Lock ’em both up. That’s the call from the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, who says he’s seeking arrest warrants for Hamas’ Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—and their lieutenants—on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
■ Israel’s president calls the warrants “beyond outrageous.”
■ Because Israel’s not a member of the court, the move puts its leaders in no immediate legal jeopardy—but the threat of arrest could make travel abroad tough for them.
■ The warrants would still require approval from a panel of judges.
■ The fog of Mideast war won’t get any thinner with the mysterious helicopter crash deaths of Iran’s president and its foreign minister—leaders of a government that has for decades armed militants in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Palestinian territories.
■ Julia Gray—whose newsletter is called Actually, I’m a very nice person—celebrates: “One less piece-of-sh*t human in the world.”
The end is near …? Pending answers to some big questions—including whether Donald Trump himself will take the stand—Trump’s criminal trial was nearing its end.
■ Live updates: Trump’s ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, was back on the stand for more cross-examination …
■ … as the judge indicated he expects closing arguments next week.
■ Public Notice columnist Liz Dye asks—and answers—the question “Why isn’t Donald Trump in jail already?”
■ Puck’s John Heilemann looks to November: “No point in pretending that any Trump hush-money verdict is going to be a silver bullet.”
■ Press watchdog Mark Jacob: This “may be the least serious of the four criminal cases against him, and I’m worried that Trump’s successful stalling of the other three cases will cause the news media to sideline coverage of those charges.”
■ Law professor Joyce Vance says Trump’s false claim Friday that he won Minnesota in 2020 foreshadows his 2024 strategy: “When he loses in Minnesota … as every Republican candidate has since 1972, he will call it fraud. It won’t just be Minnesota. … Trump, unchecked, will use it to rip the country apart.”
■ Ex-“editor at all kinds of levels at the Chicago Tribune” Charlie Madigan on Trump’s endorsement by the National Rifle Association: “Watch out for yourself, because the NRA certainly won’t.”
■ USA Today columnist Rex Huppke: “Anyone using polling data to assert anything with even a modicum of certainty is a fool.”
‘Quit Dicking around.’ Columnist Jordan Zakarin says Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has proven ineffectual in the face of news that “an insurrectionist-coded, upside-down American flag” flew outside the home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
■ Author Jennifer Weiner sarcastically comes to Alito’s defense in his hanging the act on his spouse: “He is … acknowledging that his wife has the ability to act on her own ideas, has a mind confoundingly of her own.”
■ Satire from Andy Borowitz: “Alito’s Wife Takes Credit for All His Clothes Being on Front Lawn.”
■ Also of ethical interest: The timing of Alito’s sale of Anheuser-Busch stock amidst an anti-trans boycott of the company’s Bud Light.
Bloody weekend. Chicago police count more than 45 shootings since 6 p.m. Friday …
■ … including six in one mass shooting.
■ Chalkbeat: In some Chicago neighborhoods, almost half of all teens and young adults aren’t going to school or working.
Watch these. Axios Chicago spotlights five key issues on the table as Illinois’ General Assembly enters the final days of this legislative session.
■ More than 200 bills passed last week alone.
■ Gov. Pritzker on the prospect of merging Chicago-area transit systems: Not so fast.
It’s a wrap. Today’s print edition of the Chicago Tribune wasn’t published in Chicago—because Sunday’s issue marked the end of the road for the paper’s Freedom Center production plant along the Chicago River, making way for the city’s first casino.
■ The Trib profiles workers who’ve devoted decades to running those presses—some of whom are now at the end of those careers.
■ Newcity publisher Brian Hieggelke: “I can’t stop thinking about what might have been if the company had not so profoundly lost its vision and disintegrated into a private equity cash cow being milked into oblivion.”
‘Realtors partied, spent big and lobbied hard. Then it all came crashing down.’ NOTUS’ interviews with more than 20 current and former staffers and examination of 10 years of nonprofit filings detail the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors’ arrival at “the edge of irrelevance.”
■ Three DePaul University emeritus professors analyze what went wrong in a referendum to raise money for affordable housing in Chicago.
Thanks. Mike Braden made this edition better.