Hurricane Rachel strengthens to a Category 3 storm off Mexico’s Pacific coast

October 3, 2026

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Hurricane Rachel has been upgraded to a Category 3 storm off Mexico’s Pacific coast as northern Mexico and parts of the U.S. Southwest were reeling from flooding and damage from the remnants of Hurricane Polo earlier this week. The storm, located about 235 miles (380 kilometers) south off the southern tip of Baja California, was continuing west-northwest at 3 mph (6 kph) and expected to strengthen Friday before weakening this weekend, according to the National Hurricane Center. The maximum sustained winds were 120 miles per hour (193 kph) as of Thursday ...

Earth’s driest desert is covered in wildflowers right now

October 3, 2026

THE ATACAMA DESERT, Chile (AP) — Spring has finally arrived in the Southern Hemisphere and, in Chile, even the desert is blossoming. Known as the driest nonpolar desert on Earth, a massive portion of the Atacama Desert has been covered in flowers after the El Nino weather pattern ...

Federal scholarship for private school and homeschooling opening to most kids in at least 30 states

October 3, 2026

Nearly all schoolchildren in at least 30 states can apply for a new federal scholarship next year to help pay for private school, homeschooling and other educational expenses, according to regulations proposed Thursday by the Trump administration. The first national school choice scholarship ...

Households will pay more for energy because of federal policy changes, think tank says

October 3, 2026

Households in the contiguous United States will pay thousands of dollars more for energy through 2040 because of federal policy changes since President Donald Trump returned to office such as canceling new clean energy projects, according to modeling released Friday by a nonpartisan think ...

G7 nations will release 100 million barrels of oil and diesel fuel after prices soar

October 3, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Group of Seven wealthy democracies said Friday that they plan to release 100 million barrels of oil and fuel products in the coming weeks, starting with “substantial” amounts of diesel after the fuel recently hit record high prices in the United States. President Donald Trump said the diesel release would happen “immediately,” echoing a G7 promise to start “immediately” with a “frontloaded substantial release” of diesel within the next 20 days and the rest over four months. Trump and his Republican Party face pressure to address surging prices ...

Amazon to invest $1B into data center communities amid backlash against data center rollouts

October 3, 2026

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is investing more than $1 billion over the next five years into communities where it operates data centers for education, job training, water and energy preservation projects and other local priorities as it reacts to a growing backlash from politicians and consumers to the tech industry’s rollout of the massive buildings. According to a blog post on Friday by Matt Garman, Amazon’s CEO of its cloud computing arm, Amazon has already spent more than $1 billion in communities with a large data center presence over the past three years. Garman also said that ...