Your World Tonight - Melissa hits Jamaica, Amazon layoffs, epic World Series game, and more

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

A massive Category 5 hurricane slams into Jamaica. Melissa made landfallas the strongest storm to hit the Caribbean island since records were first kept — 174 years ago. Hundreds of thousands are without power, and it will take days to assess the damage.And: Amazon lays off 14,000 corporate employees as the company invests in artificial intelligence.Also: It was one of the longest games in World Series history, lasting 18 innings. But the Toronto Blue Jays came up short — setting the stage for game four of the fall classic for tonight.Plus: Mass executions in Sudan, ceasefire in Gaza holding… for now, Alberta teachers legislated back to work, and more.

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This is a CBC podcast. There is no infrastructure in this region that could withstand a category five hurricane without some level of damage. And for Jamaica, there will be catastrophic damage. After intensifying quickly, a powerful storm is now slowly churning through. Jamaica. Deadly and devastating. Hurricane Melissa is dumping rain, destroying infrastructure, with neighboring countries now preparing for another direct hit. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Tuesday, October 28th, just before 6 p.m. Eastern, also on the podcast. AI is going to be very disruptive, but it's just not going to be uniform across the board

and affect everybody equally. Some, they'll become more powerful, more capable. Some will lose their jobs. This Amazon delivery is a severance package. The tech and shopping giant is slashing 14,000 corporate jobs, cutting labor costs, while spending big on artificial intelligence, a technology transforming the workforce and the world. And... Marshall Back, game over.

After a grueling marathon loss, the Toronto Blue Jays try to bounce back in the world. series. Much of Jamaica is taking cover tonight. Hurricane Melissa could be the most destructive storm to ever hit the island nation, making landfall earlier today as a category five. Officials are worried the storm's impact will be catastrophic. Katie Nicholson reports.

Palm trees bent to right angle. their fronds lashed about wildly and roofs ripped away skyward as Hurricane Melissa and its nearly 300 kilometer an hour sustained winds made landfall in Jamaica just after one eastern it didn't take long for mucky floodwaters to swallow streets this gully here is starting to rise the people say they're not going to move so let's just hope for the best Officials opened shelters and had been urging people to evacuate for days. Many did not. I'm sorry that I never take the bus yesterday and go to higher ground.

Everl Christian was in alligator pond, a small village in the middle of the island's south coast, just as Melissa was making landfall. But what I'm seeing now, the sea level is coming over the wall and we're in serious trouble. It's like I can see the wind. It's unbelievable. Jamaica has never seen a violent Category 5 storm quite like this one, with historic winds at times gusting to 320 kilometers an hour, which could flatten buildings.

The National Haken Center in Miami is saying that within the eyewall, the total structural failure is likely. I have never seen this sentence before. Tropical cyclone researcher and Claire Fontaine said, all told, the storm will drop up to twice the amount of rain Jamaica gets during its rainy season. What does it mean? It means that there will be catastrophic flash flooding and numerous long flights. It's also destroying parts of the island's electric grid.

Much of it, newly reconstructed, leaving hundreds of thousands in the dark, says Winsome Callum with the Public Energy Service. We are seeing devastation with posts coming down, with transmission towers and distribution lines being affected. Jamaica may take months, even years, to recover from the storm. But Melissa isn't stopping here. It's expected next to hit Cuba. Nearby Haiti, where many have already been displaced

by ongoing gang violence and chaos, is under a tropical storm warning and has already been drenched from the system. We have nothing in our hands to live on. If a hurricane hits, we're screwed, says, who lives in a low-slung shack. There's no way out, he says, except to die. Dyer words as Melissa turns slowly on and northwards

through the Caribbean. Katie Nicholson, CBC News, Toronto. Melissa isn't expected to come near Canada, but for people here with connections to Jamaica, the storm is having an impact. They're watching from afar. worried about loved ones. Colin Butler has that part of the story.

Yeah, well, take it down, right? Yeah, yeah, wait a party. At a barbers shop in Toronto's Little Jamaica, the air hums with clippers and concern. In Canada, we have to prepare for winter. In Jamaica, this is a part of what we have to prepare for. Tropical storms. Barber, Jason McDonald, feels the worry from home.

The truth is I'm still nervous for everybody back home. However, I do feel we'll overcome this. I don't think this is going to be the end. of Jamaica. We need support, you know, not only from Jamaicans, but from everyone. Phones buzz across Canada, family checking in from Kingston, friends in Montego Bay. Messages ping, worried Canadians can't focus on work or sleep. For Kevin Grant, he says there is nothing he can do but hope and pray. It's amazing what's going on down there. But, you know, I hope that, you know, the Almaty

would come to their rescue. The storm is being watched closely. In hallows, Fox, Chris Fogarty, head of the Canadian Hurricane Center, tracks every shift in Hurricane Melissa, which is, by all accounts, a monster. This is an extremely, it's the top end of the scale for intense hurricanes. Category 5, 160 knots of wind, which is pretty much at the top level that I can recall for Atlantic storm intensities, 160, I think, is right up there in the top few storms. Even for a storm that won't hit Canada, the warning is clear. Powerful storms leave little room for complacency.

When it's been a while since a big storm hits, you can have a little bit of complacency. So hopefully people are certainly prepared down there in Jamaica. Canadians are seeing the storm unfold on their smartphones. Footage from home streams in constantly. They are sending videos and sharing details that are pretty scary, pretty intense. Didan Wedderburn is in St. John's. She's with the Jamaican Canadian Association of Newfoundland and Labrador. They're trying to be there to support people and their mental health. I had one family member who said that it's unlike anything he's experienced before.

And as the storm rages, thousands of kilometres south, Canadians watch, worry, wait, and hope. Jamaica weather's another storm. Colin Butler, CBC News, London, Ontario. Coming right up, forced back to work with legislation that is protected from charter challenges. What's next for Alberta teachers? And major layoffs at Amazon as the power of AI grows, the company's workforce is getting smaller. Later, we'll have this story. I'm Thomas Dagg at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Toronto Blue Jays are looking to bounce back from a historic 18-inning loss.

Tired as hell. It's a long night, but, I mean, it's the world. series. A Jay's win tonight would tie up the series and guarantee baseball's biggest stage returns north of the border. That story later on Your World Tonight. The Jay's game wasn't the only dramatic late finish of the day. Early this morning, Alberta's government finally pushed through its contentious bill to force thousands of teachers back to work. The province says it's trying to protect children. Critics say the move hurts democracy. Aaron Collins explains. All in favor? All in pose, please. A long night in Alberta's legislature.

There's been a division. The finance minister Nate Horner defending back to work legislation for teachers. This legislation ensures that no further harm is done to Alberta's students and there is an immediate end to the strike. Alberta's Premier absent on her way to Saudi Arabia for a trade mission as the debate took place. Our children's education should never depend on the price of oil. Alberta's NDP opposition leader pushing back, Nahed Nenshi, against the inclusion of the notwithstanding clause in the bill to prevent a constitutional challenge. The members opposite know full well they're about to pass an unconstitutional piece of legislation. Still early this morning, it passed. is adjourned until later today after the law forcing teachers to accept a contract 90% of them

had rejected arguing it didn't do enough to address overly complex and crowded classrooms in Canadian history the notwithstanding clause has only been used twice in a labor relations context Jason Foster is a professor of labor relations at Athabasca university he says the use of the clause in Alberta will have a big impact this is not just affecting teachers this is going to affect every single public sector worker in this province because essentially what they are signaling with this bill today is that fair and free collective bargaining for the public sector in Alberta is dead. It's one reason the head of the Alberta Teachers Association Jason Schilling says the union isn't done fighting. We will launch a legal challenge against this. We'll leave that up to our

experts in our law office to do that work. But we will pursue everything that we can and leave no stone unturned. Other public sector unions in Alberta are also considering ways to oppose the legislation. Meanwhile, parents are preparing to send their kids back to school. I mean, on the one hand, it's like, okay, it's a lot to have them home. I don't like the reasons why they have to go back tomorrow. I don't really agree with how that was done, but yeah, I guess we'll see how things go. And teachers are preparing to return to classrooms tomorrow too. In my school, we have really high class sizes. We have a lot of kids. We have a lot of complexities and classroom, lots of kids with learning disabilities and a lot of

needs that aren't being met right now. The question for many Albertans, whether this nearly month-long strike will change any of that. Erin Collins, CBC News, Calgary. It is a company that used technology to change the way we shop. Now, Amazon is harnessing artificial intelligence to reshape its own workforce. The online online retail giant is slashing thousands of jobs, not in its warehouses, but in offices. Experts say it's part of a pattern of tech companies betting on AI and leaving workers behind.

Nisha Patel reports. The news rang out across Wall Street, Amazon cutting 14,000 corporate jobs out of about 350,000 positions. The company wouldn't say where the layoffs would be focused, though it's offering. most workers 90 days to look for a new position internally. Amazon says it needs a leaner, more nimble organization. And so I think this is a strategic response by Amazon. It comes as Amazon spends big on developments in artificial intelligence. The company calls it the most transformative technology since the internet.

Ian Lee is a management professor at Carlton University. He says AI is having a big. impact on entry-level jobs like HR and payrolls. It's brilliant at automating what technology has been automating for 300 years, the routine and the repetitive that doesn't require a great deal of human creative intelligence. Albert Squires is a tech recruiter in Seattle, which is home to Amazon headquarters. He's seeing the industry change firsthand. Being able to leverage AI and our day-to-day jobs, whether it's HR,

or legal or engineering has really upgraded efficiency. Big Tech is creating headcount for horsepower. Amazon employs more than 1.5 million people in total. Many are warehouse workers who are unaffected for now. Meanwhile, the company has been boosting AI spending, facing stiff competition from other tech giants in the space like OpenAI and Google. 80-some billion by Microsoft, 100 billion by Amazon. I mean, these are big investments, and so I think these companies are realizing what the potential is.

IBM, Intel, and META have also announced significant restructuring this year as they shift towards AI. Still, Professor Lee says it's a natural outcome of innovation. AI is going to be very disruptive, but it's just not going to be uniform across the board and affect everybody equally. Some occupations will actually become more powerful, more capable. and some will lose their jobs. Like the internet or the computer before it, AI is seen as the latest technology reshaping the workforce. So experts say these layoffs may not be the last.

Nisha Patel, CBC News, Toronto. Health Canada has approved a drug that slows the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Lecanamab isn't a cure, but it targets the buildup of amyloid plaque in the brain, believed to be one underlying cause of the disease. The drug works in the early stages of dementia when there is mild impairment. So far, the medication is not covered by provincial insurance plans.

It costs up to $30,000 a year in other countries. The federal conservatives are calling on all parties to support stiffer sentences for intimate partner violence. The party introduced a private member's bill in Ottawa today. Leader Pierre Palliard says if passed, the bill would take a number of steps to protect people. It would ensure that anyone who's convicted of murder in an intimate partner setting would be automatically given first-degree murder sentencing. It would force those convicted of intimate partner offense to, within the preceding five years,

to be released only by a judge. Statistics Canada says intimate partner violence has increased 14% between 28,000. 18 and 2024. There are worries of a looming ethnic slaughter in Sudan's Darfur region following a critical development in the country's ongoing civil war. Rebel forces are accused of carrying out mass executions. after capturing the battleground city of El Fasher. Analysts say it could be a tipping point in a long and bloody conflict.

Senior international correspondent Margaret Evans reports. The sound of RSF fighters celebrating the paramilitary group's capture of El Fasher over the weekend, the Sudanese army's last foothold in the western Darfur region. Sudan's army chief and leader, General Abdul Fah al-Burhan confirmed his forces were pulling out in a video message. We agreed that they leave the city for a safe place, he said, to spare the rest of the citizens and the city from destruction. There are some reports that RSF fighters are still battling pockets of army holdouts in the west of the city.

The people of Elfasher have already endured 18 months of violence and siege as the paramilitary rapid security forces fought the Sudanese army for control of the city, eventually encircling it. There are an estimated 260,000 civilians still there, about half of them children. There are already reports of atrocities being carried out in the city, heightening fears that RSF fighters will conduct ethnically motivated reprisal killings, targeting indigenous non-Arab groups. Matilda Vu is with the Norwegian Refugee Council, an aid agency.

The fear execution, the fear targeted killing. Some have made it to Tawila, about 60 kilometres to the west of El Fasher. Ikram Abdul Hamid made it out with three children and a two-month-old grandson. She describes fleeing RSF fighters after they stopped a group of men. They took them out and lined them up and they shot them in front of us, she's saying. They shot them in the street and left them. The RSF has been locked in a brutal war with the Sudanese army since a power struggle broke out between the two in 2023.

Regional expert Ahmed Saliman of Chatham House here in London says the capture of Al-Fasher offers an important boost. It will help them in terms of them seeking to assert authority throughout Darfur and let's not forget, you know, it's the same size as, you know, France. Solomon says mediators from both sides have been in Washington recently, but he says the process needs broader interest from the international community and higher profile engagement from the United States. Without it, he says, the future looks bleak, not least for the city of Elfasher.

So people really aren't able to leave, and they're very clearly being targeted. And unfortunately, the international response, apart from through condemnation, is absent. More than 150,000 people have been killed in the conflict and more than 14 million displaced. Both sides have been accused of atrocities. Margaret Evans, CBC News, London. The shaky Israel-Hamas ceasefire is facing more pressure. Israel launched air strikes in Gaza City tonight after IDF soldiers were attacked in Rafa. Both sides are accusing each other of violating the truce. With Israel accusing Hamas, of crossing a red line. Chris Brown reports.

The ceasefire is holding. That doesn't mean that there aren't going to be little skirmishes here and there. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance says Israel's airstrikes on Gaza don't mean a return to full-on war. But tonight, both sides are accusing the other of trying to sabotage the ceasefire. Israel's airstrikes reportedly hit near Gaza's Sabra neighborhood and at least one other close to the Shifa hospital. Hamas has not returned. turned all of the bodies of the hostages it held. And Israel says that was part of the deal. The Netanyahu government is not said if it now considers a ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump to be over. In a statement, Hamas said it is still committed to the agreement

that came into force on October the 10th. This is not the first time Israel has struck in Gaza since that deal was signed. Two people were killed in a drone attack in Han Yunus on Monday, and another was killed in an attack on Saturday. Israel justified its strikes tonight by blaming Hamas, first for attacking Israeli forces near Rafah earlier in the day, and secondly for turning over the wrong remains, instead of those of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza. Shosh Bedrosian is the Israeli spokeswoman.

The Prime Minister ordered a meeting to take place at the IDF headquarters with senior-ranked security officials to discuss the serious repercussions the terror group will now face. Hamas has accused Israel of looking for any pretext to restart the war, and it says its militants were not responsible for the attack in Rafa. Tonight's strikes are far less severe than the Israeli attacks that signaled the end of the earlier ceasefire in March, and unlike then, Israel has also not indicated more such strikes are coming. In recent days, the Trump administration has sent its top officials to Israel

to try to pressure the government to ensure the ceasefire holds, and Egyptian teams were permitted into Gaza to help with the search for bodies to try to speed up the difficult process. Earlier Tuesday, footage showed Hamas militants using an excavator, removing what the group claims was an Israeli body from a tunnel in Han Yunus. The group had said it planned to return the remains tonight, but that was postponed because of the Israeli airstrikes. Chris Brown, CBC News, London. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegsitt, says,

the U.S. has killed 14 more people in the eastern Pacific. In a social media post, Hegseth said there was one survivor after three strikes. The Trump administration has accelerated its campaign against drug smuggling. The U.S. military has struck boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing 57 people. It's offered no proof the people involved were drug runners. This is Your World Tonight from CBC News. sure you stay up to date and never miss one of our episodes. Follow us on Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts. Just find the follow button and lock us in.

The team lost the game. Their fans lost a lot of sleep. Now the Toronto Blue Jays are back at Dodger Stadium tonight for game four of the World Series, looking for revenge while still recovering from a record-setting game that just kept going and going and going. Thomas Dagla reports from Los Angeles. Dodger Stadium crews spent extra hours today, sweeping up peanut shells and picking up hot dog wrappers and plastic beer cups. 18 innings' worth of snacks and drinks tossed aside as fans were kept mesmerized by last night's six-hour, 39-minute-long epic. As for the players...

Tired as hell. Yeah, credit to them. In the Blue Jays Clubhouse, Ernie Clement and Miles Straw were among those in the early morning hours trying to look past the 6-5 loss to the Dodgers and also push aside the fatigue. It's a long night, but, I mean, it's the World Series. Shouldn't be really thinking about how sore your body is at this point, for me anyways. Otani. Oh, center-cup fastball. Baseball's biggest star, Shohei Otani, reached base.

unimaginable nine times for the Dodgers, including a pair of doubles and a pair of homers. An impressive performance at bat the night before Otani's scheduled appearance as game four starting pitcher. To get ready to go out and pitch a major league game on top of that. On Fox Sports, New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter wondered how the Japanese superstar would prepare after such a grueling matcha. We know how we felt after playing a game at short, at third, a DH. And you wake up and you, you feel it. Consider the mind-boggling stats from last night's historic game.

19 pitchers were called in, setting a new post-season record. They threw 609 pitches, all of it leading to unusual scenes in the dugout. A fruit tray. Yeah. Can we get one of those delivered here? Fox broadcast cameras captured staff offering pineapple and watermelon slices to Jay's players as the game dragged on well into the night. But how will that marathon affect them in game four?

This is a career-defining game that they experienced last night. James Baker is a sports science professor at the University of Toronto. He says the impact for the players may be the opposite of what many would expect. You'd look at a normal person and say, aren't they going to be exhausted by going through this experience? I'd be surprised if the athletes weren't more energized. Indeed, in a previous round, the Seattle, Mariners withstood a five-hour 15-inning clash only to fly across the continent and beat Toronto twice.

Tonight, the Jays hoped to even their best of seven series against the Dodgers at two games apiece, no matter how many innings it takes. Thomas Dagg, CBC News, Los Angeles. We end tonight in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, with a young sportscaster overcoming challenges to follow his dream and find his voice. Broder's first goal scored by number seven, Caitlin Waltyk, assisted by number eight, Tray Johnson. Tanner Spenson calls the hockey rink his happy place. For years, he's volunteered as a scorekeeper, then a PA announcer. Now Spenson has scored his first professional gig, doing color commentary for the Prince Albert Mintoz.

I just have this voice that I just want to just say, like, he shoots, he scores, and pass it out of the cross and back. I just want to be one of those. Play-by-play has a lot of passion. For the 23-year-old, having his voice broadcast to thousands of hockey fans is a big deal. For a long time, no one heard his voice. Svensson is autistic and was non-verbal until age 7. At 14, he had surgery to fix a hole in his skull, and he wears a hearing aid after a tumor damaged his hearing.

Svensson's dad, Mike, says he's worked hard to get where he is. It's a miraculous that he's doing what he is doing today, communicate the way he does, doing it now for a living, which is quite remarkable. And Svensons colleagues say he has a unique ability to recall information off the top of his head, coming up with games, stats during a live broadcast without looking them up on a computer. Svensson says he wants to keep improving his craft and go to broadcast school, hoping one day his voice is heard calling professional hockey games. Thank you for joining us on your world tonight for Tuesday, October 28th.

I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.