AT WAR: With Palestinian deaths creeping toward 20,000, President Biden said yesterday that Israel is beginning to lose support for its ferocious war on the Hamas militant organization. 

  Coinciding with Biden’s statement, the UN General Assembly voted yesterday by a three-quarters majority to demand a cease fire. The resolution is, of course, non-binding.

  Biden said at a Washington fund-raiser that despite support from the US, Europe, and much of the world, “they’re starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place.”

  It’s evident that the Biden administration has been privately pressuring Israel to ease up, but yesterday was the first public break. It was the most critical Biden has been of Israel’s conduct of the war.

  Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disagree over what happens when the war ends. Biden wants the establishment of a Palestinian state, possibly with the Palestinian Authority taking over after Hamas. Netanyahu says he’ll never let that happen. “After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism,” he said.

THE OTHER WAR: Russia has suffered stunning losses of soldiers and military equipment in its effort to take Ukraine, according to a recent intelligence assessment. Of the 360,000 troops that entered Ukraine, Russia has lost 315,000 killed and wounded. The assessment also says 2,200 of 3,500 tanks have been lost, as well as 4,400 of 13,600 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers.

  The Russians have had to pull Cold-War era tanks and other vehicles out of storage to fill gaps in the line.

  Despite the punishment Ukraine has delivered to the invaders, the defenders are still hanging by threads in need of more US military aid that is currently  blocked by congressional Republicans, some of whom told Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington yesterday that they are more concerned about US southern border security than Ukraine.

  Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance rhetorically asked on CNN, “What is $61 billion going to accomplish that $100 billion hasn’t?”

  President Biden said Vladimir Putin is celebrating the political divisions here in the US. “Putin is banking on the United States failing to deliver for Ukraine,” Biden said at the White House. “We must, we must, we must prove him wrong.”

HIGHER EDUCATION: Harvard President Claudine Gay, who took her position only in July, survived a vote by the University’s board on whether she should be fired amidst calls for her dismissal by donors and alumni disappointed with her failure to deliver robust support for Israel and condemnation of antisemitism.

  The board’s statement said, “President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing,” But that came also with a note of criticism. “So many people have suffered tremendous damage and pain because of Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack, and the University’s initial statement should have been an immediate, direct, and unequivocal condemnation,” the board’s statement said.

IT’S POLITICAL:  New York’s Supreme Court yesterday ordered the legislature to redraw its congressional map, a decision that could result in the election of more Democrats and loss of the House majority for the Republican Party.

  Partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional in New York, but that doesn’t mean the Democratic majority can’t push the lines. The court ruled that the map used last year resulting in wins for Republicans was only meant to be temporary and now the Democrats have a chance to skew the lines in their favor.

  In a joint statement, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and Edward Cox, the party’s state chairman, said, “The decision today opens the door for Democrats to rig our congressional district lines so that elections are decided not by the voters, but by politicians in a back room.” 

  They don’t object to that in states where Republicans rule the legislature.

THE OBIT PAGE: Actor Andre Braugher, known for playing stoic police officers on the television shows “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “Homicide: Life on the Street,” died after what was described as a short illness. He was 61.

  Braugher broke out in the role of a dedicated detective in “Homicide,” the 1990s show focused on chasing down murderers in Baltimore. In recent years he also played a cop on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” but he played it for laughs because it was a sitcom. 

  The son of a postal worker and a heavy equipment operator, Braugher said he grew up in the “ghetto” of Chicago. But he got a scholarship to Stanford and earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Juilliard School.

  Braugher had many roles in television and movies. Early on he had a notable and heartbreaking role in the 1989 movie “Glory,” about a unit of Black soldiers fighting for the Union in the Civil War. He plays an educated young man in the company of former slaves and laborers facing certain death in battle.  

THE SPIN RACK: Representatives of nearly 200 countries in Dubai yesterday struck a climate agreement yesterday calling for a transition away from use of fossil fuels. — Tesla is recalling more than 2 million vehicles to fix a defective system that’s supposed to ensure drivers are paying attention when they use Autopilot. Some fatal crashes have occurred. — A rare Republican leader breaking from Donald Trump, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu endorsed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for president. Sununu said he sees an opportunity “to say we’re not looking in the rearview mirror anymore.”

BELOW THE FOLD: Expelled New York Rep. George Santos is reported to be making multiples of his congressional salary by selling personalized videos on the website Cameo. The New York Post reports that Santos told guests at a party Saturday night that the previous day he had taken in 140 orders at $699 a pop. That’s $97,860.

  A member of Congress is paid $174,000 a year.

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