Hello, it's Therese Kehler and John Mazerolle. 

Hurricane Milton landed in Florida last night, bringing flooding, high winds, tornados and power outages that affected three million homes and businesses. 

The sheer devastation so many people are experiencing has been exacerbated by misinformation and conspiracy theories swirling across social media. CBC reporter Mark Gollum takes a look at that worrisome situation.

Let's get to it. 

Deadly Hurricane Milton carves destructive path, destroying homes and cutting power for millions

Strong winds caused by Hurricane Milton tear the roof off Tropicana Field, the home of Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays, in St. Petersburg, Fla., yesterday. (@Catharine1228/X/Reuters)

The latest: Hurricane Milton brought powerful winds, a deadly storm surge and flooding to much of Florida after making landfall along the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm. It weakened to a Category 1 storm as it moved through Florida early this morning. Power outages were widespread and deaths have been
reported from severe weather, though there was no specific death toll at publication time. (For the latest on Milton throughout the day, check CBCnews.ca.)

The storm: The cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 205 km/h when it roared ashore in Siesta Key, south of the populated Tampa Bay region, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The hurricane was bringing deadly storm surge to much of Florida's Gulf Coast, including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.

Some damage already clear: About 125 homes were destroyed before the hurricane came ashore, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, said Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team in St. Petersburg, appeared badly damaged.

Power outages: More than three million homes and businesses were without power as of 4 a.m. ET, according to PowerOutages.us. Florida's central Gulf Coast was hardest hit by the outages, including Hardee, Sarasota, Hillsborough and Manatee counties.

CALLOUT | Are you a Canadian expecting to be affected by Hurricane Milton? Tell us about it via email at ask@cbc.ca.

Absurd, frustrating  — and dangerous: How conspiracy theories are hindering hurricane relief efforts

Gerardo Hernandez Juarez stares at what's left of his family's destroyed home on Oct. 1 in Hendersonville, N.C., in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. False claims and conspiracy theories have accompanied Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton and are hampering relief efforts, officials say. (Brittany Peterson/The Associated Press)

There's a social media storm brewing that involves claims and conspiracy theories about the hurricanes that have been wreaking massive destruction and claiming lives in the southeastern U.S.

Some say storms like Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, which landed late Wednesday, have been geo-engineered. Others say the government is involved in hurricane creation. There are even allegations that these storms are being directed to hit predominantly Republican areas.

Experts say storm misinformation is absurd, frustrating and dangerous, hampering relief and recovery efforts and influencing people to refuse to take precautions. "It is absolutely the worst I have ever seen," says Deanne Criswell of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) about the impact these theories have on public trust in government agencies.

In the aftermath of Helene in North Carolina, social media was replete with conspiracy theories that cautioned residents not to leave their homes, and that if FEMA came to the door, they were really there to bulldoze the house for the lithium deposits buried below.

Cloud seeding — the process of making tiny drops of water vapour and ice crystals in clouds stick together into larger, heavier droplets or pellets that fall as rain or snow — is a measure that is used to manipulate the weather. But scientists aren't able to manipulate or create huge storms like hurricanes.

"If meteorologists could stop hurricanes, we would stop hurricanes," says Kristen Corbosiero, a professor of atmospheric and environmental sciences at the University at Albany. "If we could control the weather, we would not want the kind of death and destruction that's happened."

Beaten and blindfolded: This Palestinian doctor recounts the six months he spent in Israeli custody

Dr. Khaled Al Serr, a 32-year-old Palestinian surgeon in Gaza, seen here two days after he was released on Sept. 29 from an Israeli prison. He was detained for more than six months. (Mohamed El Saife/CBC)

Palestinian surgeon Dr. Khaled Al Serr was working at a hospital in southern Gaza last March when he was arrested during an Israeli raid. 

After over six months in Israeli custody, Al Serr, 32, was released on Sept. 29 from the Ofer military prison in the Israel-occupied West Bank without charges or trial.

He described his detention as a nightmare, alleging torture, humiliation and denial of medical care. "I was lucky to return with my body intact," he told CBC News. 

Al Serr said he was put in a shipping container with roughly 100 other prisoners, where he was beaten and left without any medical services. Before being taken to Ofer Prison, he was transferred to an Israeli military base in the Negev desert, where he says he was forced to sit with his hands shackled and not allowed to move, speak or look at anyone. He was blindfolded and handcuffed for 24 hours in the day. 

For months, his family had no idea of his whereabouts. When he finally returned home, he had lost so much weight that his father barely recognized him.  

The arrests of medical professionals have exacerbated the dire health crisis in Gaza, where hospitals are struggling with shortages of supplies, equipment and clean water.

Roughly 300 health-care workers from Gaza remain in custody after being arbitrarily detained by Israeli forces while on duty, according to the enclave's Health Ministry. At least 145 of them are doctors — roughly seven per cent of the estimated 2,110 physicians remaining in Gaza. 

Who wins — and who loses — by forcing Parliament to a standstill over an aggressive hunt for documents

The House can't move on to new business until debate has concluded on a motion made by Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

Some amount of parliamentary gamesmanship is to be expected whenever MPs gather. But the House of Commons has been at a standstill for more than a week in a dispute over documents related to the government's failed green technology fund. Parliament Hill reporter Aaron Wherry breaks down what's happening and who — if anyone — might win. 

The issue: The Conservative Party says the Liberal government has refused to abide by a June order of the House of Commons. The order stated that the government would provide documents related to the closure of Sustainable Development Technology Canada to the House's law clerk, who would then transfer them to the RCMP. The government partially complied, redacting or withholding some documents citing legal concerns like privacy laws and cabinet confidence. 

The standoff: In September, Conservative MP Andrew Scheer raised a question of privilege, arguing that the government had not fully complied. Speaker Greg Fergus suggested Scheer's question of privilege be referred to a House committee for further study; Scheer moved a motion to do just that. 

That's where we're stuck. As long as Conservative MPs continue standing to speak on this motion, the House can't move on to other business.

The head-scratcher: The RCMP doesn't want the documents. In fact, turning over more documents to the RCMP could be unhelpful or even risky, said RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme.

The end game: For the Conservatives, the simple idea of dysfunction in Parliament feeds into its larger argument that it's time for an election. The Liberals, meanwhile, seem keen to use this episode as evidence of the political vendettas held by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. 

But as Wherry notes, "Some days it's hard to look at the games being played and see how anyone — least of all Canadians — could be said to be winning."

In case you missed it

• Rafael Nadal, one of tennis's greatest champions and the unquestioned clay court specialist of all time, announced today he will retire from the sport at season's end.
• Honda is recalling 239,000 vehicles in Canada over concerns that a defective part in the steering system could result in a crash.
• Dillon Whitehawk, a Regina gang member convicted of murdering two rivals in separate drive-by shootings in 2019, will get a new trial after the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled the trial judge improperly limited the questioning of potential jurors.
• Shots were fired at the office of a man who owns the Old Montreal buildings where two fatal fires have occurred — the most recent last Friday.
• 'It's like a horror film': A rat infestation has forced some residents out of the row house where they live in Kanata, Ont. They say the city has been no help.

And, here's something pretty cool to start your day ...

Picture of endangered tadpoles swimming toward the light nets Canadian the Wildlife Photographer of Year award

The Swarm of Life has earned Shane Gross of B.C. the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year. The image shows western toad (Anaxyrus boreas) tadpoles among lily pads in a lake on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. (Image by Shane Gross/Distributed by the Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

A mesmerizing photo of western toad tadpoles has earned Canadian photographer Shane Gross the prestigious Adult Grand Title at the 2024 Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards. 

Gross took the image, titled The Swarm of Life, while snorkelling at Cedar Lake on Vancouver Island. It shows dozens of western toad tadpoles, a species that has been threatened by development and disease, swimming together toward the light. 

Gross, a marine conservation photojournalist, said it's part of a daily afternoon migration from the safer, silty depths two or three metres below to the areas with more algae to eat. By late afternoon, he said, "they're in there by the thousands. It's astonishing."

The winning photos were selected from over 59,000 entries from around the world.

Gross said he has entered the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition every year since 2011, and has had some "highly commended" photos before, but this is the first time he's won a category.

Another Canadian, John E. Marriott of Canmore, Alta., was also recognized, winning the Animal Portraits category for his photo of a family of lynx in the Yukon.

In Canada, the full Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition will be on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto from Dec. 21, 2024 to May 4, 2025, and at the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria from Feb. 14 to April 27, 2025.