First Thing: Hurricane Milton slams into Florida as nearly 3 million without power

Joe Biden describes it as the ‘storm of the century.’ Plus, US urges Israel to urgently address ‘catastrophic’ Gaza conditions

Good morning.

A weakening but still tremendously powerful Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida’s west coast on Wednesday night as a category 3 storm, leaving nearly 3 million homes without power, while bringing “catastrophic” winds likely to cause significant property damage.

The cyclone, described earlier in the day by Joe Biden as “the storm of the century”, made landfall near Sarasota, Florida, just after 8:30pm ET, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. The storm brought a storm surge to much of Florida’s Gulf coast, including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.

Despite losing some of its potency to wind shear as it neared the coast, Milton, which had churned in the Gulf of Mexico over the last two days as a category 5 storm, was still one of the strongest hurricanes to strike the US mainland in recent memory. It was also the second direct hit on Florida in 12 days.

Jane Castor, the mayor of Tampa, issued a sobering alert to those in evacuation zones choosing to stay, telling them their homes would become their coffins.

What do we know about the impact so far? Nearly 3 million homes and businesses in Florida were without power. St Petersburg has had 16 inches of rain since the storm began, half of which fell in just two hours.

What is a storm surge? As a hurricane approaches a coast, the churning winds force ocean water up on to land; atmospheric pressure from the storm also helps squeeze the water ashore. Water is heavy, and it can move fast in a surge, sweeping people to their deaths, throwing boats and vehicles, and pulverising structures.

This is a developing story. Follow our live blog here.

US urges Israel to urgently address ‘catastrophic’ Gaza conditions

Israel needs to urgently address “catastrophic conditions” among Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and stop “intensifying suffering” by limiting aid deliveries, the US has told the UN security council.

Speaking to the UN security council, the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said: “These catastrophic conditions were predicted months ago, and yet, have still not been addressed. That must change, and now.”

She also warned Israel against trying to permanently expel Palestinians from Gaza or seizing any territory for itself. “There must be no demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip, including any actions that reduce the territory of Gaza,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

What is the war’s impact on Gaza’s refugee children? The International Rescue Committee warned that after a year of conflict, as many as 51,000 children in Gaza could be unaccompanied or separated from their parents or caregivers.

What’s happening with Israel’s invasion of Lebanon? A quarter of Lebanese territory is now under Israeli military displacement orders, a UN OCHA report found. It said “Lebanon’s humanitarian crisis is deteriorating at an alarming rate” as “Israeli airstrikes have not only intensified but also expanded” and have “increasingly targeted critical civilian infrastructure.”

Tim Walz calls for scrapping of electoral college to decide US presidential race

Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, has called for the electoral college system of electing presidents to be abolished and replaced with a popular vote principle, which most democracies use.

His comments chime with the sentiments of a majority of American voters but risk destabilising the campaign of Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, who has not adopted a position on the matter, despite having previously voiced similar views.

“I think all of us know, the electoral college needs to go,” Walz told party fundraisers in California. He had earlier made similar remarks at a separate event in Seattle, where he called himself “a national popular vote guy”, while qualifying it by saying, “that’s not the world we live in.”

How does the system work again? Presidential polls are decided not by who wins the most votes nationwide but instead by which candidate captures a majority of 538 electoral votes across the 50 states, plus Washington DC. A president can win the electoral college while losing the popular vote, notably in recent times George W Bush in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016.

What did the Harris-Walz campaign make of the comments? Campaign officials stressed that abolishing the electoral college was not part of its agenda.

In other news …

Croatia’s border police appear to be burning clothing, mobile phones and passports seized from asylum seekers attempting to cross into the European Union – before pushing them back to Bosnia.

El Salvador faces scrutiny for the ‘political’ trial of five environmental activists, with UN experts calling the case baseless.

A Turkish Airlines flight from Seattle to Istanbul made an emergency landing at New York’s JFK airport, after its 59-year-old captain died mid-flight.

Stat of the day: Foreign aid for fossil fuel projects quadruples to $5.4bn in one year

Foreign aid for fossil fuel projects quadrupled in a single year, a report by nonprofit Clean Air Fund found, rising ​​from $1.2bn in 2021 to $5.4bn in 2022. “This shocking increase in aid funding to fossil fuels is a wake-up call,” said Jane Burston, the Clean Air Fund chief executive.

Don’t miss this: Trump’s radical plan to remake the presidency

For Thursday’s Today in Focus podcast, Michael Safi and Ed Pilkington go deep on what Donald Trump’s plans for a second term would be – and how he seeks to reshape the White House to give himself unprecedented power.

… or this: Is it the end for the ship that helped us understand life on Earth?

The Joides Resolution has contributed to the world’s understanding of the climate crisis, the origin of life, earthquakes and eruptions. But funding cuts mean it may have sailed its last expedition.

Last Thing: Antarctica welcomes new postmaster to ‘coolest job on earth’

George Clarke will soon join the world’s most southerly museum and post office in Antarctica. For five months of freezing temperatures and near-constant daylight, they will live alongside the resident gentoo penguins. “I’m looking forward to waking up and having my morning coffee looking out over Antarctica, hopefully seeing a whale too,” Clarke said.

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