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.

Hurricane Milton has made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm near Siesta Key in Sarasota County. Milton is bringing powerful winds, deadly storm surge and flooding Wednesday night along much of Florida’s Gulf Coast. The cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph as it roared ashore near Siesta Key in Sarasota County, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. The National Hurricane Center says Milton was fueled by an extremely warm Gulf of Mexico. It was expected to remain a hurricane as it crosses the Florida peninsula Thursday before emerging in the Atlantic Ocean.

Marriott International has agreed to pay $52 million and make changes to bolster its data security. The payment was made to resolve state and federal claims related to major data breaches that affected more than 300 million of its customers worldwide. The Federal Trade Commission and a group of attorneys general from 49 states and the District of Columbia announced the terms of separate settlements with Marriott on Wednesday. The FTC and the states ran parallel investigations into three data breaches, which took place between 2014 and 2020. They claimed Marriott failed to secure its computer system with appropriate password controls, network monitoring or other practices to safeguard data.

A Washington state woman had to flee her property after 50 to 100 raccoons descended on it and were acting aggressively. That's according to Kitsap County sheriff's spokesperson Kevin McCarty. It was deputies from his office that responded to the woman's 911 call last week. McCarty says the woman told deputies she started feeding a family of raccoons decades ago. But in recent weeks the number showing up went from a handful to around 100. The sheriff’s office and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife determined that no laws were broken. A department spokesperson says a wildlife conflict specialist met with the woman, and the raccoons appear to have begun dispersing now that they are no longer being fed.

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.

A video showing a helicopter hovering over a Burnsville, North Carolina, aid distribution site has been viewed millions of times with some claiming that its aim was to destroy the supplies. But the North Carolina National Guard said in a statement that the helicopter, which blew items around the site and knocked over canopies, was attempting to make a generator delivery that had been requested by a local civilian organization. The statement said the helicopter's crew has been grounded until an investigation into the incident is completed.

As Hurricane Milton bears down on Florida’s west coast with powerful winds and flooding rain, environmentalists are worried it could scatter the polluted leftovers of the state’s phosphate fertilizer mining industry and other hazardous waste across the peninsula and into vulnerable waterways. More than 1 billion tons of slightly radioactive phosphogypsum waste is stored in “stacks” that resemble enormous ponds at risk for leaks during major storms. Florida has 25 such stacks, most of them concentrated in mining areas in the central part of the state. Environmentalists say nearly all of the stacks are within Milton’s projected path.

Form Energy, a company that is beginning to produce a longer-lasting alternative to lithium batteries, hit a milestone Wednesday with an announcement of $405 million in funding. The money will allow Form to speed up manufacturing at its first factory in Weirton, West Virginia and continue research and development. Manufacturing long-duration energy storage at a commercial scale is seen as essential for lowering carbon emissions that are causing climate change, because it makes clean energy available when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.

Voter fraud does happen occasionally. And when it does, we tend to hear a lot about it. Fraud also gets caught, and people are prosecuted. The nation’s multilayered election processes provide many safeguards that keep voter fraud generally detectable and rare. That's the assessment of current and former election administrators of both parties. America’s elections are decentralized, with thousands of independent voting jurisdictions. So it's virtually impossible to pull off a large-scale vote-rigging operation that could tip a presidential race or most any other race. Voter fraud is a crime that can be punished with hefty fines and prison time.

Lawyers for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs say the jailed hip-hop mogul is seeking to go to trial on sex trafficking charges next spring. The lawyers and prosecutors advised a judge on Wednesday about their expectations for a Thursday hearing in Manhattan federal court. Combs has been locked up since his Sept. 16 arrest on charges alleging that he has physically and sexually abused women for years. His lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, says Combs is not guilty and is determined to clear his name at trial. Lawyers for Combs are trying to get him freed on bail. Two judges have already rejected the request.

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A top U.S. commercial bakery is pushing back on a Food and Drug Administration warning to stop using labels that say its products contain sesame — even when they don't. Bimbo Bakeries USA includes brands such as Sara Lee, Entenmann's and Ball Park buns and rolls. It appears to be defying an FDA warning letter that said the firm's products are misbranded. Bimbo officials won't change their labels, saying it wants uniform labels that protect consumers. Food safety advocates protested the response.

Hurricane Milton is expected to unleash its greatest force over hundreds of thousands of immigrants who don’t speak English. Most are Latin Americans who have been harvesting oranges and tomatoes in the fields along Florida’s I-4 corridor. They've also been washing dishes in restaurants, cleaning hotel rooms and working construction. For the Spanish speakers and a smaller number of African refugees, new lives in the U.S. were a daily struggle because of the language barrier and lack of resources. Milton turns those obstacles into a matter of life and death. Some new arrivals don’t have access to TV. Others don’t have computers or internet access. And there are people who don't know where to find information about Milton.

Justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court said Wednesday that Gov. Tony Evers’ creative use of his expansive veto power in an attempt to lock in a school funding increase for 400 years appeared to be “extreme" and “crazy.” But they questioned whether and how the governor's veto powers should be reigned in. Justice Jill Karofsky says it feels like “the stratosphere is the limit” when it comes to the governor's veto powers. The case is supported by the Republican-controlled Legislature. It is the latest flashpoint in a decades-long fight over just how broad Wisconsin’s governor’s partial veto powers should be.

Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy, has been hospitalized with a stroke. Her family announced on X Tuesday night that it happened Thursday in her sleep and that she's resting comfortably at a Boston-area hospital. The 96-year-old matriarch is the last remaining member of the extended family's generation that included President John F. Kennedy. She raised 11 children after her husband's assassination and founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. She remained active into her 90s, advocating for gun control and against President Trump's immigration policies.

Honda Motor Co. is recalling close to 1.7 million vehicles due to a manufacturing issue that could make it difficult to steer the vehicles and lead to crashes. Honda reported the recall last week to government regulators, who issued the recall order on Tuesday. The safety recall order from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that the steering gearbox assembly may have been manufactured incorrectly, potentially causing “excessive internal friction” that could make the vehicle difficult to steer and increase the likelihood of a crash. The vehicles were from model years 2022 to 2025 and include certain Acura Integras, Honda Civics, Honda CR-Vs and Honda HR-Vs.

Hurricane Milton is threatening to overshadow presidential campaigning as it menaces Florida. The storm has already scrambled Donald Trump’s schedule. He put off a virtual event Tuesday night focused on health care and postpone a Univision town hall in Miami. He’s scheduled to be in Pennsylvania on Wednesday.Vice President Kamala Harris will virtually attend a briefing on the storm and the federal response that President Joe Biden is receiving Wednesday at the White House. Harris plans to head to Nevada and Arizona on Thursday.

Hurricane Milton dropped to a Category 4 early Wednesday as it churns toward Florida’s west coast. The National Hurricane Center had predicted it would likely weaken, but remain a major hurricane when it makes landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday. The Tampa Bay area, home to more than 3.3 million people, faced the possibility of widespread destruction after avoiding direct hits from major hurricanes for more than a century.

Increasingly hot summers and methamphetamine are a deadly mix. The stimulant is playing an outsize role in heat-related deaths across the United States. An Associated Press analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that methamphetamine is showing up more often on the death certificates of people who die of heat-related causes. Methamphetamine is even more common than the deadly opioid fentanyl in heat-related deaths. A Mexican-manufactured version of meth has taken hold in recent years, especially in the U.S. border region. The stimulant increases body temperature and impairs a part of the brain that regulates body heat.

A rare, bright comet will be visible in October, clear skies permitting. The comet will make its closest approach to Earth on Saturday. Astronomers say it should be bright enough to see with the naked eye. Telescopes and binoculars will give a better view. Those hoping to spot it should venture outside soon after sunset and look to the west. Several comets are discovered every year, but many burn up near the sun or linger too far away to be visible without special equipment. After its Earth flyby, the comet will head once again toward the solar system’s outer fringes.

The 2024 race to the White House has already seen unexpected twists and turns. And roughly 3 in 4 American adults believe the upcoming presidential election is vital to the future of U.S. democracy, according to a survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Against that backdrop, some have been rolling out meditations or providing tips and skills to cater to those stressed by the election as they try to manage uncertainty, calm anxiety or navigate challenging conversations.

Melinda French Gates will grant $250 million to support women’s health around the world through an open call for nonprofits to apply for funding. The pledge announced Wednesday signals a new chapter in her individual philanthropic giving since departing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation earlier this year and is part of a two-year, $1 billion commitment that French Gates made in May to support women and families around the world. Haven Ley, chief strategy officer at French Gates’ organization, Pivotal Ventures, said the grant competition would lay the groundwork for a likely new focus on funding women’s health globally.

Palestinian officials said Wednesday that Israel’s bombardment of central and northern Gaza killed at least 18 people, including five children and two women. Two strikes hit tents for displaced people in the urban Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza. The bodies of nine people, including three children, were brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah. An Associated Press journalist saw the bodies at the morgue. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel has killed the successor to the head of Hezbollah, while the militant group’s acting leader promised more fighting in southern Lebanon.

The U.S. Department of Justice is considering asking a federal judge to force Google to sell parts of its business in order to eliminate its online search monopoly. In a late court filing on Tuesday, federal prosecutors also said the judge could ask the court to open the underlying data Google uses to power its ubiquitous search engine and artificial intelligence products to competitors. A federal judge ruled in August that Google’s search engine has been illegally exploiting its dominance to squash competition and stifle innovation. Google plans to appeal but must wait until the remedies are decided.

The nation's unique Electoral College system for electing a president, which replaces the popular vote, puts disproportionate voting power in the hands of a relative few states. It also ensures that the majority of campaign dollars — and attention from the presidential candidates — goes to those states. This year, there are seven. The lack of attention leaves voters in much of the country feeling as if they and the issues they care about have been sidelined. That division is felt acutely in places like Waukegan, Illinois, a majority Latino working-class city that has struggled as its factories closed and waterfront deteriorated.

Scientists say human-caused climate change boosted the rainfall of deadly Hurricane Helene by about 10% and intensified its winds by about 11%. The rapid analysis by World Weather Attribution comes just as another big hurricane, Milton, is taking aim at the Florida coast less than two weeks after Helene hit. The scientists said the warming climate boosted Helene's wind speeds by about 13 miles per hour and made the high sea temperatures that fueled the hurricane 200 to 500 times more likely. They warn that the two fearsome storms in quick succession could be a glimpse of the future of climate change if humans don't stop burning fossil fuels.

We have a winner in Alaska’s Fat Bear Contest. Grazer won the popular vote Tuesday, defeating a bear named Chunk. With the win, she avenges the death of her cub at the hands of the 1,200-pound male behemoth over the summer in Brooks River inside Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. This is Grazer’s second straight win over Chunk in the contest in which fans cast votes for the bear they believe best exemplifies winter preparedness by the fat they have accumulated over the summer. The annual contest is a way to celebrate the resiliency of the 2,200 brown bears that live in the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula.

For some residents of storm-prone Southeastern states, the best indicator of a hurricane's severity can be found at the local Waffle House. If the Georgia-based restaurant chain stays open in town, neighbors are reassured that the coming storm is unlikely to cause devastation. A closed location of the dependable diner chain has come to indicate impending disaster. What might sound like silly logic has become one of the most reliable ways for Southerners and even federal officials to gauge a storm’s severity and identify communities most in need of immediate aid. The Waffle House Index was created by a federal emergency management official and is still used today.

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Hurricane Helene flooded the Weissmans' home last month. They need to chase down private insurance claims and fill out federal aid applications. But their priority is their children. Schools have been closed since the storm and on Monday morning, Max Weissman took his son Avi and his daughter Reyna to a free, pop-up day camp where dozens of kids were making bracelets, drawing, and playing oversized games of Jenga and Connect Four in a large playroom. The camp is hosted by the L.A.-based nonprofit Project:Camp. As storms become more frequent and severe, the organization is increasingly traveling to disaster-affected communities to set up spaces where kids can process the disruption and devastation of a disaster while their parents start the long recovery process.

This is a collection of photos chosen by AP photo editors.

Hospitals and other health care facilities on Florida’s Gulf Coast — still reeling from Hurricane Helene — are now revving up for Hurricane Milton. The system, which is shaping up to be one of the most powerful to hit the region in years, is expected to make landfall near the Tampa area late Wednesday. Long-term care facilities in counties where mandatory evacuations have been issued are taking their patients elsewhere, while hospitals are largely on guard, preparing to stay open through the storm. According to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ website, 10 hospitals have reported evacuations as of Tuesday afternoon. Three hundred health care facilities have evacuated as of Tuesday morning, says Florida Agency for Health Care Administration deputy secretary Kim Smoak.

Fearful Florida residents are streaming out of the Tampa Bay region ahead of what could be a once-in-a-century direct hit from Hurricane Milton. Crews are working furiously to prevent furniture, appliances and other waterlogged wreckage from Florida’s last big storm from becoming deadly projectiles in this one. The preparations marked the last chance for millions of people in the Tampa metro area to prepare for lethal storm surges, ferocious winds and possible tornadoes in a place that has narrowly avoided a head-on blow from a major storm for generations.

A New Hampshire pastor turned an annual blessing of the animals into a chance to debunk viral conspiracy theories about migrants in Ohio. Rev. Jean Beniste, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Concord, welcomed worshipers by telling them not to be afraid to bring pets to church. “I am not going to eat them,” Beniste, a Haitian immigrant, told them, to peals of laughter, “I will bless them.” Beniste then prayed for worshipers’ dogs and cats, blessing them with holy water at service held in honor of St. Francis, known for his love of animals.

Bills aimed to reduce West Virginians’ income tax burden are headed to the desk of Gov. Jim Justice. One would reduce the state personal income tax by 2%. Another would provide a tax credit to help families pay for child care. Cuts to the state personal income tax have been a priority for Justice. The Republican governor is nearing the end of his second term and now running for U.S. Senate. He signed a more than 21% tax cut last year, and the tax is scheduled to drop by another 4% in the new year.

More than a dozen states and the District of Columbia have filed lawsuits against TikTok. They are alleging the popular short-form video app is designed to be addictive to kids and harms young people's mental health. At the heart of each lawsuit is the TikTok algorithm, which powers what users see on the platform by populating the app’s main “For You” feed with content tailored to people’s interests. The lawsuits also emphasize design features that they say make children addicted to the platform. TikTok says it strongly disagrees with the claims. It says many of the allegations in the lawsuits are wrong and misleading.

Florida communities near Tampa Bay were devastated when Hurricane Helene made landfall two weeks ago about 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the north. Now Milton is forecast to make a direct hit on the low-lying region that has a population of more than 3.3 million people. That means as bad as Helene was, Milton could be much deadlier and destructive. Storm surge causes more deaths than high winds and can remain powerful even if winds weaken, potentially leveling homes and businesses like a battering ram. Officials say the only way people living near the coast can assure their safety is to move to higher ground.

Who can vote in U.S. elections? Generally, if you're a U.S. citizen and at least 18 years old, you can vote. But each state can impose its own requirements and restrictions on voting. In most states, people incarcerated for felony crimes cannot vote. And most states require people to register their names and addresses in advance of an election, with deadlines spanning from three to 30 days ahead of time. Three-fourths of states ask for some form of identification at the polls, including 21 that require a photo ID.

People who lived near the disastrous East Palestine train derailment last year should still be able to receive personal injury payments even while the bulk of their $600 million class action settlement with Norfolk Southern railroad remains on hold during an appeal. A spokesperson for attorneys who represented residents said provisions of the deal will allow those personal injury payments to be made even while an appeal challenging whether the settlement is adequate and fair moves forward. Four additional residents filed notice Tuesday that they are appealing the deal.

Several disputes over Ohio voter rights were unresolved as the state began accepting early ballots Tuesday.  Voter advocacy groups have asked Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose to restore voter registrations removed in several counties as a result of third-party challenges powered by a national movement aligned with former President Donald Trump. Legislative Democrats also continue to seek additional information on LaRose's removal of 155,000 registration records this summer. A lawsuit also continues over LaRose’s directive preventing the use of drop boxes by people helping voters with disabilities deliver their ballots. National and state Republicans have intervened on LaRose's behalf.

A former Houston police officer is being sent to prison for the deaths of a married couple during a drug raid. A jury sentenced Gerald Goines to 60 years in prison on Tuesday after convicting him of murder in the deaths of Dennis Tuttle and his wife, Rhogena Nicholas. An investigation of the January 2019 raid revealed systemic corruption in the Houston Police narcotics unit. Prosecutors said Goines lied to get a search warrant by falsely portraying the couple as dangerous drug dealers. Goines’ lawyers admitted he lied but said his actions did not amount to murder.

This is a collection of photos chosen by AP photo editors.