By Mireille Rebeiz, Dickinson College

A missile strike that killed 12 children playing soccer in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on July 27, 2024, has prompted international concern that the Middle East conflict could expand into the disputed territory.

Fears of an escalation in the simmering conflict between Hezbollah and Israel have prompted some airlines to cancel flights to Lebanon, but business appeared to be proceeding as usual Tuesday at the Beirut airport, where many travelers greeted the warnings with a shrug.

Hadi Sharqawi, 24, a Lebanese student in Italy, arrived Tuesday after two days of flight cancellations, to spend a month and a half with his family as he normally does in the summer. He is from the town of Kharayeb, which is in southern Lebanon although relatively far from the border where clashes have been ongoing for 10 months.

A storm of outrage about the Paris Olympics' opening ceremony took a legal turn Tuesday, with a DJ who performed at the show saying her lawyer is filing complaints over a torrent of threats and other abuse that the LGBTQ+ icon has suffered online in the ceremony's wake.

Barbara Butch's lawyer said in a letter posted to the DJ's Instagram that Butch "has been threatened with death, torture and rape, and has also been the target of numerous anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist and grossophobic insults." Butch's agent confirmed to The Associated Press that the Instagram account is the DJ's.

The head of Ukraine's Olympic delegation touted the limited numbers of Russian athletes at the Paris Olympics — who must compete as neutrals — as war between the two countries grinds on for a third year.

Vadym Guttsait told The Associated Press in an interview that Ukraine began the effort to reduce the number of Russian and Belarusian athletes after the Kremlin's forces invaded Ukraine in 2022 and have kept pressing it nearly until the start of the Games in Paris. Belarus is a key ally of Moscow's.

China's powerful Politburo has endorsed the ruling Communist Party's long-term strategy for growing the economy by encouraging more consumer spending and weeding out unproductive companies to promote "survival of the fittest."

A statement issued after the meeting of the 24 highest leaders of the party warned that coming months would be tough, perhaps alluding to mounting global uncertainties ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.

Europe's economy saw modest growth in the April-June quarter even as the U.S. outperformed expectations, highlighting a persistent transatlantic growth gap. Germany, the leading European economy, remained in the dumps while hesitant consumers saved more rather than spending on new houses or cars.

Gross domestic product, the total output of goods and services, rose 0.3% in the second quarter in the 20 countries that use the euro currency, according to official figures released Tuesday by European Union statistics agency Eurostat. Germany slid back into contraction, recording a 0.1% fall in output.

Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez has revealed that she fought at the Paris Olympics while seven months pregnant.

Hafez posted on Instagram that she was "carrying a little Olympian one" hours after she had reached the round of 16 in women's saber Monday.

It's a tail as old as time. You're in the right place at the right moment and the next thing you know, you're living in the White House.

That's what happened to a stray, gray, green-eyed cat named Willow, who turned up at a Joe Biden rally in Pennsylvania in 2020, jumped onstage and left with soon-to-be first lady Jill, who later wrote a book about her.

Santi Aldama had 19 points and 12 rebounds and Spain defeated Greece 84-77 on Tuesday to earn its first victory of the Paris Olympics and remain in contention to advance to the knockout round.

Sergio Llull finished with 13 points. Spain improved to 1-1 in Group A with one group-stage game left to play against Canada.

On the clay court where he won 14 French Open titles, Rafael Nadal likely bid adieu to Roland Garros on Day 3 of the Paris Olympics.

Nadal was feted Monday by a rowdy crowd as he met Novak Djokovic in the second round of the men's tennis tournament for a record 60th — and probably final — time.