Former vice president and longtime Republican Dick Cheney has said he will vote for Kamala Harris in this year’s US election.
The 83-year-old issued a statement announcing he will be backing the Democratic candidate because her Republican rival Donald Trump can “never be trusted with power again”.
Mr Cheney has been an outspoken critic of Mr Trump, most notably during his daughter Liz Cheney’s unsuccessful campaign to hold on to her Wyoming seat in Congress in 2022.
Ms Cheney, who said she would be voting for Ms Harris on Wednesday, was the first to announce her father’s endorsement when she spoke to Mark Leibovich from The Atlantic magazine in an onstage interview at The Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Friday.
“Wow,” Mr Leibovich replied as the audience cheered.
In a statement issued later, Mr Cheney said that “in our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump”.
“He can never be trusted with power again,” he adds.
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“As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Asked for comment after Ms Cheney announced her father’s voting intention, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said: “Who is Liz Cheney?”
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The campaign confirmed Mr Cheung was being sarcastic by also pointing to a comment Ms Cheney posted online four years ago in which she called Ms Harris a “radical liberal”.
Mr Cheney, who served as vice president under Republican President George W Bush from 2001 to 2009, has made few if any public appearances over the past year or more.
He has dealt with heart issues since his 40s and underwent a heart transplant in 2012.
His statement on Friday was similar to a 2022 campaign ad for his daughter as she sought a fourth term as Wyoming’s lone congressperson.
In reference to the 6 January Capitol riots in 2021, he called Mr Trump a “coward” for trying to “steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him”.
The ad did little good for his daughter in a deep-red state that once held the Cheney family dear but is now thoroughly in Mr Trump’s corner.
Mr Cheney has been friends with Democrats over the years, but never supported one for president.
Both Cheneys backed Mr Trump during his successful 2016 presidential bid.
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However, their support for him waned with Ms Cheney criticising Mr Trump’s foreign policy decisions while he was in office.
She later criticised him over the 6 January Capitol riots.
Meanwhile, while in office, Mr Trump had criticised the “endless wars” in Afghanistan and Iraq launched when Mr Cheney was vice president.
If either Cheney supported Mr Trump in 2020, they were quiet about it.
Several other top Republicans have also come out in support of Ms Harris ahead of this year’s election while some, including Senator Mitt Romney and former vice president Mike Pence, say they will not be voting for Mr Trump.
Of them, only Mr Romney, who is not seeking re-election, is still in office.
Hurricane Milton has made landfall in Florida, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has said.
The category 3 storm hit shores near Siesta Key in Sarasota County around 8.30pm local time on Wednesday, bringing sustained winds of 120mph, the NHC in Miami said.
More than one million homes and businesses were without power – the highest of which were in Sarasota County and neighbouring Manatee County, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.
Milton is expected to bring a deadly storm surge to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast, including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.
At the time of landfall, nearly 100,000 people were in evacuation centres across Florida, Sky News’ US partner network NBC reported, citing Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
Speaking from the White House earlier on Wednesday, President Joe Biden said Milton is expected to be “one of the most destructive hurricanes in Florida in over a century”.
He said it carries “incredible destructiveness and can wipe out communities and cause loss of life” while urging everyone in its path to listen to the advice of local officials.
Within minutes of Milton making landfall, a gust of 100mph was recorded in the Egmont Channel, south of St Petersburg, according to the NHC.
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Reporting from Tampa, as the storm made landfall 60 miles away, Sky News US correspondent James Matthews said you could feel its “devastating power”.
“You can hear it in the roar, and sense it. You can feel it in the wind,” he said.
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Hurricane Milton ‘matter of life and death’
“They have called this a historic hurricane. The strongest to hit this part of Florida for more than 100 years.
“Reduced from a category 5 to a category 3 storm by the time it hit, but that doesn’t mean that it is not extremely powerful, extremely dangerous, and will have, one imagines, a devastating impact.
“This is all happening in the hours of darkness, daylight will reveal the full impact of Hurricane Milton.”
On Wednesday, officials issued last ditch attempts urging the near two million people under evacuation orders to flee or face slim chances of survival.
Cathie Perkins, emergency management director in Pinellas County, said: “Those of you who were punched during Hurricane Helene, this is going to be a knockout. You need to get out, and you need to get out now.”
While Paul Womble, Polk County emergency management director, said: “Unless you really have a good reason to leave at this point, we suggest you just hunker down.”
A stream of vehicles was pictured headed north on Interstate 75, the main road on the west side of the peninsula, as residents followed evacuation orders.
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Why is Hurricane Milton shocking experts?
Traffic also clogged up the southbound lanes of the road for miles as others headed for the relative safety of Fort Lauderdale and Miami on the other side of the state.
Meanwhile, animals at Tampa’s zoo took shelter in hurricane-hardened buildings.
The region is still reeling from Hurricane Helene, which caused heavy damage to beach communities and killed more than 200 people.
Once past Florida, Milton should weaken over the west of the Atlantic Ocean, possibly dropping below hurricane strength on Thursday night, but storm-surges will still pose a threat to the state’s Atlantic coast.
US officials have confirmed they are considering breaking up Google’s “illegal monopoly” of internet searches.
The tech giant could face restrictions on its own products – including its Chrome browser, Play Store and Android operating system, the US Justice Department said.
It comes after a judge found in August the company had broken anti-trust laws to ensure its dominance of online searches.
Officials have now outlined a series of proposals to dismantle the company’s monopoly in a court filing.
The plans include blocking Google from paying other tech firms to have its search engine pre-installed or set as the default option on new devices.
The firm paid out more than $26bn (£20bn) in 2021 to companies such as iPhone maker Apple as part of the practice.
A Justice Department spokesperson said: “Fully remedying these harms requires not only ending Google’s control of distribution today, but also ensuring Google cannot control the distribution of tomorrow.”
Google said the court filing was part of a “long process” and confirmed it would appeal against the ruling.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, the company’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said the “radical changes” proposed went too far and accused the US government of having a “sweeping agenda that will impact numerous industries and products”.
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She added the move would risk the privacy and security of users, hamper the development of its artificial intelligence products and “break” software such as Android.
The government’s announcement comes following earlier reports that officials were considering moves to tackle Google’s monopoly.
Meanwhile, in a separate case on Monday, a judge ordered Google must open up its app store to greater competition, including making Android apps available from rival sources.
Judge James Donato said the firm should stop requiring its own payment system to be used for apps on the Play Store.
The ruling follows a court battle between Google and Epic Games, which makes the popular video game Fortnite, over in-app purchases.
Florida is bracing for winds of up to 160mph as people continue to evacuate ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Milton.
The storm has the “potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes” the area has seen when it makes landfall late Wednesday or early on Thursday, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
Some residents have insisted they will stay after millions were ordered to evacuate, while officials warned anyone staying behind will face grim odds of surviving.
Milton has been a Category 5 hurricane during much of its approach and despite the recent downgrading to a category 4, it remains “major and strong”, Florida governor Ron DeSantis said.
It is expected to bring widespread destruction to the Tampa Bay area, which is home to more than 3.3 million people.
President Joe Biden postponed an upcoming trip to Germany and Angola in order to oversee preparations for the storm – in addition to the ongoing response to Hurricane Helene.
“This could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century, and God-willing it won’t be, but it’s looking like that right now,” Mr Biden said.
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Inside a plane flying through Hurricane Milton
Heavy rain is already spreading across many communities with conditions expected to rapidly deteriorate throughout Wednesday and into Thursday.
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Experts warned of the risk of catastrophic and life-threatening flash flooding, while several tornadoes were also likely across parts of central and southern Florida.
Such is the power of Hurricane Milton, it could land a once-in-a-century hit on the cities of Tampa and St Petersburg, engulfing the regions with possibly deadly storm surges.
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0:59
Area becomes ghost town ahead of potentially deadly storm
Forecasters warned the storm could bring eight to 12ft (2.44-3.66m) storm surges, leading to further possible evacuation orders being issued along the Gulf Coast.
Eleven states in Florida have issued mandatory evacuation orders with up to nearly six million people said to be in the potential path of the storm.
‘We haven’t seen a storm like this’
Pasco County is located on Florida’s west coast and its director of emergency management Andrew Fossa echoed the warnings from other officials.
“I hate to say it like this – Pasco County’s going to get a black eye from this one,” he said.
“We haven’t seen a storm like this in a lifetime.”
Tampa mayor Jane Castor said up to 15ft (4.6m) of storm surge being forecast for her city would be deep enough to swallow an entire house.
“So if you’re in it, basically that’s the coffin that you’re in,” she warned.
A lengthy line of vehicles has been heading north as residents moved to safer areas, while hundreds of flights have been cancelled with many more expected to be grounded.
In Riverview, south of Tampa, several drivers waiting in a long line for fuel said they had no plans to evacuate.
“I think we’ll just hang, you know – tough it out,” said Martin Oakes, of nearby Apollo Beach.
“We got shutters up. The house is all ready. So this is sort of the last piece of the puzzle.”
Forecasters predicted the storm will retain hurricane strength as it crosses central Florida on Thursday on a path east toward the Atlantic Ocean.
‘Hurricane fatigue’ has become a thing, over time. Just not this time
As if it didn’t feel ‘ghost town’ enough, our drive through the abandoned streets around the Tampa Bay took us past a skeleton strapped to a balcony railing.
It was a nod to Halloween, of course, but was entirely in keeping with the eerie nothingness of deserted streets.
Floridians know a thing or two about hurricanes, to the extent that ‘hurricane fatigue’ has become a thing, over time. Just not this time.
They read and heed the warnings of a hurricane far stronger than they’re used to and have followed the official advice to evacuate.
Everywhere you see evidence of a state that knows the drill. Windows are boarded up, cars are propped up on driveways to raise them above flood water level.
For the same reason, cars are left parked on raised bridges and I counted a golf cart among them – it wouldn’t be Florida without one.
What traffic there was consisted of truck drivers offered a couple of hundred dollars, and a police escort, to transport debris lying on the ground in the wake of Hurricane Helene. It is debris that could become projectiles as the wind picks up.
Adding to the spooky air, a police car tours empty streets with a loud hailer message warning of looming danger. It is a warning that’s been heard by people here – evident in the amount of property lying empty.
Absenteeism is to be encouraged in the panhandle state over the next 24 hours.