Jamaica could face days of hurricane conditions
(CNN) — Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean are staring down what could become a catastrophic, days-long assault of extreme rainfall and damaging winds with Tropical Storm Melissa set to strengthen into a major hurricane over some of the hottest ocean water on the planet. Officials are urging anyone in Melissa’s path to prepare for life-threatening flooding, landslides, power outages and dangerous seas. Melissa’s rain has already been pounding parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic for several days, flooding roadways and triggering landslides. At least three deaths have been reported in Haiti due to the storm, two of which were the result of a landslide, the Haitian Civil Protection Agency said in a statement. As of Friday morning, Melissa is just over 150 miles south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, with sustained winds of 45 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
America’s inflation is back at 3%
(CNN) — The cost of living got even more expensive for Americans last month, with prices rising at the fastest pace since the start of the year. Consumer prices rose 0.3% in September, which drove the annual rate of inflation from 2.9% to 3%, the highest it’s been since January, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday. Gas prices, which shot up 4.1% overall and 4.2% for regular unleaded fuel (both the largest monthly increases since August 2023), were the biggest culprit behind the monthly increase, BLS data shows. Food prices rose at a more moderate pace than they did in August (a month when grocery prices leapt by the highest rate in nearly three years). And housing-related inflation also continued its lengthy slowdown. Economists were expecting that inflation would continue to pick up speed, rising 0.4% for the month and 3.1% from the year before, according to FactSet estimates.
Social Security monthly benefits will increase 2.8% in 2026
(CNN) — Social Security recipients will receive a 2.8% boost in their monthly benefits in 2026, the Social Security Administration announced Friday. However, many seniors say the annual adjustments haven’t been enough to cover their ever-rising expenses. The increase for 2026 is larger than the 2.5% cost-of-living-adjustment that beneficiaries received for this year, but far smaller than the ones for the few years before that, when inflation was running rampant. Retirees’ monthly payments will rise by about $56 to an estimated average of $2,071 starting in January, the agency said. Nearly 71 million people receive Social Security benefits. The annual adjustment, known as a COLA, is based on an inflation metric from the third quarter of the year. Inflation has moderated after being at around a four-decade high in 2022, which resulted in an 8.7% adjustment for 2023.
Trump’s sanctions target Russian ‘war ATM’
(CNN) — After nine months of attempting to coax Russia into concessions using only incentives – whether by holding talks on repairing diplomatic relations or hosting a major bilateral summit on US soil – the Trump administration in an unexpected reversal announced “massive sanctions” Wednesday on Moscow’s two biggest oil producers. Just one week earlier, President Donald Trump had backed away from supplying long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who secured an invitation to a second bilateral summit, this time in Budapest. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among the more hawkish members of Trump’s Cabinet regarding Ukraine, was tasked with preparing that summit. But Russia’s uncompromising insistence on addressing what it sees as the “root causes” of the conflict finally hit home at the White House. Trump didn’t want to “waste time” at another summit, he said Wednesday, though he left the door open, suggesting that “we’ll do it in the future.”
Trump ending Canada trade negotiations over anti-tariff ad
(CNN) — President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was terminating trade talks with Canada, threatening once again to upend the crucial economic relationship between the United States and its second-biggest trading partner. Trump said he canceled the talks in response to an advertisement released last week by the government of Canada’s Ontario province, which featured audio from a speech by former US President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs on foreign goods. In the 1987 speech, Reagan lambasted tariffs as hurting “every American worker and consumer” and “triggering fierce trade wars.” After the ad aired, the Ronald Reagan Foundation claimed it “misrepresents” the speech, and that the Ontario government had not asked permission to use the clip. While the ad edited the speech and lacked context, the theme of Reagan’s full five-minute speech, which the Reagan Library has published on YouTube, is full-throated support for free and fair trade.
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