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Happy Monday! The New York Yankees on Friday announced the reversal of the team’s longstanding prohibition on beards, allowing players to sport “well-groomed” facial hair for the first time in decades.
You know what? If the Yankees can get past their stodgy ways, so can we. Grayson, go ahead with that soul patch you’ve been bugging us about.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- Israel on Saturday welcomed home six hostages—Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Eliya Cohen, Avera Mengistu, and Hisham al-Sayed—after more than 500 days in terrorist captivity. The men, who appeared emaciated upon their release, were believed to be the final living abductees scheduled for release as part of the first phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. On Friday, Hamas handed over the body of Shiri Bibas after previously sending to Israel unidentified remains in her place. Upon their examination, forensic scientists concluded that Shiri, like her sons Ariel and Kfir—just 4 years old and 9 months old at the time of their abduction from their Nir Oz home—had been murdered in captivity, not killed in an Israeli airstrike as Hamas previously claimed. Meanwhile, Israel on Sunday delayed the release of 600 Palestinian prisoners in response to Hamas’ “humiliating ceremonies” during the handover of hostages.
- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sent a platoon of tanks to the West Bank on Sunday, the first such deployment since 2002 and part of the military’s intensified operation against terrorist cells in the territory. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday that IDF troops would remain in some of the cleared refugee camps in the northern West Bank for the “coming year,” preventing the return of roughly 40,000 residents. The ramped-up offensive followed the detonation of three bombs on empty buses across the Tel Aviv area last week, which Israeli officials believe originated in the West Bank.
- German voters went to the polls on Sunday for early federal elections, with the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) securing the highest share of the vote (28.6 percent) in the multi-party democracy. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party doubled its vote share from the past election, becoming the second-largest party in the parliament with 20.8 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats (SPD) had its worst-ever showing in a federal election, coming in third place with just 16.5 percent of the vote. Friedrich Merz, the leader of the CDU and a leading candidate to take over as chancellor, will now seek to form a governing coalition.
- Russia launched 267 drones at targets across Ukraine on Sunday, the eve of the third anniversary of the invasion in 2022, in what Ukrainian officials described as the largest such attack of the war. According to the Ukrainian air force, 138 drones were shot down and 119 were jammed through electronic warfare. Later that day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he would be willing to step down as part of a deal that secured lasting peace in Ukraine—and the country’s NATO membership. The statement followed the leak on Friday of a proposed agreement between the U.S. and Ukraine, in which Trump administration officials envisioned Ukraine signing over half of its revenues from natural resources in exchange for reconstruction assistance.
- President Donald Trump moved to fire Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown on Friday, nominating John Dan “Razin” Caine, a retired three-star general, to fill the position. Brown, the former Air Force chief of staff, was elevated by former President Joe Biden as chairman in 2023 and had more than two years left in his term at the time of his dismissal. Also on Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced plans to replace Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Slife, and the top lawyers for the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
- The White House Office of Personnel Management sent out an email with no signature to all federal employees on Saturday, directing them to respond with a summary of their activities over the past week by midnight on Monday. Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, wrote on X that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” Some federal agencies involved in national security—including the FBI and the Departments of Defense, State, and Homeland Security—told their employees not to respond in order to avoid sharing classified information. “The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures,” said Darin S. Selnick, the acting Pentagon official in charge of personnel.
- President Trump on Sunday announced plans to name Dan Bongino, a former Fox News host, as deputy director of the FBI. A right-wing commentator known for his 2020 election denialism, Bongino is poised to serve as FBI Director Kash Patel’s No. 2 at the bureau. The position doesn’t require Senate approval.
- Pope Francis, who was admitted to the hospital on February 14 for pneumonia in both lungs, or “double pneumonia,” remains in critical condition, according to the Vatican. A Sunday statement from the Vatican Press Office said that the 88-year-old pontiff remained “alert and well-oriented,” and participated in Mass on Sunday morning.
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CQ Out, Razin In
After laying off thousands of new hires across the federal government, the Trump administration late last week set its sights on a new target: a handful of the highest-ranking officers in the U.S. military.
President Donald Trump announced Friday night that he was nominating Air Force Lt. Gen. John Dan “Razin” Caine, a retired three-star general, to replace Air Force Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth moved to oust Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Slife, and the top lawyers for the Army, Navy, and Air Force—all without apparent replacements in mind.
“Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars,” the defense secretary said in a statement soliciting nominations for the senior roles.
The unprecedented steps, taken without apparent cause, sent shockwaves through the Pentagon. While some defense analysts and lawmakers viewed the moves as attempts by Trump to elevate loyalists to ...
As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. You can read our 1,380-word item on Trump’s shakeup at the Pentagon in the members-only version of TMD.
Worth Your Time
- In the New Yorker, Isaac Chotiner interviews Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev on Europe’s path forward amid the United States’ threatened disengagement from the continent. “I see the American government as a revolutionary government. They’re not simply trying to remake the United States—they’re going to remake the world. They’re coming in with a totally different instinct about what is to be valued and what is to be feared,” Krastev warned. “Trump has been signaling for a long time how he views Europe, and how he views European governments. The problem is that Europe was denying this and rejecting it and trying to hide from itself that this was going to be a revolutionary government. They were trying to remember how Europe had dealt with Trump during his first term, not recognizing the difference between Trump I and Trump II. … The nature of European politics is changing. Before, people talked about liberals, anti-liberals, globalists, nationalists. Now we’re going to end up with a clash between two different types of nationalists. On the far right, you’re going to see a Trumpian right. They see Trump as a model, and they’re very much anti-liberal, anti-woke, with vague talk about a Christian legacy in Europe. On the other side, as a result of Munich, you will see the emergence of a kind of a don’t-bully-us European mainstream, which basically is trying to make its legitimacy with the voters by resisting American policies.”
- Southwest, America’s most beloved budget airline, has recently been acquired by a hedge fund—and big changes are afoot. In Texas Monthly, Joseph Guinto surveys the culture shift facing the company: “For an airline that has long touted its familial employee relations, handing out pink slips makes plain that Southwest is having its own seriously sober moment. Can the airline soar by changing so much of what has made it distinctive—without alienating passengers and employees? Or, by mimicking its competitors, will it end up mimicking their lackluster financial performance of the past few decades?”
Presented Without Comment
Republican Sen. John Curtis, asked on Face the Nation whether the president has the unilateral authority to cancel funds appropriated by Congress: “We’ll find out.”
In the Zeitgeist
Speaking to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, Lexi Klein told the poignant story of how her grandparents—both Holocaust survivors—met during the Allied liberation of Czechoslovakia. It’s well worth a watch.
Toeing the Company Line
- In the newsletters: Jonah Goldberg wrote about Donald Trump’s treatment of America’s allies, Nick Catoggio considered how (🔒) the president is deploying intimidation tactics against Congress, and Karen Swallow Prior argued that justice and mercy need not oppose each other for Dispatch Faith.
- On the podcasts: Jonah ruminated on Anthony Scaramucci, Eric Adams, and Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine. And on today’s Dispatch Podcast, Jamie Weinstein is joined by Joe Scarborough to break down an eventful first month of the Trump administration.
- On the site over the weekend: Alec Dent reviewed Lawrence Perelman’s new book on William F. Buckley’s musical side, Aryana Petrosky asked us to remember bipartisan legislators more fondly, and our new ideas editor Valerie Pavilonis answered subscriber questions in our Monthly Mailbag.
- On the site today: Bobby Miller pens today’s Monday Essay on the damage of an excessively powerful executive branch and John McCormack speaks with former Vice President Mike Pence about how he hopes to influence the second Trump administration—and whether he can.
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.
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.
Cole Murphy is a Morning Dispatch Reporter based in Atlanta. Prior to joining the company in 2025, he interned at The Dispatch and worked in business strategy at Home Depot. When Cole is not conributing to TMD, he is probably seeing a movie, listening to indie country music, or having his heart broken by Atlanta sports teams.
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