Happy Thursday! We were yesterday years old when we learned that there’s apparently a name for people who crowd around the gate at an airport, sometimes in an attempt to board before their allotted time: “gate lice.” So, uh, don’t be a gate louse, folks.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy—the lead researcher on a key National Institutes of Health-funded study on the use of puberty-blocker treatment in children—told the New York Times in an interview published Wednesday that she’s delayed publishing data from the study, which started nine years ago. Olson-Kennedy has long been an advocate for youth gender treatments, but she said the results of the study did not show an improvement in the mental health of the children who received puberty blockers. “I do not want our work to be weaponized,” she said. “It has to be exactly on point, clear and concise. And that takes time.”
- Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed on Wednesday that “there is evidence” of North Korean troops in Russia. “What exactly they’re doing, well, that’s to be seen,” Austin told reporters in Rome. After a briefing from their intelligence agency, South Korean lawmakers said Tuesday that North Korea had sent 3,000 troops to Russia with plans to deploy a total of 10,000 soldiers. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday that U.S. assessments also indicated 3,000 North Korean troops were being trained in Russia. He warned that if the troops were deployed to Ukraine, then they would become “fair game and fair targets” for the Ukrainian military.
- Terrorists on Wednesday attacked a state-run defense company, Turkish Aerospace Industries, in Ankara, Turkey, killing five people and wounding at least 22 others. The attackers were armed with rifles and bombs, setting off explosions at the facility. Local authorities said that two of the terrorists were killed by authorities responding to the incident. No terrorist group has yet taken responsibility for the attack.
- Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin, resigned on Tuesday, taking responsibility for a draft dodging and corruption scandal allegedly involving dozens of prosecutors fraudulently securing disability waivers to protect themselves from military service. Kostin’s resignation followed Ukrainian outlets reporting on the scheme last week and a subsequent internal investigation. “Many shameful facts of abuse have been established within the system of the prosecutor’s offices of Ukraine,” Kostin said in a statement. Ukraine’s intelligence service revealed Tuesday it has been investigating dozens of officials suspected of issuing fraudulent disability certificates. Nine officials have been tried and found guilty, and more than 4,000 certificates were deemed to be fraudulent.
- The Group of Seven (G7)—a collection of advanced democracies—announced on Wednesday a $50 billion loan to Ukraine that will be paid back over time with the interest generated by $260 billion in frozen Russian assets held in the West. The U.S. will provide $20 billion of the package—half as economic aid and half as additional military aid. The military aid portion of the loan will need congressional approval, and the Biden administration said Wednesday it will provide the full amount as economic aid if Congress does not authorize the disbursement. The European Union and other G7 countries will disburse the remaining $30 billion.
- Hezbollah confirmed Wednesday that Hashem Safieddine—the cousin of Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s leader eliminated by Israel last month—had been killed in an Israeli airstrike earlier this month. Safieddine served as the leader of the terrorist group’s executive council and was the presumed successor to Nasrallah. The confirmation followed Israeli officials announcing his death on Tuesday night.
Will Election Fraud Claims Fuel Violence?
Earlier this week, the Department of Justice indicted a Philadelphia man who threatened to kill a state party official who was recruiting poll watchers to observe the activities at voting stations on Election Day.
The man texted the state party official expressing interest in helping out, but then things got dark. “I will KILL YOU IF YOU DON’T ANSWER ME!” the man allegedly texted the official. Then, “Your days are numbered, B—!” Ultimately, he apparently made a threat to the party official’s life so graphic we won’t repeat it here.
Political violence is already very much a part of this election cycle after two attempts on the life of the Republican candidate for president. But concerns about election-related violence seem far from over with under two weeks to go until a nail-biter election and the memory of the violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, looming over the proceedings.
Twice in two months this summer, someone tried to kill former President Donald Trump. In July in Pennsylvania, a 20-year-old with idiosyncratic political beliefs and who seemed to have been acting alone, fired at Trump from the roof of a building near a campaign rally, injuring the former president and two attendees and killing a man in the crowd. In September, a man camped out for hours at the perimeter of Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course allegedly waiting to shoot the former president. A Secret Service agent spotted him and fired at the man, who fled and was later arrested. Law enforcement later discovered he had promised $150,000 to anyone who could “finish the job.” Now, the former president …
As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our 1,435-word item on the prospect of political violence ahead of Election Day is available in the members-only version of TMD.
Worth Your Time
- CNN’s Clarissa Ward has reported from some of the world’s most harrowing hot spots—from Kabul after the return of the Taliban to Kharkiv during the opening of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In her latest dispatch, she recounted her experience being held captive by the general of a militia in Darfur, Sudan. “We were held under armed guard by the general, the security chief and roughly a dozen soldiers, some who looked no older than 14. Our detention was spent out in the open, underneath acacia trees,” she wrote. “As the only woman, and with no private space to relieve myself, I limited my water and food intake. Sleep, when it came, was a mercy, a reprieve from the clawing sense of panic at not knowing when I would be able to see my children again. As a journalist, one never wants to become the story. And yet our experience is instructive in understanding the complexities of the conflict in Darfur and the challenges of getting food and aid to those who need it most and getting the story out to the world.”
Presented Without Comment
The Telegraph: Trump Makes Legal Complaint Over [U.K.] Labour’s ‘Blatant Foreign Interference’ In U.S. Election
In a release announcing the complaint, the Trump campaign accused Labour of being a “far-Left” party that had “inspired Kamala’s dangerously liberal policies and rhetoric.”
Susie Wiles, Trump’s campaign manager, said: “In two weeks, Americans will once again reject the oppression of big government that we rejected in 1776.”
Also Presented Without Comment
CNN’s Anderson Cooper, moderating a town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris:
Cooper: Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?
Harris: Yes I do, yes I do.
In the Zeitgeist
FX released a trailer for the TV adaptation of Patrick Radden Keefe’s best-selling true crime book on the Troubles in Northern Ireland. And to make sure we Americans can understand the Irish accents, they embedded captions in the trailer.
Toeing the Company Line
- In the newsletters: The Dispatch Politics crew covered the Harris campaign’s efforts to drum up support among young men, and Scott argued that industrial policy has an uncertainty problem.
- On the podcasts: Jonah is joined by Kenneth Pollack, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, on The Remnant to discuss the tenuous state of affairs in the Middle East, and Sarah and David examine the legality of Elon Musk’s million-dollar “raffle” on Advisory Opinions.
- On the site: Michael reports on Appalachia’s recovery from Hurricane Helene, experts weigh in on what’s next for immigration policy under Trump or Harris, and Charlotte covers last-ditch efforts to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza before the election.
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.