Israel’s military struck a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut’s suburbs on July 30, saying it targeted the commander responsible for the attack that killed 12 Israeli children in the Golan Heights. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a statement saying Israeli Air Force fighter jets had eliminated Fuad Shukr, also known as “Sayyid Muhsan,” Hezbollah’s “most senior military commander.”

Mr. Shukr served as Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s right-hand man and was his adviser for planning and directing wartime operations, the IDF said. As the head of Hezbollah’s Strategic Unit, the IDF said, Mr. Shukr was responsible for the majority of Hezbollah’s most advanced weaponry, including precise-guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets, and UAVs.

While the strike is raising concerns of a broader regional war, Israel did not conduct any further attacks and there were no reports of retaliatory action by Hezbollah.

The organizers of the Paris Olympics apologized to Christian and Catholic groups on July 28 over a staged parody of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” painting that was part of last week’s opening ceremony. The segment on July 26 copied the biblical scene of Jesus Christ and the 12 apostles sharing the last meal before his crucifixion, but it included drag queens, a transgender individual, and a nude singer.

“Clearly, there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. [The opening ceremony] tried to celebrate community tolerance,” Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps said on July 28.

Catholics and other Christians decried the scene. “Would they ever have dared mock Islam in a similar way?” Catholic Bishop Robert Barron of the Winona-Rochester Diocese in Minnesota wrote on X. “This deeply secularist, post-modern society knows who its enemy is—they’re naming it—and we should believe them.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced on July 30 that a bill to expand the Child Tax Credit would receive a vote in the Senate on Aug. 1, before the body breaks for its month-long August recess.

The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act would increase the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit for the 2023 tax year to $1,800—up from $1,600 at present—with $100 increases each year for 2024 and 2025, at which the full $2,000 of the credit would become refundable. It would also allow parents to claim a credit for each qualifying child, as opposed to a single credit regardless of the number of children, and make it adjustable for inflation in 2024 and 2025.

But the measure faces headwinds in the Senate despite gaining two-thirds support in the House. Some Senate Republicans took issue with a “lookback provision,” which allows parents to claim the credit based on a previous year’s income even if greater than the current year. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the chairman of the Finance Committee and the bill’s lead sponsor in the Senate, told The Epoch Times that he offered to remove the “lookback” provision in response, though it hasn’t changed Republican opposition.