News Wrap: California towns digging out of debris left behind from Tropical Storm Hilary

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• Geoff Bennett:

  Good evening, and welcome to the "NewsHour."

  Tropical Storm Harold barreled through South Texas today. It's the states first tropical storm of this hurricane season to make landfall, bringing much-needed rain to drought-stricken areas.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Some of those areas could see as much as six inches of rain, along with wind gusts of up to 50 miles an hour. Thousands of homes and businesses in Corpus Christi are also without electricity.

  Meanwhile in California, crews in mountain and desert towns are still digging themselves out of mud and debris left behind from Tropical Storm Hilary.

• Geoff Bennett:

  In the day's other headlines: More than 800 people on Maui are still unaccounted for two weeks after the deadly wildfires first erupted. Teams have searched all of the single-story residences in the disaster area. They're now focusing on multistory properties, including commercial buildings. The confirmed death toll stands at 115 people.

  In Greece, authorities have recovered 18 bodies from a major blaze burning in the country's northeast. They were believed to have been migrants who crossed the border with Turkey. Hundreds of firefighters are battling infernos across Greece fueled by strong winds. One hospital had to evacuate patients to a makeshift clinic aboard a ferry boat as flames approached.

• Nikos Gioktsidis, Nurse (through interpreter):

  I have been working for 27 years, and I have never seen anything like this. It's like war conditions, really, stretchers everywhere, patients here, I.V. drips there. It was like a bomb had exploded.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Meantime, in Spain's Canary Islands, police say a wildfire in Tenerife was ignited deliberately. But they haven't made any arrests. That blaze has been raging for a week, and has burned about 50 square miles. Much of it is now under control.

  John Eastman, the conservative attorney indicted with former President Trump, surrendered today in Georgia on charges he plotted to overturn the 2020 election results. Eastman turned himself in at the Fulton County Jail. He was a close adviser to Mr. Trump leading up to January 6. Meantime, two other co-defendants, former Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark and former Georgia Republican Party chair David Shafer, filed paperwork to transfer the case to federal court.

  Donald Trump says he will surrender Thursday.

  A new U.N. report paints a grim picture of the situation in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over. It found that more than 200 former Afghan officials and security forces have been killed by the Taliban in the last two years. The U.N. documented over 800 cases of serious human rights violations. The Taliban mostly targeted members of the former army, police, and intelligence forces.

  The Fukushima nuclear power plant will start releasing treated radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean as early as Thursday. The Japanese government says it's essential so they can keep cleaning the facility. The water has been accumulating since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused nuclear meltdowns at the plant.

  An executive in charge of the release said safety is their highest priority.

• Junichi Matsumoto, TEPCO Executive (through interpreter):

  Staying on our guard, we will promptly proceed with the preparations for the release. We have decided to start by discharging small amounts in a careful manner, while checking the impact of the release on the surrounding environment.

• Geoff Bennett:

  The decision sparked protests in neighboring South Korea, where some fear the wastewater release poses a threat to the environment and safety of seafood. The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog has already approved the plan.

  And there are new concerns today about the toll the conflict in Sudan has taken on children. The group Save the Children estimates that nearly 500 children in the East African country have died from hunger since fighting started in April. That includes two dozen babies in a government-run orphanage in Khartoum. The aid group estimates that at least 31,000 children there lack treatment for malnutrition since the charity was forced to close 57 of its nutrition centers.

  And stocks were mixed on Wall Street today. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 175 points to close at 34289. The Nasdaq rose eight points. The S&P 500 slipped 12.

  Still to come on the "NewsHour": how GOP contenders might break through in tomorrow night's debate; the impact on troop readiness from one Republican senator holding up a raft of military promotions; and a new exhibit chronicling how a Massachusetts town helped shape the artist Edward Hopper.

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