Happy Thursday! We had the “concepts of a plan” for today’s intro joke, but they never quite made it beyond that stage.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Wednesday to express support for Ukraine alongside Foreign Secretary David Lammy of the United Kingdom. In a press conference on Tuesday, Blinken was asked whether the U.S. would allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles supplied by the U.S. deep within Russian territory. “One of the purposes of the trip that we’ll be taking together is to hear directly from the Ukrainian leadership,” Blinken said. “All I can tell you is we’ll be listening intently to our Ukrainian partners.”
- President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump, and Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio all appeared together in New York City on Wednesday to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The ceremony at the World Trade Center’s Ground Zero site featured remarks from relatives of 9/11 victims, and Harris and Trump—interacting directly with each other for just the second time, again shaking hands—did not make any public statements during the event.
- The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of inflation, rose 0.2 percent month-over-month and 2.5 percent annually in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Wednesday, marking the lowest point of annual inflation since February 2021. Core inflation—CPI stripped of the more volatile food and energy prices—rose 0.3 percent month-over-month in August, and increased 3.2 percent year-over-year—the same annual rate reported last month. The figures likely cemented Federal Reserve officials’ decision to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point next week.
- The Federal Reserve’s Office of the Inspector General released a report on Wednesday finding that Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic violated a series of trading policies during his time in office. Specifically, the report states that Bostic allowed trades to be executed on his behalf during “blackout” periods before and after Fed meetings, failed to report a number of stock trades, and held U.S. Treasury Bonds in excess of the maximum amount he was allowed. “Additionally, we determined that Dr. Bostic created an appearance of acting on confidential [Federal Open Market Committee] information” under the blackout rule and an “appearance of a conflict of interest that could cause a reasonable person to question Dr. Bostic’s impartiality under FRB Atlanta’s code of conduct,” the report added. The report did not conclude he had direct conflicts of interest or traded on confidential Federal Open Market Committee information.
- Hurricane Francine reached the southern shores of Louisiana on Wednesday, but the Category 1 hurricane quickly weakened to a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds going from 100 mph down to 45 mph. It’s expected to travel deeper into Louisiana and cross into Mississippi in the next 24 hours and bring with it lots of flooding. While Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves both declared states of emergency on Wednesday, no injuries have been reported thus far. Though at least two dozen people had to be rescued from flood waters, according to CNN.
- Mexico’s senate voted on Wednesday to overhaul the country’s judicial system, clearing the way for a new system in which judges are directly elected to their position, not appointed. Once passed by the state legislatures, a majority of which are expected to approve the bill, nearly 7,000 judges would be removed from their post—but remain eligible to be elected to their former position. Demonstrators protesting against the reforms broke into the legislature’s chamber building hours before the senate vote was held, requiring the senate to hold its proceedings at an alternative location. Outgoing Mexican President President Andrés Manuel López Obrador—who will be succeeded by President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum in less than one month—has supported the judicial reforms, and Mexico temporarily froze diplomatic communications with the U.S. Embassy in Mexico last month after the embassy criticized the move. “I believe popular direct election of judges is a major risk to the functioning of Mexico’s democracy,” U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said at the time.
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Ukraine Braces for Iranian Missiles
Millions of Americans tuned in on Tuesday night to watch the first, and perhaps only, debate face-off between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris before the November presidential election.
But it surely wasn’t just potential voters trying to take the measure of the two candidates asking to become the most powerful person in the world. Indeed, for leaders in capitals across the globe, the debate was a crucial window into what U.S. foreign policy might look like under either a Trump or Harris administration.
And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky may not …
As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our 1,370-word item on the Ukraine-Russia war in the members-only version of TMD.
Worth Your Time
- Joe Burba, a chemist from East Texas, may have invented a device that will usher in a lithium boom in Northeast Texas. “Over the years, to test his invention, Burba has evaluated brine samples from fifty locations around the world,” Russell Gold wrote for Texas Monthly magazine. “‘Most are crap,’ he says, relaxing in jeans and black alligator boots in a large house with vaulted ceilings outside Atlanta, a small town a thirty-minute drive south of Texarkana. The brine containing the most lithium he’s found in North America, rivaling the best in the world, lies beneath a one-hundred-mile swath of northeast Texas and southern Arkansas. It’s a mostly rural area of soaring pines and muddy bayous. Burba’s home, where he and Carol moved in 2021 to be nearer her aging parents, sits smack in the middle of it. The race is on to turn this area—home to a subterranean limestone formation known as the Smackover, once a productive oil field—into a globally significant lithium producer.”
- Former President Donald Trump got his clock cleaned in Tuesday’s debate, Karl Rove, the former adviser to President George W. Bush, argued for the Wall Street Journal. “As is frequently the case with Mr. Trump, he let his emotions get the better of him,” Rove wrote. “He took the bait almost every time she put it on the hook, offering a pained smile as she did. Rather than dismissing her attacks and launching his strongest counterarguments against her, Mr. Trump got furious. As her attacks continued, his voice rose. He gripped the podium more often and more firmly. He grimaced and shook his head, at times responding with wild and fanciful rhetoric. Short, deft replies and counterpunches would have been effective. He didn’t deliver them. … Will this debate have an effect? Yes, though perhaps not as much as Team Harris hopes or as much as Team Trump might fear. But there’s no putting lipstick on this pig. Mr. Trump was crushed by a woman he previously dismissed as ‘dumb as a rock.’ Which raises the question: What does that make him?”
Presented Without Comment
Mediaite: Elon Musk Offers to Impregnate Taylor Swift: ‘I Will Give You a Child’
Mediaite: Dave Rubin Urges ‘Young Pretty Girl’ Taylor Swift to Reconsider Harris Endorsement Because Venezuelan Gangs Might Rape or Kill Her
Also Presented Without Comment
The Hill: Trump Floats Punishment For ABC After Debate
[BLOCK]I mean, to be honest, they’re a news organization. They have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that.[BLOCK]
Also Also Presented Without Comment
National Review: Travelers File Class-Action Suit Against Anti-Israel Activists Who Organized Chicago Airport Traffic Blockade
In the Zeitgeist
The Apprentice featuring Donald Trump is returning—well, sort of. In October, Sebastian Stan will star as a young Trump at the outset of his business career. It’s surely one of many films we’ll get about the most dominant political figure of a generation, so let the games begin.
Toeing the Company Line
- In the newsletters: The Dispatch Politics team recapped Tuesday’s presidential debate, Scott debunked a series of tariff myths, Nick tried to decide (🔒) whether it matters that Harris won the debate, and Jonah argued those trying to stop Trump often end up playing right into his hands.
- On the podcasts: Jonah is joined by Danielle Pletka on The Remnant to discuss Ukraine, Israel, and isolationism, and Adam Feldman joins Sarah and David on Advisory Opinions to discuss the 3-3-3 Supreme Court theory.
- On the site: Zaid Jilani writes on right-wing media’s great Haitian immigrant cat panic—and what he argues it’s really about.
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