Today is Wednesday, October 29th. What to know about one of the strongest hurricanes in the Atlantic ever, from the damage so far to where it's headed next. And another test of the Israel-Gaza ceasefire. Also, millions of Americans are just days away from losing food benefits. What more than two dozen states are now asking a judge to do? Plus, which well-known companies saw one of the biggest workforce reductions

since the pandemic? What newly released chat GPT data says about users' mental health, and how Dr.

Seuss is back with a new book, decades after his death. Those stories and even more news coming up.

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I'm Erica Mandy.

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Hurricane Melissa is once again gaining strength as it closes in on Cuba. As we published this morning,

Cuba is getting heavy rain and strong winds, and landfall is expected to happen at any minute as a

Category 4 storm. Already, Melissa made a historic landfall in Jamaica as one of the strongest

category 5 hurricanes on record, even stronger than Katrina. It was spinning with

sustained 185 mile an hour winds. But it's not clear exactly how much damage was done. Forecasters

and government officials say they worry there's flash flooding and deadly landslides, but communications

are limited. And nearly 900,000 people were ordered to evacuate ahead of the storm.

So it's hard to know for sure.

And in the days to come, Jamaica and Cuba are both expected to face severe public health effects,

including disrupted health care, contaminated water, disease outbreaks, and more.

President Trump says the U.S. is prepared to help,

though budget cutbacks and lower-than-usual donations will mean less food for aid agencies like the World Food Program. After Hurricane Melissa moves past Cuba, forecasters

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