On this version of Hot off the Wire:
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s military has told some 1 million Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza and head to the southern part of the besieged territory. That's an unprecedented order applying to almost half the population ahead of an expected ground invasion against the ruling Hamas militant group. The U.N. warned that so many people fleeing en masse would be calamitous. Hamas dismissed it as a ploy and called on people to stay in their homes. The militant group staged a shocking and brutal attack on Israel nearly a week ago and has fired thousands of rockets since.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Steve Scalise has ended his bid to become House speaker after failing to secure the votes to win the gavel. Scalise told GOP colleagues at a closed-door meeting late Thursday of his decision. Next steps are uncertain as the House is essentially closed while Republicans try to elect a speaker after ousting Kevin McCarthy from the job. Scalise says the Republican majority “still has to come together and is not there.” He had been working furiously to secure the votes after being nominated by a majority of his colleagues, but after hours of private meetings over two days it was clear many other Republican lawmakers were not budging from their refusal to support him.
SMYRNA, Ga. (AP) — Police say a person suspected of fatally shooting two people northwest of Atlanta died by suicide while fleeing officers. The Cobb County Police Department says their major crimes unit is investigating a double homicide that happened Thursday near a dental office in Smyrna. Police say their preliminary investigation suggests that a person approached the business and then shot and killed two people who were known to that person. Law enforcement say the suspected shooter then fled in a vehicle and that when police located the vehicle and tried to stop it, the person died by suicide. No further information was immediately released.
STOCKHOLM (AP) — An official says a ban on gasoline and diesel-fueled cars from a commercial district of Stockholm’s downtown in 2025 will be the first for a European capital. Lars Strömgren, the city council member for the Greens who’s in charge of the Swedish capital’s transportation told the Associated Press Thursday the ban will take effect in a 20-block area of shops, pedestrian walkways and a few homes in order to curb pollution, reduce noise and encourage use of electric vehicles. Many European capitals have restrictions on gasoline and diesel cars, but Strömgren says Stockholm’s complete ban would be a first. The idea is to create an “environmental zone” where only electric vehicles will be allowed.
U.S. stocks slipped as the clamps tightened on Wall Street from rising yields in the bond market. The S&P 500 fell 0.6% Thursday, breaking a four-day winning streak. The Dow lost 173 points, and the Nasdaq composite gave back 0.6%. A weak auction for long-term Treasury bonds drove yields up across the bond market. Yields had already been climbing following a report showing inflation was a touch higher last month than expected. Higher yields can knock down stock prices, all else equal. Oil prices eased after zigzagging through the day.
The Phillies advance to the NLCS, Patrick Mahomes leads the Chiefs to a win, the status of the Browns' Deshaun Watson is in question and a wild ending to a college football game. Correspondent Chuck Freimund reports.
DALLAS (AP) — Walt Garrison, who led the Big 8 in rushing for the Oklahoma State Cowboys, won a Super Bowl as a fullback with the Dallas Cowboys and competed as a rodeo cowboy, has died. He was 79. The NFL team said on its website Thursday that Garrison died overnight. It did not give a cause of death. A fifth-round draft choice out of Oklahoma State, the 6-foot, 205-pound Garrison played nine years in Dallas and retired in 1974 as the No. 3 rusher and No. 4 receiver in franchise history. But it was Garrison’s rodeo career — which he called his first love — that made him the ultimate cowboy. He also was a longtime spokesman for U.S. Tobacco and its Skoal smokeless brand.
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israel military pulverized the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with airstrikes, prepared for a possible ground invasion and said Thursday its complete siege on the territory would remain in place until Hamas militants freed some 150 hostages taken during a grisly weekend attack. A visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, along with shipments of U.S. weapons, were a powerful green light to Israel to drive ahead with its retaliation in Gaza. But international aid groups warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis. Israel has halted deliveries of food, fuel, medicine and electricity to Gaza’s 2.3 million people and prevented entry of supplies from Egypt. The war has claimed at least 2,700 lives on both sides.
PRINCETON, Minn. (AP) — Authorities say a suspect has been arrested after five drug task force officers were shot and wounded while serving a search warrant near the Minnesota city of Princeton. A news release from Benton County Sheriff Troy Heck says the officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect Thursday morning. The man, who was injured in the incident, was taken away for treatment after his arrest several hours later. The sheriff says the extent of his injuries wasn't immediately known. The officers’ injuries were not life-threatening. The area is about 50 miles northwest of Minneapolis.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The acting Social Security commissioner says a 3.2% increase in benefits next year “will help millions of people keep up with expenses." The increase announced Thursday is far less than this year’s historic boost and reflects moderating consumer prices. The Social Security Administration says the average recipient will get more than $50 more per month. The AARP estimates $59 per month. About 71 million people including retirees, disabled people and children receive Social Security benefits. This year’s cost-of-living adjustment was 8.7%, triggered by record-high inflation pushing up costs of consumer goods. The cost-of-living adjustments have a big impact for people like 83-year-old Louisiana resident Alfred Mason, who says “any increase is welcomed."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Measures of U.S. inflation barely declined in September, evidence that consumer price increases are grinding lower at a gradual pace. Consumer prices rose 0.4% from August to September, below the previous month’s 0.6% pace. Year-over-year inflation was unchanged last month from a 3.7% rise in August. And underlying inflation declined a bit: So-called core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy costs, climbed 4.1% in September from a year earlier, down from a 4.3% pace in August. That is the smallest such increase in two years. Economists pay particularly close attention to core prices because they provide a good signal of inflation’s likely future path.
President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Kyrgyzstan on a rare trip abroad for the Russian leader who was indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Ukraine. It's the first time this year that Putin has traveled outside Russia and Russian-held territories of Ukraine. Earlier this year, he visited the partially occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson, as well as the annexed Crimean Peninsula. In March, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin over the deportation of children from Ukraine. Countries that have signed and ratified the Rome Statute, which created the ICC, are now bound to arrest him if he sets foot on their soil. Kyrgyzstan isn't a signatory of statute.
OCEAN CITY, N.J. (AP) — The Danish wind energy company Orsted has put up a $100 million guarantee that it will build New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm. But it will lose that money if the project is not operating by Dec. 2025 — a year after the deadline approved by state utility regulators. New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities approved an agreement Wednesday with Orsted under which the company would forfeit that money if the project is not up and running within 12 months of a series of deadlines previously set by the board. The guarantee money is required under terms of a tax break New Jersey granted Orsted in July.
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors in New York City have rewritten their indictment against U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his wife to charge them with conspiring to have him act as an agent of Egypt and Egyptian officials. The superseding indictment filed in Manhattan federal court Thursday accuses Menendez of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The new charge comes just weeks after the Democrat and his wife were accused of accepting bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car from three New Jersey businessmen who wanted the senator's help and influence over foreign affairs. Messages left Thursday with Menendez’s Senate staff and attorney haven't been returned.
MIAMI (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of betraying him just before the U.S. killed a top Iranian general in 2020. That's a break from the Republican 2024 presidential field’s uniform support of Israel as it responds to Hamas’ deadly attack. Trump's comments at a Florida rally Wednesday were quickly denounced by one of Netanyahu’s allies and several Republicans who oppose Trump. Trump claims Israel pulled out of assisting in the 2020 airstrike that killed the Iranian general the night before it happened. Trump says Netanyahu “let us down.” A member of Netanyahu's Likud Party accused Trump of spreading propaganda and said Israelis “don't have to bother with him.”
DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union significantly escalated its walkout against Detroit's Three automakers by going on strike Wednesday at the largest and most profitable Ford plant in the world. The union's president on Thursday threatened escalation at Jeep maker Stellantis. In a surprise move, 8,700 members left their jobs at Ford's Kentucky truck plant in Louisville Wednesday evening. The plant makes profitable heavy-duty F-Series pickup trucks and large SUVs. UAW President Shawn Fain says the union has waited long enough to bargain for a fair contract. Ford called the strike expansion “grossly irresponsible” and said it has made strong wage and benefit offers.
The hypnotic “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” film is a near exact replica of her blockbuster concert performance, which recaps all 10 of her studio albums across 17 years of recorded work. For those who’ve managed to snag tickets to the Eras Tour, it offers the ability to relive the experience. For those who didn’t attend, it’s a chance to test expectations versus reality, writes The Associated Press' Maria Sherman. But for everyone, it is the opportunity to have every seat in the house transform into the best seat in the house, up close and personal footage from every vantage point.
Rural Afghanistan faces earthquake after earthquake, and more of today's top videos
Afghans are mourning unimaginable loss as the country continues to be hit with earthquake after earthquake, Ford's largest truck factory is now going on strike, and more of today's top videos.