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The Morning Dispatch
Seattle's Morning Paper · Thursday, October 15, 2026 · No. 1
Page 1: Front Page
Inflation Climbs to 3.7%, Stocks Slide
Gasoline jumps 9.1% in a month as war lifts fuel costs
WASHINGTON. Consumer prices rose 3.7% in September from a year earlier, the Labor Department reported Wednesday, faster than the 3.4% pace of August and above the 3.6% that economists had expected. A surge in gasoline costs tied to the war with Iran led the climb.
Doctors say tests are normal and the lung is healing well
Pope Leo XIV on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica after his election in 2025 (file photo). Photo: Edgar Beltrán / The Pillar / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
VATICAN CITY. Pope Leo XIV went back to work from his hospital room in Rome on Thursday, two days after surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung and confirmed he has lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer. The Vatican said the 71-year-old pontiff was reviewing documents.
Average retiree gains about $75 a month in January
WASHINGTON. The Social Security Administration said Wednesday that benefits will rise 3.6% in 2027 to keep pace with living costs, an average of about $75 more a month. The raise reaches nearly 72 million people on Social Security and about 7.3 million who receive Supplemental Security Income.
Zelenskyy says Russia fired more than 850 drones overnight
KYIV, Ukraine. Ukrainian drones set fire to an oil refinery in Russia's Ryazan region early Thursday, hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared that a brief truce on energy targets was over. Russia's Defense Ministry and the regional governor confirmed the blaze, about 180 miles southeast of Moscow.
Saudis say they downed a cruise missile over Medina
DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia. Houthi rebels from Yemen struck the headquarters of the Saudi oil giant Aramco in Dhahran overnight, damaging the building's top three floors, including the offices of its chief executive, two regional officials said Wednesday. No one was hurt. Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry described a limited fire at the building.
Grand jury subpoenas reach her relatives, AP source says
WASHINGTON. Federal authorities investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., have seized her phone and issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, some of them to her relatives, according to a person briefed on the case who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Second and third graders were in class; owner arrested
PESHAWAR, Pakistan. The roofs of two classrooms collapsed Thursday at a private school in Peshawar, in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 34 children and a teacher and injuring more than 50 people. Officials said it was the deadliest disaster of its kind in the country.
About 8 in 10 disapprove of Trump on cost of living
WASHINGTON. With less than four weeks until Election Day, American voters are frustrated with President Trump and want major change in Washington, a new poll by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has found.
Justice Dept. Gives California 48 Hours on Voter Rolls
State says it has no evidence noncitizens got ballots
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, about 2021 (file photo). Photo: California Secretary of State's office / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
LOS ANGELES. The Justice Department has warned California that it may take the state to court unless it acts within 48 hours on federal claims that some noncitizens were mailed ballots for the Nov. 3 election. California mails a ballot to every registered voter.
Revised indictment accuses him of running a torture system
NEW YORK. Former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were due in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday to answer a rewritten indictment that adds torture charges to the drug trafficking case against them. Both were expected to plead not guilty.
LOS ANGELES. Hot weather and dry Santa Ana winds raised the danger of wildfires across much of California starting Thursday, and utilities warned that hundreds of thousands of customers could lose power through Saturday as a precaution against downed lines sparking fires.
ITHACA, N.Y. Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff faced angry professors at a closed Faculty Senate meeting Wednesday over how his administration handled a woman's report that she was gang raped at a fraternity house in 2024. He admitted some missteps but asked for more time to carry out reforms.
PALATINE, Ill. Police in Palatine, a Chicago suburb, say they stopped a possible mass shooting when they arrested a 19-year-old man on Sunday. Alexandros Paporakis is charged with making a terrorist threat and unlawfully possessing weapons.
JERUSALEM. Israel said Wednesday that commercial goods will no longer be allowed into the Gaza Strip, cutting off a major source of food and shelter supplies for a hungry population as winter approaches. The announcement came from COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees humanitarian affairs in the territory.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama in 2024 (file photo). Photo: Eriona Çami - European Commission / CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
TIRANA, Albania. Student-led protesters fought with riot police in Albania's capital for a third straight day Thursday, throwing rocks at a police line outside the Education Ministry. Officers answered with tear gas and water cannons and detained several demonstrators.
Rights group reports civilians killed by shelling in Tigray
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Wednesday and urged him to settle rising tensions with Eritrea through dialogue under the two countries' 2018 peace deal, the State Department said. Rubio told Abiy the region could not afford more conflict.
ISTANBUL. A heavy downpour Wednesday night flooded homes, businesses, roads and underpasses across Istanbul, killing three people and leaving four missing, the governor's office said Thursday. City officials said some areas got their heaviest rain since 1985.
BRASILIA, Brazil. Brazil's Senate voted 75 to 1 on Wednesday for a constitutional amendment cutting the maximum workweek from 44 hours to 40 with no cut in pay. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who backed the measure, is expected to sign it next week.
NEWRY, Northern Ireland. Jeffrey Donaldson, the former leader of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, was sentenced Thursday at Newry Crown Court to 15 years in prison for raping and sexually abusing two girls decades ago. Donaldson is 63.
What It Means: Why 3.7% Inflation Reaches Every Household
By Claude W. Hargrove, Editor in Chief
Every month the Labor Department sends its shoppers out, in a manner of speaking, to price the same basket of goods and services an ordinary household buys: groceries, rent, gasoline, haircuts, car repairs. The consumer price index is simply the cost of that basket compared with a year earlier. On Wednesday the government said the basket cost 3.7% more in September than it did a year ago, up from 3.4% in August and a bit higher than economists had expected.
The month itself told the sharper story. Prices rose 0.6% from August to September, and nearly all the heat came from one place: the gas pump. Gasoline jumped 9.1% in a single month and stands 34.2% above a year ago, as fuel prices climbed with the war with Iran. Energy overall rose 5.2% for the month. Food prices, by contrast, did not budge.
Page 5: Business and Technology
TSMC Posts Record Profit, Eyes Texas
Chip equipment maker ASML also reports record sales
TSMC's Fab 12B chip plant in Hsinchu, Taiwan, in 2015 (file photo). Photo: 曾 成訓 / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
TAIPEI, Taiwan. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said Thursday that it is studying Texas as a site for more American chip production, after reporting another record quarterly profit powered by demand for artificial intelligence. The Hsinchu company makes more than 90% of the world's most advanced chips.
SK Hynix plunges 10.8% after Wall Street's AI selloff
SEOUL, South Korea. South Korea's benchmark Kospi index plunged 7.1% in early trading Thursday to 5,584.83, as a selloff in technology shares that began on Wall Street spread across Asia. Chip stocks led the slide in Seoul.
Japan to Finance $21 Billion in New York Chip Plants
U.S. government to take shares in GlobalFoundries
MALTA, N.Y. GlobalFoundries said Wednesday it will open two new computer chip factories in Malta, N.Y., backed by up to $21 billion in financing from Japan under the Trump administration's trade and investment agreement with Tokyo.
WASHINGTON. Americans spent more freely than expected in September. Retail sales rose 0.8% last month, well above the 0.3% gain economists had forecast, the Commerce Department said Thursday.
Biggest layoffs at the streamer in years hit tech teams
LOS GATOS, Calif. Netflix plans to cut about 6% of its workforce, or nearly 1,000 jobs, co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos told employees in a memo Wednesday. The product, technology, legal and human resources teams will be hit hardest.
REDMOND. Microsoft's October security update fixed a record 1,413 vulnerabilities, more than the company patched in all of 2025, SecurityWeek reported. The total includes 1,102 flaws in Windows, 134 in Office, 61 in developer tools and 36 in SharePoint Server.
SEATTLE. A King County judge ruled Wednesday that a teenager accused of shooting five members of his family to death at their Fall City home in October 2024 will be tried as an adult. Judge Veronica Galván granted the state's request to move the case out of juvenile court.
Researchers tie 356 arrests to license-database queries
SEATTLE. Federal immigration agents are still getting into Washington driver records despite the state's sanctuary law, according to a new University of Washington study. Researchers documented 356 arrests on the state's streets and highways after federal agents searched Department of Licensing data.
One targets sex trafficking, one leads a new firearms unit
SEATTLE. Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans announced two new prosecutor positions Wednesday aimed at crime along Aurora Avenue North, one focused on sex trafficking and the other leading a new firearms unit.
SEATTLE. The Emergency Alert System will sound across Washington at 10:15 a.m. Thursday to start the Great ShakeOut, a worldwide earthquake and tsunami drill. More than 1.5 million people in the state have registered to take part.
BELLEVUE. Northbound Interstate 405 in Bellevue will close between Southeast 8th Street and Northeast 4th Street from 11 p.m. Friday until 4 a.m. Monday, the Washington State Department of Transportation said. The Southeast 8th Street on-ramp and the exit to Northeast 4th and 8th streets will also close.
'General' printed as 'Genereal'; ballots still count
EVERETT. Snohomish County ballot return envelopes for the Nov. 3 general election misspell "General" as "Genereal," but the error will not affect any votes, County Auditor Garth Fell said. Ballots sent back in the envelopes will be accepted and counted like any other.
The Hammering Man sculpture outside the Seattle Art Museum in 2014 (file photo). Photo: Natokh / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
SEATTLE. The Seattle Art Museum announced Wednesday a remodel of its downtown building, a project that begins this weekend and is set to wrap up by April 1, 2027. The museum will stay open the whole time.
Garth Brooks Sets Two Seattle Nights, Every Seat $155.50
Tickets go on sale Oct. 23
SEATTLE. Garth Brooks will play two nights at Climate Pledge Arena on Nov. 13 and 14, and every ticket in the building will cost the same $155.50. The shows are stops on his Blame It All On My Roots Tour.
Forecasters see a $25 million to $35 million start
LOS ANGELES. Paramount's "Street Fighter" arrives in theaters Friday, Oct. 16, with forecasters expecting a domestic opening of $25 million to $35 million, according to a Box Office Theory projection cited by /Film.
LONDON. Prosecutors opened their case against comedian and actor Russell Brand at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday, telling jurors he was a "ruthless" sexual predator. Brand, 51, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault.
JAKARTA, Indonesia. Indonesia's top Islamic scholarly body is demanding that two concerts by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli be called off, citing his past support for Israel. The Indonesian Ulema Council met with government officials, including the Tourism Ministry, on Wednesday to press its case.
'The Greatest Show on Earth' previews 'Carnaval de Luz'
NEW YORK. U2 is set to release a new single, "The Greatest Show on Earth," on Thursday, the next song from its coming album "Carnaval de Luz," Showbiz411 reported.
Empower Field at Mile High, the Broncos' stadium in Denver, in 2022 (file photo). Photo: Troutfarm27 / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
DENVER. The Seahawks face the Denver Broncos at 5:15 p.m. Pacific on Thursday at Empower Field at Mile High, just four days after a 32-29 home loss to San Francisco. Both teams come in at 3-2, and the game streams on Prime Video.
LOS ANGELES. Jake Bauers won an 11-pitch duel with Blake Snell and drove a two-run homer into the right-center field seats in the seventh inning, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 on Wednesday for a 3-0 lead in the National League Championship Series.
PHILADELPHIA. Bobby McMann scored on a power play and then won it in the fifth round of the shootout as the Seattle Kraken beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 on Tuesday night. Seattle improved to 5-2-0 and has won the first three games of a five-game road trip.
CLEVELAND. The American League Championship Series moves to Cleveland for Game 3 on Thursday, with the Tampa Bay Rays and the Guardians tied at a game apiece.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Washington plays Purdue at 5 p.m. Pacific on Friday at Ross-Ade Stadium, probably without starting quarterback Demond Williams Jr., who is unlikely to start after hurting his ribs in last week's loss to Iowa.
