China is increasingly targeting down-ballot elections in America, according to a Washington Post analysis and senior U.S. intelligence officials, using fake accounts on social media to spread divisive and sometimes explicitly antisemitic claims and conspiracy theories about politicians — part of an effort to inflame tensions in the country just one month before the 2024 election.

The entire Florida National Guard was joined by Guard forces from at least seven other states as they began route clearance, search and rescue, and other missions before dawn Thursday after the fast-moving storm struck Wednesday night.

Ethel Kennedy, the wife of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy who raised their 11 children after he was assassinated and remained dedicated to social causes and the family’s legacy for decades thereafter, died on Thursday, her family said. She was 96.

Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest in over a year, reflecting large increases in Michigan, as well as states affected by Hurricane Helene.

Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., had been turned into a 10,000-person camp to support rescue operations. Video showed its roof fabric blowing in the storm.

NATO will hold a long-planned major nuclear exercise next week, the alliance’s chief said Thursday, shortly after President Vladimir Putin announced changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine to discourage Ukraine’s Western allies from supporting attacks on his country.

Rescue teams plucked Florida residents from the flotsam of Hurricane Milton on Thursday after the storm smashed through coastal communities where it tore homes into pieces, filled streets with mud and spawned a barrage of deadly tornadoes. At least eight people were dead.

Hurricane Milton plowed into Florida as a Category 3 storm, bringing misery to a coast still ravaged by Helene, pounding cities with winds of over 100 mph after producing a barrage of tornadoes, but sparing Tampa a direct hit.

A White House meeting to celebrate a century of relations between the United States and Ireland turned to concerns about the conflict in the Middle East, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said of his conversation with President Joe Biden on Wednesday.