On this version of Hot off the Wire:

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — Authorities have launched a multistate search on land and water for a U.S. Army reservist who they say fatally shot 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Maine. The shootings in the city of Lewiston on Wednesday night sent panicked patrons scrambling under tables and behind bowling pins. Police identified the suspect as 40-year-old Robert Card. He was still at large Thursday afternoon, sparking a massive search and prompting schools and businesses to shut down and residents to shelter in place. A U.S. official told The Associated Press that Card was taken by police for a mental evaluation in July after he was acting erratically during training. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the information and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Authorities say a man suspected of killing a Maryland judge last week has been found dead in a heavily wooded area about a mile from where authorities had earlier spotted the his abandoned SUV. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said the body of 49-year-old Pedro Argote was found Thursday in Williamsport. Authorities believe Argote was angry about losing custody of his children when he shot Washington County Circuit Court Judge Andrew Wilkinson outside the judge’s home. Law enforcement launched a search for Argote almost immediately after the shooting. Authorities had searched the area near where his SUV was found over the weekend, but a more thorough search turned up his body.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops and tanks launched an hourslong ground raid into northern Gaza overnight. The military said troops struck several militant targets in Thursday’s raid in order to “prepare the battlefield” ahead of a widely expected ground invasion. The raid came after the U.N. warned it is on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip, forcing it to sharply curtail relief efforts in the besieged territory. Hospitals in Gaza are struggling to treat masses of wounded with dwindling resources. The war, sparked by Hamas’ bloody incursion into southern Israel on Oct. 7, is already the deadliest of five fought between Israel and Hamas in the last 15 years.

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Survivors of the Pacific hurricane that killed at least 27 people as it devastated Acapulco spent Thursday searching for acquaintances and necessities. They hope that aid arrives quickly in the wake of Hurricane Otis. Resentment grew in impoverished neighborhoods. Residents worried that Mexican government attention will go to repairing tourism infrastructure, not helping the neediest.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s economy expanded at a robust 4.9% annual rate from July through September as Americans defied higher prices, rising interest rates and widespread forecasts of a recession to spend at a brisk pace. The economy expanded last quarter at the fastest pace in more than two years — and more than twice the 2.1% annual rate of the previous quarter. Thursday’s report on the nation’s gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services — showed that consumers drove the acceleration, ramping up their spending on everything from cars to restaurant meals.

Wall Street fell in mixed trading after some big-name companies warned about an uncertain global economy hitting their upcoming profits. R

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea, the U.S. and Japan have strongly condemned what they call North Korea’s supply of munitions and military equipment to Russia. A joint statement issued Thursday by the top diplomats of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan said such weapons shipments will sharply increase the human toll of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Last week, Russia’s foreign minister scoffed at a recent U.S. claim that his country received munitions from North Korea. The U.S., South Korea and others believe North Korea seeks to receive sophisticated weapons technologies to enhance its nuclear program in exchange for its munitions supply.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Norfolk Southern has installed the first of what will be more than a dozen of a new generation of automated inspection portals on its tracks in Ohio — not far from where one of its trains derailed in February and spilled hazardous chemicals that caught fire. The new portals are equipped with high-speed cameras that will take hundreds of pictures of every passing rail car to help quickly identify defects on moving trains. The pictures are analyzed by artificial intelligence software. Other major railroads have invested in similar inspection technology to supplement — and where regulators approve it, replace — human inspections. University of Delaware railroad safety expert Allan Zarembski said it’s significant that Norfolk Southern is investing in so many of these portals.

New House Speaker Mike Johnson said “prayer is appropriate” as a response to the mass shootings in Maine. “This is a dark time in America,” Johnson said at the Capitol. He added: “Prayer is appropriate at a time like this, that the evil can end and the senseless violence can stop.”

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge says some of Georgia’s congressional, state Senate and state House districts are racially discriminatory, ordering the state to draw an additional Black-majority congressional district. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones on Thursday also ordered the state to draw two new Black-majority state Senate districts and five new Black-majority state House districts. Jones ordered the state to redraw maps before Dec. 8. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is responding by setting a Nov. 29 special session. One of Georgia’s 14 congressional seats could shift from Republican to Democratic control. The Georgia case is part of a wave of litigation after the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year stood behind its interpretation of the Voting Rights Act.

NEW YORK (AP) — This is it — the last “new” Beatles song. Sixty years after the onset of Beatlemania, the surviving members of the quartet are releasing the song “Now And Then.” Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr got a little help from artificial intelligence. The song was written and recorded in sketch form by the late John Lennon in the late 1970s. McCartney, Starr and the late George Harrison worked on it in the 1990s but were stymied by technical limitations. AI was used last year to clean up Lennon’s vocals, and McCartney and Starr added backing voices and instrumentation. It will be released next week.

In sports: Baseball’s new rules are having an impact in the postseason, Pacers keeping coach Rick Carlisle on board with multiyear contract extension, and Ottawa’s Shane Pinto was suspended 41 games, becomes the 1st modern NHL player banned for gambling.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) — It ain’t the Olympics, but a group of Floridians plan to host competitions themed according to the collective antics of the beer-loving, gator-possessing, rap-sheet heavy, mullet-wearing social media phenomenon known as “Florida Man.” The games will poke fun at Florida’s reputation for producing strange news stories involving guns, drugs, booze and reptiles — or some combination of the four. Organizers say the contests planned for next February in St. Augustine, Florida, includes the the self-explanatory beer-belly wrestling contest, as well as the Evading Arrest Obstacle Course. Contestants will be asked to jump over fences and through yards while being chased by real police officers.