Anthropic's small, fast model drops to $0.10 per million input tokens.
By The Gayzette, with Claude · 2 min read · Wonder ◆◆◆◆◇
Anthropic released Claude Haiku 5.5 on October 7. Haiku is its small, quick model tier, and Anthropic calls this one "the cheapest, fastest, and most capable small model we've ever released." For prompts up to 100,000 tokens (a token is a chunk of text, roughly a word or part of one), it costs $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens. Haiku 4.5 was $1 and $5.
Illustration · The Gayzette
Anthropic says that is around 75% less to run on average. LLM Stats, an outside tracking site, adds two catches: a new tokenizer (the tool that chops text into tokens) makes the same text about 30% more tokens, and crossing 100,000 tokens raises the price of the whole request. LLM Stats also claims a 1M-token context window (how much text the model can read at once); Anthropic's page names no size. The scores are Anthropic's own, not independently tested: OSWorld 2.1 (offline subset, a computer-use test) 72.4% versus 15.7% for Haiku 4.5.
Anthropic pitches it for summaries, database queries and classification, as a helper beside Sonnet 5.5 and Opus 5.5, which it says stay better at complex coding.
On your desk: this is the model to try for bulk n8n jobs, such as summarizing Plaud transcripts, sorting the studio inbox, or running the Gayzette's own scouts, where thousands of small calls add up. Test a batch against your current model before switching.
Good morning. Today's lead is Claude Haiku 5.5, Anthropic's new small model at a tenth of the old Haiku price for most jobs. Then a half-price cut to Sonnet 5.5 cache reads, Liquid AI's one-pass open models, and a faster GLM model we can only half-confirm.
Spirit is empty today. The scout found nothing new and verifiable from Oct 7 to 9 on psi, meditation, psychedelic science or UAPs, and we'd rather leave the space blank than stretch; Crop Circle Watch still runs below it. The Good Ten is eight, because eight cleared the check. The World, Straight has five, all from Al Jazeera pages that cite the wires, since AP and Reuters wouldn't load for us. No reactions changed anything: the one "less" vote on a dance story is still under the two the rule needs.
Housekeeping: Sonnet wrote the lead, because scouting alone went past the 300k budget. Nothing on the watchlist was confirmed for tonight. Storm Watch has three storms, with Simon now a hurricane, and CPC posted a new El Niño discussion on Oct 8. The moon and tonight's-sky line couldn't be verified, so only the Human Design transits run in Sky. Grant Watch was quiet. The fact-checker graded about 130 claims, and we applied 11 fixes before publishing.
Alongside Haiku 5.5, Anthropic cut what Sonnet 5.5 charges for cache reads by 50%, from $0.20 to $0.10 per million tokens. A cache read is when the model reuses text it already saw earlier in a session instead of processing it fresh. Anthropic says this lowers Sonnet 5.5 costs on most agentic tasks (jobs where the model takes many steps on its own) by about 20%. Other Sonnet 5.5 prices are unchanged: $2 input, $10 output and $2.50 cache writes per million.
Illustration · The Gayzette
On your desk: long Claude Code and Cowork sessions keep rereading the same vault context, so this should trim the cost of those without you changing anything.
ConfirmedThe UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2830 unanimously, extending the Darfur arms embargo two months to December 11 and the panel of experts mandate to January 11, 2027 (Al Jazeera). A US proposal for an embargo on all of Sudan did not pass; Russia and China opposed it (Al Jazeera). The UN described the text as a short-term "technical rollover" (Al Jazeera).
Claimed by US Ambassador Jeff Bartos (remarks last month); Russia's Anna Evstigneeva; Sudan's Al-Harith MohamedBartos said the existing regime is "over 20 years outdated." Evstigneeva said Russia "will not allow even a hint of broadening the restrictions." Mohamed said a total embargo conflicts with the UN Charter's right to self-defence.
Backers of a wider embargo: The current Darfur-only regime is dated and should cover all of Sudan.
Opponents of broadening: Russia opposed widening it, and Sudan's representative said a total embargo conflicts with the right to self-defence.
ConfirmedAfter nearly two weeks of fighting from late September, federal forces entered Mekelle and Tigrayan forces withdrew; fighting continues elsewhere in Tigray, and the 2022 Pretoria ceasefire has effectively ended (Al Jazeera). On October 1 Ethiopia closed its embassy in Eritrea and Eritrea severed ties; on October 4 leaders of Egypt, Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia met in New Alamein and called for respect for sovereignty (Al Jazeera). Eritrea denies backing the opposition alliance (Al Jazeera).
Claimed by Debretsion Gebremichael (TPLF); Prime Minister Abiy AhmedDebretsion said, "We will confront the enemy on our terms and where we choose." Abiy told parliament, "...we will work diligently to ensure that Ethiopia has an outlet to the sea."
Ethiopian federal government: Says it will pursue a sea outlet for Ethiopia, and its forces now hold Mekelle.
Tigrayan leadership (TPLF): Says it will keep fighting on its own terms after withdrawing from Mekelle.
ConfirmedVladimir Putin and Masoud Pezeshkian met in Türkmenbaşy, Turkmenistan, on the sidelines of a CIS summit (Al Jazeera). IRNA reported that Putin told Pezeshkian in a call on Wednesday that Moscow is ready to mediate (Al Jazeera). Al Jazeera describes Iran-US talks as at an apparent impasse.
Claimed by Vladimir Putin (as reported by Interfax); Donald Trump (as reported by Al Jazeera)Putin said, "You know our position. On our part, we are ready to do everything we can to help you resolve this situation." Al Jazeera reports that Trump said the US will not attack Iran before the 3 November midterm elections.
Russia and Iran: Russia offers help and mediation; the Iranian side met Putin in person.
United States: Al Jazeera reports Trump said the US will not attack before the 3 November midterms.
ConfirmedA July Constitutional Court ruling removed procedural barriers to seeking asylum (Al Jazeera). Police say about two dozen vehicles were set alight (10 in Johannesburg, 14 in Durban) and three people were arrested in Durban; foreign-owned shops were looted in Durban, where rubber bullets were used (Al Jazeera).
Claimed by Government spokesperson William BaloyiBaloyi said false information about the ruling triggered the violence and that the ruling does not automatically grant refugee status. He said, "We are deeply concerned by what is going on now."
South African government: Says misinformation about the ruling set off the unrest and that the ruling does not automatically grant refugee status.
Protesters: Were angry about the asylum ruling, according to Al Jazeera's report of the protests.
ConfirmedTen people died and 16 were injured at the El Castillo Penitentiary Centre on October 8; the dead were nine inmates and one visitor, a minor (Al Jazeera). Visits have been suspended (Al Jazeera). Officials have not said whether the clash is linked to cartel conflict (Al Jazeera).
Claimed by Sinaloa Public Security Secretary Sinuhe TellezTellez said the prison is "under control" and the rest of the prison population is safe.
Sinaloa state officials: Say the situation is under control and the rest of the population is safe.
Open questions: The cause has not been stated, and officials have not said whether cartels were involved.
Kagan and Soai win the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Wed Oct 7
Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai won "for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis." Committee chair Heiner Linke explained chirality this way: "Many molecules occur in two different versions... one another's mirror image, they look alike, but they are not identical." The prize is 12 million Swedish crowns.
Jonathan the tortoise's genome offers clues about aging
Thu Oct 8
Jonathan, an Aldabra giant tortoise on St. Helena believed hatched around 1832, had 287 gene variants tied to DNA repair, inflammation, insulin regulation and cancer suppression. The work was led by the longevity nonprofit Kallel; founder Stephen Clark said "Nature has already solved the puzzle of ageing in remarkable ways." The caveat: it is one animal with an estimated age, and the variants are not shown to cause the long life.
14,066 explosive items cleared from Libyan farmland
Thu Oct 8
Teams recovered 14,066 explosive items from Al-Sweihli Farm in Misratah between January and September 2026. The work involved UNSMIL (the UN mission in Libya), Italian-funded partners, the Libyan Peace Organization and HALO Trust. UNSMIL's Fatma Zourrig said, "Libyan civilians should not be exposed to such dangers."
Epilepsy drug protects cartilage in osteoarthritis tests
Thu Oct 8
Yale researchers led by Chuan-Ju Liu found that lacosamide, an epilepsy drug, protected cartilage in osteoarthritis tests. It targets Nav1.7, a channel that is overactive in osteoarthritic cartilage cells, and one hydrogel injection every four weeks protected cartilage better than a daily oral dose. Liu said, "We need therapies that don't just mask pain but actually change how the disease progresses." This is in lab and animal tests only (Bioactive Materials, 2026).
A 2-million-year-old Homo erectus fossil found in South Africa
Thu Oct 8
Jesse Martin's La Trobe team described 18 hominin fossils from Drimolen Main Quarry, including DNH 127, the first adult Homo erectus from Drimolen, at about 2 million years old (Annals of Human Biology). Martin noted that about 2 million years ago, "P. robustus outnumbered Homo erectus at Drimolen by more than 10 to one."
A new coral family turns up on Costa Rica's seamounts
Thu Oct 8
Odalisca Breedy of the Universidad de Costa Rica described a new coral family, Laurinqueidae, with the species Laurinque elenya, found 360 to 529 meters deep. The colonies stand over a meter tall and were found by the ROV SuBastian (a remote-operated underwater robot) on Schmidt Ocean Institute expeditions (ZooKeys). Breedy said it was "something very different that I could not match with the known taxa."
Midwood High student Leslie Gomez Rivera surveyed classmates and joined Youth Food Advocates, a program of Community Food Advocates. New menu items now need at least 70% student approval, and more than 200 cafeterias had been renovated by December 2025. Rivera said, "if you want it done, you can do it yourself."
Only 1 of 285 rewilding projects was hit by wildfire
Tue Oct 6
Rewilding Britain reports that of 285 Rewilding Network projects of 40 hectares or more, only one was directly affected by wildfire from March to August 2026. Monocultures (single-crop plantings) made up 64% of fires and 49% of burned area, while complex habitat mosaics made up 8% of fires and 11% of area. The caveat: this is an advocacy group's own report.
Los Angeles: High near 90, morning fog then clearing, LA (NWS)
Hurricane Isaias (Atlantic (Gulf of Mexico)) — Hurricane · 110 mph peak · 963 mb. Gulf of Mexico, 26.4N 88.0W Land threat not confirmed in this morning's check; see NHC for current watches and warnings. (as of 2026-10-09)NHC, Public Advisory #11, 4:00 AM CDT Oct 9
Hurricane Simon (Eastern Pacific) — Hurricane · 90 mph peak · 978 mb. Off southwestern Mexico, 15.8N 104.5W, moving northwest at 5 mph See NHC for current watches and warnings. (as of 2026-10-09)NHC, Public Advisory #8, 3:00 AM CST Oct 9
Tropical Storm Rachel (Eastern Pacific) — Tropical storm · 50 mph peak · 994 mb. Open Pacific, 22.7N 124.9W No land threat stated. (as of 2026-10-09)NHC, Public Advisory #49, 2:00 AM PDT Oct 9
Winter outlook: New CPC discussion (Oct 8): El Niño keeps strengthening, and a strong-to-very-strong event is likely through Jan-Mar 2027 (greater than 83% chance). CPC puts the chance of a historic-strength event at 83% for Oct-Dec.
Patrick: From the HD Toolkit: Saturn is in your own Gate 21 (The Hunter, Heart), completing your 21-45 channel; Uranus in your Gate 20 (The Now) completes 20-34; Neptune in Gate 25 completes 25-51; Pluto in Gate 41 completes 30-41; and the North Node sits in your Gate 30 (Recognition of Feelings), where it has been since July 25.
Travis: From the HD Toolkit: Neptune is in Gate 25 (The Spirit of the Self, G centre), one of your own gates, where it has been since Sept 4, 2025.
Notebook
Crop Circle Watch
Latest formation — Tue Jul 21 · Wanborough Plain, nr Liddington, Wiltshire. No design description was given in the log.
The July 2026 page logs 10 formations from 3 to 21 July: 8 in Wiltshire and 2 in Oxfordshire; the 2026 index shows 6 for January to June.
The August 2026 page is still a placeholder with no formations logged, so nothing newer than 21 July is on record.
From the history: The 1678 "Mowing-Devil" pamphlet tells of a farmer who balked at a mower's wages and said he'd rather the devil did the job; the oats were found cut in a neat form, and the pamphlet blames the devil. Researcher Jim Schnabel doesn't count it as a precedent, because "the stalks were cut down, not bent."
