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Netanyahu's future, Haley's little win and Caitlin Clark's big record

 
Today's INTERNATIONAL story

Is Netanyahu losing his grip?

What happened?
Israeli Cabinet minister Benny Gantz traveled to Washington on Sunday without authorization from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Gantz, a centrist and Netanyahu's main political rival, will meet several high-ranking officials on Monday, including Vice President Kamala Harris, who called Sunday for an "immediate cease-fire for at least six weeks" to ease the "immense scale of suffering in Gaza."

Who said what?
"Gantz personally updated" Netanyahu "of his intention to travel, in order to coordinate the messages to be transmitted in the meetings," Gantz's office said. An angry Netanyahu "made it clear to Minister Gantz that the State of Israel only has one prime minister," a source close to Netanyahu told Ynet.

The commentary
Netanyahu's "staggering strategic incompetence" has already cost him "the trust of most voters," and his government is "embarrassingly indifferent and unfocused when it comes to managing relations with Israel's most important ally, the United States," former Prime Minister Ehud Barak said in Foreign Affairs. Between the Gantz visit and airdrops of aid into Gaza, Yossi Verter said at Israel's Haaretz, the White House wants to "show Israelis and the world that the U.S. sees Netanyahu as a burden and obstacle for his country and the entire region."

What next?
Recent polls show that a majority of Israelis believe Netanyahu is prolonging the war for his own political survival, and that Gantz "would earn enough support to become prime minister if a vote were held today," The Associated Press said. No elections are scheduled.

 
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Today's POLITICS story

Haley snaps Trump's streak with DC primary win

What happened?
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley won Washington, D.C.'s Republican primary on Sunday, beating former President Donald Trump 63% to 33%. It was Haley's first victory over Trump, who won Saturday's caucuses in Idaho and Missouri.

Who said what?
"It's not surprising that Republicans closest to Washington dysfunction are rejecting Donald Trump and all his chaos," Haley's campaign said. Trump said he "purposely stayed away from the D.C. vote because it is the 'Swamp,' with very few delegates," adding that "Birdbrain spent all of her time, money and effort there."

The commentary
The Trump campaign predictably cried "swamp swamp swamp," but a "whole lot of people who worked for Trump — who know him and his administration best — rejected him," GOP strategist Doug Heye said. D.C. was an important "symbolic win" for Haley, Reuters said, but she "still faces near-impossible odds."

What next?
Haley earned 19 delegates in D.C., bringing her total to 43 of 1,215 delegates needed to win the GOP nomination. Trump has 247. Another 874 delegates are up for grabs in 15 states and one U.S. territory on Super Tuesday.

 
 
Today's SPORTS Story

Iowa's Caitlin Clark breaks NCAA scoring record

What happened?
College basketball star Caitlin Clark set the new record as the NCAA all-time leading scorer in Iowa's 93-83 defeat of No. 2 Ohio State on Sunday. Clark's needed 18 points to beat the late Pete Maravich's 54-year-old record, 3,667 points, and she got 35. Clark passed Lynette Woodward as the top-scoring large-school women's player on Feb. 28 after beating Kelsey Plum's NCAA women's basketball record on Feb. 15. Clark ended her final regular season game as a Hawkeye with 3,685 points in 130 games.

Who said what?
Clark said she was honored "just to be in the same realm" as Maravich, Plum and Woodard, who "have just given so much to the game." "Records are made to be broken" and "honored," said Woodward, who was at Sunday's game. "Caitlin is leading the way" in "a great time for women's basketball."

What next?
Clark announced Feb. 29 that she is entering the 2024 WNBA draft after the postseason instead of playing a fifth year at Iowa.

 
 

It's not all bad

Doctors in France are writing "museum prescriptions" as part of care plans for patients with mental health issues and chronic illnesses to help them "find community and feel better," The Christian Science Monitor said. There is "something powerful about the direct confrontation with a piece of art, and that can have benefits on numerous levels," museum therapy advocate Nathalie Bondil said. Several museums agreed to adapt their spaces to meet individual needs, such as displaying art aimed at reducing anxiety.

 
 
Under the radar

Starting in 2025, Wendy's will begin testing out "dynamic pricing." One form of this system is called surge pricing, or setting a product's price based on fluctuating demand. Most people assumed Wendy's would be raising its prices at peak times of the day. 

However, after backlash, Wendy's clarified that its dynamic pricing would not raise prices. Instead, the company said, it will be a cost-lowering measure that will "allow us to change the menu offerings at different times of day and offer discounts and value offers" during slow periods.

The main goal of Wendy's dynamic pricing is to provide "value" during slower times of the day, a company spokesperson said to The Washington Post. Wendy’s will start to offer deals at off-times to try and drive more traffic to its franchises. 

Dynamic pricing is common in other industries such as ride-sharing and event ticketing but has not made its way to restaurants on a wide scale. Still, it has long appeared in some form. "Happy hour has existed forever, as has the early bird special," Business Insider said.

Wendy's dynamic pricing also presents a risk to its customer base. For the concept to work, it will have to emphasize that dynamic pricing will "lower prices at off-peak times" instead of raising prices during busy times, Steven Suranovic, an associate professor of economics at George Washington University, said to CBS News. "People have options — they can go to McDonald's."

 
 
On this day

March 4, 1837

Chicago was officially incorporated as a city with a population of about 4,000 people. The city's founding came four years after it was incorporated as a town and more than 50 years after the region was settled by non-indigenous people. In the subsequent decades, Chicago became one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. 

 
 
TODAY’S newspaperS

Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was buried over the weekend, and thousands of Russians risked jail to show up for his funeral. But as when he was alive, The New York Times says on Monday's front page, the Kremlin is publicly working "hard to ignore Navalny's hold" on Russians. Navalny isn't the only Kremlin critic to die an "unsolved death," The Wall Street Journal says, leading with the hit on a Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine then moved to Spain, where he was gunned down then run over last month.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Fake fossil

Using ultraviolet photography, Dr. Valentina Rossi from University College Cork determined that what paleontologists long thought was a 280-million-year-old fossilized reptile is actually a carving covered in black paint. The Tridentinosaurus antiquus "fossil" was found in the Italian Alps in 1931, and for decades, paleontologists held it up as "one of the best-preserved specimens of the species," The Guardian said. It is unclear who forged the fossil.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Catherine Garcia, Justin Klawans, Harold Maass and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top:  Abir Sultan / Pool / AFP via Getty Images; Scott Eisen / Getty Images; Matthew Holst / Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images