Good morning. It is July 5th. It is a sweltering, sweltering morning in New York City. Just a steamy armpit of a day. The air conditioner is off for sound management purposes, so we're going to go fast. Plus, we didn't actually get a physical newspaper this morning. But despite the logistical challenges, this is your Indignity Morning Podcast. I'm your host, Tom Scocca, taking a look at the day and the news.

The lead story on the front of the PDF replica of this morning's New York Times online is, "Labor is posed to end 14 years of Tory control landslide in Britain." A story that's somehow completely unfindable on the webpage that's supposed to round up the stories in today's paper. But yes, the news out of London is that if a bunch of twisted right -wing ghouls keep the country in an iron fist for 14 years, while driving everybody's standard of living down and making day -to -day life miserable. Eventually, even if they control the press, even if the best leader the opposition can muster is a ghoul of their own, the rigid, brittle hold on power will break, and the voting public will sweep them away. A little something to look forward to in the U .S. around the year 2040. 

On the left -hand side of the front page, here in our enervated democracy, on the left -hand side of the page, it's "Donors devise push for Biden to leave race." The money bags are spooked, like the backlash it describes, the story seems sort of incoherent. It describes a remarkable and growing rift between the party's contributor class and its standard bearer that could have an impact on down -ballot races, but then goes on to say that one group of donors is working to raise as much as $100 million for a sort of escrow fund called the Next Generation PAC that would be used to support a replacement candidate. If Mr. Biden does not step aside, the money could be used to help down -ballot candidates, according to people close to the effort. So when it says that the Donors' Rebellion would have an effect on down -ballot candidates, in this case, it means a positive effect. Also, if people are gaming it out, there's $212 million that currently belongs to the Biden -Harris campaign. It could be extremely difficult to free up if the presidential nominee is not Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. So if Biden stays in, that $100 million of anti -Biden money gets added to the $212 million for the overall campaign. But if he and Harris are sidelined, you're potentially removing $212 million and replacing it with $100 million. It's almost as if none of these people have thought any of this through. Next down on the virtual print page one in the middle above the non -existent fold. "Breakthrough," in quotes, "is seen in renewed talks for ceasefire in Gaza."

American and Israeli officials on Thursday, the Times writes, expressed renewed optimism over a ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip after Hamas revised its position and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel then told President Biden that he was sending a new delegation of negotiators to the stalled talks. Good news if true. The if true part is probably part of why it's not higher up on the page. 

On the bottom left in Ukraine, off the shelf, AI opens an age of killer robots. You can now send a cheap drone to hunt somebody down all on its own. And the exigencies of warfare call forth the good guys to use it. And away we go with that. Speaking of technologies that the good guys just couldn't help themselves from using when the war demanded it, not in the paper, but on the website. There is a piece of news about Donald Trump, the presidential front runner, who is a less urgent or interesting focus of news, than his opponent. Namely, "Trump advisors call for a U .S. nuclear weapons testing if he is elected." Allies of Donald J. Trump, the paper writes, are proposing that the United States restart the testing of nuclear weapons in underground detonations should the former president be re -elected in November. A number of nuclear experts reject such a resumption as unnecessary and say it would threaten to end a testing moratorium that the world's major atomic powers have honored for decades. On the live homepage, to get to that story, you have to scroll past "Treatment of President Biden and Donald Trump puts parties in stark relief," does it put the parties in stark relief? Anybody else puts in stark relief? Then live just now, "Embattled Biden hits trail and sits for a crucial interview." The Wisconsin Supreme Court said that ballot drop boxes can be used again, reversing a conservative ruling. These voters in swing states supported President Biden in 2020. Now they want another option. One obstacle for Trump's promises, this isn't the 2016 economy. And only then, as you scroll down, do you get to the big boom. And, three people were killed and seven injured on the Lower East Side yesterday when the drunk driver of a gigantic Ford F -150 crashed into a crowd celebrating the Fourth of July in a park. The New York Post reports that the suspect is a substance abuse counselor who wrote a book called The Sober Addict. Maybe more pertinently, the Post reports that he has lived in New Jersey and the Bronx, which means presumably this giant pickup truck had to enter the lower end of Manhattan a week after New York Governor Kathy Hochul prevented congestion pricing from taking effect, so as not to discourage drivers from coming into the city. That is the news. Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to Indignity to keep us going. And if all goes well, we will talk again probably on Tuesday, actually. Monday already looks kind of hectic. Stay cool out there and enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend.