Hurricane Milton was not the storm people feared – but the storm of US politics is just getting going
I’ve spent the day driving north along Florida’s west coast from Fort Myers.
The coastline from Fort Myers to Tampa and a little beyond was all part of an evacuation zone as the authorities warned of a once-in-a-generation storm and the meteorologists tried to determine where it would hit.
Milton was, meteorologists said, behaving very unusually. That worried them. It also wobbled north and south as it approached the coastline overnight, compounding the concern.
Latest – Biden tells Trump ‘get a life’ and help storm victims, as number killed rises
The only encouraging news overnight was that it reduced in intensity from a category 5 down to a category 3. That lessened the impact from wind but not the concerns over a storm surge of water engulfing low-lying areas.
Small boats rest on a pier after they were unmoored during Milton. Pic: AP
We stopped first at Punta Gorda where boats were overturned in the marina but there was no major structural damage. They dodged the bullet here.
Further north, the coastal highway passes Venice. There we found the streets littered with foliage from the palm trees, tiles ripped from roofs and billboards down but again, no major damage.
Casey Key lies just north of Venice, reachable via bridges from the mainland. When we arrived it was closed to traffic.
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Lieutenant Dan safe and well after Hurricane
On foot we joined the National Guard and the local sheriff as they went house-to-house checking for anyone who may have tried to sit it out.
The storm surge here entered the houses but locals we spoke to guessed that it was only a foot or two high. Much lower than they had feared, about the same as the surge from Hurricane Helene two weeks ago and a huge relief for them.
Checking the major bridges for structural damage is important but the authorities had opened the Sunshine Skyway Bridge leading north to St Petersburg by the time I arrived.
The roof of Tropicana Field in St Petersburg was torn off. Pic: AP
The focus in St Petersburg itself is the Tropicana Field stadium. Home to Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays, it was being used to house emergency workers but the soft roof was ripped off in the storm.
Read more:
We’re past the peak of hurricane season – but more could be on the way
Hurricane Milton crashes into Florida with 120mph winds
All in all, the west coast of Florida has been very lucky. This is in part because so many followed the advice and evacuated.
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Florida escapes worst of hurricane
Of course, the danger is that people may feel the warnings were overblown. The mayor of Tampa warned people that they would die if they stayed. Over the top? People did stay and they didn’t die. We spoke to people who said it was all exaggerated – politicians and media to blame as usual.
I do wonder if the massive pre-storm warnings this time are in part an over-correction by the Biden administration following the remarkable disinformation campaign from Donald Trump and his cohort.
He has spent the past few weeks since Hurricane Helene claiming that the federal authority has been hindering rescue and recovery efforts, contrary to fact.
Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed ‘they can control the weather’
And his surrogate, Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, wrote on social media: “Yes they can control the weather,” adding “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” It is not clear quite who “they” is.
The FEMA Administrator said the conspiracies were “absolutely the worst I have ever seen”.
Hurricane Milton could have been huge, yes, and given this barrage of conspiracy theories, especially about the authorities failing during Helene, they absolutely had to be prepared (over-prepared?) for this.
The hurricane was not the storm people feared. But the storm of American politics is just getting going. Less than a month until the election.
Barry Manilow is being treated for lung cancer and has been forced to reschedule live shows, the 82 year-old has revealed.
The Copacabana popstar announced on Instagram that a cancerous spot had been discovered on his left lung.
“As many of you know I recently went through six weeks of bronchitis followed by a relapse of another five weeks,” he wrote.
“Even though I was over the bronchitis and back on stage at the Westgate Las Vegas, my wonderful doctor ordered an MRI just to make sure that everything was OK.
“The MRI discovered a cancerous spot on my left lung that needs to be removed.”
Manilow, 82, added that the cancer had been found early thanks to “pure luck” and a “great doctor”.
And while he would not require chemotherapy or radiation treatment, he wrote, he would have to undergo surgery, forcing him to reschedule his January shows.
He had been due to embark on a string of arena concerts in US cities including Orlando, Tampa, Charleston, Greensboro and Columbus.
He wrote: “I’m going into surgery to have the spot removed. The doctors do not believe it has spread and I’m taking tests to confirm their diagnosis.
“The only follow-up is a month to recover and that means we have to reschedule the January arena concerts.
“I’m very sorry that you have to change your plans.
“Just like you, we were all looking forward to the January shows and hate having to move everything around.”
Barry Manilow poses for photographers ahead of a run of shows on Broadway in New York City in 2019. Pic: Reuters
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The Grammy Award-winning singer has released a string of hits over the course of more than 50 years recording music.
They include Could It Be Magic, Looks Like We Made It, Mandy, and Can’t Smile Without You.
His announcement comes after Cliff Richard revealed he had been treated for prostate cancer.
Pictures of Donald Trump were included among at least 16 documents that disappeared from the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The Democrats from the House Oversight Committee drew attention to the apparent removal of an image showing two printed pictures of Mr Trump in a desk draw.
One picture had Mr Trump standing surrounded by women in bathing suits, while the second appears to be an already known picture – partly obscured – of him, his wife Melania, Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.
After the Democrats flagged the missing image on Saturday, Sky News went back to the files online and confirmed that it did appear to be missing, despite the fact they downloaded it when the files were initially released on Friday.
List of documents online as of Saturday evening shows a gap where the file ending ‘468’ was
The file ending ‘468’ seen in Sky News’s downloads from Friday
The other photos removed from the trove of documents were almost all nude paintings of women in Epstein’s home.
In a post on X on Sunday, the DOJ said the image including pictures of Mr Trump has since been reposted on to the Epstein Files page.
Sky News has seen that file number 468 is once again listed online. Mr Trump is still visible in the latest version of the image, and there is no immediate difference from the original upload.
As of 9pm on Sunday, ‘468’ was again available on the DOJ website
The DOJ said that “the Southern District of New York flagged an image of President Trump for potential further action to protect victims”.
“Out of an abundance of caution, the Department of Justice temporarily removed the image for further review,” the department added.
“After the review, it was determined there is no evidence that any Epstein victims are depicted in the photograph, and it has been reposted without any alteration or redaction.”
Mr Trump has not commented on the release of the files and has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein’s case.
Questions over heavy redactions
Pic: New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services/Handout via Reuters
Thousands of documents relating to the dead paedophile financier were made public by the DOJ on Friday – hours before a legal deadline following the passing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Many of the pages were either partially or fully redacted, which the DOJ says is to protect the more than 1,200 victims and their families identified in them.
Some of Epstein’s victims, legal experts and members of the public have questioned whether this is the sole reason for the redactions, while the Oversight Democrats have claimed: “This is a White House cover-up.”
Ashley Rubright, who was abused for several years after meeting Epstein in Palm Beach when she was 15, told Sky News: “Seeing […] completely redacted pages, there’s no way that that’s just to protect the victims’ identities, and there better be a good reason. I just don’t know if we’ll ever know what that is.”
Gloria Allred, a lawyer who has represented some of Epstein’s victims, says she has been told that despite the heavy redactions, some compromising pictures of survivors and their names were left in the files released on Friday.
“We have had to notify the Department of Justice about names that should have been redacted that weren’t redacted,” she told Sky News.
“So this is further trauma to survivors, and apparently also some of the images of some of the survivors appear not to have been redacted, and they are nude or not completely dressed.
“This is a major concern because the law clearly indicates, and the judges have indicated, that the names and any identifying information of the survivors must be redacted.”
Read more:
Epstein victims react to partial release of files
Links between Epstein and the UK revealed in new files
In a letter to the judges overseeing the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases, US attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton acknowledged that a review “of this size and scope is vulnerable to machine error [or] instances of human error”.
He also said the DOJ had opted to redact the faces of women in photographs with Epstein “even where not all the women are known to be victims,” as it was not viewed as practical for the DOJ to identify every person in all the photos.
The methodology has led to some confusion and misled speculation online.
Epstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges
Many celebrities and public figures appear with Epstein in the photos published by the DOJ, often included without context.
There is no suggestion that these pictures imply anyone has done anything wrong, and many of those featured in them have denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
Through its release, the Trump administration has claimed to be the most transparent in history, despite the fact Congress forced their hand by voting to make the files public by 19 December.
But some have been held back, with Todd Blanche, deputy attorney general and a former personal lawyer for Donald Trump, saying more would follow in the coming weeks.
Many Democrats and some Republicans have criticised the partial release as failing to “comply with law,” as have lawyers including Ms Allred.
“So clearly, the law has been violated. And it’s the Department of Justice letting down the survivors once again,” she said.
She labelled the incomplete release of the files a “distraction”, adding: “This is not over, and it won’t be over until we get the truth and transparency for the survivors.”
The US is in “active pursuit” of a third oil tanker near Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea, officials have said.
It comes amid escalation from the Trump administration against Nicolas Maduro’s government, and as the US builds up a naval military presence in the region, including the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier and its support group.
The status of the attempted interception is unclear, according to Sky’s US partner network NBC News, but reports first emerged at around 2.30pm in the UK that the operation was under way.
As it happened: US in ‘active pursuit’ of third vessel
Two officials told NBC News the US Coast Guard was in “active pursuit” of the vessel, which is sanctioned by the US.
One told the outlet it was “a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion”.
“It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order,” they said, adding that dark fleet vessels usually do not operate exclusively for one country.
It is understood the vessel is sailing under the name Bella 1, according to British maritime risk management group Vanguard, according to NBC News and Bloomberg.
Sky News has seen Bella 1 is sanctioned by the US government, according to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) website, and has been included on the list since June 2024.
Read more: The real reason for Donald Trump’s Venezuela exploits
One US official told NBC the vessel was sanctioned under the counterterrorism authority for its involvement in the network of Houthi financial facilitator Sa’id al Jamal.
Another US official separately told the New York Times the ship did not submit to being boarded and continued onward.
If successful, it would mark the third such interception near Venezuela in the past two weeks, with a tanker being seized on Saturday and near the start of the month.
Explained: The US-Venezuela crisis
Trump’s ‘blockade’ of tankers
Earlier this week, the US president declared he had ordered the “blockade” of oil tankers into and out of the South American country.
He said the US military would remain in place until Venezuela returns “all of the oil, land, and other assets that they previously stole from us”.
In the social media post following months of escalating tensions in the Caribbean, Donald Trump said Venezuela was surrounded by the “largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America”.
A map showing Venezuelan military facilities
Venezuela’s government has accused Mr Trump of “violating international law, free trade, and the principle of free navigation” with “a reckless and grave threat” against the South American country.
China’s foreign minister Wang Yi later accused the US of “bullying” Venezuela, and said on Wednesday: “China believes the international community understands and supports Venezuela’s position in defending its legitimate rights and interests.”
Washington has also announced sanctions on numerous oil tankers, shipping companies and family members of Mr Maduro.
President Trump has been ramping up pressure on the Maduro regime, accusing it of involvement in the drugs trade.
As part of his efforts, he has also authorised deadly strikes against vessels he claims are trafficking drugs in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
President Maduro claims Mr Trump is trying to overthrow him with a view to seizing Venezuela’s oil reserves.
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