Tuesday morning news: October 8, 2024

Hurricane Milton » Hurricane Milton is now a major hurricane on a collision course with Florida’s west coast.

It’s currently barreling across the Gulf of Mexico taking aim at Tampa and surrounding areas. Tampa Mayor Jane Castor:

CASTOR:  Helene was mostly a water event for us. Uh, this is going to be wind, water, storm surge, rain, you name it. It's going to bring everything towards our community.

Milton strengthened to a Category-5 on Monday. It is expected to weaken, at least somewhat before landfall, but will likely still slam the coast as at least a Cat-3 hurricane.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis:

DESANTIS:  You should have a plan and you should be executing your plan, particularly if you're on the west coast of the florida peninsula. These evacuation orders have gone out in many of those places. I know more will be coming in areas that have not yet done that. Now is the time to do it.

And it’s not just those in coastal areas bracing for this storm. Paul Womble is Emergency Management Director for Polk County, just south of Orlando.

WOMBLE:  Winds, uh, certainly will knock down trees. Those trees falling can damage buildings, damage your roof, uh, they'll, they'll certainly knock down power lines, expect power outages that will not, um, that, that will happen as those power lines come down.

Milton could maintain hurricane strength all the way across the Florida peninsula.

Helene recovery, criticism » Meanwhile, many residents across the southeast are facing a long road to recovery in the wake of Helene, which is now the deadliest and most destructive storm to hit the country in the last half-century. It’s second only to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper:

COOPER:  We're still opening roads. We're still working to reach communities. We still have search and rescue occurring as we speak.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell was back in Asheville on Monday, which was especially hard hit by catastrophic flooding.

CRISWELL:  We at FEMA and the entire federal family are here to support the needs of these communities in delivering exactly what they want, where they want, and when they need it.

The Biden administration is still brushing off criticism from some Republican lawmakers that the federal response to Helene has been far too slow.

Israel latest » Israel marked a somber anniversary yesterday…

SOUND: [Siren over Israel]

Sirens blared across the country to mark one year since the October 7th attacks.

That of course is when Hamas terrorists crossed the border into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. They also took 250 Israelis hostage.

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon:

DANON: It was our worst nightmare come to life. On that day, evil didn't knock at our door. It broke it down. Terrorists stormed our land. Massacring, raping, and kidnapping our brothers and sisters. They showed no mercy. They butchered men, women, and children.

Jewish communities across Europe and the U.S. held ceremonies to commemorate the fallen. At the White House…

SOUND: [Jewish prayer]

President Biden and the first lady stood by where a Jewish rabbi recited a special memorial prayer.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank…

SOUND: [West Bank demonstrators]

Anti-Israeli protesters also marked the anniversary. Palestinians gathered in the city of Ramallah to call on Israel to end its war with the terrorist group Hamas.

Lebanon evacuations » And U.S. citizens continue to evacuate Lebanon as Israeli forces target Hezbollah infrastructure in the country.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller says roughly 8,500 Americans have asked the Beirut embassy for information about leaving Lebanon.

MILLER:  A lot of people are making daily assessments about their situation and they look, they reach out to us for information. They want to know if they can join a flight, even if they haven't yet decided to join a flight and to leave Lebanon.

Miller said another flight left from Beirut to Istanbul on Monday. He added that roughly a thousand U.S. citizens and legal residents have fled Lebanon on flights organized by the U.S. State Dept. in recent days.

SCOTUS no abortion case » The Supreme Court has rebuffed the Biden administration opting not to intervene over Texas abortion law. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more:

KRISTEN FLAVIN: The administration wanted the high court to step in and overturn a lower court ruling regarding when hospitals must perform abortions when there’s a health risk to the mother.
State law does allow abortions in cases of life-threatening or serious health risks to the mother. But the Biden administration argues that the Texas law is too vague and wants courts to force hospitals to follow federal rules irrespective of state law.
But a lower court declined to do that and the Supreme Court opted not to take up the case.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

A spacecraft is on its way to a harmless asteroid » A spacecraft blasted off from Florida Monday on a rather unique mission:

AUDIO: 3-2-1 ignition, engines full power, and lift off! 

SpaceX launched the European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft, which is embarking on a two-year journey. Its mission is to explore a small, harmless asteroid rammed by NASA in 2022.

It's the second part of a planetary defense test, designed to help save Earth from a potential catastrophic asteroid collision in the future.

Hera will seek to find out exactly how effective NASA's impact was and what changes might be needed to the agency’s asteroid defense program.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Marking October 7th around the world. Plus, bringing help to devastated communities in Western North Carolina.

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