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The Morning Dispatch
Seattle's Morning Paper · Monday, October 19, 2026 · No. 5
Military chief cancels soldiers' leave
JERUSALEM. Israel's top general, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, has raised the military's alert level and canceled soldiers' leave ahead of the national election on Tuesday, Oct. 27, The Times of Israel reported Monday. Forces in the West Bank were also reinforced, the paper said.
Sources: Times of Israel (live blog, Oct. 19), i24NEWS, Ynetnews
No Kings marchers walk from Westlake Park; memorial honors people who died in immigration custody
SEATTLE. Thousands of people marched from Westlake Park to Seattle Center on Saturday, Oct. 17, for a No Kings rally that organizers turned into a voting rights fair, FOX 13 Seattle reported. The station called it the largest No Kings demonstration in Washington state that day.
Sources: FOX 13 Seattle, FOX 13 Seattle, news index, FOX 13 Seattle, election (Oct. 17 video)
State election office learned Thursday that a letter with white powder addressed to the Secretary of State was intercepted
SEATTLE. Ballots are in the hands of Washington voters, opening the state's 18-day voting period before the Nov. 3 general election, FOX 13 Seattle reported Saturday. The deadline for counties to mail ballots has passed.
Sources: FOX 13 Seattle, election (Oct. 17 video), FOX 13 Seattle, white powder letter (Oct. 16), KING 5, voter's guide
Mayor Wilson and Executive Zahilay issued a joint statement Thursday, Oct. 15
SEATTLE. Seattle and King County leaders are weighing how to cover nearly $17 million that the King County Regional Homelessness Authority overspent, a shortfall made public Thursday, Oct. 15, and taken up again in PubliCola's weekly roundup Saturday, Oct. 17, as the City Council fights over the mayor's budget.
Sources: PubliCola (Oct. 15), PubliCola (Oct. 17 roundup), Seattle City Council Blog (Oct. 15)
Season opened Saturday, Oct. 17, with Brenda Rae in the title role; runs at McCaw Hall through Oct. 31
SEATTLE. Seattle Opera opened its 2026/27 season Saturday, Oct. 17, at McCaw Hall with Richard Strauss's Salome, the company's first staging of the opera since 2002. Four more performances run through Oct. 31.
Sources: BroadwayWorld Seattle, McCaw Hall, Seattle Opera Blog
A judge halted tree cutting there Tuesday, Oct. 13, until Oct. 26
WASHINGTON. President Trump plans to close the public East Potomac Golf Course in Washington for renovations, The Associated Press reported Sunday, Oct. 18. The plan faces a court challenge, and a federal judge has already ordered a pause in tree cutting at the course.
Sources: Walla Walla Union-Bulletin (AP News Summary, Oct. 18), Scripps News, KSHB
SAN ANTONIO. A service member from Nellis Air Force Base died after a rappelling fall Saturday, Oct. 17, before a University of Texas at San Antonio football game, The Associated Press reported. He was taken to a local hospital, where he later died, according to Nellis public affairs, which said he served with the 6th Combat Training Squadron, Detachment 2. The fall came at UTSA's annual Salute to Armed Forces and Veterans game against Navy, with fans in the stands and a band gathered nearby on the field. An investigation is underway.
Sources: Walla Walla Union-Bulletin (AP News Summary, Oct. 18)
Kenya confirmed a third case Friday, Oct. 16, a relative of a man who died Oct. 5
NAIROBI, Kenya. Kenya's health ministry confirmed a third Ebola case on Friday, Oct. 16, a 65-year-old woman related to the country's first patient, a 40-year-old man who died Oct. 5. The new case widens Kenya's first brush with the disease as the outbreak in Congo keeps growing.
Sources: News4JAX (AP), Euronews, CTV News (AP)
Protests reported Sunday, Oct. 18
PARIS. Protests over the cost of living turned violent in several French cities over the weekend, with shops looted in Paris, Euronews reported in its bulletins on Sunday, Oct. 18. In Italy, students and workers have also taken to the streets over rising prices.
Sources: Euronews (Oct. 18 bulletin), Yahoo News (Euronews bulletin), DH Les Sports+ (AFP, Oct. 16)
Industry group says output could fall by up to 2 million tonnes
JAKARTA, Indonesia. A drought tied to El Nino has left thousands of small palm oil farmers in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province with fruit they cannot sell, Reuters reported Sunday, Oct. 18. Local mills have cut their purchases for weeks because the Kapuas River, which normally carries their oil to market, has run low.
Sources: U.S. News and World Report (Reuters, Oct. 18), WHTC (Reuters), Biofuels Digest, The Edge Malaysia (Reuters)
NOTTINGHAM, England. A police officer was shot in the foot in Nottingham city center early Sunday, Oct. 18, ITV News reported. The officer was hurt at about 4:50 a.m. on Angel Row after he approached two suspects, a man and a woman, who then fled. He is in stable condition in a hospital, where Assistant Chief Constable Claire Rukas said he continues to be treated. Police are working to trace the pair.
Sources: ITV News
By Claude W. Hargrove, Editor in Chief
Israelis go to the polls on Tuesday, Oct. 27, and their army means to be standing watch when they do. Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the military chief of staff, has put his forces on heightened alert and canceled soldiers' leave ahead of the vote, The Times of Israel reported Monday.
Canceling leave is no small order in a country where so many families have a son or daughter in uniform. It tells the public that commanders want every hand on deck for the days around the election. Gen. Zamir framed the army's job in plain terms: to see that the election takes place on time and in safety.
AI spending worries hit Nvidia, AMD and Dell
NEW YORK. Chipmakers pulled Wall Street lower on Friday, Oct. 16, the last trading day before this edition, as investors grew more doubtful about how long the boom in spending on artificial intelligence data centers can last. The Nasdaq composite fell 2.1 percent, its sharpest drop of the day among the major indexes.
Sources: La Nacion (AP), Meyka
Layoffs reported Wednesday, Oct. 14; content chief Bela Bajaria's exit announced Oct. 15
LOS GATOS, Calif. Netflix is cutting about 1,000 jobs, nearly 6 percent of its workforce, and its chief content officer, Bela Bajaria, is leaving, the company disclosed last week. The moves come days before the streaming giant reports third-quarter results after the market closes on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
Sources: ABC30 (AP), 24/7 Wall St.
Wristband and phone clip, announced Thursday, Oct. 15, turn conversations into notes
SEATTLE. Amazon's Bee unit on Thursday, Oct. 15, launched two small devices that record everyday conversations and use artificial intelligence to turn them into summaries, to-do lists and reminders. The Bee Frontier sells for $74.99 and the Bee Eclipse for $99.99, TechCrunch and CBS News reported.
Sources: TechCrunch, CBS News
Donor list reported last week shows 67 large gifts totaling $333 million
WASHINGTON. Nvidia and Apple each gave $25 million toward President Trump's planned White House ballroom, according to an internal fundraising spreadsheet obtained by The Washington Post and reported Thursday, Oct. 15. The list shows 67 gifts of $10,000 or more, totaling $333 million by the end of September.
Sources: The Next Web, SDxCentral
Maia 300, unveiled Oct. 12, to run Microsoft's AI products from 2027
REDMOND, Wash. While investors dumped chip stocks last week, Microsoft was pressing ahead with its own. On Monday, Oct. 12, the Redmond company unveiled Maia 300, its third generation of homemade AI chips, and said it plans to install it across its data centers on a multi-gigawatt scale starting in 2027.
Sources: Data Center Knowledge
Board voted unanimously Thursday night, Oct. 15, for 20 units on East Yesler Way
SEATTLE. The board of the Seattle Social Housing Developer voted unanimously on Thursday night, Oct. 15, to buy a lot on East Yesler Way for its first construction project, a 20-unit apartment building in the Central District, The Urbanist reported Friday.
Sources: The Urbanist
Permitting panel named Friday, Oct. 16; RapidRide R Line to be accelerated
SEATTLE. King County Executive Girmay Zahilay on Friday, Oct. 16, named a 19-member advisory panel to find ways to speed up county permits, a day after he moved to hurry along the long-planned RapidRide R Line bus route through South Seattle.
Sources: King County Executive (permitting panel, Oct. 16), King County Executive (R Line, Oct. 15)
Push began Wednesday, Oct. 14, as the council fights over the mayor's budget
SEATTLE. Seattle Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck on Wednesday, Oct. 14, launched a multi-year campaign to increase city money for victims of domestic and sexual violence, starting with an $8 million addition to Mayor Katie Wilson's proposed budget.
Sources: Seattle City Council Blog, PubliCola
SEATTLE. Portage Bay Cafe will close its West Seattle restaurant at 4725 42nd Ave. SW after a final brunch on Sunday, Oct. 25, the restaurant announced last week. Owner Amy Fair Gunnar said the space never had enough indoor seating to carry it through fall and winter, and rising costs added to the strain. The cafe's four other Seattle locations, in South Lake Union, Roosevelt, Ballard and on Northeast 65th Street, will stay open.
Sources: What Now Seattle
TACOMA. Power came back across most of Pierce County on Friday afternoon, Oct. 16, after a large outage cut electricity to homes and businesses served by Tacoma Public Utilities and Peninsula Light Company, FOX 13 reported. Peninsula Light said service was restored around 1:10 p.m., and only a small share of customers were still waiting a few minutes later.
Sources: FOX 13 Seattle
Sunday's event, Oct. 18, showed off the $20 million Amplify refresh
SEATTLE. Benaroya Hall opened its stages and lobbies to the public free of charge on Sunday, Oct. 18, in an all-day open house that gave Seattle a wide look at the downtown concert hall's $20 million makeover. The Seattle Symphony presented the event.
Sources: Seattle Met (sponsored), Seattle Refined / KOMO, KIRO 7, Mithun, Seneca Group
Tasveer South Asian festival wrapped its run Sunday, Oct. 18
SEATTLE. The 34th Seattle Polish Film Festival opens Friday, Oct. 23, at SIFF Cinema Uptown on Lower Queen Anne and runs through Sunday, Oct. 25. The festival is produced by the Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Association.
Sources: Seattle Refined, Seattle Polish Film Festival, WaGives (Seattle Polish Foundation)
Opens Nov. 5 and runs to July 4, 2027
SEATTLE. The Seattle Art Museum will open "Karon Davis: Not My Circus" on Thursday, Nov. 5. The exhibition runs through July 4, 2027, giving visitors about eight months to see it.
Sources: Seattle Met fall arts preview
SEATTLE. Pacific Northwest Ballet's next program, Ghost Stories, runs Nov. 6 to 15 at McCaw Hall. It pairs George Balanchine's La Sonnambula, about an alluring sleepwalker, with Alejandro Cerrudo's Silent Ghost and PACOPEPEPLUTO, plus a world premiere by principal dancer Kyle Davis inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." The company opened its season with Serenade, a bill that included Alexei Ratmansky's Pictures at an Exhibition and a premiere by Jessica Lang.
Sources: Seattle Magazine fall arts hit list, Seattle Met fall arts preview
Verhaeghe and Bennett each score three Saturday in Sunrise
SUNRISE, Fla. The Florida Panthers routed the Seattle Kraken 8-3 on Saturday night as Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett each scored three goals. Before Saturday, Florida had never had two players record hat tricks in the same game.
Sources: NHL.com, ESPN, ABC News (AP), NHL.com (Oct. 9 recap)
Sebastian Gomez equalizes in the 66th minute Saturday
SEATTLE. Sebastian Gomez scored in the 66th minute Saturday night as the Seattle Sounders came back for a 1-1 draw with CF Montreal at Lumen Field. The crowd was 33,007.
Sources: OurSports Central (Sounders FC release), Sounder at Heart
Atkinson throws for 347 yards and three touchdowns Saturday
CORVALLIS, Ore. Braden Atkinson threw for 347 yards and three touchdowns Saturday as Oregon State beat Washington State 48-30. The Beavers improved to 5-2 overall and 3-0 in the Pac-12.
Sources: ESPN, Seattle Sports, WSU Athletics
KENT, Wash. The Spokane Chiefs beat the Seattle Thunderbirds 3-2 in a shootout Saturday, Oct. 17, at the accesso ShoWare Center. Brock England and Josh Polak scored second-period goals for Seattle, which outshot Spokane 39-21 and earned a point. Owen Martin scored twice for the Chiefs, now 8-1-0-0, and Tyus Sparks won it in the shootout. Seattle, 3-4-0-1, opens a seven-game road trip Wednesday at Regina and returns home Nov. 7.
Sources: Seattle Thunderbirds, OurSports Central (Spokane Chiefs release)
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