Good morning and welcome to Kid News. I'm Kim. Today is Wednesday, August 20th, 2025.

We begin with Hurricane Aaron pounding the east coast of the U.S. with seriously dangerous surf.

Today and tomorrow waves as high as 20 feet are expected from Florida up to Maine,

even though the storm itself is expected to stay well offshore.

Hundreds of beaches are banning swimming, but hardest hit appears to be coastal North Carolina,

which is already getting battered by strong rip currents and large swells.

On Ritesville Beach, lifeguards reported more than 85 rescues on Monday alone.

Mandatory evacuations from the low-lying barrier islands, known as the outer banks, are underway,

as high surf is expected to swamp dunes, make key roads impassable, and potentially damage homes.

Forecasters say the worst of errands should be gone by the end of the week.

Mother Nature is also making news in the sky.

New analysis of an old lightning strike has officially put a monster bolt from 2017 in the record books.

While most measure between 2 and 10 miles long, the Wall Street Journal reports one particular mega flash stretched across

515 miles from eastern Texas to New Orleans, Louisiana, and lasted for seven long seconds.

The World Meteorological Organization now confirms that the strike was 38 miles longer than the

previous record holder, recorded in 2020, which also lit up

the Great Plains.

When it comes to ending the war in Ukraine, there's talk of more talk. President Trump's meeting

with Ukraine's President Zelensky and several other European leaders on Monday reportedly made progress but

yielded no breakthroughs. However, there is reportedly enough forward momentum for President Trump

to call Russian President Putin and ask that he meet one-on-one with Mr. Zelensky in the next two

weeks. It would be the first face-to-face between the two men since the war began three years ago.

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