SPOKANE (AP) — A man charged with starting one of the wildfires in Spokane, Washington, that have destroyed hundreds of buildings planned the crime for weeks and researched when the weather would be best for igniting it, police said.

In an interview after his arrest, Aaron Farinacci said “fire is powerful, beautiful, and that things that go through fire experience a kind of rebirth,” Spokane County Detective Michael Drapeau wrote in a court filing Wednesday.

Farinacci, 37, is charged with starting the Old Trails fire, one of three blazes in the Spokane area that have burned more than 850 buildings, destroying whole neighborhoods and streets. Tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate and many still can’t return home. No deaths or serious injuries have been reported.

Farinacci is also charged in connection with four smaller fires ignited in the summer of 2025 and last month.

He was scheduled to be arraigned on five first-degree arson charges Thursday, but his lawyer asked for a competency evaluation before he enters a plea. Spokane Superior Court Judge Jeremy Schmidt said he would review that request. He set bond for $2 million, ruling that Farinacci was a risk to community safety, a flight risk and that there was potential for a violent offense.

Defense attorney Colin Charbonneau did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Farinacci denied starting the Old Trails fire when police initially contacted him, but during an interview with Drapeau, he confessed to that fire as well as others last year and last month, the detective wrote. That led to the four additional arson charges.

He told the detective that he always carries marijuana or cigarettes so he would have a legitimate reason to have a lighter and matches.

“He knows arson is an easy crime to get away from if you have time, and he had time,” Drapeau said.

Farinacci researched the weather to predict a day that would be hot and windy and have low humidity for starting the Old Trails fire, Drapeau said. He also looked up the work of a well-known serial arsonist and purchased items to make a “time delay device” for igniting a wildfire, using notebook paper, matches, a cigarette and a rubber band, the detective said.

Farinacci picked Saturday, Aug. 1, to start the fire because he knew there would be strong winds — reaching 50 mph (80 kph), the detective said.

Farinacci said he knew it was going to get bad but claimed he didn’t intend for it to grow as much as it did, Drapeau said.

Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said Thursday that it’s going to be weeks before people can safely return to their homes in areas burned in the Spokane fires. The other two major blazes, the Autumn Lane and Fairview fires, were also started by people, though not necessarily deliberately, investigators have said.

Paul Child, 64, has been credited with leading police to Farinacci. He was driving with his grandson along some railroad tracks when he saw a man standing there and looking toward nearby trees. About 10 minutes later, the man was still there.

“He was bent over in the brush, acting nervous,” Child told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “You get the feeling this guy’s up to something.”

Drapeau said Farinacci also admitted responsibility for 25 fires near his apartment building in summer 2025. Most were near the Spokane River or the Centennial Trail.

Farinacci admitted to starting the Aubrey White fire that ignited on July 6, 2025, near the Centennial Trail and threatened homes and structures, the court filing said. It led to evacuations and road closures. An investigation determined it was caused by arson, but police didn’t have any suspects at the time.

Farinacci also faces arson charges for the Meenach fire that started on July 8, 2025, the Fort George fire on Aug. 11, 2025, and the Indian Bluff fire on July 24, 2026.

Farinacci served about a decade in prison after killing his father in Mesa, Arizona, in 2010. He also shot himself. He was charged with murder but pleaded guilty in 2012 to manslaughter and aggravated assault. Farinacci’s lawyer repeatedly raised concerns about his mental health during the case.

Drapeau said Farinacci indicated that he moved to the Copper River Apartments in the Spokane area in October 2022.

The detective said Farinacci’s son was born in 2025, and he started having difficulty dealing with “life issues” and began smoking marijuana.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate committee is set to vote Thursday on whether to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress and refer him to the Justice Department for potential prosecution over his refusal to answer questions at a hearing last week focused on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the Republican committee chairman, has said that constitutional protection did not apply since Fauci last year received a pardon from President Joe Biden and thus did not have to worry about the threat of prosecution.

But Fauci, in a statement issued before the hearing, said he had good reason to fear the possibility of criminal charges given what he said was Paul’s determination “to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, behind bars, unquote.”

The pardon from Biden covered acts from 2014 through the January 2025 day it was issued but does not shield Fauci from state-level prosecutions or from investigations into any testimony that he did give that lawmakers thought was false.

The Republican-led panel is set to vote Thursday morning on whether to refer Fauci to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, which would make a decision on whether or not to investigate or potentially attempt to prosecute the doctor for contempt.

Paul, who has previously sent referrals on Fauci on his own, acknowledged Wednesday that contempt resolutions have often gone through the full Senate but said he did not “want to waste time” moving the matter to a vote of the full Senate, where it would be unlikely to muster the required 60 votes needed to advance.

“We still might come to the floor,” he said, “but at this point, the first thing we will do is we will send it over as a recommendation from our committee, if it passes.”

No matter what happens, the episode raises fresh and complicated questions about lawmakers’ ability to compel testimony from previously pardoned witnesses — and the outcome could resonate beyond Fauci given the possibility that Trump may also grant clemency to his own aides before leaving the White House.

CAIRO (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said a deal on the Strait of Hormuz could come as early as Wednesday, as Iran and Oman inched toward an agreement to reopen the critical waterway and potentially help bring an end to the war.

Israel and the U.S. originally cited goals including toppling Tehran’s government and ending its nuclear program, but the war has devolved into a fight over the strait as Iran’s attacks and threats ground shipping to a halt.

Closure of the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas once passed, has driven up the price of fuel and basic goods far beyond the region, roiling the global economy. Trump is also under mounting pressure to end an unpopular war ahead of midterm congressional elections scheduled for later this year.

Trump says deal to reopen strait is close

The U.S. president was asked by reporters traveling with him in California about a report on the Axios news site that an announcement on the Strait of Hormuz could be made on Wednesday.

“It could happen. Tomorrow or the next day,” he said, speaking on Tuesday evening California time. “A lot of progress has been made.”

Oil prices eased Wednesday on hopes of a deal that would allow shipping to resume. Brent crude, the international standard, slipped by 1.2% to $78.43 per barrel early Wednesday.

The U.S. and Iran reached a deal to open the strait in June, only for attacks to resume. In recent days, Trump has again alternately threatened massive strikes and voiced support for diplomatic efforts.

Ships attacked in Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz

Even as hopes increased that a deal on the Strait of Hormuz could be imminent, attacks on shipping in the region continued.

The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels claimed Wednesday they had fired ballistic missiles toward a Saudi oil tanker called the Wafa in the Red Sea. Brig. Gen. Yahya Sare, a military spokesman for the Houthis, made said in a pre-recorded statement that the vessel was targeted in the northern Red Sea off the Saudi port city of Yanbu. He didn’t provide evidence.

There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia.

The attack is part of a recent escalation between the rebels and Saudi Arabia which threatened to reignite the Yemen civil war four years after the two sides reached a de-facto truce. In July, the Houthis announced they were closing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that leads to the Red Sea for Saudi-linked shipping in retaliation for the kingdom’s blockade on Yemen and an attack on the international airport in Yemen’s rebel-held capital, Sanaa.

On Tuesday, an Indian-flagged commercial ship sank in the Red Sea off Yemen after being struck by an explosive-laden boat, Yemeni and Indian authorities said. Yemen’s coast guard rescued the crew, which included 13 Indians and a Yemeni. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Earlier Tuesday, a cargo ship reported being “hit by an unknown projectile” while traversing the Strait of Hormuz, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center.

The center said the reported strike damaged the vessel at around 2 a.m. local time, about 37 kilometers (23 miles) northeast of the Omani port city of Al Khasab. The British maritime security firm Ambrey said the ship sustained damage.

The agreement would see routes controlled by Iran and Oman, regional officials tell AP

The possible agreement emerging from talks between Iran and Oman calls for ships to enter the Persian Gulf through an Iranian-controlled route and exit through a route controlled by Oman, two regional officials told The Associated Press. Service fees would be charged for providing security and preserving the maritime environment, the officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations.

The Trump administration has previously ruled out any deal that would give Iran control over the strait, which was an open international waterway before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. About one fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas passed through the strait, but shipping through the waterway has been reduced to a trickle at best by Iran’s attacks since the start of the war.

In an exchange with reporters on Monday, the U.S. president reiterated his public opposition to tolls being charged in the strait. “I’m not going to let them charge,” Trump said. “Anybody’s going to charge, we’ll charge.”

The regional officials said negotiations are still underway and that the final agreement could take a different form, with any deal linked to lifting the U.S. blockade on Iran’s ports.

US and Iranian officials say progress is being made

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Tuesday that Tehran’s talks with Oman were focused on “establishing safe inbound and outbound shipping lanes,” routes that “uphold sovereign rights while also addressing the national security considerations of both Iran and Oman.”

“The final results of these negotiations will be announced once concluded,” he added, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed progress had been made in those talks, “but not finality yet.”

Rubio has previously ruled out any deal that would give Iran control over the strait, saying last month that would create a “very dangerous precedent” for other parts of the world.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that “there is a chance we may have a deal today or tomorrow to open the strait and move towards a more normalized position in this conflict.”

Trump said Monday that the U.S. was in talks with Iran, saying it was Tehran’s “last chance” to reach a deal and avoid another U.S. military escalation. Iran has denied it is negotiating with the U.S., saying the talks are only with Oman.

“The first phase is the opening of the straits. The second phase will be the denuclearization,” Trump said. “And that will take a little while.”