Independent newsroom

Thursday, October 8, 2026

The File

Every claim traces to a primary source. Uncertainty is labeled. Corrections are public.

Edition

Thursday, October 8, 2026

Thursday edition

Federal Reserve

Fed minutes: every official backed September's rate increase, and most expected another by year end

Confirmed

The Federal Reserve's minutes show a united committee in September. Every official supported raising the benchmark interest rate a quarter point, to a range of 3¾ to 4 percent. Inflation stayed too high, and they had not seen enough progress bringing it down. Higher oil and fuel prices, and the rush of spending on artificial intelligence, were adding to price pressures, they said. Looking ahead, most of them thought another increase would likely be appropriate by the end of the year. They also said each meeting will depend on new data. The next time the Fed could change rates is Oct. 27–28.

Full story and sources · 2 primary sources

Anthropic

Anthropic releases Claude Haiku 5.5, a cheaper and faster small model

Confirmed

Anthropic released Claude Haiku 5.5 on Wednesday, the smallest and cheapest model in its new 5.5 family. The company says it is the most capable small model it has made, and that it costs around 75 percent less to run than Haiku 4.5, the model it replaces. It is built for quick, repetitive jobs, and for working as a helper under Anthropic's bigger models. The model ID is claude-haiku-5-5. A system card dated Oct. 7 calls it one of the company's non-frontier models. Sept. 23 and Sept. 29 stories on this site said Haiku 5.5 was coming.

Sources · 5 listed

Justice

Minnesota 18-year-old charged with plotting an ISIS-inspired shooting at the Mall of America

Confirmed

Federal prosecutors say an 18-year-old from Richfield, Minnesota, planned to shoot people at the Mall of America on Oct. 24, during a Hmong arts celebration. Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud was arrested Oct. 6, shortly after he paid about $600 cash to an undercover FBI employee for an AK-47, four magazines, and about 200 rounds. The FBI had made the rifle unable to fire. The complaint says he spent nearly two years messaging a confidential FBI source about joining a terror group in Somalia or attacking in Minnesota. He is charged with

. A complaint is an accusation. He is presumed innocent.

Sources · 2 listed

Immigration

Homeland Security proposes a $70,000 fee before foreign graduates can work under a student training program

Confirmed

Foreign graduates of American schools can often stay and work in their field for a year or more under Optional Practical Training, the program that lets F-1 students work in the subject they studied. The Department of Homeland Security now proposes charging $70,000 per student for the first stretch of that work permission, and $30,000 for each later one. Schools, not students, would pay before they recommend a student. Without the fee, immigration officials would not grant the work permit. It is a proposal. The public can comment, and the department can change it before anything becomes final.

Sources · 2 listed

Federal Reserve

Waller says he expects more rate increases if the numbers hold

Confirmed

Fed Governor Christopher J. Waller said Thursday that he expects to keep raising interest rates if the economy comes in as he expects. Speaking in Istanbul, he said last month's increase grew from months of evidence, not one hot inflation report. Oil prices stayed high, spending on artificial intelligence was pushing up prices, and new tariffs remained a threat. He said the latest data show the labor market is stable and inflation is too high. Increases do not need to come at back-to-back meetings, he said, but they should be in place in an acceptable period of time.

Sources · 2 listed

NASA

Crew-12 leaves the space station; splashdown off California is still a plan for late this morning

Confirmed

Four Crew-12 astronauts undocked from the International Space Station at 8:05 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday aboard their SpaceX Dragon capsule, NASA said. They are NASA's Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. NASA is aiming for a splashdown off the California coast at about 11:34 a.m. Eastern today, Thursday, with live coverage starting at 10:20 a.m. That splashdown has not been reported here. It is still the plan.

Sources · 4 listed

Supreme Court

Justices weigh when a Guam group can sue over the Air Force's beach detonations

Confirmed

For decades the Air Force has blown up old and waste munitions in the open on Tarague Beach at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. To keep doing it, the Air Force applied to Guam's environmental agency to renew a hazardous-waste permit. A local group, Prutehi Guahan, says the Air Force first had to do a full federal environmental review under the

. On Wednesday the government told the Supreme Court that a permit application is not a final step people can sue over yet under the . Chief Justice Roberts pressed back, asking whether the government was saying the Air Force's choice is never final and therefore never reviewable.

Sources · 3 listed

OpenAI

OpenAI says GPT-6 is rolling out to every ChatGPT user

Partially confirmed

OpenAI said Wednesday that GPT-6 is rolling out to everyone who uses ChatGPT, with an answer format it calls Intelligent UI. This is not a new model. The GPT-6 family launched in September, and this site wrote then that the ChatGPT rollout would be gradual. What OpenAI described Wednesday is a wider rollout, plus that new format. Paying users on Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise get it first. OpenAI said Free and Go users start Thursday. The company's own post says paid tiers run on GPT-6 Sol and free tiers on the smaller GPT-6 Luna. The article page itself was blocked, so this account uses the feed and OpenAI's posts only.

Sources · 6 listed

Justice

Owner of a firm that promised not to pay ransoms is charged with paying them

Confirmed

Zohar Pinhasi's company, MonsterCloud, told hacked businesses it could unlock their files without paying the criminals. Prosecutors say that was false. The indictment says he quietly paid the hackers for the keys and billed clients far more. In one case around August 2023, he paid about $8,200 and charged the client about $150,000. Over the scheme he allegedly charged more than $19 million and paid more than $8 million in ransoms. He was arraigned Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court. An indictment is an accusation. He is presumed innocent.

Sources · 1 listed

Treasury

Treasury issues its first penalty under rules on U.S. investment in Chinese tech: $200,000

Confirmed

The United States restricts how Americans invest in Chinese companies working on artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and chips. On Wednesday the Treasury Department disclosed its first penalty under those rules, the

. It fined Amidi, LLC, the parent of the startup network Plug and Play Tech Center, $200,000. Amidi's Chinese fund put about $92,478 into Noematrix, a Shanghai robotics and artificial-intelligence company, in April 2025, and Amidi never told Treasury as required. The penalty itself was issued in July. Treasury said its routine monitoring caught the deal.

Sources · 1 listed

Health

Lab-grown mini-lungs kept their own immune cells and fought a virus

Confirmed

Researchers at Stanford grew small pieces of human lung in the lab that keep their own immune cells for months, and those cells fought the virus that causes COVID-19. When the team first exposed the tissue to bits of the virus, much like a vaccine, later infections were weaker. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and published Wednesday in Nature, suggests the lung's own defenses may do a lot of the protecting. The models could also stand in for some tests that now use animals. This was not a trial in people.

Sources · 1 listed

Justice

Queens pharmacy owner charged with a $31 million HIV-drug scheme

Confirmed

New York prosecutors say Miguel Baron, 62, of Yonkers, used two Jackson Heights pharmacies to pay Medicaid patients with HIV $150 to $250 in cash to fill prescriptions there. Sometimes the pharmacies bought the medicines back for a few hundred dollars and resold them, billing the state again. Other drugs were from the black market. Attorney General Letitia James says he took more than $31 million from Medicaid and the state's AIDS Drug Assistance Program from 2023 to April 2026. She says he spent it on Miami condos, luxury cars, and World Cup tickets. An indictment is an accusation. He is presumed innocent.

Sources · 1 listed

Justice

Former Puerto Rican bank chairman gets 62 months for looting the bank

Confirmed

Juan Francisco Ramirez, 60, of Miami, was chairman and co-owner of Nodus International Bank, a bank licensed in Puerto Rico that operated like an offshore bank. Prosecutors say he secretly steered the bank's money to himself and a partner through sham investments and loans. The bank lost at least $23.6 million and went into liquidation in 2023. On Wednesday a federal judge sentenced him to 62 months and ordered forfeiture of about $13.6 million. He pleaded guilty in September 2025.

Sources · 1 listed

NFL

A day after Lane Johnson retired, the Eagles trade Cam Jurgens to the Ravens

Confirmed

The Philadelphia Eagles traded Cam Jurgens, a two-time Pro Bowl lineman, to the Baltimore Ravens on Wednesday, one day after right tackle Lane Johnson retired. Baltimore gets Jurgens and a 2027 seventh-round pick. Philadelphia gets a 2028 second-round pick and a 2027 fifth. The Ravens have lost three centers to injured reserve. Jurgens, who had been playing out of position at guard, is in the league's concussion protocol.

Sources · 3 listed

NFL

Bucs rule Baker Mayfield out for Thursday night in Dallas; rookie Jalon Daniels starts

Confirmed

Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield is out for Thursday night's game at Dallas with a right thumb injury, NFL.com reported. Undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels will make his second career start. The Buccaneers are 0–4. The Cowboys are 2–2. Kickoff is 8:15 p.m. Eastern on Prime Video. Elsewhere, Lamar Jackson did not practice Wednesday, and Saquon Barkley did not practice Wednesday. No odds.

Sources · 4 listed