How strong can Cat 5 Milton get? This hurricane may approach the maximum limit

No matter how perfect conditions may get, a hurricane can only get so strong. At least that’s what the science says.

Milton, which blew up into a Category 5 hurricane Monday and kept going, is pushing the boundaries, approaching what’s known among hurricane experts as the Maximum Potential Intensity or MPI.

When meteorologists pull out that measure, you know the hurricane is a monster — and Milton is that. At 5 p.m., the National Hurricane Center said its sustained winds had hit 180 mph. How strong can it get? The next day or so will tell.

The top-end hurricane is feeding on a seemingly bottomless buffet of record or near-record hot waters in the Gulf of Mexico, which weren’t cooled much by the passage of Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago. It has friendly winds and not much land in sight, unless it edges closer to the northern end of the Yucatan peninsula.

—Miami Herald

Tufts University suspends Students for Justice in Palestine chapter after anti-Israel group calls for students to ‘Join the Student Intifada!’

BOSTON — A Tufts University student group that was under fire a year ago for supporting Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel has been suspended after the pro-Palestine group used images of assault rifles to promote an Oct. 7 protest as they called for students to “Join the Student Intifada!”

Tufts recently placed the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) group on interim suspension due to multiple violations of university policies, according to a Tufts spokesperson.

Those violations included Tufts SJP posting an image on their Instagram account that depicted people with assault rifles and calling for students to “Join the Student Intifada!” and “escalate” at an Oct. 7 event. Last Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists slaughtered Israelis and took hostages.

“Thank you, @TuftsUniversity, for swiftly suspending the university’s SJP chapter after they used images of assault rifles/weapons to promote an event they planned for the one-year anniversary of 10/7,” Anti-Defamation League’s New England chapter posted on social media.

—Boston Herald

Hillary Clinton warns ‘we lose total control’ without social media content moderation

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday warned social media platforms must take responsibility for moderating their content or risk losing “total control.”

The comment came during an appearance on CNN, during which Clinton discussed her new book “Something Lost, Something Gained.” She acknowledged part of the book focuses on technology use by children, which has become a hot-button topic among federal lawmakers.

“In the book, I write about how I don’t think our kids are alright because I think they’ve become addicted to social media,” she said. “I think the phones in their pockets or their purses have a huge impact on how they spend their time, whether they interact with other people.”

“Now we know that very often kids are impacted by anxiety or depression, or all kinds of problems that are at least connected to, if not caused, by this connection to the screen,” she added.

—The Baltimore Sun

Ukraine claims cyberattack that blocked Russian state TV online on Putin’s birthday

Ukrainian hackers carried out a cyberattack that took down online broadcasts of Russian state television and radio channels on Monday, according to an official in Kyiv with knowledge of the operation.

At least 20 Russian broadcasters were affected by the hack including the Rossiya 24 news service, the official said, asking not to be identified because the issue is sensitive. The claim couldn’t be independently verified by Bloomberg News.

The disruption to the broadcasts coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 72nd birthday. Russia’s VGTRK state media holding reported an “unprecedented” cyberattack on its online broadcasts early Monday, the Tass news service reported, citing the company. The main Rossiya-1, Rossiya-24 and Kultura channels were among those affected, as well as radio stations including Vesti FM and Mayak, according to Tass.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the media holding was making “colossal efforts” to mitigate the consequences of the attack and that specialists were working to trace those responsible.

—Bloomberg News