Good morning. It is October 29th. It is a cloudy or cloudy-ish morning in New York City. And this is your Indignity Morning Podcast. I'm your host, Tom Scocca, taking a look at the day and the news. 

The Israeli military reportedly killed 104 people in Gaza with 46 children and 20 women among them, according to the Gaza Health Agency. As Israel carried out its heaviest airstrikes yet since the putative Gaza ceasefire. The BBC reports that the Israeli defense minister accused Hamas of an attack in Gaza that killed an Israeli soldier and of breaching the terms on returning deceased hostages' bodies. Hamas said it had no connection to the attack and was committed to the deal. Ceasefires are inherently subject to the risk of violations, but the 104 to 1 death ratio being reported, pretty strongly suggests that Israel remains on a footing to wage total war. 

Hurricane Melissa, after smashing through Jamaica, is now passing through Cuba, where it arrived as a category three storm, and has now subsided to category two, with the next place in its path being the Bahamas. The storm did enough damage to communications and power infrastructure in Jamaica that there aren't really even any preliminary reports on the details of the damage overall. 

The 91-year-old Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, announced yesterday that the Trump administration has revoked his visa. AFP reports that the Nigerian author showed them a letter sent from the U.S. consulate in Lagos, citing, the story says, “U.S. State Department regulations that allow a consular officer, the secretary, or a department official to whom the secretary has delegated this authority to revoke a non-immigrant visa at any time in his or her discretion. Soyinka noted that he had described Donald Trump recently as ‘Idi Amin in white face.’” 

On the front of the print edition of this morning's New York Times, yesterday's news about the US military's latest massacres at sea gets entirely appropriate placement and packaging. It's in the lead right-hand news column. “U.S. ATTACKS KILL 14 ABOARD BOATS OFF PACIFIC COAST / FOUR VESSELS STRUCK / Deadliest One-Day Toll Since Pentagon Drug Operation Began.” In addition to presenting the story as an important escalation in an ongoing worsening crisis, which is what it is, the Times also did take the care to keep the count of total killings up to date at 57, rather than retreating  as we saw other news organizations do yesterday  to the vagueness of round numbers. 

Next to that, with a big illustrative photo alongside, is an update on the president's Asia trip. “Trump Bonds With Takaichi, But No Deals / Friendly Talk in Japan Despite Trade Issues.” The photo shows Donald Trump with a crappy looking white baseball cap pulled down on his head, walking alongside the newly elected Japanese Prime Minister,  Sanae Takaichi, past some parked warplanes. “Inside a gold-drenched palace on Tuesday morning,” the Times writes, “President Trump heaped praise on  Sanae Takaichi, Japan's new Prime Minister, telling her that their countries were ‘allies at the strongest level’ and vowing to come to Japan's aid on ‘any favors you need.’ Hours later, delivering a speech to hundreds of American troops aboard an aircraft carrier stationed near Tokyo.”— That seems to be what the picture is.—“Mr. Trump stood side by side with Ms. Takaichi, saying that the two had become ‘very close friends’ and adding, ‘this woman is a winner.’ The joint appearance, which bore all the markings of one of Mr. Trump's political rallies.” —All of the markings? Good Lord. From the pictures, it doesn't really look like the full Trump rally deal. But anyway,—“the joint appearance was the capstone of a day,” the Times writes, “in which Mr. Trump and Ms. Takaichi found an easy rapport, watching snippets of the World Series on television, eating lunch at Akasaka Palace in central Tokyo, and sharing stories about their mutual friend Shinzo Abe, the former premier who was assassinated in 2022. But the series of meetings between Mr. Trump and Ms. Takaichi, a hard-line conservative who last week became the first woman to serve as Japan's prime minister, delivered little in the way of solutions to some of the contentious trade issues between Washington and Japan.” When you write it up like that, it really starts to sound like a sort of presidential experience package put together by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. 

Next to that, under the photo, the headline is, “China Is Racing to Lead World in Nuclear Power.” The lead recounts how while the United States managed to build two nuclear reactors while gravely running over the schedule and budget for them, China, the Times writes, “built 13 similar reactors with 33 more underway. China,” the story continues, “is quickly becoming the world's leader in nuclear power with nearly as many reactors under construction as the rest of the world combined. While its dominance of solar panels and electric vehicles is well known, China is also building nuclear plants at an extraordinary pace. By 2030 China's nuclear capacity is set to surpass that of the United States, the first country to split atoms to make electricity. Many of China's reactors,” the story continues, “are derived from American and French designs, yet China has overcome the construction delays and cost overruns that have bogged down Western efforts to expand nuclear power.” 

Next to that story, draw your own comparisons if you want, “25 States Sue
To Safeguard Food Stamps” is the headline. “More than two dozen states sued the Trump administration on Tuesday,” the Times writes, “over its recent refusal to fund food stamps during the government shutdown, as roughly 42 million low-income aid recipients confronted the risk of hunger and financial hardship starting within days. The states, including Arizona, California, and Massachusetts, described the impending cuts as unnecessary and illegal, and they asked a federal judge to force Washington to maintain benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, starting on November 1st. 

Inside the paper on page A20, the Times reports on a breakdown in solidarity fighting the shutdown. “Top Federal Workers Union breaks with Democrats over the shutdown. AFGE chief calls on Congress to open now and negotiate later. The largest union of federal workers called on Monday for Congress to pass a spending bill to immediately end the government shutdown,” the Times writes, “effectively siding with President Trump and Republicans who have opposed Democratic efforts to restore health care spending. ‘Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,’ Everett Kelly, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in the statement. He added, ‘It's time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures and no gamesmanship.’ The statement,” the Times writes, “was a remarkable shift for the Union. Before the shutdown began on October 1st, Mr. Kelly called on Republicans to negotiate with Democrats who are seeking concessions, including the extension of subsidies for plans under the Affordable Care Act that would stave off premium increases and the loss of coverage for millions of Americans. The union has also worked closely with Democratic lawmakers on efforts this year to oppose Mr. Trump's policies, particularly his wide-reaching campaign to slash the federal workforce and fire career civil servants. But,” the story continues, “amid the punishing effects of the shutdown on federal workers, Some 730,000 are working without pay and another 670,000 are furloughed entirely. Senate Democrats have blocked legislation that would pay the civil servants who have been working without pay, a move that would provide relief to the union's members but would weaken the bargaining position of democratic lawmakers. The Republicans, in turn, blocked a pair of Democratic bills that would have paid both those federal workers who are still working and those who have been furloughed.”

“Provide relief to the union's members” there, then would mean provide relief to a bit more than half of the union's members, while the others remain out of work and unpaid. 

On page A17, the Times reports on yesterday's events surrounding the immigration crackdown in Chicago. “U.S. judge in Chicago orders Border Patrol leader to report daily questioning tactics used in crackdown, including tear gas set off near children.”

“In a courtroom in downtown Chicago on Tuesday,” the Times writes, “a federal judge admonished Gregory Bovino, a senior border patrol official who has become a face of the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration, for his agency's use of force and tear gas in the city in recent weeks. For more than an hour, the judge, Sarah L. Ellis of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois”—nice, specific court identification high up in a news story. Very glad to see it.—“Read Mr. Bovino restrictions she had previously set as part of a lawsuit over tactics that agents are using and cited examples of times as agents appeared to violate those restrictions. ‘They used tear gas in a neighborhood where children were about to march in a Halloween parade,’ Judge Ellis said. ‘They failed to warn residents before tossing tear gas canisters at them,’ she said, noting an incident in which an agent threw a canister out of a car as it drove away. The judge then ordered Mr. Bovino, who took the stand in his usual green fatigues and Border Patrol insignia to appear at the federal courthouse at the end of every weekday to personally provide her with a report on the day's arrests and incidents. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow at six,’ she said, before telling Mr. Bovino that he could get back to work.”

And in breaking news about crowd control and the Trump administration, ABC and now other outlets are reporting that, as ABC put it, “two federal prosecutors were informed Wednesday that they will be put on leave after filing a legal brief that described the January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol as being carried out by ‘thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters.’” That's credited to sources familiar with their removals. “The two prosecutors,” ABC writes, “Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White were locked out of their government devices and informed Wednesday morning they will be placed on leave, just hours after they filed a sentencing memorandum in the case of Taylor Taranto. The sources said. Taranto,” the story explains, “was pardoned by President Donald Trump over his involvement in the January 6th attack on the Capitol, but faced a separate conviction for firearms and threat charges related to a June 2023 arrest near the home of former President Barack Obama, where he was found in possession of two guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, as well as a machete. A day before Toronto's arrest,
He claimed he would use a car bomb to drive into the National Institute of Standards and Technology.” The prosecutors were already on furlough because of the government shutdown. Taranto's sentencing is scheduled for tomorrow. That is the news. Thank you for listening. 

The Indignity Morning Podcast is edited by Joe MacLeod. The theme song is composed and performed by Mack Scocca-Ho. Run your errands today because rain is on its way, but, rain or shine, if nothing unexpected gets in the way, we will talk again tomorrow.