Rain was pouring down on the Florida Panhandle as Tropical Storm Mindy made its way across the state early Thursday morning.

The storm made landfall in St. Vincent Island, on Wednesday night. Mindy was expected to cause as much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rainfall across the Florida Panhandle and portions of southern Georgia and South Carolina through Thursday morning, the National Hurricane Center said. Scattered flash, urban, and small-stream floods are possible.

Civil defense forces carrying rifles and personnel wearing gas masks and red hazmat suits paraded North Korea's capital overnight in a celebration of the nation's 73rd anniversary that was a marked departure from past militaristic displays.

The parade — overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, wearing a cream suit and visibly slimmer than he was at the start of the year — centered around paramilitary organizations and public security forces protecting Pyongyang instead of the major military units that handle the most important weapons of Kim's nuclear and missile arsenal.

Germany's foreign minister arrived in Libya on Thursday to reopen the country's embassy in Tripoli.

"Today, we want to show with the reopening that Germany is and will remain a committed partner of Libya," Heiko Maas said upon his arrival in Tripoli. "We want to have a voice in the Libyan capital again."

East Mediterranean rivals Turkey and Egypt have agreed to continue talks aimed at stabilizing relations after the end of a second round of negotiations, the two governments said Wednesday.

A joint statement said that after a two-day meeting in Ankara it was agreed to extend talks, "confirming (the mutual) desire to make progress in areas under discussion and the need for further steps to facilitate normalization" of bilateral relations.

Pakistan says Qatar's foreign minister will arrive in Pakistan's capital of Islamabad to discuss the latest situation in Afghanistan.

In a statement, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said Qatari chief diplomat Mohammad bin Abdulrahman Al Thani during his day-long visit Thursday will meet with Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and other top officials.

The U.S. Navy's Mideast-based 5th Fleet said Wednesday it will launch a new task force that incorporates airborne, sailing and underwater drones after years of maritime attacks linked to ongoing tensions with Iran.

Navy officials declined to identify which systems they would introduce from their headquarters on the island nation of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. However, they promised the coming months would see the drones stretch their capabilities across a region of chokepoints crucial to both global energy supplies and worldwide shipping.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday the al-Qaida extremist group that used Afghanistan as a staging base to attack United States 20 years ago may attempt to regenerate there following an American withdrawal that has left the Taliban in power.

Austin spoke to a small group of reporters in Kuwait City at the conclusion of a four-day tour of Persian Gulf states. He said the United States is prepared to prevent an al-Qaida comeback in Afghanistan that would threaten the United States.

The U.S. and Germany on Wednesday stepped up pressure on Iran to return soon to talks on its nuclear program, with Germany's foreign minister saying that a delay of two or three months floated by Tehran is too long.

The remaining parties to the 2015 accord with world powers meant to contain Iran's nuclear program held several rounds of talks in Vienna earlier this year on how to bring the U.S. back into the deal and how Iran can return to compliance with its terms.

President Joe Biden declared climate change has become "everybody's crisis" on Tuesday as he toured neighborhoods flooded by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, warning it's time for America to get serious about the "code red" danger or face ever worse loss of life and property.

Biden spoke after walking streets in New Jersey and then Queens in New York City, meeting people whose homes were destroyed or severely damaged by flooding when Ida barreled through. The storm dumped record amounts of rain onto already saturated ground and was blamed for more than a dozen deaths in the city.

One of the main candidates to be Japan's next prime minister said Wednesday the country needs a new type of capitalism to address income and social gaps caused by the pandemic.

Former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida is the only announced candidate so far in the race to lead the governing Liberal Democratic Party and succeed outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Whoever wins the Sept. 29 party vote is almost certain to be the next government leader.