WASHINGTON — The International Brotherhood of Teamsters declined Wednesday to endorse Kamala Harris or Donald Trump for president, saying neither candidate had sufficient support from the 1.3 million-member union.

“Unfortunately, neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before Big Business,” Teamsters President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement. “We sought commitments from both Trump and Harris not to interfere in critical union campaigns or core Teamsters industries — and to honor our members’ right to strike — but were unable to secure those pledges.”

The Teamsters’ rebuff reflected a labor union torn over issues of political identity and policy, one that mirrors a broader national divide. Vice President Harris has unmistakably backed organized labor, while former President Trump has appealed to many white blue-collar workers even as he has openly scorned unions at times. By not endorsing anyone, the Teamsters are essentially ceding some influence in November’s election as both candidates claimed to have support from its members.

Harris campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt noted in an emailed statement that more than three dozen retired Teamsters spoke last month in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention, having endorsed Harris. Their pensions were saved through the 2021 passage of the Butch Lewis Act that President Joe Biden and Harris championed.

“While Donald Trump says striking workers should be fired, Vice President Harris has literally walked the picket line and stood strong with organized labor for her entire career,” Hitt said. “The Vice President’s strong union record is why Teamsters locals across the country have already endorsed her — alongside the overwhelming majority of organized labor.”

The Teamsters said Wednesday that internal polling of members showed Trump with an advantage over Harris, a fact that the Republican’s campaign immediately seized upon by sending out an email that said the “rank-and-file of the Teamsters Union supports Donald Trump for President.”

Baltimore bridge lawsuit: The owner and manager of the cargo ship that caused the deadly Baltimore bridge collapse recklessly cut corners and ignored known electrical problems on the vessel, the Justice Department alleged Wednesday in a lawsuit seeking to recover more than $100 million that the government spent to clear the underwater debris and reopen the city’s port.

The lawsuit filed in Maryland provides the most detailed account yet of the cascading series of failures on the Dali that left its pilots and crew helpless in the face of looming disaster.

The Justice Department alleges that mechanical and electrical systems on the massive ship had been “jury-rigged” and improperly maintained, culminating in a power outage moments before it crashed into a support column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March. Six construction workers were killed when the bridge toppled into the water.

Honoring hidden figures: The hidden figures of the space race were recognized with Congress’ highest honor at a medal ceremony on Wednesday.

The Congressional Gold Medal was presented to the families of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson and Christine Darden at the U.S. Capitol. Darden watched the ceremony from her Connecticut home.

A medal was also given to all the women who worked as mathematicians, engineers and “human computers” in the U.S. space program from the 1930s to 1970s.

“By honoring them, we honor the very best of our country’s spirit,” said author Margot Lee Shetterly, whose book “Hidden Figures” was adapted into a film in 2016.

The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics — a precursor to NASA — hired hundreds of women to crunch numbers for space missions. The Black women it hired worked in a segregated unit of female mathematicians at what is now NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia.

Johnson’s handwritten calculations helped John Glenn become the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 — the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Vaughan rose to become NASA’s first Black supervisor and Jackson was NASA’s first Black female engineer. Darden is best known for her sonic boom research.

CIA officer sent to prison: Longtime CIA officer Brian Jeffrey Raymond, 48, who drugged, photographed and sexually assaulted more than two dozen women in postings around the world, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison Wednesday after an emotional hearing in Washington in which victims described being deceived by a man who appeared kind, educated and part of an agency “that is supposed to protect the world from evil.”

Raymond, a San Diego native and former White House intern who is fluent in Spanish and Mandarin, sat dejectedly as he heard his punishment for one of the most egregious misconduct cases in the CIA’s history. It was chronicled in his own library of more than 500 images that showed him in some cases straddling and groping his nude, unconscious victims.

Haitian election step: Haiti’s government Wednesday created a provisional electoral council long sought by the international community to prepare the troubled Caribbean country for its first general elections since 2016.

Smith Augustin, a member of the country’s transitional presidential council, said the electoral council was created, albeit with only seven of what by law is supposed to be a nine-member panel. He said the two other members would likely be announced in upcoming days.

The electoral council, which represents groups including farmers, journalists, human rights activists and the Vodou community, is tasked with organizing the elections and helping create the legal framework to hold them.

Haiti has not had a president since July 2021, and it last held elections in 2016.

Venezuela election: Venezuela’s former opposition candidate, Edmundo González, on Wednesday said he was coerced into signing a letter effectively recognizing his defeat in July’s presidential election, which electoral authorities claim was won by President Nicolás Maduro.

The revelation of the letter is the latest strain to the country’s political crisis, which was exacerbated by the disputed election results and González recent departure for exile in Spain. González and the Unitary Platform coalition he represented on July 28 claim they defeated Maduro by a wide margin.