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.
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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.
Washington woke up this morning to a flurry of developments on Ukraine.
It was the middle of the night in DC when a tweet dropped from Ukraine’s national security advisor, Rustem Umerov.
He said that the US and Ukraine had reached a “common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva.”
He added that Volodymyr Zelenskyy would travel to America “at the earliest suitable date in November to complete final steps and make a deal with President Trump”.
Ukraine latest: ‘Delicate’ deal details must be sorted, White House says
By sunrise in Washington, a US official was using similar but not identical language to frame progress.
The official, speaking anonymously to US media, said that Ukraine had “agreed” to Trump’s peace proposal “with some minor details to be worked out”.
In parallel, it’s emerged that talks have been taking place in Abu Dhabi. The Americans claim to have met both Russian and Ukrainian officials there, though the Russians have not confirmed attendance.
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Peace deal ‘agreement’: What we know
“I have nothing to say. We are following the media reports,” Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, told Russian state media.
Trump is due to travel to his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago tonight, where he will remain until Sunday.
He set a deadline of Thursday – Thanksgiving – for some sort of agreement on his plan.
We know the plan has been changed from its original form, but it’s clear that Zelenskyy wants to be seen to agree to something quickly – that would go down well with President Trump.
Read more:
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My sense is that Zelenskyy will try to get to Mar-a-Lago as soon as he can. Before Thursday would be a push but would meet Trump’s deadline.
It will then be left for the Russians to state their position on the revised document.
All indications are that they will reject it. But maybe the secret Abu Dhabi talks will yield something.
“Drill, baby, drill” was Donald Trump’s campaign pledge – and he’s following through with a proposal to expand fossil fuel production, which environmentalists say would have devastating consequences.
The Trump administration has tabled a plan to open federal waters off the coasts of California, Florida, and Alaska to oil and gas drilling for the first time in decades – including areas that have never been touched.
A total of one billion acres of water would be offered for lease under the proposal. That’s equivalent to more than half the total land mass of the US.
While the rest of the Western world is striving to move away from fossil fuels, the US appears to be gravitating back towards them, with the administration describing climate change as a “hoax,” “a scam,” and a “con job”.
In Huntington Beach – a coastal community in California that calls itself “Surf City USA” – a huge oil spill in 2021 shut down a miles-long stretch of the coastline, killing wildlife and soiling the sand.
From the beach, where surfers lay out alongside tourists and dog walkers, you can see Platform Esther, a hulking oil rig built in 1965 that ceased production in August this year. Sea lions hug the metal pillars on the rig and dozens of birds perch on the platform.
‘What we have here is irreplaceable’
Pete Stauffer, ocean protection manager at the Surfrider Foundation, said: “Here in California, we depend on a clean and healthy coastal environment – whether it’s coastal tourism, whether it’s fisheries, or local businesses and jobs.
“All these things are tied to what we have here, which is really an outstanding marine ecosystem.
“No disrespect to Mickey Mouse, but you can build another theme park. What we have here is irreplaceable. Why would you put that at risk?”
As a state, California views itself as a leader on climate action. A massive spill off the coast of Santa Barbara sparked the modern environmental movement.
‘We need as much oil as possible’
But the Trump administration says more oil drilling will help make the country energy independent, bringing new jobs and reducing petrol prices. That messaging has resonated with some here.
Johnny Long is a surfer who lives in Huntington Beach. “Drill, baby, drill,” he says, when I ask about Trump’s plans for more offshore drilling. “We need as much oil as possible. It’s right below us. We need to take it and extract it and bring the gas prices down, it’s absolutely fantastic.”
I ask about concerns that it will be detrimental to the local environment and beyond.
“I’d say phoeey on that,” Johnny responds. “It’s ridiculous. Climate change is a hoax.”
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Johnny Long
But others vehemently disagree – including Linda from nearby Seal Beach: “It’s so bad for the environment. It’s already bad enough, you know, and they’re gonna drill, and what happens when they drill? They always have accidents because people are human and accidents happen.
“Trump and his goonies don’t care about the environment, all they care about is money.”
The president’s push to expand fossil fuel production coincided with the UN climate conference. For the first time in the summit’s history, the US didn’t send a delegation.
Critics say the snub shows a disregard for how future generations will be affected by the decisions the White House is making right now.
The revenge tour has come off the rails.
Donald Trump had long promised retribution against his political enemies, but – to coin a phrase used around the White House – he’s f****ed around and found out that it doesn’t fly so easily through the courts.
His mistake was in choosing a pilot unable to fly the plane.
Lindsey Halligan is the lawyer who took the job of Trump-enforcer when others, better qualified, turned it down.
The prosecution of Trump’s adversaries would have been the job of Erik Siebert, US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, but he gave it a body swerve.
He had declined to prosecute the case against Letitia James, the New York attorney-general who successfully prosecuted the Trump organisation for business fraud.
Siebert concluded there were not sufficient grounds to prosecute, which didn’t please the president, and Seibert quit before he was pushed.
A number of career prosecutors were similarly reluctant to take the case, leaving Trump checking availability.
That’s when he turned to Lindsey Halligan, an insurance lawyer by trade.
Her work experience didn’t necessarily suit the job brief – the prosecutor with the highest of profiles had no prosecutorial experience.
In pursuing the cases against Comey and James, she had to present evidence before a grand jury, something she hadn’t done before.
Letitia James and James Comey have had criminal charges against them dismissed. Pics: Reuters
If that wasn’t ideal, that wasn’t all.
Something else Halligan didn’t have was the legal ability to do the job. Her appointment violated laws limiting the ability of the justice department to install top prosecutors.
It was an elementary error that didn’t pass by Judge Cameron Currie, who called it a “defective appointment”.
In setting aside the indictments against Comey and James, she wrote: “I conclude that all actions flowing from Ms Halligan’s defective appointment… constitute unlawful exercises of executive power.”
The US Department of Justice can appeal the move, so Comey and James haven’t reached road’s end.
Read more from Sky News:
US hails ‘tremendous progress’ on Ukraine peace plan
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But it’s a significant boost for both, and a significant blow for Trump.
He is the president in pursuit of sworn enemies, which his critics characterise as a weaponisation of the justice system.
Those same critics will point to the haste and impropriety on display as evidence of it, and take heart from a system offering a robust resistance.
Donald Trump appears undeterred. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said: “The facts of the indictments against Comey and James have not changed, and this will not be the final word on this matter.”
Letitia James is charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. James Comey was charged with making false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation.
Trump fired Comey in 2017, while he was overseeing an investigation into alleged Russian interference in the Trump 2016 campaign.
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