MORE WAR: Israel overnight carried out large scale attacks on Iran in an effort to knock out its nuclear capabilities while also targeting top Iranian officials. Israel said in late evening Eastern Time that the second phase of the operation had already begun.

  Israel said its strikes involved 200 fighter jets and 100 targets. Iran hit back today with as many as 100 drones.

  It can be expected that the first wave would have been against command and control centers, defensive weapons, and military commanders. Iran’s nuclear facilities are believed to be inside extremely hardened facilities.

  President Trump posted on his Truth Social that he gave Iran many chances to make a deal about nuclear weapons and that, “Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire.”

  Iran, in turn, threatened a heavy price to be paid by both Israel and the United States.

  The city of Tehran was rocked by explosions. Israel is reported to have attacked at least six military bases around Tehran, homes inside two secure residential complexes for military commanders, and multiple residential buildings around Tehran. Four military generals and two nuclear scientists are reported to have been killed. Iranian officials said that Gen. Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, is among the dead.

  The strikes raise the specter of all-out war between the two countries. Israeli authorities have warned the public to expect retaliation and closed all civilian airspace to traffic. Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, said in a televised address that, “I don’t promise successes alone.”

BOEING DOWN: One passenger was able to walk away yesterday following the crash of an Air India flight that killed 241 people on the plane and as many as 28 on the ground.  The death toll may rise as responders search the wreckage.

  The survivor, a British citizen, Viswash Kumar Ramesh, had been traveling on the plane with his brother, Ajay. Ramesh had been sitting in seat 11 A. He told an interviewer the plane had felt “stuck five or 10 seconds after takeoff,” and it seemed to be trying to accelerate when it crashed. “I still can’t believe how I got out alive,” Ramesh said. “I thought I was also about to die.” 

  Video shows the jet moments after takeoff losing altitude then exploding in a fireball fed by 33,000 gallons of fuel. The plane skidded into the campus of a medical college before hitting a dining hall where 60 to 80 students were having lunch.

  The tail of the plane was skewered into a building and a wing was left lying on a road.

FIRE AND ICE:  A federal judge in San Francisco yesterday ordered the Trump administration to “return control” of the California National Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom, reversing  President Trump’s extraordinary order deploying them to Los Angeles to deal with protesters against immigration enforcement sweeps.

  In a lengthy decision, Judge Charles Breyer bluntly said the President’s action was “illegal.” He wrote that he is “troubled by the implication” in the Trump administration’s argument “that protest against the federal government, a core civil liberty protected by the First Amendment, can justify a finding of rebellion.”

  “We’re talking about the president exercising his authority, and of course, the president is limited in his authority,” Breyer said. “That’s the difference between the president and King George.” He went on to say that, “We live in response to a monarchy. Line drawing is important, because it establishes a system of process.”

An appeals court later stayed Breyer’s decision and Trump said on his Truth Social that: “The Appeals Court ruled last night that I can use the National Guard to keep our cities, in this case Los Angeles, safe. If I didn’t send the Military into Los Angeles, that city would be burning to the ground right now.”

  The demonstrations have been limited to a few city blocks.

  In a related incident, Democratic US Sen. Alex Padilla of California was hustled out by law enforcement, taken to the floor, and handcuffed following an attempt to ask a question of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a press conference. Padilla did not initially identify himself as he stepped toward Noem and the secretary didn’t stop speaking as the senator was hauled out of the room. 

ON ICE: The Stanley Cup finals are tied at 2-2 after  the Oilers best the Panthers 5-4 last night. Game five is tomorrow.

THE OBIT PAGE: Ananda Lewis, once a popular host on MTV, died after a long battle with breast cancer at age 52.

  Lewis was diagnosed in 2019 with late stage incurable cancer after previously declining to have mammograms because she was afraid of radiation. She chose not to have a double mastectomy and instead treated her cancer with chemotherapy, diet, and exercise.

  Speaking candidly about her experience, Lewis implored other women not to make the decisions she did.

THE SPIN RACK: The owner of Jet Set, the popular nightclub in the Dominican Republic where 236 people were killed in April when the roof collapsed, was arrested yesterday and charged with involuntary homicide. Investigators said that a club employee told them the roof was in dangerous condition. — The retrial of disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein ended in a mistrial … no verdict … on a charge of rape, but he was found guilty of criminal sexual assault.

BELOW THE FOLD: Scientists have discovered a new species of dinosaur in the evolution of tyrannosaurs among the collection of bones at a Mongolian museum. They say  the discovery “rewrites” the evolutionary history of tyrannosaurs. They named it Khankhuuluu (pronounced khan-KOO-loo) mongoliensis, meaning Dragon Prince of Mongolia. 

  Researchers concluded that the two 86 million-year-old skeletons provide clues to how the ferocious tyrannosaurs evolved to become powerful predators in what is now North America and Asia until the end of the age of the dinosaurs.  

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