Random News: May 20, 2024

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s May 20, 2024, and it’s a Monday. I slept well but had so many dreams that I feel like I’ve been at a movie for the past seven hours. Having my coffee now to help escort my brain back into reality. Let’s do some news.

• When I reported yesterday morning that a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi made what their media called a “hard landing,” I knew that was understating the truth.
• It was announced today that President Raisi along with the country’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, and others have been found dead at the site.
• What does this meant Iran? Well, keep in mind that the country is a theocracy, which means its religious leaders are more powerful than their elected officials. President Raisi was seen as a protégé to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a potential successor for his position within the country’s Shiite theocracy.
• Under the Iranian constitution, if a president dies, the country’s first vice president — in this case, Mohammad Mokhber — would become president. Khamenei has publicly assured Iranians that there would be “no disruption to the operations of the country” as a result of the crash.
• Not to get side tracked here, but you should know: before Islamic extremists took over Iran in 1979, it was a thriving country with a great cultural scene with film festivals, fashion shows, pop music, and much more.
• Women used to be treated equally there, getting access to education and being free to do things like wearing what they want, having their hair uncovered, and other things we take for granted in the USA. 
• Whenever a theocracy gains power, it has a devastating impact on a country, and it doesn’t matter if the religion is Islam or Christianity or whatever.
• Moving on.
• As we recently mentioned was a good possibility, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said today that he was seeking arrest warrants against senior officials in the Israel-Gaza conflict.
• That includes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
• The court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, said he was also seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as two other top Hamas leaders — Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the leader of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades and better known as Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader.
• While the ICC won’t come into the territory and arrest these people, the warrants mean they won’t be able leave their respective countries without fear of apprehension.
• And honestly, fuck around and find out, guys. Over 35,000 people have been killed and 80,000 injured in Gaza since the war began, with the majority of the dead being women and children.
• War crimes are crimes. Criminals face punishment.
• Let’s move on.
• Back in the USA, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, attempting to put political pressure on Republicans, announced yesterday that the chamber will vote this week on a long-negotiated bipartisan border bill that Republicans blocked earlier this year.
• The initial border deal was blocked in February by the Senate amid a torrent of attacks by top House Republicans acting under the order of Donnie Dump.
• Dump wanted to make the southern border a big deal as a central campaign issue in his race for the White House. The Senate passed a separate foreign aid package last month.
• If they pass legislation to help solve the problem, it takes away one of the only thing Dump has to say during the election. So they’ve purposefully chosen to not fix an urgent need just to try and score political points.
• Who would do such a vile thing? Oh yeah, Republicans. Never mind.
• In other news…
• U.S. forces will withdraw from the West African country of Niger by mid-September, officials from both nations announced yesterday.
• Why is the USA even there? Purportedly because it’s an ideal spot for counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other militant groups in the region.
• We’d wanted to remain, but Niger’s military junta, which came to power by coup last summer, wanted us out.
• Moving on.
• Dali, the cargo ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore before its collapse, is set to be refloated today after eight weeks of salvage efforts requiring the use of giant floating cranes and explosives. 
• The milestone comes nearly eight weeks since the disaster killed six construction workers, crippled the Port of Baltimore and cut off I-695. The entire refloat and transit operation is predicted to take 21 hours or longer.
• Good luck, everyone involved.
• In news from The Many Trials of Dumples, lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen is back on the witness stand right now in Dump’s hush money/election interference case. 
• Cohen’s pivotal testimony last week directly tied Trump to the hush money scheme. As soon as that wraps up, Dump’s defense lawyers will begin whatever they have to put on a case to show Dump’s claimed innocence. 
• Dumpy claims he wants to testify at the trial. If I was a gambling man, I’d put every penny I had on him not speaking in his own defense.
• He may be that stupid, but his lawyers aren’t. Dump would not only make statements that assured his guilt but would almost certainly lie and commit perjury in the process.
• The trial should end with closing arguments next week.
• My only other mention of the Smelly Orange has that on Saturday, he froze for more than 30 seconds during a speech at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Dallas, TX.
• Dump also kept the crowd waiting for more than two hours from the scheduled time of his speech. Something major health-wise is going on with that guy.
• And one of these days in the not-too-distant future, we’ll wake up to these news bullets and he won’t be here anymore.
• And now, The Weather: “Sleep Talk” by Crumb
• In weather-related news, Houston area residents affected by deadly storms last week received some relief when power was restored yesterday to a majority of the hundreds of thousands who had been left in the dark and without air conditioning during hot and humid weather.
• Ugh.
• From the Sports Desk… we have conference finals in the NBA playoffs.
• In the East, it’s the 1-seed Boston Celtics versus the scrappy 6-seed Indiana Pacers. The Western Conference will have some more underdogs facing off when the 5-seed Dallas Mavericks take on the 3-seed Minnesota Timberwolves.
• Today in history… The Battle of Dun Nechtain is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated (685). John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship Matthew looking for a route to the west (1497). Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to India when he arrives at Kozhikode, India (1498). Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas (1570). The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality in the American Civil War, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state (1861). Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets (1873). Cuba gains independence from the United States (1902). Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day (1932). The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz (1940). In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established (1949). Discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias (1964). In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects, by 60% of the vote, a government proposal to move towards independence from Canada (1980). First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by a team of French scientists including Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Jean-Claude Chermann, and Luc Montagnier (1983). The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians (1996). Russia claims full control of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol after a nearly three-month siege (2022).
• May 20 is the birthday of architect William Thornton (1759), novelist/playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799), businessman William Fargo (1818), minister Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825), inventor Emile Berliner (1851), actor James Stewart (1908), tank commander Alexandra Boyko (1918), NFL coach Bud Grant (1927), NHL player Stan Mikita (1940), singer-songwriter Joe Cocker (1944), singer-songwriter/actress Cher (1946), music engineer/producer Andy Johns (1950), singer-songwriter Jane Wiedlin (1958), singer-songwriter Susan Cowsill (1959), singer-songwriter/guitarist Nick Heyward (1961), MLB player David Wells (1963), actor Timothy Olyphant (1968), rapper Busta Rhymes (1972), MLB player Jayson Werth (1979), and actor Jack Gleeson (1992).

There’s always more news but never more time. Side note: I spent the weekend doing a bunch more genealogical research and stumbled across some shit so horrifying that I’m hesitant to even mention it. Maybe I will someday. Not today, though. Still absorbing and processing the info. Enjoy your day.