AP-Newswatch

Hurricane Milton plows across Florida, pounding cities and whipping up tornadoes. At least 4 dead

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Milton is barreling into the Atlantic Ocean after plowing into Florida as a Category 3 storm. It pounded cities with ferocious winds and rains, whipped up a barrage of tornadoes and caused at least four deaths. It compounded the misery wrought by Helene. But it spared Tampa a direct hit. The storm tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall Wednesday night in Siesta Key, about 70 miles south of Tampa. Though the deadly storm surge feared for Tampa appears not to have materialized, the situation in the area was still a major emergency. The city itself saw flooding, and St. Petersburg recorded over 16 inches of rain, prompting the National Weather Service to warn of flash flooding there as well as other parts of western and central Florida.

The Latest: Hurricane Milton is weaker but still dangerous

Hurricane Milton is bringing powerful winds, a 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 when it roared ashore in Siesta Key, south of the populated Tampa Bay region. A storm surge was affecting a long stretch of Florida’s Gulf Coast, including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.

Here’s what has made Hurricane Milton so fierce and unusual

With its mighty strength and its dangerous path, Hurricane Milton has powered into a very rare threat that is flirting with experts’ worst fears. Warm water fueled the amazingly rapid intensification that took Milton from a minimal hurricane to a massive Category 5 in less than 10 hours. At its most fierce, Milton nearly maxed out its potential intensity given the weather factors surrounding it. As one hurricane researcher put it, Milton had “everything that you would want if you’re looking for a storm to go absolutely berserk.” And Milton’s path toward Tampa, a populous metro that hasn’t been hit in a century, adds danger.

Israeli strike on school-turned-shelter in Gaza kills 27

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian medical officials say an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 27. The Israeli military said it targeted militants hiding in a school in the central city of Deir al-Balah. Witnesses said the strike on Thursday hit a room normally used by Hamas-run police who provide security, but where school managers were meeting with an aid group. Israel has continued to strike at what it says are militant targets across the Palestinian enclave even as attention has shifted to its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran. The military launched a large-scale air and ground operation against Hamas in northern Gaza earlier this week.

US inflation likely cooled again last month in latest sign of a healthy economy

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. inflation last month likely reached its lowest point since February 2021, clearing the way for another Federal Reserve rate cut and adding to the stream of encouraging economic data that has emerged in the final weeks of the presidential campaign. The consumer price index is expected to have risen just 2.3% in September from 12 months earlier, down from the 2.5% year-over-year increase in August. A reading that low, likely reflecting lower gas prices and only a slight rise in food costs, would barely exceed the Fed’s 2% inflation target. A little over two years ago, inflation had reached a peak of 9.1%.

Social Security cost-of-living benefits increase announcement coming Thursday

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tens of millions of Social Security recipients will learn Thursday how big a cost-of-living boost they’ll get to their benefits next year. In advance of the announcement, analysts forecast that the benefit boost would be about 2.5% for 2025, smaller than the increase the past two years. Recipients received a 3.2% increase in benefits this year, following a historically large 8.7% jump in 2023 that was brought on by record-high inflation. More than 70 million people participate in the Social Security program, with the average benefit totaling about $1,920 a month. The AARP estimates that a 2.5% COLA would increase that by $48 a month.

Nobel Prize in literature is awarded to South Korean author Han Kang for her ‘intense poetic prose’

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to the South Korean author Han Kang for what the Nobel committee called her “intense poetic prose.” Nobel committee chairman Anders Olsson praised Han’s “physical empathy for the vulnerable, often female lives” of her characters. In winning the prize on Tuesday, Han becomes the first South Korean writer to win the Nobel literature prize. She also becomes the second South Korean national to win a Nobel Prize after a late former president won the peace prize in 2000. The literature prize has long been male-dominated, with just 17 women among its 119 laureates until this year’s award. The last woman to win was Annie Ernaux of France, in 2022.

Africans recruited to work in Russia say they were duped into building drones for use in Ukraine

Russia is recruiting young African women to work at a factory producing drones for use in Ukraine amid a labor shortage. An Associated Press investigation has found that the foreigners and Russian teens are crucial to producing the Iranian-designed drones, which are primarily built in a factory in the Tatarstan region. The Africans were lured to Russia by a massive social media campaign that promised them free airfare and a work-study program, but some of them complain of long hours under constant surveillance, of broken promises about wages and areas of study, and of working with caustic chemicals that left their skin pockmarked and itching as they churn out the drones.

22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal will retire from tennis after next month’s Davis Cup finals

MADRID (AP) — Rafael Nadal is retiring from professional tennis at age 38 after winning 22 Grand Slam titles — 14 at the French Open — during an unprecedented era he shared with rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. He made the announcement on Thursday. Nadal has competed infrequently the past two seasons because of injuries and said next month’s Davis Cup finals will mark his farewell to the sport. He had hip surgery in 2023 and entered just two of the past eight major tournaments. Nadal’s unrelenting, physical style of play made him one of the greats of the game and the unquestioned King of Clay, the slow, red surface on which he claimed his record 14 French Open championships.