How’s Government Appropriation Season Going?

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Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.2 percent month-over-month and 2.9 percent annually in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Wednesday, marking the lowest annual inflation reading since March 2021. By comparison, last month’s CPI report indicated a slight 0.1 percent decline month-over-month in June and a 3.0 percent annual increase. Core inflation—CPI stripped of the more volatile food and energy prices—also increased by 0.2 percent from June to July and 3.2 percent since July 2023, the lowest annual increase since April 2021. The Federal Reserve will see one more CPI report before deciding whether or not to cut rates at its meeting next month. 
• Ukraine has expanded its offensive into Russian territory in recent days, launching an attack in the western Russian region of Belgorod in addition to the advance in the Kursk region. The Belgorod governor declared a state of emergency there on Wednesday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces are continuing to push through Russia’s Kursk oblast—adjacent to Belgorod—and he estimated Ukraine has seized one to two kilometers in the region, capturing more than 100 Russian soldiers in the process. The Ukrainian military also targeted air bases in Russia as part of the advance on Tuesday night, though Russia claimed to have shot down more than 100 missiles and drones that were part of the onslaught. 
• German government officials issued an international arrest warrant for a Ukrainian male diver suspected of being involved in the 2022 explosion that damaged the Nord Stream pipelines, German media first reported on Wednesday. German prosecutors sent the arrest warrant to Polish authorities, where the suspect—a diving instructor identified only as Volodymyr Z—was a resident for some time, though he departed the country by the time law enforcement was notified of the warrant. The suspect, along with two Ukrainian accomplices, are believed to have attached explosive detonators that damaged the two natural gas pipelines.
• German officials are investigating potential Russian involvement in two separate potential failed sabotage attempts in the country’s western region—one at a military base near Cologne, Germany, and another at a NATO airfield near Germany’s border with the Netherlands. German authorities said on Wednesday a perpetrator had cut a hole in the military base’s fence—near its water supply units—shortly before the water quality system alerted officials of “abnormal values.” Meanwhile, a NATO spokesman said security guards stopped a suspect who attempted to gain unauthorized entry onto the airfield on Tuesday. 
• Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Wednesday he will not run for reelection as party leader, and will instead step down in September, at the end of his three-year term. Kishida’s successor as leader of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will likely also succeed him as prime minister, since the LDP controls both houses of parliament. Kishida’s cabinet approval rating was well below 20 percent in July.
•  The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the infectious Mpox virus to be a “public health emergency of international concern” on Wednesday after a new strain—originating in the Democratic Republic of Congo—caused case outbreaks in nearby countries. WHO, an agency of the United Nations, stated its concern for the virus’ potential spread to other countries on the continent, and possibly to countries outside of Africa as well. The designation is meant to encourage countries to prepare for a potential outbreak within their borders as well as share resources and data with poorer countries. 
• Judge Juan Merchan, the judge who presided over former President Donald Trump’s New York criminal case, on Tuesday declined a third request from Trump’s legal team that he recuse himself. Trump attorney Todd Blanche had alleged that Merchan’s daughter had a “long-standing relationship” with Vice President Kamala Harris, including the daughter’s employment at a political consulting company that worked on Harris’ prior campaigns. “The Court notes that this same argument was already made by [Trump] in his first two motions for recusal,” Merchan wrote in a three-page opinion. “This Court now reiterates for the third time, that which should already be clear—innuendo and mischaracterizations do not a conflict create. Recusal is therefore not necessary, much less required.” On September 16, the judge will issue a decision as to whether Trump’s conviction should be thrown out, based on the Supreme Court’s decision granting presidents immunity for some actions while in office. 
• A California federal judge ruled on Tuesday that the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is barred from “knowingly allowing or facilitating” school-sanctioned student groups, activities, or events that exclude Jewish students. The case was brought by three Jewish UCLA students who said anti-Israel protesters prevented them from entering or crossing through parts of campus last spring. “Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith,” Judge Marc Scarsi wrote in his 16-page opinion. “This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating. … Under constitutional principles, UCLA may not allow services to some students when UCLA knows that other students are excluded on religious grounds, regardless of who engineered the exclusion.”
• Columbia University President Minouche Shafik announced Wednesday she was resigning from her post—effective immediately—after about a year in the job. “My moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead,” she wrote in her resignation letter. The embattled administrator faced intense criticism—including from members of Congress—for her handling of the anti-Israel campus protests that saw protesters illegally occupy a building on Columbia’s campus in the spring. The news comes just days after three Columbia deans resigned after being placed on administrative leave over text messages they sent during a panel on Jewish student life.

The Funding Fight Cometh 

In a 1790 letter to a friend, Benjamin Franklin noted, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” 

While we are (unfortunately) not polymath Founding Fathers with genius-level intellect, we have enough experience to justify taking the liberty to add another certainty, some nearly 235 years later, to Franklin’s list: congressional federal budget fights.

Yes, it’s almost that time of year again. When members of Congress return from their August recess—or “state work period,” as they prefer—they’ll have but three weeks to come to an agreement to avoid a federal government shutdown when the fiscal year resets at the stroke of midnight on September 30. By that time, at least in theory, Congress should have passed 12 individual appropriations bills to fund the government for fiscal year 2025. As it stands today, only five of the 12 bills have cleared the House and none have passed the Senate, making a semi-repeat of this current fiscal year’s funding cycle—delayed by almost half a year—a possibility. However …

As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,222-word story on the looming federal budget battle is available in the members-only version of TMD.

Worth Your Time

• Could Ukraine’s recent offensive into Russia’s Kursk region mark a turning point in the two-and-a-half-year war? Writing in Foreign Policy, Carl Bildt argues that the answer could be yes. “Wars are political as well as military, and it’s in the political arena where Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk has fundamentally changed the course of the conflict,” he argued. “The Russian leader is clearly rattled. During a series of hastily convened meetings with his security council and other advisors, he’s been trying to play down Ukraine’s successes by calling them a ‘provocation,’ admonishing regional governors not to mention the size of Ukraine’s area of control, looking sternly at his military commanders, and trying to appear unmoved by the sudden turn of events. We know that Putin sometimes has a distorted view of reality. But he most certainly understands that if his forces don’t drive the Ukrainians back over the border soon, it will be a mortal blow to the narrative and political line he has carefully—and at great cost—been trying to build since last summer.”
• A Chinese religious movement—the Falun Gong, which also controls the Epoch Times newspaper—seems to be slowly buying out an entire town in upstate New York, William Bredderman reported for New York Magazine. Why? “Epoch toggled through consecutive unsuccessful business models—free content with ads, paywalls, print delivery—and survived on donations from wealthy believers,” Bredderman wrote. “‘It has all the problems other companies face in digital,’ the former staffer said, suggesting that all the ancillary companies represent efforts to find additional revenue. Epoch simply might have arrived at the same conclusion as other 21st-century publications: The news business just isn’t business enough, and a media venture must become a lifestyle brand for its consumers. Seen this way, Middletown—where your shopping and coffee and education and entertainment and even, till recently, your oil change can send money back to Falun Gong and its media affiliates—begins to look like the Epoch empire in microcosm.”

Presented Without Comment

Daily Mail: One in Five Voters and a Third of Republicans Believe the FBI Was Behind the Assassination Attempt on Donald Trump

Also Presented Without Comment

Washington Post: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Tried to Meet With Kamala Harris to Discuss Cabinet Job 

Also Also Presented Without Comment

New York Times: When Will They Speak Again? Once Close, Biden and Pelosi Are at Odds. 

When Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, took over, he invited [former House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi to attend the weekly leadership meeting. She declined. Instead, she is often seen sitting in the cloak room eating hot dogs with a longtime friend and confidante, Representative Anna G. Eshoo, Democrat of California.

In the Zeitgeist

There are only nine days left until the first game of the college football season—and it’s set to be a … confusing few months, as The Athletic’s Steward Mandel laid out in this hilarious article. An accompanying explainer video can also help us all understand why on Earth UCLA will be playing an in-conference game at Maryland this year: 

Toeing the Company Line

• In the newsletters: Scott dove into (🔒) how the CHIPS and Science Act is affecting companies two years after its passage, Jonah took issue (🔒) with David French’s recent column endorsing Kamala Harris, and Nick argued that, despite the high stakes, this is the most “shockingly vacuous” election of his lifetime.
• On the podcasts: Jonah is joined on The Remnant by Tevi Troy to discuss Troy’s new book, The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in Chief and Titans of Industry. On Advisory Opinions, Sarah and David are joined by former White House counsel Bob Bauer to discuss his book, The Unraveling: Reflections on Politics Without Ethics and Democracy in Crisis, as well as the last few months of Democratic presidential politics.
• On the site: Charlotte reports on the ceasefire-for-hostage negotiations scheduled to take place in Qatar later today and John dives into some new studies on abortion trends post-Dobbs.