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Powerful storm slams into coast, bringing deadly storm surge to Sarasota, Tampa, St Petersburg and Fort Myers

Saginaw Valley State University has about 7,000 students - and Trump won Michigan in 2016 by only 11,000 votesSo few students wanted to join the campus Republican party when Abigail Sefcik began studying at Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU) that she was rapidly voted in as its president.The group was only four or five people. Nobody else wanted to do it," she said. Continue reading...

A Florida police officer found a dog tied up by the side of a road in Tampa before Hurricane Milton made landfall. Florida highway patrol posted a message saying they rescued the dog found on I-75. 'Do not do this to your pets please,' police said in a message posted with the video.The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles later reported that police took the dog to a vet, where it was given a clean bill of health

In the early days of Kamp Studios, Kim Collins and Amy Morgenstern were barely making rent. Now they're a favorite of interior designers across the countryIf there was a low point in the history of Kamp Studios, it had to have been the day in 2010 when Kim Collins and Amy Morgenstern found themselves lugging every single quarter, dime, nickel and penny they had scrounged up from their apartment to pour into a coin-counting machine at a Brooklyn branch of TD Bank. The women, then partners in both work and life, were barely making rent while trying to keep their plastering business afloat. We were practically the only customers in the bank and that machine was very, very loud," Collins says. It was mortifying." They used the $117 they collected that day to buy groceries.Plasterwork is famously labor-intensive, messy and physically demanding - but these weren't the only factors that made getting a foothold in the homebuilding space challenging for Collins and Morgenstern. According to a 2024 survey by the construction workforce management platform Lumber, women make up 10% of the construction industry, and only 4% of on-site workers are women. With the exception of the interior designer or architect, who are sometimes women, we are usually the only women working on a job site," says Collins. Continue reading...

With border crossings reaching record highs in recent years, US immigration has returned as the election's most toxic issue. As Donald Trump continues to push a policy of mass deportation, and Kamala Harris responds by shifting further to the right, what happens to the people caught in the middle trying to seek a better life? The Guardian's Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone head to Arizona's southern border with Mexico to investigate Continue reading...

Joe Biden calls it the storm of the century.' Plus, US urges Israel to urgently address catastrophic' Gaza conditions

If people knew more about geoengineering, they might not believe Marjorie Taylor Greene's latest unhinged theoryMarjorie Taylor Greene, who has earned the dubious honour of being one of the most unhinged US politicians in recent memory, has an important message for the American people: they control the weather. Last week, in the wake of the devastation from Hurricane Helene, the far-right representative from Georgia tweeted the following: Yes they can control the weather. It's ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can't be done."Who is they? Good question. Greene might have meant the non-binary deep state that secretly controls the world. Or, considering she has previously insinuated that California wildfires were started by energy companies, in conjunction with the Rothschilds, using a space laser, in order to facilitate high-speed rail projects, she might have meant Jewish people. She certainly won't elaborate. She's been asked to clarify her antisemitic Jewish space lasers" comment plenty of times and likes to tell reporters to fuck off".Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

The bureau shamefully allowed itself to be used as a prop in political theater, orchestrated by the Trump administrationMaybe it was always obvious that the whole thing was a sham. Back in 2018, when Christine Blasey Ford, Deborah Ramirez, and others accused then supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, the powerful testimony of Blasey Ford before the Senate judiciary committee briefly seemed like it might derail the nomination. This was the height of #MeToo, remember: at the time, many women were coming forward with their own stories of sexual violence, and the accounts were numerous enough and had sufficient moral authority that powerful people felt it necessary to pretend that they cared.Republican Senators wanted to confirm Kavanaugh quickly: the judge, who was then seated on the DC circuit, would provide the crucial fifth vote to overturn Roe v Wade, as well as supporting efforts to enshrine various other Republican policy agendas into law. Women, however, were causing a scene: two cornered then Arizona senator Jeff Flake in an elevator and screamed at him that he should be ashamed of himself. On a livestream of the altercation that went viral on social media, it looked like he was. All this made things somewhat awkward for the Republicans: they wanted to vote for Kavanaugh, but they wanted political cover to do so. This is where the FBI came in.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

We're living in a second Gilded Age of extreme inequality. Kamala Harris's campaign should strike a more populist noteOn 5 October, at Donald Trump's second rally of the 2024 election in Butler, Pennsylvania, he enthusiastically introduced Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, who is plunking down millions of dollars to help the former president.Musk urged the crowd to Fight! Fight! Fight!" - echoing words Trump uttered after the attack on his life there. Musk then shouted: President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution!" and he must win to preserve democracy in America!" Musk ended his rant with the dark prediction: If they don't [vote], this will be the last election." Continue reading...

Woody Johnson fired Robert Saleh just five weeks into the season. But there are plenty of other teams whose futures look bleakOwnership: Culture is a nebulous term in sports, one of those know-it-when-you-see-it things, but few things are more evident than the Jets culture being rotten under Woody Johnson. They have not made the playoffs since the 2010 season, pirouetting from short-term fixes to visions of long-term rebuilds, without the patience to see the team through difficult spells. It is a short list of owners who would axe a coach five weeks into a season because they were maybe-possibly embarrassed in front of their friends, but if any owner would, it's Johnson. Continue reading...

Our writers give their verdicts as Minnesota aim for their fifth title against a star-packed New York team hunting their firstThe Lynx are here because ...There's not a problem that Napheesa Collier can't fix. Offense? She had at least 26 points on 57.9% shooting to close out the semi-final series with Connecticut. Defense? She ran away with defensive player of the year honors last week. She's exactly the star to go up against Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu, a Liberty one-two punch Collier has tussled with plenty already on the US's gold-medal winning Olympic team. AL Continue reading...

Video shared by the Lee County sheriff's office showed flooding and storm surges after Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida's west coast on Wednesday night, bringing 'catastrophic' winds that were expected to cause significant property damage. The storm made landfall near Sarasota just after 8.30pm local time, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said, bringing a deadly storm surge to much of Florida's Gulf coast including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St Petersburg and Fort Myers

Storm surges often pose great danger when hurricanes such as Milton hit - here's what you need to knowHurricane Milton has made landfall in Florida and millions of residents in the state have been told to evacuate.Although the hurricane was downgraded to a strong category 3, forecasters said it would still make landfall as an extremely dangerous major hurricane". No one in the area has ever experienced a hurricane this strong before," the National Weather Service said. Continue reading...

Early voting began in Arizona, where 80% of voters submitted ballots before election day in 2020 - and Harris and supporters have raised $1bn since July

As Hurricane Milton approached Florida's west coast, tornadoes ripped through the state with one suspected of hitting Connor Ferin's home in Fort Myers. Drone footage showed his roof torn apart while the rest of his home was heavily damaged. Hurricane Milton lashed Florida's west coast with rain and wind hours ahead of its expected landfall near Tampa Bay, where it could deliver a life-threatening surge of seawater to waterfront communities already battered by Hurricane Helene. Millions of people along a stretch of more than 300 miles of coastline were under evacuation orders, just two weeks after Helene cut a swath of devastation

This blog is closing down - you can follow all the latest in our new blog hereHere is some footage from the town of Treasure Island in Florida, which shows already deserted streets as Hurricane Milton approaches.Adria R Walker reports for the Guardian that when people don't flee their homes due to weather crises despite warnings from government officials, there are typically two reasons why. That is according to Cara Cuite, an assistant professor in Rutgers University's department of human ecology. She said they either don't believe they're at risk or that the risk is overblown, or there are situational or structural elements that prevent them from doing so. Continue reading...

Tornado watch remains in place ahead of storm's expected landfall late on Wednesday or early on Thursday

Storm weakens to category 3 ahead of expected landfall late on Wednesday or early on Thursday

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FCC chair condemns state health department for sending cease-and-desists over spot supporting abortion rightsThe Florida health department has fired off cease-and-desist letters to local news stations over an advertisement urging people to vote in favor of a ballot measure that would expand abortion rights in the state.In the ad, a woman identified as Caroline from Tampa, Florida, talks about being diagnosed with brain cancer while pregnant. The state currently bans abortion past roughly six weeks of pregnancy. Continue reading...

Dashcam footage shows wind and heavy rain lashing the Matlacha coast, flinging debris across roads and bending trees. Docked fishing boats swayed in rough waters, while empty streets reflected the urgency of evacuation orders. Motorists battled heavy rain, with many opting to leave as the storm's intensity increased. Local residents, still recovering from Hurricane Helene just weeks earlier, braced for what could be another devastating blow

British drugmaker agrees payment to resolve 80,000 cases alleging cancers were linked to drug known generically as ranitidineThe British drugmaker GSK has struck an agreement to make a payment of up to $2.2bn (1.7bn) to resolve litigation brought in the US over its heartburn treatment Zantac.The company said it had struck agreements with 10 plaintiff law firms who represent about 93%, roughly 80,000, of the US state court product liability cases pending against it. Continue reading...

The woman, who has not been named, near Poulsbo, Washington, called the county sheriff, who sent deputiesFeeding wild raccoons around her home had seemed harmless enough, if odd, for one woman in the north-west for 35 years - until about 100 of them surrounded her home and demanded food.The woman, who has not been named, was essentially trapped in her home near Poulsbo, Washington, and scared as the animals can be aggressive. She called the sheriff's office, saying the raccoons were around her place day and night after their population exploded" about six weeks ago. Continue reading...

Despite being in evacuation zones, correctional facilities will keep thousands of residents on siteSeveral Florida jails and prisons are refusing to evacuate their residents ahead of Hurricane Milton despite being in the evacuation zone of the storm.Manatee county jail, which has 1,200 incarcerated people and is located on the south-east side of Tampa Bay, in the path of the hurricane that was roaring towards it across the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, will not be evacuating, a representative of the jail told Newsweek on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Officials say Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, had purchased AK-57 rifles in scheme to target large crowds on 5 NovemberThe FBI arrested an Afghan man who officials say was inspired by the Islamic State terrorist organization and was plotting an election day attack targeting large crowds in the US, the justice department said.Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City told investigators after his arrest on Monday that he had planned his attack to coincide with election day next month and that he and a co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs, according to charging documents. Continue reading...

We would like to hear from Americans about their feelings about the US economy ahead of the November electionThe cost of living is the number one issue for US voters. After years of outsized price rises, some economists say inflation is finally under control and the US economy is heading for a so-called soft-landing" with price increases slowing and the jobs market remaining strong. Polls show many Americans feel less confident.How do you feel about the US economy? How is inflation still impacting you? Continue reading...

I must own two dozen pillows - and not one of them will guarantee me a good night's sleep. Maybe if I buy just one more ...Happiness is a comfortable pillow. Not that I would know, as I've never had one. If ever I do find one at a hotel or some such, I will certainly steal it. Even if I've chanced upon it sleeping in a high-security establishment such as the White House, or a prison, I will risk the consequences of being caught smuggling it out - it's that important. Before I die, I must find a pillow that works for me. And then I will die happy, not least because I will leave instructions for my head to rest upon it in my coffin for eternity.Buying a pillow is like buying a bed, or a house. You can't know if any of these things will work for you until you have spent a few nights living with them. You can't try them out properly. Yes, I know there are companies that will take your pillow or bed back after 100 days or whatever if you are dissatisfied. But I never believe them. They wouldn't really take them back, would they? And I'm not sure I would ever be bothered to take a pillow back, lugging it down the post office squished into some giant envelope. Apart from the faff, there is the shame of having snored and snuffled and dribbled and drooled upon it. No one deserves to have to deal with that. Continue reading...

Ilcehin Pehlivan, 59, lost consciousness while captaining flight from Seattle to Istanbul before co-pilot took overA Turkish Airlines flight from Seattle to Istanbul made an emergency landing at New York's John F Kennedy airport after its 59-year-old captain died mid-flight.Flight 8JK, an Airbus A350-900, landed around 6am, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, after initial medical intervention to help the man who had lost consciousness onboard proved ineffective. A co-pilot took over the plane and successfully landed it. Continue reading...

Landmark hotel and gambling parlor is demolished by controlled implosion to make way for new baseball stadiumWith a rumble and colorful flashes, the last true mob-era casino in Las Vegas, the Tropicana, a landmark hotel and gambling parlor, was reduced to rubble on Wednesday.It was no accident, the legendary haunt of the Rat Pack and the place James Bond said he heard was quite comfortable" in 007's 1971 film Diamonds Are Forever, the Tropicana's heyday, was intentionally destroyed in an elaborate implosion in the early hours. Continue reading...

Floridians are clogging interstates in an effort to escape the path of Hurricane Milton as it intensifies. Plus: the Afghan women holding the Taliban accountable

Parts of the country are starting to treat cannabis like alcohol when it comes to policing intoxicated drivingAs states around the country continue to legalize recreational and/or medical cannabis use, more are beginning to treat cannabis like alcohol when it comes to policing intoxicated driving.A recent unanimous decision by the Illinois supreme court found that the smell of burnt cannabis alone does not give police license to conduct a warrantless vehicle search, making it the sixth state supreme court to make such a ruling. In contrast, Wisconsin's supreme court, ruled the opposite just last year. They found that cannabis odor in a vehicle is probable cause to justify a search (unlike in Illinois, adult recreational cannabis is still illegal in Wisconsin). Continue reading...

Resources are stretched thin as the south-east grapples with hurricanes and the west swelters in high temperaturesIt's been a brutal week in weather-related disasters across the US. Large parts of the south-east are still grappling with the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, and another potentially catastrophic storm is barreling towards Florida. At the same time, much of the west has been sweltering amid scorching temperatures, which have elevated fire risks and fueled extreme fire behavior.Hurricanes and fires aren't abnormal in early autumn. But the climate crisis has turned up the dial and created more opportunities for catastrophes to overlap, ultimately adding strain on relief resources, emergency response, and those who have been impacted by the dangerous and destructive events. Continue reading...

The two Americans were on our list five years ago but their paths show the professional game is rarely straightforwardCareer paths are rarely straightforward, whether in football or any other area of life. Circumstances often change. Injuries and illnesses happen, there are often changes in leadership which have an impact on the individual while personal lives also play a part.Career paths are therefore very difficult to predict. Looking down the list of our 2019 Next Generation, which we have now followed for five years, there were no guarantees any of the players would become household names. OK, Alex Holiga, who covers the Balkans for us, was confident that Josko Gvardiol would make it big - which he has - but apart from him, and perhaps Ansu Fati, Eduardo Camavinga and Jeremy Doku, there were no certainties.A remarkable year for the youngster. Made his Bundesliga debut on 18 January and has not looked back since. He now has 23 first-team appearances and has established himself as a starter and one of the most talented young players in Europe. I'm still learning a lot tactically," he said in August. There is a very big difference between youth and professional football. Making the right movements and creating space for myself and others is what I still need to learn the most.A tumultuous year for the young American who was caught in the crossfire of a feud between his own family and the USMNT coach, Gregg Berhalter, after the World Cup, during which he played a mere 52 minutes of the US's four games. Injuries have once again hampered him but he is back to full fitness now and a US return seems likely too after talks with Berhalter. Continue reading...

US Open semi-finalist Frances Tiafoe aimed a torrent of expletives at the chair umpire after losing his third-round match at the Shanghai Masters.Tiafoe targeted Jimmy Pinoargote in a minute-long tirade after his 7-5, 5-7, 6-7 defeat against unseeded Roman Safiullin. The American was angered after being docked his first serve for a time violation at 5-5 in the decisive tiebreaker.

Eric Hovde campaign ramps up efforts to tie Democrat to funding for LGBTQ+ care for youth, as race becomes toss-upAs the race between Wisconsin senator Tammy Baldwin and her Republican challenger Eric Hovde tightens, the Hovde campaign and outside groups supporting the candidate have ramped up efforts to tie Baldwin to funding for LGBTQ+ care for youth - echoing the anxieties and biases of the rightwing parents rights" movement.According to the nonpartisan campaign analysis group Cook Political Report, the race between Hovde and Baldwin - in which Baldwin previously enjoyed an ample lead - is now a toss-up. Internal polling reportedly reflects that trend. The race in Wisconsin is one of a handful that could determine control of the Senate next year. Continue reading...

Chiefs got out of the woods after Kelce shook off hit, beating Khalen Saunders' Saints as the pop star watched in personA backup dancer on Taylor Swift's Eras tour has said it was the play of the game" when his brother spectacularly intercepted a pass on Monday Night Football - immediately after landing a thunderous hit on Swift's boyfriend - all while the pop superstar watched in person from a luxury box.The sequence of events that brought together Eras performer Kameron Saunders, his pro football-playing sibling Khalen, Swift and her partner, Travis Kelce, left the 14-time Grammy winner leaning into someone next to her, animatedly pointing at the field in plain view of a television camera, and incredulously saying: That's my backup dancer's brother." Continue reading...

The pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war and corporate price-gouging have all contributed to inflation - not Kamala HarrisAs the presidential campaign enters the home stretch, one of Donald Trump's most dishonest - and effective - attacks is that Kamala Harris is to blame for inflation.That attack makes no sense. Several things caused a surge in inflation, but the US vice-president wasn't one of them. Blame inflation on the pandemic or on Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, but don't blame it on Harris. Blaming her for inflation makes as much sense as blaming her for the leak in your roof. In seeking to blame Harris for inflation, Trump is absurdly trying to turn her - a vice-president who, like other veeps, has very little power - into some all-powerful economic tsar who somehow controls everything from egg prices to gasoline prices. Continue reading...

Only a quarter of battleground voters think the country is going the right way. Why is Harris touting the approval of the elite?Kamala Harris and Liz Cheney's campaign event last week in Ripon, Wisconsin, the birthplace of the Republican party, was a dramatic component of Harris's ongoing outreach to Republicans. That outreach, begun under President Joe Biden and continuing even more aggressively under Harris, was made clear in an open letter on Thursday in which two dozen Republican former officials and lawmakers in Wisconsin endorsed Harris and her running mate, the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz.We have plenty of policy disagreements with Vice President Harris," the Republicans wrote. But what we do agree upon is more important. We agree that we cannot afford another four years of the broken promises, election denialism, and chaos of Donald Trump's leadership." Continue reading...

Defenses have dominated so far this season but there are hopeful signs for the league's quarterbacks. Or some of them at leastPassing pyrotechnics Continue reading...

Eerie footage from the town of Treasure Island in Florida shows deserted streets as Hurricane Milton approaches. Florida's western coast was making emergency preparations on Tuesday for the impact of the powerful storm, with thousands of evacuees clogging highways, contending with fuel shortages, and the mayor of Tampa warning residents bluntly 'you are going to die' if they stayed behind. The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Milton would retain major hurricane status and 'expand in size' as it approached Florida after passing the Mexican city of Merida before swerving north towards the US

The US and Europe are failing to provide decisive military aid. A Trump victory could soon reveal the depths of this mistakeIn the corridors of Brussels, there is a sinking feeling that the political will to help Ukraine prevail over Russian aggression is ebbing - on both sides of the Atlantic. One senior western official told me it may take a second shock" of the magnitude of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 to jolt western countries out of their funk, and spur Europeans to take more radical steps to boost and integrate their own defences. That shock may involve a sudden collapse of Ukrainian frontline defences, another Bucha-style massacre by Russian forces, or perhaps victory for Donald Trump on 5 November. Any of those would be a disaster for Kyiv.For now, the US is preoccupied with its presidential election and an escalating war in the Middle East that has pushed Moscow's grinding advance on the Donbas battlefield out of the headlines. France is distracted by a political and fiscal crisis, with Emmanuel Macron's power at home and influence in Europe waning fast. Germany is paralysed by feuding in its moribund three-party coalition, which may or may not stagger on until a general election due in September 2025.Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...

Democratic nominee shares a Miller High Life in late-night TV chat, and discusses Trump, Gaza and Vladimir PutinWhen they go low, she goes high. Miller High Life to be precise.Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, took her election campaign to late night television on Tuesday by cracking open a can of the lager with host Stephen Colbert. The moment set her apart from Joe Biden and Donald Trump - both, famously, teetotallers. Continue reading...

The widow of US senator Robert F Kennedy is getting best care possible', her family said in a statement on XEthel Kennedy, a human rights advocate and widow of US Senator Robert F Kennedy, is recovering from a stroke she suffered last week, according to a statement her grandson, the former representative Joseph P Kennedy III, shared on X on Tuesday.Unfortunately on Thursday morning she suffered a stroke in her sleep," her grandson posted on X. She was brought to an area hospital where she is now receiving treatment." His aunt, Kerry Kennedy, later posted the same statement. Continue reading...

National Hurricane Center announces sustained winds of up to 165mph, as US president says his team is doing everything to save lives'. This blog is now closed.

Fleeing residents clog interstates as experts warn hurricane could be one of state's most damaging and costly storms'