As severe storms once again soak, twist and pelt the nation's midsection, a team of dozens of scientists is driving into them to study one of the nation's costliest but least-appreciated weather dangers: Hail.

Hail rarely kills, but it hammers roofs, cars and crops to the tune of $10 billion a year in damage in the U.S. So in one of the few federally funded science studies remaining after Trump administration cuts, teams from several universities are observing storms from the inside and seeing how the hail forms. Project ICECHIP has already collected and dissected hail the size of small cantaloupes, along with ice balls of all sizes and shapes.

While images of wildfires capture their ferocity, data can provide insight into how bad a fire season is.

Such is the case with two graphics, powered by satellite data, that showcase a Canadian wildfire season off to a wild — and scary — start.

Severe storms in southern Germany forced a Ryanair flight to make an emergency landing late Wednesday after violent turbulence injured nine people on board, German police said in a statement Thursday.

The flight, traveling from Berlin to Milan with 179 passengers and six crew members, encountered turbulence so intense around 8:30 p.m. that the pilot was forced to make an unscheduled landing at Memmingen Airport in Bavaria. Eight passengers and one crew member were hurt.

Eager customers lined up outside electronics stores in Tokyo hours in advance to collect their pre-ordered Nintendo Switch 2 video game consoles.

The much anticipated Switch 2, being released around the world Thursday, is an upgrade to its eight-year-old predecessor with new social features meant to draw players into online gaming. Nintendo is counting on the Switch 2 to boost sagging sales.

U.S. President Donald Trump's big bill in Congress would unleash trillions in tax cuts and slash spending, but also spike deficits by $2.4 trillion over the decade and leave some 10.9 million more people without health insurance, raising the political stakes for the GOP's signature domestic priority.

Republican leaders in Congress, determined to muscle the sweeping package forward, had little to say after the analysis released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. GOP senators spent more than an hour at the White House in what they called a robust afternoon discussion with Trump.

NATO defense ministers are set Thursday to approve purchasing targets for stocking up on weapons and military equipment to better defend Europe, the Arctic and the North Atlantic, as part of a U.S. push to ramp up security spending.

The "capability targets" lay out goals for each of the 32 nations to purchase priority equipment like air defense systems, long-range missiles, artillery, ammunition, drones and "strategic enablers" such as air-to-air refueling, heavy air transport and logistics. Each nation's plan is classified, so details are scarce.

At least five people, including a 1-year-old child, his mother and grandmother, were killed Thursday in a nighttime Russian drone strike that hit the northern Ukrainian city of Pryluky, officials said.

Six drones hit a residential area in the city at 5:30 a.m. local time, according to authorities. The child killed was the grandson of an emergency responder, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

President Donald Trump is nominating Vice Adm. Brad Cooper to take over as the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, the Pentagon said Wednesday. If he is confirmed, it would mark just the second time that a Navy admiral has held the job.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement that Trump also is nominating Air Force Lt. Gen. Dagvin Anderson to head U.S. Africa Command. Anderson would be the first Air Force general to lead the command, which was created in 2007.

Syria's new government has agreed to give inspectors from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog access to suspected former nuclear sites immediately, the agency's head told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, spoke in an exclusive interview in Damascus, where he met with President Ahmad al-Sharaa and other officials.

As I prepared to take a photograph of an anti-American mural outside of the former U.S. Embassy in Iran's capital recently, a passerby called out to me.

"Take any picture you like, they'll remove all of them later," the man said.