JAMAICA - Hurricane Melissa has wreaked devastation across Jamaica, decimating homes and infrastructure and leaving thousands of tourists stranded. The strongest storm to strike the Caribbean island in modern history, the hurricane sustained winds that peaked at 185 miles (nearly 300 kilometers) per hour while drenching the nation with torrential rain. Apocalyptic new images show hollowed-out buildings, trees torn over and entire towns leveled by the ferocious top-level storm that unleashed flash flooding and mudslides. Three-quarters of the island nation had no electricity overnight while many parts of Jamaica's western side are submerged under water. The category five storm destroyed up to 90 per cent of roofs in the southwest coastal community of Black River, said Prime Minister Andrew Holness, where scores of hospitals, libraries and police stations have been obliterated.

USA - I have been hearing from a lot of people about the month of November. Many are convinced that things are going to get really crazy next month, and I think that it is quite likely that they are correct. Of course things are already starting to get crazy all over the globe and we haven’t even gotten to the month of November yet. One of the strongest hurricanes in recorded history just made landfall, renewed fighting has erupted in the Middle East, the streets of Rio de Janeiro have been transformed into a war zone, and the bird flu is absolutely ripping across Germany.

USA - It is already happening. There has been a lot of talk that there will be a surge in demand at America’s overwhelmed food banks once funding for the food stamp program ends in early November, but the truth is that we are already witnessing a surge in demand. So what is going to happen if the current government shutdown persists for an extended period of time? On one recent evening, the line at a food bank in downtown Kansas City “snaked through the parking lot, down a driveway and into the street”… If the line at that food bank is long enough to wrap around a shopping center now, what is it going to look like in a few weeks?

USA - Four weeks into the federal government shutdown, a woman claiming she’s out of food stamps is bragging online about stealing from a grocery store while urging others to steal at will and “infiltrate” churches to get cash. “Everything out here is yours,” she said. "You know what I’m saying? One thing I learned from the white men: Take it!”

USA - Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who has spent more than a decade warning that the world was on the brink of unimaginable peril due to rising global temperatures, now says climate change “will not lead to humanity’s demise” in a stunning reversal. Gates, 70, who has sunk billions of his vast fortune into initiatives ostensibly meant to combat global warming, penned a lengthy blog post this week urging a shift away from the “doomsday outlook” many climate activists have adopted to terrify nonbelievers into seeing things their way. “Although climate change will have serious consequences — particularly for people in the poorest countries — it will not lead to humanity’s demise,” he wrote. “People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.”

ISRAEL - Archaeologists in Jerusalem have uncovered an ancient Assyrian inscription that may shed light on historical events described in the Old Testament. The discovery, a tiny 2.5-centimeter pottery shard inscribed in Akkadian cuneiform, the world's oldest written Semitic language, was uncovered near the Temple Mount and dates back approximately 2,700 years. Researchers from Bar-Ilan University deciphered the inscription, revealing what appears to be a complaint from the Assyrian empire regarding a late payment expected from the kingdom of Judah.

USA - Republican-led committee demands proof former president personally approved the decisions. Joe Biden’s autopen signatures were illegitimate, a Republican-led House committee has found. Findings of the congressional report into the former president’s use of the device, which is used to replicate an individual’s signature, were released on Tuesday. The report claims Mr Biden’s inner circle orchestrated a “cover-up of the president’s cognitive decline” and exploited the tool to enact policies without his knowledge. “Barring evidence of executive actions taken during the Biden presidency showing that president Biden indeed took a particular executive action, the committee deems those actions taken through use of the autopen as void,” the report reads.

GERMANY - Germany is preparing to spend €377 billion on military equipment including an arsenal of cruise missiles that can reach Moscow, according to a leaked shopping list. The country’s defence budget, which has been exempted from the constitutional limits on public borrowing, is rising rapidly and due to hit 3.5 per cent of national GDP by 2029, or about €152 billion a year. The most eye-catching item is a proposal to buy 400 Tomahawk Block VB cruise missiles and three Typhon launchers from the US. The missiles have a maximum range in excess of a thousand miles, enough to reach the western Russian interior from eastern Germany, and Boris Pistorius, the defence minister, has spent months courting the Pentagon for permission to import them.

GERMANY - Member of the European Parliament from Alternative for Germany (AfD), Thomas Froelich, is one of the party’s most dynamic young figures and a rising star of Europe’s anti-globalist right. Froelich has earned a reputation as a sharp critic of Brussels’ overreaching power and Berlin’s increasingly authoritarian course. In the European Parliament, he operates within the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group, focusing on defending national sovereignty, fighting censorship, and exposing what he calls the “globalist cartel” steering EU policy against the will of ordinary citizens. Froelich warns that the German government’s move to classify AfD as an “extremist organization” marks a dangerous escalation — an attempt to criminalize the country’s largest opposition party, which, according to the latest polls, is also its most popular. He describes this as a denial of voting rights for as many as 15 million citizens.

JAPAN - Donald Trump and Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi signed a framework agreement for “securing” supplies of critical minerals and rare earths on Tuesday. The agreement was signed during the US president’s visit to Tokyo, part of his wider Asia trip, as both countries look to strengthen their rare earth supply chains and to wean reliance off China’s chokehold on the materials. Japan’s new prime minister is also expected to offer a package of US investments under a $550-billion deal agreed this year, including shipbuilding and increased purchases of US soybeans, natural gas and pickup trucks, sources familiar with the talk said. Mr Trump will then meet business leaders in Tokyo, before travelling on Wednesday to South Korea. In talks there with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the US president said he hopes to seal a trade war truce between the world’s two biggest economies.

USA - The government shutdown has awakened the public about how many people are on food stamps. The longer the shutdown goes on, the more reports there are about this and it’s stunning to taxpayers who did not realize until now how incredibly huge this is. "There are 42 million people in this country that need food stamps on a weekly basis. And we’re saying ‘people’ deliberately instead of Americans because most of the people that are on food stamps aren’t even from this country. 45% of Afghanistan immigrants are on food stamps. 42% of Somali immigrants, 34% of every immigrant from Iraq, 23% of Haitians. 59% of ALL illegal aliens are collecting food stamps, meaning that most of the people getting food stamps from the US Government and the US Taxpayer are not even Americans. Think about that. And we didn’t know about any of this before the government shutdown started.” [Cost of food stamp program? $100 billion per year!]

JAMAICA - Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm of 2025, is a large and slow-moving hurricane fuelled by unusually hot ocean temperatures in the Caribbean. The hurricane is crawling west towards Jamaica at speeds of around 3mph. Its slow pace means it will subject places in its path to longer stretches of torrential rain, destructive winds and heightened storm surge. “It’s this repetitive or continuous threat and existence in a dangerous situation,” Jill Trepanier, a hurricane climatology expert at Louisiana State University, said. Its slow path also allowed it to strengthen substantially over the warm Caribbean waters through the weekend.

TURKEY - Panic took hold in western Turkey as yet another strong earthquake hit the country loved by British tourists. A strong earthquake shook western Turkey on Monday, causing at least three buildings to collapse, officials said. It was felt in Istanbul, and the nearby provinces of Bursa, Manisa and Izmir, Haberturk news channel reported. Turkey sits on top of major fault lines, and earthquakes are frequent. In 2023, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed more than 53,000 people in Turkey and destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings in 11 southern and southeastern provinces.

UK - From toothpaste to coffee, medicine to chocolate, “shrinkflation” is still rife on Britain’s high streets, according to Which?, the consumer group. Which? invited shoppers to share recent examples of products getting smaller without a corresponding reduction in price, then verified the findings. Among the most striking examples, Aquafresh Complete Care Original toothpaste was found to have shrunk from 100ml to 75ml while the price rose from £1.30 to £2 at Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Ocado. In the same aisle, Gaviscon Liquid Heartburn & Indigestion bottles were reduced from 600ml to 500ml, although the price at Sainsbury’s remained £14. Even budget staples have not escaped the trend. Sainsbury’s Scottish Oats, previously sold in 1kg bags, are now offered in 500g packs at £2.10 — up from £1.25 for the larger size, representing a 236 per cent increase per 100g.

UK - Telling the truth is now seen as a weapon of the right. Once upon a time, telling the truth wasn’t a political statement – it was just called honesty. But in 2025, the simple act of stating a fact can get you branded “right-wing”, “problematic”, or worse. We’ve reached a point where acknowledging biological reality or defending women’s spaces is treated like a radical act. Take the magnificent seven nurses from Darlington. They spoke up for something millions of people quietly believe – that female-only hospital wards should remain just that: female-only. No hostility. No hate. Just a statement of common sense and patient dignity. For that, they were bullied, investigated, and smeared. In a sane world, they’d be applauded for protecting women’s privacy. Instead, they were treated like they’d burned a rainbow flag on live television.