America's engagement with news has spiked over the past few weeks, giving news publishers a much-needed reprieve from bad traffic and ratings, Axios' Sara Fischer and Neal Rothschild write.

• Why it matters: Election years are typically a boon to the news business, but this year has turned out to be one of the most brutal ever for the industry, with layoffs and cost-cutting measures reaching records.

📈 By the numbers: Since the June 27 debate, web traffic to U.S. news sites spiked to the highest level since early 2023, according to data of Taboola Newsroom users.

• Across a group of eight major publications we looked at, there was a 50% increase in Instagram interactions and a 42% jump in Facebook interactions in the last 30 days compared to the month prior, according to exclusive data from NewsWhip.
• Cable news networks saw ratings bumps in June due to CNN's June 27th debate, which aired across most major cable and broadcast news networks.
• Fox has so far seen an enormous ratings jump this month. It averaged more than 5 million total viewers in primetime last week during the RNC.

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The Biden administration fears that a rocket attack from Lebanon that hit a soccer field in the Golan Heights and killed 12 children and teens could lead to an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, U.S. officials tell Axios' Barak Ravid.

• The big picture: U.S. officials are also concerned that, without a ceasefire in Gaza, a war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group is becoming more likely, which would draw the U.S. deeper into the regional crisis.
• "What happened today could be the trigger we have been worried about and tried to avoid for 10 months," a U.S. official told Axios.

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Hezbollah was responsible for the attack, calling it the "most serious targeting" of Israeli civilians since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

• Hezbollah said it had no connection to the incident.

The latest: Secretary of State Antony Blinken said today that the U.S. assesses Hezbollah fired the rocket and that the administration is trying to prevent further escalation.

• The Israeli security cabinet also convened today to discuss what is likely to be a significant military response.

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Bruce Mehlman's "Six Chart Sunday" points to a "relief rally" among Democrats after President Biden dropped out and endorsed Vice President Harris to succeed him.

• "Roughly four out of five voters in each party now say they are enthusiastic about their chosen candidate, reversing a lopsided deficit earlier this month among Democrats," The Wall Street Journal reports from a poll out Friday evening.
• Bruce's full post.

🔮 For your radar: This short list of three potential running-mates for Vice President Harris, reported by Bloomberg, sounds right — all elected Democratic officials with national appeal: Sen. Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

💰 Breaking: The Harris campaign said this morning that it raised a record-breaking $200 million in the first week after President Biden's endorsement.

• 66% came from first-time donors.

Less than half of America's population was alive during the last period of extreme domestic political upheaval 50+ years ago.

• Why it matters: The country's youngest have never seen this combination of eye-popping headlines, presidential uncertainty and attempted political assassination, Axios' Noah Bressner writes.

They're already accustomed to turbulent times with COVID and the rise of Donald Trump. But you have to go back further to see anything resembling this summer's whiplash-inducing chaos:

• A dismal debate performance four weeks ago prompted President Biden to reluctantly quit his campaign.
• Trump, shot two weeks ago at a campaign rally, became the first president or presidential candidate wounded by a would-be assassin in decades.
• Earlier this summer, Trump became the first former president convicted of a crime.

Zoom in: While historic events rarely fit into neat buckets, these three periods — all in the last century — featured a similarly rapid pace of news.

• 1968: The Vietnam War raged. President Lyndon B. Johnson shocked the nation by announcing he wouldn't seek re-election. Robert F. Kennedy — running to be the Democratic presidential nominee — and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated.
• 1972-74: Burglars with ties to President Nixon's campaign broke into the Watergate building, unleashing a years-long scandal that ended with his resignation two years later. George Wallace — a segregationist former governor running for president — was shot and paralyzed.
• 1940: Philip Klinkner, a Hamilton College professor writing for The Conversation, said this year stands out. Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Winston Churchill took over as British prime minister. FDR became the first — and last — president elected to a third term.

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Kamala Harris is testing Donald Trump's support among white women — a group that helped put him in the White House in 2016.

• Why it matters: White women — who have backed Trump in the last two elections — already were a concern for the former president because of the Supreme Court's rejection of abortion rights under Roe v. Wade, Axios' Sophia Cai and Delano Massey write.

Now, with President Biden out of the race, Trump has to contend with a younger, more energetic woman candidate who's added new energy to voters who are worried about reproductive rights — and were apathetic about a Biden-Trump matchup.

• Zoom in: Democrats hope that women motivated by Harris' candidacy help her in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — and give her a chance in North Carolina and Georgia, where Biden had been trailing Trump.

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Vice presidential nominee JD Vance sent an email apologizing to a close friend from Yale Law who identified as transgender, but was described as a lesbian in "Hillbilly Elegy," the N.Y. Times' Stephanie Saul reports in "JD Vance, an Unlikely Friendship and Why It Ended."

• "Hey Sofes, here's an excerpt from my book," Vance wrote to his friend, Sofia Nelson, who provided The Times with 90 of their emails and text messages, mostly from 2014 through 2017.
• "I recognize now that this may not accurately reflect how you think of yourself, and for that I am really sorry," Vance wrote on June 29, 2016, the day after the book was published. "I hope you're not offended, but if you are, I'm sorry! Love you, JD."

Why it matters: The email trove reflects "Vance's ideological pivot from Never Trumper to Mr. Trump's running mate," and shows "a young man quite different from the hard-right culture warrior of today," The Times notes.

In 2014, following the killing of Michael Brown, a Black 18-year-old, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., Nelson raised the idea of requiring body cameras. Vance responded with sympathy for those affected by police violence:

• "I'm pretty proud of what Cincinnati [where Vance lives] has done, but don't know anything about tying grant funding to body cameras. I love the body camera movement, and anything that puts cops back in the mindset of service and protection instead of control and coercion. I hate the police. Given the number of negative experiences I've had in the past few years, I can't imagine what a black guy goes through."

In 2015, Nelson wrote to Vance that a Muslim friend had said women wearing hijabs no longer felt safe doing simple things like going to the grocery store. Vance replied:

• "I'm not even sure how I feel about this Muslim stuff. I'm obviously outraged at Trump's rhetoric, and I worry most of all about how welcome Muslim citizens feel in their own country. But I also think that people have always believed crazy s**t ... And there have always been demagogues willing to exploit the people who believe crazy s***."

The other side: Vance allies say the emails show him saying the same thing in private that he was saying on TV.

• A campaign statement says: "It's unfortunate this individual chose to leak decade-old private conversations between friends ... Senator Vance values his friendships with individuals across the political spectrum. He ... has thoroughly explained why he changed his mind on President Trump. Despite their disagreements, Senator Vance cares for Sofia and wishes Sofia the very best."

Read the story ... Excerpts from the emails.

A nursery, a mindfulness area and on-site training facilities are among the firsts that separate this Olympic Village from the ones that housed athletes at prior games, Axios' Ina Fried writes in a postcard from Paris.

👀 Between the lines: Sustainability is a major focus with the return of the much-talked about cardboard bed frames that debuted in Tokyo.

• Organizers skipped air conditioning in favor of a more environmentally friendly water-cooling system, but many countries opted to bring in their own AC units.

The mindfulness zone has VR headsets for meditation and the option to contribute to a paint-by-numbers canvas.

• More on the Olympic Village.

⚡ Latest headlines:

• Simone Biles battled through a calf injury during her qualifying round this morning, but she still leads all gymnasts who have competed thus far.
• Friday night's Opening Ceremony drew nearly 29 million viewers, the highest since 2012.
• Soccer's governing body is docking points from the Canadian women's soccer team and suspending its head coach over a drone spying scandal.

Team USA's Asher Hong, a Stanford athlete from Texas, competes yesterday on the parallel bars during a men's artistic gymnastics qualification round.

• Events to watch today.