Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Time is running out along Florida’s Gulf Coast: “Florida authorities issued dire warnings Tuesday to residents in Hurricane Milton’s path, telling them ‘time is running out’ to flee the potentially historic storm that’s set to make landfall in a day’s time. The Category 4 hurricane, bordering on Category 5, was expected to reach Florida’s Gulf Coast between 10 p.m. Wednesday and 2 a.m. Thursday, according to the latest forecasts.”
* On a related note: “President Joe Biden has postponed his overseas trip this week due to Hurricane Milton and its projected landfall in Florida on Wednesday. Biden was scheduled to depart for Berlin on Thursday and then travel to Angola, in southern Africa, returning to the U.S. on Oct. 15. It would have marked the first time Biden would travel to the African continent as president.”
* In the Middle East: “Israeli leaders still have not briefed the United States on specific details of their military response to last week’s ballistic missile attack by Iran, even after American military officials have discussed possibly supporting Israeli retaliation with intelligence or airstrikes of their own, according to two U.S. officials.”
* In related news: “The Israeli military carried out airstrikes on a residential building near the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Syria, in an attempt to assassinate a ranking Hezbollah official involved in weapons smuggling, according to two Israeli officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.”
* SCOTUS: “The Supreme Court on Tuesday signaled it is likely to uphold the Biden administration’s move to regulate ‘ghost gun’ kits that allow people to assemble deadly weapons at home while skirting existing regulations.” * An important EPA policy: “The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule Tuesday requiring water utilities to replace all lead pipes within a decade, a move aimed at eliminating a toxic threat that continues to affect tens of thousands of American children each year. The move, which also tightens the amount of lead allowed in the nation’s drinking water, comes nearly 40 years after Congress determined that lead pipes posed a serious risk to public health and banned them in new construction.” * Good news from the CDC: “Overdose deaths appear to be declining sharply in the United States, a sign that efforts to combat the scourge of lethal fentanyl may be paying off even as experts caution that the toll remains unacceptably high and could rise again.” See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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