Senate border negotiations on hold and Hamas reportedly refuses weeklong

As Ukraine’s frontline gains slow, Kyiv turns to sabotage. Republicans look at slow-walking a Biden impeachment vote. And a cruise ship was left unable to navigate after being hit by a rogue wave.

Here’s what to know today.

Do you regularly read our newsletter? We would love to hear your thoughts! Click below to take our short survey. Tell us your thoughts.

Facing a stalemate on the battlefield and a looming uncertainty over Western military aid, Ukraine is turning to a different tactic against Russia: sabotage.

The sabotage has come in different forms. In recent weeks, Ukraine has stepped up its drone strikes while also also disrupting Russia’s logistical network — targeting rail lines, roads, warehouses and oil depots deep inside Russian territory. There have even been brazen assassinations.

This is Morning Rundown, a weekday newsletter to start your morning. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

The covert operations involve a secretive network of partisans that have struck at far-flung locations, former U.S. officials say. Sometimes, Ukraine has taken credit for the attacks. Sometimes, it hasn’t.

Investigative reporter Dan DeLuce details the attacks on Russian resources and how the Biden administration feels about the shadow campaign.

The Senate has left Washington D.C. for the year without reaching a deal on President Joe Biden’s bill to provide aid for Ukraine. While Biden said he is open to compromise with Republicans, his willingness to hear out the GOP’s immigration demands puts him on shaky ground with progressives who oppose an asylum crackdown. But despite attacks from the left, there are many in the Democratic Party who want the president to cut a deal to mitigate what they see as chaos at the border. 

Meanwhile, Republicans’ attacks on Biden keep building. Yesterday, House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested in a scathing letter that Biden was to blame for the crisis at the border and that he should take a number of executive actions, including resuming the construction of a border wall.

The criticism comes as migrants in some U.S. cities are being released directly onto the streets as border facilities are overwhelmed with record numbers, according to two Department of Homeland Security officials.

Yesterday, the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed that an estimated 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza by Israel’s bombing campaign and ground invasion. In the 76 days since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack, Israel has been waging a bloody campaign to defeat the terror group and oust it from political power.

But how successful has it been? 

Israel has said it has killed thousands of Hamas fighters. However, experts and former U.S. military officers say that the progress the Israeli military has made in the past two months is temporary, and there is no sign that Hamas is on the verge of a strategic defeat.

Authorities in the Czech Republic are investigating yesterday’s shooting at Charles University in Prague that left 14 people dead and dozens injured. The shooter, who was a student at the university, is also dead.

At a news conference after the shooting, police called the suspect a “blank slate” and said he was capable of more bloodshed had authorities not entered the building where the attack took place. Police believe he was a student at the school. The identities of the victims and shooter have not been released.

This week, the World Health Organization declared the JN.1 variant of the coronavirus a “variant…