Haley Vows to Stay in Until Super Tuesday

While former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has failed to win any states so far in her quest for the Republican nomination, she has vowed to remain in the primary race until Super Tuesday. Former President Donald Trump has finished first in all states that have voted so far, including Haley’s home state of South Carolina.

Haley is the last major candidate still challenging Trump for the nomination, with all other major GOP challengers dropping out prior to the Iowa caucuses or shortly after. A longshot contender, Texas pastor and businessman Ryan Binkley, dropped out of the race this week and endorsed Trump.

Trump leads Nikki Haley in the RealClearPolitics average of polls 78.7% to 14.5%. So far, Haley has performed much better in each state that has voted than 14.5%, though in Michigan, the latest state to hold its primary, she failed to break 30% of the vote.

Trump’s campaign has appeared to transition to general election campaigning, with Trump choosing not to mention Haley in his victory speech after the South Carolina primary.

 

Odysseus Lunar Lander Shuts Down After Week-Long Mission

The Odysseus lunar lander has been shut down by its operators after successfully transmitting data for the past week. The lander, developed by Houston-based Intuitive Machines and launched by a SpaceX rocket, was part of the first private mission to the moon, as opposed to government-sponsored missions.

The mission did face a challenge when the lander tipped over shortly after reaching the lunar surface, a result of a harder-than-expected landing that broke two of its legs, but the lander continued to communicate with the earth-based team.

Intuitive Machines hopes that the lander will be able to be brought back online once solar power becomes available to its solar panels again.

 

Biden, Trump Make Dueling Visits to Texas Border Cities

President Joe Biden and Former President Donald Trump both made visits to the Texas-Mexico border on Thursday. Biden visited Brownsville, the southernmost city in the state, and Trump visited Eagle Pass, one of the most active crossing sites for migrants for the past several years.

Trump landed first in Del Rio before traveling to Eagle Pass, where he was joined by Texas Governor Greg Abbott and by National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd, both staunch backers of Trump in his rematch against Biden in November.

In his speech, Trump blasted Biden, calling him the “worst president” in American history and pledged to reinstate the policies of his presidency, including Remain in Mexico, where asylum claimants waited in Mexico while their claims were adjudicated.

In Brownsville, Biden met with local leaders and border patrol agents, where he had a brief tour of the border and then gave a speech at the border patrol station. After he spoke briefly on the wildfires in the Texas Panhandle, he called on Republicans to pass a bipartisan bill that would allocate money to hire more border patrol agents and judges.

Democrats have accused congressional Republicans of bowing to pressure from Trump to not pass the bill in order to prevent Biden from claiming credit in reducing the number of migrants coming to the US. Republicans counter that Biden can take executive action without the bill and that the bill should not be tied to funding for Ukraine in the war against Russia.

The trip to Brownsville is Biden’s first trip to South Texas and his second to the US-Mexico border.

 

Trump Looks Likely to Take GOP Nod, Haley Vows to Stay In

Coming off two straight victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, former President Donald Trump has moved closer to becoming the Republican nominee in November. While still early in the contest, Trump only faces one major competitor for the race, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, over whom he holds a nearly 55-point lead nationwide, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls.

Even with this large polling advantage, Haley has vowed to remain in the race, putting her hope in a strong showing in her home state of South Carolina, which votes next month. While it is Haley’s home state, Trump currently has a 30-point polling lead over Haley in the South Carolina.

Trump recently rebuffed an effort by some Republican National Committee (RNC) members to declare Trump the presumptive nominee. Trump wrote on his Truth Social page, “While I greatly appreciate the [RNC] wanting to make me their PRESUMPTIVE NOMINEE...I feel...that they should NOT go forward with this plan...and finish the process off AT THE BALLOT BOX.”

 

US Says It Will Respond to Recent Deadly Drone Attack

The Biden administration has promised a response to the drone strike that killed three American servicemembers in Jordan. According to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, the US holds the Islamic Resistance in Iraq responsible for the attack, which itself is an umbrella organization that contains Kata'ib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia militant group.

Kirby also said that the response from the US  would not ‘be a one-off,’ but would come in phases.

The three soldiers killed in the drone strike were Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, Specialist Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, and Specialist Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23. All three were from Georgia.

Kata'ib Hezbollah did announce that it would suspend military operations against US force in the region, though whether it will truly back off from targeting US assets in the region is questionable.

The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC), Hossein Salami, warned that Iran was willing to respond to US retaliatory strikes, also saying, "We (Iran) are not looking for war, but we are not afraid of it either.” This echoes a similar sentiment from President Biden, who has also sought to avoid escalating the conflict in the Middle East.

The Middle East erupted into conflict after the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians, killing 1,139. Israel responded with large scale airstrikes and a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, which has resulted in over 25,000 dead (both civilians and Hamas militants). In response, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, which control Yemen’s capital Sana’a and much of its western region, have launched attacks on cargo ships and US military vessels, leading to US strikes on Houthi targets.