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By Julio-Cesar Chavez and Octavio Jones for Reuters Contractors put plywood over windows of a building in Tampa on 8 October 2024 ahead of Hurricane Milton’s expected landfall. Photo: AFP Milton expected to grow in size before landfall, affecting hundreds of miles of coastline Evacuations ordered for over 1 million people in Florida's west-coast counties Milton forecast to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday Unusual path and rapid intensification raise concerns for storm-surge impact Huge storm comes less than two weeks after devastating Helene Milton, which exploded on Monday into one of the most intense Atlantic hurricanes on record, was forecast to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday, threatening a stretch of Florida's densely populated west coast that is s...

By Joshua Boscaini for ABC Photo: 123rf.com A new highly transmissible variant of Covid-19 has been detected in Australia, raising questions about whether it will lead to a wave of Covid-19 cases over summer. The XEC strain has been reported in 29 countries including the United States, United Kingdom and China, according to global health data platform GISAID. Here's what we know about the XEC variant and how many cases have been reported in Australia. What do we know about XEC? XEC is a "recombinant" Covid-19 variant, which means it's a mix of two previous Omicron subvariants called KS 1.1 and KP 3.3. A recombinant variant is created when someone is infected with two strains of a virus that go on reproduce and create another strain. There are conflicting reports about where the strain...

By Zachary Handlos and Ali Sarhadi of Photo: AFP / European Space Agency / Handout Hurricane Milton became one of the most rapidly intensifying storms on record as it went from barely hurricane strength to a dangerous Category 5 storm in less than a day on a path across the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida. With sustained winds that reached 180 miles per hour (290km/h) on 7 October 2024, and very low pressure, it also became one of the strongest Atlantic storms. Milton's winds dipped to Category 4 strength early on 8 October but forecasters warned that it would still be an extremely dangerous hurricane at landfall. A thunderstorm moving over Tampa, Florida, on 8 October 2014, ahead of Hurricane Milton's expected landfall. Photo: AFP Less than two weeks after Hur...

By Joshua Boscaini for ABC Photo: 123rf.com A new highly transmissible variant of Covid-19 has been detected in Australia, raising questions about whether it will lead to a wave of Covid-19 cases over summer. The XEC strain has been reported in 29 countries including the United States, United Kingdom and China, according to global health data platform GISAID. Here's what we know about the XEC variant and how many cases have been reported in Australia. What do we know about XEC? XEC is a "recombinant" Covid-19 variant, which means it's a mix of two previous Omicron subvariants called KS 1.1 and KP 3.3. A recombinant variant is created when someone is infected with two strains of a virus that go on reproduce and create another strain. There are conflicting reports about where the strain...

Photo: Madman Entertainment By Velvet Winter of the ABC Around the time Ali Abassi was first offered Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice in 2018, the Iranian-born Danish director couldn't actually enter the US due to Trump's infamous travel ban. Warning: This story contains language some readers may find offensive. After jumping through numerous hoops, Abassi was granted entry - temporarily. "I thought it was quite funny having gone through all this, and I was saying, 'If I leave the country, I can't get in again'," Abassi told The Screen Show's Jason Di Rosso. "So maybe I can do this on Zoom. The first feature directed from Zoom." The Apprentice is the semi-biographical story of Donald Trump's ascension through New York's real estate scene in the 80s, and his relationship with lawyer/me...