The millions of Americans who migrated to the Sunbelt over the past decade are now stuck in the middle of this summer's brutal and record-breaking heat wave.

• Why it matters: The country's fastest-growing region is enduring some of the highest temperatures, threatening some of America's most vulnerable people and billions in economic activity, Axios' Sareen Habeshian reports.

🌴 What's happening: America's population — attracted by lower taxes, bigger homes and lower cost of living for retirees — is moving to more vulnerable locations, where the effects of climate change present huge risks.

• Phoenix set numerous all-time heat records in July.
• Miami experienced its worst heat wave on record.

The big picture: Many of the fastest-growing U.S. metro areas have well-known risks. Some don't have enough water to support their big populations. Others are in the path of hurricanes and other natural disasters.

• The heat this year — and the prospect of hotter summers in the future — has made those risks ever more apparent. But it hasn't been enough to deter Americans from moving to the region.
• Over the past decade, the Sunbelt accounted for 75% of U.S. population growth. The region is now home to about 50% of the nation's population.

What's next: The issue isn't just about how hot it is now — but about how much hotter it's going to get, and for how long each year, said Parag Khanna, CEO of Climate Alpha, a startup that uses AI to measure climate resilience.

• Khanna notes there are still climate-resilient options in the Sunbelt, including Raleigh, Charlotte and Dallas.

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In a desperate effort to combat a chronic teacher shortage and a housing affordability crunch, school districts across the country are getting into a new industry: homebuilding.

• By the numbers: Since 2017, the average American home price has risen 40%, per the nonprofit National Council on Teacher Quality. But starting teacher salaries have only risen 15%, Axios' Emma Hurt writes.

🔎 Zoom in: Districts across the country with affordability problems are betting on various models of constructing housing with below-market rents, often leveraging tax-free, district-owned land.

• San Francisco's school district is building one teacher housing project with a nonprofit developer and considering another.
• Austin Independent School District is looking for development partners to build and manage two teacher housing complexes on unused district land within the year.
• The school superintendent in Bentonville, Ark., recently proposed developing 9 acres of district land for housing, Axios Northwest Arkansas reported.

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Former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is the leading candidate to be the new U.S. ambassador to Israel, and could be nominated by President Biden in the coming weeks, Axios' Hans Nichols and Barak Ravid have learned.

⚡ Why it matters: The successor to Tom Nides — who left as U.S. ambassador in July — will face a complicated political situation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing through a judicial overhaul opposed by many Israelis and the Biden administration.

• A sense of urgency surrounds Biden's appointment: The White House is pushing for a diplomatic mega-deal with Saudi Arabia that could include a normalization agreement between the Saudis and Israel.

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The percentage of Americans who say they've read or heard a great deal about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech decreases generation by generation, Axios' Russell Contreras writes from a Pew Research Center poll.

• Why it matters: Aug. 28 marks the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

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Maui residents and officials are warning tourists to stay away.

• Why it matters: All the hotels and Airbnbs are needed for displaced people. It's upsetting to see vacationers go on snorkel tours when locals are combing through the ashes of their homes.

Hawaii issued an emergency proclamation discouraging all non-essential air travel to Maui.

• "Visitors who have travel plans to West Maui in the coming weeks are encouraged to consider rescheduling their travel plans for a later time," the state’s tourism authority said.

🎥 Hollywood stars with Hawaii roots were blunter, telling people to cancel Maui vacations for the foreseeable future, The Hollywood Reporter writes.

• "Maui is not the place to have your vacation right now," Jason Momoa wrote in an Instagram post. "DO NOT TRAVEL TO MAUI. Do not convince yourself that your presence is needed on an island that is suffering this deeply."
• "DO NOT TRAVEL TO HAWAI'I UNLESS YOU ARE RENDING AID … Your vacation can wait," Hawaii native Auli'i Cravalho, star of the Disney animated movie "Moana," wrote on Instagram.

Get the latest: Death toll from Maui wildfire reaches 93.

PACs backing former President Trump's presidential campaign are increasingly intertwined with his legal woes, Axios' Erin Doherty writes.

• Why it matters: Trump's leadership PAC, Save America, paid more than $36 million in legal fees for Trump's aides and his associates between Jan. 1 of 2021 and June 30 of this year, The Wall Street Journal reported from FEC data.

Nearly 90% of Save America's everyday expenses this year were legal-related, The Journal says.

• Read on.

America is living in "an upside-down reality where criminal charges act as political assets — at least for the purpose of winning the Republican nomination," The New York Times' Jonathan Swan, Ruth Igielnik, Shane Goldmacher and Maggie Haberman report.

• Why it matters: Trump — facing three indictments, with a fourth likely as soon as this week — dominates the Grand Old Party after "years of conditioning of millions of Republican voters who view Mr. Trump's legal troubles as a proxy attack on them."

👀 A Times analysis found: "Trump's indictments didn't just occupy a 24-hour news cycle; the cases consumed whole weeks on both mainstream and conservative media, each following a pattern."

• "There was the week of rumors ahead of the indictments, and then indictment day, arraignment day and the post-arraignment analysis."

💡 Behind the scenes: Trump and his team, who have deliberately sought to maximize live coverage of his arraignments, have gone so far as to "treat court appearances exactly as they would campaign events — choreographing visuals down to minute details and working with all the networks, including those Mr. Trump has pilloried as 'fake news,' such as CNN."

Barbie has always been more popular than Ken.

• For every Ken doll sold today, there are generally eight to 10 Barbies sold, Jim Silver, a toy industry expert, told AP.

But the blockbuster "Barbie" has given Ken more attention that he's gotten in decades — and that could turn toy sales around.

• The top-selling "Barbie" movie item for those last two weeks of July was the Barbie Gingham Dress, followed by the Ken Doll Set, according to marketing firm Circana.