TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Helene has strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane as it barrels across the Gulf of Mexico on a path to Florida. The U.S. National Hurricane Center issued the update Thursday moring. The huge storm’s center is expected to make landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida’s northwestern coast as soon as late Thursday. The governors of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas have all declared emergencies in their states.

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted by a federal grand jury on criminal charges that are still sealed. That's according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Adams said after the indictment that he would not resign. 

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S., France and other allies are jointly calling for an immediate 21-day cease-fire to allow for negotiations in the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 600 people in Lebanon.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma is preparing to execute a man for his role in the 1992 shooting death of an Oklahoma City convenience store owner during a robbery. Fifty-two-year-old Emmanuel Littlejohn is set to receive a three-drug lethal injection on Thursday despite a clemency recommendation from the state's Pardon and Parole Board.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama is preparing to carry out the nation’s second nitrogen gas execution. Alan Eugene Miller is scheduled to be executed Thursday with nitrogen gas at a south Alabama prison. The state carried out the first nitrogen gas execution in January. Miller was convicted of killing three men in back-to-back workplace shootings in 1999. 

Derided by Donald Trump as a “communist,” Vice President Kamala Harris is playing up her street cred as a capitalist. Attacked by Harris as a rich kid who got $400 million from his father on a “silver platter,” Trump is leaning into his raw populism. The two presidential candidates delivered dueling speeches Wednesday that reflect how they’re honing their economic messages for voters in battleground states. 

In other news:

—The Associated Press

About this program

Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate.