What happened On Monday Microsoft offered voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, roughly 27% of its 223,000-strong workforce, according to CNBC and TechCrunch. Staff at vice-president level and below on selected teams in the United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom can apply; Bloomberg reported that Xbox, Windows, Copilot and Finance are taking part while data-centre, sales and marketing staff are excluded. Those who accept get a minimum of eight weeks' pay in the US, continued stock vesting and health cover, and must decide by early December before leaving on 31 December. The…

Rhymes with: The jobs nobody could name; The automation scare; The Engels' pause: output up, pay flat. Outlook: Churn without collapse: aggregate employment holds, junior white-collar hiring stays depressed, new titles emerge (45%, 5 years, to 2031).

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What happened The decision, at the end of the 27–28 October meeting, keeps the funds rate where the Fed put it with a unanimous quarter-point hike in September, its first increase since 2023. The statement upgraded its description of activity from "solid" to "expanding at a strong pace" and repeated that "inflation remains elevated." It dropped September's line that the hike would "support a timelier return" to 2% inflation, replacing it with a promise that "the accumulation of more information will help the Committee determine the policy stance appropriate." Chair Kevin Warsh declined to say …

Rhymes with: The pre-election pause that says it is not a peak; The central bank under open political pressure. Outlook: 25bp hike in December (50%, to the 9 December FOMC meeting).

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What happened Israel's general election on Tuesday 27 October has produced no clear winner. With about 90% of votes counted, partial results from the Central Elections Committee (CEC) gave Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc 53 seats and the bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot 48, with Arab-led parties on a record 19. A majority in the 120-seat Knesset is 61. Likud is the largest party on 26 seats, ahead of Eisenkot's Yashar on 21. The opposition bloc comprises Yashar, B'Yachad, Yisrael Beytenu and the Democrats. The Arab-led lists are the Joint List, headed by Yousef Jabareen, and Ra'am, led by Mansour Abbas. Do…

Rhymes with: Israeli deadlock with Arab parties as kingmakers; Losing side alleges fraud while institutions hold firm. Outlook: Talks fail and the Knesset moves to dissolve for another election (35%, 3 months).

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What happened Revenue for the quarter was $127.6 billion, up 25% from $102.3 billion a year earlier. Google Cloud revenue roughly doubled to about $30.7 billion. Capital expenditure came in at $51.36 billion, below the $55.09 billion analysts had modelled, and the company left its full-year guidance unchanged at $195 billion to $205 billion. On the call the chief financial officer said Alphabet continues to expect capital spending to "increase significantly" in 2027, with details to come with fourth-quarter results. Earnings per share missed estimates, with much of the shortfall attributed to …

Rhymes with: The build-out where spending outruns cash; The incumbent spending to survive a platform shift. Outlook: Capex growth is cut or paused; shares re-rate on cash discipline (40%, 18 months).

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What happened The regional government of Castilla-La Mancha put the toll at 68 dead and 68 injured; CNN reported at least 69 killed and more than 100 hurt. Regional president Emiliano García-Page said at least 15 people were seriously injured and more than 50 had been taken to hospital with lesser injuries. The crash happened on the Madrid–Andalusia high-speed corridor, where services remain suspended until further notice. Transport Minister Óscar Puente gave the first official account of the sequence. The control system at Urda failed, he said, and six trains were brought to a halt. One of th…

Rhymes with: The high-speed rail disaster and what follows it. Outlook: Criminal prosecutions of operating staff, limited structural change (45%, 24 months).

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What happened Jacob Misiorowski held the Rays to two hits over 5⅔ scoreless innings in the clincher. Rookie Cooper Pratt had two more hits and two runs batted in, and his sacrifice fly in the sixth stretched the lead to 4–0. Tampa Bay's only run came in the ninth. Catcher William Contreras was named series MVP after batting .381 and winning ten of thirteen challenges under the automated ball-strike system. The series ran from 23 to 28 October. Milwaukee reached it by sweeping the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, and became only the sec…

Rhymes with: The first title after a long drought. Outlook: Quick fade: misses the playoffs within two seasons (55%, the next three seasons).

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What happened Yemen's Transport Ministry said the airport was hit twice, which by its count makes this the sixth attack on the facility in about a month. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the target was a Saudi cargo aircraft. Saudi officials did not comment. Reports on casualties conflict: some outlets described civilian injuries and material damage, others said no one was hurt. UN staff had been moved out of the airport area shortly before the strike. The attack came amid a broader escalation. Government forces, supported by Saudi-led coalition aircraft, have launched an offensive t…

Rhymes with: Aden as the hinge of Yemen's wars; Striking civil infrastructure to force a deal. Outlook: Attrition: airport closed intermittently, front lines shift little (50%, 6 months).

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What happened Rafael Grossi said the agency's monitoring had turned up no reconstruction work at the struck sites since June 2025, even as Tehran continues to deny inspectors access to most of its nuclear facilities. He stressed that remote monitoring "cannot substitute for physical checks," which remain necessary to establish the actual condition of the facilities and to verify Iran's nuclear activities. The uranium gap is the agency's central concern. The IAEA has been unable to confirm the location of approximately 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%, previously declared by Iran, since…

Rhymes with: The nuclear programme after the bombs. Outlook: Covert dispersal; the standoff with inspectors continues (50%, 12 months).

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What happened The confrontation came on Tuesday 27 October, during the Assembly's annual debate on the embargo. Cuban representatives loudly interrupted the speech of Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, who displayed photographs of Fidel Castro and President Miguel Díaz-Canel wearing Rolex watches. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla left his seat and approached the podium, and the Assembly's president, Khalilur Rahman, briefly suspended the session. A Cuban official was recorded trying to grab a phone from Waltz's spokesman, JP Freire, who was filming the exchange. Waltz told the C…

Rhymes with: Energy squeeze on an isolated regime; US expulsions of Cuban diplomats. Outlook: Squeeze grinds on; Cuban government holds without a deal (55%, 12 months).

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