Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s president, was killed yesterday in a helicopter crash along with the country’s foreign minister. A conservative Shiite Muslim cleric, Raisi had a hand in brutal crackdowns on opponents of the Islamic Republic, and he was widely viewed as a possible successor to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
State media attributed the crash to a “technical failure.” Here’s the latest.
In the hours since the wreckage was discovered, Khamenei has sought to project order and control: He quickly named acting leaders and announced that new presidential elections would be held within 50 days. But the tumult comes at a perilous time for Iran, which has in recent years dealt with a nationwide uprising, a deadly terrorist attack and a shadow war with Israel that escalated last month.
“On top of all of this, the economy is really in a state of shambles because it’s been plagued by tough sanctions,” said my colleague Farnaz Fassihi, who covers Iran. “Now there’s also anxiety about what’s going to happen in the future.”
Politically, little is likely to change in the short term. Khamenei sets the tone, and the next president will all but certainly follow his lead. But he is 85, in declining health and searching for a successor. Raisi’s death added to the speculation that Khamenei’s son, an invisible but powerful figure, could become the next supreme leader.
For more: My colleague David Sanger explained the importance of a question facing Iran’s next leaders: Will they take the path of aggression or caution?
The I.C.C.’s prosecutor seeks warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said today that he had requested arrest warrants on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and for the leaders of Hamas.
The warrants are largely symbolic. The court’s jurisdiction is not recognized in Israel or Gaza, and it could be months before judges decide whether to issue the warrants. But if judges do, the leaders could be arrested if they travel to one of the court’s 124 member nations.
President Biden condemned the call for Netanyahu’s arrest, saying that “whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.”
Prosecutors rested their case against Trump
The marathon cross-examination of Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and the key witness in his New York criminal trial, ended today. With that, the prosecution’s case concluded after 15 days of testimony and 20 witnesses.
The defense this afternoon called its first two witnesses: Daniel Sitko, a paralegal who works for Trump’s lead attorney, and Robert Costello, a lawyer who once advised Cohen. Not everyone around Trump thought that calling Costello was a wise move, my colleague Maggie Haberman reported, and the judge cleared the courtroom after scolding Costello. Here’s what we learned.
Baltimore’s crashed cargo ship moved back to port
The Dali, a 947-foot-long container ship that rammed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March, returned today to the Port of Baltimore. The ship had been covered in debris, with its crew still onboard for nearly eight weeks, after causing the bridge’s collapse and the deaths of six road workers.
The ship’s move was a crucial step in the effort to fully reopen the port, which is one of the nation’s key shipping hubs. The authorities set a goal of reopening the port’s main channel by the end of May.
TV’s king of creepy is back for more
If you’re looking for an unsettling television character, Michael Emerson is the man you call. More than two decades ago, he won a guest actor Emmy for his breakout role playing a serial killer in “The Practice.” He went on to creep out viewers in “Lost” and “Person of Interest.”
Now, Emerson is inhabiting his most ghoulish role yet in the aptly named Paramount+ show “Evil,” which returns for its fourth and final season this week. He credits his Shakespearean training for his ability to keep viewers on edge, and told us that he has been drawn to “grotesquerie” since he was a child.
How big is Taylor Swift?
She is everywhere. Taylor Swift secured her eighth No. 1 album since 2020 with her new “The Tortured Poets Department”; she’s the only artist with four Grammys for album of the year; and her ongoing tour far surpassed earnings records.
That had us wondering: How does her popularity stack up with the biggest names in pop music history? The Beatles still surpass her in chart-toppers, and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” has far outsold any Swift album — but she’s hitting her peak nearly two decades into her career.
How good is your mwahahahaha?
Nothing highlights the wickedness of a movie character quite like an evil laugh. Think of the witch from “The Wizard of Oz,” the Joker from the Batman movies or even Dr. Evil from “Austin Powers.”
Dozens of New Yorkers tried to replicate that villainous charm with their own cackles at the Evil Laugh Competition in Brooklyn. In the end, no one delighted the packed crowd more than Ena Da, a writer and comedian who heard of the event just five hours before it began. Listen to her laugh and several other crowd favorites.
Have an amusing evening.
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Matthew
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