Aid ship arrives and James Crumbley found guilty: Morning Rundown

An aid ship has arrived off the coast of Gaza carrying 200 tons of food. Russians will head to the polls to vote in the presidential election, though who will win isn’t a surprise. Plus, Sen. Bernie Sanders leads the push for a 32-hour workweek.

Here’s what to know today.

First ship carrying aid arrives in Gaza

The Open Arms, the ship that set sail on Tuesday from Cyprus to carrying much-needed flour, rice and protein, has arrived off the coast of Gaza.

The vessel made a roughly 200-mile journey across the Mediterranean Sea carrying food collected by World Central Kitchen, a nongovernmental organization that also said it would build a jetty from destroyed rubble to receive the aid in the center of Gaza.

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The push to open a nautical route to Gaza, along with recent air drops in the northern part of the enclave, comes amid growing frustration over the worsening humanitarian crisis and an inability to get enough aid to civilians by road, particularly the Rafah border crossing Gaza shares with Egypt. On the Egyptian side of the border, idling trucks with tons of food and supplies don’t have permission to enter.

Meanwhile, Israel’s war Cabinet will discuss a cease-fire proposal put forward by Hamas, an Israeli official told NBC News today. The militant group has presented the proposal to mediators and the U.S., according to Reuters, which reported that it includes the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for freedom for Palestinian prisoners, 100 of whom are serving life sentences. Follow live updates.

Further down: A Gaza student turns to journaling to process the trauma of the war.

One of Trump’s attempts to dismiss his classified docs case is denied

At the end of a daylong hearing yesterday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said she would rule on former President Donald Trump’s motions to dismiss the classified documents case against him “promptly.” Hours later, he got an answer in one of his motions. 

Cannon denied one of the two motions, saying that Trump’s argument — that the main statute prosecutors are using against him is unconstitutionally vague as it applies to presidents — is better suited to be addressed later. 

Cannon has yet to rule on the Trump team’s other motion to dismiss, which argues that the Presidential Records Act bars his prosecution. At one point during the hearing, Cannon said, “It’s difficult to see how this gets you to the dismissal of an indictment.” But Cannon at times seemed more sympathetic to Trump’s arguments and noted that no other former president has faced criminal charges related to the law.

Special counsel Jack Smith has called on Cannon to reject Trump’s claim that he should be shielded from prosecution because classified presidential records “can be transformed into ‘personal’” records. 

Read the full story for a recap of the hearing.

More Trump news:

• Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said his office doesn’t oppose Trump’s request to delay his hush money trial by 30 days. The trial is currently scheduled to start on March 25.
• Starting this spring, Trump will be in court for at least four days a week. So his campaign has a plan to “make lemonade out of lemons.”

Severe weather leaves trail of destruction in the Midwest

At least two people have died in a possible tornado that hit a mobile home park in Ohio, and significant injuries and flattened buildings were reported in an Indiana town as severe weather struck several states yesterday. 

“The damage up here is just unbelievable,” Logan County, Ohio, Sheriff Randall Dodds said after confirming the two deaths. In Winchester, Indiana, Mayor Bob McCoy said a storm that rolled through “sounded like a train.” State police said there were many significant injuries.

More than 13 million people across a band of the U.S. were under tornado watches last night. There were eight reports made of tornadoes in Ohio, Indiana and Texas as of late Thursday, according to a National Weather Service storm reporting website. Here’s what else we know about the severe weather across the U.S.

No doubts about who will win Russia’s election

President Vladimir Putin’s rule over Russia is set to be extended through an effectively uncontested election, which starts today. His power has never been more total, reporter Yuliya Talmazan writes in an analysis, from the Arctic penal colony where opposition leader Alexei Navalny died, to the field north of Moscow where Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a fiery plane crash less than a year ago. 

“Putin will begin another six years in power with his domestic opponents either dead, jailed or exiled,” Talmazan writes. 

But as the war in Ukraine recasts life in Russia and intensifies a clash with the West, the election victory orchestrated by the Kremlin is also a sign of fragility. Read the full analysis here.

Ethan Crumbley’s father found guilty son’s school shooting

A Michigan jury convicted James Crumbley, father of Ethan Crumbley, of involuntary manslaughter in connection with his son’s deadly school shooting in 2021. His wife, Jennifer, was found guilty last month on the same charge.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that James Crumbley’s actions in the lead-up and day of the Oxford High School shooting played a vital role. James Crumbley bought Ethan the gun that was used in the shooting and failed to secure it properly, prosecutors said. And school officials testified that the Crumbleys were called to the school on the morning of the shooting about a drawing Ethan made depicting a gun and a person shot, but the couple didn’t tell school officials that their son had access to a weapon and said they couldn’t take him back home that day.

The verdict ends a landmark case that, for the first time in the U.S., held the parents of a mass school shooter criminally responsible. James Crumbley faces up to 15 years in prison per the four counts of involuntary manslaughter, each count representing a murdered student. Read the full story here.

Politics in Brief 

Congress: Sen. Bernie Sanders is pushing for a bill that would reduce the standard workweek to 32 hours — without losing any pay.

Congress: House Republicans support in vitro fertilization but are divided on how to protect access to it. Some are calling for federal legislation, while others, including Speaker Mike Johnson, say it should be left to individual states.

2024 election: Sen. Bob Menendez, who has been indicted on 18 federal counts and is charged with taking bribes, is considering running for re-election as an independent, two sources who spoke with him directly said.

Congress: Rep. Matt Gaetz has been subpoenaed in a lawsuit filed by a friend who alleges he was defamed during a Justice Department probe into allegations that Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl.

Want more politics news? Sign up for From the Politics Desk to get exclusive reporting and analysis delivered to your inbox every weekday evening. Subscribe here.

Staff Pick: ‘My therapy when I needed it the most’

She didn’t realize it at the time, but 22-year-old Salma Shurrab’s late-night car ride through Gaza City on the night of Oct. 6 was actually a goodbye. In the weeks that followed, Shurrab would see Israel’s military offensive in Gaza play out, until she was able to flee to neighboring Egypt. During that traumatic period, Shurrab turned to journaling to process her emotions. Now, she’s teaching her skills to others.

I love when a story capture a person’s resilience, and I found this article and short documentary about Shurrab’s experience with the war both devastating and inspiring. — Elizabeth Robinson, newsletter editor

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