QUICK HITS

1 Alabama plans to eliminate tolls en route to the beach:

A trip to the beach is about to get cheaper in Alabama. The state plans to buy the Foley Beach Express Bridge and eliminate tolls to drive across it. Gov. Kay Ivey announced the plan Thursday. The privately run toll bridge provides an alternate route to state beaches. The Alabama Department of Transportation plans to pay $57 million to buy the bridge from the Baldwin County Bridge Company. Ivey says the state will eliminate the tolls once the deal is done. The sale is expected to close in May.

2 Biden scores endorsements from Kennedy family:

President Joe Biden accepted endorsements from at least 15 members of the Kennedy political family during a campaign stop Thursday as he aims to undermine Donald Trump and marginalize the candidacy of independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kerry Kennedy, a daughter of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and sister of the current presidential candidate, delivered the endorsements in Philadelphia by calling Biden “my hero.”

3 Millions of girls in Africa will miss HPV shots:

Nearly 1.5 million teenage girls in some of the world’s poorest countries will miss the chance to be protected from cervical cancer because drugmaker Merck has said it will not be able to deliver millions of promised doses of the HPV vaccine this year. It will deliver only 18.8 million of the 29.6 million doses it was contracted to deliver. So more than 10 million girls will not receive their HPV shots this year — and 1.5 million will be too old to qualify for the vaccine in subsequent years.

4 Prince Harry officially a U.S. resident:

The document filed Wednesday at Britain’s corporate registrar, Companies House, was just a few lines long. But its purpose was to formally update the country of residency to the United States for one “Prince Henry Charles Albert David Duke of Sussex” — otherwise known as Prince Harry. The paperwork underscores just how far Harry, 39, has come from his days as a central member of the royal family, to a different life with his wife and children in California.

5 United Arab Emirates struggles to recover after heaviest recorded rainfall ever:

The United Arab Emirates is struggling to recover from the heaviest recorded rainfall ever to hit the desert nation, as its main airport worked to restore normal operations even as floodwater still covered portions of major highways and roads. Dubai International Airport allowed global carriers on Thursday morning to again fly into Terminal 1 at the airfield.