At least three killed as Hurricane Helene makes landfall | First Thing

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Hurricane Helene made landfall as a category 4 hurricane in the Florida Big Bend region around 11.10pm ET on Thursday, one of the strongest hurricanes on record to hit Florida. The storm weakened to a category 1 overnight.

At least three people have been killed, CNN reported. One person died after a sign fell and hit a car in Florida, and two in Georgia when they were caught in a tornado related to the storm.

Hurricane Helene is expected to bring life-threatening storm surges as high as 20ft to Florida’s coast. Officials have described Helene as an unusually large storm with a wind field extending 275 miles from its center.

Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Virginia have declared emergencies. President Joe Biden urged people to listen to local officials and follow evacuation warnings.

• How dangerous is a storm surge? As a hurricane approaches a coast, the churning winds force ocean water up onto land; atmospheric pressure from the storm also helps squeeze the water ashore. The shallower the continental shelf, the higher the threat of a dangerous surge. Water is heavy, and it can move fast in a surge, sweeping people to their deaths, throwing about boats and vehicles, and pulverizing structures.

• Follow our live blog here.

Netanyahu says Israel ‘will not stop’ attacks on Lebanon despite ceasefire calls

Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel “will not stop” its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon despite calls from the US, France and other allies for an immediate three-week ceasefire aimed at containing the spread of a conflict that is beginning to engulf Lebanon.

The calls for an immediate ceasefire were backed on Thursday night by Lebanon’s minister for foreign affairs, Abdallah Bou Habib, who told the UN general assembly his country was enduring a crisis that “threatens its very existence”.

Israeli airstrikes continued in Lebanon on Thursday, killing 92 people including the head of Hezbollah’s drone force, Mohammad Surur, and at least 150 rockets were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel, according to the Israeli military.

• What did Netanyahu say? “We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force, and we will not stop until we reach all our goals – chief among them the return of the residents of the north securely to their homes.” He addresses the UN today.

• What is the scale of the war? Israeli airstrikes have killed about 700 people since Monday – with that day representing the highest death toll in a single day in Lebanon since the civil war of 1975-90 – and reports have suggested Israel is making plans for a ground offensive.

Eric Adams charged with taking bribes and foreign campaign contributions

Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, has been charged with accepting bribes and illegal campaign contributions from foreign sources.

In a five-count criminal indictment, US prosecutors allege that before and during his terms as mayor, Adams “sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him”.

The criminal counts against Adams include conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to receive campaign contributions by foreign nationals, wire fraud, and solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national.

The complaint focuses on trips Adams and his partner took to Turkey, India and Ghana on Turkish airlines, sometimes staying in luxury hotels, that as an elected official he should have disclosed to the government, and campaign contributions made by Turkish officials through a system of “straw” donors.

• What happens if Adams is found guilty? If convicted, Adams could face five years for conspiracy, five years for seeking foreign campaign donations and 20 years for wire fraud. Prosecutors contend that by him concealing illegal contributions, his 2021 mayoral campaign received more than $10m in matching public funds.

In other news …

• Vice-president Kamala Harris met the Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as Harris denounced “proposals of surrender” over war against Russia.

• At least 46 people have drowned in India after recent floods, most of them children, during the Jivitputrika Vrat Hindu festival.

• Sudan’s army launched artillery and airstrikes in the capital Khartoum on Thursday, in its biggest operation yet to regain ground.

• Another pandemic as big as Covid, which killed 7 million people, is “a certainty”, according to England’s chief medical officer.

Stat of the day: US Catholic diocese agrees to pay $323m to child sexual abuse survivors

Rockville Centre, a Roman Catholic diocese in Long Island, New York, announced a bankruptcy settlement to pay more than $323m to about 530 sex abuse survivors who say they were abused by priests as children. Abuse survivors rejected a previous $200m settlement offer. Rockville Centre will contribute $234.8m to a settlement fund, with insurers contributing $85.3m.

Don’t miss this: ‘People feel ignored’ – photographer Gregory Halpern on hardship and hope in the rust belt

Photographer Gregory Halpern spent 20 years visiting his home city of Buffalo, capturing its harshness and hidden beauty. Halpern says: “28.3% of Buffalo is living beneath the poverty line, and like many other places in America, people feel ignored. Without wanting to evoke pity, there is a complex, beautiful life being lived in Buffalo that many people don’t know or think about.”

Climate check: The US government-funded ‘private social network’ attacking pesticide critics

An online private portal for pesticide company employees and a range of influential allies – spearheaded by a “reputation management” firm in Missouri called v-Fluence but also receiving public funding– is part of an effort to downplay pesticide dangers, discredit opponents and undermine international policymaking, Lighthouse Reports and the Guardian reveal.

Last Thing: ‘My dog is the ugliest in the world’

“I entered Wild Thang into the annual World’s Ugliest Dog contest … after someone told me that he was the ugliest dog they’d ever seen,” Ann Lewis tells Kate McCusker. “The audience screamed twice as loud for Wild Thang. It was clear that he was the winner. He was barking so much that his feet nearly came off the ground.”

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