Morning News Roundup (26 July)

• Gripped by a 10th straight day of 100-degree heat, California sweated out the possibility of more blackouts yesterday as the number of suspected heat-related deaths climbed to at least 56 and the rotting carcasses of thousands of dairy cows and other livestock baked in the sun. [BoGlobe] (Ed. note: Yeah, it was hot down in San Diego, and damn humid, too. Mrs. F and I are quite happy to be back home in the Pacific Northwest... where it's only in the low 80s.)
  
  
• As the fighting and bombing intensified in Israel and Lebanon Wednesday, a high-level international meeting in Rome failed to agree on the timing or terms of a cease-fire or on a mandate for a proposed multi-national military force to act as a buffer between the warring parties.
  
  While the 18 nations agreed on the need to mount a humanitarian relief operation, there was open conflict between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan over Syria and Iran. While Annan invited Syria and Iran to participate in formulating a long-term regional political settlement, Rice continued to denounce both countries for contributing to the violence and instability in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East. [WaPo]
  
  
• The United States has given Israeli forces between 10 and 14 days to finish dealing Hezbollah "a strategic blow," a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official told FOX News. He continued to say that the U.S., European nations and moderate Arab nations that Israel is "doing the dirty job" for everyone in its attacks on Hezbollah.
  
  
• Over the last week, Turkey has lost 15 soldiers in cross border attacks from Kurdish separatists operating from inside Iraq. Pressure for retaliation is growing inside Turkey. But President Bush is asking for them to hold off on acting. [Talking Points Memo]
  
  
• During a somber visit with Iraqi PM Maliki at the White House yesterday, Bush announces that more US troops will be shifted to Baghdad to help quell the "terrible" violence in the capital. That means moving some troops from Anbar Province, a key battlefield in the insurgency. [Foreign Policy's Passport]
  
  
• According to a new Harris Poll, 50 percent of Americans now believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction at the time of the U.S. invasion. That's a sharp and rather inexplicable increase from February 2005, when just 36 percent of the public held on to that belief. Ready for more? Sixty-four percent of the public still thinks that Saddam Hussein had strong links to al-Qaida.
  
  Before you throw up your hands in desperation, perhaps there's some comfort to be had in this: According to a recent Fox News poll, Americans for the first time now trust Democrats more than Republicans when it comes to dealing with Iraq. [Salon's War Room]
  
  
• Texas has passed California as the US's largest producer of wind energy, according to a midyear report released Tuesday by the American Wind Energy Association. Texas capacity stands at 2,370 megawatts, which is enough to power 600,000 average-sized homes a year, after adding 375 megawatts in the first half of this year. That puts Texas slightly ahead of California, the nation's leader since 1981; currently, California has 2,323 megawatts of capacity. [Treehugger]
  
  
• And finally... An Inconvenient Truth can definitely make an impact. Check out this diary over at Daily Kos about how the movie affected diarist wclathe's step-father.