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We’re personally very excited about this new era.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- A prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, announced on Monday that he had requested arrest warrants for both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and leaders of Hamas. Khan alleged Netanyahu and members of his government—including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—are “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.” President Joe Biden condemned Khan’s request Monday, saying, “Whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence—none—between Israel and Hamas.” Neither the U.S. nor Israel are signatories of the Rome Statute, which established the ICC. A panel of ICC judges will now consider Khan’s allegations before deciding whether to issue the warrants.
- The Defense Department announced Monday that U.S. military personnel will complete their exit from Niger by September 15. U.S. defense officials met in recent days with members of the West African country’s ruling military junta—which ousted its democratically elected president in a July 2023 coup—to discuss the withdrawal plan after the Nigerien regime ordered in March that all U.S. forces, about 1,000 personnel in total, leave the country.
- Two judges on the United Kingdom’s High Court on Monday granted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange the right to appeal his pending extradition to the United States. Assange is wanted in the U.S. on espionage charges—including conspiring to obtain and publish classified national security data—but the British judges will now weigh whether Assange, an Australian citizen, will be granted adequate legal protection under the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. promise that prosecutors will not seek the death penalty in the case.
- Prosecutors in former President Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial rested their case on Monday after Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, faced his third day of cross-examination from Trump’s defense team, which attempted to impugn Cohen’s credibility. The defense on Monday also brought its first witness, lawyer Robert Costello, who testified that Cohen told him that Trump “knew nothing” about hush-money payments Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. In a tense exchange late in the day Judge Juan Merchan grew frustrated at Costello’s behavior on the stand. He instructed the jury to leave the courtroom so that he could admonish Costello, who had continued to give testimony several times after the judge had sustained an objection to his words. “If you try to stare me down one more time I will remove you from the stand,” Merchan told Costello after the jury left the room, threatening to strike his testimony.
- The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Martin Gruenberg, the chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), plans to step down from his position following bipartisan pressure on him to resign. The news follows an independent investigation that found widespread sexual harassment, discrimination, and abuse at the bank regulator. Gruenberg will reportedly remain at the FDIC until the Biden administration nominates—and the Senate confirms—his successor.
The ‘Butcher’ No Longer
The day after their helicopter’s “hard landing” in the mountains of northwest Iran killed Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian Sunday, Iranian propaganda ...
As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,264-word story on the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is available in the members-only version of TMD. Become a member for full access.
Worth Your Time
- The National Association of Realtors (NAR) doesn’t just know how to sell homes and buildings: It also sells a good time to the rich and politically influential, Maggie Severs and Byron Tau reported for NOTUS. “Realtors are a dominant force in American life, even if you only ever think about them when you’re buying or selling a home,” they wrote. “NAR is flush with cash, with an annual revenue of more than $300 million—bigger than the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable combined. It is the second-largest spender on federal lobbying in the United States and doles out tens of millions of dollars on elections each cycle.” But that may be about to end. “To hear critics tell it, NAR and its more than 1,000 state and local affiliates have exploited their influence over real estate transactions to gain more money, which they spent building a gigantic political influence apparatus that secured their status. But behind the partying and spending, NAR has been facing existential risk since the advent of the internet. And over the last two years, it has started to come crashing down.”
- Ed Dwight, the first black man to train as an astronaut, spent his life preparing for a call from NASA that never came. But this weekend, at 90 years old, he became the oldest person to go to space. “An astronaut candidate in the early 1960s, he became a celebrity in the Black community, landing on the covers of Jet and Ebony magazines as a trailblazing pilot,” Joseph De Avila wrote for the Wall Street Journal. “But the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ultimately never selected him. He gave up the dream and later became a renowned sculptor focusing on Black history. … [On Sunday] Dwight [was] one of six people scheduled to board the latest Blue Origin flight, the first with humans aboard in nearly two years. … ‘My hope was just getting into space in any kind of way, but they weren’t going to let that happen,’ Dwight said in ‘The Space Race.’ ‘Had all the things been equal, I would have made it to the moon. I had the capabilities, and I was not given that opportunity.’”
Presented Without Comment
New York Times: Trump Posts Video Online With Newspaper Headline About ‘Unified Reich’
Also Presented Without Comment
New York Post: Biden Says Maimed American Hersh Goldberg-Polin is ‘Here With Us Today’ at Rose Garden Party—Despite Still Being Held by Hamas
“My administration is working around the clock to free the remaining hostages, just as we have freed hostages already. And here with us today is Hersh Goldberg-Polin,” Biden, 81, announced at the Rose Garden party. A moment later, the president added, “He is not here with us. But he is still being held by Hamas.”
Also Also Presented Without Comment
Variety: OpenAI Suspends ChatGPT Voice That Sounds Like Scarlett Johansson in ‘Her’
In the Zeitgeist
The first trailer for Kevin Costner’s four-part Western epic Horizon: An American Saga predated In the Zeitgeist, so we thought we’d highlight the release of the second trailer.
In a GQ profile of Costner published Monday, the actor—star, director, and co-writer on the project—explains how he’s been trying to make the film since 1988 and has invested $38 million of his own money, even mortgaging property he plans to build his last family home on:
“I thought the window was closing on me being able to be an effective part in that movie,” Costner said. “And so I basically burned my ships.” He went on, trying to make sure I understood: “Like Cortés, we’re f***ing here. I’m going to make this. And I mortgaged property. Now do you get it?”
Toeing the Company Line
- It’s Tuesday, which means Dispatch Live (🔒) returns tonight at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT! Declan and 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 reprised (🔒) his role as moderator in the upcoming presidential debate, the Dispatch Politics crew reported on RFK Jr.’s campaign from a rally in Colorado, and Nick reluctantly made the case for Nikki Haley to be Trump’s vice president.
- On the podcasts: Sarah and David discuss the Alito upside-down flag controversy, judicial ethics, executive privilege, the “tacos are sandwiches” debate, and more on Advisory Opinions.
- On the site: Charlotte examines the dark legacy of Iran’s late president, Ebrahim Raisi, and Chris explains both parties’ immigration policy gambits.
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