AP News Digest 7:10 a.m.

Here are the AP’s latest coverage plans, top stories and promotable content. All times EDT. Find the AP’s top photos of the day in Today’s Photo Collection. For up-to-the-minute information on AP’s coverage, visit Coverage Plan in AP Newsroom.

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ONLY ON AP

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LOST-SHIPPING-CONTAINERS — Most of the world’s everyday goods and raw materials moved over long distances are packed in large metal boxes the size of tractor-trailers and stacked on ships. Millions of containers cross the oceans every year. But not everything arrives as planned. According to one trade group, at least 20,000 shipping containers have tumbled overboard in the last decade and a half. By Christina Larson, Helen Wieffering and Manuel Valdes. SENT: 800 words, photos. With LOST-SHIPPING-CONTAINERS-TAKEAWAYS — SENT.

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TOP STORIES

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MIDEAST-TENSIONS — The Israeli military warned people to evacuate a city and other communities in southern Lebanon that are north of a U.N.-declared buffer zone, signaling that it may widen a ground operation launched earlier this week against the Hezbollah militant group. By Fadi Tawil and Jack Jeffery. SENT: 890 words, photos, videos, audio. With MIDEAST TENSIONS-THE-LATEST — Israeli strike in Beirut kills 9 as troops battle Hezbollah in southern Lebanon; MIDEAST TENSIONS-BIDEN — Biden won’t support a strike on Iran nuclear sites as Israel weighs response to Iran missile attack; ISRAEL-AIR-DEFENSE-EXPLAINER — Israel’s multilayered air-defense system passes another test in fending off Iranian missile strike; ISRAEL-LEBANON-WHAT-TO-KNOW — SENT. Click here for more on the AP’s plans for the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks and the start of the war in Gaza.

HURRICANE HELENE — In the midst of the devastating destruction left by the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina, human connections are giving the survivors hope in western North Carolina. That includes neighbors checking on neighbors in Asheville and daily in-person town meetings in the Black Mountain square. The death toll from Hurricane Helene has topped 180, and many people remain unaccounted for. By Jeff Amy, Erik Verduzco and Brittany Peterson. SENT: 1,080 words, photos, videos, audio. With HURRICANE-HELENE-CLIMATE-FLOOD-RISK — Shock of deadly floods is a reminder of Appalachia’s risk from violent storms in a warming climate; HURRICANE-HELENE-BIG-BEND-RECOVERY — Florida communities hit three times by hurricanes grapple with how and whether to rebuild; HURRICANE-HELENE-VICTIMS — Hurricane Helene victims include young siblings killed by falling tree as they slept; HURRICANE-HELENE-GRANDPARENTS — Grandparents found hugging one another after fallen tree killed them in their South Carolina home; ELECTION 2024-CLIMATE — Hurricane Helene brings climate change to forefront of presidential campaign; and HURRICANE-HELENE-FEMA — Mayorkas warns FEMA doesn’t have enough funding to last through hurricane season — SENT.

ELECTION 2024 — Kamala Harris campaigns in Wisconsin and Donald Trump will be in Michigan as the two candidates grapple for wins in the so-called “blue wall” battleground states, which also include Pennsylvania. Republican Liz Cheney, one of Donald Trump’s fiercest GOP antagonists, will join Vice President Kamala Harris in Wisconsin for a campaign event. By Chris Megerian. SENT: 420 words, photos. With ELECTION 2024-MICHIGAN — Haunted by 2016, some Michigan Democrats worry that Harris remains ill-defined in swing state — SENT.

TRUMP-CAPITOL-RIOT — Prosecutors say Donald Trump laid the groundwork to try to overturn the 2020 election even before he lost, knowingly pushed false claims of voter fraud and “resorted to crimes” in his failed bid to cling to power. A newly unsealed court filing lays out fresh details from the landmark criminal case against the former president. By Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer. SENT: 1,190 words, photos, video. With ELECTION-2024-VANCE — JD Vance again refuses to say Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election — SENT.

ASIA-TYPHOON — Typhoon Krathon has made landfall in the major Taiwanese port city of Kaohsiung. The slow-moving typhoon prompted the closure of schools and offices for a third consecutive day, with authorities asking people to stay indoors. By Simina Mistreanu. SENT: 510 words, photos, video, audio. With TAIWAN-FIRE-DEATHS — Taiwan hospital fire leaves at least 9 dead as typhoon batters island’s south — SENT.

NYC-MAYOR-BLACK REPRESENTATION — The indictment of New York City mayor Eric Adams on federal bribery charges has sparked debates among Black leaders and community advocates about whether to stand behind a figure who, for many, represents a milestone of Black representation in government. Nearly two years ago, New York voters elected Black leaders to a historic number of local and statewide offices. Some Black leaders now fear that Adams’ indictment may tarnish the broader political representation that was achieved. By Aaron Morrison and Matt Brown. SENT: 1,140 words, photos, video.

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SPOTLIGHTING VOICES

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SOUTH-KOREA-DEEPFAKE-PORN — South Korea is fighting a deluge of non-consensual, explicit deepfake videos and images primarily targeting women online. Observers say most suspected perpetrators are teenage boys, many of whom target their female friends, relatives and others whom they know — also mostly minors — as a prank, out of curiosity or out of misogyny. Many girls and women in South Korea have hastily removed their photos and videos from their social media accounts. By Hyung-jin Kim. SENT: 1,190 words, photos.

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RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR

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RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR — New NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte visited Ukraine on Thursday in his first official trip since taking office and pledging continued support for Kyiv. Rutte met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv as air raid sirens twice went off in the Ukrainian capital. On Wednesday, a Russian glide bomb struck a five-story apartment block in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, injuring at least 12 people, including a 3-year-old girl. SENT: 350 words, photos.

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MORE NEWS

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MATTHEW-PERRY — Doctor who helped supply Matthew Perry ketamine pleads guilty to drug charge. SENT: 660 words, photos, video, audio.

BRITAIN-DEAF-CINEMA — A new initiative will allow UK deaf audiences to see captioned films before general release. SENT: 480 words, photos.

PLIGHT-OF-NIBI-THE-BEAVER — The fate of Nibi the beaver lands in court as rescuers try to stop her release into the wild. SENT: 520 words, photos, video, audio.

TARANTULA-FESTIVAL — Spider lovers scurry to Colorado town in search of mating tarantulas and community. SENT: 680 words, photos, video.

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WASHINGTON/POLITICS

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ELECTION-2024-MIGRANT-CHILDREN-FACT-FOCUS — Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have recently claimed that hundreds of thousands of migrant children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border unaccompanied are missing. But immigration experts say the claims lack significant context. As one said, “This is not a ‘missing kids’ problem; it’s a ‘missing paperwork’ problem.” SENT: 740 words, photos.

ELECTION 2024-TRUMP-IMMIGRATION — Donald Trump has developed a unique fondness for a chart that shows U.S.-Mexico border crossings. He narrowly dodged an assassin’s bullet by turning his head to glance at the immigration graphic during a Pennsylvania rally in July. By Adriana Gomez Licon. SENT: 1,200 words, photos.

SUPREME COURT-GHOST GUNS — The Supreme Court is hearing arguments next week in a case over a federal regulation aimed at reducing privately made firearms often referred to as ghost guns. By Lindsay Whitehurst. SENT: 1,100 words, photos.

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NATIONAL

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HAWAII-WILDFIRES-REPORT — The wildfire that killed at least 102 people on Maui last year erupted from an earlier brushfire, sparked by downed power lines, that firefighters believed they had extinguished, officials confirmed as they presented their findings on the cause. SENT: 1,060 words, photos. With HAWAII-WILDFIRES-THINGS-TO-KNOW — SENT.

TYRE-NICHOLS — Memphis police officers who beat Tyre Nichols to death wanted to punish him after he ran from a 2023 traffic stop and thought they could get away with it, a prosecutor said during closing arguments in the federal trial of three of the officers. SENT: 790 words, photos, video, audio.

POLICE-SHOOTING-VIRGINIA — Defense lawyers say they will seek a mistrial for a former police officer on trial in the fatal shooting a shoplifting suspect outside a busy northern Virginia mall after prosecutors’ closing argument included evidence that was never introduced at trial. SENT: 560 words.

ELECTION-SECURITY-COLORADO-CLERK — A former Colorado county clerk and one-time hero to election conspiracists is set to be sentenced for leading a data-breach scheme inspired by the rampant false claims that voting fraud altered the result of the 2020 presidential race. SENT: 350 words, photo.

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INTERNATIONAL

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MEXICO-MIGRANTS-KILLED — Six migrants are dead after Mexican soldiers opened fire on a truck carrying a group near the border with Guatemala, Mexico’s Defense Department said. SENT: 430 words.

SINGAPORE-CORRUPTION — A former Singaporean Cabinet minister was sentenced to a year in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges of receiving illegal gifts, in a rare criminal case involving a minister in the Asian financial hub. SENT: 450 words, photo.

THAILAND-BUS FIRE — A small town in central Thailand prepared for a somber mass funeral for the 23 children and teachers who died in a horrific bus fire while on a school trip. SENT: 430 words, photos, video.

VENEZUELA-ELECTION-OAS — An independent group of election experts that observed Venezuela’s July presidential election on Wednesday legitimized the vote tally sheets the opposition has offered as proof of President Nicolás Maduro’s defeat. SENT: 450 words, photo.

DOMINICAN-REPUBLIC-HAITI-MASS-DEPORTATIONS — The Dominican Republic announced it would start massive deportations of Haitians living illegally in the country, expelling up to 10,000 of them a week. SENT: 270 words, photo. With HAITI-GOVERNMENT-CORRUPTION — Investigators in Haiti accuse three members of transitional presidential council of corruption — SENT.

GEORGIA-LGBTQ-RIGHTS — The speaker of the Georgian parliament signed into a law a bill that severely curtails LGBTQ+ rights in the country and mirrors legislation adopted in neighboring Russia. Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili had refused to sign the bill and returned it to parliament on Wednesday. SENT: 750 words, photos.

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HEALTH & SCIENCE

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CHILDHOOD-VACCINATIONS — U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates dipped last year and the proportion of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high. SENT: 660 words, photo.

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SPORTS

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SKI-CLIMATE-CHANGE — Winter sports are facing a long-time crisis because of climate change and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation has teamed up with the United Nations weather agency. It’s an initial five-year partnership between FIS and the World Meteorological Organization. It aims to help national ski federations, venues and race organizers better understand weather forecasting to manage natural and artificial snow. SENT: 390 words, photos.

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HOW TO REACH US

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The moon moves across the sun during an annular solar eclipse seen from Tahai, Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, Chile, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

A relative touches a portrait of a victim of a school bus fire at Wat Khao Phraya Sangkharam School Lan Sak, Uthai Thani province, Thailand, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A woman with a child on her back walks past a house which had collapsed due to flooding in the Nakhu river caused by heavy rains in Lalitpur, Nepal, on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Ben Phillips scoops mud out a window of his house left in the wake of Hurricane Helene, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Marshall, N.C. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris greets people who were impacted by Hurricane Helene in Augusta, Ga., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, as from left, Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., FEMA deputy direct Erik Hooks and Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson watch. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Mourners take the last look at the body of Sameh al-Asali, 38, a Palestinian worker from Gaza who had been stranded in the territory since the war broke out and was killed by a rocket during Tuesday's night's Iranian strike toward Israel, during his funeral in the West Bank city of Jericho, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

HORSESHOE BEACH, Fla. (AP) — It was just a month ago that Brooke Hiers left the state-issued emergency trailer where her family had lived since Hurricane Idalia slammed into her Gulf Coast fishing village of Horseshoe Beach in August 2023.

Hiers and her husband Clint were still finishing the electrical work in the home they painstakingly rebuilt themselves, wiping out Clint’s savings to do so. They never will finish that wiring job.

Hurricane Helene blew their newly renovated home off its four foot-high pilings, sending it floating into the neighbor’s yard next door.

“You always think, ‘Oh, there’s no way it can happen again’,” Hiers said. “I don’t know if anybody’s ever experienced this in the history of hurricanes.”

For the third time in 13 months, this windswept stretch of Florida’s Big Bend took a direct hit from a hurricane — a one-two-three punch to a 50-mile (80-kilometer) sliver of the state’s more than 8,400 miles (13,500 kilometers) of coastline, first by Idalia, then Category 1 Hurricane Debby in August 2024 and now Helene.

Hiers, who sits on Horseshoe Beach’s town council, said words like “unbelievable” are beginning to lose their meaning.

“I’ve tried to use them all. Catastrophic. Devastating. Heartbreaking … none of that explains what happened here,” Hiers said.

The back-to-back hits to Florida’s Big Bend are forcing residents to reckon with the true costs of living in an area under siege by storms that researchers say are becoming stronger because of climate change.

The Hiers, like many others here, can’t afford homeowner’s insurance on their flood-prone houses, even if it was available. Residents who have watched their life savings get washed away multiple times are left with few choices — leave the communities where their families have lived for generations, pay tens of thousands of dollars to rebuild their houses on stilts as building codes require, or move into a recreational vehicle they can drive out of harm’s way.

That’s if they can afford any of those things. The storm left many residents bunking with family or friends, sleeping in their cars, or sheltering in what’s left of their collapsing homes.

Janalea England wasn't waiting for outside organizations to get aid to her friends and neighbors, turning her commercial fish market in the river town of Steinhatchee into a pop-up donation distribution center, just like she did after Hurricane Idalia. A row of folding tables was stacked with water, canned food, diapers, soap, clothes and shoes, a steady stream of residents coming and going.

“I’ve never seen so many people homeless as what I have right now. Not in my community,” England said. “They have nowhere to go.”

The sparsely populated Big Bend is known for its towering pine forests and pristine salt marshes that disappear into the horizon, a remote stretch of largely undeveloped coastline that’s mostly dodged the crush of condos, golf courses and souvenir strip malls that has carved up so much of the Sunshine State.

This is a place where teachers, mill workers and housekeepers could still afford to live within walking distance of the Gulf’s white sand beaches. Or at least they used to, until a third successive hurricane blew their homes apart.

Helene was so destructive, many residents don’t have a home left to clean up, escaping the storm with little more than the clothes on their backs, even losing their shoes to the surging tides.

“People didn’t even have a Christmas ornament to pick up or a plate from their kitchen,” Hiers said. “It was just gone.”

In a place where people are trying to get away from what they see as government interference, England, who organized her own donation site, isn’t putting her faith in government agencies and insurance companies.

“FEMA didn’t do much,” she said. “They lost everything with Idalia and they were told, ‘here, you can have a loan.’ I mean, where’s our tax money going then?”

England’s sister, Lorraine Davis, got a letter in the mail just days before Helene hit declaring that her insurance company was dropping her, with no explanation other than her home “fails to meet underwriting”.

Living on a fixed income, Davis has no idea how she’ll repair the long cracks that opened up in the ceiling of her trailer after the last storm.

“We'll all be on our own,” England said. “We're used to it.”

In the surreal aftermath of this third hurricane, some residents don’t have the strength to clean up their homes again, not with other storms still brewing in the Gulf.

With marinas washed away, restaurants collapsed and vacation homes blown apart, many commercial fishermen, servers and housecleaners lost their homes and their jobs on the same day.

Those who worked at the local sawmill and paper mill, two bedrock employers in the area, were laid off in the past year too. Now a convoy of semi-trucks full of hurricane relief supplies have set up camp at the shuttered mill in the city of Perry.

Hud Lilliott was a mill worker for 28 years, before losing his job and now his canal-front home in Dekle Beach, just down the street from the house where he grew up.

Lilliott and his wife Laurie hope to rebuild their house there, but they don’t know how they’ll pay for it. And they’re worried the school in Steinhatchee where Laurie teaches first grade could become another casualty of the storm, as the county watches its tax base float away.

“We've worked our whole lives and we're so close to where they say the ‘golden years’," Laurie said. "It's like you can see the light and it all goes dark.”

Dave Beamer rebuilt his home in Steinhatchee after it was “totaled” by Hurricane Idalia, only to see it washed into the marsh a year later.

“I don’t think I can do that again,” Beamer said. “Everybody’s changing their mind about how we’re going to live here.”

A waterlogged clock in a shed nearby shows the moment when time stopped, marking before Helene and after.

Beamer plans to stay in this river town, but put his home on wheels — buying a camper and building a pole barn to park it under.

In Horseshoe Beach, Hiers is waiting for a makeshift town hall to be delivered in the coming days, a double-wide trailer where they’ll offer what services they can for as long as they can. She and her husband are staying with their daughter, a 45-minute drive away.

“You feel like this could be the end of things as you knew it. Of your town. Of your community,” Hiers said. “We just don't even know how to recover at this point.”

Hiers said she and her husband will probably buy an RV and park it where their home once stood. But they won't be moving back to Horseshoe Beach for good until this year's storms are done.

They can't bear to do this again.

Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Maddie Kelley shows the high-water line left behind by Hurricane Helene on a seashell windchime at her family's home in Steinhatchee, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)

The sun sets over the storm-damaged Steinhatchee marina near where the Steinhatchee River flows into the Gulf of Mexico, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helen. (AP Photo/Kate Payne) Kate Payne Reporter, State Government Education Tallahassee, FL C 850.545.4283 kpayne@ap.or

The sun sets over a flooded road and a collapsed building in Steinhatchee, Fla., Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. (AP Photo/Kate Payne

Dave Beamer walks past the partially destroyed trailer he's been living in, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Steinhatchee, Fla., after Hurricane Helene washed his home into a marsh. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)

Dave Beamer surveys debris left behind by Hurricane Helene along his street in Steinhatchee, Fla., Sunday. Sept. 29, 2024. Beamer had just rebuilt his home in the wake of Hurricane Idalia in August 2023, before Helene washed it into a marsh. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)

Brooke Hiers surveys the damage done to her home, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Horseshoe Beach, Fla., in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Hiers and her husband rebuilt the home in the wake of Hurricane Idalia, which washed ashore in August, 2023, only to see it destroyed by another storm 13 months later. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)

Brooke Hiers stands in front of where her home used to sit in Horseshoe Beach, Fla., Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. She and her husband had just rebuilt the home after Hurricane Idalia hit in August, 2023, before Hurricane Helene blew the house off its pilings and floated it into the neighbor's yard next door. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)

A waterlogged clock hangs a shed, Sunday, Sept 29, 2024, in Steinhatchee, Fla., in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)

Leslie and J.D. High hold photos they found in the debris that Hurricane Helene left near their home in Dekle Beach in rural Taylor County, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. Among the photos was a polaroid showing damage from a storm known as the "Storm of the Century" that hit the area in March, 1993. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)

Laurie Lilliott stands amid the wreckage of her destroyed home in Dekle Beach in rural Taylor County, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)