Good morning, and welcome to Kid News! I'm Tori.

Today is Friday, August 18, 2023.

And we begin with tropical trouble brewing in an unexpected corner of the U.S.

Southern California and parts of the southwest are bracing for Hillary,

a storm that reached hurricane status yesterday off the coast of Mexico

and is currently making its way north.

If Hillary lives up to both the hype and the current forecasts,

it'll ramp up to a category three or four before weakening

and arriving in California Sunday as a tropical storm,

a first for the state since 1939.

High surf, torrential rains, and wind are expected.

Should Hillary's track shift east,

SoCal will be spared the worst of it, and Arizona will feel the brunt.

Could you one day be flying in a bat plane

with a design straight out of Gotham City,

the U.S. Air Force is directing $235 million to a start-up Jet Zero

to manufacture a very bat-like blended wing aircraft.

Unlike most of today's planes, these futuristic designs merge wider wings

and a smaller cabin into a single unit which generates greater lift

and better fuel efficiency with fewer carbon emissions.

These planes, airmarked for a 2027 reveal,

will first be used by the military before possibly one day

...