Happy Wednesday! And happy 2024! After a restful holiday season, we’re prepared (we think) to keep you up to speed on what is surely going to be an insane year.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• Hamas’ deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri and at least seven other members of the terrorist group were killed in a Hezbollah-run neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday in a suspected Israeli drone strike, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. Israeli leadership has yet to confirm if it was responsible for the assassination of the terrorist leader who helped to design the October 7 attacks on Israel, though officials from both the U.S. and Lebanon attributed the attack to Israel. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused Israel of violating his country’s sovereignty by carrying out the attack, and said he would file a complaint with the U.N. Security Council. Meanwhile, Israeli military officials have declared a “very high level of readiness” and urged Israeli civilians to heed the instructions of Home Front Command in preparation for the possibility of retaliation by Hezbollah, a Hamas-aligned group with weapons and fighters stationed along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel.
• In an 8-7 ruling, the Israeli Supreme Court on Monday struck down a law that would’ve stripped the judiciary of its ability to reverse decisions by government officials on the basis that they are “unreasonable.” The invalidated legislation, passed by the Knesset in July as an amendment to Israel’s quasi-constitutional set of Basic Laws, was a key component of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial reform proposal. The ruling marks the first time the high court has exercised judicial review over a Basic Law.
• U.S. Navy helicopters sank three Houthi boats in the Red Sea on Sunday, as the Iranian-backed pirates attacked and attempted to board the Maersk Hangzhou, a Singapore-flagged, Danish-owned container ship that had come under Houthi missile fire the night before. U.S. forces “responded to the distress call and in the process of issuing verbal calls to the small boats, the small boats fired upon the U.S. helicopters with crew served weapons and small arms,” read a statement from U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) describing the event. “The U.S. Navy helicopters returned fire in self-defense, sinking three of the four small boats, and killing the crews.” Shipping giant A.P. Moeller-Maersk will pause all transit through the Red Sea until further notice after the attack on its ship. The USS Gerald R. Ford, deployed to the eastern Mediterranean Sea after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, is returning to its home port in Norfolk, Virginia, officials announced on Monday. Meanwhile, the Iranian warship Alborz reportedly entered the Red Sea on Monday.
• The Russian military continued its assault on Ukraine Tuesday morning, firing missiles and drones into Kyiv in response to a Ukrainian attack on the Russian city of Belgorod over the weekend. Ukrainian air force officials reportedly managed to shoot down 72 of the 99 missiles launched into the country, though the attack still killed five civilians and injured nearly 130 others. Yesterday’s attack on Kyiv followed a Russian attack on Kharkiv on Sunday, which involved six missiles and Iranian-made Shahed drones.
• Lee Jae-myung, the leader of South Korea’s Democratic Party, was stabbed in the neck on Tuesday in Busan, South Korea, while answering questions from reporters during a visit to the site of a planned international airport. The suspect was arrested at the scene and later confessed to attempting to kill the opposition leader, who is in an intensive care unit but expected to survive. Police are still investigating a motive for the attack.
• A 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck the Japanese prefecture of Ishikawa on Monday, killing at least 62 people and flattening thousands of buildings. More than 90 percent of homes in the town of Suzu, located near the quake’s epicenter, were destroyed.
• Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned on Tuesday amid criticism over her response to Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, her reaction to and congressional testimony about antisemitism on Harvard’s campus, and mounting accusations of academic plagiarism. “After consultation with members of the [Harvard] Corporation, it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual,” Gay wrote in an email Tuesday afternoon. “When my brief presidency is remembered, I hope it will be seen as a moment of reawakening to the importance of striving to find our common humanity—and of not allowing rancor and vituperation to undermine the vital process of education.” Gay’s presidential tenure was the shortest in Harvard history, lasting just six months and two days.

Jimmy Lai on Trial

On Tuesday, Hong Kong pro-democracy publisher and activist Jimmy Lai repeated “not guilty” three times—once for each of the national security charges he’s facing in Hong Kong. He did not stand before a jury of his peers, but rather before three Hong Kong High Court judges, handpicked by the Beijing-backed chief executive of the region. The panel will, at the end of his likely months-long trial, decide whether Lai will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

The 76 year old has spent more than 1,000 days in prison since his re-arrest in December 2020 on charges of sedition and colluding with foreign forces. The trial, which began on December 18 and has been called “unfair” by Lai’s attorneys, has become a test of Hong Kong’s judicial independence and the highest-profile example of deteriorating rule of law and fundamental freedoms in the “Special Administrative Region” as China tightens control of its sphere of influence.   

Lai is a Chinese-mainland-born, self-made billionaire who earned his fortune in the clothing industry before turning to publishing. He’s been a staunch pro-democracy activist and persistent nuisance to Beijing since …

As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,601-word story on the trial of Jimmy Lai is available in the members-only version of TMD.

Worth Your Time

• Hate crimes in the U.S. increased by 11 percent in 2021—and preliminary research suggests that the trend has continued since. Writing for The Atlantic, Charles Fain Lehman (who is also a Dispatch contributor) explained that, while many states have drilled down on addressing the “hate” in hate crime, the criminal justice system itself could be used to better combat and reduce these atrocities. “Many hate crimes, in other words, are characterized not just by hate, but also by impulsive, disinhibited behavior,” he wrote. “That kind of behavior characterizes much non-hate-criminal offending too, from car theft for joyrides to shoot-outs incited by minor slights. The average hate-crime offender is not a ‘specialist’ in hate crime. Rather, most have extensive criminal histories and are similar in important ways to other criminals.”
• Ken Block, the voting data expert hired by the Trump campaign to find evidence of fraud in the 2020 election, reflected on the experience in an op-ed for USA Today. “The findings of my company’s in-depth analysis are detailed in the depositions taken by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,” he wrote. “The transcripts show that the campaign found no evidence of voter fraud sufficient to change the outcome of any election. … And yet, the cries that the election was lost or stolen due to voter fraud continue with no sign of stopping. Whether a stump speech, outrageous lawsuits like the so-called Kraken cases filed by Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani’s lies or the ongoing misguided efforts of people determined to prove the election was stolen, the constant drumbeat hardens people’s hearts and minds to the truth about the 2020 election.”

Presented Without Comment 

Politico: Feds Add Allegations of Qatari Influence Against Indicted [New Jersey] Sen. Bob Menendez

Also Presented Without Comment 

The Jerusalem Post: Tucker Carlson [Claims] Ben Shapiro, Pro-Israel Voices Don’t Care About America

Toeing the Company Line

• In the newsletters: The Dispatch Politics crew looked at Ron DeSantis’ late-game strategy in Iowa, Jonah besmirched (🔒) New Year’s Eve, Kevin pondered the (🔒) origins of the New Year’s holiday, and Nick wondered if (🔒) Republican primary voters are a lost cause.
• On the podcasts: Jonah ruminated on the New Year, the state of the GOP primary, and horseshoe theory, while political philosopher and former Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield joined Jamie on the Dispatch Podcast to trace the academic roots of wokeness. On today’s episode of The Remnant, Jonah is joined by Matthew Continetti to discuss whether 2023 should be considered the worst year in modern political history.
• On the site over the break: Hannah Anderson shared her story of trying to get her begrudging son to church, John McCormack answered your questions (🔒) in the Monthly Mailbag, Stirewalt considered what kind of model best fits Nikki Haley as a candidate, and Norman Hubbard explained the schism in the Methodist church.
• On the site today: John interviews Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina on his way out, Charlotte provides a critical update on Israel’s multi-front war, Matthew Kroenig and Jeffrey Cimmino argue that President Joe Biden needs to hit Iran harder, and Jonah weighs the significance of Haley’s Civil War gaffe.