TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Milton is barreling into the Atlantic Ocean after plowing into Florida as a Category 3 storm. It pounded cities with ferocious winds and rains, whipped up a barrage of tornadoes and caused at least four deaths. It compounded the misery wrought by Helene. But it spared Tampa a direct hit. The storm tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall Wednesday night in Siesta Key, about 70 miles south of Tampa. 

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to the South Korean author Han Kang for what the Nobel committee called her “intense poetic prose.” Nobel committee chairman Anders Olsson praised Han’s “physical empathy for the vulnerable, often female lives” of her characters. 

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian medical officials say an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 27. The Israeli military said it targeted militants hiding in a school in the central city of Deir al-Balah. 

NEW YORK (AP) — A rare, bright comet will be visible in October, clear skies permitting. The comet will make its closest approach to Earth on Saturday. 

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.