Today has been the hottest day ever recorded in Britain. The country
baked under superheated air that sparked fires, buckled train tracks
and touched off a torrent of emergency calls. As Stephanie reports.
It's part of a wider weather emergency that's lasted for days.
Scorching heat wave continues to engulf Europe, smashing high temperature
records in the UK Tuesday, the mercury hit 104.5 degrees, beating
a record set in 2019. As the heat wave moved north to Germany. Residents
sought ways to stay cool
up until the early afternoon. The pool is quite pleasant, especially
with small kids. But once it gets too hot, we're going home.
But most homes in Europe don't have air conditioning, which makes
the heat more dangerous. Officials have tallied more than 1000 heat
related deaths so far in Portugal alone.
Another danger. Fire flames from a grass fire consumed homes in a
suburb of London.
In France. 39,000 people have been forced to evacuate as firefighters
struggled to put out wildfires and shifting winds.
In Spain. Wildfires have spread frighteningly close to railways.
This video was captured by a passenger.
Europe has been experiencing more excessive heat waves in recent
years, evidence, experts say of climate change.
The high temperatures are coupled with the lack of water. The Rhine
River, a key artery for shipping in Europe, is at its lowest level.
In 15 years. In Italy, the dry heat has turned swamps and marshes
into hard cracked land.
Um, officials say these unprecedented temperatures should be a wake
up call for government action in the future. This kind of heat waves
are going to be, uh, normal and and be able to see even stronger
extremes.
For now, Forecasters say the heat will only continue to get worse,
possibly not subsiding until the middle of next week.
For the PBS news hour. I'm Stephanie Sigh.
High heat also kept much of the US broiling Today, Heat alerts will
affect nearly one third of the nation's population through tomorrow.
In Ukraine, Russian forces kept up a fearsome barrage targeting cities
in the south and east and killing scores of civilians. The attacks
came as Moscow declared that peace would come only on its terms.
In the ports city of Odessa. Firefighters scrambled to douse flames
ignited by shelling overnight, Ukrainian officials said. Russia's
long distance assault has escalated as its ground campaign has stalled.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Iran amid
US warnings he wants to buy military drones to use in Ukraine. Putin
met with Iran's president and its supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei,
State TV quoted Khamenei as warning against quote Western deception.
Putin met separately with Turkey's president Erdogan, also in Tehran.
On the pandemic. The World Health Organization is out with a new
warning about super infectious sub variants, The agency says Cases
in Europe have tripled in the past six weeks and hospitalization
rates have doubled in Belgium today, the W. H O s European director
said the new outbreaks will get worse in the fall and winter.
Div. Iris has never gone away. People sometimes ask is the virus
back has never gone away. It's still there. It's spreading. It is
mutating, and unfortunately, it's still taking a lot of lives. Last
week alone in over region City, thousands people sadly passed away.
Also today, a CDC panel recommended approving a covid 19 vaccine
from Nova Vax for everyone over the age of 18. This would be the
fourth vaccine approved for use in the United States. A federal jury
in Washington heard opening statements today in Steve Bannon's trial
for contempt of Congress prosecutor said the former Trump advisor
decided he was above the law when he defied a subpoena by the January
6th committee.
The defense said Bannon believed the committee's deadlines were negotiable.
He has pleaded innocent to two misdemeanor counts. The National Archives
is asking the Secret Service to investigate a parent deletions of
January 6th text messages, The missing text could help fill in gaps
and secret service accounts. The agency has denied any malicious
intent. It says the data was lost during the long planned update
of mobile devices.
The U. S. House of Representatives today approved federal protections
for same sex and interracial marriages. Democrats argued that the
Supreme Court after rolling back abortion rights may be willing to
go further. But Republicans dismiss that fear the debate largely
focused on whether any legislative action is needed.
Today.
The Democrat. Bring forward a bill that is completely unnecessary.
Why are the Democrats going down this path?
Because, frankly, they have nothing else to Mr Jordan's suggestion
that this is not necessary.
Tell it to the millions of LGBTQ families that are worried about
the Supreme Court's intentional whip, rip away more freedom.
The House plans to vote later this week on safeguarding access to
contraception. All of the bills face uncertain prospects in the evenly
divided Senate and on Wall Street. Upbeat corporate earnings reports
boosted stocks to their best day in three weeks with leading index
is up 2 to 3%
Jones Industrial Average gained 754 points to close at
8 31,027.
The NASDAQ jumped 353 points and the S and P. 500 was up one. Oh,
five Still to come on the news hour. The Biden ministrations faces
criticism for not advocating more for human rights abroad.
A new book chronicles the US war against Isis, with some surprising
new details.
A new program aims to build a more inclusive future in the male dominated
world of jazz, plus much more.
This is the PBS news hour from W. E to studios in Washington and
in the West from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona