Meta Platforms on Monday named former Trump administration official Dina Powell McCormick as its president and vice chairman, boosting the company&#8217;s lobbying efforts in the U.S. capital.
President Donald Trump congratulated Powell McCormick in a <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115882511750475574">post</a> on his Truth Social account minutes after the company announced her promotion.
&#8220;Congratulations to DINA POWELL MCCORMICK, WHO HAS JUST BEEN NAMED THE NEW PRESIDENT OF META. A great choice by Mark Z!!! She is a fantastic, and very talented, person, who served the Trump Administration with strength and distinction!&#8221; the president wrote.
Her appointment is the latest in a series of changes Meta has made in the last year that more closely align the company with the Trump administration. Meta is accelerating investments in frontier AI and personal superintelligence. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is seeking Trump&#8217;s support to build data centers and energy capacity for those projects.
Zuckerberg, ahead of Trump&#8217;s second inauguration, visited him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. His company also scrapped its U.S. fact-checking program, elevated Republican Joel Kaplan as the company&#8217;s new chief global affairs officer, and ended its diversity programs, all moves that appealed to Trump. Meta in early January hired former Trump trade adviser C.J. Mahoney to lead its legal team, replacing general counsel Jennifer Newstead, who served in former President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration.
Meta declined to comment on whether Powell McCormick&#8217;s appointment is intended to appeal to Trump.
She will help Meta expand its data centers, build new strategic capital partnerships, and increase the company&#8217;s &#8220;long-term investment capacity,&#8221; according to a company statement.
Powell McCormick spent 16 years in senior leadership roles at Goldman Sachs. She served as deputy national security adviser to Trump in his first term, and as a senior White House adviser under former President George W. Bush. Her husband is U.S. Senator David McCormick, a Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the Senate subcommittee responsible for energy policy &#8211; an area in which she will be involved at Meta.
The senator will &#8220;continue to comply with all U.S. Senate ethics rules,&#8221; his spokesperson Katy Montgomery said by email.
&#8220;Senator McCormick should recuse himself from every vote or committee action that involves Meta&#8217;s business,&#8221; said Sacha Haworth, executive director at the Tech Oversight Project, a group that has criticized the industry.
Powell McCormick&#8217;s role echoes efforts by previous Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, who, during her tenure, leveraged deep ties to the Washington establishment and the Democratic Party to help the company navigate scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators.
Powell McCormick resigned from Meta&#8217;s board in December, just eight months after joining.
Meta has been scrambling to stay relevant in Silicon Valley&#8217;s artificial-intelligence race after its Llama 4 model met with a poor reception. It committed as much as $72 billion in 2025 capital spending.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru and Courtney Rozen in Washington; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli, Chris Reese and Matthew Lewis)

VivaTech conference dedicated to innovation and startups in Paris

Former Trump Adviser Named Meta’s President

Donald Trump

Facebook

Instagram

Mark Zuckerberg

A Chipotle restaurant advertises it is hiring in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., August 28, 2023.

U.S. Job Growth Stuck In Slow Gear In December; Unemployment Rate Dips To 4.4%

Economy

Jobs

Trump Administration

Jan 2 (Reuters) &#8211; A powerful earthquake shook southern Mexico on Friday, sending millions scrambling after the New Year holiday and briefly interrupting President Claudia Sheinbaum’s daily press conference.
The 6.5-magnitude quake struck near the Pacific coast in Guerrero state at a depth of 35 km (22 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said. Guerrero is just south of Mexico City.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage in Guerrero, Sheinbaum and the state&#8217;s governor both said.
Sheinbaum was speaking in Mexico City when earthquake alarms sounded. She noted the ground was shaking beneath her before calmly evacuating alongside journalists. Sheinbaum resumed the press conference shortly afterward.<iframe style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; width: 100%; margin: 20px auto 5px; border: 0;" src="https://player.mux.com/Zh00CeSqDcV18TjliLlptizOnhXEHqkw6?metadata-video-content-type=embed_video&amp;metadata-video-id=7f8a9ad7-9bfd-4a80-bc5a-f8ad98e0a1bf&amp;metadata-video-stream-type=on-demand&amp;metadata-video-title=2026-01-02%3A%20Southern%20Mexico%20Earthquake&amp;autoplay=false&amp;accent-color=%23DB3D3B&amp;primary-color=%23ffffff&amp;secondary-color=%23000000" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
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Credit: Reuters
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She said no damage had been reported in Mexico City, where residents fled their homes and sounds of nervous dogs barking filled the streets.
Guerrero is home to Acapulco and other resort areas, which are a major draw for holiday tourists. Acapulco is still recovering from a Category 5 hurricane that devastated the area in 2023.
(Reporting by Mexico City newsroom, Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Editing by Emily Green and Howard Goller)

Reuters

Strong Earthquake Jolts Southern Mexico, Sends People Scrambling During President’s Press Conference

Claudia Sheinbaum

earthquake

Mexico

Tatiana Schlossberg, granddaughter of the 35th U.S. president, John F. Kennedy, died on Tuesday after revealing in a November essay that she had been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. She was 35.
Her passing was announced by her family in a social media post from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
&#8220;Our beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning. She will always be in our hearts,&#8221; the family wrote.
Schlossberg was a climate change and environmental journalist and the second child of JFK&#8217;s daughter, former U.S. diplomat Caroline Kennedy, and the designer-artist Edwin Schlossberg.
In a New Yorker essay published in November, Schlossberg said she had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia with a rare mutation, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
At the time, she also criticized her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health secretary, for being a vaccine skeptic and cutting funding for cancer research.
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According to the <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/6212-acute-myeloid-leukemia-aml">Cleveland Clinic</a>, acute myeloid leukemia &#8220;typically happens when certain genes or chromosomes mutate (change). AML usually affects people age 60 and older, but it can also affect younger adults and children. [It] is an aggressive cancer that can be life-threatening.&#8221;
The illness only affects about 4 in 100,000 adults per year.
Blood Cancer United <a href="https://bloodcancerunited.org/resources/newsroom/fda-approves-new-drug-treat-advanced-aml-adults">reported</a> in November that the FDA approved a new drug called ziftomenib to treat those with advanced AML with an NPM1 gene mutation.
&#8220;In a clinical trial, 21.4% of patients treated with ziftomenib went into a full remission or remission with partial recovery of blood counts, which means there were no signs of cancer cells in the bone marrow, but not all blood counts had returned to normal.&#8221;
(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Tatiana Schlossberg

Tatiana Schlossberg, Granddaughter Of JFK, Dies Of Rare Form Of Leukemia

Cancer

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John F. Kennedy (JFK)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

U.S.

WASHINGTON, Dec 23 (Reuters) &#8211; The U.S. economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter, driven by robust consumer spending.
Gross domestic product increased at a 4.3% annualized rate last quarter, the Commerce Department&#8217;s Bureau of Economic Analysis said in its initial estimate of third-quarter GDP on Tuesday. The economy grew at a 3.8% pace in the second quarter. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast GDP would rise at a 3.3% pace.
Trump credited his wide-ranging tariffs for the third-quarter economic boom.
&#8220;The TARIFFS are responsible for the GREAT USA Economic Numbers JUST ANNOUNCED,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;AND THEY WILL ONLY GET BETTER! Also, NO INFLATION &amp; GREAT NATIONAL SECURITY. Pray for the U.S. Supreme Court!!!&#8221;
The data was delayed by the 43-day government shutdown and is now outdated. Consumer spending increased at a 3.5% rate last quarter after advancing at a 2.5% pace in the second quarter.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday&#8217;s economic report shows that &#8220;doubters, naysayers, panicans, and liberal media have been proven wrong — again.&#8221;
&#8220;Trust in Trump. The President’s pro-growth policies are working, and the best is yet to come!&#8221; she added.
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Much of the consumer spending acceleration resulted from a rush to buy electric vehicles before the September 30 expiration of tax credits. Motor vehicle sales dropped in October and November, while spending elsewhere was mixed.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the shutdown could slice between 1.0 percentage point and 2.0 percentage points off GDP in the fourth quarter. It projected most of the GDP drop would be recovered, but estimated between $7 billion and $14 billion would not.
Surveys suggest consumer spending is being driven by higher-income households, thanks to a stock market boom that has inflated household wealth.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao and Chizu Nomiyama)

President Trump Delivers Remarks In North Carolina

U.S. Economic Growth Blows Past Expectations, Accelerates In Third Quarter

VATICAN CITY, Dec 18 (Reuters) — Pope Leo replaced Cardinal Timothy Dolan as leader of the Catholic Church in New York, the Vatican announced on Thursday, sidelining a prominent American church figure in a major shake-up of the country&#8217;s Catholic leadership.
Leo, the first American pope, appointed a relatively unknown cleric from Illinois, Bishop Ronald Hicks, to replace Dolan as leader of the nation&#8217;s second-largest Catholic diocese, home to some 2.8 million Church members.
&#8220;Hicks represents not just a new chapter for New York but for the American church as a whole,&#8221; said David Gibson, a U.S. church expert.
Dolan, Archbishop of New York since 2009 and a former president of the U.S. Catholic bishops&#8217; conference, offered to resign in February upon turning 75, as required by Church law. Cardinals often serve until 80, the mandatory retirement age.
He is regarded as a leading conservative among the U.S. bishops, who have become increasingly divided in recent years amid deepening political polarization. Cardinal Dolan delivered one of the invocations at Trump&#8217;s second inauguration and praised late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk as a &#8220;modern-day St. Paul,&#8221; sparking online criticism from a range of Catholics. Known for his gregarious personality, Dolan has been a frequent guest on &#8220;Fox &amp; Friends&#8221; and hosts his own weekly program on SiriusXM&#8217;s The Catholic Channel.
NEW ARCHBISHOP HAS &#8216;GREAT HEART&#8217; FOR LATINO COMMUNITY
At a press conference in New York a few hours after the Vatican&#8217;s announcement, Hicks, 58, gave some remarks in Spanish before speaking in English. He said he has a &#8220;great heart&#8221; for the Latino community, citing his experience as a former missionary in Latin America.
Hicks also repeated an earlier endorsement of the U.S. Catholic bishops&#8217; condemnation of President Donald Trump&#8217;s immigration crackdown.
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He said the United States should protect its borders but &#8220;also be a country that upholds human dignity, respect, (and) treating each other well.&#8221;
Hicks, leader of the Church in Joliet, Illinois, since 2020, has several similarities to Pope Leo. They are both originally from south Chicago suburbs but spent years as missionaries — Leo in Peru, while Hicks was in El Salvador.
&#8220;(Leo) is elevating to the most prominent American see an Illinois native very much like himself,&#8221; said Gibson, director of Fordham University&#8217;s Center on Religion and Culture.
Hicks joked at the press conference that he and Leo even have the same favorite pizza restaurant.
The Archdiocese of New York is a sprawling and influential institution, serving Catholics across Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island, and in seven counties to the north across 296 parishes and hundreds of Catholic schools and hospitals.
Leo&#8217;s replacement of Dolan comes as the archdiocese is struggling to raise more than $300 million for expected settlements with survivors of abuse by Catholic clergy.
The archdiocese has entered mediation with some 1,300 alleged survivors, with Dolan announcing on December 8 that the archdiocese would cut its operating budget by 10%, lay off staff, and sell properties as it sought to raise funds for payouts.
Hicks will be installed in his new role on February 6, the New York archdiocese said in a statement. Dolan will remain as the temporary leader in the interim.
HICKS SEEN AS SUPPORTER OF POPE FRANCIS&#8217; REFORMS
Gibson said Hicks is &#8220;a soft-spoken Midwesterner who embraces the reformist line of Pope Francis and who is respected by many across the divides in a polarized church.&#8221;
The late Pope Francis, who led the Catholic Church for 12 years until his death in April, pursued a reform agenda and sought to make the Church more inclusive of diverse viewpoints, sometimes drawing pushback from conservative cardinals.
In an October pastoral letter to the roughly 520,000 Catholics in Joliet, Hicks did not address political issues or Church reforms and instead urged his people to focus on their prayer lives and spread their faith to others.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee, Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Chizu Nomiyama)
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FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a general audience in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican

Pope Leo Replaces New York’s Cardinal Dolan, A Leading Conservative Voice, In U.S. Church Shake-Up

New York

Pope Leo

Religion

KYIV/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States has threatened to cut intelligence sharing and weapons supplies for Ukraine to press it into agreeing to the framework of a U.S.-brokered peace deal, two people familiar with the matter said.
Washington has presented Ukraine with a 28-point plan, which endorses some of Russia&#8217;s principal demands in the war, including that Kyiv cede additional territory, curb the size of its military and be barred from joining NATO.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-crafts-28-point-plan-to-end-war-in-ukraine?author=Tim+Pearce&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Admin+Crafts+28-Point+Plan+To+End+War+In+Ukraine">Trump Admin Crafts 28-Point Plan To End War In Ukraine</a>
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Kyiv was under greater pressure from Washington than during any previous peace discussions, and that the United States wanted Ukraine to sign a framework of the deal by next Thursday.
A delegation of senior U.S. military officials met with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Thursday. The U.S. ambassador in Ukraine and the army public affairs chief traveling with the delegation described the meeting as a success and said Washington sought an &#8220;aggressive timeline&#8221; for the signature of a document between the United States and Ukraine.
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Zelenskiy, who held a phone call on Friday with the leaders of allies Britain, Germany and France, appeared careful not to reject the U.S. plan or to offend the Americans.
&#8220;We value the efforts of the United States, President Trump, and his team aimed at ending this war. We are working on the document prepared by the American side. This must be a plan that ensures a real and dignified peace,&#8221; he said.
&#8216;A VERY DANGEROUS MOMENT&#8217;
European leaders, who were not consulted on the 28-point plan, expressed their strong support for Kyiv.
&#8220;We all want this war to end, but how it ends matters. Russia has no legal right whatsoever to any concessions from the country it invaded, ultimately the terms of any agreement are for Ukraine to decide,&#8221; said the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas.
&#8220;This is a very dangerous moment for all,&#8221; she said.
U.S. officials, defending their plan, have said it was drafted after consultations with Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine&#8217;s National Security and Defense Council, a close Zelenskiy ally who served as defense minister until July.
&#8220;Umerov &#8230; agreed to the majority of the plan, after making several modifications, and presented it to President Zelenskiy,&#8221; a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.
Umerov said on Friday he had not discussed the plan&#8217;s terms, much less approved them, as he was just organizing the talks.
&#8220;I provided no assessments or, even more so, approvals of any points. This is not within my authority and does not correspond to the procedure,&#8221; he wrote on Telegram.
After meeting a visiting U.S. delegation on Friday, Umerov said Kyiv would not accept a plan that violates its sovereignty.
The Kremlin said Russia had not received any official communication from the United States regarding a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine. Kyiv should make a &#8220;responsible decision,&#8221; and do it now, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
RUSSIA&#8217;S DEMANDS SPELLED OUT, KYIV&#8217;S LEFT VAGUE
The plan, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, includes terms that Ukrainian officials have previously dismissed as tantamount to surrender after their soldiers fended off a full-scale Russian invasion for nearly four years at huge cost.
It would require Ukraine to withdraw from territory it still controls in eastern provinces that Russia claims to have annexed, while Russia would give up smaller amounts of land it has captured in other regions.
Ukraine would be permanently barred from joining the NATO military alliance, and its armed forces would be capped at 600,000 troops. NATO would agree never to station troops there.
Sanctions against Russia would be gradually lifted, Moscow would be invited back into the G8 group of industrialized countries, and frozen Russian assets would be pooled in an investment fund, with Washington given some of the profits.
One of Ukraine&#8217;s main demands, for enforceable guarantees equivalent to the NATO alliance&#8217;s mutual defense clause to deter Russia from attacking again, is dealt with in a single line with no details: &#8220;Ukraine will receive robust security guarantees.&#8221;
Trump, who returned to office this year vowing to quickly end the war, has accepted some of Russia&#8217;s justifications for its 2022 invasion of its neighbor while also expressing some impatience with Moscow.
Last month, he cancelled a proposed summit with Russia&#8217;s Vladimir Putin and imposed sanctions on Russia&#8217;s two main oil companies, set to come into full effect on Friday, Washington&#8217;s deadline for foreign buyers to wind down Russian oil purchases.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff had quietly worked on the plan for about a month.
&#8220;This plan was crafted to reflect the realities of the situation, after five years of a devastating war, to find the best win-win scenario, where both parties gain more than they must give,&#8221; she said.
The acceleration in U.S. diplomacy comes at a time when Ukrainian troops are on the back foot on the battlefield and Zelenskiy&#8217;s government has been undermined by a corruption scandal. Parliament fired two cabinet ministers on Wednesday.
With the war&#8217;s fourth winter approaching, Russian troops occupy almost one-fifth of Ukraine and have been grinding slowly forward along a 750-mile front line.
Russia says it has taken control of the city of Kupiansk in northeastern Ukraine and most of Pokrovsk in the east, its first big prizes in nearly two years. Kyiv denies losing control of those cities but has acknowledged that Russia is advancing.
(Additional reporting by Max Hunder, Olena Harmash, Yuliia Dysa, Dan Peleshuk, and Alessandro Parodi; writing by Peter Graff; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Aftermath of a Russian missile attack on an apartment building, in Ternopil

Trump Admin Threatens To Cut Off Ukraine Weapons, Intel To Force Peace Deal, Sources Say

Global Politics

Russia

Ukraine

Ukraine Russia

Ukraine-Russia War

World

An Obama-appointed federal judge ruled on Friday that President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration violated the free-speech rights of furloughed U.S. Department of Education employees by altering their out-of-office email messages to blame &#8220;Democrat Senators&#8221; for the ongoing government shutdown.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., said that nonpartisanship is the foundation of government service, and commandeering Education Department employees&#8217; email accounts to broadcast a partisan message erodes it.
&#8220;Political officials are free to blame whomever they wish for the shutdown, but they cannot use rank-and-file civil servants as their unwilling spokespeople,&#8221; wrote Cooper, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing federal workers, had sued over the email messages last month.
Cooper ordered the Education Department to immediately remove a line blaming &#8220;Democrat Senators&#8221; for the shutdown from the email messages of workers who are AFGE members. The judge said he would order the department to remove the messaging from all employees&#8217; accounts if it is technologically impossible to parse out accounts of union members.
The shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, entered its 38th day on Friday with no end in sight. The lapse in funding has led to many federal workers missing paychecks and millions of Americans losing food stamp benefits, and could force airlines to cut up to 20% of flights due to a lack of air traffic controllers.
Democrats in the Senate are refusing to pass a budget bill that does not include the extension of expiring health insurance subsidies. The Trump administration has blamed Democrats for the funding lapse.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has aired videos in airports blaming Democrats for disruptions to airport security, and many agencies have posted similar messages on their websites.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

FILE PHOTO: 21st day of U.S. government shutdown

Obama-Appointed Judge Bars Education Department Emails That Blame Shutdown On Democrats

Barack Obama

Democrats

Department of Education

federal judge

Government Shutdown

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) — The deadliest police operation in Brazil&#8217;s history killed at least 132 people, public defenders said on Wednesday, as Rio de Janeiro residents lined a street with dozens of corpses found overnight, a week ahead of global climate events in the city.
State police said the raids targeting a major drug gang the day before had been planned exhaustively for more than two months, designed to drive suspects into a forested hillside where a special operations unit was waiting in ambush.
&#8220;The elevated lethality of the operation was expected but not desired,&#8221; Victor Santos, head of security for Rio state, told a news conference. Rio police officials confirmed 119 deaths so far, including four police officers. Police said they had arrested 113 suspects in the operation and seized 118 firearms.
Santos said there was no connection to global events Rio will host next week related to the United Nations COP30 climate summit, including the C40 global summit of mayors tackling climate change and British Prince William&#8217;s Earthshot Prize.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was surprised to learn Rio police had launched an &#8220;extremely bloody, violent&#8221; operation without notifying or involving the federal government, Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski told journalists.
The minister said he planned to meet with Rio&#8217;s governor and could increase the number of federal security officials there.
Lula, who returned to Brasilia late on Tuesday from a trip to Malaysia, met with Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and cabinet members on Wednesday to discuss the matter, his office said.
Rio has hosted several global events over the past decade, including the 2016 Olympics, the 2024 G20 summit and the BRICS summit in July, without violence on the scale seen on Tuesday.
The city&#8217;s most deadly police raid before Tuesday was a 2021 raid that left 28 people dead in the Jacarezinho neighborhood. In 1992, 111 were killed when Sao Paulo police stormed the Carandiru Penitentiary to put down a prison rebellion.
Residents of the Penha neighborhood in Rio gathered dozens of corpses from the surrounding forest overnight and lined up more than 70 of the bodies in the middle of a main street.
Several civil society groups and public security experts criticized the heavy casualties of the military-style raid. The United Nations Human Rights office said it adds to a trend of extremely lethal police raids in Brazil&#8217;s marginalized communities.
&#8220;We remind authorities of their obligations under international human rights law, and urge prompt and effective investigations,&#8221; the agency said in a statement.
Rio Governor Claudio Castro said he was certain those killed in the operation were criminals firing guns from the forest.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t think anyone would be walking in the forest on the day of the conflict,&#8221; he told reporters, calling the raids an effort to combat &#8220;narcoterrorism.&#8221;
&#8220;The only real victims were the police officers,&#8221; he said.
The Rio state government said the operation was its largest ever to target the Comando Vermelho gang, which controls the drug trade in several favelas &#8211; poor and densely populated settlements woven through the city&#8217;s hilly oceanside terrain.
(Reporting by Janaina Quinet and Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Additional reporting by Oliver Griffin, Isabel Teles, Luciana Magalhaes, Eduardo Simoes and Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo, and Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia; Editing by Brad Haynes and Rosalba O&#8217;Brien)

Police operation against drug trafficking at the favela do Penha in Rio de Janeiro

Over 130 People Killed In Massive Rio Drug Raid, Corpses Line Street

Brazil

Drugs

Police

HAVANA/KINGSTON — Hurricane Melissa slammed into Cuba early on Wednesday, hours after causing devastation in neighboring Jamaica as the strongest-ever storm on record to hit that Caribbean island nation.
Melissa hit the southern coast of eastern Cuba with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
&#8220;Life-threatening storm surge, flash flooding and landslides, and damaging hurricane winds are ongoing this morning,&#8221; the center said.
Around 735,000 people were evacuated from their homes in eastern Cuba as the storm approached, authorities said. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel warned on Tuesday that the storm would cause &#8220;significant damage&#8221; and urged people to heed evacuation orders.
Melissa had weakened to a still dangerous Category 3 hurricane after roaring ashore near Jamaica&#8217;s southwestern town of New Hope on Tuesday, packing sustained winds of up to 185 mph, well above the 157 mph threshold for Category 5, the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale.
&#8216;SOME LOSS OF LIFE EXPECTED,&#8217; JAMAICAN LEADER SAYS
In southwestern Jamaica, the parish of St. Elizabeth was left &#8220;underwater,&#8221; an official said, with more than 500,000 residents without power.
&#8220;The reports that we have had so far would include damage to hospitals, significant damage to residential property, housing and commercial property as well, and damage to our road infrastructure,&#8221; Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said on CNN after the storm had passed.
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Holness said the government had not received news of any confirmed deaths from the storm, but given the strength of the hurricane and the extent of the damage, &#8220;we are expecting that there would be some loss of life.&#8221;
As daylight returned to Jamaica early on Wednesday, eyewitness reports and videos on social media showed swaths of downed trees, washed-out roads, and roofs tossed about fields and roadways.
Video of the airport in Montego Bay showed inundated seating areas, broken glass, and collapsed ceilings.
Meteorologists at AccuWeather said Melissa ranked as the third most intense hurricane observed in the Caribbean, after Wilma in 2005 and Gilbert in 1988 &#8211; the last major storm to make landfall in Jamaica.
Melissa&#8217;s winds subsided as the storm drifted past the mountains of Jamaica, lashing highland communities vulnerable to landslides and flooding.
Local media reported at least three deaths in Jamaica during storm preparations, and a disaster coordinator suffered a stroke at the onset of the storm and was rushed to the hospital. Late on Tuesday, many areas remained cut off.
&#8220;Our country has been ravaged by Hurricane Melissa but we will rebuild and we will do so even better than before,&#8221; Prime Minister Holness said early on Wednesday.
In the Bahamas, next after Cuba in Melissa&#8217;s path to the northeast, the government ordered evacuations of residents in the southern portions of that archipelago.
Farther to the east, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic had faced days of torrential downpours leading to at least four deaths, authorities there said.
CUBA BRACES
The storm&#8217;s center, churning with violent wind gusts over 125 mph and heavy rain, slammed into Guama, a rural, mountainous area 25 miles west of Santiago de Cuba, the island&#8217;s second most populous city.
Authorities had shut down power to virtually all of eastern Cuba, evacuated vulnerable areas, and had asked residents to shelter in place in the provincial capital, Santiago, a city of 400,000 people.
Videos posted by local media showed torrents of brown rainwater rushing down roads through dark towns at the base of Cuba&#8217;s Sierra Maestra mountains, not far from the city.
Authorities reported widespread flooding of lowland areas early on Wednesday from Santiago to Guantanamo, where upwards of 35% of the population had been evacuated.
The timing could not be worse for the communist-run Caribbean island. Cuba is already suffering from food, fuel, electricity, and medicine shortages that have complicated life for many, prompting record-breaking migration off the island since 2021.
President Diaz-Canel said Cuba had nonetheless mobilized 2,500 electric line workers to begin recovery immediately following the storm&#8217;s passage across the island later on Wednesday.
The hurricane was not expected to directly affect the capital of Havana.
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood in Havana, Zahra Burton in Kingston, Sarah Morland and Brendan O&#8217;Boyle in Mexico City, David Ljunggren in Ottawa, Emma Farge in Geneva and Anmol Choubey and Ishaan Arora in BengaluruWriting by Andrew HeavensEditing by Frances Kerry and Peter Graff)

Aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, in Jamaica

Hurricane Melissa Hits Cuba Hours After Devastating Jamaica

Category 5

Cuba

Hurricane Melissa

Jamaica

KINGSTON — Hurricane Melissa made landfall in western Jamaica early Tuesday afternoon as a powerful Category 5 storm and the strongest ever to directly hit the Caribbean nation of 2.8 million people.
Melissa made landfall near the town of New Hope, some 62 km (39 miles) south of Montego Bay, packing maximum sustained winds of 185 mph (295 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory.
The most powerful level on the Saffir-Simpson scale, Category 5, requires speeds of at least 157 mph.
The slow-moving storm is forecast to remain a powerful hurricane as it crosses the mountainous island, whose highland communities are vulnerable to landslides and flooding, and heads towards Santiago de Cuba, Cuba&#8217;s second-largest city.
The Miami-based hurricane center warned that &#8220;total structural failure&#8221; was likely in Melissa&#8217;s path.
&#8220;The destruction could be unlike anything people in Jamaica have seen before,&#8221; said U.S. forecaster AccuWeather&#8217;s lead hurricane expert, Alex DaSilva. &#8220;The island has never taken a direct hit from a Category 4 or a Category 5 hurricane in recorded history.&#8221;
Melissa is the third most intense hurricane observed in the Caribbean after Wilma in 2005 and Gilbert in 1988, according to AccuWeather.
Gilbert was the last major storm to directly hit the island.
Shortly before landfall, Jamaican electric utility JPS said power outages had affected more than a third of its customers. In its worst-hit parishes, some three-quarters of customers lost power, JPS said.
Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie told reporters that nearly 6,000 people had moved into temporary shelters. The government had issued mandatory evacuation orders for some 28,000 people, but some were reluctant to leave their homes.
&#8220;Don&#8217;t bet against Melissa, because you will lose,&#8221; warned McKenzie, as authorities implored residents to seek protection in shelters and fortify their residences.
JAMAICA&#8217;S &#8216;STORM OF THE CENTURY&#8217;
&#8220;It&#8217;s a catastrophic situation,&#8221; the World Meteorological Organization&#8217;s tropical cyclone specialist Anne-Claire Fontan told a press briefing. &#8220;For Jamaica, it will be the storm of the century for sure.&#8221;
Storm surges of up to four meters were expected, she said, with rainfall set to exceed 70 cm (2.3 feet), causing &#8220;catastrophic flash flooding and landslides,&#8221; she said.
Nearby Haiti and the Dominican Republic have faced days of torrential downpours leading to at least four deaths, authorities said. At least three people died during storm preparations in Jamaica, local media reported.
After crossing eastern Cuba, still as a powerful storm, Melissa is forecast to head through the Bahamas, where Prime Minister Philip Davis has ordered evacuations for people in southern and eastern parts of the archipelago.
In Cuba, authorities said they had evacuated upwards of 500,000 people from areas vulnerable to winds and flooding.
&#8220;There are no half measures,&#8221; Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a message published in state newspaper Granma, in which he urged people in areas vulnerable to flooding, strong winds, and storm surges to evacuate and accept help.
&#8220;Melissa will arrive with force, and there&#8217;s great concern about what it could destroy in its wake,&#8221; he said.
STORM INTENSIFIED ON APPROACH
Melissa&#8217;s slow movement over unusually tepid Caribbean water had contributed to its ballooning size and strength, NHC forecasters said, threatening Jamaica with days of never-before-seen catastrophic winds and rain.
Melissa could bring up to 30 inches (762 mm) of rain to parts of Jamaica, and up to 12 inches to parts of the island of Hispaniola, the NHC said.
The International Federation of the Red Cross said up to 1.5 million people in Jamaica were expected to be directly affected by the storm.
&#8220;Today will be very difficult for tens of thousands, if not millions of people in Jamaica,&#8221; IFRC official Necephor Mghendi said via video link from Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago.
&#8220;Roofs will be tested, flood waters will rise, isolation will become a harsh reality for many.&#8221;
To enable swift relief distribution, essential items — tarpaulins, hygiene kits, blankets, and safe drinking water — had been pre-positioned in Red Cross branches on the island, he said, with over 800 shelters set up for evacuees.
&#8216;A DIRE SITUATION UNFOLDING IN SLOW MOTION&#8217;
Melissa made landfall in southwestern Jamaica, which was one of the areas worst-hit by last year&#8217;s Hurricane Beryl.
On Monday, Prime Minister Andrew Holness ordered mandatory evacuations for parts of southern Jamaica, including the historic town of Port Royal.
He warned of damage to farmlands, homes, and infrastructure on the island, which is roughly the size of Connecticut and whose main airports sit close to sea level.
&#8220;There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5,&#8221; he said.
Holness said his government was as prepared as possible, with an emergency response budget of $33 million and insurance and credit provisions for damage a little larger than that sustained from Beryl.
Beryl was the earliest and fastest Atlantic hurricane on record to reach Category 5.
&#8220;Slow-moving major hurricanes often go down in history as some of the deadliest and most destructive storms on record,&#8221; said AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter. &#8220;This is a dire situation unfolding in slow motion.&#8221;
(Reporting by Zahra Burton in Kingston, Sarah Morland in Mexico City, Dave Sherwood in Havana, Emma Farge in Geneva and Ashitha Shivaprasad in Bengaluru; Writing by Brendan O&#8217;Boyle; Editing by Kirsti Knolle, Ros Russell and Rod Nickel)

A satellite view shows Tropical Storm Melissa, over the Caribbean Sea

Hurricane Melissa Makes Landfall As Jamaica’s Strongest-Ever Storm

landfall

TOKYO — Long associated with American ruggedness, pickup trucks such as Ford&#8217;s top-selling F-150 have now become a symbol of international trade talks, showing how far countries such as Japan will go to win over U.S. President Donald Trump.
When Trump met Japan&#8217;s new prime minister and first female premier, Sanae Takaichi, in Tokyo on Tuesday, an F-150 was parked prominently outside the Akasaka Palace venue.
Burly U.S. pickup trucks are a rare sight in the Japanese capital, where the streets are narrow and turns can be tight.
But the placement of the F-150, which is not typically available for sale in Japan, sent a clear message about Tokyo&#8217;s willingness to buy more cars from its ally, an issue that has been a sticking point for Trump for decades.
Last week, Reuters reported that Takaichi&#8217;s government was working on a package to buy F-150 trucks, an idea originally floated by Trump, as well as soybeans and gas.
&#8220;Well, that&#8217;s great. She has good taste,&#8221; Trump told reporters on Air Force One, when asked about the report. &#8220;That’s a hot truck.&#8221;
In August, Trump said Japan was ready to purchase the &#8220;very beautiful&#8221; F-150.
It was not clear how many F-150s Japan planned to buy.
Japanese government sources have told Reuters the trucks would probably end up being used as snow plows, given their size.
Japan and Europe, Trump has often argued, refuse to accept U.S. cars even as Japanese and European automakers sell millions of their vehicles each year in the United States.
The F-150 won&#8217;t be the first American car brought in to Japan to help ease trade friction. Three decades ago, Toyota responded to U.S. pressure by selling a mid-sized General Motors car under its own brand in Japan.
The Toyota Cavalier was introduced with much fanfare, sold poorly, and quietly faded after a few years, said John Shook, a former Toyota manager and an auto industry veteran in both Japan and the United States.
A third of the 3.7 million new cars sold in Japan last year were mini or &#8220;kei&#8221; cars, tiny vehicles that are not produced by American automakers.
Foreign cars accounted for 6% of new car sales overall, with European brands among some of the top sellers, industry data showed, while Ford itself pulled out of Japan almost a decade ago.
Separately, Trump said Toyota would open auto plants in the United States to the tune of $10 billion.
A Toyota spokesperson was not immediately available to comment on Trump&#8217;s remarks.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and David Dolan; Additional reporting by Maki Shiraki; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Ros Russell)

A Ford F-150 and a Toyota pickup truck are parked outside of Akasaka Palace, in Tokyo

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