News Wrap: India faces blackouts and water shortages during extreme heat wave

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• Geoff Bennett:

  Good evening. I'm Geoff Bennett.

• Amna Nawaz:

  And I'm Amna Nawaz.

  On the "NewsHour" tonight: The president and the speaker of the House meet to negotiate the debt limit, as the deadline to avoid default approaches.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Western states agree to slash the amount of water they use from the drought-stricken Colorado River.

• Amna Nawaz:

  And Oklahomans with disabilities struggle to access services because of long wait-lists and a lack of health care workers.

  David Goldfarb, The Arc of the United States: With COVID-19, we have seen a major exiting of the work force across all long-term care and health settings, and that does not appear to be coming back.

  (BREAK)

• Amna Nawaz:

  Welcome to the "NewsHour."

  President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are meeting at this hour in a high-stakes effort to reach a bipartisan spending deal and avoid an unprecedented default on the nation's debt.

• Geoff Bennett:

  The meeting comes at a critical moment. The Treasury Department says there could be just 10 days left before the government runs out of money to pay its debts.

  We will have the latest developments later in the program.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Now to more of today's headlines.

  A United Nations report offered stark new numbers on the human and economic toll of extreme weather. The World Meteorological Organization counted nearly 12,000 disasters globally between 1970 and 2021. They left more than two million people dead, with 90 percent of them in developing countries. Economic losses ran an estimated $4.3 trillion. More than a third of that cost was in the U.S.

  In India today, a heat wave that began last week left large parts of the country facing scorching temperatures again. Several states were under extreme heat alerts, with some places topping 110 degrees. Residents sought shelter from the sun and tried to stay hydrated, but water shortages and power blackouts from strain on the grid made that harder.

• Kunal Kumar, Student (through translator):

  I'm sweating a lot. My productivity is being affected because of the temperature. I don't feel like doing anything, but we will have to face this.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Forecasters say the heat will last several more days, until monsoon rains bring relief. They have been slightly delayed this year.

  Rain and cooler temperatures are providing some much-needed relief to firefighters in Alberta, Canada. More than 80 fires are burning in the province, including 23 that are still out of control. Some 10,000 residents have been forced from their homes. Meanwhile today, Montana and Colorado were under air quality alerts, as smoke from the fires drifted south.

  The U.S. Border Patrol now says an 8-year-old girl in their custody was seen by medics at least three times on the day that she died last week. Her family says the child had heart problems and sickle-cell anemia before coming down with the flu. She was unconscious by the time she was ultimately taken to the hospital. It was the second death of a migrant child in U.S. custody in two weeks.

  Tragedy struck overnight in the South American country of Guyana. At least 19 students were killed when fire swept through their dormitory. It started just before midnight at a boarding school about 200 miles south of Georgetown, the capital. The building was already engulfed in flames as firefighters arrived. The school mostly taught indigenous children between the ages of 12 and 18. The fire's cause is still under investigation.

  The European Union has handed Facebook's parent company, Meta, a fine of $1.3 billion. It's the latest move in a long-running legal battle over privacy violations. The E.U. says Meta has illegally stored information about European users, which could be easily accessed by American spy agencies. In Brussels today, regulators said they're anticipating a new court fight.

• Christian Wigand, Spokesperson, European Commission:

  We expect that we will also be challenged at some point. But the bottom line is, we are working on the basis of the safe course that the courts demanded, and we are in the process of implementing that.

• Amna Nawaz:

  The E.U. wants the social media giant to stop transferring users' personal data to the U.S. by October. Meta says it will appeal.

  And, on Wall Street, stocks mostly drifted waiting for any news on the debt ceiling talks. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 140 points to close at 33286. The Nasdaq rose nearly 63 points and the S&P 500 added a fraction of a point.

  And a passing of note. Republican lawyer C. Boyden Gray, who was White House counsel to the first President Bush, died on Sunday. Gray appeared frequently on the "NewsHour" over the years as he worked for or assisted every Republican President Trump Reagan to Trump. C. Boyden Gray was 80 years old.

  Still to come on the "NewsHour": the longest battle in Ukraine leaves the city of Bakhmut in ruins; Tamara Keith and Amy Walter break down the 2024 presidential prospects, as Senator Tim Scott enters the race; how the new "Little Mermaid" film is broadening Black representation and sparking delightful reactions; plus much more.