Happy Monday! U.S. Olympians are bringing the very best of America to France for the Olympics later this summer—including, apparently, air conditioning units.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- In an 8-1 decision on Friday, the Supreme Court upheld a federal law that blocks anyone with a domestic violence restraining order against them from owning a gun, deciding the law does not violate the Second Amendment under the history and tradition test set out in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen from 2022. Only Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from the majority opinion—authored by Chief Justice John Roberts—though several justices in the majority wrote concurring opinions explaining their differing interpretations of the Bruen standard. Also on Friday—in Department of State v. Muñoz—the court held in a 6-3 decision, authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett and joined by the other conservative members of the court, that U.S. citizens cannot challenge the visa denial of their non-citizen spouses based on their own rights as citizens.
- Gunmen opened fire on a church, a synagogue, and a police checkpoint in two cities in the southern Russian province of Dagestan on Sunday, killing more than 19 police officers and several civilians, including an Orthodox priest, in a coordinated attack that no group has yet claimed. State media reported that Russian authorities killed six of the gunmen. The attackers set fire to both the church and the synagogue. Dagestan, Russia’s predominantly Muslim southernmost province, has previously been the site of Islamist attacks.
- Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant arrived in Washington, D.C., on Sunday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on accusations that the Biden administration has decreased its supply of armaments to the country—allegations U.S. officials have said are unfounded. Gallant is set to meet with his American counterpart, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and will likely discuss the heightened hostilities with Hezbollah—an Iranian-backed terrorist organization attacking northern Israel from Lebanon. On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out an airstrike near Gaza City, reportedly in the vicinity of the built-up Al-Shati refugee camp, which Hamas claimed killed civilians. The IDF said it “struck two Hamas military infrastructure sites in the area of Gaza City” in an operation that reportedly targeted a senior Hamas commander, Raad Saad, though his condition is unknown.
- On Friday Russia launched its eighth widespread attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the last three months, though the Ukrainian air force said air defenses intercepted 12 of the 16 missiles and all of the 13 drones Russia launched at the civilian infrastructure in several regions across the country. On Saturday, Russia’s bombing of a residential building in the northern city of Kharkiv killed at least three people and injured more than 30 others, local authorities said.
- A gunman killed four people and injured nine others at a grocery store in Fordyce, Arkansas, on Friday morning, before police arrested the suspected shooter, a 44-year-old man from a nearby town. The suspect was charged with four counts of capital murder for what the director of the Arkansas State Police described as “a completely random, senseless act” without a clear motive or target.
- U.S. Central Command announced Saturday that the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, deployed to the Red Sea for the last nine months, will leave for the Mediterranean before returning to the United States. The USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group will take the Eisenhower’s place in the Red Sea after a scheduled exercise in the Indo-Pacific. The U.S. Navy has described the Eisenhower’s twice-extended combat deployment as the most “intense” since World War II amid ongoing attacks on international waterways by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
- Saudi Arabian officials said Sunday that the number of people who have died while visiting Mecca on Islam’s yearly pilgrimage has risen to some 1,300 pilgrims from across the globe, most of whom did not hold official permits to complete the Hajj pilgrimage and therefore did not have hotels for escaping the extreme heat. Temperatures in Saudi Arabia climbed to around 120 degrees Fahrenheit on some days of the nearly weeklong ritual, which involves walking outside in the holy city of Mecca.
- A Clark County, Nevada, judge on Friday dismissed the state’s case against six false electors who allegedly fraudulently certified that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election in that state. The judge ruled that Clark County was not the correct jurisdiction for the case, though prosecutors have indicated they’ll appeal the decision.
SCOTUS Opinion-palooza
We’re now in the final stretch of Supreme Court decision season, with the chime of the clock at 10 a.m. ET on most Mondays and Thursdays in June striking fear in the hearts of daily newsletter writers everywhere.
The court has decided …
As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,792-word story on Supreme Court decisions thus far is available in the members-only version of TMD.
Worth Your Time
- An Instagram account started as a pandemic-era lark by a mom and her dancer daughter has generated brand deals and fame—and hundreds of male followers. “The daughter loved coming up with creative posts. She told her mom she wanted to become an influencer, a ‘dream job’ she could pursue after school and dance practice,” Katherine Blunt reported for the Wall Street Journal. “To reach the influencer stratosphere, the account would need a lot more followers—and she would have to be less discriminating about who they were. Instagram promotes content based on engagement, and the male accounts she had been blocking tend to engage aggressively, lingering on photos and videos and boosting them with likes or comments. Running them off, or broadly disabling comments, would likely doom her daughter’s influencer aspirations. … The mom said yes. And with that, she grew to accept a grim reality: Being a young influencer on Instagram means building an audience including large numbers of men who take sexual interest in children.”
- At the People’s Convention, organized by Turning Point U.S.A., January 6 came up a lot. It’s “a topic that cleaved Trump from many of his fellow Republicans at the time, but has increasingly become an applause line up and down the party,” David Weigel reported for Semafor. “The re-nomination of Trump, who takes the stage at rallies to a tape of the national anthem he recorded with Jan. 6 defendants, has cemented its place. ‘Anyone that wants to continue to shame us for January 6 can go to hell,’ Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told the crowd on Friday. The intervening years have given conservative activists time to build a new folk mythology around the 2020 election and Capitol riot and develop them into a unified message at events like these. That message: This party, led by Trump, was trying to save democracy.”
Presented Without Comment
The Hill: [North Dakota Gov. Doug] Burgum Defends Using ‘Dictatorship’ to Describe Biden Administration
Also Presented Without Comment
Politico: Trump Floats UFC-style Migrant League Amid Border Crisis
“I said, ‘Dana I have an idea. Why don’t you set up a migrant league of fighters and have your regular league fighters,” Trump said, “and then you have the champion of your league — these are the greatest fighters in the world — fight the champion of the migrants.’” The suggestion drew laughter and applause from the crowd, a response that continued as he spoke more about the concept.
“I think the migrant guy might win,” Trump said, adding that [Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana] White “didn’t like that idea too much.”
Also Also Presented Without Comment
Reason: New Virginia Law Will Let Anyone Harvest Roadkill Anytime of Year
In the Zeitgeist
We can sense copy editors everywhere twitching as they read the title of Coldplay’s newest single: “feelslikeimfallinginlove.” Despite the fact that the band’s shift and space keys were apparently broken when they named it, the song is vintage Coldplay and we’re into it.
Toeing the Company Line
- In the newsletters: The Dispatch Politics team took a look at Republican efforts to boost their ground game in Nevada, Nick argued (🔒) Trumpism is in its post-policy era, Jonah panned unity for unity’s sake by way of a story about Nazi raccoons (no, really), and Chris explained (🔒) what’s at stake in this week’s debate. Plus, in the inaugural edition of Dispatch Faith, Michael broke down what it’s all about and Karen Swallow Prior laid out what Christian nationalists could learn from literature.
- On the podcasts: Sarah and David unpacked the latest Supreme Court decisions on Advisory Opinions and Jonah ruminated on unity in a solo episode of The Remnant. On today’s Dispatch Podcast, Jamie is joined by Princeton’s Dr. Shilo Brooks to discuss how looking to the past can save the next generation.
- On the site over the weekend: Guy Denton reviewed Richard Linklater’s new movie, The Hitman, and Hannah Long returned to Chinatown on the film’s 50th anniversary.
- On the site today: Charlotte reports on the Muslim soldiers fighting for Israel and Carl Graham explains the ins and outs of tactical nuclear weapons.
Please note that we at The Dispatch hold ourselves, our work, and our commenters to a higher standard than other places on the internet. We welcome comments that foster genuine debate or discussion—including comments critical of us or our work—but responses that include ad hominem attacks on fellow Dispatch members or are intended to stoke fear and anger may be moderated.
With your membership, you only have the ability to comment on The Morning Dispatch articles. Consider upgrading to join the conversation everywhere.