No Labels fails to lure candidate, drops bid for White House run
NEW YORK — The No Labels group said Thursday it will not field a presidential candidate in November after strategists for the bipartisan organization failed to attract a high-profile centrist willing to seize on the widespread dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
“No Labels has always said we would only offer our ballot line to a ticket if we could identify candidates with a credible path to winning the White House,” CEO Nancy Jacobson said in a statement sent out to allies. “No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down.”
The unexpected announcement further cements the general election matchup between the two unpopular major-party candidates, leaving anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the only prominent outsider seeking the presidency. Kennedy said this week that he had collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot in five states, including swing states Nevada and North Carolina.
No Labels’ decision, which comes days after the death of founding chairman Joe Lieberman, caps months of discussions during which the group raised tens of millions of dollars from a donor list it has kept secret. It was cheered by Democrats who have long feared that a No Labels ticket would fracture Biden’s coalition and help Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
The Wall Street Journal first reported No Labels’ decision.
“Millions of Americans are relieved that No Labels finally decided to do the right thing to keep Donald Trump out of the White House,” said Moveon executive director Rahna Epting, a No Labels critic.
Kennedy’s campaign had no immediate response.
No Labels said it had qualified for the ballot in 21 states.
Drone strike in Ukraine:
Russian forces fired drones at two apartment buildings and a power plant in Ukraine’s second-largest city, killing four people, local authorities said Thursday, as the Kremlin’s forces apparently set in motion their strategy for the coming months of war by escalating the bombardment of civilian areas.
Shahed drones smashed into two apartment buildings in Kharkiv, near the Russia border, which has frequently been targeted during more than two years of war. Other drones targeted the power grid.
The Kremlin’s forces have stepped up their aerial barrages of Ukraine, hitting urban areas. The 620-mile front line is largely deadlocked, but Kyiv officials say Moscow’s troops have been probing for Ukrainian weaknesses on the front line ahead of an expected largescale Russian offensive in the summer.
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of targeting rescue workers by hitting residential buildings with two consecutive missiles — the first to draw crews to the scene and the second to wound or kill them. The tactic is called a “double tap” in military jargon. Russia used the same method in Syria’s civil war.
Skorea doctor strike:
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol met the leader of a strike by thousands of junior doctors on Thursday and said the government is open to talks about its contentious push to sharply increase medical school admissions.
The meeting was the first of its kind since more than 90% of the country’s 13,000 trainee doctors walked off the job in February, disrupting hospital operations. But there was no immediate report of a breakthrough after the meeting.
During a lengthy televised public address Monday, Yoon defended his plan to recruit 2,000 more medical students each year, an increase from the current cap of 3,058. But he said his government remains open to talks if doctors come up with a unified proposal that gives logical reasons for their calls for a much smaller hike of the enrollment quota.
Yoon has said the 2,000-student enrollment increase is the minimum necessary, given that South Korea has one of the world’s most rapidly aging populations and its doctor-topatient ratio is the lowest among advanced economies.
But many doctors have argued that universities can’t deal with such an abrupt increase in the number of students. Critics say doctors, in one of the best-paid professions in South Korea, simply worry that more doctors would result in lower future incomes.
German military overhaul:
Germany’s defense minister announced a plan Thursday to streamline and reorganize the country’s military command as part of efforts to make the armed forces of NATO’S most populous European member “warcapable.”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz set in motion a big increase in military spending shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, which he described as a “turning point.” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius took on the job last year of overhauling the military, the Bundeswehr, after years of neglect; in November, he called for a review of its structure.
Speaking on NATO’S 75th anniversary, Pistorius underlined “the challenge of resetting the Bundeswehr for a new and old challenge — that of defending the country and the alliance.”
UK police officer murder:
A 75-year-old man was found guilty Thursday of the murder of a female British police officer who was shot dead on the street in 2005 during an armed robbery at a travel agency in northern England.
Piran Ditta Khan was convicted 10-1 by jurors who deliberated for almost 19 hours over four days at Leeds Crown Court.
Sharon Beshenivsky, 38, was a recent recruit when she responded to an alert and was shot dead at pointblank range by one of the three men who carried out the robbery. Her colleague, Teresa Milburn, survived after being shot in the chest.
Police officers in Britain do not carry guns on routine patrols.
Khan, the last of the seven men involved in the robbery to be convicted, was long considered the mastermind of the gang. He fled to Pakistan two months after the raid, was arrested in Pakistan in January 2020 and extradited last year to the U.K.
Kuwaitis vote: Kuwait held national elections Thursday for the fourth time in as many years as the oil-rich country seeks to break out of its political gridlock.
The Persian Gulf country’s elected assembly has more power than most in the Arab world but has long been at loggerheads with the government, which is appointed by the royal family.
These are the first elections since Sheikh Meshal Al Ahmad Al Jaber, 83, assumed power after the death of his half-brother in December. The new emir dissolved parliament in February after a lawmaker reportedly insulted him.
Voters in the nation of 4.2 million people will chose among 200 candidates to fill 50 seats in the assembly. There are no political parties.