NEW YORK (AP) — The history of American patriotic songs offers a lesson about the different ways you can say you love your country.

Composers have celebrated endurance under fire ( “The Star-Spangled Banner” ) and invoked divine approval (“God Bless America”). While Toby Keith’s “Made in America” dares anyone to question American eminence, Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” and Curtis Mayfield’s “This Is My Country” highlight a long tradition of weaving in social protest, as if the advance to a “more perfect union” is only possible through acknowledging imperfection.

Patriotic music is also a story of cultural independence. Well into the 19th century, writers were adapting new lyrics to popular melodies — usually originating in England — as a way of ensuring the songs would be widely known.

“Nowadays, it would be like, ‘Here are my new lyrics that I just wrote, and you can sing them to this Beatles song,'” explains Loras John Schissel, a senior musicologist at the Library of Congress. “Everyone would say, ‘Oh, OK, I know that.’”

Here’s a list — admittedly subjective — of some notable patriotic songs, from colonial times to the present.

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The legacy of Pennsylvania-Delaware statesman John Dickinson has long been shadowed by his refusal to sign the Declaration of Independence. While he thought the break from Britain was premature, he does have some claim to being the lyricist for the earliest patriotic anthem. “The Liberty Song” is a forthright chant with a melody taken from the Royal Navy march, “Heart of Oak.” Dickinson’s lyrics are an assertion of rights and a warning against would-be oppressors, amplifying colonial fears that all would be reduced to servitude: “In freedom we’re born, and in freedom we’ll live/Our purses are ready/Steady, Friends, steady.”

Like Dickinson’s song, “Yankee Doodle” wasn’t only a statement of rebellion, but of revision and even mockery. “Yankee Doodle” was once a British marching song, tapped out on fife and drums and chanted by British troops in Boston. But by the end of the Revolutionary War, rebels had turned it back on their enemies and used it to accompany British retreat. Now wholly Americanized, “Yankee Doodle” (or “Yankee Doodle Dandy”) is the state song of Connecticut and known to movie lovers as the title to the Oscar-winning, World War II-era film that starred James Cagney.

Imagine a songwriter from a former U.S. territory turning “Hail to the Chief” into a condemnation of the American way. Samuel Francis Smith was a theology student whose hymn to freedom and farewell to tyrants with “haughty steps” rests on the melody of “God Save the King.” It has been quoted during moments of protest (the Rev. Martin Luther King during his “I Have a Dream” speech) and sung during moments of unity. ( Aretha Franklin at President Barack Obama’s first inauguration). It also holds a poignant place in Civil War history: According to an eyewitness account, after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, a gathering of Black people in South Carolina spontaneously sang it upon hearing that the state’s enslaved population had been declared free.

Julia Ward Howe was a 19th-century abolitionist whose husband was a supporter of the martyred anti-slavery crusader John Brown and who adapted her hymn to the Union cause from the melody of “John Brown’s Body,” which she had heard during a public review of Union troops. The lyrics came to her in a haze. “I awoke in the gray of the morning twilight; and as I lay waiting for the dawn, the long lines of the desired poem began to twine themselves in my mind,” she wrote in her memoir. And her song has since been heard everywhere from the 1971 Super Bowl to last year’s funeral for President Jimmy Carter.

Irving Berlin first intended his celebrated — and criticized — ode for a World War I era revue. But it didn’t quite fit with the show’s storyline. Berlin set it aside until the late 1930s, when fears of a new world war were rising. “God Bless America” was something of a break from earlier patriotic numbers, says Stephen Winick, a folklorist at the Library of Congress. It was written by an immigrant, and was a statement of personal allegiance (“Land that I love”) instead of collective force. Some even questioned whether Berlin had the right to compose it. “He got mail from people basically saying, ‘How is it that you, this Russian Jew, has any right to ask God to bless America?” Winick says.

The Woody Guthrie standard was a response to “God Bless America,” if only because Guthrie believed that Berlin had failed to appreciate the country’s natural beauty beyond invoking “the valleys and the prairies.” Guthrie’s lyrical turns also fit the narrative of patriotism/protest, with its poetic imagery (“diamond deserts,” “wheat fields waving”), and its wry defiance — in at least one version of the song — of a seemingly sacred American right, private property: “As I went walking I saw a sign there/And on the sign it said “No Trespassing./But on the other side it didn’t say nothing.”

Chuck Berry once said that he composed his classic tour of rock ‘n’ roll Americana after feeling homesick during a trip to Australia. Berry’s tribute to skyscrapers, jukeboxes and the open road from “the coast of California to the shores of the Delaware Bay” has been covered by Bruce Springsteen, Linda Ronstadt among others. But not everyone saw the song as an all-out celebration. Citing Berry’s line about “looking HARD for a drive-in, searchin’ for a corner cafe,” critic Dave Marsh once noted that Berry was well aware that many establishments in the 1950s refused to serve a Black man. “Berry never lets you be sure that he’s coming to grips with the contradictory mess we’ve made of things,” Marsh wrote.

Don Raye and Al Jacobs collaborated on this brisk and confident march, written as war broke out in Europe. The lyrics celebrate loyalty and call out for unity across geographic lines: “What diff’rence if I hail from North or South/Or from the East or West?/My heart is filled with love for all of these.” The song has since been played at Disney theme park fireworks shows and recorded by everyone from Pat Boone to the Air Force Heritage of America Band.

Curtis Mayfield’s hard-hitting soul composition, recorded with his longtime group the Impressions, was released amid the civil rights movement. It’s a history lesson, an assertion of pride and place and a statement that a Black man’s patriotism comes out on the other end of unbearable suffering: “I’ve paid 300 years or more/Of slave driving, sweat, and welts on my back/This is my country.”

Bruce Robinson’s classic, written in 1996 and rewritten in 1999, is narrative country at its folkiest: A story about a lonely American soldier during the Vietnam War corresponding with a young woman back home. It’s both romantic and painful: He dies, she mourns and it serves as powerful reminder of the sacrifices made by service members and those who love them. “Travelin’ Soldier” became a hit in 2002-2003 for The Chicks, formerly the Dixie Chicks, during a contentious national conversation about patriotism amid the aftermath of 9/11 and the impending Iraq War. It was revived last year by Cody Johnson.

The post-9/11 moment inspired a new wave of across genres, with particular focus on rock and such country hits as Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American).” Zac Brown Band’s “Chicken Fried,” originally recorded in 2003, was an ode to cold beer, good jeans and other simple pleasures that became a sleeper anthem because of its often overlooked third verse. “I thank God for my life / And for the stars and stripes / May freedom forever fly, let it ring,” Brown sings a cappella, the lively instrumentation ceasing in exchange for listeners’ attention.

Keith had written so many patriotic songs that he considered shelving “Made in America” for fear of overdoing it. A conversation with cowriter Bobby Pinson and actor/singer Scott Reeves inspired his hit about the popularity of cheap, foreign-made products. Keith and Pinson turned out a power ballad about an old man “livin’ off the land,” an upholder of traditional values so loyal to all things American that he’s willing to “spend a little more in the store for a tag in the back that says ‘USA.’”

Around the time Keith’s “Made in America” was released, Jay-Z and Kanye West were working on the protest/patriotic rap “Sweet Baby Jesus,” eventually named “Made in America.” The lyrics are a boast, a reminder and a vow to push forward, as if echoing King’s likening the American Dream to a promissory note the leaders had yet to make good on: “Built a republic that still stands/I’m tryna lead a nation, to leave to my little man’s/Or my daughter, so I’m boiling this water/The scales was lopsided, I’m just restoring order.”

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AP Music Writer Maria Sherman contributed.

NEW YORK (AP) — Ken Martin is in survival mode.

Desperate to save his job as chair of the Democratic National Committee, he is avoiding media appearances, monitoring his critics’ social media posts and refusing — at least so far — to make any substantive changes at his troubled organization.

A half dozen state leaders and other committee members, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations, described Martin as defensive and extremely distrustful of others, even some people on his own team, as calls for his resignation grow louder among Democratic operatives who lament his leadership decisions, lackluster fundraising and even his tendency to lash out in anger.

But there is no sign that the organization’s membership plans to replace Martin before the midterm elections in November, even as some wonder how much longer he can hold on. The drama threatens to undermine the party’s momentum in the battle to retake control of Congress from President Donald Trump’s Republican Party.

“I sense no movement from the DNC to make a change, and so that decision’s up to Ken. And he’s told me he’s in it, so I trust him on making that decision,” said Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib, a DNC member and strong Martin supporter. “What we’re seeing right now is a whole group of folks who live on Twitter and consultants fighting harder against Ken Martin than they’ve ever fought against Donald Trump.”

Martin did not grant an interview request. In a recent Substack post, Martin defended himself this way: “If the question is whether the Democratic Party will be ready to win — everywhere, at every level, in this election and for the decade ahead — the answer is a resounding yes.”

As one of its most important responsibilities, the DNC is tasked with building out the party’s national infrastructure, including fundraising, to support the Democrats’ next presidential nominee. Yet few members of the next class of White House prospects are willing to speak out on Martin’s behalf.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who has traveled to key states in recent weeks before a potential presidential bid, praised the DNC for embracing a new primary calendar that promotes more diverse states such as South Carolina and Nevada.

But Moore declined three separate times to answer directly when asked whether he has confidence in Martin heading into 2028.

“My confidence is in the people,” Moore told The Associated Press. “My confidence is in making sure that we have a system in place that actually allows the people’s voices to be heard.”

He said he is not looking for “wins on behalf of a political structure or party bosses.”

Others have been explicitly critical of Martin.

Shannon Watts, the former leader of Moms Demand Action and a member of the DNC’s finance committee in 2024, criticized Martin’s lack of communication with donors and key stakeholders. She said she was ready and willing to help Martin after he took over last year, but he never called.

She did, however, get a call from a DNC staffer urging her to delete a social media post that was critical of Martin. Such calls have become common occurrences in recent months.

“Ken needs to step aside. I think Ken knows he needs to step aside,” Watts said. “There’s a reason he’s worried he’s going to be fired and it’s because he’s not up to the job.”

Even those close to Martin, including senior members of the DNC leadership, privately complain that Martin is not doing more to maintain ties with committee members, donors and prominent outside officials. He was known for building strong relationships in his previous post as leader of the Association of State Democratic Chairs, which is largely why he was elected national chair.

His allies are baffled as to why he has not done the same in his new job. There are also lingering frustrations over how Martin handled the follow-up report on the 2024 election. He promised to release the document, then withheld it, then eventually made it public while saying it was too flawed to be helpful.

Few expect Martin to be replaced before the fall elections, largely because no clear alternative has emerged as the midterms loom. But members are looking toward the DNC’s winter meeting after the November contests — and before the 2028 presidential primary process begins in earnest — as the most likely time to make a leadership change.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has fielded calls to discuss a candidacy to replace Martin, according to a person with knowledge of the conversations who requested anonymity to discuss private discussions. O’Malley, who did not respond to a request for comment, finished a distant third in the DNC chair election last winter.

The growing chorus of criticism has shaken the confidence of Martin’s loyalists.

They were especially concerned about an essay this week by Rufus Gifford, the finance chairman for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, who warned that the DNC under Martin’s leadership was “spiraling toward irrelevance.”

“At this point, I think there is no saving Martin’s chairmanship. He is a good man with good intentions but simply not meeting this critical moment,” Gifford wrote on Substack. “As Democrats, the only solution is to acknowledge the problem and fix it. Now.”

One Martin ally likened the fallout from Gifford’s statement to the day after Biden’s disastrous debate performance that effectively forced him to abandon his reelection campaign.

Martin got a lifeline this week from New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, who said while campaigning in Pennsylvania that Martin “has my full support.”

Jeffries noted that Democrats have won the overwhelming majority of elections since Martin took over the DNC, which also coincides with Trump’s return to the White House. Jeffries also played down the party’s financial challenges.

Federal filings show that the DNC reported about $16.3 million in the bank with more than $18 million in debt at the end of June, compared with the Republican National Committee reporting more than $128 million in cash and no debt.

The DNC under Martin used the party’s Washington headquarters as collateral to secure a $15 million line of credit last fall. His critics seized on the decision as an example of financial mismanagement, although the building was used as collateral under former party chairs as well.

DNC officials note that the committee has actually raised more money under Martin than it raised in 2018, the last time the party did not have the White House in a midterm year.

“The current DNC has raised the most money of any DNC without the White House in the 198-year history of the Democratic Party,” Martin wrote recently on Substack.

While Martin has avoided national media appearances, which are considered a major responsibility for the chair, he has been traveling almost constantly to support party officials and key stakeholders across the country.

He visited six states over the past two weeks alone. This past week, for example, he met with civil rights leaders in Nashville, Tennessee, and mayors from across the country in Atlanta.

Kansas Democratic Party Chair Jeanna Repass said Martin should be praised for his commitment to strengthening state parties at a critical moment. Indeed, instead of hoarding the DNC’s cash, Martin is distributing it aggressively to needy state parties, just as he promised while campaigning for the chairmanship.

“This is a ridiculous conversation to be having right now,” Repass said. “If people don’t like Ken, they can have a conversation with him in two years. But right now, we all need to be behind the chair and keep our heads down and do our jobs.”

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Associated Press writers Steven Sloan in Oklahoma City, Mike Catalini in Bethlehem, Pa., and Matt Brown in Washington contributed to this report.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas voters will decide Tuesday whether to elect state Supreme Court justices rather than have the governor appoint them, a push from conservatives who have chafed for years over court decisions they disagreed with on issues such as abortion, school funding and the death penalty.

If the constitutional amendment passes, supporters hope to elect at least four conservative, anti-abortion justices to the seven-member court by 2033.

Kansas is considering the change amid concerns that increasingly contentious and expensive judicial elections in other states are making their courts more partisan and less independent. Spending in a single state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin last year topped $100 million.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a term-limited Democrat who opposes the measure, said gerrymandering and dark money have put the Legislature out of step with the state and, “to think you can make the judicial branch a part of that dysfunctional system is frightening.”

GOP lawmakers cite multiple rulings by Kansas courts over the past two decades as reasons for change.

Most recently, a district court judge earlier this month reinstated a three-day grace period for voters to return mail ballots after Election Day, which GOP lawmakers had eliminated. Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, seeking the Republican nomination for governor, called the decision “outrageous” and urged people to vote yes on the ballot question.

The same judge — a finalist to fill the most recent Supreme Court vacancy — blocked enforcement of a 2025 law banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors. Masterson described him as “radical.”

The list of rulings Republicans criticize also includes rulings on education funding back to 2004. Supreme Court decisions forced lawmakers to increase funding to comply with the state constitution.

“If we elect our Supreme Court, they won’t force you to spend money on schools,” Masterson said in remarks in November to a conservative group, the Marion County Patriots for Liberty, the Marion County Record reported.

Electing state Supreme Court justices gained currency among Republicans after a 2022 public vote affirming the high court’s landmark 2019 decision that Kansas’ bill of rights guarantees bodily autonomy and access to abortion. Total spending by both sides has exceeded $12 million.

Legislators who worked to overturn the Supreme Court’s protections, including Masterson, helped write this year’s proposal.

Seven weeks after that 2022 vote, Attorney General Kris Kobach, then a GOP candidate for the office, told a Republican club in Wichita that electing justices would “slowly and quietly” put anti-abortion justices on the high court.

The vote-yes campaign’s biggest donor — providing $1.7 million toward the campaign’s $3.7 million in spending — is a Nashville-based nonprofit that supports Republican candidates, groups and causes. Kansans for Life, the state’s most influential anti-abortion group, has spent at least $87,000 over the past 11 days on mailers and texts.

“Kansans can bring an end to this reign of abortion by voting ‘yes,’” Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, said in an editorial written by a staffer on the anti-abortion group’s website.

Meanwhile, the national and state affiliates for abortion provider Planned Parenthood contributed another $1.6 million toward the vote-no campaign’s $8 million-plus in spending.

Jamie Swan, an engineer and college teaching assistant who knocked on doors for abortion rights in 2022, is doing the same to try to halt the proposal.

“I really believe that this is just a power grab,” she said.

Backers of the Kansas proposal brush aside arguments that electing the justices will give wealthy donors control over the Supreme Court.

“Globally and over history, even in its imperfection, the best system is democracy,” said Elizabeth Patton, state director of the low-tax, small-government group Americans for Prosperity, which has spent $935,000 to promote the vote-yes campaign.

Twenty-two states elect their top court’s judges, eight in partisan races. Governors in 26 states appoint them. In South Carolina and Virginia, legislators pick the justices.

Kansas elected justices for nearly 100 years before voters amended the state constitution in 1958. The governor now picks one of three finalists named by a nominating commission controlled by attorneys. Legislators have no role.

A review of every state’s current and past constitutions shows that the last state to add an amendment like the one Kansas is contemplating was Mississippi in 1914. Since then, 18 states’ amendments went the opposite way.

Voters weigh in every six years on whether a justice remains on the bench through a yes-or-no ballot question, but they’ve never booted a sitting justice. Conservatives say that means justices face no consequences for errant decisions.

Retirements and deaths allowed the term-limited Kelly to appoint four of the current justices. Recently, she picked a district court judge who blocked enforcement of longstanding abortion restrictions in 2023.

“We don’t have a good way to fight back,” said state Sen. Mike Thompson, a conservative Kansas City-area Republican, who backs the measure.

NEW YORK (AP) — Flight attendants with WestJet, Canada’s second-largest airline, went on strike Sunday in a dispute over pay.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the 4,400 cabin crew at the airline, announced the strike on its Facebook page. WestJet confirmed the strike and canceled more than 300 flights as of early Sunday, snarling travel plans in Canada in the middle of a three-day weekend.

A key issue in the dispute was how flight attendants should be paid for duties performed while still on the ground. The union said some of that work is unpaid, while the company said its staff was indeed compensated, citing pay through a “credit hour” system rather than an hourly rate.

“We presented a proposal that would have set a new standard for cabin crew in Canada, making WestJet the only airline to offer an hourly rate covering all time before and after flights, plus a double-digit wage increase in year one among other priorities the union raised,” said Alexis von Hoensbroech, CEO of the WestJet Group. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t accepted.”

Alia Hussain, president of the union chapter that represents the cabin crew, said negotiators “tried until the very last minute to get a fair deal that recognizes the value of the work cabin crews do.”

“WestJet’s offer did not go far enough,” Hussain said.

Both sides said they were willing to resume negotiations to reach an agreement.

The airline said it could not operate any of its scheduled flights on Boeing 737s or 787s, and travelers will be refunded or reaccommodated. WestJet said it would contact people who reserved with them directly via email, while those who booked through a travel agent or third-party platform should reach out to them.

WestJet Encore flights operated on a Q400, as well as code-share flights operated by airline partners, remain unaffected. 

Last summer, flight attendants at Air Canada, the country’s largest carrier, stranded more than 100,000 travelers during peak travel season with a strike partly over the same issue of groundwork. That work stoppage lasted three days before the sides came to an agreement.

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Associated Press writer Jim Morris in Vancouver, British Columbia contributed to this report.

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A fast-moving wildfire driven by strong winds and high temperatures swept across northwest Spokane on Saturday before jumping the Spokane River and prompting the evacuation of thousands of people.

The Old Trails Fire started around noon, burning brush and grass in an open area, but quickly spread north and east toward residential areas. Cars lined the roads as people fled their homes, and orange and red flames were visible from the highway.

The blaze sent a plume of smoke billowing over the region, and as of the evening almost 4 square miles (10 square kilometers) of terrain had been burned, said Courtney James, spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.

The cause was under investigation.

“We urge residents of Spokane to heed evacuation orders and to stay alert to changing conditions and evacuations as they are rapidly changing,” James said.

Some structures were lost but officials did not yet have a solid count, said Jessica Watson, a DNR spokesperson for the fire. Firefighters had zero containment as of the evening and the wind continued to blow, she said.

Power company Avista said it implemented public safety shutoffs in the area due to elevated fire risk.

Gov. Bob Ferguson declared a state of emergency Saturday after unusually high temperatures and high winds exacerbated record wildfires across the state. The National Weather Service issued a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag alert for eastern Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump in a Saturday evening social media post claimed that Mideast allies have reached the parameters of a deal to end the Iran war and said that he would hold off on ordering new strikes in the five-month old conflict for now.

Trump added that the emerging deal “would include the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat.”

“Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL,” Trump said.

He said that Israel has agreed to join the U.S. in the commitment to try to complete the agreement with Iran that would bring about an end to the war.

Iran did not offer any immediate public reaction to Trump’s announcement.

The president’s announcement marked another remarkable turn in the conflict — only a day after he suggested to reporters that he was close to resuming heavy military strikes to force the regime to come to the negotiating table.

The U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, starting a war that Trump said was aimed at destroying Tehran’s missile capabilities, preventing it from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ending its support for allied armed groups. But the stated goals and timelines for the conflict have repeatedly shifted.

An interim agreement reached in mid-June halted the fighting and was supposed to pave the way for a permanent deal, but it crumbled within weeks as Iran resumed attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Earlier Saturday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader, in a phone call with Trump raised concerns about the U.S. potentially escalating the conflict with Iran, according to a person familiar with the leaders’ discussion.

The discussion, which was first reported on by the news outlet Axios, came as Trump weighed whether to carry out new strikes on Iran.

The Saudis, according to the person briefed on the substance of the call but not authorized to comment publicly, are concerned that if the U.S. targets Iran’s energy infrastructure or carries out massive strikes on bridges or power plants that Tehran could respond by carrying out attacks on the kingdom’s and other Gulf countries’ energy infrastructure.

The crown prince during Saturday’s call sought clarity from Trump on what potential new action he’s weighing to take against Iran, the person said.

A White House official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity, confirmed the leaders spoke on Saturday but did not offer any detail about their conversation.

Saudi Arabia earlier this week joined the U.S. in striking multiple logistics and weapons sites used by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, but has been urging the U.S. and Iran to get back to the negotiating table to find an endgame to the conflict.

The crown prince also dispatched his brother, Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, to Washington on Wednesday for separate meetings with Trump and Vice President JD Vance to discuss Iran strategy.

And Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday at the White House, their first in-person meeting since launching the war in February. The Israeli leader has urged Trump to continue to prosecute the war against Iran.

The stakes for continued U.S. military action are high for Trump and his party as the conflict, unpopular among many Americans, has jolted the world economy just months before critical midterm elections in November.

The president had vowed to take retaliatory action after the U.S. military thwarted a surprise attack earlier this week by Iran on a U.S. base in Jordan.

Trump on Friday displayed his growing frustration with the conflict, telling reporters that “we just want to win” in Iran and that the U.S. will hit Iran “very hard” until they can’t take it anymore. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed the president, noting that Tehran last month signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. on a truce but then quickly “broke it, shot at commercial ships, and killed American soldiers.”

U.S. officials were on edge ahead of Trump’s Saturday evening statement. And Trump himself in his social media post said that the U.S. military was “locked and loaded” and prepared to display “levels of Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II.”

Earlier in the day, the U.S. State Department issued new security alerts for Americans in 10 countries in the region to exercise heightened caution due to the escalating tensions with Iran.

The warnings — covering Bahrain, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates — urged U.S. citizens to prepare for the possibility of flight cancellations, temporary airspace closures and other travel disruptions.

Meanwhile, Kuwait’s military said Saturday that its forces responded to drone attacks by Iran.

In a statement, Maj. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi, spokesperson for Kuwait’s Defense Ministry, said the drones hit “a number of vital facilities,” including a government structure in the country’s north. He said there were no casualties.

The British Navy said Saturday that a tanker was struck and a separate explosion hit close to a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman. No casualties were reported in either incident, it said. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organization said an unknown projectile hit the vessel on Friday 11 nautical miles northeast of Lima, Oman. The attack damaged the vessel’s engine room.

The group said that on Saturday a large splash and an explosion were reported close to another tanker while it was sailing 21 nautical miles northwest of Khasab city.

By Kenrick Cai

Aug 1 (Reuters) – Wildfires across more than a quarter of a million acres in Washington state have prompted widespread evacuations and power outages in the Spokane area, state officials said on Saturday evening.

About 4,000 people were fighting more than a dozen fires throughout the state, Dave Upthegrove, the state’s commissioner of public lands, said during a virtual press conference.

Governor Bob Ferguson declared a statewide emergency and burn ban on Saturday morning. No injuries or fatalities related to the fire were known at this point, officials said.

Spokane, home to about 230,000 residents of eastern Washington, is dealing with the Old Trails Fire, which Washington State Forester George Geissler said was active on 3,000 acres and threatened 4,000 structures.

Some major facilities in Spokane have been evacuated, Mayor Lisa Brown said, including water reclamation facilities, a waste-energy plant and the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital.

As of 3:30 p.m. (2230 GMT), about 200 homes in Spokane had been evacuated, but officials expected that figure to change. “These are large areas of the city, so I assume it’s going to be more than that,” Brown said. 

Utilities company Avista, which services eastern Washington, reported that 60,000 people were without power, according to Stacey McClain of the Washington State Emergency Management Division.

“Our state is facing a very serious situation with multiple fires,” Ferguson said, noting that high winds and high temperatures throughout the weekend would make fighting the fires more challenging.

For the summer so far, about 450,000 acres have burned in Washington state, Upthegrove said. “This is not normal. … Throughout the state of Washington we’re seeing fires raging,” he said. 

The fire in Spokane is one of five “major complex fires” in the state, Geissler said. The biggest, the Kaiser Canyon Fire in the northeastern part of the state, is approximately 134,000 acres, he said. 

Wildfires this summer have been a problem in other parts of the Pacific Northwest. Nearly 34,000 lightning strikes last month led to a series of fires and evacuation orders in the southern part of British Columbia. 

In addition to the National Guard, firefighters from more than a dozen states are helping, Washington officials said during the news conference.

“It’s a tragedy what we’re seeing over there,” said Major General Gent Welsh, adjutant general of the Washington National Guard. “When the sun sets and the sun rises in the morning, I think we’re going to be in shock to see some of the scenes that emerged out there.”

(Reporting by Kenrick Cai; Editing by Sergio Non)

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Three people were killed and seven more were injured, some critically, in a shooting at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in southern Idaho on Saturday afternoon, a Twin Falls city spokesman said.

Police who responded to the shooting found the body of the suspected gunman in an area near the restaurant, Twin Falls city public information officer Josh Palmer said. He did not know if the suspect was included in the fatality count.

Officials were still working on notifying the family members of victims and so were not yet releasing the names, ages or other details about the people hurt in the shooting, Palmer said. Some of the people injured are in critical condition, Palmer said.

Police were still trying to determine the shooter’s identity and motive, Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks said in a news conference earlier Saturday.

“We believe the threat to the community is over,” Hicks said. “It was a very chaotic scene.”

Palmer said investigators were still interviewing witnesses to the shooting. The restaurant is in a busy shopping plaza, and hundreds of people were in the area when it happened around 2 p.m.

Lane Koehn, 34, said he was at a stoplight near the In-N-Out when he saw a person with an AR-style rifle emerge from the drive-thru. A man with a pistol started firing at the shooter.

He then saw someone in an In-N-Out uniform drag a person, also uniformed, bleeding from a gunshot wound in her chest across the parking lot. The employee, Koehn and the man with the pistol stayed until paramedics arrived for her.

“She was pretty bad off, but I don’t know. I hope she made it,” Koehn said.

Koehn said he was told by police to evacuate because the shooting was still active.

He also said the shooter fired at least three or four rounds and it was not clear whether or not anyone in particular was targeted.

Video taken by a driver from across the street captured a shooter, who appeared to be dressed in black, walking up to a white car carrying a long rifle, opening the driver-side door and popping the trunk. The person then walked to the trunk and reached inside. At that point the driver who shot the video left quickly, fearing that the man might be getting more weapons.

Twin Falls resident Haley Dodaro, 43, and her mother went to In-N-Out for lunch Saturday afternoon. While waiting in the drive-thru line, they saw people running across the road and workers bolting out of the restaurant. At first Dodaro thought there might have been a fire, but then a man directing traffic in a reflective vest said there was a shooter.

“So that’s when we knew there was a shooting. People were running out crying and screaming. It was very scary,” Dodaro said in a text message to The Associated Press.

Nayeli Rodriguez, 40, of Burley, was inside waiting for food with her daughters when she heard shots from the kitchen. An employee said it was a shooting and told people to get down. Rodriguez said an older man tried to protect her and her daughters, and they were among the last to run outside.

“We were trying to get as far as we could and some angels let us in their car,” Rodriguez said, also via text message. “I left my car there in the parking lot.”

The In-N-Out opened just about a week earlier, on July 24, as part of the company’s recent expansion to Idaho.

Police said multiple people were taken to St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center. Hospital spokesperson Taylor Marschner said in a statement that it was “working closely with law enforcement and emergency responders as they manage the situation.”

Twin Falls, a city of about 56,000 people, is about 130 miles (205 kilometers) southeast of Boise and about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of the Nevada border.

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Bellisle reported from Seattle, and Raza from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Aug 1 (Reuters) – Three people died after a gunman opened fire in a shopping area in Twin Falls, Idaho, on Saturday, according to a city spokesman.

Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks told reporters the shooter was dead and the threat to the community was over.

• An active shooter incident was reported at around 2:30 p.m. local time (2030 GMT) near an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in a high-traffic commercial area, the city’s public information coordinator, Josh Palmer, told Reuters.

• About an hour later, “it was determined that the shooter was no longer a threat,” Palmer said.

• During a press conference, Hicks said he did not know the exact death toll, but Palmer told Reuters that three people were dead and at least two injured.

• The shooter was among the dead, Hicks said. Police are working to identify the gunman and determine motives for the shooting, he said.

• The Twin Falls Police Department said on Facebook that roads in the area and a nearby bridge were closed in the immediate aftermath of the report.

• The town of about 47,400 people lies in the central Idaho region of Magic Valley.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Kenrick Cai; Editing by Sergio Non and Alistair Bell)

President Trump Vows Harder Strikes on Iran as Israel May Join, US Embassies Warn of Escalation  

By The Media Line Staff  

President Donald Trump vowed to intensify US military pressure on Iran as reports pointed to possible joint American-Israeli strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure, while Tehran threatened sweeping retaliation and Washington warned US citizens across the Middle East to prepare for possible escalation.  

Speaking during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David, President Trump said, “We will hit them, we will hit them very hard,” adding that “at some point they will say ‘we just can’t take this anymore.’” In an interview with Fox News, the president said the confrontation with Iran was “progressing well.”  

“All we can do is keep winning until eventually something happens. But we’re hitting them hard and keep winning. In the end, they’ll have no choice but to surrender,” he said.  

The Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump had ordered strikes on Iran intended “to bring it to its knees.” CBS News reported the United States and Israel were discussing what could be one of the most severe bombing campaigns yet against Iranian energy infrastructure, with multiple sources saying strikes could come as early as this weekend. The report said officials discussed completing any operation before markets opened on Monday because of concerns about its impact on the US and global economies. American sources said Israel had been briefed and was coordinating with Washington.  

An Israeli official told CBS News that “Israel is not aware of a decision to fully resume the military operation, nor has there been a request in Israel to join military action against Iran,” speaking on condition of anonymity. Israeli assessments hold that any American strike on Iran would trigger attacks on Israel.  

US embassies across the Middle East warned Americans to exercise increased caution due to the “potential for unexpected escalation.” The US Embassy in Israel advised citizens to “consider leaving or prepare to do so in case of escalation.”  

The Washington Post also reported that Alexus Grynkewich, head of US European Command, warned Pentagon leaders he lacks sufficient naval forces to continue defending Israel from ballistic missile attacks without additional destroyers.  

Separately, The Wall Street Journal reported Trump administration officials believe Iran is attempting to prolong negotiations in the expectation domestic pressure will eventually force Washington to end the war. Senior Gulf officials told the newspaper that several regional countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, urged President Trump to take “more decisive steps,” with some arguing that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards would not compromise unless the United States escalated, took control of the Strait of Hormuz or considered ground operations.  

President Trump also posted AI-generated images on Truth Social depicting Iranian boats labeled “Obama/Biden” floating before appearing sunk under the label “Trump,” alongside the words “159 Iranian ships.” He also shared fighter jet images and a chart of the Iranian rial with the caption: “Trump is destroying the Iranian currency. Iran is experiencing massive inflation.”  

The Kuwaiti military said it detected and destroyed hostile drones after reporting an Iranian attack targeting a government facility in northern Kuwait and vehicles belonging to a private company. No casualties were reported. Ali Abdollahi, commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbia headquarters, warned that “the United States is rushing rapidly toward igniting a broad regional war. Any country that serves as a shield for the enemy will burn in the fire of war.”  

Tasnim quoted a senior Iranian security source as calling reports of planned US and Israeli strikes “an act of madness,” adding that Iran had prepared “a comprehensive response plan” targeting “Israel’s vital infrastructure and American energy infrastructure in the region.”  

Iranian parliament committee spokesperson Ebrahim Rezaei separately warned, “if Iran is attacked, we will return the entire region and its facilities to the Stone Age. It is in your best interest not to be foolish.”