Happy Wednesday! A team of French chefs won gold in the Bocuse d’Or—basically the Olympics of fine dining—this week, returning France to the heights of culinary prestige. You may notice, however, that they are all wearing toques. We won’t be fooled again.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- A federal judge issued an administrative stay on Tuesday afternoon temporarily blocking the Trump administration’s attempted freeze on the disbursement of federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance. The Office of Management and Budget had on Monday night announced a temporary pause on all federal funding—“to the extent permissible under applicable law”—that may be affected by President Donald Trump’s early executive orders, effective Tuesday at 5 p.m. ET and pending the administration’s review. The move implicated tens of billions of dollars at a minimum, and federal agencies and lawmakers scrambled on Tuesday to determine whether various programs were affected by the freeze. The administrative stay will remain in effect until 5 p.m. ET on February 3, giving the court a few days to deliberate before an expedited briefing and hearing.
- The State Department on Tuesday advised U.S. citizens to leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo following the outbreak of violent protests targeting the American and other foreign embassies in the country’s capital of Kinshasa. “Due to an increase in violence throughout the city of Kinshasa, the U.S. embassy in Kinshasa advised U.S. citizens to shelter-in-place and then safely depart while commercial options are available,” an embassy security alert urged yesterday. “We encourage U.S. citizens to depart via commercial flights when they feel like they can safely go to the airport.”
- President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to stop federal funding for gender-transition treatments for people under the age of 19, coverage of which is currently provided by Medicaid in some states. The order states that the federal government “will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another,” and directs federal agencies—including the Department of Health and Human Services—to curtail grants to hospitals and medical schools that provide such gender-transition treatments. Trump also issued an executive order on Monday night intending to eventually bar “individuals with gender dysphoria” from serving in the military, though the move has already drawn a lawsuit from two national LGBT advocacy organizations.
- Law enforcement officials arrested a man near the U.S. Capitol building on Monday who claimed he intended to kill House Speaker Mike Johnson, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. A Tuesday court filing revealed the arrest and alleged the suspect approached a Capitol Police officer, requested to turn himself in, and had two molotov cocktails and a knife in his possession. The man—who said he traveled to Washington, D.C. from Massachusetts—also allegedly said he intended to burn down the Heritage Foundation, a think tank closely aligned with the Trump administration.
- The Senate voted 77-22 on Monday to confirm Sean Duffy to lead the Department of Transportation, with 24 Democrats joining all Republicans in support of his bid. Duffy, a former congressman from Wisconsin and Fox Business host, passed a procedural vote with unanimous support on Monday, but he lost Democrat votes yesterday in the wake of the Trump administration’s announced funding freeze.
- The village of East Palestine and the Norfolk Southern Railway reached a $22 million settlement on Tuesday that will resolve legal claims stemming from the February 2023 train derailment and resulting toxic chemical spill in the eastern Ohio town. Norfolk Southern had already agreed to a separate, $600 million class-action settlement last April, with that money going to residents of East Palestine directly—although some are still in the process of challenging the settlement amount.
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A Ceasefire, If You Can Keep It
On Saturday, four young Israeli women—all Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers captured by terrorists on October 7, 2023, and held as hostages ever since—were marched onto a stage in Gaza’s Palestine Square in front of groups of Hamas fighters and Palestinian civilians. As Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag stood there, they linked arms and waved to the crowd as part of what they later explained as an effort to showcase their undefeated spirits and put a dent into the sense of sinisterness the armed Hamas fighters were clearly trying to project.
With the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas nearing its third week, the hostage-for-prisoner exchanges have continued apace. But …
As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,379-word story on the Israel-Hamas ceasefire is available in the members-only version of TMD.
Presented Without Comment
CNN: Caroline Kennedy Accuses Cousin RFK Jr. of Being a ‘Predator’
Also Presented Without Comment
CNBC: Google Reclassifies U.S. As ‘Sensitive Country’ Alongside China, Russia After Trump’s ‘Gulf of America’ Comments
In the Zeitgeist
English singer-songwriter Sam Fender is in the process of rolling out his third studio album, People Watching, and this single goes out to Lola, the official dog of The Morning Dispatch, who never fails to keep Grayson company no matter how late the writing process goes.
Toeing the Company Line
- In the newsletters: Nick Catoggio unpacked (🔒) Trump’s funding freeze gambit.
- On the podcasts: Jonah Goldberg is joined on The Remnant by Francis Dearnley, executive editor at The Telegraph, to discuss Keir Starmer’s woes and the British perspective on Trump’s second term.
- On the site: David Drucker reports on how Elon Musk has made himself “truly untouchable” within the Trump administration, Charles Hilu provides an update on support for Tulsi Gabbard on Capitol Hill, Kevin Williamson knocks Trump’s lackluster effort to pressure Vladimir Putin, and Jonah argues Trump is risking the GOP’s unity with his demands for loyalty.
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