GAZA: As Israel anticipates an Iranian attack in retaliation for the assassination of a Hamas leader in Tehran, Hezbollah militants in Lebanon fired a volley of 30 rockets into Israel. It could be a precursor. 

  One theory is that the major attack may come tomorrow on Tisha B’av, the day of remembrance for the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem.

  The question is whether Iran will mount an attack of a size that would spark all-out war. The US is sending a guided missile submarine to the area

  In Gaza, an Israeli air strike over the weekend on a school building sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City killed more than 70 people, according to authorities at al-Ahli Hospital where many of the casualties were taken. An Israeli military spokesman said al-Taba’een school “served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility”, which Hamas denies.

  The school was said to have housed about a thousand people.

FOREIGN INTRUSION: Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign claims that it has been hacked and by Iranian intruders who stole and distributed sensitive internal documents.Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung blamed the hack on “foreign sources hostile to the United States.” 

  Iran’s mission to the United Nations denied their country’s involvement.

  The news website Politico first reported the hack. The outlet said they began receiving emails on July 22nd from a source identified on an AOL email account only as “Robert.” Politico says they received a research dossier the campaign had apparently done on Republican vice presidential nominee, Senator JD Vance. The document was dated February 23rd, almost five months before Trump announced Vance as his running mate.

ORANGE ALERT !!: Donald Trump, who exaggerates everything including the size of his campaign crowds, accused Vice President Kamala Harris of using artificial intelligence technology to create images of a crowd that did not exist when she got off a plane in Detroit.

  News crews and attendees affirm that there was a crowd of thousands. Yet Trump posted on his social media that, ““Same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches. This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING – And they’re even worse at the Ballot Box. She should be disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE.”

  Trump in 2017 exaggerated the size of his inauguration audience.

THE WAR ROOM:  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made his first comments about Ukraine’s surprise incursion across the border into Russia’s Kursk region saying, “Ukraine is proving that it really knows how to restore justice and guarantees exactly the kind of pressure that is needed – pressure on the aggressor.” Zelensky said in a nightly address to the nation that Ukraine forces have made it possible “to push the war out into the aggressor’s territory.”

GETTING WARMER: As the world climate heats up, Las Vegas is one of the fastest warming cities in America with average summer temperatures up six degrees since 1960, The NY Times reports. Vegas hit its highest recorded temperature of 120 degrees this summer.

  The nights are getting uncomfortable, too. In July there were three straight nights when the temperature didn’t drop below 94. Summer nights used to be below 80, but overnight lows are up 11 percent since 1950.

  Of course, Las Vegas is completely unnatural, but global warming is moving some of the world’s major ecological systems to the point of failure, scientists say. That includes coral reefs dying, permafrost thawing and releasing yet more carbon dioxide, polar ice melting, and death of the Amazon rainforest.

FIVE RINGS:  The Paris Olympics concluded last night with a grand closing ceremony. Actor Tom Cruise did a stunt jump into the stadium to start the transfer of the summer Olympics to Los Angeles in 2028.

  The US dominated the medal count with 122 to China’s 91. The two countries tied at 40 gold medals each.

  And, who knew? France is a basketball power. The French men’s and women’s teams gave the Americans a hard time in the Olympic finals.

 The French men had the US and its team of NBA professionals trailing by 10 points at one stage of the game, but the Americans came back to win 98-87. Steph Curry scored eight three-pointers during accounting for all 24 of his points. He threw four of them in the last three minutes to lock up America’s fifth straight basketball gold.

  The US women also had to work to beat the French who jumped out to an 8-0 lead. The Americans led by just one point with 1:32 to go and held on to win 67-66, their eighth straight Olympic basketball gold. The team included Brittney Griner, who spent most of 2022 in a Russian prison.

  It was a great weekend for American women. The soccer team beat Brazil 1-0 for their first gold since London in 2012.

  On the downside, US gymnast Jordan Chiles was stripped of the bronze medal she was awarded in Monday’s women’s floor final. Chiles had contested her score and was moved up to third place. But it was later determined that she filed her inquiry just four seconds past the deadline so her medal was awarded to Romania’s Ana Barbosu. The US gymnastics committee is appealing, saying they have video evidence that they met the deadline.

THE SPIN RACK: A popular double sandstone arch that hung over the waters of Lake Powell on the Utah side of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area collapsed last week. The arch framed a hole in the stone known as “the toilet bowl.” — The Perseid meteor shower reached its peak last night with about 50 to 100 meteors per hour. The shower continues through August. 

BELOW THE FOLD: Donald Trump says Kamala Harris says “stole” his idea to end income taxes on tips. Next time you dine out, ask your waiter who originally thought of tax-free tips.          

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