People across the northern Caribbean are digging out from the destruction caused by Hurricane Melissa as deaths from the storm climbed. Emergency relief flights began landing at Jamaica’s main international airport as crews worked to reach communities still isolated after they were directly hit by the Category 5 storm. Catastrophic flooding occurred in Haiti, where dozens were dead or missing. Eastern Cuba had blown-off roofs, downed power lines and crop damage. Hurricane conditions were forecast to continue in the Bahamas into the morning and were expected to affect Bermuda later Thursday as the storm passes.

President Donald Trump has appeared to suggest on social media that the U.S. resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time in three decades. There was no indication that the U.S. would start detonating warheads, but the president offered few details about what seemed to be a significant shift in U.S. policy. He made the announcement on  social media minutes before he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday in South Korea. The U.S. military already regularly tests its missiles that are capable of delivering a warhead, but it has not detonated the weapons since 1992 because of a test ban.

Hurricane Melissa is grinding across eastern Cuba as a Category 3 storm after pummeling Jamaica as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record. Authorities in Cuba have evacuated more than 700,000 people to shelters. Forecasters say the Category 3 storm could unleash catastrophic damage in Santiago de Cuba and nearby areas on Wednesday. The storm is expected to generate a storm surge of up to 12 feet and drop up to 20 inches of rain in some places. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Melissa is forecast to move into the Bahamas later Wednesday. Jamaica is busy assessing the damage there.

U.S. and Chinese officials say a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies is drawing closer. The sides have reached an initial consensus for President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to aim to finalize during their high-stakes meeting Thursday in South Korea. Any agreement would be a relief to international markets. Trump's treasury secretary says discussions with China yielded preliminary agreements to stop the precursor chemicals for fentanyl from coming into the United States. Scott Bessent also says Beijing would make “substantial” purchases of soybean and other agricultural products while putting off export controls on rare earth elements needed for advanced technologies.

Officials say Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine overnight into Saturday have killed at least four people and wounded 20. In Kyiv, two people were killed and 13 were wounded in a ballistic missile attack. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, two more were killed and seven wounded. Ukraine's air force said it intercepted four missiles and 50 drones. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has renewed calls for Western air defense systems, emphasizing the need for Patriot systems to protect cities. Zelenskyy is seeking to purchase 25 Patriots from the U.S. to bolster Ukraine's air defenses.