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The Morning Dispatch
Seattle's Morning Paper · Saturday, October 24, 2026 · No. 10
First Exchange Since August; Nine Civilians Among Those Freed
KYIV, Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine traded 270 prisoners each on Friday, Oct. 23, their first exchange since August, and agreed to halt fighting around the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky so that food can reach residents and civilians can leave.
Sources: Reuters via GMA News, Euromaidan Press, The Kyiv Independent, The Moscow Times
Dozens Wounded at Greek Orthodox Church in Karak Province Friday
AMMAN, Jordan. Gunmen opened fire on mourners at a funeral in a Greek Orthodox church in southern Jordan on Friday, Oct. 23, killing seven people and wounding at least 34, Jordanian officials said.
Sources: PBS NewsHour / AP, Al Jazeera, Al-Monitor
Cook Report Now Sees a Democratic Gain of 12 to 22 Seats, 10 Days Out
WASHINGTON. The Cook Political Report shifted 19 House races toward Democrats on Friday, Oct. 23, and said the most likely result of the Nov. 3 midterm elections is a Democratic gain of 12 to 22 seats.
Sources: The Cook Political Report, Yahoo News, The Washington Post, Bangor Daily News
Misiorowski's First Pitch Hits a Record 103.5 Mph in Milwaukee Friday
MILWAUKEE. The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night, Oct. 23, in the first World Series game played in Milwaukee since 1982.
Sources: MLB.com, MLB.com (Misiorowski record), MLB.com (Rasmussen Game 2), Seattle Sports (PNW ties), FOX 13 Seattle (Pilots)
Highest Close Since April as Rebels Claim Hits on Aramco Sites Friday
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia. Oil prices jumped Friday, Oct. 23, as Yemen's Houthi rebels pressed a new wave of attacks on Saudi Arabia. Brent crude settled at $116.72 a barrel, up 3.1 percent and its highest close since April 29.
Sources: The National, Dawn, Rigzone, The Nation (Thailand), The Atlanta Journal-Constitution / AP
A.I. Demand Outruns the Seattle Company's Building Spree, Much of 2028 Spoken For
SEATTLE. Amazon Web Services has largely sold out its computing capacity through 2027, and much of 2028 is already committed, Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy said in remarks reported Friday, Oct. 23.
Sources: Investing.com, Reuters via U.S. News
Ferguson Offers Unarmed, Plainclothes Observers; Justice Dept. Sends Monitors for Nov. 3
SEATTLE. Gov. Bob Ferguson has offered National Guard members to every county auditor in Washington to keep watch on ballot drop boxes, and the Justice Department told King County it will send its own monitors for the Nov. 3 election, officials said Friday, Oct. 23.
Sources: KIRO 7, KUOW (Washington State Standard), FOX 13 Seattle, KOMO News
President Campaigns in Fort Myers Friday for Donalds and Moody
FORT MYERS, Fla. President Trump told a rally in Fort Myers on Friday, Oct. 23, that American warships coming home from the Iran war could stop off the coast of Cuba, reviving an idea he had not raised in months.
Sources: PBS NewsHour / AP, WFTV / AP, Fox News
Count Rose About 2 Million in a Day; Pace Runs Ahead of 2022
WASHINGTON. Nearly 21 million Americans had cast ballots in the midterm elections by Friday morning, Oct. 23, by mail or in person, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab, NPR reported. The count rose by about 2 million in a single day.
Sources: NPR, Georgia Secretary of State, FOX 5 Atlanta, ABC13 Houston
Order Signed Thursday Targets Title and Mortgage Insurance, Backs Manufactured Homes
WASHINGTON. President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday, Oct. 22, directing federal agencies to cut the costs of buying and owning a home, less than two weeks before midterm elections in which affordability weighs on voters.
Sources: The MortgagePoint, WJLA / Sinclair
Trump Operation Steers Nearly $30 Million to Dozens of Contests
WASHINGTON. House Speaker Mike Johnson asked President Trump to send more campaign money to House Republicans in the final weeks before the midterms, CNN reported Friday, Oct. 23, citing a person familiar with the exchange.
Sources: KVIA / CNN, CNN
Louise Lucas, 82, and Six Others Charged Thursday With Racketeering
NORFOLK, Va., Oct. 22. Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, 82, the Senate president pro tempore, was charged in a federal indictment unsealed Thursday, Oct. 22, with leading a scheme to sell marijuana and launder the profits. Six others were charged, including two of her daughters and a grandson.
Sources: ABC News, CNN, U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Virginia
WASHINGTON. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday, Oct. 23, that the Pentagon has added Confucius Institutes, the Chinese-funded cultural centers once common on college campuses, to its list of institutions that threaten national security. In a video posted on social media, he said 80 such groups had resurfaced under new names at 30 universities after Congress restricted them. The Chinese Embassy did not respond to a request for comment, Reuters reported.
Sources: Al Jazeera, The Hill
WASHINGTON. The national average price of regular gasoline stood at about $4.29 a gallon on Friday, Oct. 23, down from about $4.48 a month earlier, according to AAA. Prices are slipping as stations switch to cheaper winter blends, but high crude oil prices are keeping them from falling further. A year ago the average was about $3.07.
Sources: AAA, RV Business
Suspect Fired From His Car Friday in Trappes, Arrested in a Nearby Town
PARIS. A gunman shooting from his car killed one person and wounded several others, among them a 12-year-old girl, in the towns of Trappes and La Verriere west of Paris on Friday morning, French officials said. Police arrested the suspect in the nearby town of Coignieres.
Brazil Votes Sunday in a Race Polls Call Even
RIO DE JANEIRO. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro met Friday night in Rio de Janeiro for their last televised debate before Sunday's presidential runoff, trading sharp words over crime, taxes and relations with Washington. The two-hour debate was carried by TV Globo, Brazil's most popular network.
Sources: ABC News / AP, The Rio Times
Eisenkot's Party Leads Likud in All Three Surveys Released Friday
JERUSALEM. The last opinion polls before Israel's election on Tuesday, Oct. 27, published Friday, showed neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing bloc nor the opposition winning the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
Sources: The Times of Israel, Time (election date)
Military Seals Hebron After Friday Attack
HEBRON, West Bank. Two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others Friday at a military checkpoint at the Judea Junction on Route 35, near Hebron in the West Bank, the Israeli military said. Troops killed both attackers after a gunfight that lasted more than 20 minutes.
Sources: The Jerusalem Post, Ynet News, The Times of Israel
Student-Led Unrest, in Its 10th Day Thursday, Began Over a Kushner-Backed Resort
TIRANA, Albania. Protesters and police clashed again in Tirana, Albania's capital, on Thursday, the 10th straight day of student-led demonstrations against the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama, who has refused to step down. Large crowds gathered at the entrances to parliament.
Sources: Euronews / AP, Arab News / AFP, NBC News
White House Said Thursday There Will Be No Attack Before Nov. 3
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22. American and Israeli military planners have drawn up plans for renewed strikes on Iran that would almost certainly come after the Nov. 3 U.S. midterm elections, according to reports published Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 21 and 22. President Trump has not approved an attack, The New York Times reported.
By Claude W. Hargrove, Editor in Chief
Two pieces of news came out of the war in Ukraine on Friday, Oct. 23, and it pays to be clear about what each one is. Russia and Ukraine each handed back 270 prisoners, the first exchange since August. Both sides also agreed to stop fighting, for a time, in a single occupied town on the Dnipro River.
The town is Oleshky, in Ukraine's Kherson region, across the river from the Ukrainian-held city of Kherson. Russian forces have held it since February 2022. The White House says about 1,700 to 2,000 people remain there, down from 24,000 before the war, and residents have described a deepening food crisis.
American Express Leads Friday's Losers After Job-Cut Plan
NEW YORK. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 652.82 points, or 1.23 percent, to 52,215.16 on Friday, Oct. 23, as higher oil prices and rising Treasury yields pulled most of the market lower. The S&P 500 lost 39.75 points, or 0.52 percent, to 7,623.68, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 53.52 points, or 0.21 percent, to 25,955.34.
Sources: Reuters via Yahoo Finance, Kiplinger, The Rio Times
Training Moves to a Cached Copy of the Web After a September Slip
SAN FRANCISCO. OpenAI said Friday, Oct. 23, that it will stop training its most advanced artificial intelligence models with access to the live internet. The models will practice instead on a stored, simulated copy of the web that the company says poses no risk to outside computer systems.
Sources: TechCrunch, Digital Trends, Bloomberg
About 3,500 Jobs Go Even as the Card Company Raises Its Profit Outlook
NEW YORK. American Express said Friday, Oct. 23, that it will cut about 3,500 jobs, roughly 5 percent of its global workforce, in its first major round of layoffs in nearly a decade. The company announced the cuts alongside third-quarter results and a higher profit forecast.
Sources: Yahoo Finance, Reuters via Yahoo Finance, CNBC
Michigan Index Finishes October at 48; Inflation Fears Rise
ANN ARBOR, Mich. American consumers ended October nearly as gloomy as they have ever been, the University of Michigan reported Friday, Oct. 23. Its final consumer sentiment index for the month came in at 48.0, down from 48.1 in September and the second-lowest reading on record. The record low, 44.8, was set in May.
Sources: Al Jazeera, The Rio Times, University of Michigan
Security Firm Finds 32 B300 Processors; Nvidia Calls Smuggling 'a Drop in the Bucket'
TAIPEI, Taiwan. An Israeli security firm, Lava, said it spotted 32 of Nvidia's advanced Blackwell Ultra B300 chips on a network tied to state-owned China Telecom, according to reports published Thursday and Friday, Oct. 22 and 23. The B300 is barred from sale to China under U.S. export controls.
Sources: DigiTimes, Tom's Hardware
Report Says Musk's Company Seeks 80,000 U.S. Sites; Its Shares Rise Friday
NEW YORK. Shares of the nation's big wireless carriers fell Friday, Oct. 23, after a report that SpaceX is negotiating tower leases for at least 80,000 cell sites in the United States, a sign it may build a fourth wireless network. AT&T and Bellevue-based T-Mobile each fell nearly 8 percent, and Verizon lost 1.2 percent.
Sources: The Motley Fool, Reuters via Yahoo Finance
Postal Inspectors Investigate; Police Search 26 More Bins and Find None
SEATTLE. King County Elections has sent new ballots to 92 voters whose ballots turned up this week in two bins of undelivered mail dumped at Golden Gardens Park in Ballard, officials said in reports published Thursday and Friday, Oct. 22 and 23.
Sources: KOMO News, FOX 13 Seattle, MyNorthwest (KIRO Newsradio)
Two Westbound Lanes and Jackson Avenue Ramp Shut Through Nov. 8 for Joint Repairs
TACOMA, Wash. The state Department of Transportation closes the two right-hand westbound lanes of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge at about 5 a.m. today, Saturday, Oct. 24, and will keep them shut through Nov. 8. The Jackson Avenue ramp onto State Route 16 also closes for the work.
Sources: KIRO 7, MyNorthwest (KIRO 7)
Car and E-Scooter Collide Near Mariner High School Friday; Teen Also Seriously Hurt
EVERETT, Wash. A 5-year-old suffered life-threatening injuries and a 16-year-old was seriously hurt Friday afternoon, Oct. 23, when the electric scooter they were riding and a car appear to have collided near the 600 block of Center Road, close to Mariner High School. The car flipped.
Sources: KOMO News, KIRO 7, FOX 13 Seattle
Handgun and Rifle Casings Litter a Parking Lot After Thursday Night Gunfire
SEATTLE. Seattle police found more than 120 spent shell casings in a parking lot in the 1000 block of Aurora Avenue North after gunfire there Thursday night, Oct. 22.
Sources: KIRO 7, KOMO News, MyNorthwest
Deputies Heard the Blast Friday Morning; Fire Spread to a Garage and a Second Motor Home
SPANAWAY, Wash. A man was found dead inside a burning motor home in Spanaway on Friday morning, Oct. 23, after Pierce County sheriff's deputies nearby heard a loud explosion at about 8 a.m. and saw smoke rising from a property on the 6400 block of 224th Street East.
Sources: FOX 13 Seattle, KOMO News, KIRO 7
Operator Loses Airport Contract; 13 Jobs End Between Dec. 31 and Jan. 13
SEATAC, Wash. The Starbucks in Terminal A at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport will close for good, eliminating about 13 jobs between Dec. 31 and Jan. 13, under a layoff notice its operator, HMSHost, filed with the state on Friday, Oct. 23. The closure follows the end of HMSHost's contract for the location.
Sources: KOMO News, MyNorthwest
He Died Wednesday, Oct. 21, of Natural Causes, a Representative Said
SEATTLE. Tom Skerritt, the actor who captained the spaceship in "Alien" and played the commanding officer Viper in "Top Gun," died Wednesday, Oct. 21, of natural causes. He was 93. A representative confirmed his death in a statement, NPR reported.
Sources: KUOW (NPR), The Stranger
Stop-Motion Studio's First PG-13 Film Reached Theaters Friday
NEW YORK. "Wildwood," the stop-motion fantasy from the animation studio Laika, opened in theaters across the country on Friday, Oct. 23, carrying strong reviews from critics.
Sources: FandomWire, World of Reel, Box Office Pro, The Stranger (review), TheWrap (box office forecast), /Film
R-Rated Film Opened Friday to Mixed Reviews
LOS ANGELES. "Clayface," a horror film based on the DC Comics villain, opened in theaters Friday, Oct. 23, from Warner Bros. and DC Studios, with critics split over whether its gruesome effects make up for a wobbly story.
Sources: Dark Horizons, Rotten Tomatoes, Dread Central, TheWrap
Jenna Ortega Stars in the Kazuo Ishiguro Adaptation That Opened Friday
LOS ANGELES. "Klara and the Sun," the film of Kazuo Ishiguro's 2021 novel, opened in American and British theaters Friday, Oct. 23, with Jenna Ortega as a solar-powered robot companion and critics largely unconvinced.
Sources: The Boston Globe, Screen Daily, South China Morning Post
Antiquarian Book Fair Runs Today and Sunday; $10 Admission Good for Both Days
SEATTLE. The Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair opens today, Saturday, Oct. 24, and runs through Sunday at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, 301 Mercer St.
Sources: Fine Books Magazine, The Stranger (EverOut weekend list)
34th Annual Festival, Run by the Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Association, Opened Friday
SEATTLE. The 34th Seattle Polish Film Festival opened Friday, Oct. 23, and runs through Sunday, with every screening free to the public.
Sources: Seattle Polish Film Festival, University of Washington Slavic Department, The Stranger (EverOut weekend list)
Bradford Returns at Right Guard; Five Questionable for Sunday Night
RENTON, Wash. The Seahawks ruled out running back Zach Charbonnet on Friday, Oct. 23, for Sunday night's game against the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs, putting off his season debut after knee surgery in February. Seattle (3-3) hosts the Chiefs (5-0) at 5:20 p.m. Sunday at Lumen Field.
Sources: Seattle Sports (injury report), Seattle Sports (Diggs), FOX 13 Seattle, MyNorthwest (noise record)
Owners Propose a $245.3 Million Cap as a Dec. 1 Lockout Looms
MILWAUKEE. The head of the baseball players' union, Bruce Meyer, attacked the owners' salary cap proposal before Game 1 of the World Series on Friday, Oct. 23, calling it a "nuclear bomb." Commissioner Rob Manfred defended the plan, saying teams in small markets rarely win.
Sources: Seattle Sports (Associated Press), Seattle Sports (lockout looming)
Seattle Is 7-3-1 After Thursday's 5-3 Win Over Utah
SEATTLE. The Kraken, off to the best start in their six seasons, host the Minnesota Wild tonight, Saturday, Oct. 24, at 7 p.m. at Climate Pledge Arena.
Sources: Seattle Sports, ESPN NHL schedule, NHL.com/Kraken
Dickey's Eighth Shutout; Seattle Hosts Orlando Nov. 1 in Fishlock's Last Regular-Season Match
SANDY, Utah. The Seattle Reign played the Utah Royals to a 0-0 draw Friday night, Oct. 23, at America First Field, a result that neither clinched a playoff berth nor ended Seattle's hopes.
Sources: Reign FC, Reign FC (preview)
Seattle Native and Former Mariner Honored at Bailey-Brayton Field Friday
PULLMAN, Wash. Washington State University dedicated a statue of John Olerud at Bailey-Brayton Field on Friday afternoon, Oct. 23, honoring one of the best players in Cougar history.
Sources: FOX 13 Seattle, WSU Athletics
Portland Beats the Kings 128-120 Friday to Start 2-0
SACRAMENTO, Calif. Deni Avdija scored 26 points and the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Sacramento Kings 128-120 on Friday night, Oct. 23, to open the season with two straight wins.
Sources: ESPN scoreboard, ESPN Trail Blazers schedule
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