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A 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit western Turkiye Monday night, causing at least three buildings to collapse. Officials have reported no casualties so far. They said the quake was centred in Balikesir province and felt as far away as Izmir and Istanbul.

Oct. 27 (UPI) — The White House asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to allow President Donald Trump to fire a top official in the Library of Congress after a lower court ruled against it.

Shira Perlmutter, director of the U.S. Copyright Office, was dismissed from her role by Trump just days after the president removed Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in May. Hayden was replaced by U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on an interim basis.

In September, a federal appeals court ordered Perlmutter reinstated to her role under the legislative branch, not the executive branch, at the Library of Congress.

On Monday, the Trump administration told the high court in its appeal that the D.C. appeal circuit’s ruling contravened “settled precedent and misconceives the Librarian’s and Register’s legal status.”

“Treating the Librarian and Register as legislative officers would set much of federal copyright law on a collision course with the basic principle that Congress may not vest the power to execute the laws in itself or its officers,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in an emergency filing.

Meanwhile, Robert Newlen is listed as the acting Librarian of Congress.

After decades of armed struggle, fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, are withdrawing from Turkiye and moving to northern Iraq.

The conflict between the PKK and Turkish forces has killed more than 40,000 people in four decades.

The withdrawal is the latest step in an agreement with the Turkish state, which the group says will see it shift from armed rebellion to democratic politics.

So, will Ankara stick to its end of the bargain and allow the PKK to engage in civil society?

And is Kurdish autonomy now just a pipe dream?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Hiwa Osman – former adviser to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani

Mohammed D Salih – non-resident senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute

Hisyar Ozsoy – former deputy chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)

The first inaugural Gaza International Festival for Women’s Cinema premiered the docudrama, ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ which recounts the final few hours of the Palestinian girl’s life.

Cameroon’s 92-year-old President Paul Biya has won a record eighth term with 53.66% of the vote. His rival Issa Tchiroma Bakary also claimed victory and reported gunfire near his home as protests over alleged election fraud left at least four people dead.

One Corrie star is celebrating their little sister’s huge new career move as she joins the cast of the hit ITV soap in an episode as the daughter of an iconic character

Coronation Street is becoming a family business for one of its stars as his little sister is set to join the show. The ITV soap’s newest cast member is making her debut on the show in Monday’s (27 October) episode.

Bobby Bradshaw, who plays Jake Windass, is the older brother of Aurora Bradshaw. He announced on his Instagram that his sister was joining Corrie as Susie Price, the daughter of Catherine Tyldesley’s Eva.

He posted a picture of the new family, the Driscolls, which feature both Susie and her mother, and captioned it: “The news is finally out!!! Congratulations to my little sister aurora! She is part of the new family and her first episode airs 27th October.”

READ MORE: Half Christmas tree is great for ‘space saving’ and ‘fantastic value for money’READ MORE: Corrie star Denise Black told ‘you’re too fat and disabled for telly’

Fans will remember Susie as the baby Eva had in 2018. When Eva learned she was pregnant, she struck a deal with Toyah Battersby (Georgia Taylor) to give the child to her and Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne) after their surrogate had a miscarriage. Toyah faked a birth certificate so that Peter would never know Susie wasn’t born via the surrogate.

Eva struggled being away from her baby, but eventually the two ended up together and have been living away from Weatherfield since 2018. But Eva and Susie are now returning.

The mother and daughter are moving into the Rovers Return alongside Eva’s new husband Ben Driscoll (Aaron McCusker). Ben is the person the pub was sold to, as he bought it as a surprise for his wife. Alongside Ben, his mother Maggie Driscoll, played by Pauline McLynn of EastEnders fame, will also be moving in. Catherine Tyldesley told the Mirror that Maggie is the “mother-in-law from hell”.

“There are so many twists and turns with the Driscolls. The mother-in-law from hell feels like a harsh title but I don’t think I am far off,” she said. “The constant swipes at each other, and Ben is very much stuck in the middle. Things do start to come to a head and he has to make that decision of whose side are you on here. They both get frustrated with him.”

These Driscolls are relatives of Ollie Dirscoll (Raphael Akuwudike), who is already on the show and dating Dee-Dee Bailey (Channique Sterling-Brown). Dee-Dee is more than a girlfriend to Ollie, she is also his legal representation after he was involved in a car accident.

Though Aurora and Bobby are siblings, their characters are not. Jake Windass is the son of Gary Windass and Izzy Armstrong, born via surrogacy with the help of Tina McIntyre. Jake currently lives with his dad and his step-mother Maria Connor, who is not best pleased to see Eva return.

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

Oct. 27 (UPI) — Preparation is underway for Rockefeller Center’s annual 2025 Christmas tree custom in New York City.

Officials announced Monday a 75-year-old Norway spruce at 75 feet high and weighing about 11 tons was picked to be the iconic tree for this year’s holiday season. The tree was chosen by head gardener Erik Pauze.

“What I look for is a tree you’d want in your living room, but on a grander scale,” according to Pauze, adding it “needs to make people smile the second they see it.”

It was donated by the Russ family of East Greenbush, N.Y., and scheduled to be cut down Nov. 6.

The tree is slated to make the 130-mile journey to arrive in Manhattan at Rockefeller Center on Nov. 8 and will remain in place until mid-January.

Rockefeller’s Christmas tree tradition dates to 1931. Last year’s display was a 74-foot Norway Spruce grown in West Stockbridge, Mass.

After this season’s tree is removed from Rockefeller Center in January, it will be turned into lumber and used for Habitat for Humanity projects.

Oct. 27 (UPI) — Tech giant Qualcomm said Monday its release of new AI accelerator chips was looming.

Qualcomm officials said its Snapdragon 6s Gen 4 mobile chip set will offer a 36% CPU performance boost and its Adreno GPU upgrades will deliver a 59% faster user experience.

On Monday, company stock spiked up about 12% at midday after release of the news.

“We first wanted to prove ourselves in other domains, and once we built our strength over there, it was pretty easy for us to go up a notch into the data center level,” Durga Malladi, Qualcomm’s general manager for data center and edge, said last week.

Its shift puts Qualcomm in direct competition with AI semiconductor giant Nvidia.

In 2022, Qualcomm announced it joined forces with Facebook parent company Meta to develop custom chipsets for the social media giant’s virtual reality products about seven months before Qualcomm was fined nearly $800 million by South Korea’s high court for alleged unfair business practices.

Meanwhile, Qualcomm’s AI200 and AI250 will go on sale in 2026 and 2027, respectively.

Several Navy warships assigned to the Caribbean counter-narcotics mission have moved to avoid Hurricane Melissa, a U.S. Navy official told us. Now a massive Category 5 hurricane, Melissa is expected to make landfall in Jamaica later today into tomorrow with likely devastating effects. Meanwhile, it appears that the U.S. Air Force is sending another flight of B-1B bombers toward the region amid an ongoing U.S. military buildup.

“Based on current weather information and forecast models, the Navy is continuing to make determinations regarding Hurricane Melissa,” the official told us. “The safety of our personnel and their families is our top priority.” The storm is on a northeasterly track heading away from the Caribbean.

Despite the ship movements, the hurricane is “not expected to impact operations in the Caribbean,” the Navy official told us, adding that many of the eight surface vessels assigned to the effort were already operating out of the storm’s path.

The U.S. naval presence in the region includes the Iwo Jima Amphibious Readiness Group (ARG)/22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), with more than 4,500 sailors and Marines on three ships: The Wasp class amphibious assault ship, the USS Iwo Jima, and the San Antonio class amphibious transport dock ship USS San Antonio. Also deployed in the region are three Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers;  USS Jason Dunham, USS Stockdale and USS Gravely, the Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie and the Freedom class littoral combat ship USS Wichita.

While the Navy official would not comment about the specific locations of most of the vessels, they did acknowledge that the Gravely is docked in Trinidad and Tobago on a previously scheduled deployment. The destroyer arrived in Port of Spain to conduct joint military training exercises with the Caribbean nation, Fox News noted. It is expected to remain until Thursday, according to government officials from the two countries.

The exercises involving the Gravely seek to “address shared threats like transnational crime and build resilience through training, humanitarian missions, and security efforts,” U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Jenifer Neidhart de Ortiz said in a statement.

The deployment of the Gravely to Port of Spain comes as the U.S. is ratcheting up the pressure on the South American nation’s dictator, Nicolas Maduro.

Venezuelan officials, meanwhile, decried the deployment of the Gravely so close to its shores. Port of Spain is located less than 25 miles from the Venezuelan coast.

The conduct of military exercises in the waters of a neighboring country is “dangerous” and a “serious threat” to the Caribbean region, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said, adding that it is a “hostile provocation” toward the South American nation.

Though the U.S. buildup is ostensibly aimed at curtailing drug trafficking out of Venezuela, the Trump administration has made no secret that it is pressuring Maduro, indicted in the U.S. on drug charges with a $50 million reward on his head.

As we reported last week, in addition to its assets already in the region, the U.S. Navy’s supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford and at least a portion of the rest of its strike group have been ordered to Latin American waters. Strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats have now become routine, and the possibility that the campaign could extend to targets on land, particularly in Venezuela, continues to grow.

“In support of the President’s [Donald Trump] directive to dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) and counter narco-terrorism in defense of the Homeland, the Secretary of War [Pete Hegseth] has directed the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group and embarked carrier air wing to the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) area of responsibility (AOR),” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement on Friday. “The enhanced U.S. force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere. These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs.”

In addition to U.S. Navy assets, the U.S. Air Force is also contributing to the counter-narcotics effort.

For the second time in less than a week, it appears that B-1 bombers are headed to the Caribbean. Online flight trackers report that two Lancers took off from Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. Shortly after 1:45 p.m., the Lancers were located south of Puerto Rico on a path toward Venezuela. 

HOGAN 11 flt (B-1B Bombers) wkg WASHINGTON CENTER on VHF joining up with GRIN 11 flt (KC-135) southbound toward the Caribbean and joining up with BROMO 21 (KC-46 & KC-135) out of MacDill AFB.

Audio via @liveatc and tracking via @ADSBex pic.twitter.com/N4rTIBI2oC

— Thenewarea51 (@thenewarea51) October 27, 2025

We reached out to U.S. Global Strike Command for more information and they referred us to the Pentagon.

Regardless, as TWZ noted following B-52 sorties over the region two weeks ago, there is a well-established precedent for employing Air Force bombers in counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean. The range and targeting capabilities that the B-52 and the B-1 possess can be and have been employed to help spot and track suspected drug smuggling vessels. However, nothing we have seen so far indicates that these bombers are taking part in drug interdiction efforts and are more likely being sent toward Venezuela in a political message to Maduro.

Amid these military movements, a key supporter of Trump suggested that Maduro should flee the country.

“If I was Maduro, I’d head to Russia or China right now,” U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida) told the CBS News program 60 Minutes on Sunday. “His days are numbered. Something’s gonna happen. Whether it’s internal or external, I think something’s gonna happen.”

It remains publicly unclear at the moment what, if any action, the U.S. will take against Maduro. The Ford and elements of its carrier strike group is not expected to arrive in the Caribbean for about two weeks. Regardless of the timing of the Ford‘s arrival, it does not appear that Hurricane Melissa, despite its ferocity, will be a factor in the Pentagon’s plans.

Contact the author: [email protected]

On Sunday, Argentinians voted in midterm elections that attracted an uncommonly high level of international attention. This was in part due to the potential $40bn bailout promised to cash-strapped Buenos Aires by Washington. Ahead of the vote, United States President Donald Trump had made clear the cash injection was contingent upon the election results.

And Trump’s far-right buddy Javier Milei, the equally uniquely coiffed president of Argentina, did not fail to deliver. Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza, pulled off a rather startling win, scoring more than 40 percent of the votes cast, according to early results. Half of the seats in Argentina’s lower Chamber of Deputies and a third of the seats in the Senate were up for grabs.

Trump naturally wasted no time in appropriating the electoral feat as a personal victory, claiming that Milei “had a lot of help from us. He had a lot of help.”

Before the election, Trump explained that his generous gesture to Milei – made even as the US president was overseeing sweeping cuts to healthcare and other services at home – was his own way of “helping a great philosophy take over a great country”.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent similarly contended that the “bridge” the US was extending to Milei was in the hopes “that Argentina can be great again”.

Call it MAGA – the South American version.

But as is the case with the US itself, it’s not quite clear when, precisely, in history Argentina was ever so “great”. Of course, there were the good old days of the US-backed Dirty War when a right-wing military dictatorship murdered and disappeared tens of thousands of suspected leftists, many of them dropped from aircraft into the ocean or Rio de la Plata.

As historian Greg Grandin documented in his biography of eternal US diplomat Henry Kissinger, the statesman advised the junta’s foreign minister, Admiral Cesar Augusto Guzzetti, in 1976: “If there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly.”

Another great “philosophy”.

Now, Trump stands poised to preside over a renewed era of US influence in the South American nation. And while the days of dropping bodies from airplanes may be over, there is still plenty of room for right-wing brutality.

Milei, who self-defines as an “anarcho-capitalist” and who assumed the presidency in 2023, made a charming habit of wielding a chainsaw at political rallies to symbolise his approach to governance – which has been to slash spending on healthcare, education and other public services while overseeing mass layoffs and pension cuts.

In the first six months of Milei’s austerity programme, poverty in Argentina soared to nearly 53 percent. Inflation has dropped, but so has purchasing power, and surveys indicate that most Argentines do not earn enough to pay their monthly expenses. Sunday’s legislative win – pardon, Trump’s victory – was crucial to maintaining the “chainsaw” strategy, which anyway has worked out just fine for certain elite sectors of the Argentinian populace.

Until now, Milei’s party commanded less than 15 percent of the seats in Congress. This meant that the president was forced to govern at the mercy of an opposition that insisted on overturning his vetoes on things like increasing benefits for people with disabilities and restoring congressional funding for paediatric healthcare and universities.

Naturally, Milei’s sociopathic efforts are near and dear to Trump’s heart, and the US head of state has repeatedly come out in his defence: “Everybody knows he’s doing the right thing. But you have a radical-left sick culture that’s a very dangerous group of people, and they’re trying to make him look bad.”

To be sure, it takes a hell of a “radical-left sick culture” to say that children should have healthcare or that folks with disabilities should be lent a hand.

Incidentally, Milei’s government has effectively done its part to increase the number of Argentinians with disabilities by, inter alia, wantonly firing rubber bullets and tear gas at pensioners and other demonstrators protesting against violent austerity measures. In March, 33-year-old Jonathan Navarro was blinded in one eye by a rubber bullet while protesting on behalf of his father and other retirees.

For his part, Trump, who no doubt sympathises with the need for militarised responses to peaceful demonstrators, recently graciously joked with Milei about the possibility of sending Tomahawk missiles to Argentina: “You need them for your opposition, I guess.” Trump and Milei also see eye to eye on the subject of Israel, and in August, the Argentinian president proposed a $1m initiative to boost relations between Latin America and the genocidal state.

The list of similarities goes on. Trump has never been one to look down on corruption or nepotism – as long as he’s the one benefitting – and Milei wasted no time in appointing his own sister as secretary-general to the presidency. Karina Milei has played the starring role in one of various scandals to have rocked her brother’s administration – scandals that were supposedly threatening to jeopardise his party’s performance in Sunday’s midterms.

In August, leaked audio recordings featured Diego Spagnuolo, who at the time was the head of Argentina’s National Disability Agency, discussing bribes allegedly pocketed by Karina Milei in exchange for pharmaceutical contracts concerning the procurement of medications for people with disabilities.

Anyway, only a “radical-left sick culture” would have been bothered by such an arrangement.

Now that the midterm elections appear to have breathed new life into Milei’s unhinged free-market experiment, impoverished Argentinians certainly have a lot to lose. But Washington has much to gain, as Trump made clear in his victory speech after the results were released: “We’ve made a lot of money based on that election because the bonds have gone up. Their whole debt rating has gone up.”

The president went on to add that the US was “not in that for the money, per se”. Remember those words as Argentina is chain-sawed to greatness again.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

John Dickerson, co-anchor of “CBS Evening News,” said Monday he will exit the network at the end of the year.

Dickerson will be the first major talent departure since the arrival of Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News last month.

The veteran political journalist who joined CBS News in 2009 gave no reason for leaving in an Instagram post announcing his decision.

“I am extremely grateful for all that CBS News gave me – the work, the audience’s attention and the honor of being a part of the network’s history – and I am grateful for my dear colleagues who’ve made me a better journalist and a better human being and I will miss you,” Dickerson wrote.

Dickerson became co-anchor of “CBS Evening News” in January alongside Maurice DuBois, succeeding Norah O’Donnell. The duo were part of a revamp of the program, which put an emphasis on more in-depth stories.

The format change failed to attract new viewers as it remains in third place behind “ABC World News Tonight with David Muir” and “NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas.”

There had been talk of significant changes coming to the newscast before Weiss signed on for a senior role at the division.

Weiss has reportedly expressed interest in bringing Fox News anchor Bret Baier to CBS, but his current employer has him under contract through 2028. Baier anchors “Special Report,” a nightly newscast that like many Fox News programs is closely followed by President Trump.

Anderson Cooper, whose contract will soon be up at CNN, has also been mentioned internally as an evening news anchor candidate.

“CBS Evening News” co-anchors Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson.

(Gail Schulman/CBS News)

The changes to “CBS Evening News” were initiated by former “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens, who was pushed out of the company amid the controversy over a 2024 interview with former vice president Kamala Harris.

Trump sued the network over the interview which he said was deceptively edited to help her presidential campaign. Although the case labeled as frivolous by 1st Amendment experts, Paramount settled the suit for $16 million to clear the regulatory path for its merger with Skydance Media.

A former writer for Time magazine, Dickerson came to CBS News as a contributor before taking on a variety of roles in the division. He was anchor of the Washington-based public affairs program “Face the Nation.” He moved to New York to join “CBS This Morning” after the network fired Charlie Rose over sexual harassment allegations in 2017.

Dickerson anchored a nightly prime time newscast on CBS News Streaming before being tapped for “CBS Evening News.” He could not be immediately reached for comment.

Oct. 27 (UPI) — Lithuania will close its border with Belarus after balloons have continued to breach its airspace, Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė said Monday.

She said Lithuania will shoot down any balloons that enter the country.

“We are sending a signal to Belarus that no hybrid attack will be tolerated, and we are taking the strictest measures to stop such attacks,” Ruginienė said. “The armed forces will take all necessary measures, including kinetic measures to shoot down the balloons.”

The balloons are believed to be a tool of smugglers, which bring contraband cigarettes into the country. The border will stay open for EU nationals leaving Belarus and for diplomats.

Lithuania has had to shut down airspace over Vilnius for balloon intrusion at least four times last week and three times over the weekend. There were 170 flights disrupted.

Though the balloons aren’t sent by the government, Lithuania blames Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko for his lack of action.

“Inaction is also an action,” Ruginienė said after a meeting of the National Security Commission on Monday. “If Belarus does nothing about it and does not fight, we also assess these actions accordingly.”

Lithuania is a member of NATO. Lukashenko is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On Sunday night, the National Crisis Management Center said its radar detected 66 objects traveling from Belarus to Lithuania.

Lithuania Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said on X Monday that NATO was facing a “deliberate escalation of hybrid warfare from Russia and its proxy, Belarus,” calling recent airspace incursions, “calculated provocations designed to destabilize, distract and test NATO’s resolve.”

A Russian Sukhoi SU-30 fighter and an IL-78 tanker plane flew a half a mile into Lithuanian territory on Oct. 23, according to the country’s ministry of foreign affairs. It had departed from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which shares borders with Lithuania and Poland.

Ruginienė said her country will push for more sanctions on Belarus at the European Union level. She also wouldn’t rule out invoking Article 4 of NATO, which calls for urgent discussions with allies when a member fears risk to its security.

Hurricane Melissa, which has been barrelling towards Jamaica, is expected to be the most powerful hurricane to ever make a direct hit on the island.

The hurricane intensified on Monday into a Category 5 storm, the most powerful on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with wind speeds exceeding 252km/h (157mph). It was expected to make landfall on Tuesday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in the United States. It said the storm will cause “destructive winds” and “catastrophic flooding”, which it forecast to worsen throughout the day and night.

Jamaica’s Meteorological Service added: “Life-threatening storm surge, accompanied by large and destructive waves, is likely along the south coast of Jamaica late Monday through Tuesday morning.”

How did Hurricane Melissa form?

Melissa originated as a cluster of thunderstorms off the coast of West Africa. It travelled west and evolved into a depression. On October 21, it reached tropical storm status.

Over the weekend, Melissa became a Category 4 storm as it made its way west through the Caribbean Sea.

Melissa is the 13th hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30. On average, the Atlantic basin experiences about seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes each year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US predicted an above-normal Atlantic hurricane season this year with 13 to 18 named storms.

This is the third Category 5 hurricane of the season after Hurricanes Erin and Humberto.

Authorities use the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale to classify storms. The scale divides hurricanes into five categories based on their sustained wind speeds.

The highest is Category 5, which means a storm that has a sustained wind speed of 252km/h (157mph) or higher. Category 5 storms usually bring “catastrophic damage”, according to the NHC.

How has Melissa progressed? When and where will it hit Jamaica?

In anticipation of the hurricane, residents in Jamaica have been told to protect their homes with sandbags and boards, and to stock up on essentials.

The NHC said hurricane-force winds will extend up to 45km (30 miles) from Melissa’s centre and tropical storm-force winds will extend up to 315km (195 miles) from it.

Here is how the storm has progressed so far:

Monday, 7am in Jamaica (12:00 GMT)

On Monday morning, Melissa was upgraded to a Category 5 hurricane as it moved northwest in the Caribbean.

Tuesday, 1am (06:00 GMT)

Melissa will likely make landfall soon after this time. The NHC said because the storm is moving slowly – at 8km/h (5mph) – it will cause more damage.

“This extreme rainfall potential, owing to the slow motion, is going to create a catastrophic event here for Jamaica,” NHC Deputy Director Jamie Rhome said.

Melissa is expected to bring rainfall of 381mm to 762mm (15 to 30 inches) to portions of Jamaica and additional rainfall of 203mm to 406mm (8 to 16 inches) for southern Hispaniola through Wednesday with rainfall totals of 1,016mm (40 inches) possible. Catastrophic flash flooding and numerous landslides are likely.

Wednesday, 1pm (18:00 GMT)

Melissa is forecast to pass over Cuba by Wednesday before moving through the Greater Antilles and out into the Atlantic.

It is predicted to weaken to Category 3 by the time it reaches Cuba.

What is the latest on the ground?

Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said: “I know that there are many Jamaicans who are anxious, who are very concerned, and rightfully so. You should be concerned.

“But the best way to address anxiety and any nervousness and concern is to be prepared.”

Jamaica’s Meteorological Service has advised small craft operators and fishermen on the cays and banks to remain in safe harbour until wind and sea conditions return to normal

“Leaving the island before the hurricane arrives is not an option,” it said. The main airports – Kingston and Montego Bay – are closed. Kingston’s airport is warning: “Passengers, contact your airline for rebooking. DO NOT go to the airport.”

Warnings have also been put in place for parts of Haiti, the Dominican Republic and eastern Cuba, where Melissa is expected to cause similar damage.

Jamaica’s history of hurricanes

According to the NHC, Jamaica has experienced only one Category 4 storm, Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. It was the most destructive storm in Jamaica’s history and killed at least 45 people.

In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy was the first to make landfall on the island since Gilbert. It hit as a Category 1 storm.

In 2024, Hurricane Beryl, a Category 5 storm, brushed the southern coast of Jamaica and caused heavy winds and rain and damaged buildings. It also caused the deaths of four people.

Oct. 27 (UPI) — Australia’s consumer authority accused Microsoft of “deliberately” hiding subscription information from its Australian customer base.

On Monday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sued the software giant for allegedly misleading more than 2.5 million Australian users over subscriptions to Microsoft 365.

“Following a detailed investigation, the ACCC alleges that Microsoft deliberately hid this third option, to retain the old plan at the old price, in order to increase the uptake of Copilot and the increased revenue from the Copilot integrated plans,” stated ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb.

Australia’s CCC launched its Microsoft inquiry after reports that Microsoft allegedly misled its customers about price increases and options over subscriptions following the integration of its “Copilot” AI tool.

It alleged that Microsoft told users a higher price must be paid to keep subscriptions, which was to include Microsoft’s Copilot, or be forced to cancel.

According to Cass-Gottlieb, the ACCC will seek a penalty to demonstrate that non-compliance with Australia’s consumer laws was “not just a cost of doing business.”

Microsoft said it was reviewing the Australian government’s claim, adding that consumer trust and transparency were “top priorities.”

Last year in December, British digital rights advocacy groups launched a billion-dollar lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging it overcharged clients of its Windows Server software used in cloud computing.

The United States, Canada and Australia partnered over the summer in a global probe to identify hackers who attacked a security flaw in Microsoft software to internationally infiltrate agencies and businesses.

In May, U.S.-based Microsoft revealed it was axing roughly 6,000 jobs in its global workforce.

“We remain committed to working constructively with the regulator and ensuring our practices meet all legal and ethical standards,” a Microsoft spokesperson told ABC News in Australia on Monday.

North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui praised the ‘spiritual closeness’ between the two states.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has met North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui in the latest high-level engagement between the two countries, which have strengthened ties during the Ukraine war.

Footage released by Russian state news agencies showed Putin greeting Choe in the Kremlin on Monday. Russia’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov also appeared at the meeting.

Putin said the countries’ “relations and development prospects” are progressing “according to plan”, and extended regards to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to Russia’s Sputnik news agency. Choe, in turn, passed on “warm wishes” from Kim, having earlier praised the “spiritual closeness” of the two nations’ relationship in talks with Lavrov.

Russia and North Korea, both under extensive Western sanctions, have significantly bolstered ties in recent years, including signing a 2024 defence pact committing each country to provide military support to the other in the event of “aggression”.

Since then, North Korea has sent around 10,000 troops to join Russia’s war against Ukraine, at least 600 of whom have died in combat, according to estimates from Seoul and Kyiv.

Pyongyang first acknowledged its soldiers’ involvement in the war in April, saying they helped Russia retake its strategic Kursk region after a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Several days ago, Kim held a ceremony marking the opening of a museum in Pyongyang to honour the North Korean troops killed in the conflict. He said their deployment “marked the beginning of a new history of militant solidarity” with Russia, with which there is an “invincible” alliance.

Putin last met Kim in person on September 3 in Beijing, where the leaders held official talks after attending a military parade hosted by China’s President  Xi Jinping. At the time, Putin praised North Korean soldiers for fighting “courageously and heroically” in the Ukraine war.

“I would like to note that we will never forget the sacrifices that your armed forces and the families of your servicemen have suffered,” Putin said.

The deepening Russia-North Korea relationship has drawn concern from the United States, which says there is evidence that Russia is increasing technology support for North Korea, including in space and satellite programmes. After Putin and Kim’s September meeting, US President Donald Trump claimed they were conspiring against the US – a statement dismissed by the Kremlin.

MSNBC has set a date for its new name.

Starting Nov. 15, the progressive-leaning cable news channel will be called MS NOW — an acronym for My Source, News, Opinion and World. The famous NBC peacock will no longer be part of the channel’s logo.

Viewers started seeing spots promoting the new moniker on Monday, with the tagline “Same mission, New name.” A larger marketing push will happen in the coming weeks according to a memo from MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler that was obtained by The Times.

The rebranding coincides with parent company Comcast’s spinoff of its NBCUniversal cable channels into Versant, a new company. CNBC, USA Network, Golf Channel, Oxygen, SyFy and E! are also part of the entity.

Comcast is unloading the channels because it believes the mature outlets face a bleak future due to pay TV cord-cutting and are an albatross weighing down its stock price. Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts will own 33% of the shares in Versant, which will trade as a public company under the symbol VSNT on the NASDAQ.

MSNBC will soon be called MS NOW.

(AP)

While the spinoff has been in the works for months, MSNBC viewers have heard little about it on the air until now. The network held a fan festival at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York earlier this month and all of the signage used the MSNBC logo. The name change was referred to several times by the personalities who appeared on stage.

The change required MSNBC to unwind its news operation from NBC News, which supplied correspondents to the channel. A number of NBC News correspondents, including Jacob Soboroff and Ken Dilanian, chose to work for Versant.

The current line-up of MSNBC opinion hosts — including Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Nicolle Wallace, Ari Melber, Rachel Maddow, Jen Psaki and Lawrence O’Donnell — will all make the transition to MS NOW.

Although MSNBC employees were initially told the network’s name would be retained, NBCUniversal decided it did not want its brand attached to a network it did not control.

NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff reporting on the wildfire that destroyed his boyhood home.

(NBC News)

Versant Chief Executive Mark Lazarus encouraged his staff to embrace the change in spite of the challenges of marketing a new brand in a highly fragmented media landscape.

“This gives us the opportunity to chart our own path forward, create distinct brand identities, and establish an independent news organization following the spin,” Lazarus wrote in an August memo.

MSNBC has its own Washington bureau, which has already broken a number of stories in recent weeks, including the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and former national security advisor John Bolton.

MSNBC also has a multiyear agreement with U.K.-based Sky News to provide international coverage.

Lithuania says balloons disrupting air traffic are sent by smugglers transporting contraband cigarettes from Belarus into the EU.

Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene has said Lithuania will start to shoot down smuggler balloons crossing from Belarus and also shut its border crossings with the neighbouring country following repeated interruptions to its air traffic.

“Today we have decided to take the strictest measures, there is no other way,” Ruginiene told a news conference on Monday, saying the crossings will be closed except for travel by diplomats and by European Union citizens leaving Belarus.

NATO and European Union member Lithuania closed Vilnius Airport four times last week after balloons entered its airspace. Each time, it temporarily shut its Belarus border crossings in response to the incidents.

Calling the incidents “hybrid attacks”, Ruginiene said her cabinet will meet on Wednesday to decide whether to prolong the closure of the Belarus border crossings, the BNS news agency reported.

She also said it may also discuss Lithuania invoking NATO Article 4, which states any member country can request a consultation with others whenever it believes its “territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened”.

European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent weeks by drone sightings and other air incursions, including at airports in Copenhagen, Munich and the Baltic region.

Lithuania has said balloons are sent by smugglers transporting contraband cigarettes from Belarus into the EU, but the country also blames Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, for not stopping the practice.

There was no immediate comment from Belarus.

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who lives in exile in Lithuania, said in written comments to The Associated Press news agency that the balloon incidents were “yet another sign that the regime is using cigarette smuggling as a tool of hybrid aggression against Europe”.

On Thursday, Lithuania said two Russian military aircraft entered its airspace for about 18 seconds, prompting a formal protest and a reaction from NATO forces, while Russia denied the incident.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said recent airspace violations should not be regarded as isolated incidents.

“These are calculated provocations designed to destabilize, distract (and) test NATO’s resolve,” Budrys wrote on X.

A crackdown by armed forces in Cameroon has killed at least four opposition supporters amid protests over the declared re-election win by President Paul Biya.

Protesters calling for fair results from the African country’s contested presidential election held on October 12 have hit the streets in several cities as 92-year-old Biya prepares for an eighth term, which could keep him in power until 2032 as he nears 100.

Biya, whose election win was finally confirmed by Cameroon’s Constitutional Council on Monday, is Africa’s oldest and among the world’s longest ruling leaders. He has spent 43 years – nearly half his life – in office. He has ruled Cameroon, a country of 30 million people, as president since 1982 through elections that political opponents said have been “stolen”.

What’s behind the deadly protests?

Supporters of opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary of the Front for the National Salvation of Cameroon party have defied a ban on protests, setting police cars on fire, barricading roads and burning tyres in the financial capital, Douala, before the announcement of the election result. Around 30 activists have been arrested.

Police fired tear gas and water cannon to break up the crowds that came out in support of Tchiroma, who had declared himself the real winner, and called for Biya to concede.

Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, the governor of the region that includes Douala, told the AFP news agency that the protesters attacked police stations in the second and sixth districts of the city.

Several members of the security forces were wounded, and “four people unfortunately lost their lives,” he said. Tchiroma’s campaign team confirmed the deaths on Sunday were of protesters.

Opposition supporters claim the results of the election have been rigged by Biya and his supporters in power. In the lead-up to the announcement of the result, the current government rejected these accusations and urged people to wait for the result.

Who is the main opposition in Cameroon?

The Union for Change is a coalition of opposition parties that formed in September to counter Biya’s dominance of the political landscape.

The forum brought together more than two dozen political parties and civil society groups in opposition to Biya with an aim to field a consensus candidate.

In September, the group confirmed Tchiroma as its consensus candidate to run against Biya.

Tchiroma, 76, was formerly part of Biya’s government, holding several ministerial positions over 16 years. He also served as government spokesperson during the years of fighting the Boko Haram armed group, and he defended the army when it stood accused of killing civilians. He was once regarded as a member of Biya’s “old guard” but has campaigned on a promise of “change”.

What happened after the election?

After voting ended on October 12, Tchiroma claimed victory.

“Our victory is clear. It must be respected,” he said in a video statement posted on Facebook. He called on Biya to “accept the truth of the ballot box” or “plunge the country into turmoil”.

Tchiroma claimed that he had won the election with 55 percent of the vote. More than 8 million people were registered to vote in the election.

On Monday, however, the Constitutional Council announced Biya as the winner with 53.66 percent of the vote.

It said Tchiroma was the runner-up with 35.19 percent.

Announcing the results on Monday, the council’s leader, Clement Atangana, said the electoral process was “peaceful” and criticised the opposition for “anticipating the result”.

What are the main criticisms of Biya?

Under Biya’s rule, Cameroon has struggled with myriad challenges, including chronic corruption that critics say has dampened economic growth despite the country being rich in resources such as oil and cocoa.

The president, who has clinched wins in eight heavily contested elections held every seven years, is renowned for his absenteeism as he reportedly spends extended periods away from the country.

The 92-year-old appeared at just one campaign rally in the lead-up to this month’s election when he promised voters that “the best is still to come.”

He and his entourage are often away on private or medical treatment trips to Switzerland. An investigation in 2018 by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project found Biya had spent at least 1,645 days (nearly four and a half years) in the European country, excluding official visits, since being in power.

Under Biya, opposition politicians have frequently accused electoral authorities of colluding with the president to rig elections. In 2008, parliament voted to remove the limit on the number of terms a president may serve.

Before the election, the Constitutional Council barred another popular opposition candidate, Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, from running.

Some opposition leaders and their supporters have been detained by police on a slew of charges, including plotting violence.

On Friday, two prominent leaders, Anicet Ekane and Djeukam Tchameni of the Union for Change, were arrested.

The African Movement for New Independence and Democracy party also said its treasurer and other members had been “kidnapped” by local security forces, a move it claimed was designed “to intimidate Cameroonians”.

Analysts also said Biya’s hold on power could lead to instability when he eventually goes.

What is the security situation in Cameroon?

Since 2015, attacks by the armed group, Boko Haram, have become more and more frequent in the Far North Region of the country.

Furthermore, since gaining independence in 1960 from French rule, Cameroon has struggled with conflict rooted in the country’s deep linguistic and political divisions, which developed when French- and English-speaking regions were merged into a single state.

French is the official language, and Anglophone Cameroonians in the northwest and southwest have felt increasingly marginalised by the Francophone-dominated government in Yaounde.

Their grievances – over language, education, courts and distribution of resources – turned into mass protests in 2016 when teachers and lawyers demanded equal recognition of English-language institutions.

The government responded with arrests and internet blackouts, and the situation eventually built up to an armed separatist struggle for an independent state called Ambazonia.

The recent presidential election was the first to take place since the conflict intensified. Armed separatists have barred the Anglophone population from participating in government-organised activities, such as National Day celebrations and elections.

As a result, the Southwest and Northwest regions saw widespread abstention in voting on October 12 with a 53 percent turnout. The highest share of votes, according to the official results, went to Biya: 68.7 percent and 86.31 percent in the two regions, respectively.

What will happen now?

Protests are likely to spread, observers said.

After the deaths of four protesters before the results were announced, Tchiroma paid tribute “to those who fell to the bullets of a regime that has become criminal during a peaceful march”.

He called on Biya’s government to “stop these acts of barbarity, these killings and arbitrary arrests”.

“Tell the truth of the ballots, or we will all mobilise and march peacefully,” he said.