Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Maximum sustained winds from the storm are near 185 mph: “Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane around 1 p.m. ET, according to the National Hurricane Center. The Category 5 storm is the most powerful of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, and the hurricane center said it was ‘one of the most powerful hurricane landfalls on record in the Atlantic basin.’”
* The integrity of the ceasefire appears to be crumbling: “The Israeli military carried out airstrikes in multiple locations across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense agency and Al Jazeera, throwing the fragile U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas into question. Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered ‘powerful’ airstrikes on Gaza.”
* Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino: “U.S. District Court judge Sara Ellis ordered Bovino, the Border Patrol sector chief overseeing the agency’s operations in Chicago and previously in Los Angeles, to appear in federal court each weekday at 6 p.m. to report on daily immigration operations. She also ordered that he turn over all agents’ use of force reports from Sept. 2 through Oct. 25, as well as the bodycam footage corresponding to those reports, by Friday.”
* In related news: “The Trump administration is planning to replace some regional leaders at Immigration and Customs Enforcement with Border Patrol officials in an attempt to intensify its mass deportations effort amid growing frustration with the pace of daily arrests, according to two Homeland Security Department officials, one former DHS official and one federal law enforcement official.”
* Halting layoffs: “A federal judge in California granted a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from laying off thousands of federal workers during the government shutdown. The judge, Susan Illston, extended the temporary halt she ordered earlier this month and promised a written order shortly.”
* A SNAP case worth watching: “Democratic governors and attorneys general from 25 states sued to stop the White House from ending Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits on Nov. 1 as the government shutdown reached Day 28. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, Oct. 28, in Boston, called a looming food aid cutoff ‘contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious.’”
* Paxton’s search for rock bottom is ongoing: “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the current and former makers of Tylenol, echoing debunked Trump administration claims in accusing the companies of concealing potential ties to autism.” * I’ll be interested to learn more about what happened with this one: “The White House has withdrawn the nomination of Joel Rayburn, President Trump’s pick to serve as an assistant secretary of state, three officials familiar with the decision said on Monday. No reason was provided for the move by the officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the withdrawal of Mr. Rayburn, a retired Army officer who served as U.S. special envoy for Syria during the first Trump administration. He was nominated to lead Middle East policy as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.” * A sign of the times: “A statue of a Confederate general that demonstrators toppled and burned in Washington, D.C., in 2020 has been reinstalled. Crews placed the bronze statue depicting Gen. Albert Pike in Judiciary Square on Saturday. Fencing surrounds the statue, NBC Washington video shows. ‘Area closed. Historic preservation work in progress,’ a sign said.” See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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