commission — The executive arm of the European Union, headed by a President.
29 October 2026
NASA has invited the public to send their names aboard Dragonfly, the rotorcraft it is sending to Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Names can be submitted until 11:59 p.m. EST on 15 January 2027. Dragonfly is the fourth mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program and is managed for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. It is scheduled to launch in 2028 and to reach Titan in 2034. Once there it will fly from place to place, looking for clues about prebiotic chemistry, the chemistry that comes before life. Titan has a thick atmosphere, rivers and lakes of liquid methane and terrain rich in organic material, which is why it interests scientists. The craft is being designed, built and led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory at Laurel, Maryland, with Elizabeth Turtle as principal investigator, and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville, Alabama, manages the New Frontiers Program.
Destination:
Titan, the largest moon of Saturn
Launch and arrival:
Launch 2028, arrival 2034
Name submission deadline:
11:59 p.m. EST, 15 January 2027
Why it matters for exams: Dragonfly is the fourth mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program, launching in 2028 and reaching Saturn's moon Titan in 2034, led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
New Frontiers Program New Frontiers Program — NASA's programme of medium-class planetary science missions; Dragonfly is its fourth.
Prebiotic chemistry Prebiotic chemistry — The chemical steps that may come before the start of life.
29 October 2026
UNESCO reported that Colombia is moving ahead on recovery for its cultural sector after the earthquake that struck the country on 10 August 2026. The work is being carried out by the Ministry of Culture, the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, the United Nations system in Colombia and UNESCO, with support from the UNESCO Heritage Emergency Fund. The step involves specialised training and emergency measures to protect heritage, including assessing the damage done to cultural property. The Heritage Emergency Fund has put in more than USD 60,000 as initial resources for technical support teams, specialised training and urgent protection of heritage buildings and traditional dwellings in the affected municipalities of Colombia's Coffee Cultural Landscape. The Heritage Emergency Fund is the mechanism through which UNESCO responds quickly to disasters and conflicts that threaten culture, whether that is monuments, museums, archives or living heritage.
Earthquake date:
10 August 2026
Supporting mechanism:
UNESCO Heritage Emergency Fund
National agency involved:
National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD)
Initial support from the Fund:
More than USD 60,000
Why it matters for exams: The UNESCO Heritage Emergency Fund is the mechanism through which UNESCO responds to disasters affecting culture; it is supporting Colombia's recovery after the 10 August 2026 earthquake.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
HEF Heritage Emergency Fund — UNESCO's fund for quick action to protect culture in disasters and conflicts.
UNGRD National Unit for Disaster Risk Management — Colombia's national disaster risk management agency.
28 October 2026
A study in the journal Nature reports that the availability of stone for making tools, and not freshwater alone, decided where early humans could settle in a desert. The team ran a geoarchaeological survey of about 1,500 km across the Rub' al Khali of Arabia, the largest sand sea in the world. They recorded ancient lake deposits at 55 of the 125 localities they examined, yet found no stone tools and no knappable raw material anywhere along the route, even though ground visibility was over 95 per cent and people were living at the desert margins at the same time. Across the Arabian Peninsula, 57 per cent of land that can be reached with water sits on rock formations that carry no knappable stone. Adding raw material to the model improved its ability to pick out known sites, lifting the area under the curve from 0.695 to 0.768. The authors say dispersal models that leave out the geology of raw material may overstate how much land stone-tool-using people could occupy.
Survey length:
Approximately 1,500 km
Palaeolake deposits:
Recorded at 55 of 125 localities
Water-accessible terrain without knappable stone:
57 per cent of the Peninsula
Why it matters for exams: The Nature study surveyed about 1,500 km of the Rub' al Khali, the world's largest sand sea, and found palaeolake deposits at 55 of 125 localities but no knappable stone.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Rub' al Khali Rub' al Khali — The Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula, the largest continuous sand sea on Earth.
Geoarchaeology Geoarchaeology — The study of archaeological sites using the methods of earth science.
28 October 2026
LA28, the organising committee of the Los Angeles 2028 Games, unveiled Stars Align as the official slogan of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. LA28 Chairperson and President Casey Wasserman and Chief Marketing Officer Alex Merchan spoke about the choice. The Olympic Games open on 14 July 2028 and the Paralympic Games on 15 August 2028. Los Angeles will become the third city to host three Olympic Games, after holding them in 1932 and 1984, and these will be its first Paralympic Games. More than 15,000 athletes are expected. Organisers say these will be the first Games since 1948 built without new permanent infrastructure. A host city slogan sits beside the Olympic motto, Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together, and the Paralympic motto, Change Starts with Sport.
Slogan:
Stars Align
Olympic Games open:
14 July 2028
Paralympic Games open:
15 August 2028
Earlier Los Angeles Olympics:
1932 and 1984
Why it matters for exams: Stars Align is the official slogan of the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which open on 14 July 2028 and 15 August 2028 and make Los Angeles the third city to host three Olympics.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
LA28 LA28 — The independently funded non-profit organising committee of the Los Angeles 2028 Games.
Paralympic motto Change Starts with Sport — The motto of the Paralympic Movement.
Background
Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is the plan of action for people, planet and prosperity agreed by world leaders meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York. It announced 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets, and pledged that no one will be left behind. The Goals seek to build on the Millennium Development Goals and to complete what those did not achieve. They are described as integrated and indivisible, balancing the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. The Agenda sets out its areas of critical importance under five headings: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership. Under Partnership, the means of carrying out the Agenda are to be mobilised through a revitalised Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, focussed in particular on the poorest and most vulnerable. The world leaders who adopted it committed themselves to full implementation by 2030.
Goals:
17
Targets:
169
Five headings:
People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, Partnership
Agreed at:
United Nations Headquarters, New York
Why it matters for exams: The count of 17 Goals and 169 targets, the five headings People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership, and the succession from the Millennium Development Goals are among the most asked development facts.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
SDG Sustainable Development Goal — One of the 17 goals announced in the global development agenda, with 169 targets under them.
MDG Millennium Development Goal — The earlier set of global goals that the Sustainable Development Goals build on.
Background
The International Classification of Diseases, in full the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, is the standard WHO keeps for recording disease and cause of death. For more than a century it has given the world comparable statistics on causes of mortality and morbidity, from one place to another and from one period to the next. Its latest version, ICD-11, was adopted by the 72nd World Health Assembly and replaces ICD-10. The classification lets mortality and morbidity data gathered in different countries or regions, and at different times, be recorded, analysed, interpreted and compared in a systematic way. ICD operates within WHO's own constitutional mandate to establish international nomenclatures, alongside the WHO Nomenclature regulations and the surveillance duties under the International Health Regulations. With ICD-11 it becomes possible, for the first time, to count traditional medicine services and encounters. The classification is distributed under a Creative Commons licence and its content is openly permitted for use across all WHO Member States.
Full title:
International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems
Current version:
ICD-11
Adopted by:
72nd World Health Assembly
Why it matters for exams: The ICD expansion, the full statistical title, the World Health Assembly as the adopting body and the shift from ICD-10 to ICD-11 are standard health governance questions.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
ICD International Classification of Diseases — The world standard for recording disease and cause of death, kept by the world health agency.
Morbidity the burden of illness in a population — Set against mortality, which counts deaths; the classification carries statistics on both.