CHICO, Calif. — Firefighters made progress Saturday against California’s largest wildfire of the year ahead of expected thunderstorms that could unleash fire-starting lightning and erratic winds and erode progress made over the past week.

Dry, hot conditions posed similar threats across the fire-stricken West.

“We’re not completely out of the woods yet, but we’re looking very, very good,” CalFire official Mark Brunton said in a video update Saturday. “This is moving at a very fast pace.”

Containment of the Park Fire, now California’s fourth-largest wildfire on record, is at 27% as of Saturday. Brunton said the relatively milder weather the past few days allowed firefighters to build containment lines.

But hotter weather, fuels and terrain will continue posing challenges for the estimated 6,500 firefighters battling the fire, which has spread over 626 square miles since allegedly being started by arson in a park in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the Sacramento Valley city of Chico. For comparison, the city of Los Angeles covers about 503 square miles.

Suppression crews will also start removing damaged infrastructure in some areas Saturday to allow residents to return home.

The fire’s push northward has brought it toward the rugged lava rock landscape surrounding Lassen Volcanic National Park, which has been closed because of the threat.

“There’s a lot of really steep drainages in that area,” CalFire spokesperson Devin Terrill said. “It takes a lot more time to access those areas.”

After a brief respite, firefighters are now bracing for treacherous conditions of hot and dry weather, along with expected thunderstorms with potential thunder strikes and gusty winds.

The collapse of thunderstorm clouds can blow wind in any and all directions, said Jonathan Pangburn, a fire behavior analyst with Cal Fire. “Even if there’s not lightning per se, it is very much a safety-watch-out environment for our firefighters out there,” Pangburn said.

9/ 11 plea deal: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday overrode a plea agreement reached earlier this week for the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and two other defendants, reinstating them as death-penalty cases.

The move comes two days after the military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, announced that the official appointed to oversee the war court, retired Brig. Gen. Susan Escallier, had approved plea deals with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two accused accomplices in the attacks.

Letters sent to families of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the al-Qaida attacks said the plea agreement stipulated the three would serve life sentences at most.

Austin wrote in an order released Friday night that “in light of the significance of the decision,” he had decided that the authority to make a decision on accepting the plea agreements was his. He nullified Escallier’s approval.

Some families of the attack’s victims condemned the deal for cutting off any possibility of full trials and possible death penalties. Republicans were quick to fault the Biden administration for the deal, although the White House said after it was announced it had no knowledge of it.

Robinson statue thief: The man who stole a bronze Jackie Robinson statue that was cut off at the ankles and found days later smoldering in a trash can in a city park in Kansas is going to spend about 15 years in prison, although most of that time is related to an aggravated burglary that happened a few days after the January statue heist.

A judge sentenced Ricky Alderete Friday on three different cases that he said in court stemmed from his addiction to fentanyl.

The League 42 youth baseball league plans to unveil a replacement statue of Robinson crafted from the original mold Monday at a park in Wichita. The city was shocked when the statue was cut from its base in January, leaving only the statue’s feet behind. The league that primarily serves low-income youth is named after Robinson’s uniform number with the Brooklyn Dodgers, with whom he broke the major leagues’ color barrier in 1947.

Somali hotel attack: Police in Somalia said Saturday that 32 people died and 63 others were wounded in an attack on a beach hotel in the capital, Mogadishu, the previous evening.

Al-Qaida’s East Africa affiliate, al-Shabab, said through its radio station that its fighters carried out the attack. Witnesses reported an explosion followed by gunfire.

Lido Beach, a popular area in Mogadishu, is bustling on Friday nights as Somalis enjoy their weekend.

A witness told The Associated Press that he saw an attacker wearing an explosive vest moments before the man “blew himself up next to the beach-view hotel.”

Bangladesh protests: Thousands of people protested peacefully in Bangladesh’s capital Saturday to demand justice for more than 200 students and others killed during protests last month, but violence was reported at similar events elsewhere in the country.

The protesters chanted anti-government slogans and demanded the resignation of the prime minister as the protest wave widened beyond students to include people from many walks of life. Some pro-government groups also rallied in the city.

The country’s leading Bengali-language Prothom Alo newspaper reported that at least seven protesters were hit by bullets after pro-ruling party groups allegedly opened fire on them as they blocked a road in Cumilla, in the east of Bangladesh. The daily said at least 30 protesters were injured during the violence, but a local leader of the ruling party denied allegations that their supporters attacked the protesters.

The students’ protests last month began with the demand for an end to a quota system for government jobs that they said was discriminatory. Under it, 30% of such jobs were reserved for the families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan in 1971.

China bridge collapse: The death toll has risen to 38 from the partial collapse of a highway bridge that plunged two dozen vehicles into a rushing river two weeks ago, China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported Friday evening, while a separate tunnel collapse and landslides in southwestern Sichuan province early Saturday have killed at least two.

The report said 24 people were still missing from the July 19 disaster in the province of Shaanxi in China’s northwest. At least 25 cars fell into the river, according to CCTV, and teams have searched miles downstream looking for victims.

In Sichuan province’s Kangding city, heavy rains caused flash flooding and landslides Saturday, sweeping away houses and killing two people. Twelve more are missing.