Also in the day's headlines: Ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been sentenced to death in absentia for war crimes during the country's brutal civil war that left roughly half-a-million people dead.

The capital sentences read aloud on state TV were the first against Assad and his inner circle since a rebel uprising toppled his government nearly two years ago.

Assad and his younger brother, who was also sentenced to death, fled to Russia in 2024, where they were granted political asylum.

In Yemen, authorities say at least six people were killed when Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired ballistic missiles on a vessel in the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

The Houthis also claimed to have fired on a Saudi ship in the same waterway.

The strikes followed days of Houthi attacks on land and on ports that have killed dozens of Yemeni government forces and civilians.

They threaten to reignite a civil war that's been under a four-year tentative truce.

Meantime, U.S.

forces fired upon and disabled a Panamanian-flagged ship in the Gulf of Oman today.

U.S.

Central Command said the vessel tried to pass through the American blockade of Iranian ports.

Over 100 firefighters from Mexico have arrived in Canada to help battle a deadly blaze in British Colombia that's forced over 20,000 people to flee their homes.

Eyewitness video shows hillsides in Western Canada completely engulfed in flames.

The Bald Range Fire has consumed over 60 square miles.

At least one person has died.

Local authorities say firefighting crews have faced challenging steep terrain and windy conditions, and a criminal investigation has been opened into the cause of the fire.

Meantime, wildfire smoke is once again reducing air quality across much of the Western U.S.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo says the Ebola outbreak there has now killed more than 2,000 people.

More than 4,000 cases of the disease have been confirmed in the DRC.

And it's taken just three weeks for the death toll to double, making it the fastest growing outbreak on record.

Efforts to detect and contain the disease have been hampered by armed conflict, poor infrastructure, and distrust of health authorities.

There is no current treatment or vaccine for this strain of Ebola, but clinical trials have started in Eastern Congo to try and develop one.

On Wall Street today, stocks slipped even further from their recent all-time highs.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 184 points.

The Nasdaq fell by more than half-a-percent.

The S&P 500 posted another modest drop.

And sky-gazers in many countries, including this one, are about to get a double dose of celestial events.

Both a solar eclipse and the Perseid meteor shower will be visible across the sky tomorrow.

From the Arctic Circle to Southern Europe, countries like Greenland, Russia, and Spain will see a total solar eclipse when the sun, moon, and Earth align perfectly in the sky; 26 states here in the U.S.

and Washington, D.C., will be treated to a partial eclipse seen from Alaska to North Carolina.

As for the Perseids, they will be best viewed after midnight across much of Northern -- the Northern Hemisphere.

NASA says as many as 50 to 100 meteors could be seen each hour under ideal conditions.

Well, still to come on the "News Hour": we speak with a top adviser to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, as the war with the U.S.

continues; a look at the National Guard's controversial deployment to Washington, D.C., one year in; and credit card delinquencies rise in the U.S., as higher interest rates make it harder to pay off debt.