Campaign ramps up as Kamala Harris allies deploy new Trump ‘plain weird’ attack line | First Thing

Good morning.

US Democrats have spent recent days trying out a relatively new attack line on Donald Trump : that he is weird.

The tactic is almost certainly calibrated to resonate with young and independent voters who, polls show, are moving from marked disinterest in the now-dropped matchup between Joe Biden and his presidential predecessor to engagement in the 100-day contest between Trump and Kamala Harris.

The vice-president issued a list of the main takeaways of what Trump had given the American people. “Is Donald Trump OK?” the X message said. The seventh of nine entries was: “Trump is old and quite weird?”

• What are the polls saying? Harris is showing an uptick on Biden but still behind Trump. According to averages based on New York Times/Siena College polls, Trump is averaging 48% compared with Harris on 46%.

• What attack lines are Republicans deploying against Harris? Several Republicans on Sunday tried to portray Harris as a “dangerous liberal” with far-left politics.

Global leaders try to dissuade Israel from increasing attacks on Lebanon

Global leaders were engaged in intensive diplomacy on Sunday to dissuade Israel from increasing attacks on Lebanon , amid fears that a wider regional war could erupt in response to a rocket strike that killed 12 children playing football in the occupied Golan Heights.

As the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, convened a meeting of his national security cabinet, the White House backed Israeli statements that blamed Saturday’s attack on the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, saying: “It was their rocket, and launched from an area they control. It should be universally condemned.”

But the US was “also working on a diplomatic solution … that will end all attacks once and for all”, a White House statement said.

Meanwhile, the conflict monitor Airwars has named nearly 3,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza in almost 350 separate incidents during the first 17 days of the war – the first step in an exercise aimed at identifying each of the 39,000 civilians killed during the Israeli military campaign.

• What’s been the latest trigger for escalating tensions? The diplomacy came amid growing anger in Israel over the strike on the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, which Israel seized in 1967 and annexed from Syria in 1981. On Sunday, thousands attended funeral processions for the 12 children.

• What has the UN said about the prospect of war? The UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon, as well as the UN peacekeeping force, urged “maximum restraint”. Both sides, they said, must “put a stop to the ongoing intensified exchanges of fire”, which risks “a catastrophe beyond belief”.

Venezuela election: Maduro declared winner by government-controlled authority

Nicolás Maduro has been declared the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election by the government-controlled electoral authority – a result that was immediately contested.

The national electoral council claimed Maduro had won with 51.21% of votes compared with 44.2% for his rival, the former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia.

Independent observers had described this election as the most arbitrary in recent years. There have been widespread fears Maduro’s administration would refuse to relinquish power and concerns over whether the vote would be free and fair.

• What have other countries said about the count? Chile, Peru and Costa Rica are among those who questioned the result, which contradicted many opinion polls. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, raised “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people”.

In other news …

• Sophia Smith scored a pair of goals to help the US beat Germany 4-1 , to advance to the soccer quarter-finals at the Paris Olympics on Sunday.

• Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s new president, was formally inaugurated on Sunday , opening up the slim hope of improved relations with the west and internal reforms.

• North Korea has vowed to “totally destroy” its enemies in the case of war , state media reported , during the 71st anniversary of the Korean war armistice.

• The police officer who shot Sonya Massey had a history of unethical and aggressive behavior , CBS News reported , including accusations of bullying and abuse of power.

Stat of the day: Deadpool & Wolverine shatters record for R-rated movies with $205m debut

The comic-book movie made a record $205m in its first weekend in North American theaters, according to studio estimates. It shattered the opening record for R-rated films previously held by the first Deadpool ($132m) and notched a spot in the top 10 openings of all time.

Don’t miss this: Why Spain wants tourists to go home

Spain has been a major summer holiday destination since the 1960s. But now, it seems, some Spaniards have had enough. Across the country there have been protests, and tourists in Barcelona were recently sprayed with water pistols. Today In Focus spoke to people who say their communities have been transformed – from rocketing costs of living to environmental damage – by tourism.

… or this: Beaten and conscripted into Putin’s army – a Somali refugee attempts to reach Europe

Ilyas Ahmad Elmi, a journalist, hoped to join his wife and child in Germany when he fled Somalia – but the EU’s harsh border controls led him towards Russia’s war machine . “We were told that we would have two weeks of training and then go to war in Ukraine,” Elmi said. He refused.

Climate check: Firefighters battle California’s seventh largest wildfire on record as thousands under threat

Thousands of firefighters continued to battle the Park fire in northern California on Sunday. The blaze , propelled by extreme fire weather conditions, has become the state’s seventh-largest on record. Jay Tracy, a spokesperson at the Park fire headquarters, said it’s showing “explosive growth” and is “kind of unparalleled”.

Last Thing: Man graduates 41 years after being denied ceremony by parrot problem

A man who was denied his graduation for 41 years has finally graduated. Jonny Clothier was meant to graduate in 1983 . But his old roommate had a parrot, which, when left unsupervised, reportedly caused damage. Clothier refused to pay the charge, and was denied graduation – until now.

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