LAS VEGAS, Saturday afternoon —
Two natural disasters own the day: Panama is counting the damage from its biggest earthquake in 70 years, and Hurricane Simon is hours from slamming into Mexico's Pacific coast as a Category 4. Around them, Isaias's toll keeps rising, the Rangers lost their goalie for the season, the Nobel fallout got loud, and Rockstar's GTA VI machine kept humming. Here's everything that moved since this morning.
1. Panama counts the damage on day two of the 7.7 earthquake
Panama's strongest earthquake in more than seven decades is now a recovery operation. The national civil protection system reports 27 people injured and — remarkably — no deaths and no missing persons as of Saturday, while damage spans nine provinces: 142 homes, 188 schools, 20 health facilities, 26 government buildings, 13 churches, seven hotels, and nine bridges, per EFE's tally of the official reports.
The town of Tonosí remains cut off by land after roads collapsed, and on Saturday the National Police deployed heavy equipment to reach Malena and Torio in the hard-hit Mariato district. President José Raúl Mulino has declared a major disaster, more than 150 aftershocks have rattled the country — including a 6.6 and two strong shocks near Tonosí — and an early USGS estimate puts economic losses above $1 billion. Through it all, the Panama Canal kept operating.
What's next: full structural inspections can't start until the aftershocks settle, and assessments are still underway in rural communities. Read our breaking coverage of the quake and the tsunami threat.
2. Hurricane Simon is a Category 4, hours from Mexico's coast
Simon went from a 90-mph Category 1 on Friday morning to a 150-mph Category 4 on Saturday morning, and it kept strengthening from there. The National Hurricane Center had the storm about 115 miles south-southwest of Manzanillo at midday, moving north, with landfall expected late Saturday or early Sunday on Mexico's west-central coast as a major hurricane — possibly as strong as 155 mph.
A hurricane warning covers the coast south of Puerto Vallarta, including Manzanillo — Mexico's largest Pacific port — and Jalisco has suspended classes in 22 coastal municipalities while evacuations get underway. The NHC warns of 10 to 20 inches of rain, with isolated totals up to 30 inches in Michoacán, Colima, and Jalisco, plus life-threatening flooding and mudslides. An Air Force Reserve recon mission flew into the storm Saturday afternoon.
What's next: NHC advisories every three hours through landfall. Meanwhile, the other storm: our Hurricane Isaias aftermath coverage.
3. Isaias's death toll rises to four as the Southeast digs out
The toll from Hurricane Isaias doubled on Saturday. A second Escambia County, Florida, death was confirmed — a man killed by carbon monoxide poisoning after his family ran a generator indoors, with four other family members hospitalized, Sheriff Chip Simmons said. A tree fell on a home in Birmingham, Alabama, killing one person Saturday morning, on top of Friday night's tree death in Escambia County.
About 870,000 customers remain without power across Florida, Alabama, and Georgia, the National Weather Service measured a 117-mph gust on Santa Rosa Island, Milton High School lost its gym roof, and Gulf Breeze is handing out free cases of bottled water. Officials are hammering the generator warning: never run one inside or in a garage.
What's next: restoration crews working through the weekend. Full story: Hurricane Isaias aftermath.
4. Shesterkin's season is over — and the Rangers' crease is in crisis
The Rangers announced Saturday that Igor Shesterkin will miss the rest of the season with the lower-body injury he suffered Friday night in Washington, when his right skate jammed into the goalpost and he had to be helped off without putting weight on his right leg. The 2021-22 Vezina winner finishes 3-1-0 with a 1.79 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage — and the Rangers also lost backup Joonas Korpisalo for four weeks.
That leaves the net to 24-year-old Dylan Garand, who has one NHL shutout to his name (October 2 in Detroit) and, per coach Mike Sullivan, will get the bulk of the starts. Captain J.T. Miller called it "a shot to all of us." Shesterkin is in year two of an eight-year, $92 million deal — the richest ever for a goalie.
What's next: whether the Rangers shop the trade market for a veteran. More: Saturday's NHL roundup.
5. Canadiens ship Struble to Nashville for a second-rounder
Montreal traded defenseman Jayden Struble to the Nashville Predators on Friday night for a 2027 second-round pick — a pick that originally belonged to the Vegas Golden Knights. The 25-year-old played 174 games for the Habs with seven goals and 28 assists, but his ice time had cratered to a career-low 12:05 a night.
The move clears a logjam on Montreal's left side with Kaiden Guhle working back from offseason surgery, and gives Nashville a physical defender for a blue line already juggling injuries — William Trudeau just hit injured reserve. Predators hockey operations chief Chris MacFarland said Struble is a "physical defender who will add mobility." He could debut as soon as Saturday night against Ottawa.
What's next: debut watch in Ottawa. More hockey: Saturday's NHL roundup.
6. Trump's Nobel snub turns into a late-night Truth Social rant
President Trump spent the hours after losing the Nobel Peace Prize to Navi Pillay raging about it. At a late-Friday rally in Syracuse, Trump called the snub an "indelible stain" on Norway, then posted a nearly 600-word Truth Social screed in which Trump claimed he "should have won 8 Nobel Peace Prizes" and has "saved more lives than anyone in History." Of Pillay herself — a South African jurist and former UN human rights chief — Trump wrote: "I know nothing about this woman, and neither does anyone else!"
Pillay, who learned of the prize in Nuremberg, got the last laugh: "If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump," she said to applause. (The Nobel Committee notes a prize can't be transferred.) Pillay chaired the UN commission that concluded Israel committed genocide in Gaza — which is why Israel's foreign ministry blasted the choice.
What's next: the fallout keeps coming. Background: Pillay wins the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
7. GTA VI watch: merch is here, and the labor tribunal heats up
Rockstar's GTA VI marketing machine rolled on this week with the official merch collection — Vice City-logo tees, caps, totes, and a limited $399.99 Goodtime State box (game not included). Forty days out from the November 19 launch, every week is a drumbeat.
The other drumbeat is legal: in Glasgow, Rockstar HR director Charlie Kinloch faced fresh questioning at the labor tribunal over the 34 developers fired in October 2025, days before the game's delay was announced. The allegation: an employee known only as AB spent 21 months feeding a union Discord's screenshots to HR. Rockstar says the firings were gross misconduct over leaks; the hearing runs through October 16.
What's next: the tribunal continues, and the launch clock ticks. Earlier: the debunked leak.
Still developing this afternoon
Simon's landfall
The Category 4 is expected ashore late tonight or early tomorrow on Mexico's west-central coast. NHC advisories land every three hours, recon data arrives this afternoon, and Jalisco's evacuations are underway.
ALDS Game 5 tonight
White Sox at Guardians, 8:08 PM ET on TBS: Gavin Williams vs. Sean Burke, winner-take-all for a date with the Rays in the ALCS on Monday. Game 5 preview.
SNL's season premiere
Shane Gillis hosts with Rosalía as musical guest tonight. Our preview.
