Daily News Briefing

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Thursday, October 15, 2026

Evening edition

AI

FTC sends civil investigative demands to OpenAI and Anthropic, Axios reportsThe Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday sent civil investigative demands to Anthropic and OpenAI seeking documents on security incidents and safeguarding practices, marketing materials and privacy policies, Axios reported Thursday, citing a person familiar (single source). Each demand is more than 50 pages long, according to the report. An OpenAI spokesperson told Axios the company will "engage constructively with the FTC."
Sources: Axios
CERN and Mistral sign statement of intent on a Large Physics ModelCERN and Mistral signed a statement of intent on Thursday to establish a long-term strategic partnership on foundation models for scientific discovery, CERN announced. The partners plan to build a pretrained Large Physics Model trained on billions of simulated proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, according to CERN.
Sources: CERN
Cohere signs letter of intent to acquire AI security startup AISLEAISLE announced Thursday that it and Cohere signed a letter of intent for Cohere to acquire AISLE; financial terms were not disclosed. AISLE CEO Ondrej Vlcek will become Senior Vice President of a new unit, Cohere Cyber, and AISLE's Prague headquarters will become Cohere's Prague office when the deal closes, according to the announcement.
Sources: AISLE
Nvidia releases Nemotron 3.5 Super VL open modelNvidia released Nemotron 3.5 Super VL, a 120-billion-parameter open model, with open weights on Hugging Face, VentureBeat reported Thursday. Nvidia also released Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9B and scheduled the smaller Bolt E4B for Oct. 23, under its OpenMDW license, according to the report.
Sources: VentureBeat

Financial

The S&P 500 rose 25.12 points, or 0.3%, to 7,744.06 on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 556.21, or 1.1%, to 52,177.69, and the Nasdaq composite added 20.16, or 0.1%, to 26,713.03, the AP reported. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 5.09% from 5.19% late Wednesday, according to the AP.

S&P 500	7,744.06	+0.3%
Dow	52,177.69	+1.1%
Nasdaq	26,713.03	+0.1%
10-yr yield	5.09%	-0.10 pt

Source: AP via WHDH

Wholesale prices rose 1.3% in SeptemberMonthly wholesale prices rose 1.3% from August to September, the largest increase since March 2022, the AP reported Thursday. TheStreet reported producer prices rose 6.3% year over year in September.
Sources: AP via WSLS, TheStreet
Penske Automotive agrees to go private at $212 a sharePenske Automotive Group announced Thursday a merger agreement under which Motown Acquisition Corp., owned by Penske Corporation and Mitsui & Co., will acquire the shares not held by Penske Corporation, Mitsui and the other investor group members for $212.00 per share in cash, an enterprise value of approximately $16.3 billion, according to the company's SEC filing. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027 and requires approval by a majority of votes cast by unaffiliated stockholders, the filing says.
Sources: Penske Automotive (SEC filing)

Real estate

Freddie Mac: 30-year mortgage rate holds at 7.40%The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 7.40% this week, unchanged from last week and up from 6.27% a year ago, Freddie Mac said Thursday. The 15-year average was 6.71%, down from 6.73% last week, according to Freddie Mac.
Sources: Freddie Mac, AP via WHIO

Los Angeles

Peak Fire burns 43 acres in AzusaThe Peak Fire was reported about 1:15 p.m. Thursday near San Gabriel Canyon Road in Azusa and was mapped at 43 acres with 31% containment by late afternoon, MyNewsLA reported. An evacuation order was downgraded to a warning late Thursday afternoon, and an evacuation center opened at Memorial Park Recreation Center, 340 N. Orange Ave., according to the report.
Sources: MyNewsLA
Topanga Canyon Boulevard closed to non-residents through Friday night; red flag parking limits in effectTopanga Canyon Boulevard is closed to non-residents from 6 a.m. Thursday through 10 p.m. Friday, and Glendora Mountain Road and Glendora Ridge Road are closed, MyNewsLA reported. LAFD red flag parking restrictions are in effect in Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones through at least 6 a.m. Saturday, and the county Emergency Operations Center was activated Thursday morning, according to the report. Mayor Karen Bass directed the fire department to deploy personnel and equipment ahead of the winds, the AP reported.
Sources: MyNewsLA, AP via ABC News
Port of Long Beach moves a record 997,177 TEUs in SeptemberThe Port of Long Beach handled 997,177 TEUs in September, up 25% from September 2025 and above its previous monthly record of 987,191 set in October 2024, MyNewsLA reported. The Port of Los Angeles handled 1,042,652 TEUs in September, a record for that port, according to the report.
Sources: MyNewsLA

Santa Clarita

Edison shutoffs reach parts of the Santa Clarita ValleySouthern California Edison told some customers Thursday it was "likely we will shut off your power in the next four hours," The Signal reported. As of Thursday afternoon SCE's outage map showed 40,531 customers affected and 230,065 under consideration, with local areas including parts of Canyon Country along Soledad Canyon Road, Bouquet Canyon north of Plum Canyon, Golden Valley Road, State Route 126 at Commerce Center Drive and Castaic Junction, according to The Signal.
Sources: The Signal

Pullman-Moscow

Greyhound Way closures near Pullman High School start next weekFire line work to connect to the Schweitzer Wellbeing Center under Greyhound Way starts Monday, Oct. 19, with Greyhound Way in front of the pool closed Oct. 21-23, flagging delays Nov. 2-4 and another closure Nov. 5-6, Pullman Radio reported, citing the Pullman School District. During closures, the only connection to the neighborhood and Pullman High School is Terre View Drive to Canyon View Drive, according to the report.
Sources: Pullman Radio
Haunted Palouse canceled this yearHaunted Palouse organizers said in a Facebook post that "a shortage of volunteers led to the cancellation" of this fall's event, a fundraiser for community groups in Palouse, Pullman Radio reported Thursday. The group hopes to bring it back next year, according to the report.
Sources: Pullman Radio
Palouse Conservation District stream restoration near Pullman SaturdayThe Palouse Conservation District is seeking volunteers Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon to plant native trees and shrubs and remove invasive plants along a tributary of the South Fork Palouse River about six miles outside Pullman, Pullman Radio reported. Advance registration is required to receive the location, according to the report.
Sources: Pullman Radio
Lauren McCluskey Race for Campus Safety at WSU SaturdayThe annual Lauren McCluskey Race for Campus Safety is Saturday at the WSU Vet Med parking lot in Pullman, with a 1K at 10 a.m., a 10K at 10:30 a.m. and a 5K at 10:40 a.m., Pullman Radio reported. Proceeds go to the Lauren McCluskey Foundation's campus safety programs, according to the report.
Sources: Pullman Radio

US politics

Justice Department sues California over alleged noncitizens on voter rollsThe Justice Department filed a lawsuit against California on Thursday in federal court seeking an order to stop the state from counting mail-in ballots from about 20,000 people it says are likely noncitizens, Al Jazeera and The Signal reported. Attorney General Todd Blanche said "State-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable in the United States of America," according to The Signal. Gov. Gavin Newsom called the lawsuit a "sad, desperate attempt by" Trump to "suppress California voters just three weeks before Election Day," and Secretary of State Shirley Weber said no list was ever sent to her office, Al Jazeera reported.
Sources: Al Jazeera, The Signal
FBI and Postal Inspection Service investigate letters with suspicious substances sent to election officesFederal authorities are investigating letters with "suspicious substances" mailed to addresses nationwide, including secretary of state and election offices, the AP reported Thursday (single source). The FBI urged recipients to treat them as "potentially hazardous," according to the AP.
Sources: AP via WSLS
California Attorney General Bonta sues over civil immigration arrests at courthousesCalifornia Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Thursday his office is suing the Trump administration for directing federal agents to carry out civil immigration arrests at courthouses, the AP reported. Bonta said state law bars civil arrests at state courthouses, according to the AP.
Sources: AP via WSLS
More than 6 million early ballots cast, AP data showsAP data from 39 states gathered as of Thursday shows more than 6 million voters have cast early ballots for the Nov. 3 midterms, with California leading at more than 757,000, the AP reported.
Sources: AP via WSLS

Global risks

Ethiopian forces enter Aksum in Tigray; Eritrea rejects militia's casualty claimsACLED documented Ethiopian government forces and Tigray Peace Force fighters entering the city of Aksum, Al Jazeera reported Thursday. Tigray Peace Force spokesperson Solomon Hailemariam said Eritrean forces sustained significant casualties, a claim Al Jazeera said could not be independently verified, and Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel rejected the claims as false. Ethiopia ranks 12th of 179 countries in the Fund for Peace's 2024 Fragile States Index.
Sources: Al Jazeera, Fragile States Index 2024

Catastrophic events

Good news

Google reports magic state cultivation on its Willow quantum processorGoogle Quantum AI said Thursday that work published in Science demonstrates magic state cultivation on its Willow processor, "reducing errors about 40x compared to without it." Google said the T-states reached a logical fidelity of 99.99%.
Sources: Google
Castaic Middle School redesignated a national School to WatchCastaic Middle School was renewed as a national "School to Watch," KHTS reported Thursday, citing the Castaic Union School District. Principal Stephanie Sosa said, "Being one of the few original legacy schools makes this recognition especially meaningful."
Sources: KHTS