Bill Chappell

Australia's government is offering new help to people who have lost their homes and others affected by bushfires that have burned millions of acres of land. At least 25 people have died in the fires, which have brought historic levels of destruction.

While conditions improved slightly over the weekend, forecasters warn that dangerously hot and windy conditions will likely return later this week.

In the binary times in which we live, it might not surprise anyone that people can't even agree on when one period of time ends and another begins. The question many are now asking is: When we ring in the new year and welcome 2020, should we also celebrate a new decade?

Confusion over the answer is similar to the uncertainty that hung over watershed events from the millennium to the 2009-2010 changeover.

Updated at 9:32 p.m. ET

The gunman who killed three people at Naval Air Station Pensacola on Friday morning was a Saudi aviation student, officials say. The gunman was killed by a sheriff's deputy after the shooting, which left eight people injured.

Hurricane-force winds, blizzard conditions, heavy snowfall — and a "bomb cyclone" on the West Coast: Those are the dire predictions of weather forecasters, who are warning Thanksgiving travelers to be cautious and prepare for delays as two powerful back-to-back storms hit the western and central U.S. this week.

Former President Jimmy Carter suffered a "minor pelvic fracture" after falling down in his home in Plains, Ga., Monday night, the Carter Center says. It's the second time Carter has been hurt in a fall this month; he got a black eye from a fall days after he turned 95 on Oct. 1.

Carter "has been admitted to Phoebe Sumter Medical Center for observation and treatment of a minor pelvic fracture," the Carter Center said in an announcement Tuesday. The center adds, "He is in good spirits and is looking forward to recovering at home."

Updated at 11:20 p.m. ET

Heavy rains are triggering flash floods in eastern Texas from Tropical Depression Imelda — one of several large storms that forecasters have been watching. In the Atlantic, Bermuda is under a hurricane warning as the core of Hurricane Humberto passes north of the island as a Category 3 storm.

Updated at 5:10 p.m. ET

The Bahamas' government is sharing a wish list of materials to help the country provide food and shelter for residents who are still reeling from Hurricane Dorian. Officials say they need lots of help and supplies — but they also want targeted donations.

"Officials here for instance don't want to be inundated with cans of green beans when what they really need is telephone poles," NPR's Jason Beaubien reports from the capital city, Nassau.

They're facing a relief and reconstruction job that's likely to go on for years.

Acting NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs said "nobody's job is at risk" after National Weather Service forecasters in Alabama contradicted President Trump's claim last week that the state would be hit hard by Hurricane Dorian.

Jacobs delivered a keynote speech Tuesday at the National Weather Association's annual meeting in Huntsville, Ala. He defended a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration statement issued Friday that was widely seen as backing the president, but he also expressed support for the National Weather Service and its forecasters.

Updated at 1:10 p.m. ET

The Trump administration is outlining two possible ways certain drugs that were intended for foreign markets could be imported to the U.S. — a move that would clear the way to import some prescription drugs from Canada.

Updated at 4:36 p.m. ET

Nike has recalled a shoe featuring the Betsy Ross flag over concerns that the design glorifies slavery and racism. The red, white and blue sneaker had been set to hit the U.S. market to commemorate the July Fourth holiday.

"Nike has chosen not to release the Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July, as it featured an old version of the American flag," the company told NPR on Tuesday. Nike did not immediately respond to questions about the thinking behind the original design.

Updated at 5:48 p.m. ET

The Federal Aviation Administration says it is temporarily grounding all Boeing 737 Max aircraft operated by U.S. airlines or in U.S. territory.

The announcement Wednesday afternoon follows decisions by many other countries to ground the planes after 157 people died in Sunday's crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8.

Updated at 10:15 p.m. ET

Federal officials have charged dozens of well-heeled parents, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, in what the Justice Department says was a multimillion-dollar scheme to cheat college admissions standards. The parents allegedly paid a consultant who then fabricated academic and athletic credentials and arranged bribes to help get their children into prestigious universities.

Updated at 4:57 p.m. ET Friday

A 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who crossed the southern border into the United States illegally earlier this month died of dehydration and shock after being apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol in New Mexico.

The Google+ social network inadvertently gave app developers access to information on some 52.5 million users — even data that users designated as private — because of a "bug" in its software, Google says. The company had already announced it was pulling the plug on the social network because of an earlier incident, and now says the shutdown will happen four months sooner.

Updated at 8:25 a.m. ET

President Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed the new U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement — or USMCA — in Buenos Aires Friday, using the backdrop of the G-20 Summit to resolve a trade dispute between America and its closest neighbors.

"Let's go," all three leaders said as they sat alongside each other to sign multiple copies of the deal.

Updated at 4:40 a.m. ET on Wednesday

Fire investigators in Northern California say they found the human remains of 6 more individuals, bringing the death toll to at least 48 people who have died in the wildfire that burned through the town of Paradise with shocking speed, making the Camp Fire the deadliest wildfire in state history.

Fire crews are working to fight that blaze, along with another large wildfire in Southern California, where at least two deaths have been reported.

Updated at 3:10 p.m. ET

A lone gunman carrying a .45-caliber pistol killed 12 people at a country music bar in Thousand Oaks, Calif., late Wednesday, authorities say. When the shooting started, the Borderline Bar & Grill likely held hundreds of people, drawn by the weekly "College Country Night."

The dead include Sgt. Ron Helus, a 29-year veteran of law enforcement who went into the nightclub within minutes of receiving an emergency call. As many as 15 people inside the bar were injured, and one person had a minor gunshot wound.

Updated at 5:35 p.m. ET

House Speaker Paul Ryan pushed back on Tuesday on President Trump's claim that he can strip birthright citizenship from the U.S. via executive order, saying such a move would be "unconstitutional."

"Well, you obviously cannot do that," Ryan told radio station WVLK in Kentucky. "You cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order."

Police in Salisbury, England, have arrested a man who, they say, tried to steal the Magna Carta — the 1215 document that established basic tenets of the rule of law. "The Magna Carta has not been damaged and nobody was injured in the incident," Wiltshire Police said.

The police say the man set off alarms at the Salisbury Cathedral when he tried to shatter the glass shield that protects the Magna Carta. The document was not damaged, police say.

Updated at 6:30 p.m. ET

Federal authorities expanded their nationwide search on Thursday for the person who sent a wave of suspected explosive devices to political nemeses of President Trump.

Ten devices addressed to eight targets have been intercepted or discovered, but no one has been hurt. It isn't clear whether or not the attack is over; the FBI said it can't rule out that more suspicious packages might still be moving through the mail.

Updated at 9:38 p.m. ET

At least seven suspicious packages containing what the FBI called potentially destructive devices have been sent since Monday to several leading Democratic Party figures and to CNN in New York, triggering a massive investigation.

Updated at 2:20 p.m. ET

At least 11 people have died from Hurricane Michael, which slammed into Florida's Panhandle with 155-mph winds on Wednesday. The storm hacked a trail of catastrophic destruction in Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia before finally heading back out over water.

Five deaths were reported in Virginia, in addition to four in Florida, one in Georgia and one in North Carolina.

Updated at 4:55 a.m. ET

Tropical Storm Michael rampaged through South Carolina, North Carolina and finally southeastern Virginia on Thursday, before heading for the Atlantic Ocean.

The storm's traveling speed accelerated to 29 mph by evening, according to the National Hurricane Center, with winds of 65 mph.

Updated at 5:30 a.m. ET Thursday

Tropical Storm Michael is weakening as it churns across south-central Georgia.

On Wednesday, Michael was the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the continental U.S. in more than a quarter-century, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Updated at 12:45 p.m. ET

The U.N.'s top court gave a partial victory to Iran in its dispute with the U.S. on Wednesday, saying the U.S. "must remove" sanctions that could stop food, medical supplies and other humanitarian products from entering Iran.

Updated at 5:45 p.m. ET

Amazon will pay all of its U.S. employees a minimum of $15 an hour, more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25. The retail giant, run by the world's richest man, was criticized earlier this year after revealing its workers' median pay was $28,446.

Amazon says the new rate will go into effect on Nov. 1, covering all of its full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal employees in the U.S.

Updated at 5:20 a.m. ET Saturday

Tropical Storm Florence is still a slow-moving giant that poses danger to people in North and South Carolina, as its storm surge and intense rains bring high floodwaters to towns both on the coast and inland.

The storm has been linked to at least five deaths, a toll that is expected to climb.

Updated at 6:40 a.m. ET on Friday

Hurricane Florence was making landfall on the North Carolina coast, bringing with it life-threatening storm surge, heavy rain and sustained winds of 90 miles per hour. Although downgraded to a Category 1 storm, the hurricane has grown larger and slowed its march inland — factors likely to contribute to potentially catastrophic flooding.