Idalia Sweeps Through Georgia After Pelting Florida’s Coast

Hurricane Idalia made landfall this morning in Florida’s Big Bend, hitting the area with heavy rain and devastating winds before marching northeast into Georgia. The storm severed power to hundreds of thousands of homes and left behind life-threatening floods across wide swaths of the region.

Idalia, which briefly reached Category 4 strength, is now a tropical storm with sustained 70-miles-per-hour winds. Still, forecasters warned that as it moves north tonight it could produce dangerous conditions in parts of Georgia and southern South Carolina. Here’s a tracker of the storm’s path.

Two deaths from car crashes have so far been attributed to Idalia, but the full extent of the damage is not yet known. Downed trees and flooded roads have made it difficult for reporters to access the hardest hit areas, but my colleague Patricia Mazzei was able to reach Cedar Key, a conglomeration of tiny islands on the Big Bend where she learned that about 100 people decided to ride out the storm.

There, Patricia told me, she met a woman named Donna Knight, a clammer, who had opted not to evacuate. “She described the waters of the Gulf of Mexico gushing into her backyard, the first floor of her house, the road,” Patricia said. “The wind tossed debris around that made banging noises in the dark. Her water taps ran dry and the power went out.”

A wave of drone attacks reached deep into Russia

Exploding drones attacked six regions of Russia today, suggesting that, after months of enduring missile and drone strikes with little recourse, Ukraine is increasingly able to hit back deep inside Russia.

In what appeared to be the most successful of the strikes, four Russian military cargo planes were damaged at an airfield near the border with Estonia. Russia also launched a wave of attacks on Ukraine, including one that local officials said was the most significant on the Kyiv region in months.

McConnell froze up again

Senator Mitch McConnell, the longtime Republican leader, experienced an alarming freeze-up at a news conference today, the second such episode caught on camera in recent weeks. A spokesman for McConnell, who is 81 and suffered a serious head injury in a fall this year, said that the senator had felt lightheaded and planned to see a physician.

The scene intensified questions about McConnell’s future in the Senate.

Chile searches for the disappeared

President Gabriel Boric announced a plan today to search for hundreds of Chileans who disappeared many decades ago. The move comes ahead of the 50th anniversary of a coup that toppled one of Latin America’s most stable democracies and installed a 17-year dictatorship that tortured and killed its opponents. A total of 1,469 people disappeared under Chile’s military rule, only 307 of whom have been found and identified.

More top news

• Court: Rudy Giuliani is liable for defaming two Georgia election workers by repeatedly saying that they mishandled ballots in 2020, a judge ruled.

• International: A group of military officers seized power in Gabon, the latest of several coups in Western and Central Africa.

• Economy: Inflation has been easing fast, yet some economists are warily watching a few key areas, like housing and cars.

• Religion: Theodore McCarrick, the highest-ranking Catholic cleric in the U.S. to face charges in the church’s sexual abuse crisis, was found unfit for trial.

• Media: CNN named Mark Thompson, the former leader of The New York Times and the BBC, as its chairman.

• Health: Narcan, the overdose-reversal drug, arrives in stores next week. Here’s what to know about it.

• Animals: Scientists are worried that bird flu will make its way to Antarctica, where its damage “could be immense.”

• Politics: In a lengthy interview, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she had become comfortable maneuvering behind the scenes.

A starry film festival without stars

The Venice Film Festival kicked off today, serving as an unofficial start to an unusual awards season. This year’s event is shaping up to be most notable for its lack of star power, as the Hollywood strikes prevent the world’s buzziest actors from showing up and fueling excitement.

Still, the Venice lineup is enticing. My colleague Kyle Buchanan said he was eager to see the off-kilter comedy “Poor Things,” starring Emma Stone, as well as “Maestro,” which Bradley Cooper directed and in which he cast himself as the composer Leonard Bernstein.

Korean restaurants dominate the fine dining scene

For decades, French cuisine reigned supreme in high-end restaurants across New York City. But that is increasingly no longer the case, according to our restaurant critic Pete Wells.

Over a remarkably short period of time, a dozen forward-thinking Korean restaurants — the eldest is 12 years old — have elevated themselves to the top tier of the fine dining scene. While Los Angeles still has the best traditional Korean food in the U.S., Manhattan has become the go-to place for more imaginative visions of Korean cuisine.

Want something a bit more casual? Here’s what Pete recommends.

It’s a supermoon, and more

Across much of the U.S., the sky will darken around 8 o’clock tonight and a full moon will rise, bigger and brighter than usual. The glorious sight, known as a supermoon, is special this time around because it’s also the second full moon of the month (which is also called a blue moon).

Such a pairing — a blue supermoon — is rare: There hasn’t been one in more than five years, and there won’t be another one until 2037. For those who want to catch a glimpse, the moon will reach its peak at 9:36 p.m. Eastern.

Have a heavenly night.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Matthew

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.

We welcome your feedback. Write to us at [email protected].