NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-29-2025 4AM EDT

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. Hurricane Melissa has made landfall along Cuba's southeast coast, threatening widespread destruction and major flooding. More than 700,000 residents were evacuated to shelters ahead of the storm's arrival. National Weather Service meteorologist Michael Brennan says Melissa will pass over Cuba and then head north. We're going to see the center of Melissa move off of the northeastern coast of Cuba during the daytime on Wednesday. and then move through the southeastern Bahamas during the afternoon and evening hours from Wednesday into Thursday of hurricane warnings in effect there with the potential or expectation of damaging hurricane force winds in those areas. Storm surge of five to eight feet of inundation above ground level and rainfall of five to ten inches. Hurricane Melissa passed over Jamaica yesterday as a category five storm causing a trail of destruction there.

It is one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the Caribbean. President Trump is in South Korea for meetings with heads of state and business leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum. Trump plans to meet today with China's President Xi Jinping, as the BBC's J-Quan reports from Guangzhou. World leaders are gathering in South Korea's ancient capital this week, and U.S. President Donald Trump is one of the first to arrive. On his way from Japan, he said he is optimistic about his meeting with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Before then, he will speak to prominent industry leaders, including the CEO of NVIDIA and Samsung, and later sit down with South Korea's president, I Jiameng. Mr. E. is hoping to negotiate lower U.S. tariffs on imports from his country.

Other leaders, too, are hoping to resolve their own trade disputes with the U.S. The BBC's Jayquan reporting. The Civil Defense Agency in Gaza says dozens of people were killed in Israeli air strikes on Tuesday. The attack occurred after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating the U.S. brokered ceasefire. NPR's Rob Schmitz has more from Tel Aviv. Israel said the strikes were retaliation for Hamas opening fire and shooting a rocker-propelled grenade at Israeli troops near Rafa in southern Gaza and Israeli-held territory. Hamas denied taking part in that attack. Israel said the other violation of the ceasefire happened Monday when Hamas handed over body parts that Israel,

said were the partial remains of a hostage who was recovered earlier in the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called that a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement, which requires Hamas to return the remaining deceased hostages in Gaza as soon as possible. Hamas says Israel is seeking to fabricate false pretext to attack Gaza. Rob Schmitz and Pierre News, Tel Aviv. U.S. futures are flat and after hours trading on Wall Street following Tuesday's gains on Asia-Pacific market shares are mixed down a fraction in Hong Kong. You're listening to NPR. A judge in Hawaii says a Trump-appointed federal prosecutor may not continue to serve. The court disqualified Bilal-Issaly's appointment because it was not approved by the Senate.

Isali was appointed as an interim U.S. attorney for the Central District in Lake March, allowing him to serve for 120 days. The judge says that three criminal indictments brought during ESALE's tenure will stand. California says it will not oppose Open AIs plan to restructure from a nonprofit to a for-profit corporation. As Rachel Myro, a member station KQED, reports, the state secured some concessions. California Attorney General Rob Bonta writes the San Francisco-based company has promised to ensure its charitable assets are used for intended purposes.

But more than 60 nonprofits and others opposed to. OpenAI's plan are skeptical at best. Now that they're valued at $500 billion, things have changed because there's a lot of money to be made, not just for the employees and for himself, but for the investors. In a statement, OpenAI says the nonprofit's multi-billion dollar equity stake will be used to fund its philanthropic work, including medical research and improving AI's resilience. For NPR News, I'm Rachel Myro in San Francisco. I'm a federal judge, San Francisco has issued an open-ended injunction against firing federal workers during the government shutdown. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Ilston applies to federal workers represented by unions challenging the administration's plans.

This is NPR News.