Kennedy family endorses Biden in bid to counter RFK Jr.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden called it an “incredible honor” as he received endorsements from more than a dozen members of the Kennedy family, in a public show of force aimed at undercutting the presidential campaign of independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Biden, flanked by his rival’s siblings on stage at the event in Philadelphia, spoke of the family’s legacy and their impact on his own political life, calling their father — the former U.S. senator and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy — and Martin Luther King Jr. the “only two political heroes I had growing up.”

“I remember to keep looking and remind myself what they would do in tough calls,” Biden said, referencing the busts of Kennedy and King he keeps in the Oval Office.

Kerry Kennedy, the sister of the third-party candidate, introduced Biden and was joined by fellow siblings including Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a former Maryland lieutenant governor; filmmaker Rory Kennedy; former Congressman Joe Kennedy II, Christopher Kennedy, and Maxwell Kennedy Sr.

—Bloomberg News

Calexico resoundingly ousts town's first transgender mayor and a council ally

LOS ANGELES — Voters in Calexico have resoundingly ousted the first out transgender member of the City Council and her council ally after a bitter recall campaign rife with accusations of transphobia and political cronyism in the struggling city on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Nearly 74% of voters in the April 16 special election supported the recall of City Councilmember Raúl Ureña, according to early results released by the Imperial County registrar of voters Wednesday night. Ureña, who uses all pronouns but prefers "she," publicly came out as transgender after taking office, becoming a target for harassment online and in person.

Nearly 73% of voters supported the recall of Councilmember Gilberto Manzanarez, another outspoken young progressive. Roughly 77% of ballots received had been tallied by early Thursday, said Linsey Dale, the registrar of voters.

Both Ureña, 26, and Manzanarez, 30, said they believe the recall campaign — which thrust the almost entirely Latino city of 38,000 into America's culture wars over gender identity — was largely motivated by transphobia.

—Los Angeles Times

In France and US, two wildly different takes on IVF

MONTPELLIER, FRANCE — In vitro fertilization, a procedure first used more than 45 years ago, has suddenly become the topic of political debate on both sides of the Atlantic — but for wildly different reasons.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron’s government is eyeing policies to promote the use of assisted reproductive technology, including IVF, to increase the nation’s declining birth rate. But French feminist groups say the proposal unduly inserts the government into private lives of women. They also worry that nationalist sentiment is driving the effort to boost birth rates.

The political fault lines look quite different in the U.S. where conservatives are the primary obstacle to IVF access. Despite former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of IVF this month, the fertility treatment has left many ultraconservative and evangelical conservatives conflicted, particularly when it comes to the disposal of unused embryos.

Legislatures in at least 13 states have introduced so-called personhood legislation that would classify an embryo as a human life. And in February, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos created for the purpose of IVF can be considered children — a decision that caused some IVF clinics to close their doors.

—CQ-Roll Call

Russia to hire contract soldiers in bid to avoid unpopular draft

Russia is preparing to enlist more contract soldiers as it presses its invasion of Ukraine, aiming to avoid at least for now another mass call-up that could undermine popular support for the war.

The Kremlin is anxious not to repeat the September 2022 mobilization, which shook public confidence and triggered an exodus of as many as a million Russians from the country, three people informed about discussions on the matter said.

With as many as 30,000 new recruits a month, Russia could reinforce army ranks by 300,000 this year, said Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies think tank.

Bolstered by its advantage in ammunition, the Russian army is continuing to advance as Ukraine’s forces struggle because of delays in U.S. and European military aid and personnel shortages. To be sure, relying on a gradual influx of new troops to replace losses and build up numerical strength rather than simply calling up another 300,000 in one go limits Russia’s military options.

—Bloomberg News