Monday morning news: August 26, 2024

Israeli airstrikes » Israel and the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah traded heavy fire Sunday but backed away from sparking a widely feared all-out war. Both sides signaled their most intense exchange of fire in months was over.

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog told CBS’s Face the Nation:

HERZOG:  So what happened yesterday is that we identify concrete planning and preparation by Hezbollah to launch a massive missile and drone attack into Israel. And we carried out the real time operation in order to degrade those capabilities.

He said the Israeli strike prevented an escalation to a major war.

This comes as high-level talks have resumed in Egypt aimed at a cease-fire between Israel and another Iran-backed terror group, Hamas.

NASA decides to keep 2 astronauts in space until February » NASA is keeping two astronauts in space a lot longer than planned due to problems with a Boeing space capsule. What should have been a weeklong test flight for the pair will now last more than eight months.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson:

NELSON:  Boeing has worked very hard with NASA to get the necessary data to make this decision. We want to further understand the root causes and understand the design improvements so that the Boeing Starliner will serve as an important part of our assured crew access to the ISS.

The Boeing craft has been troubled by a cascade of thruster failures and helium leaks. And officials deemed the ride home in the capsule too risky. And they’ll remain at the International Space Station until February.

RFK Jr endorsing Trump » Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says while he has suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed Donald Trump for president, that doesn’t mean they’ll agree on everything.

KENNEDY:  We agreed that we'd be able to continue to criticize each other on issues on which we don't agree, but these issues are so important in their way of unifying our country. We need, in this country, to reach a point where we love our children more than we hate each other.

Kennedy ran as an independent candidate, but pulled the plug on his campaign on Friday, saying he did not see a clear path to victory.

Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance says he welcomes Kennedy’s endorsement.

VANCE:  We're going to disagree on issues, right? But I think what his endorsement represents is that Donald J. Trump's Republican party is a big tent party.

Kennedy joined the former president on stage during his rally in Arizona. When asked if he had been promised a position in the Trump administration, he says he has not, but will continue to work with him.

Border, lost minors » Meantime, Republicans continue to hammer Vice President Kamala Harris hard on the border crisis.

A new report suggests that the Biden-Harris administration has lost track of more than 320 thousand migrant children who crossed the border without parents. That’s according to the Homeland Security Inspector General.

GOP Sen. Mike Lee:

LEE:  It's hard to lose 320,000 children. No, I'll note with a degree of cynicism here that the department of homeland security has acknowledged that these children have a higher than average risk of being subjected to trafficking. Yeah. You think, look, that's the whole way they came into this country. It's the one thing they all have in common. They were all trafficked.

As of May of this year, there are 291 thousand migrant children who arrived in the U.S. as unaccompanied minors who were set free and never given a date to appear in court—with no way to track their whereabouts.

Hurricane Hone » Hurricane Hone is passing just south of Hawaii, close enough to sweep the coast of the Big Island with heavy rain and tropical storm force winds.

Jon Jelsema with the South Pacific Hurricane Center:

JELSEMA:  As the rain gets pushed up the mountain terrain, it wrings it out, kind of like wringing out a wet towel, and it's been really soaking those areas. There's been flooding of roads, roads cut off by, uh, high floodwaters there in, uh, the windward sections of the Big Island.

The rain falling on southeastern slopes could total a foot or more.

Gas prices » Gas prices have dipped by almost a dime per gallon over the past two weeks. That’s according to industry analyst Trilby Lundberg. She puts the new national average at $3.43 per gallon.

LUNDBERG:  We may have another nickel or more in declines coming from the mid September allowable lower cost for gasoline as refiners will no longer have to make summer blend.

Summer gasoline blends are more expensive.

Lundberg says drivers in Tulsa enjoy the cheapest gas of any major metro area at $2.72 per gallon.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Animal rights in the courtroom on Legal Docket. Plus, the Monday Moneybeat.

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