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Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Monday the deaths of two reservist soldiers in central Gaza over the weekend, bringing the number of Israeli troops killed since the ground offensive’s start to 263. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Hamas on Monday to accept a U.S.-proposed deal that would exchange Israeli hostages held in Gaza for a six-week ceasefire, calling the arrangement “very generous.” This comes as Axios reported Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked President Joe Biden on Sunday to help prevent the International Criminal Court (ICC) from issuing arrest warrants for him and other senior Israeli officials—including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi—in the coming days. “As we have publicly said many times,” a spokesperson for the White House National Council said, “the ICC has no jurisdiction in this situation and we do not support its investigation.”
- At least 71 people were killed by flash floods and a landslide in southern Kenya around 3 a.m. local time Monday morning amid an onslaught of rainfall across East Africa in recent weeks. With 130,000 Kenyans displaced by the floods—and further rainfall expected—the country’s Education Ministry has delayed reopening schools until May 6.
- Humza Yousaf, the first minister of Scotland, stepped down on Monday amid an imminent vote of no confidence he was likely to lose. Yousaf, whose resignation comes after only 13 months in the position, ended a political alliance on Thursday between his party—the pro-independence Scottish National Party embroiled in a financial scandal—and the Scottish Green Party due to disagreements over gender-transition treatment for minors in the wake of the Cass Review, among other issues.
- Columbia University administrators announced Monday they had begun to suspend pro-Palestinian student protesters after they ignored an ultimatum ordering them to disperse by 2 p.m. The suspensions would bar the students from university property and prevent them from attending class or graduating, according to a notice from the administration. Also on Monday, Texas state troopers in riot gear dispersed pro-Palestinian student protesters attempting to occupy parts of the University of Texas at Austin’s campus, arresting dozens more demonstrators after state troopers had arrested more than 50 last week. Virginia state police and Richmond city police on Monday evening also arrested pro-Palestinian protesters outside a library at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.
- Texas’ Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration on Monday over changes the Department of Education made earlier this month expanding federal Title IX protections to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. In the filing, Paxton alleged the Biden administration violated federal rulemaking requirements and that the changes compel states to “ignore biological sex or face enforcement actions and the loss of federal education funding.” Meanwhile, a federal appeals court in Virginia ruled on Monday that state healthcare plans must provide coverage for gender-transition treatment. The court said that North Carolina and West Virginia’s laws removing gender transition treatment from their states’ plans “discriminate on the basis of gender identity and sex in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.”
- Politico reported over the weekend that James Biden, President Biden’s brother, partnered with companies backed by Qatari government officials to fund his healthcare ventures, according to testimony from a former business partner of James Biden’s during bankruptcy proceedings in Kentucky. If accurate, the alleged ties between James Biden and the Qatari officials would be the closest known financial connection between Joe Biden and a foreign government.
- Former naval aviator Aaron Dimmock filed last week to run against GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida in the Republican primary for the seat just hours before the Friday deadline. Gaetz had previously been without a challenger in the August 20 primary.
U.S. Decline in the Sahel
Last month, a U.S. delegation visited Niger’s capital city of Niamey to meet with representatives of the ruling junta that had ousted Niger’s democratically-elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, in July. The day after the meeting, the junta announced—in direct contradiction to the U.S. officials’ desires—the suspension of military cooperation with the U.S., ordering American troops to leave the country. This week, Defense Department officials will hold meetings in Niamey to coordinate plans for a full exit.
The withdrawal comes as the U.S. is also removing some troops from the neighboring country of Chad, marking another potential blow to U.S. security partnerships in a coup-stricken region that remains a hotbed for terrorism while Russia readies to …
As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,491-word story on the U.S. military’s presence in East Africa is available in the members-only version of TMD.
Worth Your Time
- National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke has a question for the pro-Palestinian student protesters continuing their encampment on Columbia University’s campus: “Why, exactly, are these protests happening at all?” he asked. “By this, I don’t mean, ‘What is it that the protesters are saying?’ I know that. By this, I mean, ‘Why is it that they are saying it where they are saying it?’ The faculty at Columbia is not in charge of Israel or the Israeli military; it does not set American foreign policy; and it did not contrive any of the historical or geopolitical questions that underpin the broader fight. I daresay that there are students at Columbia who, for whatever reason, are vexed by the state of the world, but to take this out on their fellow students and the staff at their school makes no more sense than to take it out on the staff at Pedro’s Deli. The two things do not, in any meaningful way, even come close to intersecting. … Sometimes, silence really is golden—even if you’re a discontented college student who has just discovered that life isn’t fair.”
- U.S. military leadership isn’t paying enough attention to logistics or the Army’s role in managing them in the event of a conflict in the Indo-Pacific, Carmelia Scott-Skillern and Peter Singer argued in War on the Rocks. “As Gen. Omar Bradley is credited as saying, ‘Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics,’” they wrote. “The Army was central to the last two decades of operations in Central Command, but many assume it will play a more limited role in the Indo-Pacific, aptly described as ‘a theater named for two oceans.’ And yet, war remains a human endeavor, meaning that same watery theater is also defined by the 36 nations therein. … As such, the Army’s role in the theater is best viewed as ‘the backbone of U.S. Joint Operations.’” But these logistics are in need of reinforcement: “If the United States hopes to maintain its deterrence posture in the Indo-Pacific, it should address three key obstacles: the region’s unique demands of geography; new, extended dangers to its supply lines; and a force that has changed but not changed enough in its equipment and sustainment practices.”
Presented Without Comment
Wall Street Journal: House Republicans’ Bench Thins—Yet Daredevils Can’t Quit Skydiving
The first text message Rep. Rudy Yakym (R., Ind.) sent after skydiving in January was to House Majority Whip Tom Emmer to tell him that he was OK—and that Republicans’ ranks hadn’t been further diminished.
“Don’t worry, Tom. Your whip count is still safe,” he wrote.
It was half jest, half reassurance. Yakym is among a group of adrenaline junkies in the Republican conference embracing extreme sports in their free time—which might make for fun office chatter if the GOP didn’t have a razor-thin 217-212 majority in the House.
Also Presented Without Comment
The Hill: [Former GOP Rep.] George Santos Hawking Cameo Videos With His Drag Queen Alter Ego: ‘I’ve Decided to Bring Kitara Out of the Closet’
In the Zeitgeist
We have to admit that we missed this trailer when it dropped a few weeks ago. The movie looks like a hoot, but we have a feeling it’s going to give Alex some fact-checking fodder.
Toeing the Company Line
- It’s Tuesday, which means Dispatch Live (🔒) returns tonight at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT! The team will discuss the news of the week and, of course, take plenty of viewer questions! Keep an eye out for an email later today with information on how to tune in.
- In the newsletters: Kevin revels in (🔒) the stupidity of House Republicans, the Dispatch Politics crew covered Maryland’s heavily contested Democratic Senate primary, and Nick encroached on (🔒) Jonah’s territory by weighing in on South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s dog debacle.
- On the podcasts: David’s back after a bout of food poisoning to discuss the Trump immunity ban with Sarah on Advisory Opinions.
- On the site: Chris argues partisan media doesn’t do its own side any favors and Kevin looks back on lessons to be learned from Rocky.
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