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As U.S. and China face extreme heat, climate talks restart · Apple News Today

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  Shaker Samman, Narrating: Good morning! It's Monday, July 17th. I'm Shaker Samman in for Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, a mass grave is the latest development in Sudan's brutal conflict, more fallout from the Supreme Court's affirmative action decision, and a pair of Wimbledon finals to remember.
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  But first, climate negotiations are underway between the United States and China. John Kerry, the U.S. envoy for climate, arrived in Beijing yesterday as the United States is facing a historic heatwave. On Sunday, more than 110 million people, or about a third of Americans, were under excessive heat warnings and advisories. Phoenix is on track to break its 1974 record of consecutive days of heat over 110 degrees. Death Valley, California peaked at 128 degrees over the weekend. And there's been fatal flash flooding in the Northeast.
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  Before he left for his trip, Kerry addressed this reality to a House subcommittee.
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  John Kerry: It's clear from the science and the mounting evidence around the world that one of the most existential threats that we face, that impacts every single member of Congress, every single family in our country, in the world, comes from the growing climate crisis. We're beyond just climate change, frankly. I don't refer to it as that anymore. It is only a massive crisis.
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  People in China are, of course, also dealing with severe weather. "CNN" reports that Beijing is experiencing one of the hottest summers on record. Yesterday, one part of the country hit 126 degrees. Scorching heat has strained their power supply and caused rolling blackouts. Reservoirs are drying up, crops and livestock are suffering.
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  And yet, at least some members of Congress still deny the science. Here's Republican Scott Perry questioning John Kerry last week.
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  Scott Perry: You want to have the American taxpayers, my constituents, that are having a hard time afford their groceries, pay for a car, buy a new home, spend $1.6 quadrillion to fix a problem that A, doesn't exist, and as a matter of fact, you might be exacerbating because it's unknown.
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  When Kerry told the Congressman he was wrong things got heated.
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  John Kerry: Why do you think 195 countries in the world, their prime ministers, their presidents…?
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  Scott Perry: Because they're grifting like you are, sir.
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  Kerry: [SIGHS] That's pretty shocking statement, that you believe that all the scientists in the world are grifters, honestly.
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  Perry: Not all scientists agree with you, Mr. Secretary.
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  Kerry: 98 percent of all the scientists in the world agree.
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  Perry: Science isn't about agreement.
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  [END PBS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Even though expectations aren't high for Kerry's trip, it's the first time the two countries are engaging on this issue in nearly a year. And that's a big deal. The United States and China are the world's two largest polluters.
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  This weekend marked three months since war broke out in Sudan between rival military factions. At least 3,000 people have been killed and more than three million people forced to leave their homes. Just a few days ago, the United Nations reported the discovery of a mass grave with at least 87 bodies, allegedly killed by the Rapid Support Forces. That's the paramilitary group fighting for control of the country.
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  Britain’s' "Channel 4 News" recently spoke to victims who've fled and are now living in a border town in neighboring Chad. Here's the voice of one woman who says the RSF stormed her home to recruit the men and boys. When the women tried to stop them, the militia men opened fire, killing her sister.
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  [START CHANNEL 4 NEWS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Unidentified Speaker: [SPEAKING MASALIT]
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  She says in that clip, "they shot her in the head and her wound was big as my palm. That's when they left. I held my sister until she died."
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  Another woman told the story of being separated from two of her older children in the chaos trying to flee the country. With her three younger children remaining, she walked the long way to Chad. Along the way, she described a horror show, dead bodies littered along the road.
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  The UN has condemned the violence and warned about the humanitarian challenge of delivering aid under the circumstances. The lives of an estimated 13 million children are at risk. Aid workers say it's become difficult to replenish water, food and medicine. As one high-ranking UN official put it, "We cannot work under the barrel of a gun."
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  Academic scholarships in America could receive a major overhaul. That's after the Supreme Court found it unconstitutional for colleges to consider race in the admissions process. Already, some universities, like the University of Missouri System and the University of Kentucky, are saying they'll remove race as a criteria from scholarships. And Wisconsin's conservative state house speaker tweeted about plans to ban minority grants.
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  Douglas Belkin is a higher education reporter at "The Wall Street Journal." He's watching these early moves closely to see what they might signal about the future of race-based scholarships.
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  Douglas Belkin, Narrating: The opinion does not mention academic scholarships. And this is a gray area and it's being interpreted differently. So people are watching closely to see what happens. Is Missouri and Kentucky, are they outliers? Or is this the direction that other schools will follow in foregoing race when they dole out scholarships?
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  Samman: A spokesperson from the University of Missouri says it will honor the scholarships for the upcoming school year but will discontinue them moving forward. Belkin talked to a Latina student who received 10,000 dollars last year designated for racial minorities. She's unsure how she'll pay her tuition bill over the next few years if the scholarship is discontinued.
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  Belkin: The sense is that the rug has been pulled out from them. That they applied in good faith for scholarships that were targeting certain groups and that that's no longer part of the target, and they feel, I think, betrayed and very concerned that they'll lose their scholarships.
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  And he says it's likely that more minority programs and on-campus spaces will come under fire.
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  Belkin: I think race-based scholarships is the second domino to fall in the affirmative action ruling. I think there's probably going to be more lawsuits filed challenging things like internships by corporations that are targeting specific races. I don't know how it's going to turn out, but there's going to be a lot of friction around this issue moving forward.
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  Finally, Wimbledon came to a close this weekend with a king-making performance on the men's side and a surprising finish on the women's. Novak Djokovic lost in five sets to Carlos Alcaraz who won his second Grand Slam title in less than a year. Here's the moment he sealed it.
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  [TENNIS BALL BEING HIT]
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  Announcer: Carlos Alcaraz is the special one.
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  Alcaraz is only 20 and even Djokovic is in awe. After the match, he told reporters the young Spaniard was a combination of the best parts of himself, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer. That's good company to keep. On the women's side, Marketa Vondrousova did something no one expected, not even herself. The tennis pro from the Czech Republic became the first unseeded player to win at the All-England Club, beating world number six, Ons Jabeur. Jabeur, who is from Tunisia, became a crowd favorite after starring in Netflix's tennis documentary series "Break Point," and has been on the precipice multiple times now of becoming the first woman of Arab decent, and first woman from Africa, to win a major. Here's what she said after the match.
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  Ons Jabeur: This is very, very tough and I am going to look ugly in the photos so it's not going to help. [PANTS] I think this is most painful loss of my career. [INHALES SHAKILY] So…
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  [CROWD CHEERING]
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  [END TWITTER ARCHIVAL CLIP]
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  Vondrousova's win shows that the field is wide-open right now in women's tennis. She's the 14th woman to win a major tournament since Serena Williams won the 2017 Australian Open.
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  You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're listening in the News app right now, "Bloomberg Businessweek" takes a look at what the Barbie movie release might mean for Mattel's future. That's queued up to play next. And we'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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