THE POLITICS OF WAR: Vice President Kamala Harris yesterday called for an “immediate cease-fire” in Gaza in stronger language than has been coming from Biden administration but still falling short of condemning Israel for the brutal war it’s waging against Hamas in Gaza.

  Harris said Hamas should agree to a six-week pause that’s been under consideration and that Israel should increase the flow of aid into the enclave that’s been cut off from food, water, power, and medicine.

  Speaking yesterday in Selma for the 59th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, Harris also assailed what she called a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and pressed Israel to allow for the increase of aid. As many as 30,000 Gazans are reported dead in the conflict. “People in Gaza are starving,” Harris said. “The conditions are inhumane. And our common humanity compels us to act.”

  But the cease fire talks appear to be going nowhere. Israeli delegates were no-shows yesterday at talks in Cairo, in part because Hamas refuses to provide a list revealing which Israel hostages are still alive, and which are dead.

The War Zone: As many of the aid trucks headed for northern Gaza have been swarmed and looted, the US has begun dropping aid by parachute to increasingly hungry and starving residents.

  Of sixteen aid trucks driving to northern Gaza over the weekend, only one made it. Fifteen more trucks began the journey by an alternate route last night.

  Gazans are dependent upon a dribble of humanitarian aid making it through to sustain 2.3 million people.

  There are increasing reports of children and babies dying of starvation. Residents of Gaza are reported to have resorted to eating grain meant to feed livestock or plants they scavenge.

  Out on the Red Sea, the British-owned cargo ship Rubymar that was hit with a Houthi militia anti-ship missile on February 18^th has finally sunk, possibly polluting the waters with its cargo of 21,000 metric tons of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer.   

IT’S POLITICAL: Presidential longshot Nikki Haley won her first primary of the political season, trouncing Donald Trump by 62.8 percent to 33.3 in the District of Columbia. But Republicans are only 5 percent of the voters in DC.

  Haley was in turn stomped by Trump in caucuses in Missouri and Idaho and at the Republican convention in Michigan on Saturday. Trump is also favored to win primaries across 16 Super Tuesday states tomorrow.

OLD AND IN THE WAY: In an ominous signal for President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, forty-seven percent of the President’s 2020 voters “strongly agree” that he is too old to serve and other term and 26 percent “somewhat agree that he’s too old, according to a NY Time/Marist Poll.

  By comparison, 21 percent of Trump voters strongly agree and 21 percent somewhat agree. Trump is only four years younger than the 81-year-old Biden but has succeeded in making age an issue for the sitting President.

  The poll says misgivings about Biden’s age have grown over time, crossing generations, gender, race, and education. Seventy-three percent of all registered voters said he was too old to be effective, and 45 percent said they believe that he could not do the job.

HOOP DREAMS: Iowa’s Caitlin Clark scored 35 points yesterday against Ohio State to surpass LSU’s “Pistol Pete” Maravich and become the all-time leading scorer in NCAA basketball. She finished the day with 3,685 points and she’s not done playing college ball.

  Point No. 3,668 broke the Maravich record that has stood since 1970.  Clark said after the game that she was unaware that she had broken the record until it was announced on the PA system and the crowd went wild. 

  Getting a little less attention was NBA star LeBron James, who became the first pro on Saturday to hit 40,000 regular-season points.

HAITI MELTDOWN: In a societal meltdown, armed gangs have stormed the main prison in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, releasing as many as 4,000 inmates. Criminal gangs control 80 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince and are reported to be threatening to overthrow the government.

 Haiti has had unrest since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, who has not been replaced. Haiti is in a state of emergency. The latest violence started Thursday, when the prime minister travelled to Nairobi to talk about bringing a Kenyan-led multinational security force to Haiti.

THE CLIMATE: As shifting weather patterns caused by climate change dump rain and snow on California while bringing mild winter and early spring to the East and Midwest, an ancient lake has been re-filled in the lowest point in North America that is also one of the hottest.

  Normally dry as dust, Lake Manly in California’s Death Valley has become a place where you can paddle a kayak on a sheet of placid water that looks like a giant mirror reflecting the sky.  The lake also filled in 2005.

  Geologists believe that 15,000 years ago the area looked more like Minnesota, dotted with lakes. But while scientific observers are thrilled to see the desert come alive with water, they also take it as notice that the world’s climate is quickly changing and producing both thrilling and dangerous results.

THE SPIN RACK: Questions and speculation are growing about Britain’s Princess Kate, who is reported to be recovering from unspecified abdominal surgery and has not been seen in public since Christmas. There’s no further explanation from the palace. — Celebrity Oprah Winfrey, who has battled weight her whole life and revived Weight Watchers during a 10-year endorsement association, said she’s leaving the board of the company and donating her 10 percent stake to the company to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. She now takes weight loss drugs.

BELOW THE FOLD: Tish Cyrus, the mother of Miley and ex of Billy Ray, said on the podcast “Sorry We’re Stoned” that she would have been a “better parent” if she had smoked pot while raising children. At least she would have thought so.

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