THE WAR ROOM: The night skies over Tel Aviv were lit up last night with streaking incoming and outgoing missiles as Iran retaliated for Israel’s massive air attack early yesterday morning. 

  The fighting continues today with at least three people killed and dozens injured in Israel as residents hunkered down in bomb shelters. In Iran, authorities say 78 are dead and about 300 wounded.

  Iranian ballistic missiles are reported to have hit in seven locations around Tel Aviv. The command center of the Israel Defense Forces is severely damaged. One strike was caught on video producing a massive ground flash and a column of smoke. Fire officials had to rescue people from damaged buildings and dozens were taken to hospitals. Israeli television showed images of damaged buildings and mangled and burned cars.

  State television also reported that the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in Iran had been heavily damaged. Israel claims to have killed nine vital nuclear scientists.

  The Israeli operation had been long in planning, possibly years. They even managed to sneak commandos and a drone operating base into Iran itself.

    The Israeli Defense Forces  chief of staff said the military was “mobilizing tens of thousands of soldiers and preparing across all borders” and that, “The expected cost will be different from what we are used to.” 

  The war is being waged with words as well as weapons.  Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that Israel “should anticipate a harsh punishment” for its daylong assault. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “The regime does not know what hit them, or what will hit them.” 

DEAR LEADER: President Trump for years has envied the military parades staged by dictators around the world and today he gets his own in Washington. The tanks roll at 6:30 this evening.

  The parade will feature 28 Abrams tanks, 58 various armored fighting vehicles, 50 helicopters, mobile artillery, and 6,700 soldiers, some of them in period uniforms from long ago wars in US history. 

  The parade is supposed to be a celebration of the US Army’s 250^th anniversary, but it also falls on President Trump’s 79^th birthday, leaving him open to suggestions that he ordered up the parade to celebrate himself. Forecasters say it might rain on his parade.

  As many as 200,000 people are expected to line the streets. An organization calling itself “No Kings” has inspired about 2,000 protest gatherings in 50 states. Trump said protesters in Washington will be dealt with harshly.  

  In Brevard County, Florida, Sheriff Wayne Ivey said, “If you throw a brick, throw a firebomb, or point a gun at one of our deputies, we will be notifying your family where to collect your remains at, because we will kill you graveyard dead.”

THE SCORECARD:

— Three new advisers appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the CDC committee on immunization policy took part in lawsuits raising doubt about the safety or efficacy of vaccines, The NY Times reports. Kennedy had promised he would not appoint antivaxxers after firing all 17 members of the committee that advises the government on vaccines.

— A federal judge in California ordered the State Department to temporarily delay firing nearly 1,900 employees as planned.

— A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled in favor of a coalition of states that sued to stop stringent new voter ID requirements that President Trump specified in an executive order he issued in March. The ruling also blocks Trump’s order for Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action against states that continue counting ballots after Election Day.

  Judge Denise Casper wrote that, “The Constitution does not grant the president any specific powers over elections.”

— A federal judge in Maryland reversed President Trump’s firings of the three 

Democratic members of the five-member Consumer Product Safety Commission, saying the law allows Trump to fire the officials only for “neglect of duty or malfeasance.”

— Following the eruption of the Israel-Iran conflict, the Voice of America reactivated it Farsi language news service. The Farsi speakers were among those fired when President Trump gutted the VOA in March.  

— Kim Sajet, the director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, resigned under pressure after the White House had tried to fire her and claimed that the gallery had become influenced by “divisive, race-centered ideology.”

  Following Sajet’s resignation, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement, “On day one, President Trump made clear that there is no place for dangerous anti-American ideology in our government and institutions.”

THE SPIN RACK: The jury has begun deliberations in the retrial of Karen Read, the Boston area woman charged with murdering her police officer boyfriend by backing her car into him and leaving him in a blizzard to die. Her first trial ended in a mistrial. — Michael Avenatti, the once ubiquitous celebrity lawyer who represented porn star Stormy Daniels against Donald Trump, was sentenced yesterday to 11 years in prison for dodging taxes and stealing millions of dollars from clients, including $300,000 from Daniels. — Mike Madison, the former speaker of the Illinois House and the longest serving legislator in US history with nearly 40 years in office, was sentenced yesterday to 7 ½ years in prison after being convicted of corruption. The disgraced legislator known as the “Velvet Hammer” is 83.

BELOW THE FOLD: The National Weather Service issued its first-ever heat advisory for Alaska today where few people have air conditioning. It’s expected to hit 85 in Fairbanks, although that’s not the hottest it’s ever been. The temperature in the state of glaciers rose to 96 one day in 1969 … long before the weather service began issuing advisories. 

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