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By Marco Bello and Maria Alejandra Cardona, Reuters Storm damaged cars sit along Mill Creek in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Old Fort, North Carolina. Photo: SEAN RAYFORD/Getty Images via AFP Emergency responders in North Carolina were racing overnight to try to reach people who remain unaccounted for three days after Hurricane Helene ripped through the southeastern United States, killing more than 100 people, wiping out communications and leaving millions without power. In mountainous, hard-hit Bumcombe County, which includes the city of Asheville, 35 people have died, the county sheriff said at a news briefing on Monday. The county will begin distributing food and water later in the day to residents, after some supplies were airlifted to the region that has been largely isol...

By Andrew Goudsward, Reuters Ryan Routh has pleaded not guilty to five federal charges, including attempted assassination. Photo: AFPTV / AFP The man charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump after allegedly positioning himself with a rifle outside one of the former president's Florida golf courses on 15 September pleaded not guilty to five federal charges. Ryan Routh, 58, entered the plea to charges that include attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate during a hearing in federal court. He has already been ordered to remain in jail to await a trial. Prosecutors have said Routh intended to kill Trump as he golfed at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. Routh, a struggling roofing contractor, condemned the Republican presidential candidate in a ...

By Jake Evans, ABC political reporter Photo: Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto Tinder, Hinge and other online dating platforms will have six months to become compliant with a dating code of conduct designed to make the matchmaker apps safer, after years of reported failures to act on incidences of sexual assaults enabled by their platforms. A 2022 Australian Institute of Criminology study found three in four people it surveyed had been subjected to sexual violence facilitated by dating apps in the prior five years. From Tuesday, the online dating code will begin requiring dating apps to have systems to detect potential incidents of "online-enabled" harm and take action against users who violate a company's online safety policies. Apps must also display prominent and transparent complaint an...

A smoke plume erupts after an Israeli airstrike targeted the outskirts of the village of Ibl al-Saqi in southern Lebanon. Photo: RABIH DAHER/AFP The United States has observed positioning of Israeli troops that suggests a ground incursion into Lebanon could be imminent, a US official has told Reuters. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to offer further details on the posture of Israeli forces and declined further comment. Earlier, Israel warned Iran that nowhere in the Middle East was beyond its reach and hinted at a land invasion of Lebanon after assassinating the leader of the Tehran-backed Hezbollah group, one of its biggest adversaries, in a Beirut suburb last week. "There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country," Prime Minist...

By Alyssa Pointer, Maria Alejandra Cardona and Octavio Jones for Reuters Bo Hester assessing damages to his house after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Horseshoe Beach, Florida, on 28 September, 2024. Photo: AFP/ Chandan Khanna Cleanup and recovery efforts under way from Florida to Virginia Damage estimated from $15 billion to over $100b. The Southeastern US begun a huge cleanup and recovery effort, and the death toll climbed towards 100 people after Hurricane Helene knocked out power for millions, destroyed roads and bridges and caused dramatic flooding from Florida to Virginia. The storm's winds, rain and storm surge killed at least 90 people in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia, according to a Reuters tally of state and local officials. O...