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How Climate Change Fueled Melissa’s Record-Breaking Rampage (Maria)

The author writes, “Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday as a staggering Category 5 storm, the strongest to strike the island nation in the 174 years humans have been keeping records. While the full scale of the damage is still being assessed, preliminary reports suggest the storm caused catastrophic flooding. … A new analysis found that unusually warm ocean waters boosted the storm’s rapid intensification — twice.”

New Images Show Israeli Control Line Deeper Into Gaza Than Expected (Sean)

From the BBC: “The Israeli military is exerting control over more of Gaza than expected from the ceasefire deal with Hamas, a BBC Verify analysis has found. Under the first stage of the deal, Israel agreed to retreat to a boundary running along the north, south, and east of Gaza. The divide was marked by a yellow line on maps released by the military and has become known as the ‘Yellow Line.’ But new videos and satellite images show that markers placed by Israeli troops in two areas to mark the divide have been positioned hundreds of metres deeper inside the strip than the expected withdrawal line. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz — who instructed troops to place the yellow blocks as markers — warned that anyone crossing the line ‘will be met with fire.’ There have already been at least two deadly incidents near the boundary line.”

Chicago Student Journalists Create Map of ICE Sightings (Dana)

From NewsNation: “Increased sightings of federal immigration enforcement agents have continued to spread throughout Chicago, driving local neighborhoods to use whistle-blowing techniques to warn residents, as an ongoing operation that has led to more than 2,700 arrests since early September continues. When the number of agents spotted around the diverse North Side neighborhood of Rogers Park in recent weeks jumped, editors at Loyola University’s student newspaper published an interactive map of reported agent sightings. The Loyola Phoenix, which had recently seen traffic jump after the death of the school’s beloved 106-year-old basketball chaplain, Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, has attracted even more site visitors thanks to its constantly updated record of confirmed agent sightings.”

Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors (Laura)

From 404 Media: “The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that hosts Wikipedia, says that it’s seeing a significant decline in human traffic to the online encyclopedia because more people are getting the information that’s on Wikipedia via generative AI chatbots that were trained on its articles and search engines that summarize them without actually clicking through to the site. The Wikimedia Foundation said that this poses a risk to the long term sustainability of Wikipedia. … Ironically, while generative AI and search engines are causing a decline in direct traffic to Wikipedia, its data is more valuable to them than ever. Wikipedia articles are some of the most common training data for AI models, and Google and other platforms have for years mined Wikipedia articles to power its Snippets and Knowledge Panels, which siphon traffic away from Wikipedia itself.”

‘Something Is Very Wrong’ With Florida’s High-Speed Train (Reader Jim)

The author writes, “The Brightline — Florida’s flashy, high-speed rail line linking Miami and Orlando — is without a doubt a ‘beautiful train,’ writes Kaitlyn Tiffany at the Atlantic. Her in-depth look, however, is not about aesthetics but about a rather alarming Brightline trait: ‘it keeps hitting people.’ Since it began operating in 2017, the privately owned and operated train has been involved in 185 fatalities, the vast majority of which (148) weren’t deemed to be suicides. Locals have dubbed it the ‘Death Train.’”

California City Reopens Woolworth’s Lunch Counter — The Last One in the Nation (Reader Steve)

The author writes, “Bakersfield’s Woolworth’s lunch counter — the last of its kind in the country — has been closed for renovations since 2022. Before that, it had the novelty appeal of a Blockbuster store, joked new owner Sherod Waite. But Waite and his wife, Emily, believed the lunch counter could be restored to its former glory. When the couple purchased the former Woolworth store to house their wealth management company, Moneywise, they saw potential beyond office space in the mammoth building. After years of renovations, the Bakersfield Woolworth is reopening with a block party on Saturday. The updated building will contain a bar, event space, and recording studio in addition to Moneywise’s offices. The ‘crown jewel,’ Waite said, is still the lunch counter, which has a facelift and a new menu.”