reform. >> we want as our first priority economies to develop value and to create jobs. and this is my constant obsession. how are we going to create jobs in europe. the first priority is a bit of >> lehrer: jeffrey brown gets a rare view from inside the failed state of somalia, from jeffrey gettleman of the "new york times." >> ifill: and spencer michels unveils the soon-to-be-published life story of a literary giant. >> mark twain decreed that his autobiography couldn't be published until 100 years after his death. that's this year. >> lehrer: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: nursing homes were evacuated, transit slowed and millions sought relief today as intense hot weather continued to grip the east coast. heat records were shattered all along the east coast this week, as early summer readings headed into the triple digits. the hottest spot of all-- baltimore, where the temperature topped out at 105 degrees yesterday. the national weather service issued warnings for a searing swath of real estate stretching from the carolinas to new england and points west through kentucky and into illinois. a full quarter the nation's population was sweating it out. the sudden swelter was remarkable. just five months ago washington d.c. was digging out of nearly three feet of snow. but this week, tourists wandering the nation's capitol braved a blistering national mall. >> this heat is insane. tremendously unbearable >> ifill: nearby, karen dale was looking to cool off. >> it's excruciatingly hot out here and about all i want to do is keep cool; i'm looking for the nearest pool, but i'll take a sprinkler at any time. >> ifill: in philadelphia, as elsewhere, the hottest kinds of work still had to be done. for saheed dillard, it was laying asphalt. >> it feels like you're sitting on a griddle and i am the hamburger or the hotdog. >> ifill: and in broiling boston, one dockside fisherman said the fish couldn't care less about the heat. >> it doesn't make a difference, really. it just depends on when they feel like coming in. >> ifill: even in normally-cool portland, maine, air conditioners were sold out. >> we've had calls all day. we've had to say "no, i'm sorry, we're going to get some more at the end of the week." but, you know. >> ifill: the demand for cool taxed power grids. utilities said they could handle the load, but there were scattered outages in several cities. 42,000 customers lost power in new jersey, new york and connecticut. for those who lost their air conditioning-- and those who never had it-- there were "cooling centers": 100 in new york city alone. >> i have a studio with no air conditioners, so it is really necessary to be here on a hot day like today. >> ifill: the heat also took its toll on transportation-- buckling roadways in places, and it led washington's metro rail system, and others, to slow down. baked rails were in danger of bending under the pressure of fast moving trains. health officials also issued alerts with small children and the elderly especially vulnerable. >> it's a combination of the high temperature and the high humidity that really causes the patients to have problems handling the heat. light headedness, headache, nausea and those are the first symptoms of heat exhaustion. >> ifill: the weather was fit for neither man nor beast. princess, the pitbull, was saved from heat stroke in a philadelphia animal e.r. >> signs of distress would be any evidence of labored breathing, disorientation, if they seem lethargic, if you feel that they feel extremely hot to you, if they're panting a great deal. >> ifill: of course, for some it was all a matter of perspective including this military veteran in new york city. >> i just got back from iraq. this is, like, nothing. >> ifill: forecasts called for temperatures to continue in the low 90's through the weekend. >> lehrer: still to come on the "newshour": the republican divide; the french finance minister; an update on somalia and mark twain's autobiography. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. >> sreenivasan: wall street had its best day in more than month. it was driven partly by bargain- hunting, and partly by an upbeat forecast on financial stocks. the dow jones industrial average gained more than 274 points to close back above 10,000. the nasdaq rose more than 65 points to close at 2,159. cleanup workers struggled again today to keep up with the oil spill in the gulf of mexico. much of the focus was well inland, near new orleans, where oil appeared on monday. by today, crews had collected 1,700 pounds of tarballs and other oily waste from lake pontchartrain, north of new orleans. the city's recreational backyard sprang back to life in the 1990's after decades of pollution. now, it's threatened again, as the gulf spill creeps past protective barges. >> it gets on your fingers; you wash it and wash it. it just smears and smears. >> sreenivasan: down the coast, in alabama, more tar balls, and brownish foam stained beaches like this one. and out on the gulf, choppy seas kept most skimming boats off the water for another day. the effort has largely been sidelined since a hurricane roiled the gulf last week and smaller weather systems followed on its heels. the weather also delayed a large new ship that could siphon more of the oil from the well site. it is now expected to be operational in the next three days. in the meantime, the associated press reported the gulf of mexico has more than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells. the report said no one is checking to see if those sites are leaking. the wells are sealed with cement, but geophysicist roger anderson-- at columbia university-- said that is no guarantee. >> well, the plugs, the big question is how long does cement last and to take for it oxidize. we don't actually know that even for our buildings, our skyscrapers that have a significant amount of cement in them. we don't know how long they'll last. >> sreenivasan: ironically, b.p. was injecting cement to seal the well under its "deepwater horizon" platform, when it burst on april 20. it has been gushing ever since, and may not be plugged for another month. those russians accused of spying in the u.s. may be heading home in a prisoner swap. it was widely reported today that an exchange is in the works. five of the russian suspects were being moved from virginia and boston, to new york. the other five suspects are already there. they could be traded for several people convicted in russia of passing secrets to the u.s. more than 50 iraqis were killed in attacks across baghdad today. 32 of them died in a suicide bombing. the victims were shi-ite pilgrims crossing a bridge to a shrine to commemorate a shi-ite saint. the attack came despite tight security. the u.s. toll in afghanistan rose again today as three more troops died in a roadside bombing in the south. that made 10 americans killed so far in july. also today, an airstrike mistakenly killed five afghan soldiers in the east. the afghan ministry of defense-- m.o.d.-- complained, and the international security assistance force-- i-saf--said a joint investigation was underway. >> ( translated ): we have started investigating the incident since this morning, we also condemn this action. unfortunately this is not the first time, it has happened many times, but we hope this will be the last time. >> we were obviously not absolutely clear whether there is afghan national security forces in the area, but this is as i said right now subject to a very detailed investigation jointly between the m.o.d. ministry of defence and isaf and i do clearly regret what has happened. >> sreenivasan: in another development, britain announced plans to pull back from a volatile part of southern afghanistan. 1,000 british troops will leave the sangin valley in helmand province. 99 britons have died there since 2001. u.s. marines will take their place, starting in october. a federal indictment in brooklyn alleges that al-qaeda was directly involved in last year's failed plot to bomb the subways in new york city. it named several al-qaeda figures, including adnan shukrijumah. he's on the f.b.i.'s list of most-wanted terror suspects. and the man who was osama bin laden's cook pleaded guilty today at a war crimes tribunal at guantanamo. in the plea deal, ibrahim al qosi admitted helping bin laden escape u.s. forces in afghanistan. al-qosi has been at guantanamo for eight years. the former dictator of panama -- manuel noriega -- now faces seven years in a french prison. he was convicted and sentenced today in paris, for drug money laundering in the 1980s. the court also seized nearly $3 million from his frozen assets. noriega was deposed by a u.s. invasion of panama in 1989. after that, he spent two decades in a u.s. prison. an experimental plane took to the air today over switzerland in a bid to fly 24 hours on solar power alone. the "solar impulse" has a wingspan of 207 feet -- similar to the size of a large airliner. solar cells on the wings are designed to capture enough power to let the plane fly through the night. the goal is to prove a similar plane can one day circle the globe relying solely on the sun's energy. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jim... >> lehrer: there is much energy within the republican party's conservative movement, in this 2010 election year. judy woodruff reports on the genuine debate that lies behind it. >> reporter: from john mccain's coming primary challenge in arizona, and charlie crist's departure from the g.o.p. in florida. to rand paul's defeat of the republican establishment's candidate in kentucky, and sharron angle's come from behind victory in nevada. there are signs of conservative life across the land. but the new muscle from the right, has crushed a few of the g.o.p.'s own, and has ignited an argument inside the party. to many who follow washington, the two republican senators from utah and south carolina may seem like peas in a pod: both long time loyal party members, both conservative. >> the economy is in serious trouble! >> let's not spend all this money unless we know what we are doing! >> reporter: but it doesn't take much of a look beneath the surface to discover differences between utah's bob bennett and south carolina's jim demint in their view of their roles in the senate, and of some of the main issues facing the country. they illustrate as well as anything else the philosophical divide inside the republican party, and the fight being waged for the direction it will take in this year's elections, and beyond. bennett was elected in 1992 from the most republican state in the country. he's also been an important adviser to senate republican leader, mitch mcconnell. but in recent years, he has also worked across the aisle with democrats on a couple of big issues. an effort in the financial crisis of 2008, to craft bank rescue legislation. and a year earlier, to reform employer-based health care with oregon democratic senator ron wyden. >> bennett walked across the center aisle or the united states senate and said, "let's go to it." i like your idea of trying to get everybody covered. bob bennett is one of those special people in american politics who continues to believe that we ought to have ideas-driven government. >> reporter: on may 8, utah republicans let bennett know what they thought of his efforts at bipartisanship. he was defeated in his try for a fourth term at the state g.o.p. convention by activists who yelled, among other things, that he didn't love the constitution enough. >> the anger about what's going on in washington was simply too powerful to overcome. i am obviously not angry enough. one of the complaints about me was, "we don't see you on c.n.n. we don't see you on fox screaming. we don't see you shouting and fighting loud enough. you're sitting back there talking to these people and we don't want that. we want somebody really up there fighting." and, that's not my style. >> reporter: but fellow republican jim demint of south carolina, who is up for re- election himself this year, sees the utah outcome differently: he says voters want government's main focus now to be to stop spending and borrowing, and what he calls the government takeover of the private sector. he says voters are looking for candidates who agree with that. >> when bob bennett, who everyone said was a conservative republican lost-- it wasn't that he lost to someone who was further to the right: he lost to someone who talking about constitutional limited government. i think the fear of voters is starting to have an impact here, with republicans and democrats. >> reporter: bennett, on the other hand, says the voter anger that defeated him is not a recipe for solving the country's problems. >> the concern i have about the anger we're seeing that's being fed by talk show hosts and others is that it will be like a wave that comes in and smashes on the beach and destroys everything there and then recedes back into the ocean and leaves nothing behind it but empty sand. >> reporter: demint believes the clamor against government over- reach-- articulated by the tea party groups-- is so powerful that both parties ignore it at their peril. >> we have to cut spending. we have to keep taxes reasonably low. we can't keep adding to the deficit. and i think if these folks come up here and don't do that, i think you'll see them tossed out the next time. and i think you'll see a rebellion back home. >> reporter: bennett sees the tea party and other conservative citizens groups as demanding more than he is prepared to do. >> i found that a good many of the delegates simply wouldn't talk to me. they were so angry, so determined to quote, "send washington a message," closed quote-- that coming to one of my events to hear what i had to say on any of these things was something they simply would not do. and many of them who did come, they would hold up their copy of the constitution, and they would say, "if it's not in the constitution you shouldn't do it, and senator bennett you have been unfaithful to your oath." i got that a lot. we want to dismantle everything. and, well, i'm not quite ready to go that far in my conservative views. >> reporter: demint is far more complimentary of the tea party agenda. he confirms he is considering endorsing additional challengers to republican incumbents, as he did in florida's senate race. demint says what concerns voters has less to do with republican or democratic labels and more to do with rising debt and deficits. >> it's more of a common sense philosophy, more of a balance sheet philosophy than it is partisan politics at this point. it's not right-left. i don't think those labels are going to work any more. there's nothing right or left about balancing the budget within your means. or not bankrupting our country. i mean, you can't put republican or democrat on that. i think if republicans don't get the message after this election, i think it'll be an earthquake election. i think if we see the candidates, that kind of the party leaders endorsed, did not make it through, that these other candidates they said could not win, in p.a., and florida and kentucky. when they win-- and if we don't get the message then, then i think it's going to require even more aggressive changes. >> reporter: bob bennett says he agrees the obama administration has over-reached in spending and health care. >> my biggest concern is that we are not addressing the real issues. i think politics is divided between the great issues and the great diversions. and we're spending all of the time arguing about the great diversions. we're in a global world. we have a different kind of economy. then, demographics-- our country is getting older. the percentage of people in the working force is shrinking. then, when you add to all of that the entitlement programs-- social security, medicare and medicaid-- you end up with a financial brew. well, i'm mixing methaphors here -- you end up with a financial circumstance that is unsustainable. and that's what we should be focusing on and not arguing about all of the specific mistakes that president obama is making. every administration makes specific mistakes that are fun to argue about, but here are the big issues going ignored. >> reporter: oregon senator ron wyden, bennett's partner in a failed bipartisan attempt to reform health care, argues members of the two parties have to work together or voters will punish them. >> those who come to washington in january of 2011 and say, "i'm only going to oppose the other side; i'm only going to work to undermine what they'd like to do," i think voters will make it very clear that that's not acceptable either. they want solutions. >> reporter: republican jim demint disagrees. >> it is very difficult to work with the democrats because they're not working for the good of the country. and the republicans have been partially guilty of that in some ways, but not nearly to the degree. i think this idea of "we've got to work together," does not work any more. >> reporter: bob bennett has an opposite take. >> we need to be very careful, we republicans. obviously, this sense of anger works to our benefit, because if we're going to throw out all of the incumbents and the democrats control both houses, well, there are going to be more democrats to be thrown out. but we must recognize that anger is not a sound strategy for governing. once you are in office, you have to have some solutions. and if we republicans don't have some solutions, and we just expect anger to keep us in office after we've won gains in 2010, we'll pay a serious price in 2012. >> reporter: demint argues the members the voters will reject will be the ones who don't stand up for principle, and who go along with the other side for more spending. >> supposedly, after we all pledge to a limited government, we can work together and debate how to do that. but the democrats have completely forgotten that oath, and so have some republicans. i hope those republicans are sent home. and i hope we get some people up here who take their oath of office seriously. >> reporter: with a small but growing number of conservative victories over the past few months, including one who will take bob bennett's senate seat in utah, congress may be closer to a showdown over these competing visions. >> lehrer: and here with a p.s. to that report is the newest member of our newshour team... political editor david political editor david chalian. who joined us from abc news... he'll be in charge of our political coverage here on the broadcast as well as on-line... welcome, david... welcome to the family, david. >> thank you very much for having me, glad to be here. >> lehrer: just following up here on judy's report, first of all, michael steele, the chairman of the republican party's problems, into this, or does it fit? >> well, it fits in this way. michael steele's, other than raising money, michael steele's mission one is to for the last year now to harness this energy in the tea party movement, the conservative wing of the party, without days feking the folks in the middle that you need to win in order to become a majority party. but you just alluded to the controversies, michael steele's problem is he can't get out of his own way. and the latest controversy about his remarks on the afghanistan war and the fact that he took a position that is not like any republican,