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At least 25 dead in Haiti as Hurricane Melissa continues destructive path

Hurricane Melissa has seen its death toll enter double digits amid widespread destruction across Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica, where roofless homes and water-logged furniture dominated the landscape.
At least 25 people were killed across Haiti and 18 are missing, Haiti's Civil Protection Agency said in a statement on Wednesday.
Twenty of those reported dead and 10 of the missing are from the southern coastal town of Petit-Goave, where flooding collapsed dozens of homes.
Hurricane Melissa damaged more than 160 homes and destroyed 80 others, with 10 of the 20 people killed there confirmed to be children.
open image in galleryA man places plastic tarps over tents at a shelter for families displaced by gang violence during a break in the rain brought by Hurricane Melissa in Port-au-Prince, HaitiLawyer Charly Saint-Vil, 30, said he saw bodies lying among the debris after the storm as he walked the streets of the small coastal town where he grew up.
“People have lost everything,” he said, ad..

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Hurricane Melissa live updates: ‘Catastrophic’ storm kills over 30 in the Caribbean as it nears the Bahamas

CloseMoment Hurricane Melissa tears through Jamaica's resort town Montego BayThe death toll from Hurricane Melissa is growing as the powerful storm nears the Bahamas after leaving a trail of “catastrophic” destruction across Jamaica and parts of Cuba.
Authorities in Haiti said that at least 25 people, including children, have been killed, the Associated Press reports. Haitian officials initially reported that 40 people were killed, but they later corrected the number. In Jamaica, at least eight people have been killed. One death has also been reported in the Dominican Republic. That would bring the current known death toll from the hurricane to 37 across the Caribbean.
It’s expected that the extent of Hurricane Melissa’s damage will be clearer in the coming days as authorities work to reach the hardest-hit areas.
Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated to shelters ahead of the arrival of the “extremely dangerous” storm, with a hurricane warning put in place for Santiago de..

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Hong Kong follows US in quarter-point rate cut to lower lending cost

AdvertisementInterest ratesBusinessBanking & FinanceBreaking | Hong Kong follows US in quarter-point interest rate cut to reduce loans cost for borrowersHalf-point cut in six weeks further eases the funding costs for businesses and mortgage borrowers
Reading Time:3 minutesWhy you can trust SCMPEnoch YiuPublished: 7:00am, 30 Oct 2025Hong Kong’s de facto central bank cut the base interest rate for the second time in six weeks, further reducing the cost of funding to help reboot the city’s businesses and reduce the burden on mortgage borrowers.
AdvertisementThe Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) cut the base rate by a quarter point to 4.25 per cent on Thursday, hours after the US Federal Reserve pared its target rate by the same margin to a range of 3.75 per cent to 4 per cent during the seventh meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) this year. The new base rate is the lowest for Hong Kong since November 2022.Together with a quarter-point rate cut in September, central banks..

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Applications for Hong Kong’s expanded medical fee waiver to open on Monday

AdvertisementHong Kong healthcare and hospitalsHong KongHealth & EnvironmentApplications for Hong Kong’s expanded medical fee waiver to open on MondayPatients with appointments scheduled for January or February at public hospitals can submit required income and asset proofs from Monday
Reading Time:3 minutesWhy you can trust SCMPFiona SunPublished: 7:00am, 30 Oct 2025An expanded medical fee waiver mechanism under public healthcare reforms in Hong Kong will open for applications from patients on Monday, months before the new policy takes effect next year.
AdvertisementThe Hospital Authority said that patients with appointments scheduled for January or February at public hospitals could submit the required proof of income and assets to apply for the fee reduction starting from Monday.
Those eligible for the waiver would be issued a certificate before their appointment, it said.
Applications can be submitted to the medical social services units at public hospitals and clinics, and the int..

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Jamaicans take stock after hurricane causes damage, flooding and power cuts

Jamaicans take stock after hurricane causes damage, flooding and power cuts2 hours agoShareSaveNick Davis,Mandeville and Rachel HaganShareSaveEPAA woman surveys the damage to her home in northern JamaicaJamaicans are taking stock after Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm to strike the island in modern history, barrelled across the country leaving behind a trail of ruin.
Without power or phone coverage, much of the country is isolated and so information is trickling through.
Authorities were only able to confirm the first deaths as a result of the hurricane over 24 hours after landfall. The bodies of three men and one woman were washed up by the flood waters in St Elizabeth Parish, local government minister Desmond McKenzie said.
There, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said “images of destruction are all around”.
“The damage is great, but we are going to devote all our energy to mount a strong recovery,” he said.
Three-quarters of the country are still without power, according to the la..

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Two suspects partially admit involvement in Louvre heist, prosecutor says

Two suspects partially admit involvement in Louvre heist, prosecutor says5 hours agoShareSaveTom McArthurShareSave© RMN – Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre) Mathieu RabeauPrecious crown jewels including the Parure Marie-Amélie diadème are yet to be recoveredTwo men arrested in connection with the Louvre theft two weeks ago have “partially recognised” their involvement in the brazen heist, according to officials.
The pair in custody are suspected of being the two who used power tools to enter the museum's Apollon gallery and steal some of the French crown jewels.
Items worth €88m (£76m; $102m) were taken from the world's most-visited museum on 19 October, when four thieves broke into the building in broad daylight.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said that the jewels had not been recovered yet, and the gang involved could be bigger than the four people caught on CCTV.
How Louvre gang carried out France's most shocking theftThe two men, both in their thirties, have criminal rec..

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Cognitive confusion: Donald Trump refers to dementia screening as ‘very hard’ IQ test

President Donald Trump claimed during a press briefing aboard Air Force One on October 27, 2025 that he had taken an “IQ test” at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and achieved a perfect score, challenging Democratic Representatives Jasmine Crockett and Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez to take the same exam.In reality, the question test appears to have been the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)—a brief screening tool for early cognitive decline, not an intelligence (IQ) test, according to People. The discrepancy between what was claimed and what experts say the test measures raises questions about transparency, health communication, and political messaging. What Trump said and how he framed itTrump described the test as “very hard” and suggested it was akin to an aptitude or cognitive exam:“They have Jasmine Crockett, a low IQ person. AOC is low IQ… You give her an IQ test, have her pass, like, the exams that I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed… I took- Those are very har..

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‘California is my home, we wouldn’t leave if..’: Sam Altman on OpenAI’s deal with the state

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, affirmed the company’s commitment to staying in California after resolving a regulatory dispute with California Attorney General Rob Bonta. In a post on X, Altman said the company had spoken with the Attorney General two weeks earlier and made clear it would not follow other tech firms that threaten to relocate when facing scrutiny. The agreement clears the path for OpenAI’s restructuring into a public-benefit corporation and enables Microsoft to move ahead with a 27% ownership stake, marking a major step in the company’s governance evolution.OpenAI’s deal with CaliforniaOpenAI’s transformation from a non-profit organisation into a public-benefit corporation has required careful scrutiny from regulators. The company was originally founded to ensure that artificial intelligence would be developed safely and for the benefit of humanity, without commercial motives dominating its mission. As OpenAI expanded into building powerful AI systems like ChatGPT, the scal..

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Rent’s due and people will ‘starve’: Congress is racing towards the shutdown cliff

Both Republicans and Democrats are digging in their heels, with no sign of White House intervention or a serious breakthrough in negotiations evident as a federal government shutdown approaches the one-month mark.
On Capitol Hill, the House remains out of session and the Senate squabbles over the prospect of standalone resolutions to provide funding for individual initiatives, like pay for air traffic controllers. But as November 1 approaches, the pressure on the legislative branch and especially in individual House districts is going to ramp up considerably — setting a new tone for any talks going forward.
Lawmakers on Tuesday watched as air traffic controllers and a wide range of other federal employees from civilian agencies missed their first full paycheck of the shutdown period. The federal government employs more than one million Americans and with rent traditionally due at the beginning of the month, hundreds of thousands are now facing real, tangible financial instability. Even..

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Truck hauling ‘aggressive’ monkeys thought to carry hepatitis C, herpes and Covid overturns in Mississippi with at least one on the loose

Leer en EspañolA truck hauling “aggressive” monkeys thought to be carrying hepatitis C, herpes and Covid-19 has overturned in Mississippi, with at least one on the loose, according to authorities.
The truck was loaded with caged Rehsus monkeys when it crashed on Interstate 59, north of Heidelberg, on Tuesday.
It was transporting the monkeys to a testing facility in Florida, Connecticut news outlet WFSB reported.
Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson told local outlet WAPT that 21 monkeys were on the truck, six of whom escaped.
“The monkey that got away actually crossed interstate, went out into a wooded area,” Johnson said.
A truck hauling 'aggressive' monkeys carrying hepatitis C, herpes and Covid has overturned in Mississippi, with several on the loose, according to authoritiesThe sheriff’s department initially said in a Facebook post that the monkeys posed “potential health threats.”
“The driver of the truck told local law enforcement that the monkeys were dangerous and pos..

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