GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

The federal government is edging closer this evening to a Saturday night shutdown, with still no sign of a way out.

AMNA NAWAZ: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called today for trying again on a stopgap measure with spending cuts and tougher border security.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): The House is working on passing 73 percent of all the appropriation bills for the job we are supposed to do by Thursday.

We are bringing up on Friday ability to fund the government, but at the same time secure our borders.

So, yes, we are doing our job.

AMNA NAWAZ: Hard right Republicans already refused an earlier short-term measure, and it's still unclear if they will back McCarthy's play.

GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, the Senate's Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pushed a bipartisan continuing resolution today to fund operations into November.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): We cannot have members trying last-minute delay tactics and risk a shutdown.

The C.R.

agreement the Senate has released is a good, sensible and bipartisan -- let me emphasize bipartisan -- bill.

AMNA NAWAZ: Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell also supported the resolution.

He said closing the government will achieve nothing.

GEOFF BENNETT: Seven candidates for the Republican presidential nomination hold their second debate tonight.

They will meet at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

But, as with the first debate, former President Trump won't be there.

Instead, he will be speaking to striking autoworkers and others just outside Detroit at a non-union auto supplier.

A federal judge in Washington today rejected former President Trump's request that she recuse herself from his election subversion case.

Mr. Trump had accused Judge Tanya Chutkan of making biased statements against him.

He is accused of illegally trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

Senator Bob Menendez and his wife pleaded not guilty today to federal corruption charges.

The New Jersey Democrat said nothing as he left a courthouse in New York after the arraignment.

He's accused of taking bribes of cash and gold to aid Egyptian interests and local businessmen.

More than half of all Senate Democrats are now calling for Menendez to step down.

An American soldier who fled to North Korea in July is now back in U.S. custody.

Army Private Travis King was taken to China today and transferred to American officials.

In Washington, a State Department spokesman said Sweden helped arrange King's release, but he played down any talk of a thaw in relations with North Korea.

MATTHEW MILLER, State Department Spokesman: I would not see this as the sign of some breakthrough.

I think it's a one-off.

We did not give them anything.

We made no concessions as a part of securing his return.

GEOFF BENNETT: King was flown to a U.S. military base in South Korea and was headed back to the U.S. mainland.

He had been convicted of assault before bolting across the border between the Koreas.

Now he faces military punishment for going AWOL.

The mass exodus of ethnic Armenians out of Nagorno-Karabakh is still accelerating tonight after Azerbaijan recaptured the region.

Armenian officials estimate more than 50,000 people have fled into Armenia since the weekend.

Many endured hours-long traffic jams on the road.

In Northern Iraq, authorities are investigating whether indoor fireworks caused an inferno that killed some 100 people at a wedding hall last night.

Mourners gathered today at funerals for several of the victims.

Meantime, the search for bodies continued, with a number of people still missing.

MAN (through translator): My brother and my wife are dead, but two of my daughters are missing.

We searched all of Mosul, but nothing.

We were all sitting here, and my wife went to the bathroom.

She and my brother weren't burned at all.

They suffocated, just suffocated, in the bathroom.

GEOFF BENNETT: State media reported that an arrest warrant has been issued for the wedding hall's owners.

President Biden announced a $100 million research effort today against drug-resistant bacteria.

The so-called superbugs kill more than a million people worldwide each year.

The new initiative came as the president met with science and technology advisers in San Francisco.

Data suggests the problem of drug-resistant bacteria worsened during the pandemic.

South Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia are recalling more than three million vehicles across the U.S.

They say a brake fluid leak could touch off fires in the engine compartments.

The affected models are cars and SUVs from 2010 through 2019.

Owners are advised to park outdoors until repairs are complete.

And on Wall Street, stocks struggle to find direction as investors worried about rising oil prices and interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 68 points to close at 33550.

The Nasdaq rose 29 points.

The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged.

And still to come on the "NewsHour": former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson speaks out about her time in the Trump administration; Judy Woodruff talks with a political theorist calling for sweeping changes to how the government operates; and the war in Ukraine reshapes Russian influence in Slovakia ahead of its election.