The War Room: President Biden announced that the US will send another $800 million in military aid to Ukrainian forces, including 78 long-range howitzers, 144,000 artillery shells, and new tactical drones.  It’s a big jump from the 18 artillery pieces originally sent.

  The announcement came as Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed he had “liberated” the port city of Mariupol and new satellite images show large mass graves outside the city. Ukrainian officials estimate that 20,000 civilians have been killed in Mariupol and many of them may be in those graves. 

  US officials tell reporters that the next month is a critical phase of the war. Biden said the latest aid package sends “an unmistakable message” to Putin that “He will never succeed in dominating and occupying all of Ukraine.”

  Today a senior Russian military commander said his country’s goal is to control the swath of Ukraine from Russia, across the border with Crimea, and all the way to Moldova, cutting off access to the Black Sea and making the remaining Ukraine a landlocked country. It’s ambitious.

  US officials hope that if Ukraine can stall the Russians before they take the eastern Donbas region, Putin will negotiate a peace rather than risk a war that could drag on for years.

Economic War: In continuing economic punishment of Russia, President Biden also said yesterday that the US will no longer allow Russian-affiliated ships into American ports . “That means no ship, no ship that sails under the Russian flag or that is owned or operated by Russian interests will be allowed to dock in the United States port or access our shores,” Biden said at the White House.

  Over in Britain, the government has imposed an import ban on Russian caviar and other luxury stuff, ratcheting up their own economic sanctions. The new limits include imported silver and wood products while increasing tariffs on diamonds and rubber. The British government says it is now imposing import tariffs and bans on more than $1.3 billion worth of Russian goods.

  On the other side, the Russian Foreign Ministry added names of 29 more US citizens to its “stop list” — people banned from the country — including US Vice President Kamala Harris and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The ministry website said those added to the list were “top leaders, representatives of the business community, academics and journalists who shape the Russophobic agenda.” 

  “Russophobic,” like there’s some irrational fear of Russia.

Lying Liars: House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy has been caught in a big lie denying that he had said he would push Donald Trump to resign after the January 6^th insurrection.

  After first publishing McCarthy’s denial, The NY Times has released audio of a phone call with Arizona’s Liz Cheney in which McCarthy told her “I’m seriously thinking of having that conversation with him tonight,” and that he would tell Trump “it would be my recommendation you should resign.” 

Dissing Disney: After the Walt Disney Company opposed Florida’s new “Don’t Say Gay” education bill, the state’s Republican-dominated legislature yesterday voted to revoke Disney World’s designation as a special tax district that has allowed Disney to be self-governing, and self-taxing for 55 years. 

  The state’s Gov. Ron DeSantis, who surely will run for president, said in a fundraising letter that “I will not allow a woke corporation based in California to run our state.” He said, “Disney has gotten away with special deals from the state of Florida for way too long.”

  Whether the state can do this legally is a question. The state’s own law says the special district can be removed only by the landowners of the district, and that’s Disney.

End of Discussion: Veteran television journalist Chris Wallace hyped his appearance on the newly-established CNN+ streaming service as giving viewers “Something to talk About.” Now what this industry is talking about is the service shutting down April 30th after just one month of operation.

  It appears to be a fatality of the merger of CNN’s parent company WarnerMedia with Discovery and a disagreement about where to place streaming services. You’d think someone would have seen that coming.

The Obit Page: Actor Robert Morse, the short and gap-toothed star of the 1961 Broadway musical hit “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” has died at age 90.

  In “How to Succeed,” Morse played J. Pierrepont Finch, a window washer who rises to become chairman of the company. The show ran for more than 1,400 performances and won seven Tony Awards, including one for Morse as best actor in a musical. It was made into a movie in 1967, also starring Morse. 

  He later won another Tony for his dead-on portrayal of the writer Truman Capote in “Tru,” and late in life played an advertising executive in the acclaimed television series “Mad Men.”  — Daryle Lamonica, the quarterback known as the Mad Bomber who led the Oakland Raiders to the second  Super Bowl, died in his sleep at home in Fresno, California. He was 80. He was one of pro football’s leading passers in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

The Spin Rack: Video taken aboard a flight from San Francisco to Florida shows  former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson punching a passenger sitting behind him who had been pestering the champ for a photo, behaving like he deserved a knockout. — Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who left office in January, has been extradited to face charges in a New York accusing him of trafficking drugs for decades.

Happy Hour: Johnny Depp, the sometimes drug and alcohol addled actor who is suing and in turn being sued by his ex-wife, Amber Heard, answered questions in court yesterday about his personal habits. “You would sometimes drink whiskey in the morning during this time, didn’t you?” a lawyer for Heard asked. Depp replied, “Isn’t happy Hour any time?”

-30-