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U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meeting leaders in Taiwan despite warnings from China, said Wednesday that she and other members of Congress in a visiting delegation are showing they will not abandon their commitment to the self-governing island. “Today the world faces a choice between democracy and autocracy,” she said in a short speech during a meeting with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen. “America’s determination to preserve democracy, here in Taiwan and around the world, remains ironclad.” China, which claims Taiwan as its territory and opposes any engagement by Taiwanese officials with foreign governments, announced multiple military exercises around the island and issued a series of harsh statements after the delegation touched down Tuesday night in the Taiwanese capital Taipei. Taiwan decried the planned actions. Read: US House Speaker Pelosi arrives in Taiwan, defying Beijing “Such an act equals to sealing off Taiwan by air and sea … and severely violates our country’s territorial sovereignty,” said Captain Jian-chang Yu at the National Defense Ministry’s media briefing Wednesday morning. Pelosi’s trip has heightened U.S.-China tensions more than visits by other members of Congress because of her high-level position as leader of the House of Representatives. She is the first speaker of the house to come to Taiwan in 25 years, since Newt Gingrich in 1997. Tsai, thanking Pelosi for her decades of support for Taiwan, presented the speaker with a civilian honor, the Order of the Propitious Clouds. “Facing deliberately heightened military threats, Taiwan will not back down,” Tsai said. “We will firmly uphold our nation’s sovereignty and continue to hold the line of defense for democracy.” Tsai later said in a news conference, “Military exercises are unnecessary responses.” Shortly after Pelosi landed, China announced live-fire drills that reportedly started Tuesday night, as well as a four-day exercise beginning Thursday in waters on all sides of the island. China’s air force also flew a relatively large contingent of 21 war planes, including fighter jets, toward Taiwan.

One man was killed and five others were wounded in a shooting Monday night in Northeast Washington, the Metropolitan Police Department said. The circumstances of the shooting, including whether the victims even knew each other, were being investigated, Police Chief Robert J. Contee III told reporters. Also read: 2 dead after all-night shooting rampage in Vancouver, Canada The shooting occurred outside an apartment building located at 15th and F Streets Northeast, Contee said. All the victims were adult males, Contee said, and those wounded were being treated at area hospitals. Also read: 2 killed, 5 injured in shooting at Los Angeles park: Police

 Oregon authorities are investigating four additional deaths potentially linked to last week’s scorching heat wave, bringing the total number of suspected hyperthermia deaths to 14. The Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office said Monday the designation of heat-related death is preliminary and requires further investigation. Multnomah County, which is home to Portland, recorded seven deaths suspected to be related to heat, the highest of any Oregon county. Also read: Dangerous Pacific Northwest heat wave suspected in 6th death Portland and Seattle set records Sunday for most consecutive days of high temperatures. In Portland, temperatures on Sunday rose above 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius) for the seventh day in a row, a record for the city for consecutive days above that mark. Further north in Seattle, the temperature rose to 91 F (32.8 C) by early afternoon, marking a record six days above 90 F (32.2 C). Temperatures neared the triple digits nearly all of last week in the Portland area, prompting officials to open emergency overnight shelters and cooling stations. The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for both the Portland and Seattle regions lasting through late Sunday evening. Temperatures started to cool off on Monday as colder air from the Pacific blows in. Also read: Northwestern US heat wave could have hottest day on Tuesday Climate change is fueling longer heat waves in the Pacific Northwest, a region where weeklong heat spells were historically rare, according to climate experts. Residents and officials in the Northwest have been trying to adjust to the likely reality of longer, hotter heat waves following last summer’s deadly “heat dome” weather phenomenon that prompted record temperatures and deaths. About 800 people died in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia during that heat wave, which hit in late June and early July of 2021. The temperature hit an all-time high of 116 F (46.7 C) in Portland.

President Joe Biden announced Monday that al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, an operation he said delivered justice and hopefully “one more measure of closure” to families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The president said in an evening address from the White House that U.S. intelligence officials tracked al-Zawahri to a home in downtown Kabul where he was hiding out with his family. The president approved the operation last week and it was carried out Sunday. Al-Zawahri and the better-known Osama bin Laden plotted the 9/11 attacks that brought many ordinary Americans their first knowledge of al-Qaida. Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, in operation carried out by U.S. Navy SEALs after a nearly decade-long hunt. As for Al-Zawahri, Biden said, “He will never again, never again, allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven because he is gone and we’re going to make sure that nothing else happens.” “This terrorist leader is no more,” he added. Also read: Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri killed in US missile attack The operation is a significant counterterrorism win for the Biden administration just 11 months after American troops left the country after a two-decade war. The strike was carried out by the CIA, according to five people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Neither Biden nor the White House detailed the CIA's involvement in the strike. Biden, however, paid tribute to the U.S. intelligence community in his remarks, noting that “thanks to their extraordinary persistence and skill” the operation was a success. Al-Zawahri’s death eliminates the figure who more than anyone shaped al-Qaida, first as bin Laden’s deputy since 1998, then as his successor. Together, he and bin Laden turned the jihadi movement’s guns to target the United States, carrying out the deadliest attack ever on American soil — the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings. The house Al-Zawahri was in when he was killed was owned by a top aide to senior Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, according to a senior intelligence official. The official also added that a CIA ground team and aerial reconnaissance conducted after the drone strike confirmed al-Zawahri’s death. Also read: Biden tests positive for COVID-19, returns to isolation A senior administration official who briefed reporters on the operation on condition of anonymity said “zero” U.S. personnel were in Kabul. Over the 20-year war in Afghanistan, the U.S. targeted and splintered al-Qaida, sending leaders into hiding. But America’s exit from Afghanistan last September gave the extremist group the opportunity to rebuild. U.S. military officials, including Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have said al-Qaida was trying to reconstitute in Afghanistan, where it faced limited threats from the now-ruling Taliban. Military leaders have warned that the group still aspired to attack the U.S. After his killing, the White House underscored that al-Zawahri had continued to be a dangerous figure. The senior administration official said al-Zawahri had continued to “provide strategic direction," including urging attacks on the U.S., while in hiding. He had also prioritized to members of the terror network that the United States remained al-Qaida's “primary enemy,” the official said. The 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon made bin Laden America’s Enemy No. 1. But he likely could never have carried it out without his deputy. Bin Laden provided al-Qaida with charisma and money, but al-Zawahri brought tactics and organizational skills needed to forge militants into a network of cells in countries around the world. U.S. intelligence officials have been aware for years of a network helping al-Zawahri dodge U.S. intelligence officials hunting for him, but didn’t have a bead on his possible location until recent months. Earlier this year, U.S. officials learned that the terror leader’s wife, daughter and her children had relocated to a safe house in Kabul, according to the senior administration official who briefed reporters. Officials eventually learned al-Zawahri was also at the Kabul safe house. In early April, White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer and Biden’s homeland security adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall were briefed on this developing intelligence. Soon the intelligence was carried up to national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Sullivan brought the information to Biden as U.S. intelligence officials built “a pattern of life through multiple independent sources of information to inform the operation,” the official said. Senior Taliban figures were aware of al-Zawahri’s presence in Kabul, according to the official, who added the Taliban government was given no forewarning of the operation. Inside the Biden administration, only a small group of officials at key agencies, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris, were brought into the process. Through May and June, Biden was updated several times on the growing mound of intelligence that confirmed al-Zawahri was hiding out in the home. Over the last few weeks, Biden brought together several Cabinet officials and key national security officials to scrutinize the intelligence findings. On July 1, Biden was briefed in the Situation Room about the planned operation, a briefing in which the president closely examined a scale model of the home Zawahri was hiding out in. He gave his final approval for the operation on Thursday. Al-Zawahri was on the balcony of his hideout on Sunday when two Hellfire missiles were launched from an unmanned drone, killing him. Al-Zawahri's family was in another part of the house when the operation was carried out, and no one else was believed to have been killed in the operation, the official said. “We make it clear again tonight: That no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out,” Biden said. Al-Zawahri was hardly a household name like bin Laden, but he played an enormous role in the terror group's operations. The two terror leaders' bond was forged in the late 1980s, when al-Zawahri reportedly treated the Saudi millionaire bin Laden in the caves of Afghanistan as Soviet bombardment shook the mountains around them. Al-Zawahri, on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list, had a $25 million bounty on his head for any information that could be used to kill or capture him. Al-Zawhiri and bin Laden plotted the 9/11 attacks that brought many ordinary Americans their first knowledge of al-Qaida. Photos from the time often showed the glasses-wearing, mild-looking Egyptian doctor sitting by the side of bin Laden. Al-Zawahiri had merged his group of Egyptian militants with bin Laden’s al-Qaida in the 1990s. “The strong contingent of Egyptians applied organizational know-how, financial expertise, and military experience to wage a violent jihad against leaders whom the fighters considered to be un-Islamic and their patrons, especially the United States,” Steven A. Cook wrote for the Council on Foreign Relations last year. When the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan demolished al-Qaida’s safe haven and scattered, killed and captured its members, al-Zawahri ensured al-Qaida’s survival. He rebuilt its leadership in the Afghan-Pakistan border region and installed allies as lieutenants in key positions. He also reshaped the organization from a centralized planner of terror attacks into the head of a franchise chain. He led the assembling of a network of autonomous branches around the region, including in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, North Africa, Somalia, Yemen and Asia. Over the next decade, al-Qaida inspired or had a direct hand in attacks in all those areas as well as Europe, Pakistan and Turkey, including the 2004 train bombings in Madrid and the 2005 transit bombings in London. More recently, the al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen proved itself capable of plotting attacks against U.S. soil with an attempted 2009 bombing of an American passenger jet and an attempted package bomb the following year. But even before bin Laden’s death, al-Zawahri was struggling to maintain al-Qaida’s relevance in a changing Middle East. He tried with little success to coopt the wave of uprisings that spread across the Arab world starting in 2011, urging Islamic hard-liners to take over in the nations where leaders had fallen. But while Islamists gained prominence in many places, they have stark ideological differences with al-Qaida and reject its agenda and leadership. Nevertheless, al-Zawahri tried to pose as the Arab Spring’s leader. America “is facing an Islamic nation that is in revolt, having risen from its lethargy to a renaissance of jihad,” he said in a video eulogy to bin Laden, wearing a white robe and turban with an assault rifle leaning on a wall behind him. Al-Zawahri was also a more divisive figure than his predecessor. Many militants described the soft-spoken bin Laden in adoring and almost spiritual terms. In contrast, al-Zawahri was notoriously prickly and pedantic. He picked ideological fights with critics within the jihadi camp, wagging his finger scoldingly in his videos. Even some key figures in al-Qaida’s central leadership were put off, calling him overly controlling, secretive and divisive. Some militants whose association with bin Laden predated al-Zawahri’s always saw him as an arrogant intruder. “I have never taken orders from al-Zawahri,” Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, one of the network’s top figures in East Africa until his 2011 death, sneered in a memoir posted on line in 2009. “We don’t take orders from anyone but our historical leadership.” There had been rumors of al-Zawahri’s death on and off for several years. But a video surfaced in April of the al-Qaida leader praising a Indian Muslim woman who had defied a ban on wearing a hijab, or headscarf. That footage was the first proof in months that he was still alive. A statement from Afghanistan’s Taliban government confirmed the airstrike, but did not mention al-Zawahri or any other casualties. It said the Taliban “strongly condemns this attack and calls it a clear violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement,” the 2020 U.S. pact with the Taliban that led to the withdrawal of American forces. “Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the United States of America, Afghanistan, and the region,” the statement said.

Crews battling the largest wildfire so far this year in California braced for thunderstorms and hot, windy conditions that created the potential for additional fire growth Sunday as they sought to protect remote communities. The McKinney Fire was burning out of control in Northern California’s Klamath National Forest, with expected thunderstorms a big concern Sunday just south of the Oregon state line, said U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Adrienne Freeman. “The fuel beds are so dry and they can just erupt from that lightning," Freeman said. “These thunder cells come with gusty erratic winds that can blow fire in every direction.” The blaze exploded in size to more than 80 square miles (207 square km) just two days after erupting in a largely unpopulated area of Siskiyou County, according to a Sunday incident report. The cause was under investigation. The blaze torched trees along California Highway 96, and the scorched remains of a pickup truck sat in a lane of the highway. Thick smoke covered the area and flames burned through hillsides in sight of homes. The fire Sunday cast an eerie, orange-brown hue, in one neighborhood where a brick chimney, stood surrounded by rubble and scorched vehicles. A second, smaller fire just to the west that was sparked by dry lightning Saturday threatened the tiny town of Seiad, Freeman said. About 400 structures were under threat from the two California fires. Authorities have not confirmed the extent of the damage yet, saying assessments would begin when it was safe to reach the area. A third fire, which was on the southwest end of the McKinney blaze, prompted evacuation orders for around 500 homes Sunday, said Courtney Kreider, a spokesperson with the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office. The office said crews had been on the scene of the fire since late Saturday but that the fire Sunday morning “became active and escaped its containment line." Several people in the sheriff's office have been affected by evacuation orders due to the fires “and they're still showing up to work so, (a) very dedicated crew,” she said. A deputy lost his childhood home to fire on Friday, she said. As the McKinney fire threatened, some residents chose to stay behind while others heeded orders to leave. Read: Wildfires in West explode in size amid hot, windy conditions Larry Castle and his wife, Nancy, were among about 2,000 residents of the Yreka area under evacuation orders. They left Saturday with some of their prized possessions, including Larry’s motorcycle, and took their dogs to stay with their daughter near Mount Shasta. Larry Castle said he wasn’t taking any chances after seeing the explosive growth of major fires in recent years. “You look back at the Paradise fire and the Santa Rosa fire and you realize this stuff is very, very serious,” he told the Sacramento Bee. In northwest Montana, a fire sparked in grasslands near the town of Elmo had grown to about 17 square miles (44 square km) after advancing into forest. Crews were working along edges of the fire Sunday, and aircraft were expected to continue to make water and retardant drops to help slow the fire's advance, said Sara Rouse, a spokesperson with the interagency team assigned to the fire. High temperatures and erratic winds were expected, she said. A section of Highway 28 between Hot Springs and Elmo that had been closed was reopened with drivers asked to watch for fire and emergency personnel. Visibility in the area was poor, Rouse said. In Idaho, the Moose Fire in the Salmon-Challis National Forest has burned on more than 75 square miles (196 square km) in timbered land near the town of Salmon. It was 21% contained by Sunday morning. Pila Malolo, planning operations section chief on the fire, said in a Facebook video update that hot, dry conditions were expected to persist Sunday. Officials said they expected fire growth in steep, rugged country on the fire's south side. California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Saturday as the McKinney Fire intensified. The proclamation allows Newsom more flexibility to make emergency response and recovery effort decisions and access federal aid. California law enforcement knocked on doors in the towns of Yreka and Fort Jones to urge residents to get out and safely evacuate their livestock onto trailers. Automated calls were being sent to land phone lines as well because there were areas without cell phone service. Scientists say climate change has made the West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. The Pacific Coast Trail Association urged hikers to get to the nearest town while the U.S. Forest Service closed a 110-mile (177-km) section of the trail from the Etna Summit to the Mt. Ashland Campground in southern Oregon. In Hawaii, the Maui County Emergency Management Agency said a brush fire was 90% contained but a red flag warning was in effect for much of Sunday. And in north Texas, firefighters continued in their effort to contain the 2-week-old, 10 1/2-square-mile (27 1/3-square-kilometer) Chalk Mountain Fire. The crews now report 83% containment of the fire that has destroyed 16 homes and damaged five others about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Fort Worth. No injuries have been reported.

President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 again Saturday, slightly more than three days after he was cleared to exit coronavirus isolation, the White House said, in a rare case of “rebound” following treatment with an anti-viral drug. White House physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor said in a letter that Biden “has experienced no reemergence of symptoms, and continues to feel quite well.” O'Connor said “there is no reason to reinitiate treatment at this time.” In accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, Biden will reenter isolation for at least five days. He will isolate at the White House until he tests negative. The agency says most rebound cases remain mild and that severe disease during that period has not been reported. Just as when Biden first tested positive, the White House sought to show he was still working. The president sent out a picture of himself masked and tieless on Twitter, which showed him signing a declaration that added individual assistance for flood survivors in Kentucky. The president followed up by tweeting out a 12-second video of him on a White House balcony with his dog, Commander. “I'm feeling fine, everything is good,” said Biden, a pair of aviator sunglasses in his hand. “But Commander and I got a little work to do.” The president also took time on Saturday to have a FaceTime conversation with people camping outside the U.S. Capitol who are seeking health benefits for military veterans exposed to toxic substances from burn pits during their service, according to White House chief of staff Ron Klain. A bill to provide expanded benefits failed to clear the Senate on Wednesday. Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough brought the group pizza and the phone connection to talk with the president. “Feel better,” a member of the group told Biden in a video of the call posted to Twitter. Later, in a tweet, the president said he had planned to meet with families at the Capitol but that his positive test “got in the way.” Word of Biden’s positive test came — he had been negative Friday morning — just two hours after the White House announced a presidential visit to Michigan this coming Tuesday to highlight the passage of a bill to promote domestic high-tech manufacturing. Biden had also been scheduled to visit his home in Wilmington, Delaware, on Sunday morning, where first lady Jill Biden has been staying while the president was positive. Both trips have been canceled as Biden has returned to isolation. Biden, 79, was treated with the anti-viral drug Paxlovid after he first tested positive on July 21. He tested negative for the virus on this past Tuesday and Wednesday. He was then cleared to leave isolation while wearing a mask indoors. His positive tests puts him among the minority of those prescribed the drug to experience a rebound case of the virus. Read: Doctor: Biden’s COVID symptoms ‘almost completely resolved’ White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told reporters on Monday that data "suggests that between 5 and 8 percent of people have rebound” after Paxlovid treatment. “Acknowledging the potential for so-called ‘rebound’ COVID positivity observed in a small percentage of patients treated with Paxlovid, the President increased his tested cadence, to protect people around him and to assure early detection of any return of viral replication,” O'Connor wrote in his letter. O'Connor cited negative tests for Biden from Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning and Friday morning, before Saturday morning's positive result by antigen testing. “This in fact represents ‘rebound' positivity," he wrote. According to the CDC, those with rebound COVID should isolate for at least five days, ending that if a fever has resolved itself for 24 hours without medication and symptoms have improved. The patient “should wear a mask for a total of 10 days after rebound symptoms started. Some people continue to test positive after day 10 but are considerably less likely to shed infectious virus.” Both the Food and Drug Administration and Pfizer point out that 1% to 2% of people in Pfizer’s original study on Paxlovid saw their virus levels rebound after 10 days. The rate was about the same among people taking the drug or dummy pills, “so it is unclear at this point that this is related to drug treatment,” according to the FDA. While Biden was testing negative, he returned to holding in-person indoor events and meetings with staff at the White House and was wearing a mask, in accordance with CDC guidelines. But the president removed his mask indoors when delivering remarks on Thursday and during a meeting with CEOs on the White House complex. Asked why Biden appeared to be breaching CDC protocols, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “They were socially distanced. They were far enough apart. So we made it safe for them to be together, to be on that stage.” Regulators are still studying the prevalence and virulence of rebound cases, but the CDC in May warned doctors that it has been reported to occur within two days to eight days after initially testing negative for the virus. “Limited information currently available from case reports suggests that persons treated with Paxlovid who experience COVID-19 rebound have had mild illness; there are no reports of severe disease,” the agency said at the time. When Biden was initially released from isolation on Wednesday, O’Connor said the president would “increase his testing cadence” to catch any potential rebound of the virus. Paxlovid has been proven to significantly reduce severe disease and death among those most vulnerable to COVID-19. U.S. health officials have encouraged those who test positive to consult their doctors or pharmacists to see if they should be prescribed the treatment, despite the rebound risk. Biden is fully vaccinated, after getting two doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine shortly before taking office, a first booster shot in September and an additional dose March 30. While patients who have recovered from earlier variants of COVID-19 have tended to have high levels of immunity to future reinfection for 90 days, Jha said that the BA.5 subvariant that infected Biden has proven to be more “immune-evasive.” “We have seen lots of people get reinfected within 90 days,” he said, adding that officials don’t yet have data on how long those who have recovered from the BA.5 strain have protection from reinfection.

Authorities in the Portland, Oregon region said they would keep cooling shelters open through Sunday night as a likely record-breaking heat wave brought scorching weather to the normally temperate region. At least six people are suspected to have died from hyperthermia since the hot spell began a week ago. The most recent suspected heat-related death was announced by Clackamas County officials on Saturday, Portland television station KOIN-TV reported. County officials said the elderly man died in his home, where he did not have a working air conditioner. The other five suspected hyperthermia deaths occurred earlier in the week in Multnomah, Umatilla and Marion counties. Jessica Mokert-Shibley, a spokesperson with Multnomah County, said the county, the city of Portland and other organizations would keep overnight cooling centers open through Sunday evening. Nearly 250 people used the overnight shelters on Friday night, she said. Temperatures have neared the triple digits in Portland the entire week, hitting a high of 102 degrees Fahrenheit (38.9 Celsius) on Tuesday. The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for both the Portland and Seattle, Washington, regions lasting through late Sunday evening, with temperatures expected to reach as high as 103 degrees (39 C). Shawn Weagle, a NWS meteorologist based in Portland, said Saturday that the region had likely tied its record for its longest heat wave with six consecutive days in a row topping 95 degrees (35 C). A new record could be set on Sunday, Weagle said. The temperatures have remained abnormally high at night — only dropping to about 70 degrees (21 C) — making it hard for residents to adequately cool off their homes before the sun rises, Weagle said. Many homes in the region lack air conditioning. Read: Northwestern US heat wave could have hottest day on Tuesday “It's an increasingly common issue with our heatwaves, the lack of recovery at night,” Weagle said. “That really impacts people who don't have air conditioning. It's the ‘urban island effect' — the downtown Portland core has been built up so much, and that concrete is slower to cool down overnight than a rural valley or even suburban neighborhood would.” The region's heat waves also seem to be getting stronger in general, Weagle said. He expects relief from the hot weather will come mid-week. “Right now it's looking like Tuesday, we'll start to get closer to normal but still in the 80's, and by Wednesday we should be a touch below normal temperatures,” he said. The Seattle region was slightly cooler but still topped 90 degrees (32 C) on Saturday for a fifth straight day, compared to normal temperatures in the high 70s. Weagle said people should drink plenty of water, do what they can to stay cool and check on their neighbors, particularly older people and those who are at greater risk of heat-related illnesses. Climate change is fueling longer heat waves in the Pacific Northwest, a region where weeklong heat spells were historically rare, according to climate experts. Residents and officials in the Northwest have been trying to adjust to the likely reality of longer, hotter heat waves following last summer’s deadly “heat dome” weather phenomenon that prompted record temperatures and deaths. About 800 people died in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia during that heat wave, which hit in late June and early July. The temperature at the time soared to an all-time high of 116 F (46.7 C) in Portland and smashed heat records in cities and towns across the region. Many of those who died were older and lived alone.

Wildfires in California and Montana exploded in size overnight amid windy, hot conditions and were quickly encroaching on neighborhoods, forcing evacuation orders for over 100 homes Saturday, while an Idaho blaze was spreading. In California's Klamath National Forest, the fast-moving McKinney fire, which started Friday, went from charring just over 1 square mile (1 square kilometer) to scorching as much as 62 square miles (160 square kilometers) by Saturday in a largely rural area near the Oregon state line, according to fire officials. “It's continuing to grow with erratic winds and thunderstorms in the area and we're in triple digit temperatures," said Caroline Quintanilla, a spokeswoman at Klamath National Forest. California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Saturday as the fire intensified. The proclamation allows Newsom more flexibility to make emergency response and recovery effort decisions and access federal aid. It also allows “firefighting resources from other states to assist California crews in battling the fires,” according to a statement from the governor's office. Meanwhile in Montana, the Elmo wildfire nearly tripled in size to more than 11 square miles (about 28 square kilometers) within a few miles of the town of Elmo. Roughly 200 miles (320 kilometers) to the south, Idaho residents remained under evacuation orders as the Moose Fire in the Salmon-Challis National Forest charred more than 67.5 square miles (174.8 square kilometers) in timbered land near the town of Salmon. It was 17% contained. A significant build-up of vegetation was fueling the McKinney fire, said Tom Stokesberry, a spokesman with the U.S. Forest Service for the region. “It’s a very dangerous fire — the geography there is steep and rugged, and this particular area hasn’t burned in a while," he said. A small fire was also burning nearby, outside the town of Seiad, Stokesberry said. With lightning predicted over the next few days, resources from all over California were being brought in to help fight the region’s fires, he said. McKinney’s explosive growth forced crews to shift from trying to control the perimeter of the blaze to trying to protect homes and critical infrastructure like water tanks and power lines, and assist in evacuations in California’s northernmost county of Siskiyou. Deputies and law enforcement were knocking on doors in the county seat of Yreka and the town of Fort Jones to urge residents to get out and safely evacuate their livestock onto trailers. Automated calls were being sent to land phone lines as well because there were areas without cell phone service. Over 100 homes were ordered evacuated and authorities were warning people to be on high alert. Smoke from the fire caused the closure of portions of Highway 96. “We’re asking residents all over the area to be ready,” Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Courtney Kreider said. “Last night we were pushing out evacuations about every hour, and there are large portions of the county that are in warning areas." Moments later, she said, "Oh — we just added another zone to the evacuation warning.” Read:House approves bill to help West fight wildfires, drought The Pacific Coast Trail Association urged hikers to get to the nearest town while the U.S. Forest Service closed a 110-mile (177-kilometer) section of the trail from the Etna Summit to the Mt. Ashland Campground in southern Oregon. Oregon state Rep. Dacia Grayber, who is a firefighter, was camping with her husband, who is also in the fire service, near the California state line when gale-force winds awoke them just after midnight. The sky was glowing with strikes of lightening in the clouds, while ash was blowing at them, though they were in Oregon, about 10 miles (about 16 kilometers) away. Intense heat from the fire had sent up a massive pyrocumulonimbus cloud, which can produce its own weather system including winds and thunderstorms, Grayber said. “These were some of the worst winds I've ever been in and we’re used to big fires," she said. “I thought it was going to rip the roof top tent off of our truck. We got the heck out of there." On their way out, they came across hikers on the Pacific Coast Trail fleeing to safety. They offered rides, but one hiker said he would just take a beer, which they gave him, she said. “The terrifying part for us was the wind velocity," she said. “It went from a fairly cool breezy night to hot, dry hurricane-force winds. Usually that happens with a fire during the day but not at night. I hope for everyone's sake this dies down but it's looking like it's going to get worse." In western Montana, the wind-driven Elmo fire forced evacuations of homes and livestock as it raced across grass and timber, according to The National Interagency Fire Center, based in Idaho. The agency estimated it would take nearly a month to contain the blaze. Smoke shut down a portion of Highway 28 between Hot Springs and Elmo because of the thick smoke, according to the Montana Department of Transportation. Crews from several different agencies were fighting the fire on Saturday, including the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Fire Division. Six helicopters were making drops on the fire, aided by 22 engines on the ground. In Idaho, more than 930 wildland firefighters and support staff were battling the Moose fire Saturday and protecting homes, energy infrastructure and the Highway 93 corridor, a major north-south route. A red flag warning indicated that the weather could make things worse with the forecast calling for “dry thunderstorms," with lightning, wind and no rain. Meanwhile, crews made significant progress in battling another major blaze in California that forced evacuations of thousands of people near Yosemite National Park earlier this month. The Oak fire was 52% contained by Saturday, according to a Cal Fire incident update. As fires raged across the West, the U.S. House on Friday approved wide-ranging legislation aimed at helping communities in the region cope with increasingly severe wildfires and drought — fueled by climate change — that have caused billions of dollars in damage to homes and businesses in recent years. The legislative measure approved by federal lawmakers Friday combines 49 separate bills and would increase firefighter pay and benefits; boost resiliency and mitigation projects for communities affected by climate change; protect watersheds; and make it easier for wildfire victims to get federal assistance. The bill now goes to the Senate, where California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein has sponsored a similar measure.

Officials in New York City declared a public health emergency due to the spread of the monkeypox virus Saturday, calling the city “the epicenter” of the outbreak. The announcement Saturday by Mayor Eric Adams and health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said as many as 150,000 city residents could be at risk of infection. The declaration will allow officials to issue emergency orders under the city health code and amend code provisions to implement measures to help slow the spread. In the last two days, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state disaster emergency declaration and the state health department called monkeypox an “imminent threat to public health.” New York had recorded 1,345 cases as of Friday, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. California had the second-most, with 799. “We will continue to work with our federal partners to secure more doses as soon as they become available,” Adams and Vasan said in the statement. "This outbreak must be met with urgency, action, and resources, both nationally and globally, and this declaration of a public health emergency reflects the seriousness of the moment.” Read:San Francisco declares emergency over monkeypox spread The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency on July 23 and San Francisco's mayor on Thursday announced a state of emergency over the growing number of cases. The once-rare disease has been established in parts of central and west Africa for decades but was not known to spark large outbreaks beyond the continent or to spread widely among people until May, when authorities detected dozens of epidemics in Europe, North America and elsewhere. To date, there have been more than 22,000 monkeypox cases reported in nearly 80 countries since May, with about 75 suspected deaths in Africa, mostly in Nigeria and Congo. On Friday, Brazil and Spain reported deaths linked to monkeypox, the first reported outside Africa. Spain reported a second monkeypox death Saturday. The virus spreads through prolonged and close skin-to-skin contact as well as sharing bedding, towels and clothing. In Europe and North America, it has spread primarily among men who have sex with men, though health officials emphasize that the virus can infect anyone. The type of monkeypox virus identified in this outbreak is rarely fatal, and people usually recover within weeks. But the lesions and blisters caused by the virus are painful.

Oil companies swam in record profits over the last few months at a time when Americans struggled to pay for gasoline, food and other basic necessities. On Friday, Exxon Mobil booked an unprecedented $17.85 billion profit for the second quarter and Chevron made a record $11.62 billion. The sky-high profits come one day after the U.K.’s Shell shattered its own profit record. Soaring energy prices have rattled consumers and become a political flash point. Last month, President Joe Biden said that “Exxon made more money than God this year. ” Consumers are facing high fuel prices not just at the pump, but soaring energy prices are being baked into delivery costs, which is driving up the cost of everything from apples to toilet paper. The record profits marked a stunning turnaround from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when cities were locked down and demand for fuels plummeted. There were numerous bankruptcies and thousands of layoffs. The industry has long gone through boom-and-bust cycles. But due to the ongoing war Russia waged on Ukraine, which resulted in less oil and gas on the market from Russia, as well as other global supply constraints, high prices could linger for some time. “It’s devastating,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, who added that high energy prices hit low-income families and frontline workers the hardest. “You live on a tight budget and this is an extra $40 to $50 per week.” Wolfe wants the federal government to tax energy companies and “redistribute some of those profits back to the families who are struggling.” Inflation is already changing where Americans go and what they eat. It’s also changing the way they consume energy. Two-thirds of Americans changed their driving habits and lifestyle, with the vast majority choosing to drive less or combine errands, said AAA spokesman Andrew Gross. Among those surveyed by AAA, 2% said they bought an electric vehicle since March, he said. “They have really altered their lifestyles to cope with these high prices,” Gross said. Exxon, based in Irving, Texas, increased its oil and gas production as crude prices hovered above $100 a barrel. Revenue at Exxon skyrocketed to $115.68 billion, up from $67.74 billion during the same quarter last year. Read: US, allies aim to cap Russian oil prices to hinder invasion Natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices are also elevated due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and ensuing sanctions against Russia, a major supplier of natural gas. Many European nations have been scrambling for alternatives to Russian natural gas, and have been competing for boatloads of LNG, driving up prices for natural gas both globally and in the U.S. Inflation in Europe has also been surging, including soaring costs for energy. Surging prices have been a boon for investors, including energy executives who receive a large share of compensation through company stock. Exxon earned $4.21 per share, exceeding analyst expectations of $4.02 per share, according to analysts polled by Factset. Chevron earned $5.95 per share, exceeding analyst expectations of $5.16 per share. Shares of Exxon Mobil Corp. jumped 4% at the opening bell Friday and Chevron rose 8% Exxon CEO Darren Woods attributed the company’s success to its investments in oil and gas fields in Guyana and the Permian Basin, as well as its investments in liquefied natural gas, which has been in high demand globally. “Given the long investment cycle times, growing supply will not happen overnight,” said Woods in a conference call Friday. Gasoline prices rose particularly quickly during the quarter, due to limited global supply, the high cost of oil and because there are fewer refineries operating in the U.S. than before the pandemic. Exxon plans to increase refining capacity by about 250,000 barrels per day in the first quarter of 2023 by expanding its Beaumont Refinery. That represents the industry’s largest single capacity addition in the U.S. since 2012, the company said. To alleviate Europe’s energy crisis, Exxon sees potential for fracking and unconventional gas in Germany, and “there’s an opportunity where certainly ExxonMobil could play a key role,” Woods said. Exxon also plans to increase its exports of LNG to Europe. Golden Pass, its LNG export facility under construction in Port Arthur, Texas, will increase LNG exports from the Gulf Coast by 20% when it starts up in 2024, he said. “Bringing more LNG supplies to help offset some of the Russian gas going into Europe will be another really critical step forward in diversification of supplies for Europe,” Woods said. Climate scientists and residents who live near Gulf Coast LNG export facilities warn that expanding fossil fuel infrastructure could exacerbate disasters caused by climate change.   Exxon expects to increase oil-equivalent production in the Permian Basin by 25% this year compared to 2021 and to eliminate routine flaring in the Permian by the end of the year.