now it is time to do my time. just 30% say that they approve of president biden s handling of the economy. the president trying to salvage his domestic agenda or what is left of it. it is tuesday, july 19, 9:00 a.m. here in london, 4:00 a.m. on the u.s. east coast. and we begin with the u.n. chief warning that half of humanity is in the, quote, danger zone for extreme weather as heatwaves strike across the northern hemisphere. in the u.s., then tens of millions of people are under heat alerts. and highs above 90 degrees fahrenheit the next week, that is more than 32 degrees celsius. oklahoma and texas are getting the worst of it with excessive heat warnings in major cities like dallas where highs could reach a staggering 110 degrees fahrenheit. the organization in charge of the texas power grid has already recorded 30 days of record demanding since early may. and there are fires including this one in central texas which is forcing evacuations and consuming homes. the w
texas power grid operator to warn people to cut back on the ac or face possible blackouts. extreme heat also roasting southern europe with wildfires raging in france and spain and a worsening drought in italy and portugal. and in the uk, monday was the third hottest day on record and today promises to be even hotter. even china is experiencing a massive heatwave with dozens of cities announcing heat alerts. we have live reports from north america, asia and europe and our coverage begins with melissa bell in france. reporter: southern europe in flames. vast swathes of the mediterranean engulfed by wildfires driven by the sweltering temperatures of europe s second heatwave this summer. from portugal through spain, italy and france, where one of two massive fires near the city ten to rage and spread. down here on the ground, you get a real sense of what the firefighters are facing. these parched conditions, the earth already dry for so many months of high temperatures and hose
reporter: the federal reserve just made history announcing that they re raising interest rates by 3/4 of a percentage point for the second meeting in a row. we haven t seen anything like that in back to back meetings in modern fed history, but we re not in nor times. we re dealing with the worst inflation inflation prices in 40 years. inflation remains elevated due in part to russia s invasion of ukraine and very high food and energy prices. so the fed is stepping in and acting like the firefighter. they re trying to put this inflation fire out. the goal here is to raise borrowing costs and try to cool off red hot demand, and that should hopefully allow supply a chance to catch up. but you know, officials also signaled that they re not nearly done with rate hikes. they said it would, quote, will be appropriate to continue raising interest rates. and here s the problem. they re raising rates into an economy that is already showing cracks here. in the new statement today, the
pretended to be shot. our current wait time for a doctor, seven and a half hours. telling it like it is the reality for patients at an essex a&e department and a new report that calls for better nhs leadership to tackle its problems. the commonwealth games in birmingham, the showcase sporting event of the summer, but organisers are still trying to recruit thousands of workers. and coming up on the bbc news channel. wales are back in action after the high of reaching a first world cup in 64 years. they take on netherlands in the nations league tonight. good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. it s the prefect travel storm. the next few weeks are likely to see anyone on the move facing misery whether they re on the roads, planning a railwayjourney, or hoping to get away by air. the price of petrol saw its biggest dailyjump in 17 years yesterday straining family budgets even more than they are already. on the railways the rmt union is planning a walk out of thousands o
railways. we start with the war in ukraine, and russia is denying that its invasion has caused a global food crisis, despite the fact that we ve seen soaring wheat prices driven by the collapse of ukrainian exports. its foreign minister, sergey lavrov, is in the turkish capital, ankara, for talks with his turkish counterpart mevlut cavusoglu. on the agenda creating a potential sea corridor for ukrainian agricultural exports. throughout the war, russia has been blockading black sea ports, including odesa. 20 million tonnes of grain is now stuck there grain many countries are reliant on. but mr lavrov says the onus is on ukraine to demine the waters around them, which were laid by ukraine as part of its defence. here s mr lavrov. to resolve this problem, we need one thing for the ukrainians to allow access to their ports, either by demining or the provision of safe corridors. nothing more is required. ukraine wants proper assurances that any safe, demined pathway wouldn t