Ian downgraded to post-tropical cyclone after striking South Carolina and leaving at least 45 dead in Florida – CNN
Ian downgraded to post-tropical cyclone after striking South Carolina and leaving at least 45 dead in Florida – CNN

Editor’s Note: Affected by the storm? Use CNN’s lite site for low bandwidth. You also can text or WhatsApp your Ian stories to CNN +1 332-261-0775.

Ian, now a post-tropical cyclone, was moving farther inland Friday night after pummeling South Carolina with fierce winds and a destructive storm surge, less than two days after killing at least 45 people in Florida and leaving behind an apocalyptic path of destruction.

The storm made its second landfall in the US near Georgetown, South Carolina, Friday afternoon as a Category 1 hurricane. By Friday night, it was continuing to pack 60 mph winds but was expected to weaken overnight and dissipate over North Carolina or Virginia late Saturday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Flash flooding was possible in parts of North and South Carolina and southeast Virginia Friday night, while the storm also threatened parts of eastern North Carolina and southeast Virginia with tornadoes through Saturday morning, the hurricane center added.

How to help victims of Hurricane Ian

Two days earlier, Ian made landfall along Florida’s southwestern coast as a major Category 4 hurricane, ravaging coastal communities, turning roads into streams and leaving behind wreckage and debris.

As communities in the Sunshine State were beginning to pick up the pieces after the powerful storm, authorities in South Carolina late Friday began assessing the damage to their state. Authorities in Pawleys Island, a coastal South Carolina town roughly 70 miles north of Charleston, were cataloging the damage Friday night.

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Two piers in the state – Cherry Grove Pier in North Myrtle Beach and Pawleys Island Pier – partially collapsed due to the storm. Water had receded on the two causeways, but Pawleys Island police announced they were not letting anyone back on the island until safety assessments were conducted in the morning.

More than 128,000 customers were in the dark across the state as of 9:30 p.m. Friday, according to poweroutage.us. In North Carolina, more than 330,000 customers were out of power and in Florida, more than 1.4 million.

Knee-deep water inside homes

In North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Kyle Faust waded through knee-deep water inside his home Friday after the storm roared through. Across Horry County, where the city is located, officials reported Friday night crews were conducting damage assessments and clearing debris, while some roads remained closed.

Myrtle Beach Police urged residents to stay inside and not drive on flooded roadways.

“It’s a pretty scary sight,” Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune remarked earlier of Hurricane Ian. “I’m seeing way too many cars passing by. And I think people just don’t realize how dangerous it is to be out in these types of conditions. We’ve seen so many people’s cars get stuck, and emergency personnel has to go out and rescue people.”

Shelters in Charleston County will remain open until 4 p.m. on Saturday, the county wrote in a news release. Buses will start taking people from the shelters back to the original pick-up locations Saturday morning.

“A lot of prayers have been answered,” South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said. “This storm is not as bad as it could have been, but don’t let your guard down yet. We are not out of the woods, there is water on the roads, still heavy winds, and it is still dangerous in many parts of the state.”

Charleston International Airport’s airfield closed Friday because of high winds and extended the closure until Saturday morning, the airport said.

In Florida: At least 45 reported dead

Florida, meanwhile, confronted the dizzying destruction Ian wrought through much of the peninsula Wednesday and Thursday after it smashed into the southwest coast and plowed through central and northeastern areas.

After a devastating hurricane, here’s how to get help, stay safe and protect your sanity in the weeks ahead

At least 45 deaths have been reported in the state. Among them, friends of Kevin Behen, who told CNN on Friday night he knew of two men who died making sure their wives were able to escape the home they were all sheltering in that began to flood.

“These guys pushed their wives out the windows to where a tree was,” Behen explained. “They just looked at their wives and they said, ‘We can’t hold on anymore, we love you. Bye,’ and that was it.”

Homes on the coast were washed out to sea, buildings were smashed throughout the state, and floodwater ruined homes and businesses and trapped residents, even inland in places like the Orlando area.

Hundreds of rescues have taken place by land, air and sea, with residents stuck in homes or stranded on rooftops, and searchers have made many wellness checks, especially in the Fort Myers and Naples areas, where a storm surge inundated streets and homes.

“It looked as though someone had just dropped from the sky picked up hotels and buildings and took them away,” Lee County manager Roger Desjarlais said. “We also know that not as many people evacuated from those islands as we had hoped for. We know there has to be many fatalities yet to be accounted for.”

Ian may have caused as much as $47 billion in insured losses in Florida, according to an estimate from property analytics firm CoreLogic, which could make it the second-most expensive storm in the state’s history when adjusted for inflation after 1992’s Hurricane Andrew.

President Joe Biden continued to pledge federal support for Florida as it deals with the devastation caused by the storm, which he noted was “likely to rank among the worst … in the nation’s history” and will likely take “months, years” to rebuild.

And the storm’s aftermath poses new, deadly dangers of its own. Some standing water is electrified, officials warned, while maneuvering through debris-strewn buildings and streets – many without working traffic signals – risks injury. Lack of air conditioning can lead to heat illness, and improper generator use can cause carbon monoxide poisoning.

Many without homes, water, power

Claudette Smith, the public information officer for the sheriff’s office in Charlotte County, just north of Fort Myers, told CNN the county is in desperate need of help as emergency services continue to be inundated.

“We need everything, to put it plain and simple. We need all hands on deck,” Smith stressed. “The people who have come to our assistance have been tremendously helpful, but we do need everything.”

Many members of the community are without homes, water, and electricity, and there is currently only one operating hospital in the county.

Here’s what to know about the destruction in Florida:

• Deaths in Florida: At least 45 deaths suspected to be related to Ian have been reported in Florida, including 16 in Lee County, 12 in Charlotte County, eight in Collier County, four in Volusia County, one in Polk County, one in Lake County, one in Manatee County and two in unincorporated Sarasota County, according to officials. Unconfirmed death cases are being processed by local medical examiners, who decide whether they are disaster-related, state emergency management Director Kevin Guthrie said.

• Hundreds of rescues and thousands of evacuations: The US Coast Guard has performed over 275 rescues in Florida, Rear Admiral Brendan McPherson told CNN. More than 700 rescues have happened across Florida so far, the governor reported Thursday, and thousands of evacuees have been reported. In Lee County, a hospital system had to evacuate more than 1,000 patients after its water supply was cut off, while other widespread evacuations have been reported in prisons and nursing homes. In Fort Myers, the fire chief was “pretty comfortable” by Friday morning everyone needing help there had been rescued, Mayor Kevin Anderson said. The Coast Guard is treating this like a military operation searching “block by block to make sure that everybody gets out.”

Hurricane Ian has devastated the Fort Myers area. Some people floated on freezers to escape

• Historic flooding: Record flooding was recorded across central and northern Florida, including at least three rivers hitting all-time flood records. Officials in Orlando warned residents of dangerous flooding, which exceeded a foot in some areas.

• Much of Fort Myers Beach obliterated: A helicopter flight over Fort Myers Beach shows utter devastation: empty or debris-littered lots where homes and businesses used to be and boats tossed into mangroves. “You’re talking about no structure left. … You’re talking about homes that were thrown into the bay. This is a long-term fix, and it’s life-changing,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno emphasized.

• Coastal islands isolated from mainland: Sanibel and Captiva islands in southwest Florida are cut off from the mainland after several parts of a critical causeway were torn away. At least two people were killed in the storm in Sanibel, and the bridge may need to be completely rebuilt, local officials said. Chip Farrar, a resident of the tiny island of Matlacha, told CNN 50 feet of road essential to reaching the mainland bridge has been washed out, and a second nearby bridge has also collapsed.

CNN’s Joe Sutton, Virginia Langmaid, Keith Allen, Amir Vera, Eric Levenson, Allison Chinchar, Brandon Miller, Nick Valencia, Carma Hassan, Amanda Musa, Amy Simonson and Paradise Afshar contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/30/weather/hurricane-south-carolina-path-florida-aftermath-friday/index.html

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Gov. Greg Abbott and Beto O’Rourke Debate in Texas: Live Updates – The New York Times
Gov. Greg Abbott and Beto O’Rourke Debate in Texas: Live Updates – The New York Times

But if the debate was the marquee event of a campaign for the Texas governor’s mansion that is likely to cost more than $100 million, it did not seem to deliver a key moment that would significantly propel or hobble either candidate. That outcome appeared likely to benefit Mr. Abbott, who has been leading in the polls and has commanded a larger campaign war chest going into the final stretch.

The hectic pace of the exchanges — strictly limited by the moderators to 30 or 60 seconds — devolved at times into rhetorical finger-pointing between the two politicians over whose beliefs, diametrically opposed, were more outside the mainstream.

“Beto’s position is the most extreme,” Mr. Abbott said, suggesting that his Democratic rival supported allowing abortions at any point in a pregnancy.

“It’s completely a lie,” Mr. O’Rourke responded. “I never said that, and no one thinks that in the state of Texas.” He added: “He’s saying this because he signed the most extreme abortion ban in America. No exception for rape, no exception for incest.”

For weeks, the two candidates have clashed repeatedly on the airwaves, but they had yet to spar in person. Mr. O’Rourke tried to confront Mr. Abbott during a news conference in Uvalde after the massacre at an elementary school there in May, accusing him of doing nothing to prevent such violence, before Mr. O’Rourke was escorted out. Mr. Abbott did not respond at the time.

On Friday, Mr. Abbott similarly tried to ignore Mr. O’Rourke’s attacks as much as possible, rarely looking at his opponent as he spoke or listened.

Mr. O’Rourke went after Mr. Abbott from the start, blaming the governor’s “hateful rhetoric” for the killing of an undocumented migrant in West Texas this week and saying that the governor had “lost the right to serve this state” because of the police failures in the response to the Uvalde shooting.

Mr. Abbott repeatedly accused his challenger of misrepresenting facts. “He just makes this stuff up,” he said.

Mr. O’Rourke, a polished debater, appeared more at ease with the fast format of the debate. Mr. Abbott at times seemed to rush to make his points, and struggled with a question about whether he believed that emergency contraception was the “alternative” for someone who became pregnant from rape or incest in Texas, given that abortion is banned even in those cases.

“An alternative, obviously, is to do what we can to assist and aid the victim,” Mr. Abbott said. “They’re going to know that the state, through our Alternatives to Abortion program, provides living assistance, baby supplies, all kinds of things that can help them.”

It appeared clear that Mr. O’Rourke was the strongest challenger Mr. Abbott has had in his political career, stretching back into the 1990s. Mr. Abbott has never faced a primary opponent of note, and in his previous runs for governor, he easily swept aside Democratic opposition.

The hourlong debate was held in the border city of Edinburg, far from the large population centers of this increasingly urbanizing state but deep in the heart of Hispanic South Texas, where Mr. Abbott and Republicans have increasingly made inroads.

The location also put a spotlight on a topic that has been among the most effective issues for Mr. Abbott: the record numbers of unauthorized migrants continuing to arrive at the southern border.

The candidates, both in red ties, debated from a sitting position; Mr. Abbott has used a wheelchair since he was 26, when an oak tree fell on him while he was jogging, paralyzing him below the waist.

The candidates received no time for introductory comments and gave 30-second closing remarks, a format that played to Mr. Abbott’s strengths as a direct, often terse speaker, and limited Mr. O’Rourke’s tendency to build long rhetorical flourishes.

And the timing, on a Friday evening when many Texans are more consumed with high school football, appeared likely to reduce the number of people watching live.

Chris Evans, a spokesman for Mr. O’Rourke, said before the debate that the Abbott campaign had proposed the terms and would not accept any changes. “They declined to have voters in the audience,” he said. An Abbott spokesman, Mark Miner, said that Mr. O’Rourke was in “no position to run the state if he can’t even comprehend simple debate rules.”

Democrats in Texas have pinned their hopes on Mr. O’Rourke before, but so far he has managed only to be victorious in defeat. In his name-making 2018 run for Senate, he came within three percentage points of unseating Senator Ted Cruz, a strong showing in Republican-dominated Texas, but still a losing one.

Friday’s debate, just a few weeks before early voting begins in Texas, came at a crucial moment for both campaigns, especially Mr. O’Rourke’s. Over the summer, some polls had suggested a tightening race after the Uvalde killings and the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade. But more recent surveys show Mr. Abbott more firmly in control, with a lead of about seven percentage points.

For Mr. O’Rourke, the former congressman from El Paso and a Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, the debate was a chance to recapture momentum and his most direct opportunity to prosecute his case against Mr. Abbott, a two-term incumbent who has led the state for eight years under unified Republican control of state government.

For Mr. Abbott, it was a night to make it through unscathed. His campaign had prepared for weeks for the encounter, seeing Mr. O’Rourke as a skilled debater with significant experience from his run for president in 2020.

The governor navigated tough questions, including one that in many ways launched Mr. O’Rourke into this race: the failure of the energy grid last February. Mr. Abbott stuck to his talking points — “the grid is more resilient and reliable than it’s ever been,” he said — and Mr. O’Rourke did not appear able to capitalize on the exchange.

“It seemed pretty even, and a bit of a tie probably benefits Governor Abbott in this case,” said Álvaro J. Corral, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg. “I didn’t see a moment that indicated a change in that underlying dynamic.”

As the campaign entered its final months, Mr. Abbott has pressed his fund-raising advantage — $45 million on hand as of the last filing in mid-July, versus $23 million for Mr. O’Rourke — and went statewide with television ads at least two weeks before Mr. O’Rourke did so. Now both campaigns are bombarding Texans with messages, often negative, on television and online.

Before the debate, Mr. O’Rourke held a news conference in a playground in Edinburg with several parents and relatives from Uvalde whose children were shot and killed at Robb Elementary School. The families rode a bus together from Uvalde that morning to press for action on gun control; Mr. O’Rourke criticized Mr. Abbott for setting rules that would not allow the parents to watch from inside the hall.

The massacre took up significant time early in the debate. Mr. O’Rourke, who during the 2019 campaign urged taking away AR-15-style rifles after a deadly mass shooting in El Paso, emphasized his moderated position, calling to raise the age to buy an AR-15 to 21 from 18.

Mr. Abbott said that was unrealistic, citing recent court decisions striking down gun restrictions.

“We want to end school shootings,” he said. “But we cannot do that by making false promises.”

Reid J. Epstein contributed reporting.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/09/30/us/texas-debate-greg-abbott-beto-orourke

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Supreme Court holds investiture ceremony for Ketanji Brown Jackson – NBC News
Supreme Court holds investiture ceremony for Ketanji Brown Jackson – NBC News
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‘He’s not going to scare us’: Why the West isn’t buying Putin’s bluster – POLITICO
‘He’s not going to scare us’: Why the West isn’t buying Putin’s bluster – POLITICO

“He’s not going to scare us nor intimidate us,” President Joe Biden said of Putin. “Putin’s actions are a sign he is struggling, the sham referendum he carried out, and his routine he put on … the United States is never going to recognize this, and quite frankly the world is not going to recognize it either.”

Leaders from across Europe read from the same playbook, pledging to support Ukraine and punish Russia for subverting international law by attempting, again, to steal Ukrainian territory.

The U.K.’s Chief of Defense Staff, Adm. Sir Tony Radakin, who spoke to reporters Friday during a visit to Washington, called the annexation “the invented reality of Putin, and the actual reality is that he’s declared these four territories as part of Russia, but he doesn’t even have control of those four territories.”

The swift rejection of Putin’s annexation announcement and his hints that he could use nuclear weapons show how global perception of his military and its competence have changed since the start of the war. His reputation, once feared, has been so damaged by his disastrous invasion that the threats he has used for so long to shape the geopolitical narrative no longer carry the power they once did.

Moscow has faced a torrent of setbacks and humiliations since Ukrainians launched their two-pronged counteroffensive this month. Rapid gains using modern, NATO-furnished weapons forced massive and panicked Russian retreats around the city of Kherson, pushing Russian forces back into their own country or into several shrinking pockets inside Ukraine.

The forecast for Russian forces over the next few weeks and months is equally grim, as conscripts with little training head to the front to face battle-hardened Ukrainians backed by new Western equipment, with more shipments arriving weekly.

Videos have emerged online of Russian officers telling conscripts to bring their own medical supplies and sleeping bags to the front, as Moscow is expected to leave its troops unsupported in the field.

“Russia doesn’t have enough people to crew the equipment that they’ve got,” Radakin said. “The equipment they’ve got is quite substantial, but much of it is ancient and in a bad condition. And then [Putin] had to go through this partial mobilization…you then start to see a feature of this mobilization is not people rushing to recruitment offices, but it’s people rushing to leave the country.”

A senior Defense Department official, who like others in this story requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said there have been no significant moves by Russian forces either before or after Putin’s speech on Friday, further suggesting that nothing at all had changed on the ground, at least in the Kremlin’s favor.

In fact, Russian troops in the city of Lyman in Donetsk Oblast — an area Putin on Friday said was now part of Russia — have been almost completely surrounded by Ukrainian forces who have cut off supply lines to the garrison. On Friday, Ukrainian commanders began calling for the Russian forces there to negotiate a surrender.

Lyman has for months been a key logistics and supply hub for Russian forces fighting in the country’s east, and its loss would further cripple the already stretched Russian resupply lines in areas increasingly contested by Ukrainian forces.

The continued loss of territory that Russia now claims as its own, along with the new sanctions packages announced by the U.S. and U.K. on Friday, will further squeeze the Kremlin’s ability to wage war and undermine the army’s ability to hold ground.

“Russia will struggle to hold the territory it claims to have annexed,” the Institute for the Study of War said in an analysis Friday. “Putin likely intends annexation to freeze the war along the current frontlines and allow time for Russian mobilization to reconstitute Russian forces.”

The institute, along with the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project, also generated a map on Friday showing that the four territories ready to be annexed actually include wide swaths of land still controlled by Ukraine.

While leaders have warned that declaring the territories part of Russia could serve as a pretext for escalating the war, Putin’s options are just as limited as they were before his announcement.

Ukraine has hobbled Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, and ship captains now avoid the coastline out of fear of being struck by missiles. The Russian air force mostly shies away from flying over Ukrainian airspace, and the Kremlin is woefully short of allies willing to enter the conflict. That leaves his ground force, which he is now stocking with untrained conscripts.

And even though Putin and other Russian officials have hinted at deploying tactical nuclear weapons, the U.S. assesses the probability as low. “We’ve not seen anything that indicates we should change our posture,” one senior DoD official said.

One European diplomat pointed out that Russian warnings against attacking the annexed territories ring hollow, and not only because Putin is already losing ground in those regions.

“Ukraine has hit Russian targets in Crimea several times, and Putin didn’t respond even though he claims Crimea is now part of Russia, too,” the diplomat said.

And more Western weapons are funneling into Ukraine. At the White House, national security adviser Jake Sullivan noted the $1.1 billion arms package announced this week, “and we expect to have another announcement of immediate security assistance to announce next week.”

The package will be worth several hundred million dollars, an administration official confirmed to POLITICO.

Drawing the aid out ensures that Ukraine can absorb the shipments of tens of thousands of artillery rounds, radars and armored vehicles, but also maintains the “psychological impact” of announcing regular packages of NATO-caliber weaponry to bolster Ukrainian allies and depress the morale of Russian forces and leadership, the official said.

Putin is trying to raise that morale, but his bluster on Friday is little more than a “fiction” of Russia’s strength and competence, Radakin said. He cautioned against overreacting.

That fiction “is a feature of weakness, and the pressure that Russia is under,” he said. “We’ve got to be very careful in responding to fictions.”

Lara Seligman contributed to this report

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/30/putin-tries-to-annex-his-way-into-a-different-reality-00059873

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LAUSD hack: Criminal group threatening to release sensitive data if district doesn’t pay ransom – KABC-TV
LAUSD hack: Criminal group threatening to release sensitive data if district doesn’t pay ransom – KABC-TV

LOS ANGELES (CNS) — An international hacking syndicate claiming responsibility for a cyberattack that forced a shutdown of Los Angeles Unified School District computer systems has set a Monday deadline for the district to pay a ransom or the organization will publish undisclosed information it claims it obtained in the hack.

In a dark web post detected and reprinted by Brett Callow of the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, the hacking syndicate Vice Society listed the LAUSD as one of “our partners,” and stated, “The papers will be published by London time on October 4, 2022 at 12:00 a.m.”

London is eight hours ahead of Los Angeles, so the deadline would be Monday afternoon.

The post did not give any indication of what information had been obtained or what would be published.

LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho acknowledged last week the district has received a ransom demand from the group responsible for the Labor Day weekend hack – which he declined to name.

“We can acknowledge … that there has been communication from this actor (hacker) and we have been responsive without engaging in any type of negotiations,” he told reporters.

“With that said, we can acknowledge at this point … that a financial demand has been made by this entity. We have not responded to that demand.”

He did not provide specifics of the demand.

Carvalho told the Los Angeles Times on Friday the district will not pay the ransom demand or negotiate with the hackers.

“What I can tell you is that the demand — any demand — would be absurd,” he told the Times. “But this level of demand was, quite frankly, insulting. And we’re not about to enter into negotiations with that type of entity.”

The district issued a statement Friday afternoon acknowledging the threatened information dump, and indicated it is “diligently working with investigators and law enforcement to determine what information was impacted and to whom it belongs.”

After discovering the hack, LAUSD officials took the extraordinary step of shutting down most of its computer systems while they worked to assess the full extent of the cyber intrusion. Systems were then slowly brought back online.

Carvalho said earlier the hackers appeared to have planted a series of digital “tripwires” that could have disabled more systems, so the district was being cautious about bringing computers back online.

No classes or other district operations have been impacted by the cyberattack, officials said. Students and staff, however, have been forced to reset their district passwords — a monumental task for the nation’s second-largest school district.

District officials said earlier that the attack temporarily interfered with the LAUSD website and email system. But officials said employee health care and payroll were not affected, nor did the hack impact safety and emergency mechanisms in place at schools.

It was unclear if the receipt of a ransom demand weeks after the initial attack was an indication that the hackers obtained or could potentially obtain more sensitive information.

Carvalho said last week officials do not believe any highly sensitive information was accessed.

“This entity did touch our MiSiS (My Integrated Student Information) System, which contains student information,” Carvalho said. “To the best of our knowledge at this point … we believe that some of the data that was accessed may have some students’ names, may have some degree of attendance data, but more than likely lacks personally identifiable information or very sensitive health information or Social Security number information.”

He said there is no sign that any sensitive employee information was accessed.

“This is the sad but new reality we are facing,” Carvalho told reporters. “We are on one hand attempting to understand how the breach took place — was it human error, meaning someone unknowingly responded to a phishing email that allowed unauthorized access, or was it a systemic failure on the part of a third-party entity that is connected to our system that opened the door?”

In its Friday statement, district officials said, “To our school community and partners, we will update you when we have relevant information and notify you if you personal information is impacted, as appropriate. We also expect to provide credit monitoring services, as appropriate, to impacted individuals.

“… Los Angeles Unified remains firm that dollars must be used to fund students and education. Paying ransom never guarantees the full recovery of data, and Los Angeles Unified believes public dollars are better spent on our students rather than capitulating to a nefarious and illicit crime syndicate. We continue to make progress toward full operational stability for several core information technology services.”

Following the hack, the district contacted federal officials, prompting the White House to mobilize a response from the U.S. Department of Education, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, according to the LAUSD.

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Source Article from https://abc7.com/lausd-hack-cyberattack-vice-society/12283437/

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Hurricane Ian destroys parts of the Sanibel Causeway, necessitating rebuilds – NPR
Hurricane Ian destroys parts of the Sanibel Causeway, necessitating rebuilds – NPR

In this aerial photo taken in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian on Thursday, parts of the Sanibel Causeway are washed away along with sections of the bridge.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images


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In this aerial photo taken in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian on Thursday, parts of the Sanibel Causeway are washed away along with sections of the bridge.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Hurricane Ian destroyed several portions of the Sanibel Causeway, the series of bridges that connects mainland Florida to Sanibel Island — which is home to some 6,500 people and located just south of where the storm made landfall.

Officials have characterized the extent of the damage as beyond simple repairs.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed at a Thursday morning briefing that the Sanibel Causeway is one of at least two bridges (along with the bridge that connects to Pine Island) that are “impassable” and will “require structural rebuilds.”

He said on Friday that the three-mile causeway “had breaks in multiple parts of it.”

“It was not where the water and the pylons were, those held up very well,” he said at a Friday morning briefing. “It was where you had some on the sandbar, and that got washed out from underneath.”

Homes in Sanibel, Fla., were damaged by the hurricane. The island is home to about 6,500 people year-round.

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Homes in Sanibel, Fla., were damaged by the hurricane. The island is home to about 6,500 people year-round.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Lee County had ordered people on the island to evacuate before the storm hit, though not everyone did. Sanibel Mayor Holly Smith said Thursday that the occupants of about 200 homes had stayed behind, and that authorities had already confirmed two injuries and 12 deaths on Sanibel.

It appears that other residents are effectively stranded on the island, either because they declined evacuation offers by rescue crews or because they are unaccounted for.

DeSantis said that same day that an unspecified number of people had been safely brought off the island and that rescue efforts by the U.S. Coast Guard, local law enforcement and state teams were ongoing. The Coast Guard has shared photos of crews airlifting people from flooded parts of the island.

Officials are running barges in order to ferry supplies and heavier equipment to the island (whereas emergency responders had initially been traveling lighter and via air), DeSantis said on Friday.

Smith had requested barge service for short-term recovery, as well as “possibly for the long-term for island access due to the condition of the causeway.”

Smith is urging residents to provide authorities with the names and addresses of any loved ones who may have remained on the island, saying “our first priority is to get those who are stranded to safety” and account for missing people.

No electric customers on Sanibel Island had power as of an 11 a.m. ET Friday morning update from the Lee County Electric Cooperative.

Jarring images of the broken causeway circulated fast

The Sanibel Causeway bridge collapsed in places as Hurricane Ian passed through southwest Florida.

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The Sanibel Causeway bridge collapsed in places as Hurricane Ian passed through southwest Florida.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

At least three sections of the causeway were washed away by the storm surge, CNN affiliates WBBH and WPLG report, cutting the Sanibel and Captiva islands off from the rest of the state.

Damage to the causeway was first reported in the early hours of Thursday morning by local journalists, who shared photos of the bridge with pieces missing.

Among them were Tampa Bay Times reporter Zachary Sampson and photojournalist Douglas Clifford, who ventured out of their Fort Myers hotel room in the early hours of Thursday morning to check on the damage and publish eyewitness accounts on the Times’ website.

In a dispatch at 2 a.m. ET, they reported that the half-mile of road leading to the Sanibel Causeway was impassable.

Hurricane Ian brought high winds, storm surge and rain to the area on Wednesday.

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Hurricane Ian brought high winds, storm surge and rain to the area on Wednesday.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

“The pavement is folded up like an accordion, ripped to ribbons by a powerful storm surge,” they wrote. “Nearby, a spiral staircase was deposited in the brush next to a white pickup. The storm flung a boat trailer and other debris, too.”

They describe seeing sheets of sand strewn across the pavement and watching around 1:30 a.m. as two cars tried unsuccessfully to access the island. One was full of young men who were trying to reach a friend, they added.

At 4:15 a.m., the journalists confirmed that a section of the causeway had been wiped out by the storm:

“An alarm bleats endlessly at the tollbooth for the Sanibel Causeway. Step just beyond it, and the road soon gives way. Where the bridge rises from the mainland toward the island, one of the first sections of the span has disappeared. Crumbled pavement lies near the water’s edge. The rest of the bridge stretches forward, unreachable.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/09/30/1126204141/sanibel-causeway-hurricane-ian

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Government shutdown averted as Biden signs funding bill – CNN
Government shutdown averted as Biden signs funding bill – CNN

The House of Representatives voted on Friday to approve a stopgap bill to fund the government through December 16, averting a shutdown just hours ahead of a midnight deadline when funding was set to expire.

President Joe Biden signed the bill Friday afternoon. The Senate passed the measure on a bipartisan basis on Thursday.

Lawmakers had expressed confidence there wouldn’t be a shutdown, but it is typical of Congress in recent years to run right up against funding deadlines.

In part, that’s because the opposing parties find it easier to reach last-minute deals to stave off a shutdown under tight time pressure.

This time around, neither party wanted to be blamed for a shutdown – especially so close to the consequential November midterm elections where control of Congress is at stake and as Democrats and Republicans are both trying to make their case to voters that they should be in the majority. Lawmakers up for reelection are also eager to finish up work on Capitol Hill so they can return to their home states to campaign.

In addition to money to keep government agencies afloat, the short-term funding measure provides around $12 billion for Ukraine as it continues to counter Russia’s invasion of the country, and requires the Pentagon to report on how US dollars have been spent there. The aid to Ukraine is a bipartisan priority.

The continuing resolution also extends an expiring FDA user fee program for five years.

Additional funding for Ukraine

The $12 billion in additional funding for Ukraine provides money for the US to continue sending weapons to replenish US stocks that have been sent to the country over the past seven months during the ongoing conflict.

In order to continue providing Ukraine with weapons to counter Russia’s offensive, the bill allocates an additional $3 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. This pot of money allows the US to procure and purchase weapons from industry and send them to the country, instead of drawing directly from US stockpiles of weapons.

The bill also authorizes an additional $3.7 billion in presidential drawdown authority funding, which allows the US to send weapons directly from US stockpiles, and $1.5 billion is included to “replenish US stocks of equipment” provided to Ukraine, a fact sheet from Senate Democrats about the bill states.

The bill designates $4.5 billion for the “economic support fund” to provide “support to maintain the operation of Ukraine’s national government,” the fact sheet states.

The US has provided Ukraine with significant economic and military support since Russia’s invasion of the country began in February, committing more than $16.2 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, since the Russian invasion began in February, a Department of Defense release stated on Wednesday.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/30/politics/house-government-funding-vote/index.html

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The status of airports impacted by Hurricane Ian – CNN
The status of airports impacted by Hurricane Ian – CNN
CNN’s Forrest Brown, Joe Sutton and Rebekah Riess contributed to this report.

Top image: The arrival and departures board lists numerous flight cancellations at Tampa International Airport on September 27, 2022. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images)

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/airports-airlines-ian-impacts/index.html

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Hurricane Ian Live Updates: South Carolina Hit by Storm as Florida Death Toll Mounts – The Wall Street Journal
Hurricane Ian Live Updates: South Carolina Hit by Storm as Florida Death Toll Mounts – The Wall Street Journal

WSJ Membership

Source Article from https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/hurricane-ian-florida-updates-live-2022-09-29

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Defiant Putin proclaims Ukrainian annexation as military setback looms – Reuters
Defiant Putin proclaims Ukrainian annexation as military setback looms – Reuters

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine, Sept 30 (Reuters) – A defiant Vladimir Putin proclaimed Russia’s annexation of a swathe of Ukraine in a pomp-filled Kremlin ceremony, promising Moscow would triumph in its “special military operation” even as he faced a potentially serious new military reversal.

The proclamation of Russian rule over 15% of Ukraine – the biggest annexation in Europe since World War Two – was roundly rejected by Ukraine and Western countries as illegal. The United States, Britain and Canada announced new sanctions.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy said his country had submitted a fast track application to join the NATO military alliance and that he would not hold peace talks with Russia while Putin was still president.

Putin’s proclamation coincided with Russian forces in one of the four regions being annexed facing encirclement by Ukrainian troops, showing how tenuous Russia’s grip is on some of territory it is claiming.

In one of his toughest anti-American speeches in more than two decades in power, Putin signalled he was ready to continue what he called a battle for a “greater historical Russia”, slammed the West as out to destroy Russia and, without evidence, accused Washington and its allies of blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

But U.S. President Joe Biden said it “was a deliberate act of sabotage and now the Russians are pumping out disinformation and lies,” adding that Washington and its allies would send divers to find out what happened.

The four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – that Putin said Russia was absorbing had made a historic choice, Putin said.

“They have made a choice to be with their people, their motherland, to live with its fate, and to triumph with it. Truth is on our side. Russia is with us!” Putin told his country’s political elite, who had gathered in one of the Kremlin’s grandest halls to watch him sign the annexation documents.

Russia organised so-called referendums, which were denounced by Kyiv and Western governments as illegal and coercive.

“We will defend our land with all our strength and all our means,” he added, calling on “the Kyiv regime to immediately cease hostilities and return to the negotiation table”.

UKRAINE NATO BID

In Ukraine, Zelenskiy said he was only ready for peace talks if and when Russia had a new president.

He also announced that Ukraine was formally applying for fast-track membership of NATO, something Moscow fiercely opposes, and accused Russia of redrawing borders “using murder, blackmail, mistreatment and lies”.

He said, however, that Kyiv remained committed to the idea of co-existence with Russia “on equal, honest, dignified and fair conditions”.

“Clearly, with this Russian president it is impossible. He does not know what dignity and honesty are. Therefore, we are ready for a dialogue with Russia, but with another president of Russia,” Zelenskiy said.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and Denis Pushilin, Leonid Pasechnik, Vladimir Saldo, Yevgeny Balitsky, who are the Russian-installed leaders in Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, attend a ceremony to declare the annexation of the Russian-controlled territories of four Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, after holding what Russian authorities called referendums in the occupied areas of Ukraine that were condemned by Kyiv and governments worldwide, in the Georgievsky Hall of the Great Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, September 30, 2022. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via REUTERS

Putin said the United States had set a precedent when it had dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945, while stopping short of issuing new nuclear warnings against Ukraine himself, something he has done more than once in recent weeks.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States had not yet seen Russia take any action that suggested it was contemplating the use of nuclear weapons, despite what he called Putin’s “loose talk.”

The annexation ceremony culminated in Putin, 69, chanting “Russia! Russia!” as he clasped the hands of the Russian-backed officials he wants to run the annexed regions.

NEW SANCTIONS

Biden said new U.S. sanctions would hurt those who provided political or economic support to the annexation drive.

“We will rally the international community to both denounce these moves and to hold Russia accountable,” Biden said in a statement, promising to continue to supply Ukraine with equipment to defend itself.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg accused Putin of provoking “the most serious escalation” of the war since Russia began its invasion on Feb. 24, but said he would not succeed in deterring the alliance from supporting Kyiv.

A resolution introduced by the United States and Albania at the United Nations Security Council condemning Russia’s proclaimed annexation of parts of Ukraine was rejected on Friday after Russia exercised its veto.

Blinken earlier on Friday promised that should Russia block the resolution, Washington would ask the 193-member U.N. General Assembly to condemn the declared annexation and referendums.

In eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s garrison in the town of Lyman was in serious trouble with reports from both sides saying Russian forces were nearly surrounded.

Ukraine said it had all the supply routes to the Russian stronghold in the crosshairs of its artillery in the east, and told Moscow it would have to appeal to Kyiv if it wanted its forces to be allowed out.

The encirclement could leave Ukrainian forces an open path to seize more territory in Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, captured earlier in some of the war’s bitterest fighting.

“We have significant results in the east of our country … everyone has heard what is happening in Lyman,” Zelenskiy said in a Friday night video address.

The war’s brutality was further hammered home just hours before Putin’s speech when missiles struck a convoy of civilian cars preparing to cross the frontline from Ukrainian-held territory in Zaporozhzhia province.

Reuters saw a dozen bodies amid blasted cars in a scene of carnage. Ukraine said 30 people had been killed and almost 100 wounded.

Ukrainian officials called it a deliberate Russian attempt to sever the last links across the front. Moscow blamed the Ukrainians.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/putin-host-kremlin-ceremony-annexing-parts-ukraine-2022-09-29/

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Defiant Putin proclaims Ukrainian annexation, vows war win – Reuters
Defiant Putin proclaims Ukrainian annexation, vows war win – Reuters

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine, Sept 30 (Reuters) – A defiant Vladimir Putin proclaimed Russia’s annexation of a swathe of Ukraine in a pomp-filled Kremlin ceremony, promising Moscow would triumph in its “special military operation” against Kyiv even as some of his troops faced potential defeat.

The Russian president’s proclamation of Russian rule over 15% of Ukraine – the biggest annexation in Europe since World War Two – was roundly rejected by Western countries, with the United States and Britain announcing new sanctions.

It comes as Russian forces in one of the four regions being annexed face being encircled by Ukrainian troops.

In one of his toughest anti-American speeches in more than two decades in power, Putin signalled he was ready to continue what he called a battle for a “greater historical Russia”, slammed the West as neo-colonial and as out to destroy his country, and without evidence accused Washington and its allies of blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

The four Ukrainian regions that he said Russia was absorbing had made a historic choice, he said.

“They have made a choice to be with their people, their motherland, to live with its fate, and to triumph with it. Truth is on our side. Russia is with us!” Putin told his country’s political elite, who had gathered in one of the Kremlin’s grandest halls to watch him sign the annexation documents.

“People living in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia region are becoming our compatriots forever.”

“We will defend our land with all our strength and all our means,” he added, calling on “the Kyiv regime to immediately cease hostilities and return to the negotiation table”.

Putin said the United States had set a precedent when it had dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945, but stopped short of issuing new nuclear warnings against Ukraine himself, something he has done more than once in recent weeks.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States had not yet seen Russia take any action that suggested it is contemplating the use of nuclear weapons, despite what he called Putin’s “loose talk.”

The annexation ceremony culminated in Putin, 69, chanting “Russia! Russia!” as he clasped the hands of the Russian-backed officials he wants to run the annexed regions, which Ukraine is fighting to win back.

Thousands of people, some of them clutching Russian flags, then packed into Moscow’s Red Square to hear celebratory pop music. Putin told the crowd: “Victory will be ours!”

UKRAINE NATO BID

U.S. President Joe Biden said new U.S. sanctions would hurt those who provided political or economic support to the annexation drive.

“We will rally the international community to both denounce these moves and to hold Russia accountable. We will continue to provide Ukraine with the equipment it needs to defend itself, undeterred by Russia’s brazen effort to redraw the borders of its neighbour,” Biden said in a statement.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg accused Putin of provoking “the most serious escalation” of the war since it began on Feb. 24, but said he would not succeed in deterring the alliance from supporting Kyiv.

In Ukraine, President Volodymr Zelenskiy said he was only ready for peace talks if and when Russia got a new president.

1/21

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Denis Pushilin, Leonid Pasechnik, Vladimir Saldo, Yevgeny Balitsky, who are the Russian-installed leaders in Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, attend a ceremony to declare the annexation of the Russian-controlled territories of four Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, after holding what Russian authorities called referendums in the occupied areas of Ukraine that were condemned by Kyiv and governments worldwide, in the Georgievsky Hall of the Great Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, September 30, 2022. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via REUTERS

He also announced that Ukraine was formally applying for fast-track membership of NATO, something Moscow fiercely opposes, and accused Russia of redrawing borders “using murder, blackmail, mistreatment and lies”.

He said however that Kyiv remained committed to the idea of co-existence with Russia “on equal, honest, dignified and fair conditions”.

“Clearly, with this Russian president it is impossible. He does not know what dignity and honesty are. Therefore, we are ready for a dialogue with Russia, but with another president of Russia,” Zelenskiy said.

Ukraine and the West have condemned referendums that Moscow held in the four Ukrainian regions – and said showed big majorities to join Russia – as illegal shams. Several dozen Ukrainians interviewed by Reuters in the last week said that only people they described as “Russian collaborators” had voted, with most people boycotting them.

RUSSIAN FORCES NEARLY SURROUNDED

In Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s garrison in the town of Lyman was in serious trouble on Friday with reports from both sides saying Russian forces were nearly surrounded.

Ukraine said it had all the supply routes to the Russian stronghold in the crosshairs of its artillery in the east, and told Moscow it would have to appeal to Kyiv if it wanted its forces to be allowed out.

The encirclement could leave Ukrainian forces an open path to seize more territory in Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, captured earlier in some of the war’s bitterest fighting.

Retired U.S. General Ben Hodges, a former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, said what looked like an unfolding defeat would further disrupt the Russian army’s already crippled logistics operations.

“There is a psychological aspect to this,” he said. “…The potential for this to lead to something else will be good.”

SHEETS DRAPED OVER BODIES

The war’s brutality was further hammered home just hours before Putin’s speech when missiles struck a convoy of civilian cars preparing to cross the frontline from Ukrainian-held territory in Zaporozhzhia province.

Reuters saw a dozen bodies amid blasted cars in a scene of carnage. Ukraine said 25 people had been killed and 74 wounded.

Ukrainian officials called it a deliberate Russian attempt to sever the last links across the front. Moscow blamed the Ukrainians.

The convoy was assembling at a car park near Zaporizhzhia, the Ukrainian-held capital of one of the regions Moscow says it is annexing.

A crater had been gouged in the ground. The impact had sprayed shrapnel across cars packed with belongings. Reuters saw around a dozen bodies.

Plastic sheets were draped over the bodies of a woman and young man in a green car. Two bodies lay in a white mini-van in front of another car. The corpse of an elderly woman lay nearby, next to her shopping bag.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/putin-host-kremlin-ceremony-annexing-parts-ukraine-2022-09-29/

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Hurricane Ian hurtles toward South Carolina, flooding Charleston roads – NPR
Hurricane Ian hurtles toward South Carolina, flooding Charleston roads – NPR

A map shows coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia that could be inundated by storm surge from Hurricane Ian. Areas in orange could see more than 6 feet of water above ground; those in yellow could see more than 3 feet; blue signals 1 foot or more.

Earthstar Geographics/Esri, HERE, Garmin


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Earthstar Geographics/Esri, HERE, Garmin

A map shows coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia that could be inundated by storm surge from Hurricane Ian. Areas in orange could see more than 6 feet of water above ground; those in yellow could see more than 3 feet; blue signals 1 foot or more.

Earthstar Geographics/Esri, HERE, Garmin

Hurricane Ian is creating chaos along the South Carolina shore, where it made landfall south of Georgetown as a Category 1 storm Friday afternoon. The town is about 60 miles north of Charleston.

As it arrived, Ian was flooding beach areas and residential neighborhoods with storm surges and massive rainfall, sending seawater flowing over roads.

“The flooding has been catastrophic,” the Pawleys Island Police Department said via Twitter, as it posted several videos showing shocking amounts of flooding. In one sequence, the driver of a rescue vehicle is heard asking where to turn — trying to follow roads hidden by rough, deep water.

As of 2 p.m. ET, Ian was carrying maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. In a sign of the many threats posed by Ian, the state of South Carolina was under more than 85 weather warnings, watches and alerts as of 2 p.m.

Police in Horry County, which includes Myrtle Beach, posted video of the ocean rushing toward streets from access paths in Garden City, along with torrential rain and flooded roads. The agency is urging anyone in the area to stay off the roads.

A local TV news crew captured the scene of high water rippling along a causeway nearby.

Ian has already forced road closures in Charleston’s historic downtown, and winds near the city are gusting at hurricane speeds.

It’s the latest impact of the storm that inundated wide sections of the Florida peninsula — and Ian is expected to bring power outages and flooding to South Carolina and southeastern North Carolina.

Ahead of Ian’s arrival, a hurricane warning covered all of the South Carolina coast and part of the North Carolina shore up to Cape Fear.

Late Friday morning, an ocean weather buoy 41 nautical miles southeast of Charleston recorded waves as tall as 21 feet, the National Weather Service said. Earlier this week, no waves at the buoy measured higher than 4 feet.

Coastal communities again brace for Ian’s storm surge

Forecasters had warned that a large swath of the coast in South Carolina and North Carolina could see storm surge waters reach 6 feet above ground, with more than 9 feet possible in some spots.

Charleston County, which includes around 100 miles of coastline, declared an emergency on Thursday and opened shelters for people who want to sit out the storm in safe spaces and on higher ground. But the county had to halt bus service to shelters on Thursday, when high winds made those trips risky.

Just north along the coast, Georgetown County urged people in flood-prone areas to keep an eye on weather warnings — but in contrast to Charleston, the county said on Thursday that it had no plans to open shelters. It also eschewed other steps such as offering sandbags, saying people can buy them at stores.

“Widespread areas will suffer from power and communication outages,” the NWS office in Wilmington, N.C., said. It expects other impacts to range from trees snapped off or uprooted, debris blocking roads and bridges and high roads becoming unsafe.

Flooding started in the predawn darkness

Much of the Charleston metro area began the day Friday under a flash flood warning that was issued around 6 a.m. ET — hours before the hurricane was expected to bring its storm surge.

Cars drive through a nearly-deserted historic district in Charleston, S.C., as the city prepares for Hurricane Ian to make landfall Friday.

Scott Olson/Getty Images


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Cars drive through a nearly-deserted historic district in Charleston, S.C., as the city prepares for Hurricane Ian to make landfall Friday.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Flooding fro heavy rain triggered road closures around the city, from the central intersection of Huger and King streets to roads along the waterfront.

“We urge only essential travel,” the police department said.

In downtown Charleston, some roads started flooding before dawn, as Ian’s heavy rain bands dropped 1 to 2 inches of water on the city, according to the National Weather Service office in Charleston. Another 2 to 6 inches of rain could fall, it warned.

Flash flooding was expected to hit a number of popular tourist areas, such as Folly Beach to Sullivans Island and Isle of Palms. Further inland, floods will also likely hit North Charleston, the office said.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/09/30/1126106288/hurricane-ian-landfall-south-carolina

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Ron DeSantis changes with the wind as Hurricane Ian prompts flip-flop on aid – The Guardian US
Ron DeSantis changes with the wind as Hurricane Ian prompts flip-flop on aid – The Guardian US

As Hurricane Ian has devastated parts of Florida, the national political spotlight in America has shone brighter than ever on Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor, rising star of the hard right and probable presidential contender in 2024.

Since his election in 2018, DeSantis has made his name as a ruthless culture-warrior, a Trump ally but also perhaps his most serious rival.

DeSantis has embraced an extremist agenda on everything from immigration to election integrity, positioning himself as Trumpist on policy but more mainstream on personality and temperament. He has championed “don’t say gay” legislation in Florida schools and this month used taxpayers’ money to send a planeload of migrants from the southern border in Texas to Massachusetts, a Democratic-run state.

That move prompted anger, investigation and legal action. The transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, said DeSantis was “hurting people in order to get attention”. But such opprobrium did not deter a governor playing to a Trumpist base. For his next move, DeSantis suggested, he would send another planeload of unsuspecting asylum seekers to Delaware, where Joe Biden has a weekend home.

But then Hurricane Ian hit. And like ambitious Republicans before him – most famously Chris Christie of New Jersey, whose photo ops with Barack Obama after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 were reckoned to have hurt him in the 2016 primary – DeSantis realised he needed to talk to the president.

On Wednesday, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked: “Given how politicised things are at the moment, are you confident you’re gonna get the federal support Florida needs?”

DeSantis said: “So I actually spoke with the president and he said he wants to be helpful. So we did submit a request for reimbursement for the next 60 days at 100%. That’s significant support, but it’s a significant storm.

“We live in a very politicised time, but you know, when people are fighting for their lives, when their whole livelihood is at stake, when they’ve lost everything, if you can’t put politics aside for that, that you’re just not going to be able to do so.

“So I’ll work with anybody who wants to help the people of south-west Florida and throughout our state.”

Critics were quick to point back to Hurricane Sandy, which battered the east coast 10 years ago, and how DeSantis approached the matter of federal aid then.

DeSantis was elected to Congress in November 2012, becoming a founding member of the Freedom Caucus, the far-right House group which would morph into the nest of Trump supporters and election deniers it constitutes today.

Sandy hit in late October, unusually far north, bringing chaos to New Jersey and New York and leading to more than 100 US deaths. Months later, in January 2013, DeSantis was one of 67 Republicans to vote against a $9.7bn federal aid package for Sandy victims.

He said then: “I sympathise with the victims of Hurricane Sandy and believe that those who purchased flood insurance should have their claims paid. At the same time, allowing the program to increase its debt by another $9.7bn with no plan to offset the spending with cuts elsewhere is not fiscally responsible.

“Congress should not authorise billions in new borrowing without offsetting expenditures in other areas. If a family maxes out its credit cards and faces the need for new spending, it is forced to prioritize by reducing its spending in other areas … this ‘put it on the credit card mentality’ is part of the reason we find ourselves nearly $17tn in debt.”

Times change. Now DeSantis – who budgeted $12m, from federal Covid relief funds, for efforts to move migrants to Democratic states – is facing “one of the biggest flood events we’ve ever had” and needs federal help.

“Dear Mr President,” his formal aid request began. “I request that you issue a Major Disaster Declaration for the State of Florida as a result of Hurricane Ian and authorise and make available all categories of individual assistance and public assistance.”

Ironically, in light of his comparison of aid for Sandy victims to irresponsible home economics, DeSantis also said that as Ian would “hamper local activity … federal aid through the Individuals and Households Program will help alleviate these household budget shortfalls”.

Reporters noticed. Responding to the New York Times, a spokesperson said DeSantis was “completely focused on hurricane response” and added: “As the governor said earlier, we have no time for politics or pettiness.”

Late-night comedians, however, had plenty of time for pointing out DeSantis’s hypocrisy – and pettiness.

Stephen Colbert, host of The Late Show on CBS, perhaps put it most pithily: “If you can, get out of the storm’s path. Worst-case scenario, tell Ron DeSantis you’re Venezuelan, maybe he’ll fly you to Martha’s Vineyard.”

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/30/ron-desantis-hurricane-ian-florida-sandy

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Biden administration scales back student loan forgiveness plan as states sue – CNN
Biden administration scales back student loan forgiveness plan as states sue – CNN

The Biden administration scaled back eligibility for its student loan forgiveness plan Thursday, the same day six Republican-led states sued President Joe Biden in an effort to block his student loan forgiveness plan from taking effect.

Borrowers whose federal student loans are guaranteed by the government but held by private lenders will now be excluded from receiving debt relief. Around 770,000 people will be affected by the change, according to an administration official.

The Department of Education initially said these loans, many of which were made under the former Federal Family Education Loan program and Federal Perkins Loan program, would be eligible for the one-time forgiveness action as long as the borrower consolidated his or her debt into the federal Direct loan program.

On Thursday, the department reversed course. According to its website, privately held federal student loans must have been consolidated before September 29 in order to be eligible for the debt relief.

Borrowers with privately held federal student loans who have not consolidated yet are currently out of luck, though the Department of Education said it “is assessing whether there are alternative pathways” to provide relief.

Borrowers with privately held federal student loans represent a small portion of the 43 million federal student loan borrowers. There are about 4 million borrowers with Federal Family Education Loans, but not all of those people are likely eligible for the loan forgiveness plan, which also includes an income requirement.

“Our goal is to provide relief to as many eligible borrowers as quickly and easily as possible, and this will allow us to achieve that goal while we continue to explore additional legally-available options to provide relief to borrowers with privately owned FFEL loans and Perkins loans, including whether FFEL borrowers could receive one-time debt relief without needing to consolidate,” the Department of Education said in an emailed statement.

“Borrowers with privately held federal student loans who applied to consolidate their loans into Direct Loans before September 29, 2022 will obtain one-time debt relief. The FFEL program is now defunct and only a small percentage of borrowers have FFEL loans. This is a completely different program than Direct Loans,” the statement said.

Lawsuit argues forgiveness will hurt loan servicers

The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Missouri by state attorneys general from Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska and South Carolina, as well as legal representatives from Iowa.

“In addition to being economically unwise and inherently unfair, the Biden Administration’s Mass Debt Cancellation is another example in a long line of unlawful regulatory actions. No statute permits President Biden to unilaterally relieve millions of individuals from their obligation to pay loans they voluntarily assumed,” Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson’s office said in a news release.

The plaintiffs argued that student loan servicers – including the Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri, known as MOHELA – are harmed by Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. It argues that the plan creates an incentive for borrowers to consolidate Federal Family Education Loans owned by MOHELA into Direct Loans owned by the government, “depriving them (MOHELA) of the ongoing revenue it earns from servicing those loans,” according to the lawsuit.

But the Department of Education’s move to exclude borrowers with privately held federal loans from the student loan forgiveness plan could weaken that legal argument, said Luke Herrine, an assistant law professor at the University of Alabama who previously worked on a legal strategy pushing for student debt cancellation.

The White House continues to argue that its student loan forgiveness plan is legal.

“Republican officials from these six states are standing with special interests, and fighting to stop relief for borrowers buried under mountains of debt,”said White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan in an emailed statement.

“The President and his administration are lawfully giving working and middle class families breathing room as they recover from the pandemic and prepare to resume loan payments in January,” he said.

Federal student loan payments have been paused since March 2020, thanks to a pandemic-related benefit. The pause expires on December 31.

Earlier this week, a public interest lawyer who is also a student loan borrower, sued the Biden administration over the student loan forgiveness plan, arguing that the policy is an abuse of executive power and that it would stick him with a bigger state tax bill.

How Biden’s plan will work

Under Biden’s plan, individual borrowers who earned less than $125,000 in either 2020 or 2021 and married couples or heads of households who made less than $250,000 annually in those years will see up to $10,000 of their federal student loan debt forgiven.

If a qualifying borrower also received a federal Pell grant while enrolled in college, the individual is eligible for up to $20,000 of debt forgiveness. Pell grants are awarded to millions of low-income students each year, based on factors that include their family’s size and income and the cost charged by their college. These borrowers are also more likely to struggle to repay their student debt and end up in default.

The administration is expected to roll out the first wave of student loan forgiveness in October.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated this week – before the administration excluded FFEL borrowers – that Biden’s plan could cost the government $400 billion but warned that the estimate relies on several assumptions and is “highly uncertain.”

Estimating the cost of student debt forgiveness is complicated because loans are generally paid back over several years. The White House argues that the CBO’s estimate should be looked at over a 30-year time frame.

Untested legal waters

Biden announced the forgiveness plan in August, after facing mounting pressure from Democrats to forgive some student loan debt. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren repeatedly called on the President to cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt per borrower.

But canceling federal student loan debt so broadly is unprecedented and, until now, has yet to be tested in court. Biden initially urged Congress to take action to cancel some student debt, rather than wade into a murky legal area himself, but Democrats don’t have the votes to pass such legislation.

In a Department of Education memo released in August, the Biden administration argued that the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 – or Heroes Act – grants the Education Secretary the power to cancel student debt to help address the financial harm suffered due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Heroes Act, which was enacted in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, “provides the Secretary broad authority to grant relief from student loan requirements during specific periods,” including a war, other military operation or national emergency, according to the memo.

The lawsuit filed Thursday argues that the Heroes Act does not grant the President such broad authority.

What happens next

Additional lawsuits challenging Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan could be forthcoming. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, has said he is working on developing the best legal theory to sue the administration over the action.

A conservative advocacy group called the Job Creators Network is also weighing its legal options, planning to file a lawsuit once the Department of Education formalizes the student loan forgiveness plan next month.

But some legal experts are skeptical that a legal challenge to Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan could be successful.

Abby Shafroth, staff attorney at the nonprofit National Consumer Law Center, previously told CNN that she believes the merits of the Biden administration’s legal statutory authority are strong and that it’s unclear who would have legal standing to bring a case and want to do so. Standing to bring a case is a procedural threshold requiring that an injury be inflicted on a plaintiff to justify a lawsuit.

If the standing hurdle is cleared, a case would be heard by a district court first – which may or may not issue a preliminary injunction to prevent the cancellation from occurring before a final ruling is issued on the merits of the hypothetical case.

Several recent US Supreme Court decisions have touched on executive power, limiting the federal government’s authority to implement new rules. While the Supreme Court takes up a small number of cases each year, lower courts may look at what the justices have said in those cases when assessing the Department of Education’s authority.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s MJ Lee contributed reporting.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/29/politics/biden-student-loan-forgiveness-plan-lawsuit/index.html

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Zelensky pushes ‘accelerated’ application for Ukraine NATO membership – The Washington Post
Zelensky pushes ‘accelerated’ application for Ukraine NATO membership – The Washington Post

Just an hour before Zelensky’s announcement, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Moscow’s illegal annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, which Russian forces have partially occupied. At the time of Putin’s speech, Zelensky was meeting with his National Security Council. “There will be no negotiations with Russia while Putin is the president,” Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff, said on Telegram. “We are moving forward. To victory.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/30/ukraine-application-nato-russia-war/

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Hurricane Ian aftermath: Death toll rises in Florida – Axios
Hurricane Ian aftermath: Death toll rises in Florida – Axios

At least seven people died after Hurricane Ian pummeled Florida’s western coast with record storm surge flooding as high as 12 feet in some areas and intense winds, according to AP.

The big picture: More than 1.9 million customers were without power in Florida on Friday morning as the state began search and rescue and recovery efforts to deal with severe damage in the hurricane’s aftermath.

  • Two people died in a car crash on Thursday afternoon in Putnam County, which was inundated with rain as the storm passed over the state.
  • At least two people were confirmed dead on Sanibel, an island in southwest Florida that experienced major surge-related flooding during the storm.
  • A person in Lake County died on Wednesday after his vehicle hydroplaned, while another person was found dead in the city of Deltona in central Florida, according to AP.

The latest: The storm regained hurricane status on Thursday night on its way to a damaging encounter with the Carolinas and a portion of southern Georgia.

  • As of 11am ET, the storm was located 60 miles east-southeast of Charleston, South Carolina, and 120 miles south-southwest of Cape Fear, North Carolina, though it was moving north at 14 mph with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, the NHC said.
  • It is expected to make a second official landfall Friday afternoon in South Carolina, bringing with it heavy winds and “life-threatening” storm surge along the coasts of northeast Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

What they’re saying: The hurricane “is likely to rank among the worst in the nation’s history,” Biden said Friday at a press briefing. “You have all seen on television homes and property wiped out. It’s gonna take months, years to rebuild.”

  • Biden had said Thursday “this could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida’s history.”
  • “We absolutely expect to have mortality from this hurricane,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a news briefing Thursday.
  • DeSantis said there were more than 700 confirmed rescues as of Thursday evening.

  • Some of the deadliest hurricanes in Florida tracked by the National Hurricane Center during the first half of the 20th century saw between around 350 and 1,800 deaths.

NHC officials warned Thursday night that many hurricane-related deaths occur days after the storm has passed while people are recovering.

  • These deaths, also called “indirect deaths,” primarily arise from excessive heat and over-exertion and carbon monoxide poisoning from running generators indoors.

Ian made landfall as an “extremely dangerous” hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 150 miles per hour on Florida’s southwestern coast on Wednesday near Cayo Costa, an island to the west of Cape Coral, according to the National Hurricane Center.

  • It then shifted north-northeast and made landfall with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph on mainland Florida just south of the city of Punta Gorda before barreling northeast across the state and weakening into a tropical storm.

Go deeper:

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

Source Article from https://www.axios.com/2022/09/30/hurricane-ian-florida-death-toll

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House passes stopgap funding measure to avoid federal government shutdown – CNBC
House passes stopgap funding measure to avoid federal government shutdown – CNBC

The House on Friday passed a stopgap funding measure to keep the federal government open until at least mid-December.

The continuing resolution measure was approved by a 230-201 margin with a majority-Democratic vote. The approval came a day after the Senate passed the same resolution in a down-to-the-wire vote.

President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law later Friday.

If the resolution had not been passed, the government would have shut down due to Friday evening’s deadline for approval of the upcoming federal budget

Funding in the resolution includes approximately $12 billion in emergency aid for Ukraine, $18.8 billion for the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund, and $1 billion for heating and utility assistance.

The bill, which will fund the government until December 16, needed to pass before negotiations for the final 2023 budget could continue.

The resolution had stalled in Congress until Thursday due to objections by Republicans and progressive Democrats over language that if approved would have sped up the federal process for issuing permits for big energy projects, including pipelines and electrical lines.

The bill moved forward after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., agreed to strike the language.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/30/house-passes-stopgap-funding-measure-to-avoid-federal-government-shutdown.html

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Hurricane Ian Heads For Final Landfall Packing Storm Surge, Heavy Rain, Strong Wind Threats In Carolinas – The Weather Channel
Hurricane Ian Heads For Final Landfall Packing Storm Surge, Heavy Rain, Strong Wind Threats In Carolinas – The Weather Channel

Hurricane Ian is tracking toward its final landfall today, packing threats of flooding rain, storm surge, strong winds and isolated tornadoes from the Carolinas into parts of Virginia.

(​MORE: Latest Updates Page)

L​atest Status

Ian is located about 105 miles south-southeast of Charleson, South Carolina, and is moving quickly north-northeast.

Heavy rain, strong wind gusts and higher than normal water levels are already impacting parts of South and North Carolina.

F​olly Beach, South Carolina, has seen wind gusts up to 66 mph as 7:30 a.m. EDT.

M​ultiple roads have been closed because of flooding in the Charleston metro area this morning. Winds have gusted up to 40 mph at the airport.

Ian should make landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on the upper South Carolina coast this afternoon.

From there, it will weaken to a tropical storm by later Friday and become a remnant area of low pressure over North Carolina on Saturday.

Current Watches, Warnings

A hurricane warning has been issued for areas along and near the coast of South Carolina, including Hilton Head Island, Charleston and Myrtle Beach, and for a portion of the North Carolina coastline northward to Cape Fear. This means hurricane conditions are expected in these areas on Friday.

A storm surge warning remains in effect along the Atlantic coast from the Flagler-Volusia County line in northeast Florida northward to Cape Fear, North Carolina, including Florida’s St. Johns River and also the lower Neuse River in North Carolina. This means life-threatening flooding from rising water moving inland from the coastline is expected.

Tropical storm warnings continue from part of eastern Georgia to much of South Carolina and most of central and eastern North Carolina.

Forecast Impacts

S​torm Surge

The map below shows possible peak storm surge inundation, if that happens at the time of high tide, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Storm surge is expected to continue to cause flooding on the Atlantic side of northeast Florida and into coastal Georgia, South Carolina and eastern North Carolina on Friday.

Moderate coastal flooding is predicted in Charleston and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, during high tide around noon today.

W​ind Threat

Scattered power outages and some tree damage could occur in areas under hurricane and tropical storm warnings, especially in the Carolinas.

The map below shows where sustained tropical storm or hurricane force winds are ongoing as of the latest National Hurricane Center advisory.

R​ainfall, River Flooding

Heavy rainfall is another dangerous threat from the Carolinas into Virginia and the Appalachians.

Here’s the latest rainfall forecast from the National Hurricane Center.

-Northeast South Carolina: 4 to 8 inches, with locally up to 12 inches.

-Upstate and central South Carolina, North Carolina and southern Virginia: 3 to 6 inches, with locally up to 8 inches.

The heavy rain in these areas could trigger flash flooding and river flooding. Farther south, major to record river flooding is expected to continue in parts of Florida into early next week.

Tornadoes

A few tornadoes are possible Friday from eastern South Carolina to eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia.

Hurricane Ian History and Statistics

Ian’s beginnings came from a tropical wave in the Atlantic that fought hard against dry air and wind shear caused by Hurricane Fiona.

Eventually, it became a major hurricane near western Cuba before bringing its extreme winds and storm surge to Florida.

Ian’s U.S. Landfalls

The eye of Ian made its first landfall near Cayo Costa around 3:05 p.m. EDT. Maximum sustained winds were estimated to be near 150 mph, making it a strong Category 4.

This is the exact same point where Hurricane Charley made landfall in 2004 as a Category 4. Both hurricanes had winds of 150 mph at landfall.

Hurricane Ian made a second landfall at 4:35 p.m. in Pirate Harbor, or just south of Punta Gorda, with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph.

This landfall is tied for the 4th strongest landfall by wind speed for a hurricane in Florida, according to Phil Klotzbach, tropical scientist at Colorado State University.

The backside of Ian’s wrath continued to produce additional surge and wind damage in Southwest Florida for hours after landfall.

Wind

Winds gusted from 40 to 80 mph in Key West Tuesday into early Wednesday, where Ian also produced the third highest storm surge in over 100 years.

The highest wind gust was 140 mph in Cape Coral, Florida. The highest sustained winds reported were 115 mph at a private weather station near Port Charlotte, Florida. That station also recorded a wind gust of 132 mph.

Winds gusted over 100 mph in Punta Gorda, Florida, for 30 minutes in the 4 p.m. hour on Sept. 28 and continued to report wind gusts over 100 mph into the evening.

Here are some of the most significant gusts:

Additionally, winds gusted to 126 mph at Redfish Pass, 112 mph at the Naples Grande Beach Resort, and 107 mph near Sanibel Island.

Some gusts topped 70 mph in Northeast Florida on Thursday, including in Daytona Beach. Winds gusted to 89 mph at an elevated tower at Kennedy Space Center. Some gusts over 50 mph were clocked in Gainesville and Jacksonville, and over 30 mph gusts have worked their way along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina.

Surge

Storm surge flooded many cities in Southwest Florida, including in Naples, Florida, where over 6 feet of storm surge inundation has been measured, more than any other storm at that gauge location in at least 50 years. The tidal gauge there has since broken.

Water levels are reaching the top of the first floor of homes in Fort Myers Beach during the eye of Hurricane Ian. This tweet shows the vantage point from the second floor in Fort Myers Beach:

In Fort Myers proper, however, storm surge was over 7 feet with high tide this evening. Previously the highest storm surge was 3.36 feet MHHW during Hurricane Gabrielle in 2001.

Meanwhile, winds are blowing offshore producing a blowout tide in Tampa Bay. Water levels are around 8 feet below average near the Port of Tampa and many parts of Tampa Bay were dry for much of Wednesday.

T​he combination of storm surge and rainfall around high tide sent feet of water into St. Augustine Thursday, with water reportedly entering homes, according to the National Weather Service. St. Augustine Fire Rescue reported water levels were higher in the city than seen during Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

Rainfall

E​xtreme rain triggered major flooding in parts of central Florida, prompting a flash flood emergency for the north side of the Orlando metro area near the Little Wekiva River. Orlando shattered its all-time 24-hour rainfall record, picking up 12.49 inches from 8 a.m. Wednesday through 8 a.m. Thursday, according to weather historian, Christopher Burt. Up to 19 inches of rain has already fallen in parts of the state.

Here’s a look at some of the flooding reports across Florida:

Heavy rain from Ian’s track across Florida sent some rivers in the Florida Peninsula to major, even record flood levels. Widespread flooding occurred on Thursday, Sept. 29 in the greater Orlando metro area.

The Peace River topped a record crest from 1933 at Zolfo Springs, about 60 miles north of Ft. Myers. Record flooding was also recorded in the Little Wekiva River near Altamonte Springs on Orlando’s north side, Shingle Creek at Campbell and Horse Creek near Arcadia, Florida.

More from weather.com:

12 Things You May Not Know About Your Hurricane Forecast

7 Things Florida Newcomers Should Know About Hurricane Season

T​he Florida Peninsula’s Luck Since Hurricane Irma Won’t Last

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

Source Article from https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2022-09-30-hurricane-ian-forecast-landfall-south-north-carolina-virginia

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Ukraine accelerates NATO bid following Russian annexation – The Associated Press – en Español
Ukraine accelerates NATO bid following Russian annexation – The Associated Press – en Español

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s president says his country is submitting an “accelerated” application to join the NATO military alliance.

The comment Friday by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came just after Russia said it would annex four region of Ukraine it seized amid its war and held gunpoint referendums viewed as illegitimate by the international community.

Zelenskyy said: “We are taking our decisive step by signing Ukraine’s application for accelerated accession to NATO.”

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties Friday to annex parts of Ukraine in defiance of international law, saying Moscow would protect the newly incorporated regions by “all available means.”

He also urged Ukraine to sit down for peace talks but immediately insisted he won’t discuss handing them back, opening a new escalatory phase of his seven-month invasion of the country.

Kyiv and the West have rejected his land-grab in Ukraine. The European Union’s 27 member states said they will never recognize the illegal referendums that Russia organized “as a pretext for this further violation of Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

In a Kremlin ceremony at the ornate St. George’s Hall to herald the annexation of the occupied parts of Ukraine, Putin accused the West of fueling the hostilities as part of what he said is a plan to turn Russia into a “colony” and a “crowds of slaves.” The hardening of his position, in the conflict that that has killed and wounded tens of thousands of people, further cranked up tensions, already at levels unseen since the Cold War.

The European Union immediately responded to Putin’s latest step with a joint statement rejecting and condemning “the illegal annexation” of the four regions: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Ukraine vowed to continue fighting.

“We don’t pay attention to those whose time to take pills has come. The army is working, Ukraine is united — only moving forward,” said Andrii Yermak, head of the presidential office..

The ceremony came three days after the completion in the occupied regions of Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums” on joining Russia that were dismissed by Kyiv and the West as a bare-faced land grab held at gunpoint and based on lies.

In his speech railing at the West, Putin urged Ukraine to sit down for talks and said it should treat the Kremlin-managed votes “with respect.” But he immediately qualified his offer of negotiations with a stern warning that surrendering control of the four regions would not be on the table.

Putin portrayed his invasion as part of a historical mission to reclaim Russia’s great power status and counter Western domination that he said is collapsing.

“History has called us to a battlefield to fight for our people, for the grand historic Russia, for future generations,” he said.

The separatist Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine have been backed by Moscow since declaring independence in 2014, weeks after the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. The southern Kherson region and part of neighboring Zaporizhzhia were captured by Russia soon after Putin sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Both houses of the Kremlin-controlled Russian parliament will meet next week to rubber-stamp the treaties for the regions to join Russia, sending them to Putin for his approval.

Putin and his lieutenants have bluntly warned Ukraine against pressing an offensive to reclaim the regions, saying Russia would view it as an act of aggression – threats that Moscow can back up with the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear warheads.

The Kremlin-organized votes in Ukraine were an attempt by Putin to avoid more defeats on the battlefields that could threaten his 22-year rule. By setting Russia’s gains in stone, at least on paper, Putin seemingly hopes to scare Ukraine and its Western backers with the prospect of an increasingly escalatory conflict unless they back down — which they show no signs of doing.

Russia controls most of the Luhansk and Kherson regions, about 60% of the Donetsk region and a large chunk of the Zaporizhzhia region where it took control of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.

The push forward with annexation comes with the Kremlin on the verge of another stinging battlefield loss, with reports of the imminent Ukrainian encirclement of the eastern city of Lyman.

Retaking it could open the path for Ukraine to push deep into Luhansk, one of the regions Russia is absorbing.

“It looks quite pathetic. Ukrainians are doing something, taking steps in the real material world, while the Kremlin is building some kind of a virtual reality, incapable of responding in the real world,” former Kremlin speechwriter turned political analyst Abbas Gallyamov said.

“People understand that the politics is now on the battlefield,” he added. “What’s important is who advances and who retreats. In that sense, the Kremlin cannot offer anything сomforting to the Russians.”

Russia on Friday also pounded Ukrainian cities with missiles, rockets and suicide drones, with one strike reported to have killed 25 people. The salvos together amounted to the heaviest barrage that Russia has unleashed for weeks.

They followed analysts’ warnings that Putin was likely to dip more heavily into his dwindling stocks of precision weapons and step up attacks as part of a strategy to escalate the war to an extent that would shatter Western support for Ukraine.

A Ukrainian counteroffensive has deprived Moscow of mastery on the military fields of battle. Its hold of the Luhansk region appears increasingly shaky, as Ukrainian forces make inroads there, with the pincer assault on Lyman. Ukraine also still has a large foothold in the neighboring Donetsk region.

In the Zaporizhzhia region’s capital, anti-aircraft missiles that Russia has repurposed as ground-attack weapons rained down Friday on people who were waiting in cars to cross into Russian-occupied territory so they could bring family members back across front lines, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said.

The general prosecutor’s office said 25 people were killed and 50 wounded. The strike left deep impact craters and sent shrapnel tearing through the humanitarian convoy’s lined-up vehicles, killing their passengers. Nearby buildings were demolished. Trash bags, blankets and, for one victim, a blood-soaked towel, were used to cover bodies.

Russian-installed officials in Zaporizhzhia blamed Ukrainian forces for the strike, but provided no evidence.

Russian strikes were also reported in the city of Dnipro. The regional governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, said at least one person was killed and five were wounded.

Ukraine’s air force said the southern cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa were also targeted with Iranian-supplied suicide drones that Russia has increasingly deployed in recent weeks, seemingly to avoid losing more pilots who don’t have control of Ukraine’s skies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called an emergency meeting of his National Security and Defense Council and denounced the latest Russian strikes.

“The enemy rages and seeks revenge for our steadfastness and his failures,” he posted on his Telegram channel. “You will definitely answer. For every lost Ukrainian life!”

With Ukraine vowing to take back all occupied territory and Russia pledging to defend its gains, threatening nuclear-weapon use and mobilizing an additional 300,000 troops despite protests, the two nations are on an increasingly escalatory collision course.

That was underscored by the fighting for Lyman, a key node for Russian military operations in the Donbas and a sought-after prize in the Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in late August.

The Russian-backed separatist leader of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, said the city is now “half-encircled” by Ukrainian forces. In comments reported by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, he described the setback as “worrying news.”

”Ukraine’s armed formations,” he said, “are trying very hard to spoil our celebration,”

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-moscow-referendums-dad270d8dccf8873ba7fe7758c387933

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Dozens killed or wounded in Russian missile strike in Ukraine, Kyiv says – Reuters
Dozens killed or wounded in Russian missile strike in Ukraine, Kyiv says – Reuters

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Dozens of civilians were killed or wounded in what Kyiv said was a cynical Russian missile strike on a convoy of civilian cars in southern Ukraine on Friday, leaving bodies strewn across the ground.

The convoy had been assembling at a car market on the edge of the city of Zaporizhzhia, preparing to leave Ukrainian territory controlled by Kyiv to visit relatives and deliver supplies in an area occupied by Russia, officials said.

Car windows were blown out by the impact of the missile strike, and their sides were sprayed by shrapnel, a Reuters witness said.

One body was leaning from the driver’s seat into the passenger seat of a yellow car, the left hand still clutching the steering wheel.

“The enemy is raging and seeking revenge for our steadfastness and his failures. He cynically destroys peaceful Ukrainians because he lost everything human long ago,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“Bloodthirsty scum! You will definitely answer. For every lost Ukrainian life!”

Oleksandr Starukh, the Zaporizhzhia region governor, put the initial toll at 23 killed and 28 wounded in the attack, carried out hours before President Vladimir Putin was due to proclaim Russian rule over Zaporizhzhia and three other provinces where Moscow has seized territory since invading Ukraine.

Andriy Yermak, head of Zelenskiy’s office, later said 25 had been killed and 50 wounded in what he said was an attack by a “terrorist state”.

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians. Vladimir Rogov, an official in the Russian-installed administration in the Zaporizhzhia region, blamed the attack on Ukrainian forces.

Police Colonel Sergey Ujryumov, head of the explosive disposal unit of the Zaporizhzhia police department, said the car market had been hit by three S300 missiles.

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Cars destroyed by a Russian missile strike, that hit a convoy of civilian vehicles amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, are seen in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine September 30, 2022. REUTERS/Stringer

Ujryumov told Reuters that the Russian military “know that columns are formed here to go to the occupied territories. They had the coordinates.”

“It’s not a coincidental strike. It’s perfectly deliberate,” he said.

CORPSES ON THE GROUND

The vehicles were packed with the occupants’ belongings, blankets and suitcases. Plastic sheets were draped over the bodies of a woman and young man in a green car. A dead cat lay next to the young man in the rear seat.

Two bodies lay in a white mini-van in front of another car, its windows blown out and the sides pitted with shrapnel.

The corpse of an elderly woman lay nearby, her shopping bag next to her.

Another woman, who gave her name as Nataliya, said she and her husband had been visiting their children in Zaporizhzhia.

“We were returning to my mother who is 90 years old. We have been spared. It’s a miracle,” she said, standing with her husband beside their car.

Nikola Rusak, a 62-year-old delivery driver from the southern province of Kherson, survived the attack unscathed as he slept in his minivan, parked about 20 metres (yards) from a row of automobile parts shops that were hit by a missile.

“I could not understand what was happening,” he said. “I got out and saw people running. I was in a daze. I was just standing there frozen. I didn’t know what to do,” he said.

Rusak said he had been sleeping in the vehicle for five days after dropping relatives in Zaporizhizia, waiting for a phone call telling him to join the convoy for the trip home to care for his elderly mother.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-missile-strike-hits-ukrainian-civilian-convoy-regional-governor-2022-09-30/

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Some borrowers will no longer be eligible for student loan relief after Education Department reversal – NBC News
Some borrowers will no longer be eligible for student loan relief after Education Department reversal – NBC News
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