Happy Thursday! Just in case freelance art and graphic design isn’t your thing, NASA recently opened up applications for its next class of astronauts. Be warned, though: According to the job listing, “extensive travel [is] required.”

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• A Russian missile strike on Odesa, a southern Ukrainian port city on the Black Sea, killed five people on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian officials. The explosion occurred only a few hundred yards away from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was in the city with the prime minister of Greece—a NATO state—and an accompanying delegation. Neither Zelensky, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, nor anyone else in their convoy was injured in the attack.
• A Houthi missile attack on a Barbados-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday killed three of the vessel’s crew members and injured at least four others. The strike marked the first loss of life since the Iranian-backed group in Yemen began targeting international commercial vessels in ostensible retaliation for the war in Gaza—there have been more than 60 attacks in the Red Sea since November. Undersea cable operators believe that a strike that sank a merchant ship in late February caused damage to internet and telecommunications cables in the waterway after the struck vessel dragged its anchor, causing outages.
• The House passed a $460 billion government spending package on Wednesday, bundling together the six appropriations bills covering the parts of the government that were set to run out of money on Friday and extending funding through the end of the fiscal year. Lawmakers are still negotiating the six remaining spending bills to fund the rest of the government—including the Department of Defense—which will otherwise shut down after March 22. Wednesday’s measure passed by a vote of 339 to 85; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said yesterday that the upper chamber will pass the package “with time to spare before Friday’s deadline.”
• The Justice Department on Wednesday charged Linwei Ding, a Chinese national who worked at Google, with stealing company trade secrets related to artificial intelligence (AI) in an alleged scheme to benefit China-based AI companies. “The Justice Department will not tolerate the theft of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies that could put our national security at risk,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement yesterday.
• Former Ambassador Nikki Haley suspended her presidential campaign on Wednesday morning after losing 14 of the 15 “Super Tuesday” primary states to former President Donald Trump. Haley didn’t endorse her opponent as she ended her campaign, saying instead that Trump would have to “earn the votes” of her supporters. “Nikki Haley got TROUNCED last night,” Trump said in a Truth Social post responding to the announcement. Shortly after Haley’s announcement, outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell endorsed Trump. 
• Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota suspended his campaign for president on Wednesday and endorsed President Joe Biden’s reelection. “I invite, I encourage and will do everything humanly possible to ensure Joe Biden’s reelection this November,” Phillips said. 
• The Alabama State Legislature passed a bill Wednesday night providing civil and criminal protections for doctors and patients using in vitro fertilization (IVF), which was later signed into law by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey. Some IVF clinics in the state will reportedly open as soon as this week, following an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that held that embryos were considered children under the state’s wrongful death law, leaving many worried about the future of the medical practice in the state.

Down to One

Despite long odds heading into Tuesday’s 15 primary contests, former Ambassador Nikki Haley’s campaign was reportedly in a “jubilant” mood throughout the day, with her team of happy warriors prepared for whatever might lie ahead. With no events scheduled for the night, however, it seemed as though the campaign expected the end of the road.

Following a disappointing showing on Super Tuesday, Haley suspended her campaign for president, confirming officially what has been apparent for months: Former President Donald Trump will, barring any unforeseen surprises, face off against President Joe Biden again in the 2024 presidential election. Trump now faces the task of consolidating Republican support ahead of the general election—but Biden also has his eye on Haley’s more moderate and Trump-skeptical voters.

In a speech at her campaign headquarters in South Carolina on Wednesday, Haley told supporters that she ended her run with “no regrets,” and congratulated Trump on his capture of the nomination. But notably, she did not endorse the former president. “It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party, and beyond it, who did not support him, and I hope he does that,” she said. “At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people. This is now his time for choosing.”

Despite winning just two primary contests, Haley managed to build a coalition of independent, moderate, suburban, and college-educated voters that helped her secure more than 30 percent of the primary electorate in several states. As she pointed out in her speech yesterday, Trump will need to work to bring these people into his camp—and he might have his work cut out for him. Despite winning the overwhelming majority of states and delegates, Trump has struggled to win over suburban voters, and in Virginia lost the suburbs to Haley by roughly 28 points. A CNN exit poll in North Carolina showed 81 percent of Haley voters would not vote for the former president in November.

Trump wasted no time dumping on his former ambassador on her way out the door. “Nikki Haley got TROUNCED last night, in record setting fashion,” he posted on Truth Social on Wednesday morning, extending an invitation to “all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation.” He then, in an apparent shift to the general election, reminded his followers of the fight ahead. “BIDEN IS THE ENEMY, HE IS DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY,” he wrote. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

President Joe Biden, too, made a play for Haley’s coalition of disaffected center-right and independent voters. “Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters,” he said in a statement released on Wednesday, referencing previous comments from Trump about permanently barring donors to “Birdbrain” Haley from his MAGA movement. “I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign. I know there is a lot we won’t agree on. But on the fundamental issues … I hope and believe we can find common ground.”

Olivia Perez-Cubas, a spokeswoman for Haley’s campaign, posted a side-by-side comparison of the Trump and Biden comments, adding, “A tale of two statements…”

Haiti’s Violent Crisis

As difficult as it is to imagine the already dire situation in Haiti worsening, the island nation suffered just that over the last week. While Prime Minister Ariel Henry traveled abroad seeking international help to stem the unprecedented tide of violence, the criminal gangs that control some 80 percent of the capital city of Port-au-Prince appeared to set their sights on government institutions. 

On Saturday, gang members broke into two prisons, releasing thousands of inmates. Among the imprisoned were the Colombian mercenaries accused of assassinating President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. But rather than seizing their freedom, the alleged assassins reportedly decided to remain behind bars. “Please, please help us,” Francisco Uribe, one of the accused Colombians, said in a video shared on social media. “They are massacring people indiscriminately inside the cells.”

The deepening crisis in Haiti shows no signs of abating, with the country trapped in a dangerous cycle of …

As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,443-word story on the crisis in Haiti is available in the members-only version of TMD.

Worth Your Time

• Writing for Persuasion, novelist Ann Bauer explored how independent bookstores have survived in the age of Amazon—and takeaways from the socially conscious marketing strategy that’s kept them afloat. “For 30 years, independent bookstores have been battling Amazon, a monster online retailer that sells the exact same products for 20-50 percent less,” Bauer wrote. “‘In 1994, there were over 7,000 independent bookstores in the United States,’ says Allison Hill, CEO of the American Booksellers Association (ABA). ‘By 2009 that number had dropped to 1,651.’ But after the initial bloodbath, in which there were many casualties, independent bookstores found their footing. And in large urban centers, they’re winning the war.” Today, the number of independent bookstores has rebounded to 2,500. “In fact, independent bookstore sales outpaced most other publishing industry metrics in 2023, growing faster than overall unit sales of print books,” Bauer wrote. “Booksellers have bent the rules of the free market. For the first time in history, a significant chunk of the buying public are voluntarily paying almost double—and going out of their way—to buy exactly the same product they can get cheaper and often faster somewhere else. And it’s all due to that ABA message: ‘non-corporate, authentic, and socially responsible.’ … What no one says is that the bargain works both ways. If book buyers must behave virtuously and tithe an additional $11 a book, then booksellers must uphold the community’s doctrines. They’re locked in the moral contract, too.”

Presented Without Comment 

Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, after losing California’s U.S. Senate primary by nearly 20 points:

Thank you to everyone who supported our campaign and voted to shake up the status quo in Washington. Because of you, we had the establishment running scared—withstanding 3 to 1 in TV spending and an onslaught of billionaires spending millions to rig this election.

Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, seven hours later:

“Rigged” means manipulated by dishonest means. A few billionaires spent $10 million+ on attack ads against me, including an ad rated “false” by an independent fact checker. That is dishonest means to manipulate an outcome. I said “rigged by billionaires” and our politics are—in fact-manipulated by big dark money. Defending democracy means calling that out. At no time have I ever undermined the vote count and election process in CA, which are beyond reproach.

Also Presented Without Comment 

Axios: House GOP Tries to Shut Down State of the Union Heckling

Also Also Presented Without Comment

BBC: German Patient Vaccinated Against COVID 217 Times

Toeing the Company Line

• President Joe Biden is delivering his State of the Union address tonight, which means we’ll have a bonus edition of Dispatch Live (🔒) tonight at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, or whenever the speechifying is done! The team will discuss the remarks and the GOP rebuttal, and, of course, take plenty of viewer questions. Keep an eye out for an email later today with information on how to tune in.
• In the newsletters: The Dispatch Politics crew unpacked Nikki Haley’s primary exit and the state of the Senate race in Arizona after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s retirement announcement, Scott outlined (🔒) how the Wendy’s “surge pricing” dust-up illustrates common pitfalls in consumer protection policy, Jonah reminded readers (🔒) they will largely be fine no matter who wins the presidential election this fall, and Nick weighed in (🔒) on what’s next for Haley and her supporters as she ends her campaign.
• On the podcasts: Razib Khan returns to The Remnant to explore the genetic makeup of the world’s second most important animal, human beings, and David and Sarah revisit their arguments over the Supreme Court’s per curium ruling on the Trump-Colorado case on the latest episode of Advisory Opinions.
• On the site today: Frederick Hess and Michael McShane argue that elite universities are rotten but fixable.