Morning Digest

Thursday, October 8, 2026

35 stories from 8 sources, 76 more held back.

RT

Elon Musk says ‘oligarchs’ are blocking Starlink rollout in India

Elon Musk blames ‘certain oligarchs’ for Starlink’s delays in India. Elon Musk has blamed “certain oligarchs” for holding up the launch of his satellite internet service Starlink in India to maintain their “monopolistic chokehold” on the Indian people. New Delhi rejected the suggestion that its satellite approval process was unfair.

RT 7:53 AM

EU state tightens rules for military-age Ukrainian men

Lithuania has tightened temporary protection rules for Ukrainian men subject to military service, becoming the latest EU member state to impose new conditions as Kiev struggles to replenish its depleted armed forces. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly urged European governments to facilitate the return of military-age men to help sustain the country’s war effort.

RT 7:41 AM

AfD says political ‘firewall’ breached in east German region

The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has secured the office of state parliament president in Saxony-Anhalt, with its successful candidate claiming he received backing from members of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in a historic first.

RT 4:07 AM

EU weighs tax on US Big Tech amid Trump tariff threats – FT

EU seeks to target US Big Tech without angering Trump – FT. The European Union is exploring ways to raise taxes on US tech giants such as Apple, Meta, and Google without provoking retaliation from Washington, the Financial Times has reported.

RT 1:31 AM

US and Iran clash over Hormuz

Iran threatens to block ‘illegal’ routes through Strait of Hormuz. Iran has threatened to block what it calls “illegal” traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, saying it retains full control of the passage despite US claims to the contrary. The waterway is one of the world’s most important energy routes, normally carrying around a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.

RT 10:22 PM

ESPN

Transfer rumors, news: Man United, Chelsea in race for Spurs academy star

Tottenham Hotspur attacking midfielder Luca Williams-Barnett has Manchester United, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund on his trail, while Arsenal are preparing a fresh January bid to land Atlético Madrid striker Julián Álvarez. Join us for the latest transfer news and rumors from around the globe. Transfers home page | Men's summer grades | Women's grades.

ESPN 3:41 AM

As Yankees fall short again, Aaron Judge says front office 'should go all-in'

NEW YORK -- Aaron Judge, resigned to watching the New York Yankees' latest postseason failure, stuck around the home dugout at Yankee Stadium to watch a familiar final October scene unfold: an opponent celebrating after eliminating the Yankees on their home field. Two years ago, it was the Los Angeles Dodgers after a disastrous Game 5 of the World Series.

ESPN 2:40 AM

Rays complete sweep of Yankees to advance to ALCS

NEW YORK -- When Victor Mesa Jr. hit the home run that effectively ended the New York Yankees' season Wednesday night, the contact was so pure, the Tampa Bay Rays outfielder explained later, that he didn't even really feel the ball off the bat.

ESPN 1:42 AM

Mitchell robs Padres of tying homer as Brewers clinch NLDS

SAN DIEGO -- Garrett Mitchell tripled and scored the tiebreaking run in the fifth inning before making a pivotal catch on Manny Machado's drive to the wall in the eighth, and the Milwaukee Brewers advanced to the National League Championship Series for the second straight season with a 3-1 victory over the San Diego Padres on Wednesday night, winning their best-of-five division series in four…

ESPN 1:42 AM

MLB playoffs 2026: Previewing Dodgers-Brewers NLCS

The 2026 National League Championship Series is set -- and we've got a meeting of the NL's top two teams. Hours after the Los Angeles Dodgers advanced with a win over the Atlanta Braves, the Milwaukee Brewers set up a rematch of last year's NLCS by knocking out the San Diego Padres. What has stood out about both teams so far?

ESPN 1:22 AM

Tyrese Haliburton scores 7 in 1st game in more than 16 months

AMES, Iowa -- Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton said he felt like he was playing too fast during Indiana's 123-112 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves in its preseason opener at Iowa State on Wednesday night, Haliburton's first game in more than 16 months. He scored seven points on 3-of-8 shooting with six assists, one steal and two blocks during his 16 minutes of action.

ESPN 11:57 PM

Andy Pages lifts Dodgers past Braves, into third straight NLCS

ATLANTA -- With one pivotal swing, Andy Pages sent the Los Angeles Dodgers into the National League Championship Series and transformed his postseason legacy. Pages drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single in the seventh inning to give Los Angeles the lead, and the Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 4-1 on Wednesday night to clinch their NL Division Series.

ESPN 11:57 PM

Cubs — MLB.com

Here are each organization's Prospects of the Year

Last week, MLB Pipeline revealed its selections for Minor League Hitting Prospect of the Year and Minor League Pitching Prospect of the Year during the 2026 MiLB Awards Show on MLB Network. Brewers corner infielder Andrew Fischer won hitting honors after swatting 48 homers, the most in the Minors since 1982.

Cubs — MLB.com 11:55 PM

5 questions facing Cubs this offseason

This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian’s Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Cubs — MLB.com 1:15 PM

Simon Willison

A quote from Ben Affleck

I've always been kind of into computers since I was young. And then when film started to move from analog film to digital, I became more interested in that aspect of it. And the visual effects workflow for many years has included machine learning.

Simon Willison 11:14 PM

Claude Haiku 5.5

As previously promised, here’s Anthropic’s new fast, low cost model: Introducing Claude Haiku 5.5. The previous Haiku, 4.5, was very much showing its age. It came out almost a year ago, and was priced at $1/million input and $5/million output—relatively expensive even back then, and a full 10x the price of OpenAI’s GPT-6 Luna, released last month.

Simon Willison 8:56 PM

Anti-Patterns in Software Blogging

Anti-Patterns in Software Blogging (via) Some excellent writing advice from Michael Lynch. Michael warns against "meandering intros", misjudging your reader's existing knowledge, assuming they'll read your previous posts, and excessive formality. He also warns against overreliance on links as an excuse not to explain terminology.

Simon Willison 2:53 PM

A quote from Jake Boggan

I was a graph theory junkie long ago and even moved to Budapest for awhile to study among the greats. While I was there I started working on Barnette's Conjecture which came to occupy my thoughts over the next 24 years of my life, on and off as I worked in many different fields. Last summer I even thought for a few days that I had actually solved it.

Simon Willison 4:47 AM

OpenAI “rogue” agent activities found on Wikimedia projects

OpenAI “rogue” agent activities found on Wikimedia projects. Given how tempting a target wikis are for rogue agent swarms, it's not a huge surprise that Wikipedia found evidence of that activity once they went looking:. The Wikimedia Foundation conducted its own investigation to see whether Wikimedia websites had been similarly affected by AI agents, focusing on those operated by OpenAI.

Simon Willison 12:16 AM

A quote from Victoria Kim

Since the Medicare breach, OpenAI has put in place additional monitoring to allow “immediate intervention” by staff to stop training if the company’s models access the internet in ways they’re not supposed to, Mr. Kwon [chief strategy officer at OpenAI] said.

Simon Willison 11:58 PM

Release: llm-openai-decisions 0.1a0

OpenAI released their new Jev-style Decisions API, as previously announced at last week's DevDay. Since I already have an llm-typesafe plugin for talking to Jev, I had GPT-6 Astra read the new OpenAI API documentation and build an llm-openai-decisions plugin inspired by llm-typesafe. Unlike Jev, the new gpt-6-luna decision model supports image input in addition to text.

Simon Willison 11:04 PM

Raw America

Revealed: Republicans Surrender Purple States to Defend Deep-Red Territory

Before the news, help us reach more people by tapping the ❤️ and restacking this newsletter. It only takes a couple of seconds and helps more than you know. Here’s what’s on deck: Texas Republican Attorney General and Senate candidate Ken Paxton was caught admitting in a leaked audio recording that Donald Trump’s war with Iran is the single biggest problem for his campaign’s flagging numbers.

Raw America 3:57 PM

CBS Insider Warns Promises to Protect CNN’s Independence Are ‘All Lies’

Before we get to the news, take a few seconds to tap the ❤️ and hit the circular restack button. Those two clicks make sure these stories reach the people who really need to hear them. The same Republicans who once called for their colleague, Congressman Max Miller of Ohio, to resign from Congress over damning domestic violence allegations are now spending millions of dollars to keep him in…

Raw America 10:51 PM

The Robot Report

PTC acquisition positions Schneider Electric to challenge Siemens - The Robot Report

Global energy company Schneider Electric this week said it will acquire industrial design, engineering, and data management firm PTC Inc. for about $22.6 billion. The Boston-based companies claimed that the combination will bridge the “digital and physical worlds across the lifecycle, from design and build to operate and maintain.”

The Robot Report 9:07 PM

Teradyne Robotics, Elite Robots settle cobot dispute

Teradyne Robotics, a subsidiary of Teradyne Inc. and parent company of Universal Robots A/S, announced the settlement on Oct. 1. The resolution aims to bring the dispute between the parties to a close and reflects their shared interest in avoiding the continued time and cost associated with legal proceedings.

The Robot Report 4:20 PM

Harmonic Drive to share how integrated actuators can reduce engineering at RoboBusiness - The Robot Report

Selecting the right motion architecture is one of the most important design decisions in robotics. At RoboBusiness 2026, Marcel Almonte, a mechatronics applications engineer at Harmonic Drive, will lead the session, “Integrated Drive Actuator Design: Combining Gearheads, Motor, Drive, and Sensors for Smarter Motion. RoboBusiness will take place Oct. 20 and 21 in Santa Clara, Calif.

The Robot Report 12:24 PM

IEEE Spectrum — Robotics

Manufacturing Dive

Anduril, US Navy to build $6.6B shipyard in Maryland

Anduril intends to gradually scale production once Arsenal-2 begins operations as the defense systems maker builds its workforce, supplier base, infrastructure and production rate required for submarine output. Arsenal-2 will be built on a 187-acre site for “high-volume, high-precision production of undersea naval capabilities.

Manufacturing Dive 12:13 PM

Manufacturability, costing cited as key areas of AI impact: Xometry survey

AI and automation are among the biggest trends in manufacturing. Manufacturers are leveraging newer technologies as a way to bridge the persistent skill gap in the industry, with AI boosting engineering productivity and automation in manufacturing is set to more than double by 2030.

Manufacturing Dive 12:05 PM

Boston Dynamics hires former Amazon AI leader as CEO

Boston Dynamics, a humanoid and industrial robot maker owned by Hyundai, said it has appointed Rohit Prasad as CEO, effective today. The company hired Prasad for his experience turning physical artificial intelligence breakthroughs into commercial successes.

Manufacturing Dive 12:05 PM

BD strikes $19B supply chain pact with Trump administration

BD said it is the largest manufacturer of essential medical consumables and shares a commitment with the Trump administration to bolster the U.S. healthcare infrastructure. Under the agreement, the company said it will spend $3 billion to expand strategic production sites across the country and increase its annual U.S. output by about 5 billion essential medical consumables.

Manufacturing Dive 11:08 AM