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Happy Thursday! Let’s get right into the news.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter manned by three soldiers collided midair with a passenger jet carrying 64 people as the commercial aircraft made its final descent toward Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night, causing both aircraft to crash into the Potomac River. The American Airlines flight had departed from Wichita, Kansas, ahead of the feared mass casualty incident. The helicopter reportedly was on a training flight at the time of the collision. Rescue and recovery efforts were continuing this morning, law enforcement officials said, as some 300 emergency responders contended with cold, windy conditions and low visibility as they searched the crash site. As of 6 a.m. ET, law enforcement had confirmed fatalities but not yet provided a death toll.
- Syrian authorities named the country’s de facto leader, Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa—formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani—president of the transitional government on Monday. The military commander headed the Sunni rebel force that led the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime last month. Al-Sharaa’s appointment came amid a meeting of rebel factions in Damascus, where Syria’s new sovereigns dissolved the country’s 2012 constitution, disbanded Assad’s Baath party, and announced the formation of an interim legislative council. The factions did not specify how long the transitional period would last.
- A federal district court judge on Wednesday sentenced former Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey to 11 years in prison following his conviction on bribery and corruption charges last year. The former Democratic chair of the Foreign Relations Committee was found guilty in July after being tried on charges of accepting almost $1 million worth of cash and gold bars—which FBI agents found in a raid of his home last year—from the governments of Egypt and Qatar. Prosecutors said he took the money in exchange for favors to the two countries, including drafting a letter on behalf of Egypt asking for additional military aid from the United States. Menendez, who resigned from the Senate in August, said Wednesday that he plans to appeal the sentence.
- President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday reinstating military personnel who were discharged for refusing COVID vaccinations. More than 8,000 members of the military were discharged from 2021 to 2023 because of their refusal to get vaccinated before the requirement was rescinded in a 2023 spending bill. The order specifies that the service members will receive full back pay and be restored to their former ranks.
- Meta has agreed to pay President Trump $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit over the suspension of his Facebook and Instagram accounts following the January 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol, multiple outlets reported Wednesday. Of the total payout, $22 million will reportedly go toward Trump’s presidential library while the remainder will go to legal fees and other plaintiffs involved in the case. Trump had accused the social media platform and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, of engaging in “impermissible censorship” after its decision to halt his access to the accounts in the wake of the riots. Meta won’t admit wrongdoing in the settlement, which followed months of outreach efforts by Zuckerberg after Trump’s victory in the 2024 election.
- Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan announced Tuesday that he will not seek reelection in 2026. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is reportedly “seriously considering” a run, along with several Michigan Democrats. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer removed herself from consideration despite being widely seen as a strong contender. The open Senate seat could be yet another hurdle for Democrats trying to reclaim the upper chamber in the midterm elections.
- A wildfire broke out in McDowell County, North Carolina, on Wednesday, burning through some 250 acres and forcing the evacuation of many residents. Dubbed the Crooked Creek fire, the blaze was fueled by winds of up to 50 miles per hour and warm temperatures, threatening an area still reeling from Hurricane Helene’s devastation in September. The fire was 15 percent contained as of Wednesday afternoon.
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Why Trump’s push for peace could spell the end of Nato
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A Federal Workforce Overhaul
After a rise to fame fueled by his reality TV catchphrase, “You’re fired!,” President Donald Trump’s ambitious plan to reshape the federal government’s workforce in his second presidential term came as a surprise to very few people. And he’s wasting no time.
“Most of those bureaucrats are being fired, they’re gone,” Trump said after his inauguration last Monday. “It should be all of them, but some sneak through. We have to live with a couple, I guess.”
Trump returned to office with arguably more open hostility toward the federal workforce than any other modern president, describing the bureaucracy as “cancer” last week. He campaigned on destroying the so-called “deep state” and his tech-bro advisers have pledged “mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy.”
Over the last nine days, the Trump administration has issued a blitz of executive actions designed to ...
As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. You can read our 1,836-word item on Trump’s planned personnel shakeup in the members-only version of TMD.
Worth Your Time
- In his Substack Noahpinion, Noah Smith penned a convincing explanation of why Americans shouldn’t be scared of the future—that is, if bad governance doesn’t stand in the way of progress. “Americans are rising to meet the challenge of a risky, uncertain future, rather than hunkering down and protecting their wealth. Perhaps the ‘roaring 20s’ are really seeing a shift back toward the bold optimism that the Progress Studies people have been hoping for. But if so, the shift is still very incomplete. There are still a lot of important ways in which Americans — especially the leadership and the politically engaged class — are trying to resist the future instead of riding the wave,” he wrote. “The Democrats’ desire to hobble the software industry doesn’t seem too different from the Republicans’ attempts to hobble the green energy industry. In both cases, fear that the technology will empower the wrong people — hippies and commies in the case of hardware, ‘bro-ligarchs’ in the case of software — ends up translating into antipathy toward the technologies themselves. This stands in contrast to the mid-20th century, when Americans, recently unified by World War 2, simply assumed that new technologies like vaccines, airlines, and TV would be created for their own benefit.”
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Politico: The West Is Trying to Interfere in Our Elections, Russia Moans
Also Presented Without Comment
New York Times: Justice Dept. Is Said to Discuss Dropping Case Against Eric Adams
Also Also Presented Without Comment
NBC News: Texas man pardoned over Jan. 6 attack is wanted on 2016 charge of soliciting a minor
A Texas man released from prison under President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons over the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is wanted by authorities on a 2016 charge of soliciting a minor online, prosecutors say.
Andrew Taake, 36, was accused of attacking police officers with bear spray and a metal whip during the Capitol assault.
In the Zeitgeist
If you’re curious about Gen-Z’s take on rock music, look no further than MJ Lenderman, the 25-year-old breakout artist from Asheville, North Carolina, whose 2024 album Manning Fireworks made its way to the top of several major publications’ “Best Albums of 2024” lists. He expanded his tour on Tuesday after playing sold-out shows across the country, but he made time for this fantastic NPR Tiny Desk concert.
Toeing the Company Line
- In the newsletters: Scott Lincicome argued (🔒) that Donald Trump’s deportations could have negative reverberations for American workers, Jonah Goldberg lamented (🔒) the right’s warped definition of patriotism, and Nick Catoggio wrote about (🔒) the “postliberal revolution” guiding the new administration’s individual policy decisions.
- On the podcasts: Harvard Law Professor Jack Goldsmith, Sarah Isgur, and David French discuss the unitary executive theory on Advisory Opinions, and Ross Douthat joins Jonah to chat about his new book and indulge in some rank punditry on today’s Remnant.
- On the site: John McCormack profiles the House Freedom Caucus 10 years after its founding and Michael Brown explains what DeepSeek means for U.S. AI companies and national security.
Charlotte Lawson is the editor of The Morning Dispatch, currently based in southern Florida. Prior to joining the company in 2020, she studied history and global security at the University of Virginia. When Charlotte is not keeping up with foreign policy and world affairs, she is probably trying to hone her photography skills.
Grayson Logue is a staff writer for The Dispatch and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the company in 2023, he worked in political risk consulting, helping advise Fortune 50 companies. He was also an assistant editor at Providence Magazine and is a graduate student at the University of Edinburgh, pursuing a Master’s degree in history. When Grayson is not writing pieces for the website, he is probably working hard to reduce the number of balls he loses on the golf course.
James P. Sutton is a Morning Dispatch Reporter, based in Washington D.C. Prior to joining the company in 2024, he most recently graduated from University of Oxford with a Master's degree in history. He has also taught high school history in suburban Philadelphia, and interned at National Review and the Foreign Policy Research Institute. When not writing for The Morning Dispatch, he is probably playing racquet sports, reading a history book, or rooting for Bay Area sports teams.
Cole Murphy is a Morning Dispatch Reporter based in Atlanta. Prior to joining the company in 2025, he interned at The Dispatch and worked in business strategy at Home Depot. When Cole is not conributing to TMD, he is probably seeing a movie, listening to indie country music, or having his heart broken by Atlanta sports teams.
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