The briefing for Thursday, October 15.

A Singapore-flagged container ship, GFS Pride, sank after being struck by an unknown projectile while transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, according to Singaporean maritime authorities. All 21 crew members were evacuated safely. A second Singapore-flagged vessel, GFS Giselle, sustained hull damage in a similar attack on Wednesday but reached safe anchorage with its 22 crew members intact.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said a ship struck naval mines while using what they called an "unauthorised" route through the strait, releasing photos showing smoke and floating cargo containers. The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency separately reported two other container ships struck by projectiles the same night, both sustaining only minor damage. Maritime risk group Vanguard also flagged a bulk carrier, Cape Dao, reportedly sinking after a failed rescue attempt following an earlier September attack that killed one seafarer.

The strait, which normally carries a fifth of global oil and gas shipments, has seen repeated attacks since the US-Israel war with Iran began in February, with at least 24 seafarers killed in 106 confirmed incidents per the UN's International Maritime Organization. A US-Iran agreement to reopen the waterway collapsed within weeks after being reached in June, and Iran has since targeted vessels using a southern route through Omani waters. Despite the violence, crude exports through the strait reached roughly 80% of pre-war levels last month, with the US military providing tanker escorts to keep Gulf Arab exports flowing.

Ukraine's military said new speed restrictions on SpaceX's Starlink and Starshield satellite networks are disrupting its battlefield operations, limiting connectivity for anything moving faster than 100 mph. The restrictions, imposed Tuesday night, were partially restored by Wednesday evening, according to Ukraine's former defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who thanked Elon Musk and urged him to lift the limits entirely. Experts say Starlink is essential to Ukraine's drone operations, enabling real-time coordination between drones, artillery and command posts, with no ready replacement available.

Musk said the restrictions stem from US government control over Starshield, the military-grade version of the network built for the Pentagon. "Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS," he wrote on X, distinguishing Starshield from the civilian Starlink service. A Zelensky adviser said he believes the timing is not coincidental, tying it to rising friction between Kyiv and Washington over Ukraine's strikes on Russian oil refineries.

The restrictions came as Russia launched one of its largest attacks of the war, killing several people in Kyiv and cutting power to at least 600,000 people. President Trump has criticized Ukraine's refinery strikes and called for new leadership there, while Zelensky has said the US threatened to curb intelligence sharing unless he accepted an energy ceasefire -- a claim Trump denies. During a London visit, Zelensky acknowledged feeling "betrayed" by a separate US deal to import Russian diesel, even as the UK pledged to speed up missile deliveries and reaffirmed its support.

The Consumer Price Index rose 3.7% in September compared to a year earlier, up from 3.4% in August, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. Monthly costs jumped 0.6%, the largest increase in five months. Core inflation, excluding food and energy, rose 2.6% year-over-year, higher than economists expected.

Gasoline prices drove much of the increase, jumping 9.1% in September alone and accounting for more than half of the month's inflation rise, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Vehicle fuel costs are up 34.2% over the past year, while overall energy inflation climbed 20.4%, partly reflecting the lingering impact of the Iran war on oil markets. Fuel oil used for home heating rose 74.2% over the year. Food inflation, by contrast, remained subdued at 2.5% annually.

Economists noted the price increases were more broadly spread across the economy than in recent months, with rising AI and data-center investment also pushing up costs for computer chips and electronics. "The report was worse than expected," said Bill Adams, chief US economist at Fifth Third Bank, noting that consumer demand appears stronger than downbeat surveys suggest. The data increases pressure on the Federal Reserve ahead of its October 27-28 meeting and complicates Republican messaging on affordability three weeks before midterm elections.

GlobalFoundries announced Wednesday it will open two new semiconductor factories in Malta, New York, financed by up to $21 billion in investment from Japan. The company said the deal was enabled by the Trump administration's trade and investment agreement with Tokyo, with roughly $10 billion accelerating construction of a plant set to open in 2029 and another $10 billion funding a second facility.

President Trump said the US government will receive shares in GlobalFoundries, mirroring the equity stake the administration previously took in Intel. Federal funding GlobalFoundries had received under a Biden-era chip expansion program will now be redirected to other semiconductor manufacturing investments, a company spokesperson said.

The investment comes amid surging global demand for chips driven by artificial intelligence and data center expansion. In July, Taiwan's TSMC announced an additional $100 billion investment in US manufacturing capacity, part of a broader trend of chipmakers expanding fabrication plants across the US, Japan and Taiwan. The deal reflects the deepening entanglement of government equity stakes with private semiconductor manufacturing, a policy shift that began with Intel.

The Justice Department threatened California with possible legal action over claims that noncitizens received mail ballots for the November 3 midterm elections. In a letter Tuesday, acting deputy attorney general Trent McCotter gave the state 48 hours to review a list of names -- provided via a password-protected thumb drive -- that federal officials believe include likely noncitizens who received ballots.

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber's office pushed back, noting the Department of Homeland Security claimed over the summer that the state had 190,000 noncitizens on its voter rolls but refused to share its methodology. Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan said his office received a similar thumb drive with a password written on a sticky note, and said he does not consider the device secure. California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the DOJ's claims "absolutely false conspiracy theories" about widespread voter fraud.

The Trump administration has made pursuit of noncitizen voters a priority this year, despite the issue being exceptionally rare -- the Justice Department has charged about 90 people for election misconduct in 2026, including 50 alleged noncitizen voters, out of more than 227 million registered voters nationwide. The dispute adds to election-integrity tensions just three weeks before voters head to the polls.

A federal appeals court heard oral arguments Wednesday over whether National Guard troops should be withdrawn from Washington, D.C., more than 14 months after President Trump deployed them as part of a crime-fighting mission. The force peaked at about 5,000 troops over the summer and has supported arrest operations and neighborhood patrols. The hearing in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit follows a pause on a lower court ruling that found the deployment illegal.

The case, brought by DC's attorney general, centers on whether the president has authority to deploy the Guard in a federal district with limited home rule. US District Judge Jia Cobb previously ruled that while Trump can act to protect federal functions, he cannot unilaterally use the Guard for general crime control or call in out-of-state units. A three-judge appeals panel that paused her ruling suggested Trump could prevail, citing the president's "unique power" over the DC Guard and the disruption that withdrawal would cause to service members.

Legal experts say the case is likely headed to the Supreme Court regardless of the outcome. Syracuse law professor William Banks said DC's best argument rests on home-rule authority, but that outside of that narrow claim, "there is no overarching federal principle that would bail out the district." Other scholars note that the indefinite nature of the deployment could undercut the administration's argument that it is responding to an emergency.