Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida’s southwest coast yesterday afternoon, making landfall with nearly the strength of a Category 5 storm. It’s now tied for fifth place on the list of strongest hurricanes ever to hit the US.

How strong was it?

• Winds of 150 miles per hour lashed the area as the storm first hit.
• A storm surge as high as 12 feet engulfed homes and cars along the coast, trapping some people inside.
• 1.8 million Floridians had lost power as of 9pm ET—and that’s after the storm already took out Cuba’s power grid.

Even Waffle House—a chain so committed to keeping its diners open in all but the worst circumstances that FEMA has used a “Waffle House Index” to gauge the condition of disaster areas—shut down 21 Florida locations as the storm drew near.

Ian lost some momentum as it traveled inland last night, downgrading to a Category 2 by 9pm as it approached Orlando. It’s expected to keep winding down as it moves, but Florida will likely feel the effects of the storm into the weekend.

What’s next? Florida will work to rebuild. At least 26 states have offered help, and the federal government was prepared to truck in millions of meals and water as soon as the storm subsided. Governor Ron DeSantis has also sought additional federal help.

• It’s too soon to say just how much damage Ian caused, but one expert told the New York Times as the storm approached that insurance companies were predicting it would cost between $20 billion and $40 billion.

The governors of Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina have all declared emergencies as Ian is forecast to hit those states as a tropical storm over the weekend.

Nutrition labels could go full-frontal. The FDA proposed new rules yesterday to move nutrition labels to the front of food packaging and to update what manufacturers are allowed to call “healthy,” with the aim of helping consumers make better choices at the grocery store. The proposal comes as part of President Biden’s 44-page plan to end hunger and diet-related diseases by 2030, which was unveiled just before the first major White House conference on hunger and nutrition since 1969.

Aaron Judge ties Roger Maris. The New York Yankees slugger homered in Toronto for his 61st home run of the season, tying the American League record for home runs in a single season set by Roger Maris…61 years ago in 1961 (you can’t make these things up). Judge has seven games left to break Maris’s record, though he won’t touch Barry Bonds’s overall MLB record of 73 homers in 2001.

Bank of England steps in to soothe markets. The Bank of England moved yesterday to quell the market panic caused by the British government’s recent announcement of major tax cuts, saying it would buy 65 billion pounds ($69 billion) worth of bonds and push off its plans to sell bonds to prevent “a material risk to UK financial stability.” It looks like the central bank did manage to get investors to keep calm and carry on: The pound, which had been crashing, stabilized and bond markets across the globe rallied after the news came out.

Netflix is cashing in on another brutal true crime retelling with DAHMER—Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

The show debuted on September 21 and notched 196.2 million hours of viewership in its first five days, according to internal data, sending it to the No. 1 spot on Netflix’s Global Top 10 chart. That makes it the streamer’s biggest series debut since season four of Stranger Things.

There’s plenty of controversy: While not the first to depict these gruesome crimes on TV, Netflix has received backlash for its portrayal of the infamous serial killer’s story.

Family members of one victim, Errol Lindsey, said it’s retraumatizing. Despite Netflix pledging to give Dahmer’s victims a voice, Lindsey’s sister Rita Isbell said the company didn’t reach out to her even as it recreated her 1992 victim impact statement in the show.

Additionally, Netflix had tagged the docudrama as “LGBTQ” content, but quietly removed the label amid negative reactions on the internet. (Some speculate that the tag was added because most of Dahmer’s victims were young, gay men of color. Netflix hasn’t explained.)

The larger conversation: The rise in true crime as a Hollywood cash cow has viewers questioning how ethical it is to pay hot actors to recreate gory details over and over…and over again. Netflix has a separate Dahmer doc set to premiere next Friday.—MM

More like LeBrine, amirite? LeBron James, his business partner Maverick Carter, and several other NBA stars are the proud new owners of a Major League Pickleball team.

It’s another sign that pickleball’s (literally) loud entrance during the pandemic just keeps growing as more high-profile names sign on. MLP was only founded in 2021, but it’s already expanding from 12 teams to 16 and has among its backers NFL QB Drew Brees, entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, and Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry.

The backstory: Pickleball, which is similar to tennis but more accessible to beginners, is the fastest growing sport in the country, according to MLP’s founder Steve Kuhn. The number of players surged from 3.4 million in 2019 to 4.8 million in 2021—and that’s likely an undercount.

But with an average of three new pickleball venues opening up per day in the US, some people have half-soured on the sport as it takes over their cherished tennis courts and public spaces. One frustrated father told the NY Post, pickleball players are “the lantern flies of the sports world.”

Bottom line: Pickleballers and their neighbors will have to learn to share the court, because the sport is well funded and isn’t going anywhere. MLP’s purses for six 2023 tournaments will total more than $2 million.—NF

Stat: The Library of Congress has the world’s largest flute collection, with more than 1,800 instruments, but today everybody’s talking about just one. Why? We’ll let Lizzo tell you herself: “I just twerked and played James Madison’s crystal flute from the 1800s.” The pop star, who’s also a trained flutist, became the first person ever to play the 209-year-old woodwind (which came with its own US Capitol Police escort) first during a private visit to the collection, and then on stage in a sparkly leotard at a concert Tuesday night.

Quote: “New York has a brand. And when people see it, it means something…Kansas doesn’t have a brand.”

NYC Mayor Eric Adams miffed residents of Dorothy’s home state while touting the warm welcome he received on recent humanitarian trips to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. It’s not the first time Adams has dissed the Midwest: While campaigning for mayor, he made headlines by telling recent arrivals to the city to “go back to Iowa” and Ohio to free up housing stock for longtime residents.

Listen: Russian soldiers’ unauthorized calls home from Ukraine. (New York Times)

Get free coffee: It’s National Coffee Day, and these chains will get you nice and jittery gratis to celebrate.

Don’t forget to vote: The midterm elections may be 41 days away, but voting starts today for an even weightier contest—the champion of Fat Bear Week.

A Kindle you can write on, and a sleep tracker: Here’s everything Amazon announced at its big hardware event yesterday.

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Three headlines and a lie

Three of these headlines are real and one is faker than a mayo-based “salad.” Can you spot the odd one out?

1. Shockingly, Brad Pitt turns out to be a very fine sculptor
2. McDonald’s teams up with streetwear label to launch adult Happy Meals
3. Why it’s perfectly normal to see baby puffins thrown off cliffs in Iceland each year
4. Harry Styles’s dog kept pooping on set of Don’t Worry Darling

If you love Three Headlines and a Lie, play along on The Refresh from Insider and dive deeper into these weird news stories.

How have surging mortgage rates changed the math for homeownership, and how should you budget for a house these days? Katie answers your questions. Listen or watch here.

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