JOHN YANG: President Biden signed a $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund more than half the federal government through the end of the current budget year on September 30.

Final passage came in the Senate at about 2:00 a.m., avoiding a partial government shutdown.

The measure includes a pay raise for the military and increased border security spending, not included aid for either Israel or Ukraine.

Lawmakers are expected to take up those two items in early April after a two week recess.

Egypt says about 7,000 aid trucks are being denied entry into Gaza as the United Nations warns of imminent famine.

On the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said blocking the aid deliveries is a moral outrage.

He said it was time to truly flood Gaza with aid as he put it, and called for an immediate ceasefire.

A Russian spacecraft blasted off from Kazakhstan today taking a crew of three to the International Space Station for a six month stay.

Teams made up of an American, a Russian, Belarusian.

It's one of the last remaining collaborations between Russia and the West.

And the Laurent de Brunhoff has died.

He was the author and illustrator of the beloved children's series "Babar the Elephant" had been in hospice care for several weeks.

Babar was the creation of His Father John de Brunhoff.

After he died, Laurent nurtured his creation and as his father did, provided the illustrations of the elephant-king of Celesteville, it grew into a global franchise.

De Brunhoff was 98 years old.

Still to come on PBS News Weakened, the living and working conditions for migrant workers on dairy farms, and how a small Wisconsin town is dealing with the recent surge of migrants.