LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities in Western states warned of the rising risk of wildfires as hot conditions and low humidity dry out the landscape amid a protracted heat wave that is expected to bake much of the U.S. again Thursday.

HOUSTON (AP) — Pressure mounted Wednesday on Houston’s power utility as millions of residents still had no electricity nearly three days after Hurricane Beryl made landfall, stoking questions over how a city that is all too familiar with destructive weather was unable to better withstand a Category 1 storm.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Twenty-two years ago, an avalanche buried American climber Bill Stampfl as he made his way up one of the highest peaks in the Andes mountains. His family knew there was little hope of finding him alive, or even of retrieving his corpse from the thick fields of snow and the freezing ice sheets that cover the 6,700-meter tall Huascaran peak.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Iranian government is covertly encouraging American protests over Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza in a bid to stoke outrage ahead of the fall election, the nation's top intelligence official said Tuesday. Using social media platforms popular in the U.S., groups linked to Tehran have posed as online activists, encouraged protests and have provided financial support to some protest groups, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said in a statement.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Former Sen. Jim Inhofe, a conservative known for his strong support of defense spending and his denial that human activity is responsible for the bulk of climate change, has died. He was 89.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Republican National Committee moved Monday to adopt a party platform that reflects former President Donald Trump’s position opposing a federal abortion ban and ceding limits to states, omitting the explicit basis for a national ban for the first time in 40 years.

MADISON, Wis . (AP) — A federal judge ruled Monday that protesters can't march through a security zone at the Republican National Convention, handing a defeat to liberals who had pushed to have closer access to where delegates will be gathering next week in Milwaukee.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Opponents of a new Louisiana law requiring that a version of the Ten Commandments be posted in public school classrooms have asked a federal court to block implementation of the requirement while their lawsuit against it progresses and before the new school year starts.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man has regained his voice after surgeons removed his cancerous larynx and, in a pioneering move, replaced it with a donated one. Transplants of the so-called voice box are extremely rare, and normally aren't an option for people with active cancer.

DEATH VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — Hundreds of Europeans touring the American West and adventurers from around the U.S. were still drawn to Death Valley National Park on Monday, even though the desolate region known as one of the Earth's hottest places is being punished by a dangerous heat wave blamed for a motorcyclist's death over the weekend.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden, in a letter to congressional Democrats, stood firm against calls for him to drop his candidacy and called for an “end” to the intraparty drama that has torn apart Democrats since his dismal public debate performance.

MATAGORDA, Texas (AP) — Tropical Storm Beryl unleashed heavy rains and powerful winds along the Texas coast on Monday, knocking out power to more than 2 million homes and businesses and flooding streets with fast-rising waters as first responders raced to rescue stranded residents.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A long-running heat wave that has already shattered previous records across the U.S. persisted on Sunday, baking parts of the West with dangerous temperatures that caused the death of a motorcyclist in Death Valley and held the East in its hot and humid grip.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court in New Orleans is taking another look at its own order requiring a Texas county to keep eight books on public library shelves that deal with subjects including sex, gender identity and racism.

The crew of a NASA mission to Mars emerged from their craft after a yearlong voyage that never left Earth. The four volunteer crew members spent more than 12 months inside NASA's first simulated Mars environment at Johnson Space Center in Houston, coming out of the artificial alien enviroment Saturday around 5 p.m.

MATAGORDA, Texas (AP) — Beryl began lashing Texas with rain and intensifying winds Sunday as coastal residents boarded up windows, left beach towns under evacuation orders and prepared for the powerful storm that has already cut a deadly path through parts of Mexico and the Carribean.

Enflamed railcars carrying hazardous material were mostly extinguished Saturday, a day after they derailed in a remote area of North Dakota.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A Native American tribe in North Dakota will soon grow lettuce in a giant greenhouse complex that when fully completed will be among the country's largest, enabling the tribe to grow much of its own food decades after a federal dam flooded the land where they had cultivated corn, beans and other crops for millennia.

HOUSTON (AP) — Texas officials Saturday were urging coastal residents to brace for a potential hit by Beryl as the storm is expected to regain hurricane strength in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Roughly 130 million people were under threat Saturday and into next week from a long-running heat wave that already has broken records with dangerously high temperatures — and is expected to shatter more from East Coast to West Coast, forecasters said.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) - A federal district court judge blocked the Biden Administration’s attempt to force medical professionals to adhere to its gender politics over medical reality. In May, Kentucky joined a 15-state coalition to challenge the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ regulation that redefined sex discrimination.

The burgers aren't the only things sizzling this Fourth of July: Millions of people are under heat warnings as large numbers of Americans traveled to toast their nation’s birth with parades, cookouts and fiery splashes of colors against the evening sky.

Around 134 million people in the U.S. are under alerts as an “extremely dangerous and record-breaking” heat wave broils much of the country, according to the National Weather Service.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will award the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry on Wednesday to two Union soldiers who stole a locomotive deep in Confederate territory during the Civil War and drove it north for 87 miles. U.S. Army Pvts. Philip G. Shadrach and George D. Wilson were captured by Confederates and executed by hanging. Biden is recognizing their courage 162 years later with the country's highest military decoration.

PHOENIX (AP) — Ron Falk lost his right leg, had extensive skin grafting on the left one and is still recovering a year after collapsing on the searing asphalt outside a Phoenix convenience store where he stopped for a cold soda during a heat wave.