Hurricane Milton: Baby born during massive storm is a ‘miracle’, says mother

Published

1 month ago

October 11, 2024

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A woman has given birth to a “miracle baby” during Hurricane Milton after making a perilous journey to hospital while in labour.

Kenzie Lewellen, who was 39 weeks pregnant, witnessed the devastation from her hospital window, with a tree being ripped out of the ground as the massive storm pounded Florida earlier this week.

She also needed a caesarean section as the baby boy was in the wrong position. “I was very scared,” the first-time mother said.

Follow live: Man saved clinging to cool box

Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm at about 8.30pm local time on Wednesday (1.30am UK time on Thursday), causing massive flooding and leaving millions of people without power.

At least 16 people have been confirmed dead in Florida in the hurricane’s aftermath, including at least five due to tornadoes in St Lucie County.

Ms Lewellen’s labour began at home in Port Charlotte at 4am on Wednesday, Sky’s US partner network NBC News reports.

At that time, the storm had not yet hit the state but Ms Lewellen and her boyfriend Dewey Bennett’s house already started taking in water before her contractions began.

“My mind was just running a million miles an hour, like, what am I going to do?” the 22-year-old woman said. “I was very nervous.”

Then, after she had been in labour for more than four hours at home, the couple started making their way to Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Venice.

“My mom was driving us, and it was extremely windy, so we were trying to be as cautious as possible,” Ms Lewellen said.

“There was not really many people on the roads, because it was so windy outside and it was raining quite a bit.”

The couple were even more on edge during the medical emergency as Mr Bennett’s father, also named Dewey, had died when Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida in 2017.

“My dad had a massive heart attack because the ambulance could not come out to us during the storm,” the 24-year-old said.

“I just didn’t want to go through what I had to go through with the last hurricane back in 2017,” added Mr Bennett.

Watching a tree uproot during labour

When the trio arrived at hospital, only one person could be with her. So, Ms Lewellen had to say goodbye to her mother.

“I was very, very upset that my mom couldn’t stay, because she is my best friend and one of my biggest supporters,” she said. But “we were able to FaceTime pretty much the entire time”.

She then went through labour in a room with a window view of the destruction as the storm struck the area.

“I was telling him [Mr Bennett], I’m like, ‘Oh, that tree looks like it’s going to fly out of the ground!’ when I was labouring, because we were just watching the storm and the wind and the rain go crazy. It was definitely intense out there,” she said.

“And it actually did uproot,” added, Mr Bennett, the baby’s father.

Unplanned C-section

After being in labour for hours, Ms Lewellen was given some distressing news. The baby was in the wrong position, and she would need an unplanned C-section.

“I had so much going through my head at that point, a storm and my family,” she said.

Problems with the epidural left her in extreme pain for hours until she was given anaesthesia.

“I was just on my own, by myself, and I was very scared. If I didn’t have the doctors and the nurses that I had, it would have been a whole lot worse,” she said.

Dewey Lester Bennett IV was safely delivered at 11.45pm, weighing 8lbs.

“He is a miracle baby,” Ms Lewellen said.

In a statement, the chief executive of Sarasota Memorial Health Care System David Verinder said: “We couldn’t be prouder of our team. They left their homes and many left their families to be here for our patients and community.”

Along with Dewey, six other babies were born at the two Sarasota Memorial hospitals during Milton, Mr Verinder said.

US

Donald Trump can seek dismissal of hush money case as sentencing postponed

Published

2 days ago

November 22, 2024

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Donald Trump can seek dismissal of hush money case as sentencing postponed

A judge has postponed sentencing in Donald Trump’s hush money case and granted permission for his lawyers to seek a dismissal.

It comes after the Manhattan district attorney said he wouldn’t oppose a motion to delay the sentencing.

In May, a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to commit election fraud.

It was the first time a US president had been convicted of or charged with a criminal offence.

Trump had tried to cover up “hush money” payments to a porn star in the days before the 2016 election.

When Stormy Daniels‘ claims of a sexual liaison threatened to upend his presidential campaign, Trump directed his lawyer to pay $130,000 (£102,000) to keep her quiet.

The payment buried the story and he later won the presidency.

Trump denied the charges and said the case was politically motivated. He also denied the sexual encounter took place.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan today delayed the sentencing, which had been due to take place on Tuesday.

The office of district attorney Alvin Bragg had asked the judge to postpone all proceedings until Trump finishes his four-year presidency, which starts on 20 January.

Trump’s lawyers say the case should be dismissed because it will create “unconstitutional impediments” to his ability to govern.

Responding to Friday’s decision, a Trump campaign spokesman said: “The American People have issued a mandate to return him to office and dispose of all remnants of the Witch Hunt cases.”

The judge set a 2 December deadline for Trump’s lawyers to file their motion, while prosecutors have until 9 December to respond.

He did not set a new date for sentencing or indicate when he would rule on any motion to throw out the case.

Even before Trump’s win in this month’s election, experts said a jail term was unlikely and a fine or probation more probable.

But his resounding victory over Kamala Harris made the prospect of time behind bars or probation even less likely.

Trump, 78, was also charged last year in three other cases.

One involved him keeping classified documents after he left office and the other two centre on alleged efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

A Florida judge dismissed the documents case in July, the Georgia election case is in limbo, and the Justice Department is expected to wind down the federal election case as it has a policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.

Trump last week nominated his lawyers in the hush money case, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, for senior roles in the Justice department.

When he re-enters the White House, Trump will also have the power to shut down the Georgia and New York cases.

US

Pam Bondi: Key proponent of Trump’s false 2020 election claims set to head justice department after Gaetz withdrawal

Published

2 days ago

November 22, 2024

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Pam Bondi: Key proponent of Trump's false 2020 election claims set to head justice department after Gaetz withdrawal

Donald Trump has pledged for years to surround himself with ultra-loyalists who can mould his government to his vision without barriers.

That’s precisely why he picked Matt Gaetz. Now he’s out, Pam Bondi is in and she’s equally loyal.

Gaetz was uniquely unpopular on Capitol Hill but ultra-MAGA and ultra-loyal to the president-elect.

He was chosen by the president-elect to do his bidding inside the Justice Department as attorney general.

Critics called his pick “a red alert moment for democracy” and the man a “gonzo agent of chaos” – language that would surely only affirm Trump’s decision in his own proudly disruptive mind.

If it wasn’t for the fact that the president-elect is himself a convicted felon, and a man found liable in a civil court of his own sexual offences, the prospect of Gaetz, with all his baggage, making it through the nomination process would have seemed remote.

But Donald Trump’s return to the White House suggested anything is possible.

And so, beyond his loyalty, Gaetz was Trump’s test for his foot soldiers on Capitol Hill. How loyal were they? Would they wave through anyone he appointed?

It turns out that Gaetz, and the storm around his private life, was too much for a proportion of them.

At least five Senate Republicans were flatly against Matt Gaetz’s confirmation. We understand that they communicated to other senators and those close to Trump that they were unlikely to be swayed.

They included the Republican old guard like Senator Mitch McConnell.

Beyond the hard “no” senators, there were between 20 and 30 other Republicans who were very uncomfortable about having to vote for Gaetz on the Senate floor.

The key question is whether Gaetz was Trump’s intentional wild card crazy choice that he knew, deep down, would probably never fly.

Was Gaetz the candidate he had accepted would be vetoed by senators – who would then feel compelled to wave the rest of his nominees through?

Will Pete Hegseth’s alleged sexual impropriety concern them as they consider the suitability of the former Fox News host and army major to run the Department of Defence?

What about Tulsi Gabbard, the candidate Russian state TV calls ‘our girl’, and the appropriateness of her running America’s intelligence agencies?

These are all appointments that the politicians on Capitol Hill must consider and confirm in the weeks ahead.

We don’t yet know who Trump will choose to direct the FBI.

There are some names being floated which will make the establishment of Washington shudder but then that’s precisely why Trump was elected. He is the disrupter. He said so at every rally, on repeat.

He was quick to pivot to another name to replace Gaetz.

Bondi is the former attorney general of Florida. Professionally she is in a different league to Gaetz. She’s been a tough prosecutor, with a no-nonsense reputation.

She is also among the most loyal of loyalists. Her attachment to Trump stretches way back.

I first came across her in Philadelphia in November 2020 when she was among Trump surrogates claiming the election back then had been stolen from them by Joe Biden and the Democrats.

She was a key proponent of the false claims the election had been rigged and Trump was the rightful winner.

The court cases concluding that was all nonsense didn’t seem to convince her.

Now she is poised to head up the Department of Justice as the country’s top law enforcement official.

US

Donald Trump on day one: Pace of change ‘like nothing you’ve seen in history’, warns campaign official

Published

2 days ago

November 21, 2024

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Within hours of taking office, president-elect Donald Trump plans to begin rolling out policies including large-scale deportations, according to his transition team.

Sky News partner network NBC News has spoken with more than half a dozen people familiar with the executive orders that his team plans to enact.

One campaign official said changes are expected at a pace that is “like nothing you’ve seen in history”, to signal a dramatic break from President Joe Biden’s administration.

Mr Trump is preparing on day one to overturn specific policies put in place by Mr Biden. Among the measures, reported by sources close to the transition team, are:

• The speedy and large-scale deportations of illegal immigrants

• Ending travel reimbursement for military members seeking abortion care

• Restricting transgender service members’ access to gender-affirming care

But much of the first day is likely to focus on stopping illegal immigration – the centrepiece of Trump’s candidacy. He is expected to sign up to five executive orders aimed at dealing with that issue alone after he is sworn in on 20 January.

“There will without question be a lot of movement quickly, likely day one, on the immigration front,” a top Trump ally said.

“There will be a push to make a huge early show and assert himself to show his campaign promises were not hollow.”

But Mr Trump’s campaign pledges also could be difficult to implement.

Deporting people on the scale he wants will be a logistical challenge that could take years. Questions also remain about promised tax cuts.

Meanwhile, his pledge to end the war between Russia and Ukraine in just 24 hours would be near impossible.

Even so, advisers based at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort or at nearby offices in West Palm Beach, Florida, are reportedly strategising about ending the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Following his decisive victory on 5 November, the president-elect has moved swiftly to build a cabinet and senior White House team.

As of Thursday, he had selected more than 30 people for senior positions in his administration, compared with just three at a similar point in his 2016 transition.

Stephen Moore, a senior economic adviser in Mr Trump’s campaign, told NBC News: “The thing to realise is Trump is no dummy.

“He knows he’s got two to three years at most to get anything done. And then he becomes a lame duck and we start talking about [the presidential election in] 2028.”