Bill Chappell

Hurricane Sam is poised to become a major hurricane Saturday — just one day after it reached hurricane status. The storm will rapidly intensify as it passes over warm 84-degree water far out in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the National Hurricane Center. Wind conditions in the area are also favorable for storm growth.

No coastal watches or warnings are currently in effect for Sam, which is more than 1,300 miles east-southeast of the northern Leeward Islands that rim the Caribbean Sea.

There are no longer any Haitian migrants in the camp under the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters Friday.

The camp grew to hold 15,000 people at one point, with a total of nearly 30,000 migrants passing through since Sept. 9, Mayorkas said. He called it an "unprecedented" number.

The search for Jelani "J.J." Day is officially over, as the coroner's office in LaSalle County, Ill., identified a body found in a river as Day's. The Illinois State University graduate student had been missing since Aug. 24; the cause and circumstances of his death are being investigated.

Some people call them futuristic; others say they're a new take on the classic double-breasted tunic. But it seems everyone has a reaction to the new Space Force uniforms that the chief of space operations, Gen. John Raymond, unveiled at a conference this week.

To many, the uniforms resemble those worn by officers in the sci-fi TV series Battlestar Galactica from the 2000s. Similar design elements include the jacket's high collar and its asymmetrical, angled row of buttons.

Migrants whom the U.S. is forcibly returning to Haiti are expressing anger, frustration and desperation when they arrive at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince.

The situation devolved into chaos Tuesday when a group of migrants rushed to try to get on a plane heading back to the United States.

Scenes of desperation on the airport tarmac

Adult migrants who had just been deported from the U.S. "caused two separate disruptions on the tarmac," a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told NPR.

The toys that come in McDonald's Happy Meals will soon be made mostly from corn and other materials rather than from fossil fuel-based plastic, the fast-food chain says. The switch is already underway in some international markets; it's expected to be complete globally by 2025.

Images of U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback chasing Haitian migrants along the Rio Grande are "horrific," the White House says.

The migrants were attempting to return to a camp near the international Bridge in Del Rio, Texas, where thousands of migrants have gathered on the U.S. side of the border river. Many of them carried food they'd just bought in Mexico.

The world's largest tree recently got a blanket to help protect it from a raging wildfire. Photos of the sequoia named General Sherman — with a base measuring a massive 36 feet in diameter — set off a flurry of interest in why and how a blanket might work against flames.

A court in Rwanda has convicted Paul Rusesabagina, whose heroism inspired the film Hotel Rwanda, on terrorism charges related to a group he supports. Rusesabagina is a prominent opposition activist, calling for democracy in Rwanda.

Rusesabagina has been a vocal critic of President Paul Kagame, who has now led Rwanda for more than 20 years. His arrest followed his calls for change — and his support for a group that is affiliated with a rebel group accused of carrying out violence.

The Arc de Triomphe — the star attraction in the Place de l'Étoile in Paris — is shrouded in fabric today, as a tribute to the late artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

It is "a sensual, popular and monumental gesture," according to Carine Rolland, the deputy mayor of Paris in charge of culture.

While the official English name for the project is L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, the French call it L'Arc de Triomphe Empaqueté — using the word for "packaged."

U.S. Border Patrol agents found a toddler girl and her baby brother abandoned along the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas, this week, in what the local chief patrol agent calls a "heartbreaking" discovery. The agency released a photo of the children, who were taken into custody but did not require medical care.

Philip Morris International is buying British pharmaceutical firm Vectura in a deal that will see a company synonymous with Big Tobacco taking over a firm that makes asthma inhalers. The American Lung Association, Asthma UK and other health groups have spoken out against the takeover.

Gen. Mark Milley says he was conducting the duties of his office — not circumventing presidential authority — when he spoke to his Chinese counterpart shortly before last year's election, according to a statement the Pentagon issued Wednesday.

Milley's actions in the final months of former President Donald Trump's term made headlines this week after a new book by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa said the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was attempting to head off a potential armed conflict when he called Chinese Gen. Li Zuocheng.

People applying to immigrate to the U.S. will have to show they've been vaccinated against COVID-19 as part of a required medical exam, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says. The new policy takes effect on Oct. 1.

The requirement includes an exception for children who are too young to receive the vaccine as well as for people with medical conditions that rule them out for the shot. It also outlines a waiver process for people who refuse to be vaccinated due to religious and other reasons.