Will the RFK Endorsement Move the Needle?

Happy Tuesday! We’re still taking applications for our Fall Podcast Internship! One perk of interning in the fall—in addition to avoiding the D.C. summers—is that our colleague James Scimecca can’t pressure you to play on the company softball team. (Though there are rumblings about a fall bowling league.) Check out the posting and apply today if you are interested!

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• Russia launched a massive air attack on Ukrainian territory early Monday morning, which Kyiv claimed included some 100 drones and 100 missiles and killed at least six people. In an appeal to the international community, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky requested support from European countries’ militaries to counter Russian air attacks. “Across Ukraine, we could do much more to protect lives if the aviation of our European neighbors operated in concert with our F-16s and air defense systems,” Zelensky tweeted shortly after the air assault. “If such unity has proven effective in the Middle East, it must work in Europe too. Life holds the same value everywhere.”
• A Chinese military surveillance aircraft violated Japanese airspace on Monday, prompting the Japanese government to scramble fighter planes and issue warnings to the Chinese aircraft. The airspace incursion lasted for only about two minutes, but Japanese media reported the Chinese violation—which occurred above territorial waters off Japan’s southern coast—was the first of its kind. 
• French authorities on Saturday arrested Pavel Durov, co-founder and CEO of the popular, privacy-focused messaging platform Telegram, shortly after he landed at an airport near Paris on his private plane. French police then extended his detention for up to 96 hours for questioning, pending a French judge’s decision to either prosecute or release him. The New York Times reported Monday that French prosecutors were investigating an unnamed person, potentially Durov, for alleged complicity in illegal activities—including the distribution of child pornography, drug and money laundering, and failure to cooperate with investigative authorities. “The arrest of the president of Telegram on French soil took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation,” French President Emmanuel Macron clarified on Monday after facing public backlash. “It is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to rule on the matter.”
• Negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas held in Cairo reportedly made progress over the weekend and will continue this week. The talks included mediating representatives from the United States, Qatar, and Egypt, but representatives for Hamas refused direct communication with Israeli and U.S. officials. It’s unclear how the exchange of fire along Israel’s border with Lebanon over the weekend will affect the talks.
• Pakistani government officials reported Monday that insurgent militants killed 73 people—including civilians, soldiers, and law enforcement—in separate incidents across the country’s Balochistan region, including attacks targeting civilian highways, railroads, and police stations. The Baloch Liberation Army—a separatist group the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist organization—took responsibility for the attacks, claiming they targeted Pakistani military personnel disguised in civilian clothing. However, Pakistani officials reported 38 civilians were killed, including 23 at a highway security checkpoint in which those from the country’s Punjab region were specifically targeted. “These incidents of sabotage are a conspiracy to create instability in Pakistan,” the country’s interior ministry tweeted. “The enemy wants to create anarchy in the country under a well thought out plan.”
• More than 60 people were killed in Sudan on Monday following recent rain storms that caused a dam collapse in the country’s eastern region, followed by massive flooding. The Sudanese Armed Forces—a group currently battling the Rapid Support Forces in a civil war that has ravaged the civilian population for more than a year—governs much of the affected region and announced it would send assistance and organize support for victims in the area. 
• United Nations officials told news outlets on Monday that the body has paused humanitarian operations in Gaza, prompted by Israel’s new evacuation orders on Sunday in Deir Al-Balah, the central Gazan city where the international agency’s humanitarian efforts are headquartered. The officials maintained the humanitarian aid suspension is temporary and will resume once the agency finds a new location to base its operations.
• Special counsel Jack Smith filed a request on Monday asking a federal appeals court to reinstate his case against former President Donald Trump over his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Judge Aileen Cannon—a Florida federal district court judge overseeing the classified documents case—dismissed the charges last month, ruling that Smith was improperly appointed as special counsel. “The district court’s rationale would likewise raise questions about hundreds of appointments throughout the Executive Branch, including in the Departments of Defense, State, Treasury, and Labor,” Smith wrote in his 81-page appeal. “The implausibility of that outcome underscores why the district court’s novel conclusions lack merit.” How long the appeals court will take to issue a decision remains unclear, and the case is almost certainly not going to proceed before the election in November.
• A federal judge on Monday paused for two weeks the implementation of the “Keeping Families Together” program, a Biden administration initiative that would grant illegal aliens with U.S. citizen spouses the ability to apply for a green card without having to leave the U.S. like currently required. Sixteen Republican attorneys general sued the Biden administration on Friday over the measure, arguing it would harm their states by incentivizing illegal migration. U.S. District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker said in his ruling that the plaintiffs’ claims—including about the Biden administration’s authority to bypass Congress to institute such a program—required more time to be fully evaluated. “The claims are substantial and warrant closer consideration than the court has been able to afford to date,” he wrote. The program can continue to accept applications but cannot process them, according to the ruling. 

‘Make America Healthy Again’?

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign keeps delivering the unexpected, whether it’s asking workers at a Philadelphia cheesesteak stand why they don’t use Swiss cheese, advocating for women’s reproductive rights under the mantle of the Republican Party, or gaining the endorsement of the member of the Kennedy family who also has a brain worm.

Kennedy suspended his long-shot independent bid for the presidency on Friday, appearing with Trump generated splashy headlines for the Trump campaign over the weekend …

As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,508-word story on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsing Donald Trump is available in the members-only version of TMD.

Worth Your Time

• It’s now been three years since U.S. forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan. Writing in Reason, Fiona Harrigan talked to an Afghan ally of U.S. forces who recounted the fallout from those chaotic days. “The Taliban were not supposed to enter Kabul,” an Afghan man, identified as Baryalai, told Harrigan. “Baryalai spent the next two and a half years on the run. Since he had worked with the U.S., the risk of Taliban retribution was high. Interpreters have been hunted down, tortured, and killed since the Taliban took power. ‘I was living in hiding with my family. From one city to another, changing locations,’ he says. Things weren’t supposed to go this way. In return for his service to the U.S., Baryalai was eligible for a sanctioned escape—a visa pathway specifically designed for allies like him, a reward for years of faithful military service. If that pathway wasn’t backlogged and addled by bureaucracy, he might have gotten out of Afghanistan far earlier. Instead of cashing in on a promise made by the U.S. government, Baryalai and thousands of other Afghan allies were forced to fashion their own paths forward.”
• Can small acts of charity really make a difference? For Vox, Rachel M. Cohen explained how she redeemed volunteerism for herself. “As a left-leaning college student, I was persuaded by leaders who warned that personal consumer choices would never amount to real social change,” she wrote. “For real social progress, we’d need systematic policy shifts, comprehensive legislation, and political power. … In a way, it can feel safe to distrust the value of individual action. Being wary of philanthropy and charitable groups that promise to better the world resonates with the skepticism I’ve been trained to have, professionally and culturally. It also allows me to avoid making sacrifices; there’s no real vulnerability or bets required. But as time goes on, and as I think about the family I might one day raise, I’m coming to appreciate the value of letting go and taking gambles on hope, as long as they point generally in the moral direction I want to go.” 

Presented Without Comment

The White House: Statement by Vice President Harris on the Anniversary of the Terrorist Attack Outside Kabul Airport

As I have said, President Biden made the courageous and right decision to end America’s longest war. Over the past three years, our Administration has demonstrated we can still eliminate terrorists, including the leaders of al-Qaeda and ISIS, without troops deployed into combat zones.

Also Presented Without Comment

CNBC: Trump Says [Elon] Musk Wouldn’t Have Time to Be in His White House Cabinet, but Could ‘Consult’

In the Zeitgeist

On Monday, the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays resumed a baseball game that had been rescheduled after being suspended due to rain in late June. No big deal—except catcher Danny Jansen was traded from the Blue Jays to the Red Sox on July 27. 

The result? He became the first player in Major League Baseball history to play for both teams in the same games, and—on the stat sheet at least—serve as both the batter and the catcher in the same at-bat.

Toeing the Company Line

• It’s Tuesday, which means Dispatch Live (🔒) returns tonight at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT! Kevin and the team will discuss the news of the week and, of course, take plenty of viewer questions! Keep an eye out for an email later today with information on how to tune in.
• In the newsletters: Kevin outlined the (🔒) “extraordinary opportunity” Vice President Kamala Harris has if she continues courting centrists and disaffected Republicans, the Dispatch Politics team highlighted Democrats’ aspirations to remake the Supreme Court and reported on the immense cash at the Harris campaign’s disposal, and Nick navigated (🔒) the recent Dispatch v. Bulwark showdown.
• On the podcasts: Sarah and David talk are joined on Advisory Opinions by Matt Martens to discuss his new book, Reforming Criminal Justice: A Christian Proposal.
• On the site: Drucker takes a look at what might be next for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and Stirewalt checks in on undecided voters.