disafter.com
Friday, October 23, 2026
Video Games
A trailer for Mass Effect: Universe, the fifth Mass Effect game that died with BioWare this week, has leaked online, showing players a glimpse of the project EA shut down along with the studio. It surfaced shortly after EA announced the closure and roughly 400 layoffs, and coverage suggests former BioWare developers wanted fans to see the work they never got to finish.
Stock Market
The Nasdaq dropped 2.60% to 26,008.86 on Thursday, its worst day since June, and the S&P 500 fell 1.21% to 7,663.43, while the Dow finished nearly flat at 52,873.28. Meta slid about 7% after its earnings showed capital spending of nearly $35 billion in the quarter and negative free cash flow, reviving doubts about whether big AI investments will pay off. Oil jumped, with Brent near $113 on Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia, and gold fell almost 3%.
Technology
Union workers at Micron's DRAM fab in Taoyuan, Taiwan, walked out for 24 hours on Thursday in what is described as the island's first semiconductor strike, after 99% of voting members backed it. They want a bigger share of the profits from the AI memory boom, including a permanent cut of quarterly operating profit, after rejecting Micron's offer of a one-time bonus. Taiwan makes half or more of Micron's chips, including the high-bandwidth memory used in AI servers, though no production disruption has been confirmed.
World News
Yemen's Houthis say they struck King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, where two people were killed and eight wounded, and claim attacks on another airport, the defense ministry in Riyadh and Aramco facilities over two days. Saudi Arabia says a drone aimed at the Shaybah oilfield was intercepted, but two people died in that incident. Aramco has ordered staff out of its Dhahran headquarters, the US has told diplomats' families to leave the country, and the attacks pushed oil to a five-month high.
Movies
London's BFI IMAX, the UK's largest screen, sold 33,000 advance tickets for Dune: Part Three in its first 24 hours, taking more than £880,000. That beats the £750,000 first-day record set by Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey and more than doubles Dune: Part Two. The film opens December 18, with IMAX 70mm previews from December 15.