Views: 10
Friday briefing: Counting the human, environmental and political cost of Hurricane Milton
Hurricane Milton ripped through Florida on Wednesday night and yesterday morning, causing at least four deaths and leaving chaos in its wake. As America woke up, three million households were without power, and harrowing footage continued to emerge throughout the day of wreckage-strewn highways and flood water sloshing through homes and shops.
The second hurricane to make a direct hit on the sunshine state in 12 days, Milton is yet more evidence of the devastating impact of our global climate crisis. Yet in the highly partisan political atmosphere of the US, the storm’s arrival has been marked by false claims and crazy conspiracy theories.
For today’s newsletter, I spoke to Oliver Milman, an environment reporter for Guardian US, to assess the human damage wrought by Hurricane Milton, and its political impact.
Five big stories
- Middle East | Israeli strikes killed 22 people in Beirut in the deadliest attack on the city centre since recent hostilities broke out, as the UN said its peacekeepers in Lebanon’s south were in growing danger. The strikes hit a densely packed residential neighbourhood of apartment buildings and small shops in the heart of the Lebanese capital.
- Economy | Rachel Reeves is considering raising capital gains tax as high as 39% in the budget, the Guardian can reveal, amid a scramble to raise funds for crumbling public services.
- Environment | England has suffered its second-worst harvest on record – with fears growing for next year – after heavy rain last winter hit production of key crops including wheat and oats.
- Conservatives | One of Kemi Badenoch’s Tory leadership campaign funders is a councillor who had oversight of Grenfell Tower and dismissed some residents’ complaints about the pre-fire refurbishment as “grossly exaggerated”.
- Haiti | Armed gangs in Haiti are recruiting starving children to swell their ranks ahead of an anticipated long and bloody battle with international security forces, a report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) has found.
