Wednesday, February 28, 2024

2/28 WAKE-UP CALL: Biden, Trump Win In Michigan


U.S. President Joe Biden easily won the Democratic presidential primary in Michigan on Tuesday, but a protest vote by Democrats angry over his support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza exceeded organizers' expectations.

Donald Trump won the state's Republican presidential primary by a large margin, strengthening his grip on the party’s White House nomination as Nikki Haley, his last remaining rival, came in a distant second.

Although Biden and Republican former President Trump had been expected to easily win their separate party primaries, the vote count for both was being closely watched for signs of wavering support. In Michigan, home to a large Arab American constituency, Democratic voters had been urged to mark their primary ballots as "uncommitted" on Tuesday in protest at Biden's Gaza policy. With almost half of Democratic votes counted, the number of "uncommitted" voters was more than 58,000, according to Edison Research, far exceeding the target of 10,000 that protest organizers had hoped for.

Many in Michigan's Arab American community who backed Biden in 2020 are angry, as are some progressive Democrats, over Biden's support for Israel's offensive in Hamas-ruled Gaza where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed. "Our movement emerged victorious tonight and massively surpassed our expectations. Tens of thousands of Michigan Democrats, many of whom who voted for Biden in 2020, are uncommitted to his re-election due to the war in Gaza," the Listen to Michigan campaign, which urged people to vote uncommitted, said in a statement.

➤BIDEN: GAZA CEASE-FIRE CLOSE..HAMAS DOESNT AGREE:  President Biden’s comments about a pause on fighting in Gaza were met with surprise and skepticism by people involved in the negotiations. Biden said Israel had agreed to halt the war for Ramadan if Hamas released its hostages, as negotiators raced to reach a cease-fire deal by early next week. A White House National Security Council spokesman later said his comment about a Monday deal showed Biden’s optimism about the process.  The U.S., Israel and Arab negotiators view the Muslim holy month, which begins on March 10, as a critical deadline to delay a planned Israeli incursion into Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, where more than one million Palestinians are sheltering. 

Meanwhile, as Israel drives Hamas out of the enclave, lawlessness is hampering aid efforts. Hamas officials on Tuesday appeared skeptical about the ongoing hostage negotiations in statements that came after President Joe Biden said he hoped a deal would be reached within the next week, before the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan. But Ahmad Abdul Hadi, Hamas' representative in Lebanon, said Tuesday that the militant group is not satisfied with the proposal "because it does not fulfill our demands."

➤BIDEN PUSHES FOR AID: Congressional leaders emerged from an “intense” Oval Office meeting with President Joe Biden on Tuesday speaking optimistically about the prospects for avoiding a partial government shutdown, but with new uncertainty about aid for Ukraine and Israel as the president and others urgently warned Speaker Mike Johnson of the grave consequences of delay. AP News reports Biden called the leaders to the White House in hopes of making progress against a legislative logjam on Capitol Hill that has major ramifications not just for the U.S. but for the world as Ukraine struggles to repel Russia’s invasion with weapons and ammunition starting to run short.

 “The need is urgent,” Biden said of the Ukraine aid. “The consequences of inaction every day in Ukraine are dire.” After the more than hour-long meeting, Biden pulled Johnson aside for a private conversation. Democratic leaders upon exiting the meeting were blunt about the dangers Ukraine is facing.

➤NO NATO TROOPS TO UKRAINE:  NATO leaders shot down a suggestion by France’s president that Western troops could eventually fight alongside Ukrainian forces two years into Russia’s ongoing invasion, as the Kremlin warned of a wider conflict with the West. French President Emmanuel Macron’s swiftly punctured trial balloon highlighted fears that Russian advances in Ukraine will embolden Moscow to threaten front-line eastern European states − all while billions of dollars in desperately needed U.S. aid to Kyiv remains stalled in the U.S. Congress.  “There’s no consensus today to send…troops on the ground,” French President Emanuel Macron told reporters from the presidential palace on Monday. “But in terms of dynamics, nothing can be ruled out. We will do whatever it takes to ensure that Russia cannot win this war."  Macron wouldn’t say which countries might be mulling European boots on the Ukrainian ground, citing the need for “strategic ambiguity.”


➤NORTH KOREA 'A BIGER' THREAT:  North Korea became a bigger threat while the world was busy with wars in Europe and the Middle East. Leader Kim Jong Un enlarged his nuclear arsenal, built ties to Russia and ditched hopes of reunifying with South Korea. All that has the U.S. and its allies alarmed. Nuclear weapons also are on Germany’s radar, amid Russian expansionism and fears about a potential Trump administration’s disengagement from Europe. Officials have asked France and the U.K.—the continent’s two nuclear powers—to work with Berlin on a NATO fallback plan for nuclear deterrence, in case the U.S. stops fulfilling that role. Some politicians and academics are asking whether Germany could someday need its own atomic arsenal.

đŸ•‡CANCER KILLS SON OF GARY SINISE: Gary Sinise’s son, McCanna “Mac” Anthony Sinise, has died at age 33 from a rare form of cancer called chordoma. “The week the album went to press, Mac lost his battle with cancer,” Sinise wrote in a tribute on Tuesday. “He died on January 5, 2024 at 3:25pm, and was laid to rest on January 23rd. Like any family experiencing such a loss, we are heartbroken and have been managing as best we can…I am so blessed, fortunate, and proud to be his dad.”

➤MACY'S CLOSING 150 STORES:  The "Magic of Macy's" has fizzled out at scores of its stores. Through 2026, Macy's says it will shut down 150 "underproductive" stores, or roughly 30% of all locations while prioritizing investments in 350 "go-forward" stores, the retailer announced Tuesday. It says it will close 50 stores by the end of this fiscal year. The statement says this move will allow it to refocus its resources and prioritize other stores, like Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury.

➤$1B  GIFT MADE TO COLLEGE: Students at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx will no longer have to pay tuition after a longtime professor donated $1 billion to the school, removing a major financial hurdle to becoming a physician in a historically underserved borough. The gift by Ruth Gottesman, chairwoman of Einstein’s Board of Trustees, is considered the largest gift made to a medical school in the country, according to a press release.

Gottesman, a retired pediatrics professor who spent 55 years of her career affiliated with the Bronx medical school, developed a widely used screening test for children with learning disabilities and founded a trailblazing adult literacy program. Her husband, David S. Gottesman, counted Warren Buffett among his mentors and left his wife a large portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway stock when he died in 2022, the New York Times reported. Gottesman thanked him for making the donation possible.“I am very thankful to my late husband, Sandy, for leaving these funds in my care,” Gottesman said.

➤WEDNESDAY'S WEATHER MAP:




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