U.S. and Saudi Arabia Move Toward Landmark Deal

Happy Thursday! It’s debate day. And if you’re thinking you may need a little liquid courage to make it through all 90 minutes, The Dispatch has you covered: Members can check out Dispatch fact-checker Alex Demas and Reason’s Peter Suderman’s debate-themed cocktail concoctions on The Skiff (🔒). If you try one, let us know!

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Wednesday that the state attorneys general and social media users who challenged the Biden administration over its efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic to encourage social media companies to remove content it had flagged as misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine did not have the legal right to sue, also known as standing. “The plaintiffs, without any concrete link between their injuries and the defendants’ conduct, ask us to conduct a review of the yearslong communications between dozens of federal officials, across different agencies, with different social media platforms, about different topics,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority in Murthy v. Missouri. “This court’s standing doctrine prevents us from exercising such general legal oversight of the other branches of government.” Justice Samuel Alito, writing in a dissent joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, said the Biden administration’s efforts to pressure the companies was a First Amendment issue. “High-ranking government officials placed unrelenting pressure on Facebook to suppress Americans’ free speech,” he wrote. “Because the court unjustifiably refuses to address this serious threat to the First Amendment, I respectfully dissent.”
• The Supreme Court is likely to rule that Idaho cannot prevent doctors from performing abortions in instances in which it is necessary to “prevent serious harms to a woman’s health,” after a copy of what seemed to be the court’s ruling was briefly posted to its website on Wednesday before being quickly removed. In the case, the Biden administration argued that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act requires federally funded hospitals to provide “stabilizing care” to pregnant women, which could supersede Idaho’s ban on abortion in all cases except when the life of the mother is at risk. Lawyers defending Idaho’s law have argued that its various exceptions already cover scenarios outlined by the Biden administration.
• Bolivian soldiers stormed their nation’s presidential palace and crashed an armored car into the gates on Wednesday in an apparent military coup attempt that also saw soldiers briefly occupy a central square in the South American country’s capital, La Paz. The attack seemed to be orchestrated by a senior military leader, Gen. Juan José Zúñiga, who was dismissed from his role earlier this week after he threatened to arrest former Bolivian President Evo Morales in the event he ran for office again. Zúñiga was reportedly seen entering the presidential mansion, though he was shown on camera leaving the building shortly after. “We denounce irregular mobilizations of some units of the Bolivian Army,” Bolivian President Luis Arce tweeted following the attack. “Democracy must be respected.” Morales called on Bolivians to take to the streets to defend democracy.
• A United States federal judge sentenced former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to 45 years in federal prison and fined the former Central American leader $8 million for helping smuggle at least 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S. during his eight-year run as president. “[Hernández] chose to abuse his office and country for his own personal gain,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in March when the Justice Department indicted Hernández. “[He] partnered with some of the largest and most violent drug trafficking organizations in the world to transport tons of cocaine to the United States.” Hernández—whom U.S. officials had at one point publicly treated as an ally in the fight to stem migration—has denied all wrongdoing and is expected to appeal the decision.
• NATO member states on Wednesday formally tapped outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to serve as the defensive alliance’s secretary general, will all 32 countries unanimously agreeing to his appointment. On October 1, Rutte will take the baton from former Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who has led NATO since 2014. “The Alliance is and will remain the cornerstone of our collective security,” Rutte tweeted Wednesday. “Leading this organization is a responsibility I do not take lightly. I’m grateful to all the Allies for placing their trust in me.” 
• Kenyan President William Ruto on Wednesday reversed course and announced his opposition to a controversial tax hike proposal that sparked violent protests in the country’s capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday. Demonstrators clashed with police in riots that reportedly left at least 23 protesters dead—some apparently at the hands of the police— and dozens more injured, with protesters setting the parliament building and city hall ablaze. “Having reflected on the continuing conversation regarding the content of the finance bill 2024, and listening keenly to the people of Kenya … I concede,” Ruto said Wednesday. “And therefore, I will not sign the 2024 finance bill.” Ruto’s ruling party introduced the finance bill–which included income, excise, and value-added tax increases—in Kenya’s parliament last month.
• Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich appeared in a Russian court on Wednesday for the start of his secret trial for trumped-up espionage charges, more than a year after Russian authorities detained the 32-year-old U.S. citizen in March 2023 while he was on a reporting assignment in Yekaterinburg. The Journal condemned the “sham trial” based on “fake charges,” and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has previously said Russia has provided “no evidence of wrongdoing,” officially designating Gershkovich as wrongfully detained. Russia has floated the possibility of a prisoner exchange involving Gershkovich, but only after a verdict in the trial, which could still take months. 
• President Joe Biden on Wednesday pardoned approximately two thousand former servicemembers who were convicted of having gay sexual relations under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which criminalized gay sex in the military for more than sixty years—from 1951 to 2013. “Today, I am righting an historic wrong by using my clemency authority to pardon many former service members who were convicted simply for being themselves,” the president said in a statement. “Despite their courage and great sacrifice, thousands of LGBTQI+ service members were forced out of the military. … Some of these patriotic Americans were subject to court-martial, and have carried the burden of this great injustice for decades.” Those who want their convictions overturned can now apply for a certificate of clemency, which could allow them to receive benefits they were denied and upgrade their discharge from the military if they were relieved of duty under a dishonorable discharge.
• The man accused of killing seven people and injuring dozens more in a shooting at a Fourth of July parade near Chicago in Highland Park, Illinois, in 2022 backed out of his plea deal last-minute at court on Wednesday. He pleaded not guilty to charges in August 2022 but was expected to accept a plea deal this week. The accused shooter, 21 years old at the time of the massacre, remained silent on Wednesday when the judge asked for his verbal acknowledgment, and shortly after, his public defender announced he would not accept a plea deal. A trial date was set by the judge for February 2025.

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Biden’s Grand Bargain

In November 2019, when debate moderators asked then-Democratic presidential primary candidate Joe Biden about punishing Saudi Arabia’s leaders for the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the country’s poor human rights record, Biden didn’t mince words. 

“We were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are,” he said. “There’s very little, social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia.”

As president, Biden initially seemed ready to make good on his promise. Shortly after taking office in January 2021, he paused arms sales to the kingdom. The following month, he released a declassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that indicated Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS), the heir to the throne and de facto ruler, personally ordered Khashoggi’s execution. Biden sidelined MBS in a move to “recalibrate” the relationship, opting to communicate instead with the prince’s ailing father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The administration also sanctioned several Saudi security officials allegedly involved in the murder and restricted the visas of 76 Saudi nationals connected to efforts to threaten dissidents outside of the country.

But before long, Biden began a slow-rolling 180 in his approach to the Gulf state. The president visited Saudi Arabia in July 2022, exchanging a controversial fist bump with MBS, which was followed by a hearty handshake—literally brokered by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi—at the G20 Summit in India last September. Now, Biden is preparing to offer the kingdom a bear hug.

For at least the last 18 months, Saudi and U.S. officials have been negotiating a …

As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,873-word story on the Biden administration’s efforts to reach a landmark deal with Saudi Arabia is available in the members-only version of TMD.

Worth Your Time

• In his Slow Boring Substack, Matthew Yglesias panned the hyper-competitive, high-pressure world of youth sports. “I think shifting from informal and school-based sports to expensive pay-to-play leagues has landed us in a pretty dysfunctional place, where parenting is unnecessarily complicated, society is unnecessarily inegalitarian, and communities are unnecessarily weak,” he argued. “If every year, the best two or three kids shift to a travel team, that has downstream impacts. One is that the more casual team is now a lot worse. That makes it less fun, but it’s certainly not the end of the world. I think the more insidious aspect is that people are generally conformists. If you’re interested in soccer and your friends who are interested in soccer join the travel team, then you want to join the travel team. And soon it’s not just the top one or two players from each cohort on travel teams, it’s everyone who can afford to be. … This is not a question of selecting the most talented 1 percent of young athletes and bringing them into elite programs, it’s about selecting an above-average kid whose parents are willing to pay.”
• Writer and journalist Malcolm Gladwell’s newest podcast series—launched Wednesday—tells the stories of America’s Medal of Honor winners. The first episode recounted the stunning heroism of Michael Thornton, a Navy SEAL during the Vietnam War who saved the life of one of his fellow SEALs. “A world of trouble,” Gladwell said. “That’s where Medal of Honor Stories are made. In the places where the odds are so long and the risk is so great that it will take an act of extreme bravery for anyone to survive. But where does that bravery come from? That’s one of the questions that got me so obsessed with Medal of Honor stories. Because I think sometimes we just assume that courage is a trait, something you’re born with, and that what happens in moments like on that Vietnam beach is that we suddenly learn who has it and who doesn’t. One of the things that happens when you listen to enough Medal of Honor stories is that you begin to realize that courage is not a birthright. It’s a choice.”

Presented Without Comment

New York Times: AI-Generated Al Michaels to Deliver Paris Olympics Highlights

Mr. Michaels, however, will not be holing up in a broadcast booth each night to briefly summarize the dozens of Olympic events that took place. Instead, Peacock’s program has been trained from Mr. Michaels’s NBC clips—he joined the network in 2006 and was its longtime “Sunday Night Football” announcer—to formulate coherent, realistic-sounding sentences, which “will provide his signature expertise and elocution,” the company said.

Also Presented Without Comment

Associated Press: Gassy Cows and Pigs Will Face a Carbon Tax in Denmark, a World First

Also Also Presented Without Comment

Defector: Texas A&M Baseball Coach Leaves For Texas, One Day After Scolding Reporter Who Asked If He Might Leave For Texas

In the Zeitgeist 

This is not the first time Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats have been featured in this newsletter, and it certainly won’t be the last. But the Americana singer and his backing band are releasing a new album tomorrow—or more accurately for us morning newsletter writers, tonight at midnight—and one of the project’s lead singles, “Get Used to the Night,” is going to get us through debate day.

Toeing the Company Line

• In the newsletters: The Dispatch Politics crew recapped Tuesday’s primaries and previewed today’s debate, Scott explained (🔒) the ins and outs of digital trade, Nick unpacked why (🔒) Democrats are pretending progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman was defeated by a pro-Israel PAC rather than his own actions, and Jonah wrote a G-File (🔒) that might “read like [he] had a heatstroke.”
• On the podcasts: Sarah and David broke down another day of SCOTUS decisions on Advisory Opinions, while Sarah and Jonah dove into Jamaal Bowman’s primary defeat in New York on The Skiff (🔒). On today’s episode of The Remnant, Chris fills in for Jonah and talks to Benn Steil about his new book on Henry Wallace.
• On the site: Justin Perry outlines proposed structural changes to the National Institutes of Health. Plus, Rob Biertempfel reflects on recent changes by Major League Baseball to more fully incorporate the history of the Negro Leagues—and talks to the great-grandson of an all-time Negro League legend in the process.