Australia Weather News

It's been a volatile year in the US and never more so than over the past week.

America is hurricane central, still cleaning up after Harvey and now grappling with Irma and nearby Jose and Katia.

Irma has usurped the horrific Philippines Typhoon Haiyan, a storm seared in my memory, and now holds the record for the longest period ever with sustained winds over 185mph, or around 295km.

It's cut a path across the Caribbean devastating the French Antilles, parts of the Virgin Islands and skirting past Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Florida is on high alert, conducting mass evacuations. Miami may well be in line for a direct hit from Irma which is expected to reach the US mainland on the weekend as a category four hurricane.

The storm's track is still volatile. It could track west and cross the coast, it could skirt the mainland offshore to the east, or it could cut straight up the centre of the Florida peninsula.

As Donald Trump would say:

According to Politico, he said it 11 times before 1:00pm on Wednesday.

On a war with North Korea?We'll see.

Will China act?We'll see.

On whether he'll revisit his decision on DACA?We'll see.

Let's start with DACA

Mr Trump's flip-flopping or chaos theory leads to a whole lot of uncertainty regarding where he stands on a variety of issues.

Here's CNN's Jim Acosta explaining Mr Trump's takes on DACA the day the end of the program was announced:

Imagine how DACA recipients must feel.

The President then tweeted:

After that six-month period is anyone's guess.

The practical implications of the DACA announcement for now is that around 800,000 undocumented immigrants — known as Dreamers — who were granted legal protections by Barack Obama in 2012 could be kicked out America as early as March next year.

The decision was coming for weeks even though both Republicans, Democrats and corporate America urged the President not to.

The President said just days before the decision that he "loves the Dreamers".

This is certainly tough love.

So, will Congress get its collective act together, stop the outrage and pass an Act to protect the Dreamers?

It remains to be seem. Democrats are certainly talking tough about it being a priority:

It garnered a full throated and rare response from his predecessor Mr Obama — who promised to speak out if Mr Trump rescinded DACA:

"...it is cruel. What if our kid's science teacher, or our friendly neighbour turns out to be a Dreamer? Where are we supposed to send her? To a country she doesn't know or remember, with a language she may not even speak?"

The Great Deal Maker

The President still touts himself as the "Great Deal Maker" but so far he's had limited legislative success on Capitol Hill.

On Wednesday, he took a different approach — striking a deal with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling for three months.

This came just hours after House Speaker — and fellow Republican — Paul Ryan called Democrats "disgraceful" for playing politics when it came to the debt ceiling.

Oh.

In clean up the follow day, Speaker Ryan said the President didn't "want a food fight".

According to Politico, reaction from fellow Republicans was a little less muted:

"A three-month debt ceiling? Why not do a daily debt ceiling?" cracked Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho).

"He's the best deal-maker ever. Don't you know? I mean, he's got a book out!"

Despite it all, the conservative base seems to be on the attack against Paul "Rino" Ryan (Republican In Name Only) even though it was President Trump who cut the deal:

From Russia, with Love

The Russian investigation has taken a back seat in recent weeks but Special Counsel Bob Mueller continues to work away in the background.

Meanwhile, Congress is back from its summer recess and are back on the case.

Remember that meeting President Trump's son, Don Jr, accepted with a Russian in June 2016 — supposedly to get dirt on Hillary Clinton?

Yeah, well, Jr has spent the day with Senate investigators on Capitol Hill, supposedly telling them that his motivations were to learn about "Mrs Clinton's 'fitness' to be president".

The new FBI director Christopher Wray has rarely been seen since he was confirmed as James Comey's replacement but on Thursday said he has not "detected any whiff of interference" into the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

So, take that as you may.

The Russia thing is heating up after the Trump administration ordered Russia to vacate a few of his diplomatic properties in the US last week.

It's the first punishment of Vladimir Putin and friends from the President's team (remember the sanctions bill passed earlier this year was Congress' near unanimous doing and the President was somewhat backed into a corner to sign to avoid a political firestorm).

Well, the Russians accepted their marching orders. And then this happened in San Francisco:

By the way, Facebook's influence on the election outcome is again in focus after news about paid Russian ads broke.

Gift that keeps on giving

Here's a list of gift's POTUS received on his recent visit to Saudi Arabia thanks to a Freedom of Information Request.

So. Many. Sandals.

Oh, and also: "artwork featuring picture of President Trump."

Okay then.

Speaking of gifts — if you're looking for Christmas presents already, you can now get this on the Trump campaign website:

So here's a quick recap on last month:

We'll add Irma to that list.