Good morning. It's May 21st. It's a warm morning in New York City on its way to a very warm day. If the forecast is to be believed, and this is your indignity morning podcast, I'm your host, Tom Skoka, taking a look at the day and the news. The Guardian is reporting, individual members of Israel's security forces are tipping off far right activists and settlers to the location of aid trucks delivering vital supplies to Gaza, enabling the groups to block and vandalize the convoys according to multiple sources. That sort of undersells it, since among the sources is a spokesperson from the main Israeli activist group behind the blockades. They're bragging about it to the newspaper because they're invested in the entire tautology of the war in which they say that the aid is just being taken by Hamas. Life in Gaza is Hamas. Hamas must be eliminated, and the rest all naturally follows. One person was killed and 30 others were injured by severe turbulence on a Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore. A passenger on the flight told Reuters, everyone seated and not wearing a seatbelt was launched immediately into the ceiling. Reuters has a picture of oxygen masks and what look like ceiling panels dangling, and a picture of, and a whole section of cabin ceiling torn away to expose ducts and insulation. The plane was a Boeing 777 -300ER, but as far as long running, menacing news stories go,

It's probably more important to note that mid -air turbulence is getting more frequent and more severe as the planet warms. So don't fly, but if you do fly, wear your seatbelt. On the front of this morning's New York Times, the lead story is two columns about Iran's response to the fatal helicopter crash that killed its president. The Times being the Times, the way it opens the lead story is, Iran sought to project a sense of order and control on Monday by quickly naming an acting president and foreign minister a day after a helicopter crash killed both leaders. Everything's got to be vibes and impressions, even basic continuity of leadership in a sovereign nation. What if rather than primarily seeking to project a sense of order and control, Iran was seeking to have a president and a foreign minister? What else would you do in the absence of a black letter constitutional succession plan?

The first vice president became the acting president. Pending an announced election within 50 days, a deputy foreign minister was appointed caretaker foreign minister. Why is the Times even describing this as something they did quickly? They did it the day after the people in those offices were found dead. How long was Iran supposed to sit around without a government? Just simultaneously ponderous and ridiculous framing. Next to that, sharing space under the two -column headline is some news analysis about how the two dead officials balanced national aggression and or assertiveness with some circumspection and engagement. Will their successors continue to pursue their country's perceived self -interest in a rational way? That, I guess, is the question. Although the answer seems like probably. Next to that on page one, the Times catches up with the International Criminal Court prosecutor's request for arrest warrants against leaders of Israel and Hamas.

There's a picture of the cargo ship Dali, destroyer of the Francis Scott Cabe Bridge, being finally towed out of the wreckage to be brought back to the port. It was leaving in the first place. The crew, under the terrible intersection of maritime law and labor law, remain prisoners on the boat. Above that, there's a story about how gunplay ravages Columbus, Ohio, starting with the account of a really gnarly shootout in 2021 where someone got killed strictly because other people had too many guns and terrible judgment. I'm naturally disposed to accept the premise of the story that abundant guns and weakening gun laws make life less safe for everybody. It was a little weird though to get past the jump and arrive around the 18th paragraph at the news that despite being in a set of cities whose homicide rates kept rising even after the peak derangement of the pandemic, Columbus is now sitting on 36 homicides for the year to date. compared with 70 the year before. So, Javier says the cause and effect looks... There must be some other causes and effects going on. The Trump trial is continuing. The Times described yesterday's events in the courtroom as a non -stop spectacle. As the judge lost his temper and cleared the courtroom, after a defense witness responded to one of his rulings by saying, jeez. Inside the paper on page A15 and aide to Mayor Eric Adams, who served as his longtime liaison to the Turkish community and whose home was searched by the FBI, has been cooperating, the Times writes, with the corruption investigation into the mayor and his 2021 campaign, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. If you squint just over the horizon, you can see a pretty obvious and terrible convergence of interests between Donald Trump and Eric Adams. Do they see it too? Stay tuned to the uplifting pageant of American democracy to find out.

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 tomorrow.