Sign in to baba News

The Desk, the news read to you every hour, is part of News Plus.

or use an email code

News Plus · The Desk

The news, read to you every hour

A short spoken bulletin on the stories that moved in the last hour, from 6:00 to 23:00 Israel time. In English.

Also in News Plus

  • What changed since you read it
  • The daily brief by email
  • Headlines side by side
  • Duki without the daily limit

Sign in to baba News

One account across the web, iPhone and Android — your subscription follows it.

or use an email code

News Plus

Welcome, one more step

The cross-newsroom layer: who covered a story, who didn’t, and how each one worded it. Plus your own news, on every device.

Follow your news

  • Unlimited follows
  • Alerts for what you follow (in the app)
  • Story alerts (in the app)
  • Hide read stories
  • The daily brief by email

See the coverage

  • Headlines side by side
  • Who reported first
  • Every newsroom clip, from every platform
  • Every newsroom photo on a story

Go deeper

  • The whole archive
  • Your reading diet
  • Duki without the daily limit
  • The Desk: the news, spoken every hour
  • Catch Me Up, and what changed since you read it
  • The Live Terminal

Free stays free: the live wire, Not Everywhere, the brief, five follows and five Duki questions a day.

Search stories

Type at least two characters. Results come from every newsroom baba reads.

↑↓ to move · ↵ to open · esc to close

Sign in to baba News

Sign in to keep asking. News Plus removes the daily limit.

or use an email code

News Plus · Ask Duki

Keep asking Duki

A free account gets five questions a day. News Plus lifts the daily limit.

Also in News Plus

  • The whole archive
  • Headlines side by side
  • Who reported first
  • The Desk, every hour

Full coverage· Politics· Updated

Battle for Electoral Threshold Could Decide Israel's Upcoming Elections

Israel's upcoming elections hinge on a fierce contest among at least eight parties near the electoral threshold, a sharp increase from previous elections. Historical data shows that votes lost by parties failing to cross the threshold have decisively influenced past results.

2 newsrooms · 1 language · since

Sign in to baba News

Sign in to save this article and find it on your phone.

or use an email code

Battle for Electoral Threshold Could Decide Israel's Upcoming Elections
Illustration by baba

What happened

  1. 01At least eight parties are currently competing near Israel's electoral threshold, up from the usual two or three.
  2. 02Previous elections saw hundreds of thousands of votes wasted on parties failing to pass the threshold, affecting final seat counts.
  3. 03In 2019, wasted votes cost Netanyahu's bloc about seven Knesset seats, weakening his position.
  4. 04In 2022, threshold effects amplified a small vote margin into nearly 300,000 wasted votes, benefiting Netanyahu's bloc.
  5. 05Eighteen lists are now contesting near the threshold, including notable right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties.
  6. 06Parties will need around 160,000 to 170,000 votes to pass the threshold, higher than in previous elections.

With eighteen lists currently competing near the threshold and expected mergers ahead, parties will need more votes than before to qualify, making the election highly unpredictable.

Translated and summarized by baba from N12, the latest report. Read N12’s original

The coverage

2 newsrooms on this story

Who covered it

  • LeftNone
  • Centre1
  • Right1
  • HarediNone
  • ArabNone

How it broke

Plus

News Plus · Who reported first

See which newsroom broke it

The order the newsrooms filed in, and how long each side of the press waited before running the story.

Also in News Plus

  • Headlines side by side
  • Story alerts
  • The Live Terminal
  • Unlimited follows