Democratic front-runner Barack Obama has scored a coup in his White House nominating battle against Hillary Clinton by winning the high-profile endorsement of blue-collar champion John Edwards.
Edwards, a two-time presidential hopeful and the party’s 2004 vice presidential nominee, formally backed the Illinois senator at an exuberant Michigan rally late on Wednesday, reinforcing signs of the Democratic establishment closing ranks behind Obama.
The announcement punctured Clinton’s short-lived boost after her landslide win in Tuesday’s West Virginia primary, although the former first lady said she did not believe in quitting and would fight on.
Edwards hailed Clinton as a woman “made of steel” who had strengthened the Democratic Party and the eventual presidential nominee by fighting so doggedly for issues dear to her heart.
But the former North Carolina senator said: “The Democratic voters of America have made their choice and so have I.”
Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe brushed off Edwards’ announcement, which capped a day of endorsements for Obama including that of the nation’s top abortion rights organization.
“We respect John Edwards, but as the voters of West Virginia showed last night, this thing is far from over,” he said.
The former first lady routed Obama by 67 percent to 26 percent in West Virginia and was the runaway leader with white and lower-income voters, in a worrying sign for Obama as he contemplates swing voters Democrats need to win in November.
Asked earlier on CNN if she would fight to the end of the primary season on June 3, Clinton said: “I’m not going anywhere, except to Kentucky and Oregon, and Montana, South Dakota, and Puerto Rico. I don’t believe in quitting.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not