The Guardian 2024-10-10 12:14:44


Hurricane Milton has made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, as a category 3 storm with 120 mph sustained winds, according to the National Hurricane Center. Scientists define landfall as the moment the eye of the hurricane moves over the coast – although the approach of the eye wall in the hours before can be more devastating.

Milton is the fifth hurricane to make landfall in the US this year, CNN reports, more than from 2021 to 2023 combined.

Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida as category 3 storm

Powerful cyclone slams into coast, bringing deadly storm surge to Sarasota, Tampa, St Petersburg and Fort Myers

  • Hurricane Milton – latest updates

A weakening but still tremendously powerful Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida’s west coast on Wednesday night as a category 3, pushing ahead of it a massive and potentially deadly wall of water from the Gulf of Mexico, as well as “catastrophic” winds likely to cause significant property damage.

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

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

It was also the second direct hit on Florida in 12 days, after Hurricane Helene’s deadly rampage through the state’s panhandle towards Georgia and the Carolinas beginning on 27 September. Areas devastated by Helene received another pounding as Milton swept ashore with winds above 120mph.

On Wednesday night, a flash flood emergency was in effect for the Tampa Bay area including the cities of Tampa, St Petersburg and Clearwater, the hurricane center said, with St Petersburg already receiving 16.6 inches (42cm) of rain on Wednesday.

So large was its wind field that areas in south Florida, hundreds of miles from Milton’s core, saw dozens of tornado warnings, and at least seven twisters on the ground. In Fort Myers, a tornado spawned in Milton’s outer bands ripped the roof from a house.

With the storm coming ashore before high tide, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he hoped the west coast of the state could avoid the worst predicted storm surge. Forecasters said seawater could rise as high as 13 feet (four metres).

The tornadoes caused damage in numerous counties, and destroyed about 125 homes, most of them mobile homes, DeSantis said.

More than 1.3m homes and businesses in Florida were without power.

“At this point, it’s too dangerous to evacuate safely, so you have to shelter in place and just hunker down,” DeSantis said upon announcing the landfall.

Authorities had warned for days of Milton’s deadly potential, ordering an evacuation of millions of people in coastal areas along west Florida’s Gulf coast vulnerable to a predicted storm surge of up to 15 feet.

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

William Tokajer, police chief of Holmes Beach, advised holdouts to write their names, dates of birth and social security numbers on their limbs with Sharpies to help identify their bodies after the storm.

DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 51 of the state’s 67 counties.

“It’s looking like the storm of the century,” Biden said in an address from the White House in which he urged those in the storm’s path to heed safety advice from local authorities. “It’s literally a matter of life and death”.

The president also condemned falsehoods repeated by Donald Trump, the Republican candidate in next month’s election, that federal recovery funds were being redirected to immigrants. “What a ridiculous thing to say,” Biden said.

Milton, the NHC said, would remain a hurricane as it passed across Florida to the east on Thursday, crossing the popular tourist destination of Orlando before emerging into the Atlantic.

“Heavy rainfall across the Florida peninsula through Thursday brings the risk of catastrophic and life-threatening flash and urban flooding along with moderate to major river flooding,” it said in an afternoon advisory.

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Some Floridians choose to stay despite warnings of life risk: ‘We have faith in the Lord’

As Hurricane Milton approaches many cities were largely deserted but some people decided to shelter in place

  • Hurricane Milton – live updates

Most left when they were told to. But some chose to stay, even though officials warned Hurricane Milton would turn their homes into coffins.

Along Florida’s Gulf coast, where millions of people were urged to get out of harm’s way, cities were largely deserted on Wednesday afternoon as time ran out to evacuate. Those who remained were advised to shelter in place as best they could. Others who fled spoke of their dread at what, if anything, they would return to once the storm had passed.

“I’m fearful that I’m not going to have a house, that it’s going to just be demolished. I’m fearful that my island is going to sink into the water,” said Amanda Champ, who evacuated with her husband, children and two dogs to Alabama on Monday from their home on Anna Maria island, just north of Sarasota.

“I’m fearful that everybody’s belongings are going to be floating around, that there’s just not going to be a way to even get back there. I don’t know what to expect.”

William Tokajer, police chief of Holmes Beach, told islanders who planned to stay to write their names, dates of birth and social security numbers on their limbs with Sharpies to help identify their bodies after the storm.

His alarming words resonated with Champ, and the rest of Anna Maria’s population of about 1,000, reinforcing a message they had been hearing for days. Tokajer said Wednesday that he didn’t believe any residents stayed behind.

“I am a strong believer that things are just things, and that people, the memories, your friends and family, that’s what matters, and how you live your life,” said Champ, who is known as the coconut lady on Anna Maria island for her business selling coconuts to tourists and locals.

“When we were packing to leave my nine-year-old son said ‘Mom, I don’t need anything’. He didn’t want to take anything, he just brought clothes. He’s like, ‘There’s people that need stuff more than me’.”

Champ and her family relocated to a condo in Gulf Shores, Alabama, where she spent Wednesday preparing her coconut stall for a prearranged shrimp festival. It was a welcome distraction from hurricane anxiety, she said.

Messaging from local authorities, she said, had been perfectly clear. “They were going around telling people to leave,” she said. “We just pray that everyone listened and evacuated.”

In Venice, about 40 miles (64km) to the south, Sherry Hall and her family decided to stay in their house several blocks from the ocean, despite many of their neighbors leaving amid warnings of a storm surge up to 15ft. Her husband, Tommy, prepared the property with shutters and sandbags, and she said they had generators, portable air conditioning units, and plenty of water and food to be self-sufficient.

The couple, with their 18-year-old son Devin, did not want get tangled in heavy traffic on evacuation routes, or drive hours searching for hotels. But she said she was still apprehensive, and had heard Gulf waves crashing on the beach during previous storms.

“I’m not saying that I’m not worried. I’m not worried about me or my husband, but when you have children you worry about them,” she said. “As far as life-threatening and all that, we have good faith in the Lord, and we hope and pray for everyone, not just us. Items can be replaced but life isn’t about things, it’s about people and keeping people safe.”

Hall, a hospital administration worker, said although some neighbors left, many others had remained. All, however, had made their decisions aware of authorities’ warnings, she said.

“Word of the storm has got out nicely. They share with you that at a certain point they cannot come and rescue you, they’re telling people, you know, if you decide to stay, that’s on your own risk and on your life, basically,” she said.

“They also tell you it might be a while until the storm’s over and we don’t know when we’re going to get to you. They let the public know. Do I think a lot of people listened this time? Yeah, I think a lot of people have left. And then there are the ones that try to just hunker down as best as they can.”

Christine Bottger, general manager of the Clearwater Beach Holiday Inn, was another who opted to stay. “We’re in a pretty safe area and a pretty sound house, and honestly by the time I would have been able to leave, we would be stuck without a hotel room, then perhaps be stuck on an interstate, not where I want to be in the middle of a storm,” she said.

She said the waterfront hotel suffered significant damage and was flooded by two feet of water in Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, and contractors were in as recently as Monday to start measuring up for repairs.

Now Bottger fears any wind damage from Milton will bring further delay, although she said the hotel’s staff of about 120, who she calls a family, will be eager to help with the clean-up.

She said that even if the hotel cannot reopen for guests, its rooms could shelter first responders and essential workers to help speed the city’s recovery.

“We can get the power companies in and give them a clean room with a comfortable bed, and help get the infrastructure that’s needed back up and running,” she said. “It helps everybody. The pool has 2ft of sand in it and the restaurant was wrecked in Helene, but they won’t be using those.”

Like Champ and Hall, Bottger said warnings from local officials to those who needed to evacuate were clear and on point, and that residents were more likely to listen to those than more general messaging from state or federal authorities.

“The city manager and police chief were driving around yesterday afternoon on the beach, just checking everything before the bridges to the barrier islands were closed,” she said.

“They felt most people were heeding the warning. This time around people noticed the intensity and started taking it seriously when they saw 180mph winds being talked about. It opened their eyes.”

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Seven tornadoes hit Florida in advance of arrival of Hurricane Milton

Tornado watch remains in place ahead of storm’s expected landfall late on Wednesday or early on Thursday

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Seven tornadoes have hit Florida in advance of Hurricane Milton, the National Weather Service in Miami said on Wednesday.

Hurricanes and tropical storms have the ability to produce tornadoes.

The National Weather Service said there had been 53 tornado warnings issued by 3pm ET on Wednesday, 41 of which were issued by the weather service in Miami.

The weather service said on X that it had “received reports of structures damaged in Lakeport” on Wednesday as the “most recent tornado-warned storm moved through the area”. The service said it was the second tornado to impact Lakeport, an unincorporated community about two hours from Miami, on Wednesday.

A tornado was captured on video tearing through Fort Meyers, crossing over the major I-75 highway as cars were still driving.

Hurricane Milton has been downgraded to category 3 but is still a grave threat to Florida, officials said.

The tornado watch will remain valid until Wednesday evening at 9pm ET and covers parts of south Florida including Miami, Key Largo, Tampa, Port St Lucie, Jupiter Farms, Sebring, Sebastian, Sarasota, North Port, Cape Coral and Bonita Springs, according to the agency.

Videos and pictures posted online showed several of the spotted tornadoes growing in size as they move across south Florida.

The agency also warned that isolated hail up to 0.5in in size is possible, along with isolated gusts of wind traveling up to 70mph (112km/h). Approximately 12.6 million residents face potential exposure to the tornadoes, in addition to 2,424 schools and 170 hospitals.

The tornadoes come as Hurricane Milton is expected to double in size as the “storm of the century” by the time it makes landfall late on Wednesday or early Thursday.

The record storm is expected to bring up to 15ft (4.5 metres) of storm surge along the coast of Florida as the state continues to reel from the widespread devastation caused by Hurricane Helene a few weeks ago.

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Saudi Arabia narrowly fails in bid to win a seat on UN human rights council

The country had faced a campaign from rights groups who accused it of being ‘unfit to serve on the Human Rights Council’

Saudi Arabia narrowly failed in its bid to win a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, a blow to Riyadh’s efforts to boost the country’s rights reputation abroad, four years after it was rejected in a 2020 bid to join the 47-member body.

Saudi Arabia is spending billions to transform its global image from a country known for strict religious restrictions and human rights abuses into a tourism and entertainment hub under a plan its Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, launched known as Vision 2030.

Members of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council are elected by the 193-member UN general assembly in New York, in a secret ballot in geographical groups to ensure even representation.

The Asia-Pacific group, which included Saudi Arabia, was the only competitive race on Wednesday, with six candidates vying for five seats. Saudi Arabia missed out with 117 votes.

Campaigners had warned that Saudi Arabia’s election to the council would undermine its ability to demand justice for rights violations and would feel like a “slap in the face” to the many victims of the Saudi regime.

To the dismay of human rights groups, Saudi Arabia was chosen in March to chair a UN commission that is supposed to promote gender equality and empower women around the world.

Before the vote on Wednesday, Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch, called Saudi Arabia “unfit to serve on the Human Rights Council.”

He pointed to accusations that Saudi border guards had been accused of killing hundreds of Ethiopians as they sought to cross from Yemen in 2022-23 in what critics have said may amount to a crime against humanity, and that the country has still not accounted for the 2018 murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“Governments that commit crimes against humanity or similar atrocities and ensure impunity for those responsible shouldn’t be rewarded with seats on the UN’s top human rights body,” Charbonneau said.

A letter sent last year by Saudi Arabia’s mission to the UN in Geneva said that it “categorically refutes” allegations that the kingdom carries out any “systematic” killings on the border. The Saudi government has maintained that Khashoggi’s killing was carried out by a rogue group.

While the Human Rights Council does not have legally binding powers, its meetings raise scrutiny and it can mandate investigations to document abuses, which sometimes form the basis for war crimes prosecutions.

It was created in 2006 to replace a human rights commission discredited because of some members’ poor rights records. But the new council soon came to face similar criticism, including that countries sought seats to protect themselves and their allies.

Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Czech Republic, North Macedonia, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Iceland, Spain and Switzerland were elected to the council. While Benin, the Gambia and Qatar were reelected for a second three-year term. Council members cannot serve more than two consecutive terms.

The new elected members will begin their term in 2025.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report

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Former foreign policy adviser to three UK PMs appointed as UN aid chief

Tom Fletcher becomes sixth Briton in a row to take up post despite calls for it to be subject to open competition

A former foreign policy adviser to three prime ministers including Gordon Brown has been appointed to the key post of UN coordinator for humanitarian affairs.

Tom Fletcher is the latest in a line of six UN humanitarian chiefs from the UK. The most recent was Martin Griffiths, who stepped down in the summer.

Fletcher’s appointment is controversial because there has been a push from the Middle East and elsewhere for the post no longer to be monopolised by a British candidate, and that all such senior UN postings should be subject to open competition.

More than 60 eminent diplomats and humanitarians wrote a letter to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, in April saying that at a time of unprecedented humanitarian crises it would be “quite wrong arbitrarily to restrict the search of a humanitarian coordinator to nationals of any one member state”.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar, two countries that supply large amounts of humanitarian aid, had put forward rival applications. Griffiths had also said the job is too crucial to be left to favouritism, and numerous UN resolutions have been passed calling for the appointments process to be made more transparent and more open to the global south.

It is understood Guterres slowed the appointments process to prevent the Conservative government nominee, Tariq Ahmad, a former Middle East minister, being given the role. With Labour expected to win the election, he wanted to wait to give Keir Starmer a chance to make a nomination.

Fletcher is seen as a gifted communicator with the diplomatic skills needed to intervene in conflicts that have triggered humanitarian crises from Gaza and Yemen to Myanmar, Sudan and Ukraine. The role is not only to raise humanitarian funds, but also to resolve the political conflicts that led to displacement and hunger.

Brown sprung to Fletcher’s defence, saying support for humanitarian aid needed to be radically extended to meet the emergencies engulfing more than 50 countries and affecting more than 100 million people. “Tom has huge diplomatic and leadership experience. He will bring creativity and resilience to this role,” he said.

Fletcher’s appointment is particularly striking given that the UK’s status as a development superpower with a large aid chequebook has been damaged by successive budget cuts that the Labour government is not expected to quickly overturn.

Speaking after his appointment was confirmed by the UN in New York, Fletcher said: “The humanitarian community is underfunded, overstretched and under attack. We must reset the relationship between the world and those in direct need. We can be better neighbours and ancestors.

“I am grateful for the UN secretary general Guterres for giving me this opportunity to support that effort. I pay tribute to Martin Griffiths and to my future comrades in the humanitarian movement who are leading such vital work. I will defend humanitarians, humanitarian values and most importantly the people we are here to serve.”

His appointment is the first of a series that Starmer needs to make, including cabinet secretary, national security adviser and British ambassador to Washington.

The ambassador posting is likely to be political with four candidates in the running: Tony Blair’s former communications chief Peter Mandelson, the former foreign secretary David Miliband, the former international development secretary Valerie Amos, and the former EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton.

Mandelson is also standing to be chancellor of Oxford University and has been told no prohibition exists on holding both jobs.

The current UK ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, is seen as a possible national security adviser along with the senior civil servant Olly Robbins and the former permanent secretary at the Home Office, Matthew Rycroft.

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Biden and Netanyahu speak as Gallant warns of ‘deadly’ surprise attack on Iran

Leaders talk for first time in weeks as US administration seeks to weigh in on Israel’s plans

Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu spoke for the first time in weeks on Wednesday amid expectations of an imminent Israeli strike on Iran, which Yoav Gallant warned would be “deadly, precise and surprising”.

Netanyahu’s defence minister issued the warning in a video message on Israeli media on Wednesday night, broadcast after he postponed a scheduled trip to Washington.

Gallant said that the Iranian missile attack on Israel on 1 October had been a failure but would be avenged.

“Whoever attacks us will be hurt and will pay a price. Our attack will be deadly, precise and above all surprising, they will not understand what happened and how it happened, they will see the results,” the Israeli defence minister said.

Gallant’s video message was broadcast a few hours after the conversation between Netanyahu and Biden, their first in seven weeks, which was joined by the vice-president, Kamala Harris, whose presidential campaign could be upset by the widening hostilities in the Middle East and any consequent spike in oil prices. It also emerged on Wednesday that Netanyahu last week spoke with Harris’s opponent, Donald Trump.

A White House readout of the call did not directly mention possible retaliation for the Iranian missile strike but said Biden had condemned Tehran’s attack “unequivocally” and pledged “ironclad” support for Israel.

Biden and Netanyahu “agreed to remain in close contact over the coming days, both directly and through their national security teams,” the readout said.

The timing and scope of the Israeli retaliation is still unclear, and a miscalculation could propel Iran and Israel into a full-scale war, which neither side says it wants. The US, Israel’s staunch ally, is wary of being drawn into the fighting, and of oil price shocks.

The Biden administration is keen to weigh in on Israel’s plans and avoid surprises like the Israeli killing of the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, although the Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had so far refused to share details. Biden said last week that he would not support strikes on Iranian oil or nuclear sites.

Netanyahu’s relationship with Biden has deteriorated significantly since the spring over Israel’s war in Gaza. Biden allegedly shouted and swore at Netanyahu in July over Israel’s failure to give Washington advance warning of another strike on a senior Hezbollah leader, according to a new book by the journalist Bob Woodward.

In War, a book out next week, Woodward reports that Biden regularly accused Netanyahu of having no strategy, and shouted: “Bibi, what the fuck?” at him in July, after Israeli strikes near Beirut and in Iran.

Netanyahu’s office also confirmed that the prime minister had recently spoken with the former president Trump. The Republican, who is in a close White House race against Harris, called Netanyahu last week and “congratulated him on the intense and determined operations that Israel carried out against Hezbollah”, according to Netanyahu’s office.

“World leaders want to speak and meet with President Trump because they know he will soon be returning to the White House and will restore peace around the globe,” a Trump campaign spokesperson said in a statement about that call, which a Trump ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, also joined.

There still appear to be disagreements within Israel’s security cabinet over an appropriate response to Iran’s firing of 180 ballistic missiles, an attack that was mostly intercepted by air defence systems but killed one person in the occupied West Bank and hit some Israeli military sites.

Netanyahu promised that Iran would pay for the attack, while Tehran has repeatedly warned that an Israeli attack on its soil would be met with further escalation.

Israel is fearful of a costly war of attrition with Iran while it is fighting in Gaza and Lebanon. After Tehran fired its first ever direct salvo at Israel in April in retaliation for the killing of a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander in Syria, Israel heeded western calls for restraint, striking an air defence battery at an Iranian airbase.

Israel’s response this time is expected to be more severe, but its timing remains unclear. Axios reported that the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, postponed a scheduled visit to Washington on Wednesday at Netanyahu’s insistence. The prime minister wanted the cabinet to vote on the attack plans first and to speak to Biden himself before Gallant held discussions with Pentagon officials, the report said.

In Lebanon on Wednesday, eight days into Israel’s ground invasion, clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces appeared to be spreading across the mountainous border area.

The militant group said it had pushed back Israeli troops near Labbouneh, close to the Mediterranean coast, and attacked units with rocket fire in the villages of Maroun el-Ras, Mays al-Jabal and Mouhaybib.

Four people were killed and 10 wounded by an Israeli airstrike in Wardanieh, near the coastal town of Sidon.

Heavy fire from Lebanon triggered rocket sirens and air defence interceptions across northern Israel on Wednesday, killing two people in the border town of Kiryat Shmona and wounding six in the major city of Haifa.

A quarter of Lebanon is now under Israeli evacuation orders, which have driven 1.2 million people from their homes. At least 1,400 have been killed in the last three weeks.

During their call Biden emphasised to Netanyahu the “need to minimise harm to civilians, in particular in the densely populated areas of Beirut”.

Many Lebanese people fear that Israel’s intense bombings and use of widespread evacuation orders mean the country faces a similar fate to Gaza, where 42,000 people have been killed in a year of fighting. The war was triggered by Hamas’s 7 October rampage in southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.

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At least 400,000 people trapped by Israel’s latest Gaza offensive, says Unrwa

Raid centred on Jabaliya camp is worsening hunger and threatening polio vaccine campaign, says Philippe Lazzarini

Hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza remain trapped by the latest Israeli offensive centred on Jabaliya refugee camp, according to UN agencies and human rights groups.

“At least 400,000 people are trapped in the area,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, posted on X on Wednesday, amid witness accounts of bodies lying uncollected in the streets because of the renewed fighting.

“Recent evacuation orders from the Israeli authorities are forcing people to flee again & again, especially from Jabaliya camp,” added Lazzarini. “Many are refusing because they know too well that no place anywhere in Gaza is safe.”

The Israeli military says the large-scale raid, now in its fifth day, is intended to stop Hamas fighters staging further attacks from Jabaliya and to prevent them regrouping, as at least 60 people were killed in Israeli military strikes on Gaza on Wednesday.

Lazzarini said some Unrwa shelters and services were being forced to shut down for the first time since the war began and that with almost no basic supplies available, hunger was spreading again in northern Gaza. “This recent military operation also threatens the implementation of the second phase of the #polio vaccination campaign for children,” he said.

Israel did not immediately comment on Lazzarini’s remarks. Israeli authorities have previously said they facilitate food deliveries to Gaza despite challenging conditions.

Israel’s most important ally, the US, later called on it to urgently address “catastrophic conditions” among Palestinian civilians in Gaza and stop “intensifying suffering” by limiting aid deliveries.

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

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

Despite a year of relentless Israeli attacks on Gaza, and intermittent declarations by the IDF and other officials claiming to have defeated Hamas, Israeli tanks and infantry attacked northern Gaza for a third time in force earlier this week, claiming the action was necessary to prevent Hamas “regrouping”.

Three journalists were among Wednesday’s casualties; the Hamas affiliated TV channel al-Aqsa said on Telegram that one of its photojournalists, Mohammad al-Tanani, was killed in an attack in Jabalia, while its reporter Tamer Labad, and Al Jazeera cameraman Fadi Al Wahidi were both critically injured.

In a statement, Al Jazeera accused the Israeli military of the deliberately targeting journalists. “This incident marks yet another grave violation against journalists in Gaza, where Israeli forces have been increasingly hostile toward media workers,” it wrote.

Along with evacuation orders, the IDF has ordered the closure once again of several hospitals in northern Gaza, including the Kamal Adwan, Indonesia and al-Awda hospitals. The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights described the situation as “deja vu” on social media, adding: “We all know the horrors that follow such orders.”

Among those raising the alarm has been the international medical group Médecins Sans Frontières, whose staff described the situation in northern Gaza.

“All of a sudden, I was told that we had to move from the north,” said Mahmoud, an MSF guard, who left Jabaliya at night to find refuge at the MSF guest house in Gaza City.

“We left our home in despair, under bombs, missiles and artillery. It was very, very difficult. I would prefer to die than to be displaced to the south; my home is here, and I do not want to leave.”

Sarah Vuylsteke, an MSF project coordinator in Gaza, said: “The latest move to forcefully and violently push thousands of people from northern Gaza to the south is turning the north into a lifeless desert while aggravating the situation in the south.

“Access to water, healthcare and safety is already almost nonexistent, and the thought of more people fitting into this space is impossible to imagine,” she said. “People have been subjected to endless displacement and relentless bombing for the past 12 months. Enough is enough. This must stop now.”

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and dozens of humanitarian facilities had been affected by the Israeli military’s latest forced evacuations across north, central and southern Gaza.

Between Saturday and Monday, evacuations orders were in place for several areas in the north of the Palestinian territory as well as areas in central Deir al-Balah and southern Khan Younis.

“There are growing risks that humanitarian access will be further constrained, particularly between southern and northern Gaza,” OCHA warned.

At least 18 people were killed in the latest Israeli military strikes on Gaza overnight, Palestinian medics said on Wednesday, including five children and two women. Two strikes hit tents for displaced people in the urban Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza.

The bodies of nine people, including three children, were brought to the al-Aqsa hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah. An Associated Press journalist saw the bodies at the morgue.

In northern Gaza, an Israeli strike hit a family home in the Jabaliya refugee camp, killing at least nine people, according to the Civil Defence, a rescue agency operating under the Hamas-run government.

The dead were taken to the al-Ahli hospital, which said two women and two children were among those killed. Footage shared by the Civil Defence showed first responders recovering dead bodies and body parts from under the rubble.

The latest deaths brought the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza by Israeli operations since October 2023 to 42,010 with a further 97,720 injured, according to Gaza’s ministry of health.

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Indian tycoon Ratan Tata dies at age 86

Tata, described as ‘a truly uncommon leader’, credited with transforming Tata Group into a global conglomerate

The Indian business tycoon and former Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata has died, aged 86.

Tata, who had headed India’s largest conglomerate for over 20 years, had been receiving intensive care at Mumbai hospital, according to Reuters.

He was famous for making large acquisitions, including buying the British tea firm Tetley in 2000 for $432m and the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus in 2007 for $13bn, which at the time was an unprecedented takeover of a foreign firm by an Indian company. Tata Motors then acquired two of Britain’s most recognisable car brands: British Jaguar and Land Rover, from Ford Motor Co.

“It is with a profound sense of loss that we bid farewell to Mr Ratan Naval Tata, a truly uncommon leader whose immeasurable contributions have shaped not only the Tata Group but also the very fabric of our nation,” the company said.

Tata was described as a “a visionary business leader, a compassionate soul and an extraordinary human being” by the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi.

In a statement announcing Tata’s death Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the current chairman of Tata Sons, said: “On behalf of the entire Tata family, I extend our deepest condolences to his loved ones. His legacy will continue to inspire us as we strive to uphold the principles he so passionately championed.”

After gaining a degree in architecture from Cornell University in the United States, Tata returned to his homeland in India and, in 1962, began working for the company his great-grandfather had founded nearly a century earlier.

Three decades later, Ratan Tata took over from his uncle JRD Tata, ushering in a global outlook and an era of high growth. He shook up the company’s hierarchy by enforcing retirement ages and promoting young people to senior positions.

Tata oversaw the construction of the Indica, the first car model designed and built in India. He also oversaw the design of the Nano, which was promoted as the world’s cheapest car, contributing initial sketches for both models.

The Indica was a commercial success. The Nano, however, was discontinued after safety issues and a poor marketing campaign. It ended Tata’s dream of producing an affordable car for all Indians.

He was an licensed pilot, and was known for being quiet, modest and an animal lover. “My love for dogs as pets is ever strong and will continue for as long as I live,” the industrialist, who never married, said in a 2021 interview.

“There is an indescribable sadness every time one of my pets passes away, and I resolve I cannot go through another parting of that nature. And yet, two-three years down the road, my home becomes too empty and too quiet for me to live without them, so there is another dog that gets my affection and attention, just like the last one.”

In 2008, the Indian government awarded him the Padma Vibhushan, the country’s second-highest civilian honour.

  • Additional reporting by Reuters

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  • Indian tycoon Ratan Tata dies at age 86

Labour and Lib Dems gleeful as Badenoch to face Jenrick in Tory leadership race

Next leader will be from populist wing of party after James Cleverly loses out in chaotic final MPs’ vote

The next Conservative leader will be from the populist right of the party after Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick were selected as the final two candidates, with Tory MPs eliminating James Cleverly in a stunning turnaround.

In a result which left many Conservatives shocked, and some Labour and Lib Dem officials openly delighted, a final vote of Tory MPs saw Badenoch come first, just ahead of Jenrick, with Cleverly last.

Cleverly, the shadow home secretary and the last remaining candidate from the party’s centre, had topped the previous round of voting on Tuesday and was the favourite to win, including the final round among party members.

But the results, announced by Bob Blackman, chair of the party’s 1922 Committee of backbenchers, saw Cleverly lose support, going from 39 votes on Tuesday – just one away from the 40 needed to guarantee a spot – to 37.

Badenoch went from 30 votes on Tuesday to 42. Jenrick moved from 31 supporters to 41. The final decision will now be made in a ballot of Conservative party members, with the result announced on 2 November.

The result was met with dismay among some Tory MPs, many of whom are on the more moderate One Nation wing of the party yet are left with a choice between two rightwingers as a result of attempts at tactical voting. “We’ve just been too clever by half,” one said.

Another Tory MP said they were now getting messages from local members saying: “What the hell are you doing?”

Party insiders have said it was striking how many more moderate party members had engaged with the contest, adding further momentum to Cleverly’s bid.

Nadine Dorries, the Tory former cabinet minister, said on X: “MPs had one job. To be normal and vote for the person who is best placed to lead you. It really wasn’t hard.” During the party’s conference in Birmingham last week, Cleverly had urged party members to be “more normal”.

The latest twist in the contest saw immediate conjectures of plotting and vote-lending, including the notion that Cleverly’s team sought to keep Badenoch, initially seen as the favourite of party members, off the final ballot but badly miscalculated.

However, a source in Cleverly team said there was “absolutely no coordinated vote lending from our campaign at any point”. A source in Jenrick’s camp said the same.

Other MPs suggested that some supporters of Tugendhat, who was eliminated on Tuesday, assumed that fellow centrist Cleverly was guaranteed a spot in the last two and thus decided to back Badenoch due to their distaste at Jenrick’s pledge to pull the UK out of the European convention on human rights.

Whatever happens, it means the next opposition leader will be firmly on the right of party, with the main differences between Jenrick and Badenoch ones of emphasis. Jenrick has pushed policies around migration, while Badenoch has focused more on culture war issues and institutional reform.

Both have argued that they can unite the party, and Jenrick was long seen as a centrist. However, after he quit as immigration minister in Rishi Sunak’s government he has taken a more right-leaning and sometimes populist approach, promising to immediately pull the UK out of the ECHR if he become prime minister.

Jenrick has explicitly couched the issue of withdrawal in Brexit-style terms, calling it an issue of “leave or remain” and saying that he wants to “get migration done”.

Badenoch has taken a more nuanced approach to the issue. Speaking after Wednesday’s result, she told Sky News that focusing on the ECHR “shuts down the conversation we need to have with the entire country” about migration.

While Jenrick told Sky he could “absolutely” pledge a clean contest, his camp has already sought to highlight their opponent’s fondness for battles over culture war issues.

Tory members would, a source in Jenrick’s camp said, “face a choice between voting for a candidate with a serious plan and detailed policies or risking being drawn into endless rabbit holes, Twitter spats and distractions”.

After the result, Cleverly said on X: “Sadly it wasn’t to be. We are all Conservatives, and it’s important the Conservative party unites to take on this catastrophic Labour Government.”

But Labour characterised the Tory members’ task as “choosing between two of the architects of Tory failure”, emphasising the ministerial roles held by Badenoch, the shadow housing secretary, and Jenrick.

In private, cabinet ministers were gleeful. One told the Guardian: “After a few weeks off, it looks like Keir’s genie is back at work.” In a jokey reference to the government’s donations row, a Labour MP asked: “Does Tory leadership result need to be declared as a gift?”

The Liberal Democrats said: “If this were an interview process they would’ve put the job advert up again. The best the Conservatives can come up with is a failed former minister who’d vote for Donald Trump and a failed former minister who thinks maternity pay is excessive.”

Jenrick has said he would back Trump if he was in the US, while Badenoch’s comments about maternity pay were among a series of controversial comments she made during last week’s Conservative conference, which some believed might have affected her chances of success.

Throughout the contest, multiple Tory MPs said they were concerned that she might be a liability as leader, as she could be rude and abrasive. Before the election, she was accused of creating an intimidating atmosphere in the government department she used to run.

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Labour and Lib Dems gleeful as Badenoch to face Jenrick in Tory leadership race

Next leader will be from populist wing of party after James Cleverly loses out in chaotic final MPs’ vote

The next Conservative leader will be from the populist right of the party after Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick were selected as the final two candidates, with Tory MPs eliminating James Cleverly in a stunning turnaround.

In a result which left many Conservatives shocked, and some Labour and Lib Dem officials openly delighted, a final vote of Tory MPs saw Badenoch come first, just ahead of Jenrick, with Cleverly last.

Cleverly, the shadow home secretary and the last remaining candidate from the party’s centre, had topped the previous round of voting on Tuesday and was the favourite to win, including the final round among party members.

But the results, announced by Bob Blackman, chair of the party’s 1922 Committee of backbenchers, saw Cleverly lose support, going from 39 votes on Tuesday – just one away from the 40 needed to guarantee a spot – to 37.

Badenoch went from 30 votes on Tuesday to 42. Jenrick moved from 31 supporters to 41. The final decision will now be made in a ballot of Conservative party members, with the result announced on 2 November.

The result was met with dismay among some Tory MPs, many of whom are on the more moderate One Nation wing of the party yet are left with a choice between two rightwingers as a result of attempts at tactical voting. “We’ve just been too clever by half,” one said.

Another Tory MP said they were now getting messages from local members saying: “What the hell are you doing?”

Party insiders have said it was striking how many more moderate party members had engaged with the contest, adding further momentum to Cleverly’s bid.

Nadine Dorries, the Tory former cabinet minister, said on X: “MPs had one job. To be normal and vote for the person who is best placed to lead you. It really wasn’t hard.” During the party’s conference in Birmingham last week, Cleverly had urged party members to be “more normal”.

The latest twist in the contest saw immediate conjectures of plotting and vote-lending, including the notion that Cleverly’s team sought to keep Badenoch, initially seen as the favourite of party members, off the final ballot but badly miscalculated.

However, a source in Cleverly team said there was “absolutely no coordinated vote lending from our campaign at any point”. A source in Jenrick’s camp said the same.

Other MPs suggested that some supporters of Tugendhat, who was eliminated on Tuesday, assumed that fellow centrist Cleverly was guaranteed a spot in the last two and thus decided to back Badenoch due to their distaste at Jenrick’s pledge to pull the UK out of the European convention on human rights.

Whatever happens, it means the next opposition leader will be firmly on the right of party, with the main differences between Jenrick and Badenoch ones of emphasis. Jenrick has pushed policies around migration, while Badenoch has focused more on culture war issues and institutional reform.

Both have argued that they can unite the party, and Jenrick was long seen as a centrist. However, after he quit as immigration minister in Rishi Sunak’s government he has taken a more right-leaning and sometimes populist approach, promising to immediately pull the UK out of the ECHR if he become prime minister.

Jenrick has explicitly couched the issue of withdrawal in Brexit-style terms, calling it an issue of “leave or remain” and saying that he wants to “get migration done”.

Badenoch has taken a more nuanced approach to the issue. Speaking after Wednesday’s result, she told Sky News that focusing on the ECHR “shuts down the conversation we need to have with the entire country” about migration.

While Jenrick told Sky he could “absolutely” pledge a clean contest, his camp has already sought to highlight their opponent’s fondness for battles over culture war issues.

Tory members would, a source in Jenrick’s camp said, “face a choice between voting for a candidate with a serious plan and detailed policies or risking being drawn into endless rabbit holes, Twitter spats and distractions”.

After the result, Cleverly said on X: “Sadly it wasn’t to be. We are all Conservatives, and it’s important the Conservative party unites to take on this catastrophic Labour Government.”

But Labour characterised the Tory members’ task as “choosing between two of the architects of Tory failure”, emphasising the ministerial roles held by Badenoch, the shadow housing secretary, and Jenrick.

In private, cabinet ministers were gleeful. One told the Guardian: “After a few weeks off, it looks like Keir’s genie is back at work.” In a jokey reference to the government’s donations row, a Labour MP asked: “Does Tory leadership result need to be declared as a gift?”

The Liberal Democrats said: “If this were an interview process they would’ve put the job advert up again. The best the Conservatives can come up with is a failed former minister who’d vote for Donald Trump and a failed former minister who thinks maternity pay is excessive.”

Jenrick has said he would back Trump if he was in the US, while Badenoch’s comments about maternity pay were among a series of controversial comments she made during last week’s Conservative conference, which some believed might have affected her chances of success.

Throughout the contest, multiple Tory MPs said they were concerned that she might be a liability as leader, as she could be rude and abrasive. Before the election, she was accused of creating an intimidating atmosphere in the government department she used to run.

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European summit to discuss Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s ‘victory plan’ is postponed

World leaders pull out from talks in Germany after Joe Biden withdraws due to Hurricane Milton

An international summit on Ukraine where Volodymyr Zelenskyy was going to present a “victory plan” to western leaders has been formally postponed – though the Ukrainian president will try to organise a tour of European capitals instead.

Organisers said that the Saturday meeting of about 20 world leaders at the US Ramstein airbase in Germany would be rescheduled, a day after Biden had said he had to stay at home to respond to Hurricane Milton’s landfall in Florida.

Ukrainian sources said that Zelenskyy would travel to meet the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in Berlin on Friday – and potentially go on to visit other leaders as part of what sources described as a “European tour”.

German officials also promised that another leaders’ meeting to discuss Ukraine would be held soon, though it is not clear if it will happen before the US presidential election in November, which pits military aid sceptic Donald Trump against a more supportive Kamala Harris.

Steffen Hebestreit, a spokesperson for the German government, said: “It is true that the national security advisers are in close contact with each other and are also coordinating closely on the issue of Ukraine … there should be a face-to-face meeting soon and an exchange of views.”

The Ramstein summit was to be a centrepiece of a four-day trip by Biden to Germany, where Zelenskyy was to lobby to use long-range missiles inside Russia and to be given more air defence systems, in a fresh attempt to fend off Moscow’s aggression.

But it was also an opportunity for Ukraine to present proposals to bring a halt to the fighting – though it is unclear how that can be achieved. Russia is continuing to gain ground gradually in eastern Ukraine, and the Kremlin is hoping that if Trump wins, billions of military support will be stopped.

There had also been speculation that the meeting would discuss concrete steps on how Ukraine could eventually become a member of Nato, but any extra commitments were not expected to amount to immediate membership and direct military support.

Those due to attend the summit included Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, but once Biden said he could not go, their presence was in doubt. Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, pulled out earlier on Wednesday before the postponement was announced.

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Ursula von der Leyen attacks Viktor Orbán over pro-Russia stance

Pointed speech by EC president in Strasbourg rebukes Hungarian leader for economic and political policies

Ursula von der Leyen has accused Viktor Orbán of a historic failure to support Ukraine, economic mismanagement and making his country a “back door for foreign interference” in her sharpest public rebuke yet to Hungary’s strongman leader.

Standing a few metres away from Orbán in the European parliament in Strasbourg, the European Commission president pointedly criticised Orbán’s stance on Ukraine by contrasting his record with that of Hungarian freedom fighters of 1956, who rose against Soviet oppression but were ultimately defeated by the Red Army.

Without naming Orbán directly, she said: “There are still some who blame this war not on Putin’s lust for power but on Ukraine’s thirst for freedom, so I want to ask them: would they ever blame the Hungarians for the Soviet invasion in 1956?”

She added: “There is no European language where peace is synonymous with surrender and sovereignty is synonymous with occupation.”

Von der Leyen was speaking after Orbán set out the priorities for Hungary’s six-month EU presidency, in an address where he sometimes offered a fairly conventional script calling for less regulation and efforts to bolster the EU’s single market.

This usually routine moment in the EU calendar became a boisterous session, with singing and personal insults. Orbán’s MEPs in the far-right Patriots for Europe group applauded him, while the mainstream pro-European parties clapped for von der Leyen. The Hungarian leader also had to listen to a rowdy rendition of the anti-fascist song Bella Ciao from a small group, prompting the speaker, Roberta Metsola, to intervene to bring order: “This is not Eurovision.”

After Orbán lamented Europe’s declining share of global trade, von der Leyen took him to task for Hungary’s economic policies such as taxes that target foreign companies, export restrictions, “arbitrary inspections” and public contracts awarded to a small group of beneficiaries.

While Orbán attempted to cast himself as a strong defender of European borders, she said Hungarian authorities had released convicted people smugglers and traffickers early from prison, adding: “This is not fighting illegal migration in Europe, this is not protecting our union, this is just throwing problems over your neighbour’s fence.”

Referring to an agreement that allows Chinese police to patrol with their local counterparts in Hungary, she said: “This is not defending Europe’s sovereignty, this is a back door for foreign interference.”

And she criticised Orbán for failing to follow through on an EU pledge made in 2022 to end dependency on Russian fossil fuels. “Instead of looking for alternative sources [of energy], in particular, one member state just looked for alternative ways to buy fossil fuels from Russia.”

The Hungarian leader said he was surprised by what he had heard from von der Leyen and accused her of turning the commission into “a political weapon”. He rejected any comparison between the events of 1956 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while reiterating that the EU, he believed, had a “losing strategy” over the war.

“We are never going to accept that European unity means that you tell us what to do and that we should keep quiet,” he said.

Orbán also had to hear his domestic record lambasted by the man widely seen as his most dangerous rival, the centre-right MEP Péter Magyar, leader of the Tisza party, which made a political breakthrough in recent European elections.

Magyar, a former member of the ruling Fidesz party’s inner circle, became a household name after openly breaking with the government, alleging corruption at the highest levels. Orbán, Magyar said, had turned Hungary from a bright star into “the poorest and most corrupt country in the EU”, in a speech that accused the government of presiding over emigration of Hungarians, dilapidated trains and declining standards in hospitals.

Hungary has a higher GDP per capita than Slovakia, Greece, Latvia and Bulgaria according to Eurostat; it is the lowest ranked EU member state in Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index.

Lawmakers from across the EU also lined up to criticise Orbán, with the Green group co-leader Terry Reintke summing up the mood: “You are not welcome here.” But the Hungarian leader was also praised: the far-right German MEP René Aust approved of his “decisive action” on migration.

The commission president, who has faced criticism for not being tough enough on Hungary, drew praise for her forceful speech from mainstream pro-EU MEPs, who secured her a second term a few months ago.

“At last! @vonderleyen shows her claws in response to Viktor Orbán and denounces his double talk when he defends European sovereignty while he welcomes with open arms Russia and China in Hungary,” the French centrist MEP Laurence Farreng wrote on X.

“Viktor Orbán was just roasted by Ursula von der Leyen in the European parliament,” wrote one long-term critic, the German Green MEP Daniel Freund.

Inside the parliament in Strasbourg, Freund and Transparency International Hungary organised an exhibition to showcase what they called “some of the most absurd and wasteful projects funded by Hungarian and EU taxpayers’ money”.

Highlights included a village with 11 EU-funded observation towers, many of which were either inaccessible or dismantled because they were dangerous; a €1m cycling track that has been officially declared dangerous and can only be used on request at the cyclist’s own risk; a beach minus planned sun loungers, cafe and benches, where visitors are greeted with a sign “bathing at your own risk”. Beneficiaries of the public contracts are frequently powerful business people with close links to the ruling party, according to the exhibition material.

The Hungarian government’s use of EU funds has long concerned lawmakers and the bloc’s anti-fraud body has previously found “serious irregularities, fraud and possible corruption” in the construction of a Budapest railway line.

Around €19bn (£16bn) of EU funds have been frozen over concerns about the government’s control over judges, academic freedom and its failure to tackle corruption.

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Foreign aid for fossil fuel projects quadrupled in a single year

With clean air projects receiving just 1% of aid, activists say nations ‘cannot continue polluting practices at expense of climate stability’

Foreign aid for fossil fuel projects quadrupled in a single year, a report has found, rising ​​from $1.2bn in 2021 to $5.4bn in 2022.

“This shocking increase in aid funding to fossil fuels is a wake-up call,” said Jane Burston, CEO of nonprofit the Clean Air Fund, which conducted the research. “The world cannot continue down this path of propping up polluting practices at the expense of global health and climate stability.”

International public funding “does not come close to meeting the scale of the challenge” and often does not reach the most affected people, said Adalberto Maluf, national secretary of the urban environment and environmental quality in Brazil, which holds the G20 presidency and will host the Cop30 climate summit next year.

“Even as countries pledge to reduce their emissions, increase their climate change ambitions and transition away from fossil fuels, the figures tell a different story,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

The report found the top five funders of fossil fuel projects between 2018 and 2022 were the Islamic Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank.

The G20 group of nations have made pledges to phase out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies as far back as 2009. In 2022, the G7 group of nations agreed on stronger language to end taxpayer funding to projects that create energy by burning coal, oil and gas.

While some fossil fuel aid goes to projects that lack clean alternatives even in rich countries, such as making fertilisers or cement, they also include projects in the energy sector for which renewable sources are readily available. The cost of capital for clean energy projects in poor countries is more than double that in rich ones, according to the International Energy Agency, with high upfront costs and poor loan terms forcing poor countries to keep burning fossil fuels.

The report precedes a climate summit in Azerbaijan in November, in which negotiators hope to agree new financial promises.

The Clean Air Fund called on negotiators not to neglect air quality. Outdoor air pollution kills 4 million people each year, but clean air projects receive just 1% of foreign aid, the report found.

“Tackling air pollution is essential – not only for protecting our climate, but for safeguarding public health,” said Burston. “The stakes couldn’t be higher.”

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Florida threatens news stations over ad in favor of abortion rights measure

FCC chair condemns state health department for sending cease-and-desists over spot supporting abortion rights

The Florida health department has fired off cease-and-desist letters to local news stations over an advertisement urging people to vote in favor of a ballot measure that would expand abortion rights in the state.

In the ad, a woman identified as Caroline from Tampa, Florida, talks about being diagnosed with brain cancer while pregnant. The state currently bans abortion past roughly six weeks of pregnancy.

“The doctors knew if I did not end my pregnancy, I would lose my baby, I would lose my life, and my daughter would lose her mom,” she says. “Florida has now banned abortion even in cases like mine.”

She then urges viewers to vote “yes” on a Florida ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution and restore access to the procedure, which was dramatically curtailed when the six-week ban went into effect in May of this year.

John Wilson, general counsel for the Florida department of health, called the claim that women can’t get life-saving abortions in Florida “categorically false” in letters to local news stations, which were first reported by the journalist Jason Garcia and the news outlet Florida Politics.

“The advertisement is not only false; it is dangerous,” Wilson wrote. “Women faced with pregnancy complications posing a serious risk of death or substantial and irreversible physical impairment may and should seek medical treatment in Florida.”

Although Florida, like every other state with an abortion ban, permits abortions in cases of medical emergencies, doctors across the country have said that these bans are worded so vaguely and with such little regard for medical realities that they are unworkable in practice. Instead, doctors facing the threat of criminal prosecution for violating the bans say they have been forced to delay women’s care until they are sick enough.

On Tuesday, Jessica Rosenworcel, the Federal Communications Commission chair, condemned the cease-and-desist letters.

“The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the first amendment,” Rosenworcel said in a statement. “Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.”

Dozens of women have come forward with stories of being denied medically necessary abortions. In August, a New York state doctor told the Guardian that she had treated a woman with an ectopic pregnancy – which is nonviable and potentially life-threatening if left untreated – who had been turned away from a Florida emergency department.

Over the last several weeks, civil rights and fair election groups have become increasingly alarmed by efforts by Florida’s rightwing government – led by its Republican governor, Ron DeSantis – to undermine the state’s ballot measure. Law enforcement officials have investigated voters who signed a petition to get the measure onto the ballot, while a state agency has posted a website attacking the measure.

Abortion-related ballot measures have passed in a number of states since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, but Florida’s measure needs to garner 60% of the vote to pass – and the support for the measure currently appears to be well short of that threshold, a recent New York Times/Siena College poll found.

Nine other states are also set to vote on abortion-related ballot measures on election day in November.

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Former Sheffield United defender George Baldock dies aged 31

  • Player was found dead in his swimming pool, say police
  • Greece international joined Panathinaikos this summer

The former Sheffield United and Greece defender George Baldock has died at the age of 31.

According to police sources, his body was found on Wednesday in a swimming pool at his home in Glyfada, southern Athens, but the cause of death remains unknown. Police tried cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Baldock but could not revive him and medical emergency units confirmed his death, one official told the Reuters news agency.

The Greece international signed for Panathinaikos in the summer, after a seven-year spell at Bramall Lane, and made his debut in August. The full-back, who was not named in the Nations League squad to face England on Thursday, had played in Sunday’s 0-0 draw with Olympiakos in Greece’s Super League.

A statement from the Greece national team read: “With profound sadness and sorrow, the national team and the Greek Football Federation bid farewell to George Baldock. There are no words to describe the human pain caused by the news of the unexpected loss of one of our own, young, man. The moment forces silence. Condolences to his family. Condolences from his second family.”

Sheffield United paid tribute to their “extremely popular” former player. “Sheffield United Football Club is shocked and extremely saddened to learn of the passing of former player, George Baldock,” a club statement read. “The defender left the club in the summer after seven years at Bramall Lane and was extremely popular with supporters, staff and teammates who pulled on a red and white shirt alongside him. The sincere condolences of everyone associated with Sheffield United are extended to George’s family and friends.”

Harry Maguire, a former Sheffield United player, posted “RIP” and a heartbreak emoji alongside an image of Baldock on Instagram, while is former teammate Dean Henderson posted “RIP Blades legend” on X along with a picture of the pair.

A Football Association statement read: “We are devastated to learn of the passing of George Baldock at the age of 31. Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with George’s family, friends and teammates at club and country.”

An England statement added: “We’re extremely saddened by the passing of George Baldock. George was close to many of our players, and represented Greece – our opponents on Thursday night. We’re thinking of George’s family, friends and teammates at club and country at this difficult time.”

The Buckingham-born Baldock started his career at MK Dons and went on to play more than 100 times for the club. He had numerous loan spells away, with two stints at Oxford among them. Northampton, where Baldock had a loan spell in 2011, wrote on X: “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of former loanee George Baldock at the tragically young age of 31. George made five appearances in 2011 before playing for Oxford United and Sheffield United. Sending our sincerest condolences to George’s family and friends.”

Baldock signed for Sheffield United in 2017 and two years later he was a key figure as Chris Wilder’s team secured promotion to the Premier League. They initially took the top flight by storm before they suffered relegation in 2021. Baldock helped the Blades secure automatic promotion back to the summit of English football and his form earned him international recognition in 2022.

With Greek ancestry in his family, the defender was convinced by the then Greece head coach, Gus Poyet, to play for the national team and went on to earn 12 caps, last playing for his country earlier this year.

A switch to Panathinaikos followed after 219 appearances for the Blades. Baldock played at MK Dons with his elder brother Sam Baldock, who is now an academy coach at Brighton. A Brighton statement read: “We are shocked to learn of the passing of George Baldock at the age of 31. Our love and condolences are with George’s brother and our colleague Sam, and his family and friends at this time.”

MK Dons said in a statement: “We are deeply devastated and saddened to learn about the shocking news of former Academy graduate and MK Dons player, George Baldock. Everyone affiliated with MK Dons shares a great love for George, Sam and the Baldock family, and we would like to share our sincerest condolences during these awful times. You will always be one of our own, George.”

Baldock’s other brother James Baldock is a club doctor at Oxford. A club statement read: “Oxford United Football Club is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of former player, George Baldock, aged 31. The sincere condolences of everyone associated with the Club are extended to James, Sam, his family, and friends.”

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