Good morning. In the wake of a devastating hurricane, Florida is starting to report loss of life and the numbers are climbing. Vladimir Putin is preparing to announce the annexation of parts of Ukraine after sham referendums. And a new study has put a (high) number on the cost of the food that Australians throw away uneaten.
Rescue crews in Florida are searching for residents trapped by floods after Hurricane Ian, which the US president, Joe Biden, said “could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida’s history” as the official death toll starts to climb. The catastrophic scale of damage wreaked by the near-category 5 storm is still unfolding. Residents from the city of Fort Myers were reporting entire houses swept away by the metres-high storm surge, and relatives have lost contact with residents who tried to wait out the storm.
