◼ Conflict between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran has resumed. Both sides had agreed to a memorandum of understanding that was designed to formalize a cease-fire in the Gulf and pave the way for a more enduring peace in the region. A badly flawed document, it heavily favored Tehran. Nevertheless, the Iranians quickly breached the terms of the MOU by attacking commercial vessels that were supposedly traversing the Strait of Hormuz without authorization. The U.S. response began with a missile strike and reimposition of sanctions on Iranian oil sales. Hostilities picked up thereafter, and some Gulf states also came under attack. The oil price rose, and stocks fell. The MOU now appears to be dead, which is no great loss. The U.S. must reassert the principle of free passage through the strait, backed up with the firepower it takes to do the job.

◼ In incidents a week apart, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and killed two men who were not the suspects they were looking for, each time insisting that they perceived a threat. In Houston, ICE agents were tailing a van in which they incorrectly believed their suspect was riding, and they maintain that they identified themselves as police. When an agent shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican who had been living illegally in the U.S. for decades and was driving with other illegal aliens to their construction job, ICE initially claimed that Araujo had rammed his van into the ICE vehicle. This is unconfirmed. In Maine, agents were staked out at a residence, looking for an alien who was subject to a final deportation order. They tried to stop a vehicle seen leaving the location. ICE says an agent opened fire because he feared for public safety as the driver appeared to attempt to flee. The alien who was killed, Joan Sebastián Guerrero, reportedly a 26-year-old Colombian who was authorized to work in the U.S., was not the subject of the order. In the wake of the shootings, ICE said that it was suspending traffic stops, but President Donald Trump then insisted that they continue. The federal government’s crackdown on illegal immigration remains important and necessary, but ill-executed enforcement operations cause harms including the undermining of our immigration authorities.

◼ Conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk’s gruesome assassination have spread widely on social media. But in pretrial hearings, prosecutors provided a glimpse into the vast trove of evidence the government has compiled against the alleged murderer. It all points to the obvious explanation that no rational person ever doubted: Kirk was killed by left-winger Tyler Robinson, who acted alone. Prosecutors have forensic evidence that ties Robinson to the gun used in Kirk’s shooting, video of him at the scene at the time of the shooting, multiple confessions, a clear motive, and evidence of premeditation. If this isn’t case closed, nothing is. Of course, conspiracy theorists are never motivated by the pursuit of the truth, nor are they swayed by evidence. But we hope that, in addition to delivering justice, Tyler Robinson’s trial will put a dent in the influence of the lunatics and cynics who have perverted this case for their own abysmal ends.

◼ On Election Night 1984, Nicola Paone’s restaurant being closed, NR’s editors went to Le Moal in Midtown Manhattan to watch the returns. Early in the evening, the owner served sherry to toast the election to the Senate of then 42-year-old Kentuckian Mitch McConnell. Forty-two years later, Senator McConnell was taken to the hospital. After a month, he explained that he had fallen and was suffering a mild case of pneumonia. Meanwhile, Tom Kean Jr., a two-term congressman from New Jersey, dropped out of sight between March and the end of June. When he returned to public life, he said he had been hospitalized for depression. McConnell’s career has been historic, and we wish both men well. But with more and more oldsters in Congress (the 57-year-old Kean not among them) and the White House, all serving in a world of 24/7 news, officeholders should be more transparent about their health. Privacy is the default right of everyone, but public servants must accept the burden of public scrutiny. When they go missing, we are entitled to know why.

◼ Representative Ro Khanna (D., Calif.) claimed that while he was touring the West Bank, a group of armed Israeli settlers stopped his vehicle and began harassing him and the other occupants. The Israel Defense Forces arrived on the scene, he said, and sided with the settlers even after he told them he was a member of the U.S. Congress. In reality, when the IDF and police received reports of armed civilians blocking Khanna’s vehicle, soldiers arrived to disperse the civilians and then let Khanna continue on his way. The situation could have been entirely avoided had Khanna coordinated his visit with the Israeli government beforehand. It’s obvious that Khanna, who had a New York Times photographer with him, was eager to stage a confrontation and then portray himself as a victim. To the Times, he said, “Free advice to the Israelis: It’s not a good idea to detain long-shot presidential candidates.” Add that to the list of Israel’s sins—forcing us to endure a Khanna presidential campaign.

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◼ Year-over-year inflation eased to 3.5 percent in June, primarily because of lower fuel costs. This figure may be all the Federal Reserve needs to delay raising interest rates for another two months. Yet inflation at 3.5 percent is still much too high by the Fed’s own standards, and even this slight reprieve will likely prove temporary, since oil prices have risen again. But the main cause of persistent inflation isn’t energy costs. The money supply has expanded by 5.6 percent over the past year, well beyond the pace of economic growth. To restore price stability, further monetary tightening remains necessary.

◼ The socialist Senate candidate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, wants to exempt seniors from regular property taxes. Unfortunately, red states are leading the charge to enact his vision. There is no economic rationale for special tax exemptions for seniors. Such exemptions encourage no additional work or investment. They are advanced solely to buy support from a large demographic group with high voting rates. Carving out seniors from the general tax code would inevitably shift the burden to other homeowners, such as younger families, who would have to contribute more to fund local services. Elderly Americans already receive federal retirement benefits, the generosity of which far exceeds what they have paid in taxes to fund those benefits. They are also the richest age group. If policymakers are especially concerned about housing affordability for one group, it should not be older Americans.

◼ Uber, the ride-sharing company, is lobbying state and local governments to block the expansion of autonomous car platforms such as those operated by Google’s Waymo. In doing so, Uber is turning its back on the open marketplace that enabled its own success. Just a decade ago, traditional taxi firms were lobbying to stop ride-hailing apps from disrupting their business. Uber wants autonomous cars to be forced to join its platform rather than operate separately. Riders should, however, be able to download multiple apps and use any services they please. Consumers benefited immensely because Uber drivers were not forced to buy taxi medallions, and they will continue to benefit when driverless cars are allowed to compete with ride-sharing platforms side by side. Uber’s and Lyft’s technology proved too convenient for entrenched interests to overcome; may the same hold true of self-driving vehicles today.

◼ Trump departed the NATO summit in Turkey not on the gleaming new airliner given to him by the Qatari government but on the old Air Force One. The switch was reportedly necessary because the new plane might lack certain defensive features, such as the capability to blind and redirect incoming antiaircraft missiles. The Justice Department has subsequently subpoenaed those who reported this story in an effort to uncover their sources, which doesn’t exactly refute the report’s substance. Why was the president allowed to travel to the edge of the Middle East amid a war with the region’s most capable revisionist power on an unreliable platform? Trump has indicated his desire to keep the Qatari plane even after he leaves office. Maybe that would be for the best. The plane could be of use to Trump then, but it’s worthless to a president.

◼ Caitlin Clark is a generational talent as scorer and playmaker: She’s the only WNBA player ever to average 16 points and seven assists per game in one season, which she has done three years in a row. Her commercial impact is even larger: By some estimates, Clark accounted for over a quarter of the league’s revenue in her rookie season by driving record attendance, TV ratings, and merchandise sales. Instead, as rival players target Clark with neck punches, eye pokes, and body slams, WNBA officials have been systematically overlooking flagrant fouls and other penalties against her while writing Clark up frequently for minor violations. Clark has also been snubbed by fellow players and the league in ranking for awards. The hostility, especially from her peers, appears to reflect jealousy and a sense that a straight white woman is an outsider in a league that is largely black and lesbian. The WNBA’s longtime status as a subsidized social project of the NBA seems to have infected its culture with a disregard for paying customers who might not share the league’s agenda.

◼ The Society of Saint Pius X, a global fraternity of more than 700 priests and several hundred religious members, has gone back into schism with the Catholic Church after a nearly 20-year reprieve begun by Pope Benedict XVI. The cause of their separation was the same as the cause of their first in 1988: the consecration, without papal authorization, of bishops to manage the society and continue ordaining priests. Few doubt the crucial role the society has played in preserving and promoting the traditional, pre–Second Vatican Council liturgy of the church. Many traditionalists in the church also sympathize with the society’s demand for doctrinal clarity after Vatican II. And many believe that the Vatican has done a poor job in talks to allay the society’s fears. The society’s salutary insight—that the truths of the Christian faith are articulated, taught, and internalized by the faithful through the act of worship itself—would seem to have a corresponding truth: that the unity of the church is also made manifest through the act of obedience to lawful authority. The society claims to act as it does because the salvation of souls demands that they take extraordinary action in a time of crisis. But for how long can the society continue to claim to be more Catholic than the pope?

◼ Sam Neill gained worldwide fame for his role as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. But his reputation as an actor was secure before that, when he employed his charm, good looks, and aristocratic accent to star in films such as The Hunt for Red October and Dead Calm. Neill could be suave as well as terrifying. His intensity made him uniquely suited to play characters who teetered on the brink of insanity, as he did in Possession and Event Horizon. But his natural warmth and talent for comedy were equally apparent in his later roles in The Dish and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Dead at 78. R.I.P.

◼ South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham took advantage of any forum available to him—including the Senate cloakroom, committee hearing rooms, and TV studios—to push for whatever he thought was right. We had our disagreements with him over the years, particularly over his persistent support for “comprehensive immigration reform,” but there was never any doubt about his intelligence or energy. Graham had a large pragmatic streak. After denouncing Trump in harsh terms in 2016, he became a confidant and golfing buddy of the president, constantly trying to bend Trump his way. Graham would occasionally dissent in public but otherwise did everything necessary to preserve the relationship and found himself defending conduct that surely would have appalled him a few years earlier. Still, he won many internal GOP battles. He was a steadfast friend of embattled allies Ukraine and Israel and an unremitting enemy of tyrants of every coloration. That his foreign policy was increasingly out of fashion in a GOP with a growing isolationist wing didn’t faze him. He was also a committed pro-lifer, a constitutionalist, and an advocate of limited government. His death is a loss to the Senate and to those conservative causes to which he was devoted. Dead at 71. R.I.P.