WASHINGTON — Greeted by hugs, tears and a roaring standing ovation, a hobbling Majority Whip Steve Scalise returned to the House on Thursday, more than three months after a gunman sprayed fire at a baseball practice and left the lawmaker clinging to life.

“You have no idea how great this feels to be back here at work in the people’s house,” the 51-year-old Louisiana Republican said to a chamber packed with lawmakers, including senators who had crossed the Capitol to welcome him back.

Scalise limped into the chamber on crutches, wearing sneakers, smiling broadly and blowing kisses in his first public appearance since the June 14 shooting.

Scalise and four others were wounded when a gunman opened fire on a Republican baseball practice — GOP and Democratic lawmakers face off in a game each year — in nearby Alexandria, Va. U.S. Capitol Police and other officers returned fire and killed the gunman. The rifle-wielding attacker had nursed grievances against Trump and the GOP.

Scalise was struck in the hip; the bullet tore into blood vessels, bones and internal organs.

He was hospitalized for more than a month and has undergone rehabilitation treatment ever since.

“I’m a living example that miracles do happen,” Scalise said.

Scalise thanked the two Capitol Hill police officers who helped kill the shooter, James Hodgkinson of Belleville, Ill., and he praised the doctors who patched him together through repeated surgeries. The officers, Crystal Griner and David Bailey, were also injured.

“David, you are my hero,” Scalise said to Bailey, who was in the chamber. “You saved my life.” Griner is still recovering at home.

ISIS releases purported new audio message from top leader

CAIRO — The Islamic State group on Thursday released what it said was a new audio recording of its top leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in which he vows to continue fighting and lavishes praise on his jihadis despite their loss of Mosul, Iraq.

Mosul was liberated from Islamic State fighters in July after a months-long operation by Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition.

The voice in the recording released by the Islamic State-run al-Furqan outletsounded much like previous recordings of the reclusive leader.

The most previous purported audio message from al-Baghdadi was released in November.

Russian officials said in June there was a “high probability” al-Baghdadi had died in a Russian airstrike near the Syrian city of Raqqa. But U.S. officials later said they believed he was still alive.

U.S. envoy falsely claims Israel occupies just 2% of W. Bank

JERUSALEM — The U.S. ambassador to Israel raised eyebrows on Thursday by saying that Israel occupies a tiny percent of the West Bank — just 2 percent — and that settlements there are part of the Jewish state proper.

The comments angered the Palestinians and are at odds with decades of U.S policy.

“I think the settlements are part of Israel,” Ambassador David Friedman said in an interview with the Israeli news site Walla.

Israel seized the West Bank in the 1967 war. The Palestinians have limited autonomy in 40 percent of the area, with Israel controlling the remaining 60 percent. The international community views the settlements as illegal.

A State Department spokeswoman later said Friedman’s remarks “should not be read as a change in U.S. policy.”

U.N.: Over 500,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar since August

UNITED NATIONS — The number of Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh since August to escape violence in Myanmar has topped 500,000, the United Nations said Thursday.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Myanmar’s authorities to immediately end it’s military operations, warning that the humanitarian crisis is a breeding ground for radicalization, criminals and traffickers. And he said the broader crisis “has generated multiple implications for neighboring states and the larger region.”

In the U.S., A bipartisan group of 21 senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asking the Trump administration to consider sanctions against perpetrators of the violence and to re-evaluate U.S. policy toward Myanmar.

Day after fatal rock fall, Yosemite sees another

Yosemite National Park has had another massive rock fall a day after a slab dropped from El Capitan, killing a British climber and injuring a second.

Full details of Thursday’s rock fall were not immediately available, but witness Ken Yager of the Yosemite Climbing Association said he saw a huge plume of smoke and heard sirens.

The victims of Wednesday’s rock fall were hiking at the bottom of El Capitan in preparation to scale it when the granite chunk fell in the afternoon, said park ranger and spokesman Scott Gediman.

“I’ve seen smaller avalanches and smaller falls before where you would just see a tiny dust cloud; this was covering a good portion of the rock in front of us,” said John DeGrazio of YExplore Yosemite Adventures, who has led climbers in Yosemite Park for 12 years.

In reversal, White House keeps Obama emissions rule

WASHINGTON — Following a lawsuit by California and seven other states, the Trump administration Thursday reversed course and instituted new regulations requiring that greenhouse gases from cars and trucks be measured and compared over time.

The regulation had been published two days before the Obama administration left office, and was repeatedly delayed by President Donald Trump’s Department of Transportation. The transportation sector is one of the top sources of emissions causing global warming.

The states alleged in the suit, filed last week, that the administration had intentionally, and unlawfully, failed to give people the required opportunity to comment on the indefinite delay.

Environmental groups had sued over the issue earlier as well.

The man who opened fire in a movie theater in suburban Denver in 2012, killing 12 people and wounding 70 others, is being housed at a facility in Pennsylvania, the Federal Bureau of Prisons disclosed Thursday. James Holmes’ location had been a tightly held secret after he was moved out of Colorado last year.

A surge of popularity for the freshly minted opposition Party of Hope in Japan is making Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision to call a snap election look riskier than initially thought. Abe, of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party dissolved the lower house of parliament Thursday, setting the stage for an Oct. 22 vote.