Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida

Today’s agenda: HSBC’s cost-cutting plans; OpenAI’s restructuring; Russia’s “shadow” oil fleet; and Israel’s growing Lebanon offensive

Good morning. Hurricane Milton has made landfall on Florida’s highly populated western coast, bringing life-threatening flooding and extreme winds to the state for the second time in two weeks. More than 2mn homes and businesses were left without power. Here’s what we know so far.

What is the storm’s scale? The hurricane made landfall as a category three storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale with winds of 120mph, the US National Hurricane Center said, warning of “life-threatening” gusts, tornadoes and storm surges of up to 13ft. The head of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency has described the hurricane as “deadly and catastrophic”.

What’s at stake: The NHC has warned that Milton could be one of the area’s most destructive hurricanes on record. Analysts estimate Milton could trigger insurance losses of up to $60bn, with losses over the hurricane season likely to “dent” the sector’s profitability. One insurer said potential damage in the area, where many houses are not built to withstand major storm events, could be severe.

The hurricane could also disrupt oil prices. Chevron said it had shut down production at the Blind Faith platform in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of the hurricane and removed its staff from the site. Apart from oil production, analysts have also said the hurricane could hurt demand for petrol.

Milton is forecast to remain at hurricane strength while it moves across central Florida today. We’ll bring you more updates as the situation develops.

And here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: The US has September inflation figures, while the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors publishes its latest UK residential market survey.

• Tesla: Elon Musk’s group is set to unveil its first self-driving “robotaxis”, after the electric vehicle maker recently missed market expectations for vehicle deliveries.

• Nobel Prize: The award for literature is announced in Sweden. War in the Middle East has cast a shadow over tomorrow’s peace prize, with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees among the nominees.

Five more top stories

1. Exclusive: HSBC’s new chief executive plans to target the lender’s expensive layer of senior bankers in a cost-cutting move aimed at saving as much as $300mn. Georges Elhedery is drawing up plans to merge HSBC’s commercial banking unit with its global banking and markets unit. Read the full story.

2. Exclusive: Steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta is being prosecuted over his alleged failure to file accounts in the UK. The charges relate to 76 companies including his trading firm Liberty Commodities and a number of businesses comprising his Liberty Steel group of metals plants, according to court documents seen by the Financial Times.

3. Exclusive: OpenAI is planning to restructure as a public benefit corporation to defend itself from hostile takeovers and protect chief executive Sam Altman from outsider interference. While largely untested, this rare type of company model has also been adopted by rivals such as Anthropic and Elon Musk’s xAI. Here’s how the PBC structure works.

4. Donald Trump has said he would end “double taxation” for millions of Americans living overseas if he wins the US presidential election next month. There are up to 9mn Americans living or serving overseas, but this does not exempt them from filing US tax returns. Here’s why their votes matter in the White House race.

• Democratic infighting: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has warned of an “out and out brawl” if Kamala Harris removes Lina Khan, the antitrust progressive who chairs the Federal Trade Commission.

5. The UK chancellor has been warned not to sharply increase government borrowing in a push for more public investment in her October 30 Budget. An Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis shows Rachel Reeves could create space to raise investment spending by more than £50bn if the government targets a broader measure of the public finances, but the think-tank said she would need to be “very cautious”.

FT investigation

Russia has created a “shadow fleet” of more than 400 vessels moving about 4mn barrels of oil a day, circumventing western sanctions to create billions of dollars a year in additional revenue for its war in Ukraine. The FT’s latest investigation shows how complex arrangements involving a British accountant, a London-listed broker and Dubai-based companies helped one of Russia’s biggest oil producers buy ships while hiding its involvement.

We’re also reading . . . 

• DoJ vs Google: The tech giant is seeking to delay and deflect a historic break-up threat by accusing prosecutors of regulatory “over-reach”.

• Ratan Tata: The Indian industrialist who led his family group on an ambitious overseas expansion that included Jaguar Land Rover and UK steel plants has died aged 86.

• Portugal: The country’s novel plan to stop its brain drain would cut the income tax burden on young workers for a decade, including a tax-free first year.

• 80-hour weeks: Wall Street’s moves to cap weekly hours for entry-level bankers are butting against the reality of a competitive industry.

Graphic of the day

When Israel launched its first invasion of Lebanon for nearly two decades, it characterised the operation as “limited, localised and targeted”. But over the past week, the scale of the Israeli ground assault against Hizbollah has quickly grown, fuelling fears the offensive will not be ending any time soon.

Take a break from the news

As employers increasingly make concessions for their workers’ personal lives, a hotel in the Philippines last year unveiled an unusual new staff policy: five paid days of heartbreak leave. Could this work benefit improve productivity elsewhere?

Additional contributions from Gordon Smith and Benjamin Wilhelm