Plus: Jamaica Braces For Its Worst Hurricane Island History

Good evening,

Characters from ‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ Netflix’s hit animated musical film, are so popular this year that many stores selling Halloween costumes are struggling to keep up with the demand. 🎤👿

Spirit Halloween, which sells the official licensed costumes for the main characters — Rumi, Mira, and Zooey — sold out of the costumes both online and in-store. There are still unbranded versions on Amazon, but those are going fast, too. 🎃
Part of the problem: “The popularity surprised Netflix, which had to scramble to throw together even a minimal selection of consumer products, including Halloween costumes, in just a few months,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

The film follows a trio of singers — Rumi, Mira, and Zooey — who use Korean pop music to ward off monstrous demons and face off against a rival boy band whose members are secretly demons themselves. It became Netflix’s most popular original film after it premiered in June. A singalong version of the film had a limited release in theaters in August, leading to Netflix’s first #1 box office title, with another theatrical release coming up this Halloween weekend. 🍿🎥

The film’s story was conceived by Maggie Kang, a South Korean-Canadian filmmaker. 🇰🇷🇨🇦 She told the New York Times that ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ is a celebration of Korean culture — marrying ancient Korean mythology with modern K-pop music — and bringing more relatable female superheroes to the big screen.

I can’t get “Golden” out of my head. 🎧🎶

Sam,
Associate Producer

Love Mo News? Support our independent news coverage. Join Premium.

🚨 ONE IMPORTANT THING

Trump Won’t Rule Out 3rd White House Term — Can He Really Run?

President Trump left the door open to a third White House term on Monday, leading to questions about whether he is trolling Democrats or actually serious about circumventing the Constitution’s two-term limit. At the same time, Trump is also dismissing the idea of running as vice president in 2028 — one way some allies, including former adviser Steve Bannon, believe he can find a way back to the White House, again.

Aboard Air Force One on Monday, a reporter asked if he’d rule out another run. He noted that he has his “best poll numbers” he’s ever had, and said: “Am I not ruling it out? You’ll have to tell me,” but then also floated Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as formidable candidates.

All the talk has one major roadblock: The 22nd Amendment, which bars anyone from being elected to the presidency more than twice. However, it doesn’t explicitly say that someone couldn’t serve again. That’s where some unconventional, and untested, workarounds have been floated.

HOW THIS MIGHT ACTUALLY PLAY OUT:
1. One option would be that Trump could run as vice president on the 2028 ticket. He’d then have the president resign, giving VP Trump the presidency. Trump on Monday called that method “too cute.”

Pushback: The 12th Amendment says: “No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.” Since Trump has served two terms as president, he would be ineligible to be VP.
- However, fringe legal theorists argue that because the 12th was written before the 22nd, Trump could still technically be eligible for VP — but most constitutional scholars dismiss that outright, saying the Supreme Court would never allow it.
- “It is, of course, true that we had no Twenty-Second Amendment when the Twelfth Amendment was ratified, but its effect is to make the qualifications for the two offices, [president and vice president], identical,” Georgetown Law’s David Super told FactCheck.org.

2. Another option that could be tried is for Republicans to elect him Speaker of the House (you don’t have to be a member of Congress to be speaker), then ascend to the presidency if both president and vice president were vacated. But if the VP idea is too “cute,” one could argue this is even cuter and also goes against the spirit of the law.

3. The other theory is that Trump is simply trolling Democrats — and it’s working.

“President Trump is of the mindset that when he makes the Left’s heads explode, he has a PR win — not only with his base, but eventually something happens and he says, ‘See, I told you they’re crazy,” Fox News anchor Bret Baier recently told Mo News. “He says something that raises a lot of eyebrows. There’s a ton of reaction to it, almost overreaction. Then the wheel comes back and people say, ‘What’s the deal with that?’”

And as long as speculation about 2028 lingers, the spotlight stays on Trump — not on potential successors and delaying his lame duck status.

THE AGE FACTOR
Trump will be 82 years old at the end of the current term — 86 by the end of another. That said, Baier pushed back on speculation about Trump’s age and stamina, recounting a recent Air Force One trip to Alaska where Trump conducted interviews and stayed on the phone “the entire flight back” — keeping a longer and tougher schedule than the press corps.

“I had to go sit and sleep,” Baier said. “He’s got this energy that’s nonstop. I don’t see him slowing down — I think that’s a misperception.”

Bottom line: Don’t expect Trump to put away the “Trump 2028” hats anytime soon. A real bid for a third term would almost certainly require a constitutional amendment — or face swift rejection in the courts. At the same time, Trump has never shied away from testing constitutional limits.

🚨 ONE THING WE’RE TRACKING

Historic Category 5 Hurricane Set To Make Landfall In Jamaica

Category 5 Hurricane Melissa is bearing down on Jamaica in the coming hours and is expected to become the strongest hurricane ever to hit the island of about 3 million people since record-keeping began in 1851.

As of Monday afternoon, Melissa was southwest of Kingston with winds up to 175 mph and a well-defined eye flashing with lightning, according to satellite imagery from the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere.
- By the numbers: The storm is expected to bring the island as much as 40 inches of rain, destructive winds, and 9-13 feet of storm surge.
- Category 5 hurricanes have sustained winds of 157 mph or higher and represent the maximum level on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said a “destructive storm surge” is expected to make landfall on Jamaica early Tuesday. It will then move toward Cuba later Tuesday before heading toward the Bahamas. The U.S.’s mainland is not expected to be affected, but about 1,000 nonessential military personnel and their relatives at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay in southeast Cuba were evacuated over the weekend.

Melissa is the third Category 5 hurricane of the Atlantic season, the second-most of any season on record.

COMPARABLE STORMS
The storm’s slow movement — or stalling — is expected to worsen flooding and batter/weaken structures. Officials warn of widespread flash flooding, landslides, and power outages through midweek.

Similar types of storms — like Hurricane Harvey (2017) in Texas and Hurricane Dorian (2019) in the Bahamas — produced catastrophic flooding. Meteorologists say Melissa could even bring Hurricanes Katrina- or Michael-level devastation to the island
- The strongest hurricane ever to hit Jamaica was 1988’s Hurricane Gilbert, a Category 4 storm with 130 mph winds.

Haiti, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic’s steep terrain, paired with their tropical humidity, will squeeze more moisture from the storm — “like squeezing a wet sponge,” CNN reports, amplifying rainfall and triggering mudslides.

⏳ THE SPEED READ

🚨NATION

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun calls special session to consider new congressional map (NBC)
Slow-moving storm dumps as much rain as a hurricane in parts of Central Florida (NEWSDAY)
Man in Nazi uniform arrested after assaulting University of Georgia student, school says (CBS)
Mamdani rallies with Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez as Democrats close ranks around NYC mayoral nominee (CNN)

🌎 AROUND THE WORLD

U.S. Navy helicopter, fighter jet both go down in South China Sea (ABC)
Lithuania accuses Belarus, Russia of “deliberate escalation of hybrid warfare” as balloons shut down airport (CBS)
Civilians face serious fears after Sudanese paramilitary claims capture of El Fasher (GUARDIAN)
Cameroon’s 92-year-old president wins controversial eighth term (BBC)

📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH

Flights to Los Angeles International Airport halted due to air traffic controller shortage (AP), Expect more flight delays as government shutdown drags on (MO NEWS)
Latest US-China trade truce leaves fundamental issues unresolved (BLOOMBERG)
Exxon sues California over climate disclosure laws, alleging free speech violations (FOX)
US stillbirth rate is higher than reported (REUTERS)

🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau pictured holding hands at Paris event (BBC)
‘Chainsaw Man’ anime film topples Springsteen biopic and ‘Black Phone 2’ at the box office (AP)
Lululemon partners with NFL to release apparel collection (REUTERS)
Radiohead’s Thom Yorke says he won’t play Israel under Netanyahu, objects to boycott pressure (TIMES OF ISRAEL)

ICYMI FROM THE 📲

In case you missed it… Japanese sushi legend Jiro Ono, and star of the award-winning film “Jiro Dreams of Sushi,” turned 100 Monday. And he has no plans to retire: “I plan to keep going for about five more years,” he said in September.

Ono opened Sukiyabashi Jiro – a 10-seat sushi bar in a basement in Tokyo’s Ginza district — in 1965. It was awarded three Michelin stars in 2007, making Ono the first sushi chef to do so.
- In 2014, Ono initially turned down a reservation request from then President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe because his restaurant was fully booked with his regulars. “Then they agreed to come later in the evening,” Ono explained.

While Ono cannot come in every day, he explained that “even at 100, I try to work if possible. I believe the best medicine is to work.” He also takes regular walks and eats well.

Ono, at 85, said in ‘Jiro Dreams of Sushi’ that his sushi making still “hasn’t reached perfection yet… I’ll continue to climb trying to reach the top but nobody knows where the top is.”