PARIS (AP) — A few months ago, Abou Sangare was an anonymous, 23-year-old Guinean immigrant lacking permanent legal status in northern France and, like thousands of others, fighting deportation.
Now a lead actor in “Souleymane’s Story,” an award-winning feature film that hit French theaters this week, his face is on every street corner and in subway stations, bus stops and newspapers.
The film and Sangare’s sudden success are casting light on irregular migration in France just as its new government is taking a harder line on the issue. It is vowing to make it harder for immigrants lacking permanent legal status to stay and easier for France to expel them.
Sangare plays a young asylum-seeker who works as a Paris delivery man, weaving his bicycle through traffic in the City of Light. In a case of life imitating art, Sangare's future also hangs in the balance. Like the character he portrays, Sangare is hoping to persuade French officials to grant him residency and abandon their efforts to force him to leave.
“When I see Souleymane sitting in the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons, I put myself in his place, because I know what it’s like to wait for your (identification) papers here in France, to be in this situation — the stress, the anxiety,” Sangare told The Associated Press in an interview.
“Like me, Souleymane finds himself in an environment that he doesn’t know.”
Sangare says he left Guinea at age 15 in 2016 to help his sick mother. He first went to Algeria, then Libya, where he was jailed and treated “as a slave” after a failed crossing attempt. Italy was next, and he eventually set foot in France in May 2017.
His request to be recognized as a minor was turned down, but he was able to study at high school and trained as a car mechanic — a skill in demand in France. Recently, he was offered full-time employment at a workshop in Amiens, a northern French town that has been his home for seven years and which, incidentally, was French President Emmanuel Macron's hometown, too.
But Sangare cannot accept the job because of his illegal status. He's unsuccessfully applied three times for papers and lives with a deportation order over his head.
Critics say deportation orders have been increasingly used by successive governments.
“We are the country in Europe that produces most expulsion procedures, far ahead of other countries,” said Serge Slama, a professor in public law at the University of Grenoble.
But their use — more than 130,000 deportations were ordered in 2023 — is "highly inefficient,” he added, because many of the orders aren't or cannot for legal reasons be carried out.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau says about 10% of people targeted for deportation end up leaving.
Retailleau, appointed in France's new government of conservatives and centrists last month, is making immigration control a priority.
He wants more immigrants lacking permanent legal status to be held in detention centers and for longer periods, and is leaning on regional administrators to get tough.
He also says he wants to reduce the number of foreigners entering France by making it “less attractive,” including squeezing social benefits for them.
Mathilde Buffière, who works with immigrants in administrative detention centers with the nonprofit Groupe SOS Solidarités, says officials are spending “less and less time" reviewing immigrants' residency applications before holding them in detention centers.
In Sangare’s case, his life took a turn last year when he met filmmaker Boris Lojkine. Several auditions led to him getting the film's lead role.
Sangare won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival’s “Un Certain Regard” competition this year.
But a more meaningful prize might be on the horizon: After Cannes, government officials emailed Sangare, inviting him to renew his residency application.
Responding to AP questions, French authorities said the deportation order against Sangare “remains legally in force" but added that officials reexamined his case because of steps he's taken to integrate.
“I think the film did that,” Sangare told AP.
“You need a residency permit to be able to turn your life around here. My life will change the day I have my papers,” he said.
Abou Sangare, lead actor in "Souleymane's Story," poses for photographs after a premiere at the Louxor cinema in Paris, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)
Abou Sangare, lead actor in "Souleymane's Story," poses for photographs after a premiere at the Louxor cinema in Paris, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.(AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)
Abou Sangare, lead actor in "Souleymane's Story," poses for photographs after a premiere at the Louxor cinema in Paris, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.(AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)
Abou Sangare, lead actor in "Souleymane's Story," poses for photographs after a premiere at the Louxor cinema in Paris, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.(AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)
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 Thursday. Power outages were widespread and deaths have been reported from severe weather.
The cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (205 kph) when it roared ashore in Siesta Key, south of the populated Tampa Bay region, the 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.
Follow AP’s coverage of tropical weather at https://apnews.com/hub/hurricanes.
Here’s the latest:
SARASOTA, Fla. — In Sarasota County, “first-in” emergency crews were reporting downed power lines and trees in roadways, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post early Thursday.
Some bridges in the county were not passable after Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, a barrier island off Sarasota. The sheriff’s office urged residents and business owners to stay off the roads to allow emergency and utility crews time to work.
“The storm may have passed but it is still dangerous to be traveling this morning,” the sheriff’s office said.
The center of Hurricane Milton was moving off the east coast of Florida early Thursday with maximum sustained winds of 85 miles per hour (137 kph), the National Hurricane Center said. Milton was expected to continue to move away from the peninsula and to the north of the Bahamas.
As the storm barreled northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, all hurricane and tropical storm warnings were discontinued for the state’s west coast.
Storm surge warnings remained in effect for parts of the Florida west coast, and along the state’s east coast to Altamaha Sound, Georgia. Hurricane and tropical storm warnings were also in effect for much of the state’s east-central coast.
Hurricane Milton’s tear of destruction across central Florida left more than 3 million homes and businesses without power around 4 a.m. EDT Thursday, according to PowerOutages.us.
Energy companies serve more than 11.5 million customer accounts across the state, according to the website.
Milton’s high winds and intense rains continued into Thursday morning. Florida's central Gulf Coast was hardest hit by the outages, including Hardee, Sarasota, Hillsborough and Manatee counties.
MIAMI — The National Weather Service says the storm’s maximum sustained wind speed was 90 mph (145 kph) at about 1 a.m. Thursday as it passed east of Lakeland, Florida, on its way across the central peninsula.
The weather service uses the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale to estimate potential property damage caused by a hurricane’s sustained wind speed. A Category 1 hurricane is considered to have very dangerous winds that topple shallow-rooted trees, snap tree limbs and damage the exterior of well-constructed frame homes. They can also cause extensive damage to power lines.
Hurricane Milton was a Category 3 storm when it made landfall Wednesday evening. That rating means devastating damage is expected to occur, including roofs torn from well-constructed homes, trees uprooted, and electricity and water systems unavailable for days to weeks.
High wind speeds are not the only dangers caused by hurricanes. Hurricane Milton spawned several devastating tornadoes that wreaked havoc on Florida communities Wednesday afternoon. Heavy rainfall and storm surges also caused dangerous flooding in some coastal areas.
MIAMI — The hurricane had maximum sustained winds of about 100 mph (160 kph) as it hovered near Fort Meade, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) east of Tampa, early Thursday morning, the National Weather Service said.
The hurricane was expected to continue traveling mostly eastward until it enters the Atlantic Ocean sometime late Thursday, the weather service said.
The damaging winds were accompanied by heavy rainfall, and the weather service issued a flash flood emergency statement for portions of west-central Florida. Flash flood emergency statements generally mean life-threatening catastrophic water rising events are already underway or expected to occur in the immediate future.
St. Petersburg officials warned residents that a broken water main forced the city to temporarily shut off its drinking water service at midnight. The city said residents should boil any water used for drinking, cooking or brushing teeth until the system is restored.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The National Weather Service says it has received reports of multiple collapsed cranes due to high winds in St. Petersburg, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Siesta Key, where Milton made landfall.
St. Petersburg Fire Rescue confirmed one collapse late Wednesday about six blocks from the city's pier. There were no reports of injuries.
The crane was at the site of a 515-foot-tall (157-meter-tall) luxury high-rise building under construction that is being billed as one of the tallest buildings on the west coast of Florida. It was scheduled to be completed in summer 2025.
Over 2 million customers lost power as Hurricane Milton cut a path through central Florida late Wednesday, according to the website PowerOutages.us.
Energy companies serve more than 11.5 million customer accounts statewide, according to the website. The number of people left without electricity continued to grow as hurricane-spawned tornadoes, sustained tropical winds and flooding inundated the region.
Nearly 100% of customers in Hardee County were without power, and people in Sarasota, Manatee and Pinella counties were also hit hard by outages.
Feeding America CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot announced the singer's donation for people impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton in an Instagram post Wednesday thanking her for “standing with us in the movement to end hunger and for helping communities in need.”
“We’re incredibly grateful to Taylor Swift for her generous $5 million donation to Hurricanes Helene and Milton relief efforts,” Babineaux-Fontenot wrote. “This contribution will help communities rebuild and recover, providing essential food, clean water, and supplies to people affected by these devastating storms.”
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays, appeared to be badly damaged Wednesday night. Television images showed that the fabric that serves as the domed building’s roof had been ripped to shreds. It was not immediately clear if there was damage inside the stadium.
The Rays’ stadium was not being used as a shelter, but the Tampa Bay Times reported that it was being used as “a staging site for workers” who were brought to the area to deal with the storm’s aftermath.
The stadium opened in 1990 and initially cost $138 million. It was due to be replaced in time for the 2028 season with a $1.3 billion ballpark.
Before Milton even made landfall Wednesday evening on Florida’s Gulf Coast, tornadoes were touching down across the state. The Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, was hit particularly hard, destroying homes and leaving some residents dead.
“We have lost some life,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told WPBF News. He did not say how many were killed.
MIAMI — Hurricane Milton will continue to bring “devastating rains and damaging winds” across the central Florida peninsula throughout Thursday before exiting the state late in the day for the Atlantic Ocean, the National Weather Service said.
The hurricane had maximum sustained winds of about 105 mph (165 kph) at 11 p.m. Wednesday, according to the weather service, and storm surge warnings were in effect for parts of Florida’s western and eastern coastlines.
The weather service said Boca Grande, Florida, could see a surge as high as 13 feet (4 meters) above ground if it hits at the same time as high tide.
The service also said tornadoes were possible through early Thursday morning over parts of central and eastern Florida.
FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Officials say search and rescue efforts are underway in Florida after dangerous tornadoes ripped through the region.
About 125 homes were destroyed before the hurricane made landfall, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, said Kevin Guthrie, the director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management.
St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson posted a video to Facebook showing a 10,000 square-foot (930 square-meters) iron building that had been twisted into a crumpled heap by a tornado. The structure was where the sheriff’s office kept its patrol cars, but luckily no one was inside when it fell, Pearson said.
SIESTA KEY, Fla. — Siesta Key, a barrier island off Sarasota, is a prosperous strip of powdery, white sand beaches and picturesque sunsets, celebrated with a drum circle on Sundays.
Florida International University professor Stephen Leatherman, a.k.a. “Dr. Beach,” named Siesta Beach the United States’ best beach in 2017, and MTV’s “Siesta Key” gave audiences a reality-show view of the place in recent years.
Many of Siesta Key’s about 5,500 residents are of retirement age.
Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday along Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm, bringing powerful winds, deadly storm surge and potential flooding to much of the state. Milton drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters, twice reaching Category 5 status.
The cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (205 kph) when it roared ashore near Siesta Key, Florida, at 8:30 p.m., the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. The storm 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.
MIAMI — Multiple tornadoes spawned by the hurricane tore across Florida, the twisters acting as a dangerous harbingers of Milton’s approach.
Three Florida offices of the National Weather Service in Miami, Tampa and Melbourne issued more than 130 tornado warnings associated with Hurricane Milton by Wednesday evening.
Videos posted to Reddit and other social media sites showed large funnel clouds over neighborhoods in Palm Beach County and elsewhere in the state.
Luke Culver, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami, said he wasn’t sure whether Milton had spawned a record number of tornadoes, but he pointed out that only 64 Florida tornado warnings were associated with Hurricane Ian, which hit the Tampa Bay area as a massive storm in 2022.
Tornadoes produced by hurricanes and tropical storms most often occur in the right-front quadrant of the storm, but sometimes they can also take place near the storm’s eyewall, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The heat and humidity present in the atmosphere during such storms and changes in wind direction or speed with height, known as wind shear, contribute to their likelihood.
PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — Pasco County on Florida's west coast north of Tampa has joined other counties in suspending all emergency services in response to Hurricane Milton’s impact, according to an alert sent at 7:46 p.m.
“We’re constantly monitoring weather conditions and emergency crews will respond as soon as it is safe to do so. Now is the time to remain sheltered where you are,” the alert said.
With its mighty strength and its dangerous path, Hurricane Milton powered into a very rare threat flirting with experts’ worst fears.
Warm water fueled amazingly rapid intensification that took Milton from a minimal hurricane to a massive Category 5 in less than 10 hours. It weakened, but quickly bounced back. And when its winds briefly reached 180 mph, its barometric pressure, a key measurement for a storm’s overall strength, was among the lowest ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico this late in the year.
At its most fierce, Milton almost maxed out its potential intensity given the weather factors surrounding it.
“Everything that you would want if you’re looking for a storm to go absolutely berserk is what Milton had,” Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said.
Milton also grew so potent because it managed to avoid high-level cross winds that often decapitate storms, especially in autumn. As Milton neared Florida it hit those winds, called shear, which ate away at its strength, as meteorologists had forecasted.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Wednesday blasted his predecessor for spreading an “onslaught of lies” about how the federal government is handling the damage from Hurricane Helene as Hurricane Milton was near making landfall in Florida.
“Quite frankly, these lies are un-American,” Biden said from the White House. “Former President Trump has led this onslaught of lies.”
Biden said that Trump and his allies have misrepresented the response and resources of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The president singled out Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, saying she claimed the federal government could control the weather.
Asked why he believed his Republican opponents were not talking accurately about the government’s response, Biden said, “I don’t know.”
PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Citing wind gusts of more than 50 mph (80 kph), Pinellas County, where St. Petersburg is located, issued a shelter-in-place advisory just before 6:30 p.m. for anyone who did not evacuate as Hurricane Milton approached Florida’s west coast. The county is home to more than 960,000 people, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
Just south, Manatee County announced at about the same time that it had suspended emergency services due to increasingly hazardous conditions. The county alert said “911 emergency calls will be logged and queued based on priority and will be responded to as soon as safe to do so.”
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday urged residents of the state’s coastal counties to prepare for falling trees, scattered power outages and potential flooding near the ocean as Hurricane Milton crosses Florida.
All 100 miles (160 kilometers) of the Georgia coast were under a tropical storm warning Wednesday and Thursday. Still, Milton’s impacts in the state were expected to be far less severe than those from Hurricane Helene, which killed 34 people in Georgia and inflicted widespread damage statewide two weeks ago.
“We don’t think this is going to be a hard hit,” Kemp told reporters after meeting with local emergency management officials in Savannah. “But we want to over-prepare and hope this storm, for us at least, under-delivers.”
Kemp said about 50,000 Georgia homes and businesses remain without electricity after Helene initially left more than 1.3 million in the dark. He said those still lacking power are in rural areas where customers are more spread out, causing repairs to take longer.
Max Watts, of Buford, Ga., walks in the parking lot to check on a trailer parked outside the hotel where he is riding out Hurricane Milton with coworkers, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. Watts, who works for a towing company, was deployed with colleagues to Florida to aid in the aftermath of the storm. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
The roof of Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays, appeared to be badly damaged as Hurricane Milton passes Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (Chris Urso/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
A group is silhouetted against a fallen crane along 1st Avenue South near the Tampa Bay Times offices in St. Petersburg, Florida, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, as Hurricane Milton's strong winds tore through the area. (Chris Urso/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
A crane is seen across 1st Avenue South near the Tampa Bay Times offices in St. Petersburg, Florida, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, as Hurricane Milton's strong winds tore through the area. (Chris Urso/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
Police respond to a traffic accident between a car and a fire truck returning from a call, on near-deserted streets in downtown Tampa, Fla., during the approach of Hurricane Milton, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A crane falls onto a building along 1st Avenue South in St. Petersburg, Fla., as Hurricane Milton's strong winds tore through the area Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (Chris Urso/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
A tow truck responds following a traffic accident between a car and a fire truck returning from a call, on near-deserted streets in downtown Tampa, Fla., during the approach of Hurricane Milton, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
