Deadly Attack In Russia Brings Islamic Terrorism to the Fore 

Happy Wednesday! Inflation has hit many Americans where it hurts, driving up prices for everything from fuel to housing. To add insult to injury, cocoa prices are reaching record highs—up 138 percent so far this year—and chocolate companies are now considering price hikes. Everyone stock up on your chocolate bunnies now.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• A Russian court on Tuesday extended the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich for the fifth time, ruling that he would spend another three months in pretrial detention. Gershkovich was arrested in Yekaterinburg, Russia, almost a year ago and has been held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison on espionage charges, which both he and the U.S. government unequivocally deny. The State Department has designated him “wrongfully detained” and demanded his immediate release.
• British judges ruled Tuesday that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the United States until the U.S. government has provided assurances regarding the protection of his First Amendment rights and a guarantee that he will not receive the death penalty—though none of the espionage charges he faces in the U.S. for sharing classified information in 2010 and 2011 carry the sentence. The ruling delays his extradition—first approved in 2022—and gives the U.S. three weeks to comply with the request from the panel of judges. In the absence of a reply from the U.S., Assange may appeal his extradition.
• The Coast Guard announced Tuesday evening it was ending its search-and-rescue operation to retrieve the six members of an eight-person construction crew still missing after the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, collapsed early Tuesday morning. Based on the water temperatures when they would have fallen into the Patapsco River and the time elapsed since, the six are presumed dead. One member of the crew survived the collapse unharmed and another is currently hospitalized. The Port of Baltimore has paused vessel traffic, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said yesterday that there is no timeline for bringing shipping back online. The port is one of the largest in the country, and President Joe Biden said in remarks Tuesday that he wants “to move heaven and earth to reopen [it] and rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible,” with the federal government financing the reconstruction. Moore told reporters yesterday the ship that hit one of the bridge’s columns had lost power and issued an emergency call for help moments before the collision.
• The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in a case regarding the ease of access to the abortion drug mifepristone. The majority of the justices questioned whether the doctors bringing the case challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to expand access to the drug in 2016 had sufficient legal grounds to do so. A decision in the case is expected this summer.
• The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s New York criminal hush-money case on Tuesday imposed a gag order on Trump. The measure—sought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in February—is the third such restriction on the former president across three separate legal cases. New York Judge Juan Merchan barred Trump from “making or directing others to make public statements” about witnesses in the case, the lawyers and staff involved in the case—with the exception of Bragg—or their families. The trial is currently scheduled to begin on April 15.
• In a court filing Tuesday, failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake chose not to contest allegations that she defamed Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer when she accused him of committing election fraud during the state’s 2022 elections. She had failed to file a response to Richer’s June lawsuit, which accused her of baselessly claiming Richer stuffed ballot boxes with fake ballots and intentionally made the ballot confusing for voters in an effort to “rig” the election. Lake has asked the court to convene a jury to decide the damages she owes Richer in the case. 
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Tuesday in a speech in Oakland, California, that Nicole Shanahan, a wealthy California lawyer and philanthropist, will serve as his running mate in his independent bid for president. Shanahan—married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin until last year—has donated millions to the super PAC supporting Kennedy’s campaign.

Terror Strikes Moscow

On Friday night, just before 8 p.m. local time, some 6,000 Muscovites were getting ready to enjoy a sold-out rock concert at the mostly full Crocus City Hall venue in a northern suburb of Russia’s capital.

People were still milling about, moving to their seats when there was a repeated popping sound. At least four gunmen entered the sprawling complex killing anyone they encountered, including shooting some at point-blank range. When the shooters entered the auditorium, they sprayed automatic gunfire at the red seats from which people were fleeing. Then, the attackers set the venue on fire. By 8:30 p.m., a half-hour after the band Picnic was supposed to have taken the stage, thick black smoke was billowing from the complex, now engulfed in flames. It wasn’t long before the roof collapsed, by which point the attackers had already fled.

The terrorists killed at least 139 people and injured more than 100 others, many of whom are still in critical condition. The attack—for which Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, quickly claimed responsibility—was the worst in Russia in almost two decades. Though the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was largely defeated on the battlefield in 2019 after its rise in 2014 and 2015, its operations continue on …

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Worth Your Time

• College basketball phenom Caitlin Clark is one of the best players in the country—man or woman. She’s the highest-scoring NCAA basketball player of all time, and, at 21 years old, trying to “see the gulf between her potential and her reality and close that distance,” Wright Thompson reported in a thoughtful profile for ESPN. “Her teammates came to understand that they were dealing with someone like Mozart. She wasn’t rude, nor necessarily nice, just a different species. At one point that year a sports psychologist came in to work with the team. She started going around the room and asking the players when they felt stressed and anxious and how they reacted to those feelings. One by one, the young women described familiar symptoms and scenarios: sweaty hands, a fear of the free throw line, struggling with breathing, anxiety about the last possession. Finally it was Caitlin’s turn. She seemed a little embarrassed. ‘I never am,’ she said. Everyone in the room somehow understood she was being more vulnerable than cocky.” 
• Writing for the Atlantic, Theo Baker, a Jewish student at Stanford University, sketched a picture of the rancor and division on his campus in the aftermath of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel. “Many young people have come to feel that being angry is enough to foment change,” he wrote. “Furious at the world’s injustices and desperate for a simple way to express that fury, they don’t seem interested in any form of engagement more nuanced than backing a pure protagonist and denouncing an evil enemy. They don’t, always, seem that concerned with the truth. The real story at Stanford is not about the malicious actors who endorse sexual assault and murder as forms of resistance, but about those who passively enable them because they believe their side can do no wrong. You don’t have to understand what you’re arguing for in order to argue for it. You don’t have to be able to name the river or the sea under discussion to chant ‘From the river to the sea.’ This kind of obliviousness explains how one of my friends, a gay activist, can justify Hamas’s actions, even though it would have the two of us—an outspoken queer person and a Jewish reporter—killed in a heartbeat. A similar mentality can exist on the other side: I have heard students insist on the absolute righteousness of Israel yet seem uninterested in learning anything about what life is like in Gaza. Across the many conversations and hours of formal interviews I conducted for this article, I’ve encountered a persistent anti-intellectual streak. I’ve watched many of my classmates treat death so cavalierly that they can protest as a pregame to a party.”

Presented Without Comment

Washington Post: Qatari Royal Invested About $50 Million in Pro-Trump Network Newsmax

Newsmax had been looking for outside investors to better compete with its much larger rival, Fox News, according to people who spoke at the time with its founder and CEO, Christopher Ruddy. Before and after the investment, senior newsroom leaders urged Newsmax staff to soften coverage of Qatar, current and former employees said. A representative for Newsmax strongly disputed that the network “slanted coverage to be favorable to Qatar,” and that Ruddy had told staff not to criticize the country.

Also Presented Without Comment

Politico: [Former RNC Chair] Ronna McDaniel, NBC Part Ways After Backlash Over Hiring

Toeing the Company Line

• Does the Justice Department’s antitrust case against Apple have merit? Do media companies have a responsibility not to “platform” voices they disagree with? Will the Supreme Court weigh in on the FDA’s moves to make abortion drugs available without in-person doctor visits? Declan was joined by Kevin, Jamie, Will, and John to discuss all that and more on last night’s Dispatch Live (🔒). Members who missed the conversation can catch a rerun—either video or audio-only—by clicking here. 
• In the newsletters: Nick tried to read (🔒) the tea leaves on two early 2024 polling trends.
• On the podcasts: Jonah is joined by psychologist and author Rob Henderson on The Remnant to discuss his new book, Troubled: A Memoir of Family, Foster Care, and Social Class. 
• On the site: Jonathan Ruhe argues the success of the U.S. military’s February strikes against Iranian proxies prove Iran can be contained and Jonah takes a look at Trump’s potential running mates. Plus, Thomas Koenig and Thomas Harvey examine whether Sen. John Cornyn, who is seeking to succeed Sen. Mitch McConnell as Senate Republican leader, is open to certain filibuster reform.