Happy Monday! When driving over the river and through the woods this holiday season, we recommend following a few simple rules of the road. Don’t drink and drive. Don’t drive through treacherous blizzards. And please don’t crash into the presidential motorcade.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• During fighting in eastern Gaza City on Friday, the Israeli military mistakenly shot and killed three Israeli hostages who had escaped Hamas captivity and were waving a white flag—an episode that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “broke the entire nation’s heart,” though he vowed Israel would continue to fight “until the end, until we dismantle Hamas, until we return all our hostages.” Over the weekend, chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Herzi Halevi, accepted responsibility for the incident. “The shooting at the hostages was against the rules of engagement. It is forbidden to shoot at someone who raises a white flag and seeks to surrender,” he said in a statement released Saturday. “However, this shooting was carried out during combat and under pressure.”  On Saturday, Qatari News outlet Al Jazeera claimed one of their cameramen, Samer Abu Daqqa, was killed by shrapnel from an Israeli missile attack, “as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching him, denying the much-needed emergency treatment.” During continued fighting over the weekend, the IDF reported the capture of nearly 90 terrorists at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, in northern Gaza.
• U.S. and British naval destroyers shot down a combined 15 drones launched by Houthi militants on Saturday, the latest in a series of aggressive maneuvers targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea by the Iranian-backed rebels. On Friday, several shipping fleet operators, including AP Møller-Mærsk and German company Hapag-Lloyd, announced pauses on ship traffic through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. A ship owned by Hapag-Lloyd came under attack Friday.  
• Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić claimed victory on Sunday in the nation’s parliamentary elections, with projections showing Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party winning 47 percent of the vote and the main opposition coalition, Serbia Against Violence, projected to capture just 23 percent of the vote. Multiple irregularities were reported—and charges of election interference were leveled—on Sunday, including claims from local election observers that individuals from neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina were being bussed to vote in Belgrade. 
• The Vatican criminal court on Saturday sentenced Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu—the pope’s former chief of staff—to five-and-a-half years in prison after finding him guilty on counts of embezzlement and fraud. Becciu, 75, was the highest-ranking Vatican official to face a trial before the Vatican’s criminal court—his “Trial of the Century” revolved around the Secretariat of State’s purchase of a 350 million euro investment property in London. Becciu’s lawyer said his client will “certainly” appeal the ruling.
• The House of Representatives voted 310 to 118 on Thursday to pass the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act—an $886 billion package that includes a 5.2 percent pay raise for military personnel, the procurement of new missile-defense systems and weapons, and an extension of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative—though the bulk of future Ukraine military aid is still being debated in Congress. More Democrats (163) than Republicans (147) voted in favor of the legislation, with some conservatives opposing the bill due to concerns about extending warrantless surveillance powers under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Following negotiations with the Senate, the final bill also did not include several provisions championed by House conservatives taking aim at Pentagon policies regarding abortion and diversity. The legislation—having already been passed by the Senate in an 87-13 vote—now awaits President Joe Biden’s signature.
• Former New York City mayor and Trump campaign lawyer Rudy Giuliani was ordered on Friday to pay $148 million as part of a defamation case brought by two Georgia election workers whom he falsely accused of rigging the 2020 election against former President Donald Trump. Giuliani said he will appeal the decision, and still faces criminal charges in Georgia related to his efforts, along with Trump and 17 others, to overturn the state’s election results.
• Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, who led the U.S.-allied nation for just over three years, died on Saturday at the age of 86. The 83-year-old crown prince, Sheikh Mishal al-Ahmad al-Sabah, was named his successor. Nawaf served as the Kuwaiti defense minister during Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which sparked the Gulf War.

All Aboard the Future?

It’s no secret that President Joe Biden is a big fan of trains—while in the Senate, Biden commuted by train between Washington and Delaware, earning the moniker “Amtrak Joe” and eventually getting Wilmington’s station named after him. Earlier this month, the president sought to double down on his reputation by announcing billions in funding provided through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (better known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) for America’s first high-speed rail (HSR) projects. The federal dollars represent a boon for train enthusiasts as major rail projects spin up, but it remains to be seen whether HSR can become a viable form of transportation in the U.S.

As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,977-word story on high-speed rail projects in the United States is available in the members-only version of TMD.

Worth Your Time 

• In The Atlantic, Ben Sasse—former U.S. senator and current University of Florida president—writes on the moral decline of elite universities. “To keep America’s universities the envy of the world,” he writes, “we need to make our institutions welcoming homes for those who are passionate about the glorious mission of education and the communities of free thought it requires. If you entered academia because you share that joy, find institutions that are serious about renewing higher education and are serious about stewarding this incredible calling. Those of us—left, right, or center—who value human dignity, pluralism, and genuine progress and who want to make sure that we pass these blessings to the next generation cannot abandon institutions to post-liberals on the left who would destroy them from within or post-liberals on the right who would tear them to the ground. At our best, the academy promotes human flourishing in ways that no other sector can. If we commit ourselves to the work of creating, discovering, and serving—not enforcing impersonal hierarchies of power or stifling inquiry—we’ll rebuild public trust.”

Presented Without Comment

Former President Donald Trump on Truth Social: “ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS POISONING THE BLOOD OF OUR NATION. THEY’RE COMING FROM PRISONS, FROM MENTAL INSTITUTIONS—FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD. WITHOUT BORDERS & FAIR ELECTIONS, YOU DON’T HAVE A COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Also Presented Without Comment

New York Times: DeSantis Says Trump Will Declare Iowa Caucuses Stolen if He Loses

Also Also Presented Without Comment

CNN: Senate Aide Out of Job After Purported Sex Tape Apparently Filmed in Senate Hearing Room

Toeing the Company Line

• Alex Demas calculated how much Kevin McCallister’s Home Alone shopping trip would cost in 2023.
• In the newsletters: Mike and Sarah analyzed the debate over whether Trump has presidential immunity, the Dispatch Politics crew reflected on House Speaker Mike Johnson’s tenure so far, Nick wondered if (🔒) President Biden could be the real winner of the GOP’s impeachment inquiry, Jonah mused on the usefulness of trying to predict the future, and Chris warned against (🔒) taking Vivek Ramaswamy too seriously as a candidate.
• On the podcasts: Jonah ruminated on the legacy of his 2008 book, Liberal Fascism, and we offer a sneak peak (🔒) at a Dispatch Live-turned-Skiff episode where Adaam and Mike were joined by John Aziz to discuss the war in Gaza.
• On the site over the weekend: Rebecca Richards reviewed Alexandra Hudson’s The Soul of Civility, Giancarlo Sopo critiqued the made-for-Gen Z movie Saltburn, and Megan Dent revived an obscure Christmas liturgy.
• On the site today: Megan Stewart explains Biden’s proposal to seize pharmaceutical patents.