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WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, Ohio (AP) — Stubborn drought in Ohio and the shifting weather patterns influenced by climate change appear to be affecting North America’s largest native fruit: the pawpaw.

Avocado-sized with a taste sometimes described as a cross between a mango and banana, the pawpaw is beloved by many but rarely seen in grocery stores in the U.S. due to its short shelf life. The fruit grows in various places in the eastern half of North America, from Ontario to Florida. But in parts of Ohio, which hosts an annual festival dedicated to the fruit, and Kentucky, some growers this year are reporting earlier-than-normal harvests and bitter-tasting fruit, a possible effect of the extreme weather from the spring freezes to drought that has hit the region.

Take Valerie Libbey’s orchard in Washington Court House, about an hour’s drive from Columbus. Libbey grows 100 pawpaw trees and said she was surprised to see the fruit dropping from trees in the first week of August instead of mid-September.

“I had walked into the orchard to do my regular irrigation and the smell of the fruit just hit me,” said Libbey, who added that this year’s harvest period was much shorter than in previous years and the fruits themselves were smaller and more bitter.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — U.S. Peace Corps volunteers returned to El Salvador Friday for the first time since the American force left in 2016 because of violence in the Central American country.

It was the latest sign of a thaw in U.S. relations with El Salvador, whose President Nayib Bukele was once shunned because of his harsh crackdown on street gangs.

It was also a sign of how much Bukele’s widespread arrests of suspected gang members - which also jailed a considerable number of apparently innocent young men - has reduced the country’s once-fearsome homicide rate.

The Peace Corps said the first nine volunteers would work on community economic development, education, and youth initiatives. All nine had previously worked two-year stints in other Central American countries.

“Today is not just a celebration, it’s a commitment to continue building on the decades-long partnership with the people of El Salvador,” said Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn.

More than 2,300 Peace Corps Volunteers had worked in El Salvador since 1962. The Peace Corps volunteers left after El Salvador’s gang-fueled homicide rate reached a high of 106 murders per 100,000 inhabitants on 2015. That year there were 6,658 killings in the country of 6.3 million.

Under a state of emergency originally declared in 2022 and still in effect, Bukele’s government has rounded up about 81,900 suspected gang members in sweeps that rights groups say are often arbitrary, based on a person’s appearance or where they live. The government has had to release about 7,000 people because of a lack of evidence.

Already the longest-lived of the 45 men to serve as U.S. president, Jimmy Carter is about to reach the century mark.

The 39th president, who remains under home hospice care, will turn 100 on Tuesday, Oct. 1, celebrating in the same south Georgia town where he was born in 1924.

Here are some notable markers for Carter, the nation and the world over his long life.

By all accounts, Milagra the “miracle” California condor shouldn’t be alive today.

But now at nearly 17 months old, she is one of four of the giant endangered birds who will get to stretch their wings in the wild as part of a release this weekend near the Grand Canyon.

There is no more appropriate name for a young bird that has managed to survive against all odds. Her mother died from the worst outbreak of avian flu in U.S. history soon after she laid her egg and her father nearly succumbed to the same fate while struggling to incubate the egg alone.

Milagra, which means miracle in Spanish, was rescued from her nest and hatched in captivity thanks to the care of her foster condor parents.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Biden administration officials met Friday with port operators ahead of a possible strike at East and Gulf coast ports, with a union contract expiring after Monday.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and Lael Brainard, director of the White House National Economic Council, told members of the United States Maritime Alliance that they should be at the table with the union and negotiating ahead of the contract expiring. That’s according to a White House official who insisted on anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

Administration officials have delivered a similar message to the union this week.

Two weeks of testimony suggested the company responsible for an experimental deep-water submersible that imploded, killing five people, either recklessly ignored warning signs in the name of profits or represented the nation’s explorer spirit in taking calculated risks to push humankind’s boundaries.

Those contrasting viewpoints emerged as the Coast Guard panel tasked with determining why the carbon-fiber Titan was lost 12,500 feet (3,810 meters) deep wrapped up testimony Friday with new information that could have changed how rescuers responded and more discussion of the company co-founder’s cavalier attitude.

Capt. Jamie Frederick, commander of the Coast Guard sector based in Boston, appeared surprised to learn that the crew of Titan’s support vessel, in hindsight, felt there was a slight shudder around the time the submersible imploded on its way to the wreckage of the Titanic last year.

Frederick said it was “unconscionable that they wouldn’t share that” and it could have changed the rescue response. “It certainly would’ve changed the equation,” he testified.

Also Friday, an OceanGate employee testified that he resigned after a “tense” conversation in which co-founder Stockton Rush told him the vessel would be flagged in the Bahamas and launched from Canada to avoid U.S. scrutiny — and arrogantly brushed aside U.S. regulatory concerns if it went to a U.S. port.

A TV weather reporter in Atlanta interrupted his live shot about Hurricane Helene Friday to rescue a woman from a vehicle stranded by rising floodwaters.

In video of the rescue, standing in the rain with the submerged vehicle behind him, FOX Weather meteorologist Bob Van Dillen describes how the woman drove into a flooded area.

He says he has called 911, and she can be heard screaming as he tries to assure her that help is on the way. Then he says to the camera: “It’s a situation. We’ll get back to you in a little bit. I’m going to see if I can help this lady out a little bit more you guys.”

Van Dillen is then seen wading through the water with the woman on her back, carrying her to safety.

For months, New York City Mayor Eric Adams — a former cop — refused to criticize the federal authorities investigating his administration.

Not anymore.

The day news of his indictment on corruption charges broke, Adams defiantly suggested, without providing evidence, that U.S. prosecutors had gone after him because he had criticized President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.

“Despite our pleas, when the federal government did nothing as its broken immigration policies overloaded our shelter system with no relief, I put the people of New York before party and politics,” he said. “I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you, that I would be a target — and a target I became.”

The accusation from Adams marked a sharp turn for a retired police captain turned politician, whose commitment to law-and-order has been a calling card during his time in office.

The rhetoric was also similar to that of other politicians who have found themselves facing various accusations.

WILMINGTON, Delaware, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Newsmax Media reached a confidential settlement of a lawsuit by Smartmatic, the voting machine maker that had alleged it was defamed by the news outlet's false claims that its machines were rigged to help steal the 2020 U.S. presidential election from Donald Trump, the companies said on Thursday.

The agreement came on the eve of a four-week jury trial, with opening arguments scheduled to begin in Wilmington, Delaware on Sept. 30.

"Newsmax is pleased to announce it has resolved the litigation brought by Smartmatic through a confidential settlement," the company said in a statement.

Smartmatic also said in a statement it was pleased to have reached a deal. "Lying to the American people has consequences. Smartmatic will not stop until the perpetrators are held accountable."

Smartmatic sued Newsmax in 2021, alleging it broadcast damaging misinformation falsely claiming the company switched votes in the 2020 election, that its machines were hacked and that it was funded by corrupt dictators.

Smartmatic alleged that Newsmax profited from its false reporting. Trump amplified Newsmax's reporting on social media and the broadcaster's audience jumped 10-fold after the election, vaulting it over cable news rivals such as CNBC and Fox Business, according to Nielsen Ratings.

MARFA, Texas, Sept 26 (Reuters) - It looks like any other 3D printer - except it's the size of a crane and is, layer by layer, building a hotel in the Texan desert.

El Cosmico, an existing hotel and campground on the outskirts of the city of Marfa, is expanding. It is building 43 new hotel units and 18 residential homes over 40 acres (16 hectares) - all with a 3D printer.

It is the world's first 3D-printed hotel, says El Cosmico owner Liz Lambert and the partners behind the project - Austin, Texas-based 3D printing company ICON and architects Bjarke Ingels Group.

Lambert said the technology allows for unprecedented creativity.

"Most hotels are contained within four walls and a lot of times you are building the same unit over and over and over again," Lambert said. "I've never been able to build with such little constraint and such fluidity ... just the curves, and the domes, and the parabolas. It's a crazy way to build."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20199597

WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - The United States plans to announce more than $8 billion worth of military assistance for Ukraine on Thursday during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's visit to Washington, two U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

President Joe Biden's administration has been engaged in urgent discussions with Congress to allow it to use up $5.6 billion in military aid for Ukraine before Sept. 30 - the end of the federal fiscal year - when the authority was set to expire.

On Thursday, U.S. officials said, the White House intends to notify Congress it will move forward with the announcement of a $5.6 billion drawdown from U.S. weapons stocks. The contents of that package are still in flux, the officials said.

Reuters reported this month that the Biden administration was considering a backup plan under which it would announce plans for shipments for Ukraine, but with an extended delivery timeline for the weapons and equipment, allowing for a more gradual transfer of resources to Ukraine without missing the Sept. 30 deadline.

A second announcement slated for Thursday will be for $2.4 billion worth of aid under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative program, which allows the administration to buy weapons for Ukraine from companies rather than pull them from U.S. stocks.

That aid will include munitions, weapons to combat drones and material to support munitions production in Ukraine, one of the U.S. officials said.

In addition, the U.S. announced on Wednesday $375 million worth of Presidential Drawdown Authority for Ukraine. The package will include the first shipment of a precision-guided glide bomb with a range of up to 81 miles (130 km) called the Joint Standoff Weapon, two U.S. officials said. The inclusion of that weapon was not disclosed in the announcement.

The Biden administration on Thursday announced $375 million more in security assistance for Ukraine, which for the first time will include American Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) glide bombs, a U.S. defense official told ABC News.

The bombs, which can be deployed by Ukraine's new F-16 fighters, have retractable wings that help them reach targets up to 70 miles away. There are several versions of JSOW, but the ones being sent to Ukraine are equipped with cluster munitions, according to the official.

The U.S. will also soon announce more than $2 billion in aid for Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), the official told ABC News on Wednesday. Unlike the $350 million package, which will draw equipment from existing American stockpiles for Ukraine, USAI funds are used for contracts to procure assistance, which can take months or years to materialize. The coming USAI funds will largely go toward restocking Ukraine with munitions, according to the official.

The commitment to send JSOW glide bombs comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in the United States to make the case for global support, speaking before the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday in New York, with plans to present what he has called his "victory plan" to President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday.