Happy Friday! For reasons beyond our comprehension, there is a color of the year. Even more incomprehensibly, the color for 2025 will be … brown.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- Syrian rebels on Thursday entered the western Syrian city of Hama, south of Aleppo, just over a week after the coalition led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham began its offensive against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. Assad’s forces retreated, redeploying outside the city. Over the weekend, rebel forces took Aleppo, entering the city for the first time since they were pushed out by Syrian government forces in 2016.
- Authorities are still searching for the man who fatally shot Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday. Police have released a picture of the man they believe was the shooter—who they said rented a room in a nearby hostel with a fake New Jersey ID—and have also shared that they discovered bullet casings marked with the words “deny” and “delay.”
- A strong 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Northern California on Thursday morning shortly before 11 a.m. PT, prompting a short-lived tsunami warning for the area. There were more than 30 aftershocks later on Thursday, though there were no reports of serious damage, injuries, or landslides following the quake.
- Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch recused himself from a case regarding environmental regulations related to a railroad in Utah, according to a letter from the Supreme Court’s clerk. Congressional Democrats urged Gorsuch to recuse himself over his ties to Philip F. Anschutz, a billionaire who, though not a part of the case, owns oil wells in Utah and could benefit from the increased access to them that the railway project could provide. The letter did not explain Gorsuch’s thinking, stating only that the decision was “consistent with the Code of Conduct for Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States.” The case is set to be argued later this month.
- Estonian officials said on Thursday that Russia’s intelligence services were responsible for a spate of vandalism incidents in the country since October 2023. Authorities said 11 men were carrying out acts of vandalism at the behest of Russian intelligence, breaking the windows of the Estonian interior minister’s car and throwing paint on several World War II memorials, among other acts.
- A federal judge on Thursday rejected a plea deal between prosecutors and Boeing that would have seen the airline company plead guilty to lying to the Federal Aviation Administration before two 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed several hundred people. Boeing agreed to the deal in July, but the judge objected to the fact that under the agreement the Justice Department, rather than the court, would approve the monitor to enforce the agreement. He also took issue with a provision in the deal that would have race be a consideration in the hiring of the independent monitor. The parties have 30 days to decide what to do next.
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A Skrmetti Skirmish
The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in what could prove to be the most politically divisive case since the 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
The arguments in United States v. Skrmetti center on a relatively narrow argument over whether Tennessee’s law banning gender transition treatment for all minors constitutes discrimination based on sex and therefore triggers heightened scrutiny under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. But that didn’t mean the oral arguments were quite so narrow, featuring a pointed back-and-forth with several of the justices and touching on a wide array of issues ranging from how European countries handle gender treatment for minors to women’s sports to parental rights.
How did United States v. Skrmetti make its way to the Supreme Court?
The case involves Senate Bill 1—a Tennessee law adopted last spring that imposed an across-the-board ban on gender transition treatment for minors. The law ...
As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,750-word story on the oral arguments before the Supreme Court is available in the members-only version of TMD.
Worth Your Time
- The fight over gay marriage taught Democrats the wrong lessons, writer Jeremiah Johnson argued for his Substack Infinite Scroll. “We’ve all seen progressive groups that treat every issue like a moral issue, where the maximalist stance is the only acceptable answer and there are no tradeoffs or costs to deal with. … Astonishingly, this approach did work for gay marriage. … But the problem with this Triumphalist approach is that it fails with almost every other issue. Activists have been yelling about abortion for decades and polls simply haven’t moved that much. Defund the Police was never popular and making it a topic of national discourse only made it less popular. Tradeoffs exist. … Most importantly, regular people simply do not like being lectured. They do not like to be scolded and nagged and told that they’re bad people for not believing the same thing as you do. But post-gay marriage, that became the default strategy of the left.”
- Why are Bashar al-Assad’s forces collapsing so quickly in Syria? For Foreign Policy, Charles Lister explained what was happening when no one was looking. “Not only had Assad never truly ‘won’ his country’s civil war, but his rule has also been weakening for some time. His position is more vulnerable than ever before,” he wrote. “While the regime’s embrace of organized crime brings in at least $2.4 billion in profit each year from the sale of just one type of synthetic stimulant, none of that has helped the Syrian people. … HTS and other armed opposition groups have worked intensively since 2020 to enhance their own capabilities. HTS, in particular, has established entirely new units that have arguably changed the game on the battlefield in recent days. … The last time that Assad had to deal with multiple concerted challenges to his territorial control—back in 2015—his regime was pushed to breaking point, and Russia had to militarily intervene to save him. There will be no such savior today.”
Presented Without Comment
The Hill: ‘Santos Claus’ Makes Return as Burchett’s Special Party Guest
Expelled Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) appeared at the Capitol on Thursday dressed in a Santa suit to attend Rep. Tim Burchett’s (R-Tenn.) famous annual 15-minute Christmas party.
Each year, Burchett hosts a quick Christmas party to ring in the holidays in Congress. Last year, his party stretched to 16 minutes, but he decided against it this year, saying he was “going back to the original 15 minutes” because he felt like the slightly longer event dragged on a bit.
Also Presented Without Comment
Stanford Review: EXCLUSIVE: The Review Interviews President Levin
Stanford Review: What is the most important problem in the world right now?
President Levin: There’s no answer to that question. There are too many important problems to give you a single answer.
Stanford Review: That is an application question that we have to answer to apply here.
Also Also Presented Without Comment
NBC News: Secret Service Chief and Trump Assassination Task Force Member Get Into Screaming Match at Final Hearing
In the Zeitgeist
Did it seem like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has been going on for years? You’d be right, but the mammoth run is ending this weekend after almost two years, five continents, and almost 150 shows. Good thing all the Swifties out there have a holiday Lifetime movie inspired by Swift and her football player boyfriend to fill the void:
Toeing the Company Line
- In the newsletters: Will explained why it would be hard to break up Google, and Nick explored (🔒) the pros and cons of Biden preemptively pardoning Liz Cheney before Trump takes office.
- On the podcasts: Sarah is joined by Steve and Jonah to discuss South Korea and Syria on The Dispatch Podcast roundtable.
- On the site: Mike reports on profiteering by Trump’s aides, Charlotte covers the situation in Syria and its regional implications, Drucker writes about how Democrats are evolving on immigration, and Kevin reflects on corporatism and the “swamp.”
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