ISRAEL STRIKES BACK: Ismail Haniyeh, a top Hamas leader involved in cease-fire negotiations with Israel, was killed in what is assumed to be an Israeli airstrike while in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president. 

 Both Hamas and Iran blame Israel for the killing, but Israel has said nothing about it. The Qatari prime minister asked on social media, “How can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?” 

  Separately, Israel carried out a strike in suburban Beirut last night, retaliating for a rocket attack that killed 12 children and teenagers in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, claiming they killed a Hezbollah commander blamed for the weekend attack. 

  Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon have been trading hits since the start of the war in Gaza, posing the danger of all-out war on a second front for Israel. White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters yesterday, “We believe that it can still be avoided.”

ORANGE ALERT!!: Donald Trump is refusing to back off remarks to Christian conservatives last week that if he’s elected to the presidency again they won’t have to vote anymore. Declining a request by Fox News host Laura Ingraham to re-frame what he had said, Trump said Christians are not dedicated voters. “That statement is very simple,” he told Ingraham. “I said, ‘Vote for me, you’re not going to have to do it ever again.’ It’s true because we have to get the vote out. Christians are not known as a big voting group.”

  He went on, “This time, vote. I’ll straighten out the country, you won’t have to vote anymore. I won’t need your vote. You can go back to not voting.”

  Trump’s primary line of attack on his new opponent is Kamala Harris’s record on immigration. A 30-second television spot running in six battleground states accuses her of being a failed “border czar.” The ad blames Harris for millions of border crossings and a quarter-million deaths “on Harris’s watch.” It closes with a new Trump tagline for Harris: “Failed. Weak. Dangerously Liberal.”

THE COCONUT TREE: During a boisterous rally in Atlanta, Vice President Kamala Harris challenged Trump to keep his previous commitment to debate the Democratic candidate in September. Already facing withering personal attacks from Trump and his surrogates, Harris said, “If you got something to say, say it to my face.”

  About 10,000 people turned out for Harris, a number that would have been unthinkable for President Joe Biden. Democrats are beginning to think Georgia is in play this November.

  After less than two weeks of running a smart and energetic campaign, Harris appears to be waiting for the most instrumental time to announce her running mate, which could come before the August convention.

  Five people said to be in serious consideration are: Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona; Governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Andy Beshear of Kentucky; and Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary. The latter would be a dramatic, daring, and historic move, a gay married man running with a Black woman for the White House. But Buttigieg is one of the smartest, reasonable, and even handed people in the top ranks of government. 

LINE OF FIRE: The acting head of the Secret Service told a Senate hearing that he was “ashamed’ that the roof from which a gunman fired at former President Donald Trump was not covered by security. “They should have been on the roof,” Ronald L. Rowe Jr. told senators.

  Rowe spoke with the humility and clarity lacking in his predecessor, Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned after embarrassing testimony before Congress.

  Part of the breakdown was in communication with local law enforcement and Rowe said, “We need to be very direct to our local law enforcement counterparts that they understand exactly what their expectation is.”

  But he admitted that the problem was ultimately “a failure of imagination” to see that “we actually do live in a very dangerous world where people do actually want to do harm to our protectee.”

FIVE RINGS:  With Simone Biles once again wowing the crowd with her floor routine, The US women’s gymnastics team won the gold medal at the Paris Olympics in a comeback from their second place in Tokyo. 

  Led by Biles and defending all-around champion, Sunisa Lee, the Americans finished ahead of Italy in second place and Brazil in third.

  Three years ago the Americans finished second after Biles withdrew with a mental block known as the “twisties” in which she became disoriented in the air. Her comeback has been miraculous.

  In other US accomplishments, the men’s soccer team has advanced to their quarter finals for the first time in 24 years. 

CHANNEL CHANGE: CBS News announced that its Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell is leaving the broadcast for “special” assignments with the network after the November election. O’Donnell put out a chipper statement about exciting new opportunities, but it has the odor of a firing. Anchoring the evening newscast is still the most prestigious job in the dwindling business of news on the old broadcast networks.

  The CBS Evening News is #3 with 4.4 million viewers. CBS defined network television news and was #1 with 15.9 million viewers in 1980.

  The 50-year-old O’Donnell said in a statement that after just five years in the chair, “It’s time to do something different.” The question is whether it was her decision or theirs. 

THE SPIN RACK: Former television anchor Kari Lake, a trump devotee and election denier, won the Republican nomination for Senate in Arizona. She’ll run against Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego to fill the seat of retiring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. — Former BBC anchor Huw Edwards, a national figure in England, pleaded guilty today to three counts of making indecent images of children.

BELOW THE FOLD: Apple computer that its web browser Safari protects user privacy. Some people first got the word in a pop-up ad.

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