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Happy Tuesday! A funeral home in El Salvador is offering customers the option to buy hot pink coffins with photos of Barbie embroidered along the interior lining, in case you’re interested in that kind of thing.
If you are interested in that kind of thing, please stay far, far away from us and our families.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- A group of American scientists said Sunday that they had achieved net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the second time. The researchers at the federal Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California first achieved the breakthrough—which could pave the way for limitless nuclear energy without the need for uranium—in December, but they said their experiment nine days ago produced even more energy than the initial one.
- The U.S. Navy deployed more than 3,000 troops to the Red Sea on Sunday in response to aggressive action by Iran toward civilian vessels in recent months. The Associated Press reported late last week that the Pentagon is considering whether to put armed personnel on commercial ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz as tensions between the two countries escalate.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this weekend he planned to forgo the remaining pieces of his controversial judicial overhaul plan. Aside from a plan to change the composition of the committee that selects judges, he told Bloomberg TV Sunday that he wouldn’t push the rest of the package. “That’s basically what’s left because other things I think we should not legislate,” he said.
- Three ships capsized in the Mediterranean Sea over the weekend, leaving more than 80 people missing and at least 10 dead. Several accidents involving migrant vessels in Europe have ended in devastation in recent months, including one off the coast of Greece that is presumed to have killed hundreds in June.
- Italy appears to be backing away from its membership in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which would remove one of the only major Western economies to join. Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto recently criticized the decision to join the initiative four years ago as an “improvised and atrocious act,” hinting that the government is looking for a way out “without damaging relations.”
- Ukrainian security services claimed Monday they had detained an informant in a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky. The informant was attempting to share details about Zelensky’s visit to Mykolaiv—a region in southern Ukraine—in preparation for a Russian airstrike on the area, according to Ukrainian officials.
- Jeff Gunter, a former U.S. ambassador to Iceland during the Trump administration, announced Monday he is running as a Republican to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen in Nevada. Gunter joins a growing GOP primary field, including former Nevada Secretary of State Jim Marchant and military veteran Sam Brown. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has voiced approval for Brown’s bid.
- Mike Pence’s presidential campaign announced Monday the former vice president had secured enough individual donors to qualify for the first Republican presidential primary debate in Milwaukee on August 23. Eight candidates have now qualified for the debate: Pence, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Chris Christie, and Doug Burgum.
China Continues Testing United States’ Mettle
It’s been a big year for shady activity by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Since January alone, the American public has learned of a Chinese spy balloon over the United States, a secret police outpost in Manhattan, a listening station in Cuba, and People’s Liberation Army pilots and sailors picking fights with U.S. military planes and ships in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.
Following a post-balloon freeze in relations, the Biden administration has been pursuing a diplomatic detente in an effort to find areas where Washington and Beijing can work together—and establish high-level, fail-safe levers to avoid any potential crises. But revelations about Chinese espionage and intimidation efforts continue.
Worth Your Time
- Charlie Kirk and his organization, Turning Point USA, have become some of the most powerful forces among young people on the right—and that’s not good. “The energy of young conservatives is squarely behind the combative nature of politics that Kirk endorses,” Scott Howard, a student at the University of Florida, writes for National Review. “It is tempting to look at Kirk and the circumstances that have put air beneath his wings and conclude that such a man should be welcomed as a representative of American conservatism broadly. Such an acquiescence to Kirk’s prominence would be wrong, however. He engages in reckless rhetoric that disgraces the conservative cause. He indulges people who would otherwise be left to the fringe of American politics. He parrots the worst lies perpetuated by his patron in Mar-a-Lago and thereby does immense damage to the conservative movement among younger Americans.”
- Tish Harrison Warren, a religion writer and Anglican priest, explains why she’s leaving her New York Times opinion newsletter behind. “There is danger in becoming a pundit, particularly on matters of faith and spirituality,” she writes. “For any person of faith, public engagement must be balanced with times of withdrawal, of silence, prayer, questioning and wonder beyond the reach of words. Otherwise, faith with all its strange and startling topology becomes a flat and sterile thing, something to be dissected, instead of embraced. And typically once something is fit only for dissection, it is dead. I bring this up because it is a temptation for all of us now. Social media and digital technology have made us all pundits.” Informed public debate is crucial to our civic life, but the constant back and forth of online discussion and arguments can go too far, Warren argues. “Don’t get me wrong: Global and national news is important and I will continue to read news and opinion pieces nearly every day,” she writes. “But for me, as for most of us, the places we meet God—the places we become human—are not primarily in abstract debates about culture wars or the role of religion in society, but in worship on a Sunday morning or in dropping off soup for a grieving friend, in a vulnerable conversation or in making breakfast at the homeless shelter down the street, in celebration with a neighbor or in the drowsy prayers uttered while rocking a feverish toddler in the middle of the night.”
Presented Without Comment
The Athletic: [Baltimore] Orioles Suspend Announcer Kevin Brown Over Comment About Baltimore’s Lack of Success at [Tampa Bay] Rays
Toeing the Company Line
- It’s Tuesday, which means Dispatch Live (🔒) returns tonight at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT! Kevin will be joined by Warren, Charlotte, Grayson, and Mary to 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: The Dispatch Politics team looks at Mike Pence’s attempt to capitalize on his time in the spotlight, Kevin argues (🔒) Trump’s continued popularity with Republican voters is damning for the GOP, and Nick dives into (🔒) the more aggressive January 6 rhetoric from Trump’s Republican rivals.
- On the podcasts: UC Berkeley law professor Orin Kerr joins David and Sarah on a new episode of Advisory Opinions to explain how Fourth Amendment jurisprudence applies to a digital age.
- On the site: Charlotte has the latest on the prospect of wider war in Africa after the coup in Niger, Stirewalt writes on the allure of “someone else” for the GOP, and Kevin Carroll reminds readers how scary a bullet we dodged with Trump’s post-election schemes.
Declan Garvey is the executive editor at the Dispatch and is based in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the company in 2019, he worked in public affairs at Hamilton Place Strategies and market research at Echelon Insights. When Declan is not assigning and editing pieces, he is probably watching a Cubs game, listening to podcasts on 3x speed, or trying a new recipe with his wife.
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.
Jacob Wendler is an intern for The Dispatch.
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