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Happy Friday! Though we’re counting down the days until the election with great trepidation, we’re much more enthusiastic about the countdown to the inaugural Dispatch Summit, now just 25 days away! Join us on November 12 at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C., as we make sense of whatever happens on November 5 and what comes next. Get your ticket here!
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) announced on Thursday that Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza and architect of the terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, had been killed. The body of the terrorist leader—who had been in hiding for the past year in Gaza and was believed to be closely overseeing Hamas military operations—was discovered among the rubble of a building fired on by an Israeli tank during a “routine operation.” The body was later confirmed, through DNA testing, to be that of Sinwar. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Sinwar’s death “the beginning of the day after Hamas.” President Joe Biden called Netanyahu on Wednesday, and the pair reportedly agreed the terrorist leader’s death presented an opportunity for a renewed push to secure the release of the more than 100 hostages Hamas is still holding in Gaza.
- U.S. Central Command announced Wednesday that U.S. military stealth bombers struck five Houthi targets in Yemen on Wednesday evening. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that the Air Force deployed B-2 stealth bombers to target underground weapons storage facilities and emphasized American resolve in the campaign against the Houthis’ disruption of global shipping through the Red Sea.
- The independent, bipartisan panel tasked with investigating the Secret Service failures that led to the nearly successful assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump in July released its findings on Thursday. The panel of four former senior law enforcement and government officials identified an absence of “critical thinking” among agents and a “lack of ownership” of decisions among agents it interviewed. The report also found “little in the way of self-reflection in terms of identifying areas of missteps, omissions or opportunities for improvement” among the Secret Service. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the panel wrote that the “Secret Service requires fundamental reform to carry out its mission,” adding that “without that reform, the Independent Review Panel believes another Butler can and will happen again.” Acting Director of the Secret Service Ronald Rowe Jr. responded to the report on Thursday, saying that the agency will “continue to work with the department to look at those recommendations that are actionable and feasible to make changes in the Secret Service.”
- The Justice Department (DOJ) indicted an Indian government employee, Vikash Yadav, on Thursday on murder-for-hire and money laundering charges in connection to an alleged plan to murder a U.S. citizen Sikh separatist. Last year, the DOJ charged Nikhil Gupta, Yadav’s alleged co-conspirator, with attempting to kill the dissident. The indictment follows Canadian officials’ claims this week that Indian diplomats—six of whom were expelled from Canada—were involved in intelligence gathering on Sikh dissidents in Canada, passing the information gleaned to the Indian government and to Indian crime networks to target the separatists.
- U.S. President Joe Biden traveled to Europe on Thursday for a meeting in Berlin with the leaders of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Talks are expected to focus on the countries’ approach to the conflicts raging in Ukraine and the Middle East. The trip was originally set for earlier this month but was delayed due to Hurricane Milton.
- Revised figures from the FBI reportedly show that violent crime in the U.S. actually increased in 2022 rather than decreased, as the agency had previously reported. Data published last year had shown a 1.7 percent decrease in violent crime, but after the revision—which was not publicly flagged and first reported by RealClearInvestigations—it appears that violent crime increased by more than 4 percent from 2021 to 2022.
- A court in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled the country to India in August following mass protests against her government. Hasina—who led the country from 1996 to 2001 and then since 2009—became progressively autocratic during her tenure, as critics accused her of politically motivated arrests, repressions, extrajudicial killings, and rigged elections. Bangladesh’s International Criminal Tribunal accused Hasina of “crimes against humanity” for her role in the violent suppression of protests. While India and Bangladesh have a mutual extradition treaty, it contains a clause saying that extradition of a “political character” can be refused.
- A grand jury on Thursday reportedly indicted both a 14-year-old shooter and his father, Colin Gray, on murder charges related to a mass shooting at a high school in Georgia in September. Four teachers and students were killed in the shooting at Apalachee High School, and nine others were wounded. The shooter is being charged with 55 counts—including four counts of felony murder—while his father is charged with 29 counts, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, and reckless conduct. Prosecutors seek to hold Colin Gray responsible for buying his son guns and declining his request to take him to a “mental asylum” shortly before the shooting.
- Liam Payne, a former member of the boy band One Direction, died on Wednesday after falling off of a third-story hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Before his fall, staff at the hotel where he was staying reportedly called the police about a guest who appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Payne was 31 years old.
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Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar Dead by Israeli Fire
Israeli troops operating in southern Gaza killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on Wednesday, just over a year after the terrorist chief plunged the Middle East into war with the mass murder and abduction of Israelis and others on October 7, 2023. An Islamic fundamentalist with a reputation for killing his own people in pursuit of Israel’s eradication, the 62-year-old’s death set off a wave of celebrations across Israel and sparked both trepidation and optimism for the future of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) publicly confirmed Sinwar’s death just before 8 p.m. local time on Thursday ...
As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full edition story on the death of Yahya Sinwar and preparations for an AI energy boom is available in the members-only version of TMD.
Worth Your Time
- America has an eloquence problem, James Hankins argued in Law and Liberty. “Everyone knows that American politicians (unlike British ones) are as a rule incompetent public speakers, unable to express their thoughts or persuade people to accept their policies,” he wrote. “Laments are heard on all sides these days that our politicians lack courage. But as Cicero observed, a man is more likely to speak with courage when he knows how to speak and has confidence in his ability to persuade. In the eyes of humanist educators since Isocrates, the acquisition of eloquence was a moral discipline intended to persuade and forge consensus in states; the man who acquired eloquence had acquired an indispensable tool of political leadership. For traditional humanist educators, the ideal orator would, like Cicero, denounce tyranny and corruption and preserve the republic from its enemies. Moreover, being able to speak your mind with power and beauty makes you fully human and thus able to contribute more excellence (or virtue) to the human community.”
Presented Without Comment
U.S. News and World Report: We Created a Monster: Trump Was a TV Fantasy Invented for ‘The Apprentice’
I want to apologize to America. I helped create a monster.
For nearly 25 years, I led marketing at NBC and NBCUniversal. I led the team that marketed “The Apprentice,” the reality show that made Donald Trump a household name outside of New York City, where he was better known for overextending his empire and appearing in celebrity gossip columns.
To sell the show, we created the narrative that Trump was a super-successful businessman who lived like royalty. That was the conceit of the show. At the very least, it was a substantial exaggeration; at worst, it created a false narrative by making him seem more successful than he was.
In the Zeitgeist
We’re about a week late to this one, but jazz pianist Jon Batiste’s interpretation of Beethoven’s “Für Elise” is … perhaps the greatest rendition we’ve ever heard.
Toeing the Company Line
- In the newsletters: The Dispatch Politics crew reported from Wisconsin about the tight U.S. Senate race between Tammy Baldwin and Eric Hovde, Will dug into the present-day implications of a scuttled North Carolina dam project, and Nick argued (🔒) that right-wing outlets are priming their viewers to believe a Trump loss next month can only be explained by fraud.
- On the podcasts: Sarah, Jonah, and Declan are joined on The Dispatch Podcast by Megan McArdle to discuss Kamala Harris’ recent media blitz and the value of “steelmanning” arguments you don’t agree with.
- On the site: Joseph Polidoro explains the deregulatory process that allowed Apple to turn its AirPods into FDA-approved hearing aids, and Kevin pens a succinct case against Trump.
Mary Trimble is a former editor of The Morning Dispatch.
Grayson Logue is a staff writer for The Dispatch and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the company in 2023, he worked in political risk consulting, helping advise Fortune 50 companies. He was also an assistant editor at Providence Magazine and is a graduate student at the University of Edinburgh, pursuing a Master’s degree in history. When Grayson is not writing pieces for the website, he is probably working hard to reduce the number of balls he loses on the golf course.
James P. Sutton is a Morning Dispatch Reporter, based in Washington D.C. Prior to joining the company in 2024, he most recently graduated from University of Oxford with a Master's degree in history. He has also taught high school history in suburban Philadelphia, and interned at National Review and the Foreign Policy Research Institute. When not writing for The Morning Dispatch, he is probably playing racquet sports, reading a history book, or rooting for Bay Area sports teams.
Charlotte Lawson is the editor of The Morning Dispatch, currently based in southern Florida. Prior to joining the company in 2020, she studied history and global security at the University of Virginia. When Charlotte is not keeping up with foreign policy and world affairs, she is probably trying to hone her photography skills.
