There is not much military activity diirectly related to the War with Iran today, but: Iran insists that the U.S. agrees to all concessions before opening the Strait of Hormuz. No serious peace talks are occurring. The Houthis continue to cause problems with Saudi Arabia. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally rejected the U.S. proposal for the Gaza Strip. In other news: Todd Blanche was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as U.S. attorney general. Typhoon Dolphin made landfall over Okinawa at 101 MPH, causing damage, but, at this time, no known deaths.  Next, on to Zhejiang. While not threatening Hong Kong, this storm was deemed responsible for the record high temperature today of just about 98.5 F. As we are expecting to stop through Vancouver after our cruise ship docks in Montreal, I asked Google AI whether the latest British Columbia wild fire is also impacting this city: Yes, there are some active wildfires and smoke in British Columbia , including a small local fire in Metro V...

But first:  The U.S. and Iran gave conflicting informatio n about whether the Strait of Hormuz is open, as strikes escalated over the weekend.  Could be worse.   The USA has not yet invaded Kharg Island . Brent crude oil climbed nearly 10% to $83.30/barrel. WTI petroleum jumped slightly more. According to the official site, the Strait of Hormuz is CLOSED . No FIFA World Cup match today. The only really interesting event of this Major League Baseball All-Star week ( regular season games return on Thursday ) is the Home Run Derby, which will only stream on Netflix from 8PM EDT. So on to my posting of today.  The FIFA World Cup seemed to be full of players faking injuries, something tolerated in the game.   Shouldn't this be morally reprehensible, and deserving of a penalty? Well, volleyball players lie all the time.  They almost never voluntarily admit fault, like in touching balls that go out of bounds. Volleyball players literally have to lie ...