The War Room: President Biden yesterday declared that the killings of civilians in the Ukraine war is a “war crime” and said Russian President Vladimir Putin needs to be put on trial.

  “But we have to gather the information,” Biden said. “We have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to continue the fight and we have to get all the details so this can be an actual – have a war crime trial.”

  Biden’s outrage was sparked by the discovery of as many as 300 civilian bodies in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. Many were men with their hands tied behind their backs and some shot right off their bicycles. Others were partially buried in a mass grave.

  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the worst atrocities may yet to be discovered.

  The European Union will send investigators to Ukraine to help the local prosecutor general “document war crimes,” Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, announced. The EU is now considering whether to ban the importation of Russian natural gas.

  Russia’s foreign ministry immediately claimed that the photos and footage of dead civilians had been “ordered” by the United States as part of a plot to blame Russia. “Who are the masters of provocation? Of course the United States and NATO,” ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview on state television, calling it all an attempt to sully Russia’s reputation.

  The Russian general prosecutor’s office warned that anyone in Russia describing the Bucha atrocities as Russia’s doing could face prosecution. 

  Russia, believe it or not, is a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council and the American ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, called for them to be removed.  “The images out of Bucha and devastation across Ukraine require us now to match our words with action,” she said.

  European countries are beginning to expel Russian diplomats. Italy announced it is throwing out 30 Russian officials, Denmark kicked out 15 and Sweden three. Germany, France, and Lithuania previously expelled diplomats.

  The war goes on today. A civilian ship flying the Dominican flag is reported to be on fire in the port of Mariupol, the besieged southwestern city. The Russians keep turning back buses approaching to evacuate as many as 100,000 residents still in the destroyed city. 

Order in the Court: Republican Senators Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski announced that they will vote for the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, pretty much assuring that she’ll make it to the bench. Maine’s Republican Susan Collins already said she’ll back Jackson.

  The senate Republicans are otherwise universally opposed to confirming the first black woman to the Supreme Court. Murkowski said she’s backing Jackson because she’s qualified and to reject “the corrosive politicization of the review process for Supreme Court nominees, which, on both sides of the aisle, is growing worse and more detached from reality by the year.”

The Ball Bounces: The University of Kansas was down by 15 points at the half but rallied to beat North Carolina 72-69 to win the NCAA men’s basketball championship. Kansas survived a last-minute peppering of three point attempts by North Carolina.

  This is the Kansas Jayhawks first championship since 2008.

The Spin Rack: One man has been arrested in the shooting last week on a busy  downtown Sacramento street that ended with six people dead and a dozen wounded. As many as 100 rounds were fired. The cops are looking for other shooters. — Two top execs at Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, have resigned after a month of malfunctions and lack of interest by the former president himself. — Spanish authorities seized a $90 million Russian-owned yacht in Mallorca at the request of the US Department of Justice. It’s the first coordinated seizure under the department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, which is targeting the toys of Russia’s rich.

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