on the broadcast tonight, deadly attacks. a bomb in a downtown building, a gunman on a rampage at a youth camp. there are dead and wounded tonight in two attacks that have stunned a place known for peace. who is responsible? and record heat. the dangerous, oppressive heat wave spreading across the u.s. gets even worse. when will it get better? we're covering both breaking news stories tonight. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. brian is off tonight. i'm lester holt. we're working several developing stories tonight.

there is late word of an apparent collapse of talks over the debt ceiling between the president and republican house leaders. we're also tracking that blistering heat wave setting records and causing troubles up and down the east coast. and we'll get more on those stories in a moment. but we start with what happened in the peaceful nation of norway today. stunning news, a country reeling tonight from two vicious and deadly attacks that have left at least 17 people dead, many feared to be teenagers at a summer youth camp. it started in a norwegian capital of oslo when at least one bomb tore through the prime minister's office building, blowing out windows and killing at least seven people. later, in what police believe was a related attack, a lone gunman opened fire at a summer camp for teens on an island 25 miles outside oslo, killing many more. the attacks have touched off wide ranging speculation about the motive and who may be responsible. nbc's martin fletcher is monitoring developments for us from our london bureau tonight.

martin, what's the latest? >> lester, norway's prime minister called for calm and unity in this difficult time. norway, of course, known as a small, peaceful country. that was shattered today in the hardest way. it is the worst attack on norway since world war ii. 3:30 in the heart of the capital, a massive bomb blast outside the prime minister's office. at least seven dead, 100 wounded. debris over half a mile away. across the street, the oil ministry was in flames. >> buildings were on fire. it was complete chaos in the streets. we saw injured people being carried out of the building. >> the people were basically shocked. people were confused. people were asking what happened, how could this happen? and they weren't really aware of what to do or where to go. >> reporter: police suspect a car bomb and with fear of more bombs, police warn people, leave the city center or stay at home.

two hours later, another attack, on an island an hour away. a man dressed as a policeman approached a crowd of youths attending a summer camp. he pulled out an automatic weapon, and sprayed them with bullets. children jumped off the rocks to swim for their lives. an eyewitness said he shot some of them. at least ten dead. president obama offered his condolences. >> the entire international community has a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring. and that we have to work cooperatively together, both on intelligence and in terms of prevention. >> hello? >> reporter: nobody claimed responsibility, but police suspect the two attacks were linked, coordinated, well executed, heavy casualties. but why norway? >> there are a number of different possible culprits. there is right wing groups, there are anarchist groups and then there are jihadists. there are al qaeda and its

allies. >> reporter: still, nobody is saying for sure it was al qaeda. it could be local radicals. one lead, police arrested a man after the shooting on the island. they said he's tall and blond and later confirmed he's norwegian. lester? >> martin fletcher in london tonight, thank you. we're joined by kadafi zaman of norway's tv 2 network, just across the water from the island where that youth camp attack occurred today. can you tell us why that camp may have been targeted and what police are saying about what happened there? >> reporter: there were about 700 young people gathered on this island, utoya, a couple hundred meters from the place where i am now. these -- these youth were connected to the labor party, the ruling party of norway. these were persons across norway, gathered for several days. and what we have learned is that there was a man disguised as a policeman who entered this island and started shooting.

>> do we know what his intentions were? if there was other materiels found that suspected that this attack might have been even worse? >> reporter: yes, the police say they have found undetonated explosives just a couple of hours ago. they're still searching the area around the island. a lot of boats are now searching for survivors. what happened was when this man started shooting, a lot of these young people, they started to swim and tried to get on this side of the place. >> we can only imagine the anguish of parents. what is the scene there tonight as people arrive on that scene? >> reporter: we are not allowed to enter the island. the police is stopping everyone except the parents of these children. people are coming all over from norway to meet their loved ones. they are now being settled in a

hotel nearby. but we have seen 50, 60 ambulances so far. there are people still searching on the island. the police are saying that there might be still somebody who is hiding and, of course, they're searching in the water. >> kadafi zaman of norway's tv 2, we appreciate the update, thank you. here in new york, it arrived. the heat wave that has tormented so much of the country this week settled over the east coast. if anything, it has gotten worse. it was 108 degrees in newark, new jersey, today, an all time record for that city. and extreme temperatures are scattered across the map. add the extreme humidity for the heat index and you can see how hot it felt out there. nbc's anne thompson joins us now from times square with more. anne? >> reporter: good evening, lester. this heat is tough on people and power companies. in new york city, there are scattered power outages tonight

affecting some 8,400 residents. another 158,000 people are dealing with reduced voltage. and over in new jersey, there are rolling blackouts, but so far, no catastrophes. today, miserable is spelled n-y-c. temperatures that rivaled the sahara desert and humidity reminiscent of the gulf coast combined to turn new york into a grimy sauna. >> it is fire. >> reporter: the heat relentless. before dawn, it was already 85 degrees. 90 by the end of rush hour. at noon, it hit the century mark, and set a new record at 104 an hour and a half later. the water was the best place to be. the columbus circle fountain worked for those with two legs and four. but a raw sewage spill in the hudson river closed the waters around manhattan to swimmers and kayakers, and the city warned fishermen not to eat what they catch. >> if you catch fish in the hudson, don't eat it now. you can fish them, but throw them back. >> reporter: bike messenger fernando rivera can dodge new york city's traffic, but not the

heat. triple digit temperatures reflecting off the pavement and mouthfuls of pollution made his job even more dangerous. >> i just want to pick up the bicycle and get on the subway and go home. >> reporter: at west point, a suspected heat-related tragedy, military officials say 18-year-old jacob bower, a cadet and three-sport athlete, died during a training exercise thursday evening. the record temperatures led to record demand for power in new york city. con ed left voice mails asking customers to conserve. >> turn off noncritical electric equipment such as televisions, computers, microwaves, washers, dryers and air conditioners. >> reporter: but at the nation's largest independent grid operator, today demand went down, even though its coverage area includes the sweltering mid-atlantic. call it the friday factor. >> you see a lot of people leave work early. because of that, the buildings have less occupancy and the air conditioners are not working as hard. >> reporter: a midmorning storm in chicago pelted the city with

more than a half inch of rain in just four minutes. while in heat-ravaged pittsburgh, air conditioned buses provided a cool respite for firefighters battling a morning blaze. >> the clothes are a double-edged sword. they're designed to protect us from thermal burns but they don't allow our body heat to dissipate. >> reporter: whether you're a firefighter in pittsburgh or a tourist here in times square, the key word is hydrate, because in weather like this, water can save your life. lester? >> anne thompson in steamy new york tonight, thanks. weather channel meteorologist chris warren joins me now from washington. chris, when can we expect some relief here in the east coast? >> well, lester, we're going to go into this weekend with extremely hot temperatures. tomorrow very similar to today. coming out of the weekend, much cooler. here is a look at the setup. we do have high pressure with us right now and it is going to remain into the weekend. we're still going to see very warm temperatures again tomorrow. many spots could be up around 100 degrees again.

and then this is where the change comes in. a cold front drops down from the north, and with that we are going to see cooler air move into place. and as it does, by early next week, we're going to see temperatures back down, closer to average. keep in mind, we're in late july. the hottest time of the year, close to average is still hot. in some cases temperatures will be in the 90s still. but much cooler compared to what we're seeing today and tomorrow. and, lester, one other thing, with this cold front coming through, the cooldown could come with a bumpy price. we do have a chance for thunderstorms through the weekend and into early next week. >> all right, chris warren from the weather channel, thank you. now to the late news that house speaker john boehner has broken off talks with the president over raising the debt ceiling. that drew a sharp and immediate response from president obama this evening. nbc's kelly o'donnell has late details now on where things stand. kelly? >> reporter: good evening,

lester, a major meltdown in these talks to keep the kun friday from going into a default. boehner sent a letter to house members explaining that those talks were off and that the negotiations would come back to capitol hill with a goal of solving that this weekend. well, president obama was clearly angry. he made a surprise appearance in the briefing room and the blame game began. clearly upset, the president said he thought he had given a fair deal to house republicans and felt he was left at the altar. >> this was an extraordinarily fair deal. if it was unbalanced, it was unbalanced in the direction of not enough revenue. it is hard to understand why speaker boehner would walk away from this kind of deal and, frankly, if you look at the commentary out there, there are a lot of republicans that are puzzled as to why it couldn't get done.

>> reporter: speaker boehner says he can explain that, and he came to the podium with his own hastily called news conference to describe it. he says the president and white house negotiators actually changed the game, that there had been an agreement on changing taxes, making cuts to important programs like social security, medicare, and cutting spending. but, speaker boehner says the white house had a late in the game change of heart. here's what speaker boehner had to say. >> let me just say that the white house moved the goal post. there was an agreement, some additional revenues until yesterday when the president demanded $400 billion more, which was going to not be more than a tax increase on the american people. >> reporter: the president ordered hill leaders to come to the white house tomorrow morning. and after boehner said he wouldn't work with the white house, he said he'll be there. lester? >> kelly, thanks. to david gregory, moderator of "meet the press." david, you're watching this play out. it looked like this morning the

president was getting heat for -- getting heat from democrats for perhaps working a deal that would put off the revenue question for now. so what happened here? >> well, you had days of drama and then an afternoon of drama as kelly has been reporting. this appeared to be on one track and this did derail. one republican aide described it to me as a fish or cut bait moment now, they had to get something done by monday and it is simply not there. the politics are nasty and enflamed, as you saw. but the big deal here is the u.s. economy on the brink, lester. there is already widespread fear throughout washington that america's debt rating could be downgraded if the deal is too small. and now we're at a point of talking about no deal at all. the president saying, i don't want a temporary solution. republicans saying, he may have to live with that based on the cuts they have already agreed to. >> treasury department says we have 11 days to get this done. what is the likelihood that the house leaders speaking directly with the senate could come up with something in that time frame? >> there are ways to do this but

it comes down to the t word, taxes, tax increases. can there be a balanced plan as the president wants? they're both going to go against the line here to say you can't pass this, we have got to avoid default. but what is it going to take do that? again, i think you'll see republicans looking for a smaller term deal. the president saying, no, it has to be something that extends past the election or we're going to go through this spectacle again. this is washington not being able to work with itself. >> david gregory tonight. thank you, david. on wall street today, it was a mixed day with broader indexes inching up. but the blue chips finishing lower. dow was down more than 43 points on the day. but it was a good week when the 1.6% gain. when we come back, our reporting from what's become a disaster area and why the reasons of so many suffering and it is more than just a drought. and later, turning youthful idealism into a long-term plan that is really making a difference. every day, all around the world, energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy developement comes with some risk,

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it is a stunning reversal for the lapd who identified another man, giovanni ramirez, in may. three months ago, the police chief and mayor said they had their man in the high profile case, but today the lapd exonerated ramirez, though he remains in jail on a probation violation. . at a press conference movements ago, the chief said credibility to their department is extremely important and while ramirez has been cleared, three others were arrested. now back to lester holt in new york with more "nightly news." last night on this broadcast, we brought you a report about a tragedy unfolding halfway around the world in the horn of africa. as we continue our reporting tonight, we warn you again that some of the images in tonight's report are hard to watch. at first, the massive drought that has swept across kenya, somalia and ethiopia appears to be a crisis caused entirely by nature, a simple but severe lack of rain. but the resulting famine and refugee crisis is something more than that. it is a disaster that is in large part man made.

nbc's rohit kachroo has the report tonight from nairobi, kenya, and a reminder that some of what you are about to see will be tough. rohit? >> reporter: lester, this crisis has been caused by years of civil war, months of dry weather, and every day it seems to get much worse. people around the world are trying to help, but today insurgents in somalia said that they would do their best to prevent them that help from getting through to those who need it the most. his name is ahmed, 8 months old and desperately ill at a camp near mogadishu. not far behind him, 1-year-old twins arrive, seriously malnourished. here it is the children who are most at risk. >> the mothers and the children. i'm not sure many of them will be alive in the next week or

two. >> reporter: in somalia, a crisis made by nature has been made worse by man. the islamist militant group al shabab, which controls many of the worst affected areas, said today we'll continue to block foreign aid, claiming there is no famine, and calling the united nations' declaration to the contrary "pure propaganda." the wrenching images being seen around the world tell a very different story. the u.n.'s world food program says that despite the danger, it will airlift food to the area in the next few days. >> it is the most dangerous and risky environment in the world. the world food program lost 14 people since 2008, 14 of our relief workers in somalia, simply trying to get food to a child. >> reporter: the people are fleeing somalia by the hundreds of thousands, many to makeshift camps in kenya. this woman tells me to get here she walked for an entire month from northern somalia with her

children. along the way, she took in another child, she found him alone, his mother had died from hunger as they traveled south. concern is greater for those they left behind. those who can't find aid and haven't yet been found by the relief agencies. it might seem unusual to describe ahmed or any of those children as being lucky, but in one way they are because they have found assistance and there are many more children right across this region who have no immediate prospects of any help. lester? >> all right, rohit kachroo, thank you. as we said last night, we'll be continuing to follow this tragic story in the coming days. in the meantime, for viewers who want to help, we have a list of ways to do that on our website. the address is nightly.msnbc.com. up next on "nightly news," a lesson in being generous. we all have internal plumbing.

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two popular videos on the we two popular videos on the web today, both from the ballpark. on this one you got to ask if you're a full grown adult couple and have a 6-year-old scrambling for a foul ball behind you, what do you do? the kid was in a serious funk and who could blame him? until management decided to make things right. now we'll show you what you should do. as a milwaukee brewers player tosses a ball to a kid in the stands, he's triumphant. but there is a littler kid who missed his chance, sobbing in the seats below. well, then the handoff. there you go. that generous kid who ended up giving the ball ended up leaving the park with an autographed bat. it has been three months since that big royal wedding that captivated the whole world. and now kate's wedding dress is about to go on public display inside buckingham palace. but the early reviews of the exhibit are a bit harsh, at least one review from the groom's grandmother during a private preview, the queen didn't hold back. >> horrible, dreadful.

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cut waste and loopholes, not our benefits. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self contained well systems and using state of the art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment we are america's natural gas. it's time now for our friday "making a difference" report. and someone who saw a problem

and took his youthful idealism and energy for fixing things and actually did something with it. now he's making a difference for all of us. here's nbc's ron mott. >> reporter: tired of watching his good friend, the mighty mississippi, being dumped on, literally, bullied in a way, chad pregracke was driven to her defense. >> i got so sick of it when i was 17. i said, i'm going to clean it up. i'm going to do this. >> reporter: so while still in high school, he launched living lands and waters, promising to clean up not just his beloved mississippi, having worked the fishing boats and barges there, but all rivers, armed with hope and a whole lot of enthusiasm, he approached the river community with an idea. >> he had this desire to do something, had no money, no help, no support. and so he just bugged the heck out of us until we finally said okay. >> reporter: with the past 13 years, he has brought together donors, barges, boats, cranes and plenty of helping hands in 18 states to more than 500 cleanups. >> looks like an armada. >> he's good for the industry, good for the environment. if you're around chad, it is

intoxicating. >> i'm pumped up about it. it is dirty work, it is nasty, but it is good, man. >> reporter: all in all, a pretty good haul today. there is about one ton of trash in this boat alone. since he started, chad and 70,000 volunteers have collected more than 7 million pounds of garbage. including some pretty weird stuff. >> a thousand refrigerators, 80,000 tires, 400 propane tanks, hundreds of tv sets. cars, trucks, vans. >> reporter: there is always one shoe. where is the other shoe at? 47 couches, 49 lawn mowers, 71 messages in a bottle and lots of bowling balls. or shall we say gutter balls. >> there is bowlers, i swear they throw them off bridges. i think they have bad games and they throw them. i like doing a positive thing. i think this is part of serving the country. >> reporter: chad's passion for the environment doesn't stop at the river's edge. he pledged to plant 1 million trees. all of hopes of losing his job one day, meaning the dirty work is done. ron mott, nbc news, paducah,

kentucky. that's our broadcast for this friday night. thank you for being with us. i'm lester holt in for brian. i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today" and right back here tomorrow night. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com right now at 6:00, exactly who are they? what we're learning tonight about the men arrested in the bryan stow case. also ahead, what park rangers say they won't do in the wake of the deadly accident at yosemi yosemite. >> and a rise in armed rob are yous. bay area at 6:00 starts right now. >>