News Wrap: Hungary arrests migrants under new laws

GWEN IFILL:

The many thousands on a desperate journey into Europe's heartland hit the wall today, literally. A barrier fence sealed off the length of Hungary's southern frontier, the main land route for the migrants.

James Mates of Independent Television News reports from the scene.

JAMES MATES:

"Open, open," they cry, 2,000 or more refugees pressing against Hungary's newly fortified border with its southern neighbor, Serbia.

There has been a human river flowing northward for weeks. This is what happens when you try to top stop that flow. The crowd have been growing since early morning as the first arrivals confronted the new three-meter high razor wire fence, one obstacle too many in their bid to get to Germany. Instead, they must walk along it to an official transit center built from shipping containers.

The thousands walking this trail can enter Hungary through this door and this door alone, and the wait will be interminable. They have traveled hundreds of miles to get here. They find this quite literally the door into the E.U. And it's shut. So, they waited, in a field, in the blazing sun all day.

A former prime minister of Hungary came to look.

MAN:

It's terrible, what we are seeing here. It's terrible.

JAMES MATES:

He was disgusted by what his successor was doing. Mohammed al-Mahaney from Damascus, spotting a senior Hungarian, asked for her to find his wife, who crossed the border without him. Mohammed now admits, if he had known what was waiting for him, he might never have left Syria.

MAN:

Hopefully. Look at this.

JAMES MATES:

Is this what you expected?

MAN:

Of course not. This is because I tried to be legal. This is only because I tried to be legal. They want us to be illegal? This fence will not help them.

JAMES MATES:

Patience quickly ran out. Demanding the right to go to Germany, they sat in the middle of a main motorway between Hungary and Serbia. If they weren't going to cross the border, nor was anyone else.

Women brought tiny babies up to the austere metal fence, pleading to be let through. Instead, the bolts were tightened. Nervous policemen gripped their cans of tear gas in case there was to be an assault.

GWEN IFILL:

It is a standoff. The Serbians want this border open to relieve the pressure they're under. Many others in Europe believe this is not how refugees should be treated. But Hungary has made this central to their policy and seem unlikely to back down. Hungary also began enforcing new laws, arresting 174 people for trying to cross illegally. In response, Serbia started bussing migrants toward Croatia, which also has a border with Hungary. But the Hungarians defended their actions.

ZOLTAN KOVACS, Hungarian Government Spokesman:

The freedom of movement, the freedom of settlement, the freedom of the flow of goods is being endangered by the very fact that illegal migrants will come, will try to come at will through the green borders. And that is not going to stop if Hungary is not stopping them.

GWEN IFILL:

In Washington, President Obama met with the king of Spain and expressed new concern about the crisis in Europe.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:

We agreed that this is going to require cooperation with all the European countries and the United States and the international community in order to ensure that people are safe, that they are treated with shared humanity, and that we ultimately have to deal with the source of the problem, which is the ongoing crisis in Syria. GWEN IFILL: There were new casualties today among the thousands of Syrians trying to make the journey. We will have a report on that front in the crisis after the news summary.

Losses mounted today from the firestorm that swept part of Northern California over the weekend. Officials gained access to more burned-out areas about 100 miles north of San Francisco, not far from Napa Valley.

Overnight, the count of homes consumed by the Valley Fire surged to 585, a number that could rise even higher as the big blaze keeps burning. At least 9,000 more homes are in its path. The massive fire has engulfed 104 square miles across three counties. In hard-hit Middletown, the newly homeless are trying to absorb the enormity of their losses.

MAN:

My house burnt up in probably about 30 minutes. I lived on Hoberg South, which is basically where the fire originated from. And we were at a soccer game, got home a little after 2:00 p.m. Our house was gone by 3:00 and we really don't have anything left.

GWEN IFILL:

For those families, donated clothing and food are on hand at an evacuation center at the Napa County Fairgrounds. Many of the evacuees still don't know if their homes and belongings even survived.

MAN:

I know everybody wants to know, what — what happens? When do we get to go home? It's not an easy question. You get to go home when it's safe.

GWEN IFILL:

Others are just trying to maintain hope, in the face of the devastation.

MAN:

I'm not going to be defined by things like this, you know? It's — you have a choice of how you handle things in life, and I think this is the way I want to handle it, positive. We will move forward. We will get through this.

GWEN IFILL:

Nearly 2,400 firefighters are battling the Valley Fire. By this morning, it was only 15 percent contained.

One person died in the Valley Fire: an elderly woman whose body was found in the gutted remains of her home.

Another major wildfire has burned nearly 200 homes and outbuildings southeast of Sacramento. It's now about one-third contained.

A small town in Utah is in mourning tonight after flash floods killed 12 people Monday evening. One other was missing. Authorities said a wall of water smashed into Hildale, just above the border with Arizona. An SUV and a van carrying women and children were washed miles downstream by the torrent triggered by a heavy rainfall in a canyon above the town. Flood warnings remained in force today, with more storms in the forecast.

In North Korea, state media announced the communist nation's nuclear fuel plants have been upgraded and restarted. That includes the main plutonium enrichment site at Yongbyon. Upgrades there could let the North build new, more sophisticated nuclear warheads.

Russian President Vladimir Putin today strongly defended Moscow's military aid to the government of Syria. He said such intervention is needed to defeat the Islamic State group. Putin spoke in Tajikistan at a meeting of ex-Soviet nations, and he urged other countries to follow Russia's example.

PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russia (through interpreter):

I would like to say that we are supporting the government of Syria in the fight against terrorist aggression, and will continue to offer military technical assistance. It's clear that without an active participation of the Syrian authorities and the military, it would be impossible to expel the terrorists from that country and the region as a whole.

GWEN IFILL:

Putin rejected allegations that Russian support has sparked the flow of refugees out of Syria. He said the situation would be even worse if Moscow had not stepped in.

Desperate officials in Malaysia turned to cloud-seeding today to battle a smoky haze that's blanketed swathes of Southeast Asia. Planes will spew chemicals into the air to promote rainfall and clear the air. The haze is coming from illegal fires set in neighboring Indonesia to clear land. It's so bad, and dangerous to breathe, that schools across three states in Malaysia had to close today.

Back in this country, Hewlett-Packard announced up to 30,000 jobs will be cut when it spins off its software, consulting, and data analysis business. H.P. already shed thousands of workers in recent years amid falling demand for its personal computers and printers.

And Wall Street shot higher, as weaker economic data raised hopes that the Federal Reserve might delay raising interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average gained nearly 230 points to close at 16600. The Nasdaq rose 54 points and the S&P 500 added 25.