WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In the day's other headlines: Wildfires raged across Southern Greece,
and the tragedy deepened when a tanker plane crashed, killing the two pilots.
These fires come as temperatures there pushed back above 104 degrees.
Emma Murphy of Independent Television News reports from the Greek island of Corfu.
EMMA MURPHY: With one natural resource, they seek to save another, scooping water from the sea
to douse the flames engulfing the land.
Fires now threaten thousands of hectares in the north of Corfu,
record high temperatures, tinder-dry land and the
suspected work of arsonists now leaving live, homes and livelihoods in peril.
WOMAN: I would say here is close enough.
DARKO GAJIC, Tour Guide, Quad Corfu Adventure: I was from this side up. Now the wind -- look,
the wind changed, so that is the danger thing. When wind become stronger, like,
that is not good, yes, when comes the wind, and now the wind comes to us. So,
the flames are here behind. The flames are there. So...
EMMA MURPHY: (INAUDIBLE) was meant to be the village festival tonight.
Now they just hope the village will be saved from the flames.
As the flames encroached, more villages were evacuated.
MAN: There is nobody there. Took them all.
EMMA MURPHY: Took them all. MAN: Yes.
EMMA MURPHY: Those caught in the path were taken to safety in nearby towns.
Even the animals were gathered up and moved away.
Scenes like this are being replicated across the island. But police are closing roads
because fires that were previously under control have been whipped up by the wind.
It's the middle of the day here, and it already feels like it's going dark,
but that's because of the smoke. And there are constant flurries of ash coming down.
The heat wave across parts of Europe and North Africa has had a devastating effect. In Algeria,
it's now been confirmed 34 people have died, including 10 soldiers involved in rescue efforts.
Meanwhile, in Italy Palermo Airport was forced to
temporarily close when fires came to close for it to safely operate.
Elsewhere in Palermo, fire crews were tackling ablaze dangerously near to one of the biggest
hospitals. Patients were evacuated as the flames approached. Temperatures are
expected to remain high for the next 36 hours as efforts to contain their impact continue.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That report was from Emma Murphy of Independent Television News.
In Israel, the ongoing backlash over Parliament's vote to weaken
the country's Supreme Court was on full display today. Full-page ads of black ink
covered major newspapers with the message "A Black Day for Israeli Democracy." And
thousands of doctors walked off the job in protest for a 24-hour strike.
HAGAI LEVINE, Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians: Tomorrow,
and the physicians will go back to work. But I can say that thousands of them are
not going to be silent, because there is a strong feeling, including myself,
that we cannot work as physicians when Israel is no more a democratic state.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Israel's military also acknowledged today that more and
more military reservists are asking to be excused from duty as a form of protest.
Meanwhile, new violence erupted in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli army
said its troops killed three Hamas gunmen in a shoot-out near Nablus.
China today removed its foreign minister, Qin Gang, with no explanation. He's been on the
job for less than a year and was an outspoken defender of China's increasingly aggressive
foreign policy. Qin had disappeared from public view almost a month ago,
and the Chinese Foreign Ministry has issued no comment on his removal.
Russia has rejected new calls from the United Nations to reinstate the Black
Sea grain deal. Moscow pulled out of the agreement last week,
cutting off exports of food products from Ukraine. In Brussels today, European Union
officials discussed how to ship that crucial grain to nations that rely heavily on it.
LUIS PLANAS, Spanish Agriculture Minister (through translator): The decision the part
of Russia the use of food as a weapon of war is absolutely intolerable. The
consequences of the closure of the Black Sea route a few days ago pose a problem
for the output of grain from Ukraine, but also for international markets.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Separately, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog reported
that land mines have now been spotted around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Southern
Ukraine. This site has been under Russian control since shortly after the war began.
Back in this country, UPS reached a tentative deal with the Teamsters union,
likely averting a crippling strike. On any given day, the company ships about a quarter
of all packages in the U.S. If ratified, the five-year agreement will mean higher
wages for workers and air conditioning in delivery trucks, among other things.
Legacy admissions for children of university alumni are under
new scrutiny. The Education Department said today it will investigate whether
the policy at Harvard is biased in favor of whites. It's the latest fallout from
the Supreme Court decision against affirmative action in admissions.
Bronny James, the oldest son of basketball superstar LeBron James, is in stable condition
this evening in Los Angeles after suffering a cardiac arrest. The 18-year-old collapsed on
the court Monday during basketball practice. James ranks as one of the nation's top high
school point guards, and he's committed to play at the University of Southern California this fall.
The Biden administration today issued new proposals to expand insurance coverage
for mental health care. They'd require insurers to assess whether there's equal
access to mental and physical health benefits and take remedial action if
needed. The proposals are subject to public comment before being finalized.
And, on Wall Street, stocks made modest gains ahead of tomorrow's Federal Reserve action on
interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 26 points to close at
35438. The Nasdaq rose 85 points. The S&P 500 added 12.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": President Biden designates a national monument to Emmett Till;
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy discusses his run for the White House;
Steph Curry reflects on his remarkable basketball career and the new film
that documents his rise; plus much more.