Louisiana, Missouri hold primaries, with little doubt of results
WASHINGTON — Louisiana and Missouri held presidential primaries Saturday, offering President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump more chances to collect delegates.
Biden appeared in the Democratic primary in both states. Republicans voted only in Louisiana as the Missouri GOP already held caucuses March 2.
None of the races offered suspense.
Biden and Trump have already clinched their party nominations and beaten their major competitors. But the primary races were still closely watched by insiders for turnout and signs of protest voters.
For Biden, some liberals are registering their anger with Israel’s war against Hamas. A protest movement launched by Arab American communities in Michigan has spread to other states.
Trump is his party’s dominant figure and has locked up a third straight Republican nomination. But he faces dissent from people worried about the immense legal jeopardy he faces or critical of his White House term, which ended shortly after the Jan. 6 insurrection mounted by his supporters and fueled by his false theories of election fraud.
Saturday’s primary was the Missouri Democratic Party’s first party-run presidential contest since a new law took effect in August 2022. Louisiana’s primaries, meanwhile, came almost four years after the state was the first to postpone its primaries due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It may officially be spring, but New England was battling a wintry weather combination across the region Saturday
Wintry weather:
with more than a foot of snow expected in ski country, and rain, wind and possible flooding in southern areas and along the coast.
In Maine, the National Weather Service warned of a treacherous travel day with an increase in ice forming inland from the coast, on top of snow or sleet that had already fallen.
Farther inland forecasters called for anywhere from 1 to 2 feet of snow across the mountains in western Maine and areas north and in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, according to Maura Casey, a lead forecaster for the weather service, based in Gray, Maine.
Across Connecticut, New York City, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, the storm was expected to remain largely a rain event, with some freezing precipitation in the earlier part of the day in western and central Massachusetts before turning to all rain.
The storm making its way through New England comes at the end of a winter season in some areas of the Northeast, including Boston, that saw little snow and warmer temperatures.
Wyoming guns in schools:
Republican Gov. Mark Gordon has vetoed a bill that would have allowed people to carry concealed guns in public schools and government meetings in Wyoming.
In his veto letter Friday night, Gordon said he had concerns the bill would exceed the separation-of-powers provision in the state Constitution since any policy, further regulation or clarification of the law could only be implemented by the Legislature.
It would have required any state facility to seek legislative approval to restrict carrying firearms.
Concealed firearms would have been allowed
with a permit in public schools and at the University of Wyoming and community colleges in areas not serving alcohol. They also would have been allowed without a permit in meetings, including those of the Legislature.
Wyoming is among the gun-friendliest states, and the bill passed the state Senate 22-8 after supporters dismissed fears about allowing guns where they’re currently banned.
Gordon signed four other bills concerning gun rights. One prohibits credit card processors from using firearms or firearm-related merchant category codes and prevents the government or private entities from keeping any registry of firearms through use of a firearms code. Another prohibits red flag gun laws from being enforced or implemented in Wyoming.
Chinese coast guard ships hit a Philippine supply boat with water cannons Saturday in the latest confrontation near
South China Sea:
a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, causing injuries to its navy crew members and heavy damage to the wooden vessel, Philippine officials said.
The Second Thomas Shoal has been the scene of repeated confrontations between Chinese and Filipino vessels over the past year.
The far-flung shoal has been occupied by a small contingent of Philippine navy and marines on a marooned warship since 1999, but has been surrounded by Chinese coast guard and suspected militia vessels in an increasingly tense territorial standoff. It’s the second time the Philippine boat Unaizah May 4 has been damaged by the Chinese coast guard in March alone.
The repeated high-seas confrontations have sparked fears they could degenerate into a larger conflict that could bring China and the United States into collision.
Washington lays no claim to the seaway, a key trade route, but has deployed Navy ships and fighter jets in what
it calls “freedom of navigation” operations, which China has criticized.
The U.S. has also warned repeatedly that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines — its oldest treaty ally in Asia — if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
Venezuela election: Venezuelan opposition powerhouse María Corina Machado on Friday named a substitute to her presidential bid while she fights a government ban on her running for office.
The announcement comes as Machado faces increasing political repression from the government of President Nicolás Maduro as well as pressure from foreign leaders and fellow government opponents to abandon her candidacy.
Machado made the announcement two days after authorities arrested two of her campaign staffers and issued warrants for seven more, accusing them of links to an alleged
anti-government plot.
She told reporters that college professor Corina Yoris will be registered as an opposition faction’s presidential candidate ahead of a Monday deadline. The presidential election is set for July 28.
A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying three astronauts to the International Space Station blasted off Saturday, two days after its launch was aborted at the last minute.
The spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Russian Oleg Novitsky and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus launched smoothly from the Russianleased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan.
The launch had been planned for Thursday but was halted by an automatic safety system about 20 seconds before the scheduled liftoff. The head of the Russian space agency, Yuri Borisov, said the launch abort was triggered by a voltage drop in a power source.