MEXICO CITY (AP) — Residents along Mexico’s west coast stacked sandbags to fortify beachfront shops and evacuated their homes, while Hawaii’s Big Island and Maui braced for potentially catastrophic flooding, as two separate storms swirled in the Pacific on Thursday. Heavy rains from powerful Hurricane Polo could cause life-threatening flooding and landslides in Mexico, according to the U. S. National Hurricane Center. In places like the port city of Lazaro Cardenas, seawater swept homes...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A tech-heavy guest list, the fashion choices of those on it, who sat where and what was on the menu marked the softer — often and glitzier — details of diplomacy as Donald Trump threw a Thursday night state dinner honoring China’s leader Xi Jinping. The event featured a cavalcade of billionaires, Washington powerbrokers, business leaders and the type of festivities that most excite Trump, who has a reputation for reveling in hosting parties. “President Xi and I both...

It’s already been an intense hurricane season in the Pacific Ocean — and there’s still quite a ways to go. Tropical storms have spawned in what seems like assembly-line fashion in recent weeks, as El Nino conditions that emerged in June have caused waters to grow warmer than normal, setting off a chain of unusual weather around much of the world. “It’s ramping up to be perhaps the strongest El Nino on record,” University of Miami hurricane expert Brian McNoldy said. The number of a...