China booked its largest single-day U.S. soybean purchases in at least three months on Tuesday, traders said, offering a glimmer of hope for the most valuable U.S. farm export after overseas sales of the 2023 harvest had fallen well behind the normal pace.

Chinese importers bought around 10 cargoes of soybeans, or about 600,000 metric tons, for shipment from Gulf Coast and Pacific Northwest export terminals between December and March, trade sources said.

The sales would be a relief to U.S. farmers, who have seen Brazil dominate the global export market for soy as well as corn for longer than normal this year.

If confirmed, Tuesday’s sales would be the largest single-day soybean purchases by the world’s top soy importer since late July, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) daily sales data.

They were the latest in a series of soy import deals since late last week by Sinograin, China’s state-owned importer, according to three export traders with knowledge of the deals. Total purchases over that time were estimated at as much as 20 to 25 cargoes, two traders said.

Cash premiums for U.S. soybeans at Gulf Coast terminals GRYM, GRZD jumped by as much as 10 cents a bushel on Tuesday as exporters scrambled to source supplies, traders said.

High U.S. prices due to barge shipping disruptions and stiff export market competition from Brazil, which harvested a record soy crop this year, have hampered U.S. sales in the season so far.

Confirmed sales to China as of late October were down 35% from a year ago, and sales to all destinations were down 28%. The USDA is currently projecting a 12% year-on-year export decline.

But U.S. prices have become more competitive for shipments from December through March, when Brazil’s next harvest will be available.

The USDA has confirmed private sales totaling 236,000 metric tons of U.S. soybeans over the past two days via the agency’s daily reporting system. Traders expect additional “flash sales” following the deals on Tuesday.
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Many members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation bloc may profit from the trend of U.S. companies moving production out of China and into countries with a solid relationship with the United States. VOA’s Jessica Stone explains what this practice — called “friendshoring” — means.
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After Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainian native and California resident Oleksandr Zabelin started OutBaking — a Berkeley-based bakery that provides reliable jobs to Ukrainian refugees. Khrystyna Shevchenko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Khrystyna Shevchenko
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Ohio becomes the latest flashpoint on Tuesday in the nation’s ongoing battle over abortion access since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a constitutional right to the procedure last year.

Voters will decide whether to pass a constitutional amendment guaranteeing an individual right to abortion and other forms of reproductive healthcare.

Ohio is the only state to consider a statewide abortion-rights question this year, fueling tens of millions of dollars in campaign spending, boisterous rallies for and against the amendment, and months of advertising and social media messaging, some of it misleading.

With a single spotlight on abortion rights this year, advocates on both sides of the issue are watching the outcome for signs of voter sentiment heading into 2024, when abortion-rights supporters are planning to put measures on the ballot in several other states, including Arizona, Missouri and Florida. Early voter turnout has also been robust.

Public polling shows about two-thirds of Americans say abortion should generally be legal in the earliest stages of pregnancy, a sentiment that has been underscored in half a dozen states since the Supreme Court’s decision reversing Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

In both Democratic and deeply Republican states — California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana and Vermont — voters have either affirmed abortion access or turned back attempts to undermine the right.

Voter approval of the constitutional amendment in Ohio, known as Issue 1, would undo a 2019 state law passed by Republicans that bans most abortions at around six weeks into pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape and incest. That law, currently on hold because of court challenges, is one of roughly two dozen restrictions on abortion the Ohio Legislature has passed in recent years.

Issue 1 specifically declares an individual’s right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions,” including birth control, fertility treatments, miscarriage and abortion.

It still allows the state to regulate the procedure after fetal viability, as long as exceptions are provided for cases in which a doctor determines the “life or health” of the woman is at risk. Viability is defined as the point when the fetus has “a significant likelihood of survival” outside the womb with reasonable interventions.

Anti-abortion groups have argued the amendment’s wording is overly broad, advancing a host of untested legal theories about its impacts. They’ve tested a variety of messages to try to defeat the amendment as they seek to reverse their losses in statewide votes, including characterizing it as “anti-parent” and warning that it would allow minors to seek abortions or gender-transition surgeries without parents’ consent.

It’s unclear how the Republican-dominated Legislature will respond if voters pass the amendment. Republican state Senate President Matt Huffman has suggested that lawmakers could come back with another proposed amendment next year that would undo Issue 1, although they would have only a six-week window after Election Day to get it on the 2024 primary ballot.

The voting follows an August special election called by the Republican-controlled Legislature that was aimed at making future constitutional changes harder to pass by increasing the threshold from a simple majority vote to 60%. That proposal was aimed in part at undermining the abortion-rights measure being decided now.

Voters overwhelmingly defeated that special election question, setting the stage for the high-stakes fall abortion campaign.
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The captain of a dive boat that caught fire and sank off the California coast in 2019, killing 34 people in one of the state’s deadliest maritime disasters, was found guilty on Monday on a federal charge of seaman’s manslaughter.

Jerry Boylan, 70, was found guilty by a U.S. District Court jury in Los Angeles on a single charged count of “misconduct or neglect of a ship officer” under a federal homicide statute dating from steamboat accidents in the early 1800s.

The felony conviction, capping a 10-day trial, carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, according to Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. Sentencing was set for Feb. 8, 2025.

Boylan was captain of the 75-foot dive boat Conception, which went up in flames early in the morning on Sept. 2, 2019. The vessel was anchored in Platt’s Harbor near Santa Cruz Island, off the Santa Barbara Coast, during a sport diving trip.

 

Thirty-three passengers and one member of the crew died in the Labor Day holiday weekend blaze. They had been sleeping below deck when the fire began.

The five surviving crew members, including Boylan, had been above deck in berths behind the wheelhouse and escaped by leaping overboard as the burning vessel sank into the Pacific. They told investigators that flames coming from the passenger quarters were too intense to save anyone trapped below.

But the jury unanimously agreed with prosecutors that Boylan, as charged in the indictment, acted with “reckless disregard for human life by engaging in misconduct, gross negligence, and inattention to his duties.”

Among other lapses cited by prosecutors, Boylan neglected to maintain a night watch or roving patrol as required, failed to conduct sufficient fire drills and crew emergency training and left the vessel without attempting to fight the blaze.”

Prosecutors said he was the first to abandon ship and did so without using the boat’s public address system to warn passengers and crew about the fire.

 
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Ahead of the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week in San Francisco, where U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to meet, a study comparing views of China and the U.S. across 24 countries shows that people’s views of Washington are more favorable than those of Beijing, especially among high and middle-income countries.

The new data essay released by Pew Research Center Monday, compares previously published views of the U.S. and China and highlights the differences across more than 10 measures, including confidence in U.S. and Chinese leaders, perception of their economic power and technological prowess.

Countries featured in the study include advanced economies in North America and Europe, as well as middle-income countries in Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Africa.

Skewed to the U.S.

When it comes to favorable views of the U.S. and China, the study found that high-income countries tend to “skew toward the US.” Japan and South Korea favor the U.S. over China by 57% and 62%.

There are smaller differences in views of the two countries in middle-income countries surveyed with countries having “generally positive” views of China and the United States.

The difference in the confidence in Biden and Xi was prominent in countries such as Germany and Sweden where 53% and 64% more expressed confidence in Biden over Xi. In Indonesia and Kenya, the difference in confidence toward the two leaders was only a few percentage points, with Biden maintaining a slight lead over Xi.

“These gaps in views of the American and Chinese leaders reflect both souring attitudes toward Xi in high-income countries and greater confidence in Biden,” the Pew researchers wrote.

Although views of China and the U.S. have fluctuated over the years, according to Pew, they have “rebounded dramatically in many of the countries surveyed” since Biden came to power, while views of China remain “among their most negative.”

“Confidence in the U.S. president was relatively low in 2007 when Bush was president but increased when Obama took office in 2008,” said Christine Huang, research associate at Pew Research Center and one of the authors of the latest study.

“Favorable views of the U.S. likewise because substantially more positive in most countries surveyed during the Obama era. Confidence in China’s president has also declined over time alongside favorable views of the country,” she told VOA in a written response.

Richard Turcsányi, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at Palacky University Olomouc in the Czech Republic says “high-income countries are more often than not U.S. allies, so they are comfortable with the current international order …They tend to be democratic and thus dislike China for its authoritarian system.”

He said middle-income countries are rarely traditional U.S. allies and they are often “not fully democratic,” so these countries want to change some things in the world to elevate their roles.

“Many of them inhibit various dislikes and feelings of injustice, often targeting the U.S., Europe, and the West in general and China seems like an alternative. While they may not exactly like Beijing, the difference between the U.S. and China will be less pronounced in their eyes,” he added.

U.S. more interventionist

While the U.S. enjoys more favorable views than China in general, people in the 24 countries surveyed hold mixed views of Washington and Beijing when it comes to foreign policy.

The study shows that the U.S. is more likely to be viewed as an interventionist power than China in almost all countries. In Greece 93% of the people surveyed viewed the U.S. as a country that interferes in other nations’ affairs and 56% viewed the same of China leading to a 37% point difference in China’s favor. In Australia however, there is only a two-percentage point difference with Australians surveyed viewing the U.S. similarly as countries that will intervene in the affairs of other countries.

More people across the 24 countries, including in Japan, Canada and Mexico, also think the U.S. is more likely to take their countries’ interests into account than China. In addition to that, more people surveyed in the 24 countries, including South Korea, the U.K. and India, think the U.S. contributes to global peace and stability than China does.

Pew researchers say these results show that global views of the U.S. and China may not be as absolute as the overall favorable ratings both countries receive.

“A closer look at each country’s image shows areas where China outperforms the U.S.,” Huang from Pew told VOA.

Tech and military power

Compared to the starker contrasts between views of the U.S. and China in measures such as favorability and confidence in leaders, the study found that differences are less prominent in areas like technological power.

Among all the countries surveyed, a median 72% of the people view U.S. technology as “the best or above average,” and 69% have similar thoughts about Chinese technology. Despite the small overall difference, people surveyed in Latin American countries, such as Mexico and Argentina, were more likely to rate China’s technological achievements positively while U.S. technological achievements tend to receive more positive reviews in Asian countries included in the study, including South Korea and Japan.

Huang from Pew told VOA that regional variations in views of the U.S. and China’s technology may be tied to differences in market penetration of various products. “Chinese technology is seen especially likely to be considered well-made in Nigeria, where Chinese companies currently have control of much of the mobile market share,” she said.

While majorities in every country surveyed say the American military is above average or the best and only about half of the countries surveyed say the same of China, the Pew study found that “there is little difference” in ratings of Chinese and American militaries between middle-income countries such as Mexico and high-income countries like Germany.

Some researchers say results from public opinion studies can serve as important reference points for policymakers around the world. “Policymakers in many countries depend on public opinion because they stand in elections,” Turcsányi in Czech Republic told VOA.

“If the general mood around the leaders is that China is seen negatively with little economic promises, leaders will be willingly or unwillingly influenced by this sentiment and will act on it,” he added.

Pew researchers said they hope findings from the study can help policymakers and government officials establish a better understanding of the geopolitical balance between the U.S. and China.

“We can’t say for certain how it will be used, and it’s up to the officials to hopefully watch programs like this one and learn from our research,” Laura Silver, associate director at Pew Research Center and one of the authors of the study, told VOA.
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Leo Ortega started growing spiky blue agave plants on the arid hillsides around his Southern California home because his wife liked the way they looked.

A decade later, his property is now dotted with thousands of what he and others hope is a promising new crop for the state following years of punishing drought and a push to scale back on groundwater pumping.

The 49-year-old mechanical engineer is one of a growing number of Californians planting agave to be harvested and used to make spirits, much like the way tequila and mezcal are made in Mexico. The trend is fueled by the need to find hardy crops that don’t need much water and a booming appetite for premium alcoholic beverages since the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s attracted entrepreneurs such as Ortega, as well as some California farmers. They’re seeking to shift to more water-efficient crops and irrigation methods to avoid fallowing their fields with looming limits on how much groundwater they can pump, as well as more extreme weather patterns anticipated with climate change. Agave, unlike most other crops, thrives on almost no water.

“When we were watering them, they didn’t really grow much, and the ones that weren’t watered were actually growing better,” Ortega said, walking past rows of the succulents.

He is now investing in a distillery after his initial batches of spirits, made from Agave americana, sold for $160 a bottle.

Consumers started spending more on high-quality spirits during the pandemic shutdowns, which spurred a rise in premium beverage products, said Erlinda A. Doherty, an agave spirits expert and consultant.

Tequila and mezcal were the second-fastest growing spirit category in the country in 2022, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.

Both are proprietary spirits under Mexican laws, which are recognized in U.S. trade agreements. Much like how champagne hails from a region of France, anything called tequila must contain at least 51% blue Weber agave and be distilled in Jalisco or a handful of other Mexican states. Mezcal can be made from a variety of agave types but must be produced in certain Mexican states.

Agave growers and distillers in California — as well as some in Texas and Arizona — are betting there is an appetite for more agave-based spirits even if they are produced outside of Mexico and not called tequila or mezcal.

“We seem to have this insatiable thirst for agave, so why not have a domestically grown supply?” Doherty said. “I am kind of bullish on it.”

Alfonso Mojica Navarro, director of the Mexican Chamber of the Tequila Industry, said tequila has a lengthy history, global reputation for excellence and close connection with Mexican culture. While he didn’t comment specifically on California’s foray into agave spirits, he said he believes Mexico can respond to the growing demand.

“The tequila industry is concerned that each time there are more players trying to take advantage of tequila’s success by producing agave spirits, liqueurs or other beverages that allude to the Mexican drink, its origins and characteristics despite not being the same,” he said in a statement.

Agave isn’t grown on a large scale in California yet, and it would take years for that to happen. But spirits, made by cooking the plant’s core to produce sugars that are fermented, are proving popular, said Ventura Spirits owner Henry Tarmy, who distilled his first batch five years ago.

“We’ve sold everything we’ve made,” he said.

Much like Mexico has, California is taking steps to protect its nascent industry. The state legislature enacted a law last year requiring “California agave spirits” be made solely with plants grown in the state and without additives.

A dozen growers and a handful of distillers also formed the California Agave Council last year, and the group has tripled in size since then, said Craig Reynolds, the founding director who planted agave in the Northern California community of Davis. He said those making agave spirits have a deep appreciation for Mexican tequila.

“We have about 45 member growers,” he said. “All of them want more plants.”

Agave takes little water but presents other challenges. The plant typically takes at least seven years to grow and is tough to harvest, and a mature plant can weigh hundreds of pounds. Once cut, it has to be grown all over again.

Still, many see agave as a viable alternative as California — which supplies the bulk of the country’s produce — explores ways to cut back water use.

While record rain and snowfall over the winter mostly ended a three-year drought in California, more dry periods are likely in store. The state enacted a law nearly a decade ago to regulate the pumping of groundwater after excessive pumping led some residents’ wells to run dry and the land to sink. Scientists expect extreme weather patterns will become even more common as the planet warms, causing more drought.

Stuart Woolf, who grows tomatoes and almonds in the state’s crop-rich Central Valley, said he started thinking about agave after estimating he’ll only be able to farm about 60% of his land in 20 years due to water limitations. And that’s despite investing in solar energy and groundwater recharge projects to protect the farm that has been in his family for generations.

After trying out a test plot a few years ago, Woolf went on to plant some 200,000 agave on land he otherwise would have fallowed. Each acre of agave is taking only 7.6 centimeters (3 inches) of water a year — a tenth of what row crops demand and even less than pistachio and almond trees, he said.

Woolf and his wife Lisa gave a $100,000 donation to the University of California, Davis, which formed a research fund to look at the succulent’s varieties and its potential as a low-water crop.

“I have been trying to figure out what is a crop that I can grow that is somewhat climate-resilient, drought-tolerant, so I can utilize our land,” Woolf said. “The amount of water I am giving them is so low, I don’t think I am ever going to have a problem.”
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A caravan of at least hundreds of migrants left from the southern Mexican city of Tapachula on Sunday heading for the U.S. southern border.

The smaller caravan plans to join a larger one that left six days ago and is currently stopped about 40 kilometers north of the town of Huixtla.

Organizers said the first had swelled to some 7,000 people while the government in the southern Chiapas state said it estimated the group at 3,500 people.

Many migrants are fleeing poverty and political instability in their homelands, hailing from Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and especially Honduras and Venezuela, according to a Reuters witness.

“I think 3.4 months is too long to wait to get a humanitarian visa, to be able to travel through Mexican territory,” said Selma Alvarez from Venezuela. “Because we are at the mercy of coyotes, of criminals, it is good that we accompany each other in the caravan. It seems safer to me.”

Alvarez added that the group was impatient to get to the U.S. border and start the process to enter the U.S. with appointments secured via a U.S. government app, CBP One, and request asylum.

U.S. President Joe Biden, who is seeking reelection next year, is under pressure to lower the number of people crossing illegally into the U.S. from Mexico.

A record number of people this year have crossed the Darien Gap region connecting Panama and Colombia.
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More than a dozen U.S. states have enacted or introduced legislation to restrict drag shows. The moves are the product of socially conservative momentum against shows where performers who are mostly men dress mostly as women. Gustavo Martinez Contreras reports from a unique show in New Mexico. Camera: Gustavo Martinez Contreras.
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Using sidewalks as exam rooms and heavy red duffle bags as medical supply closets, volunteer medics spend their Saturdays caring for the growing number of migrants arriving in Chicago without a place to live.

Mostly students in training, they go to police stations where migrants are first housed, prescribing antibiotics, distributing prenatal vitamins and assessing for serious health issues. These student doctors, nurses and physician assistants are the front line of health care for asylum-seekers in the nation’s third-largest city, filling a gap in Chicago’s haphazard response.

“My team is a team that shouldn’t have to exist, but it does out of necessity,” said Sara Izquierdo, a University of Illinois Chicago medical student who helped found the group. “Because if we’re not doing this, I’m not sure anyone will.”

More than 19,600 migrants have come to Chicago over the last year since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began sending buses to so-called sanctuary cities. The migrants wait at police stations and airports, sometimes for months, until there’s space at a longer-term shelter, like park district buildings.

Once in shelter, they can access a county clinic exclusively for migrants. But the currently 3,300 people in limbo at police stations and airports must rely on a mishmash of volunteers and social service groups that provide food, clothes and medicine.

Izquierdo noted the medical care gap months ago, consulted experienced doctors and designed a street-medicine model tailored to migrants’ medical needs. Her group makes weekly visits to police stations, operating on a shoestring budget of $30,000, mostly used for medication.

On a recent Saturday, she was among dozens of medics at a South Side station where migrants sleep in the lobby, on sidewalks and an outdoor basketball court. Officers didn’t allow the volunteers in the station so when one patient requested privacy, their doctor used his car.

Abrahan Belizario saw a doctor for the first time in five months.

The 28-year-old had a headache, toothache and chest pain. He recently arrived from Peru, where he worked as a driver and at a laundromat but couldn’t survive. He wasn’t used to the brisk Chicago weather and believed sleeping outdoors exacerbated his symptoms.

“It is very cold,” he said. “We’re almost freezing.”

The volunteers booked him a dental appointment and gave him a bus pass.

Many migrants who land in Chicago and other U.S. cities come from Venezuela where a social, political and economic crisis has pushed millions into poverty. More than 7 million have left, often risking a dangerous route by foot to the U.S. border.

The migrants’ health problems tend to be related to their journey or living in crowded conditions. Back and leg injuries from walking are common. Infections spread easily. Hygiene is an issue. There are few indoor bathrooms and outdoor portable toilets lack handwashing stations. Not many people carry their medical records.

Most also have trauma, either from their homeland or from the journey itself.

“You can understand the language, but it doesn’t mean you understand the situation,” said Miriam Guzman, one of organizers and a fourth-year medical student at UIC.

The doctors refer patients to organizations that help with mental health but there are limitations. The fluid nature of the shelter system makes it difficult to follow-up; people are often moved without warning.

Chicago’s goal is to provide permanent homes, which could help alleviate health issues. But the city has struggled to manage the growing population as buses and planes arrive daily at all hours. Mayor Brandon Johnson, who took office in May, calls it an inherited issue and proposed winterized tents.

His administration has acknowledged the heavy reliance on volunteers.

“We weren’t ready for this,” said Rey Wences Najera, first deputy of immigrant, migrant and refugee rights. “We are building this plane as we are flying it and the plane is on fire.”

The volunteer doctors also are limited in what they can do: Their duffle bags have medications for children, bandages and even ear plugs after some migrants wanted to block out sirens. But they cannot offer X-rays or address chronic issues.

“You’re not going to tell a person who has gone through this journey to stop smoking,” said Ruben Santos, a Rush University medical student. “You change your way of trying to connect to that person to make sure that you can help them with their most pressing needs while not doing some of the traditional things that you would do in the office or a big academic hospital.”

The volunteers explain to each patient that the service is free but that they’re students. Experienced doctors, who are part of the effort, approve treatment plans and prescribe medications.

Getting people those medications is another challenge. One station visit prompted 15 prescriptions. Working from laptops on the floor — near dozens of sleeping families — the doctors mapped out which medics would pick up medications the following day and how they’d find the recipients.

Sometimes the volunteers must call for emergency help.

Thirty-year-old Moises Hidalgo said he had trouble breathing. Doctors heard a concerning “crackling” sound, suspected pneumonia and called an ambulance.

Hidalgo, who came from Peru after having left his native Venezuela more than a decade ago, once worked as a chef. He’s been walking around Chicago looking for jobs, but has been turned away without a work permit.

“I’ve been trying to find work, at least so that I can pay to sleep somewhere, because if this isn’t solved, I can’t keep waiting,” he said.

To stay warm while sleeping outside, he wore four layers of clothing; his loose pants cinched with a shoelace.

The medics hope Chicago can formalize their approach. And they say they’ll continue to keep at it — for some, it’s personal.

Dr. Muftawu-Deen Iddrisu, who works Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, said he wanted to give back. Originally from Ghana, he attended medical school in Cuba.

“I come from a very humble background,” he said. “I know how it feels. I know once sometime back someone did the same for me.” 
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Most members of the U.S. Congress have stood firmly behind Israel since the Hamas attack last month, but not Cori Bush. The Missouri Democrat called Israel’s response a “war crime” and an “ethnic cleansing campaign,” and was among the few House members who opposed a resolution supporting Israel. 

Her unwavering stance has angered some in her district. St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell on Monday dropped a U.S. Senate bid to challenge Bush in next year’s 1st District Democratic primary, and moderate Democrats believe he could win. 

Bush isn’t alone. 

She’s among a small group of Democrats viewed by critics as insufficiently supportive of Israel — both long before and now after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel — or insufficiently critical of Hamas. Across those districts, moderates like Bell are being encouraged to run. In particular, Summer Lee in Pennsylvania, Jamaal Bowman in New York, Ilhan Omar in Minnesota, and Rashida Tlaib in Michigan probably will face challengers. 

All five have condemned Hamas’ attack and antisemitism, but they’ve all made statements seen as inflammatory by Israel’s staunchest supporters and been critical of U.S. military aid to Israel. 

Bush and Omar accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing.” Summer Lee said it had committed “human rights violations.” And at a recent cease-fire rally, Bowman said: “We cannot allow the lives of anyone to be erased. This erasure of Palestinian lives and experience has been happening for decades.” 

Adding to the fraught politics for Democrats is the fact that others could face pressure for the opposite reason — such as Shri Thanedar in Detroit, who represents a heavily Democratic district with a big Muslim population but has backed Israel. 

Last week, the House overwhelmingly passed a resolution supporting Israel. Bush, Bowman, Lee, Omar and Tlaib were among nine Democrats who opposed the measure, saying it failed to call for a cease-fire, create a pathway to peace, or express the need to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza. 

Bowman, Lee, Omar and Tlaib also were among the 17 sponsors of Bush’s resolution asking the Biden administration to call for a cease-fire. Critics of that resolution said it failed to mention Hamas’ unprovoked attack on Israel, hostages held by Hamas, or that the U.S. considers Hamas a terrorist organization. 

All five are considered progressives in the Democratic caucus and represent strongly Democratic districts, so the main threat to their re-election prospects would probably come from the Democratic Party. 

Stances spur call for challengers

Challenges to Bush and the others were possible even before the Hamas attack on October 7 or Israel’s subsequent attack on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But their stances after October 7 have fueled calls for primary challengers. 

Lee and Omar — who narrowly held off primary competitors in 2022 — may be particularly vulnerable. 

The progressive group Justice Democrats, which has backed primary challengers against moderate Democrats around the country, blamed the primary challenges on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and a network of Republican donors who help fund AIPAC’s efforts to elect unequivocal allies of Israel. 

“Democratic members are truly out of step with their voters and their bases who do not want to see us barreling toward another war on their taxpayer dollars,” Justice Democrats’ spokesperson Usamah Andrabi said. 

It is unfortunate, Andrabi said, that the House Democratic leadership has not taken a stronger stance against AIPAC’s efforts to knock off rank-and-file Democrats. 

It remains unclear whether House Democrats will help incumbents fend off primary challengers through campaign fundraising arms. One organization, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said it could potentially get involved in a primary race to protect an incumbent, but declined to discuss specifics. 

Before October 7, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries  issued statements of support for Omar and others, saying he will support the reelection of every House Democratic incumbent, regardless of ideology. 

AIPAC declined to discuss its campaign efforts, saying “there will be a time for political action, but right now our priority is building and sustaining congressional support for Israel’s fight to permanently dismantle Hamas, which perpetrated this barbaric, terrorist attack on the Jewish state.” 

Rashida Tlaib, the lone Palestinian American in Congress, has been an outspoken opponent of the Biden administration’s response to the conflict. On Friday, she posted a video on social media showing anti-war protests across the United States and accusing President Joe Biden of supporting what she said was genocide against the Palestinian people. “We will remember in 2024,” she said. The White House declined comment Saturday on the video. 

While Tlaib defeated her primary opponent handily last year, pro-Israel groups have already signaled that they will focus on defeating her in 2024. The Democratic Majority for Israel — which bills itself as the “voice of pro-Israel Democrats” — began running ads against Tlaib in Detroit this week. 

Tlaib’s metro Detroit House district includes a large Arab American population in Dearborn and a substantial Jewish constituency in Southfield. 

Her congressional neighbor, however, is in a different situation: Tlaib and Thanedar have feuded publicly since he criticized her statements on Hamas’ attack on Israel, and Thanedar — a freshman who represents Detroit — has since drawn criticism from Tlaib on how he runs his office. 

Thanedar’s Detroit district has been a center of pro-Palestinian pushback in the state, with thousands of demonstrators calling for a cease-fire in the city’s downtown on October 28. 

He has a primary challenger in former state Senator Adam Hollier — Thanedar beat Hollier by 5 percentage points in a nine-way primary in 2022 — but Hollier’s campaign said his run isn’t a response to Thanedar’s stance on Israel. 

Rabbis criticize representative

In Pittsburgh, Summer Lee has faced broad criticism from the Jewish community, where members just marked the five-year anniversary of a gunman’s rampage through the Tree of Life synagogue, killing 11 people in the worst attack on Jews on American soil. 

On Tuesday, a group of 36 rabbis and four cantors released a letter criticizing Lee for voting against the House resolution expressing support for Israel and for supporting Bush’s cease-fire resolution. 

“It’s a rare day in any Jewish community when you have Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Chabad and Reconstructionists together on one page,” said Rabbi Daniel Fellman of Pittsburgh’s Temple Sinai, who helped organize the effort. “But the reality is that Representative Lee isn’t representing her constituents.” 

Lee already has one declared opponent, and more may be coming. Bhavini Patel, 29, said she would have run regardless of Lee’s stance on Israel. But, she said, Lee’s standing in the Jewish community shows how Lee doesn’t try to understand the people she represents. 

Congresswoman accused of antisemitism

In Minneapolis, a former school board member, Don Samuels, is considering a second campaign against Ilhan Omar after he came within 2 percentage points of unseating her in 2022’s primary election. 

That close race turned mostly on the future of policing in the city where George Floyd was murdered. It remains to be seen how Omar’s stance on Israel will play out in her district, which has a large Somali American Muslim population. 

Omar has long been dogged by accusations that she is anti-Israel and antisemitic — accusations that have intensified since the Hamas attack. Since then, she has criticized both Hamas for its decision to attack Israel and the Israeli government’s response. Her main focus has been the impact on civilians in the Gaza Strip. She has called for a cease-fire and for Hamas to release hostages. 

In New York, current Westchester County Executive George Latimer is considering challenging Bowman. 

Latimer said people had encouraged him to challenge Bowman long before October 7, including overtures that had nothing to do with Israel. After Hamas’ attack, however, some in the Jewish community have intensified their efforts. 

A group of more than two dozen rabbis last month publicized a letter they wrote asking Latimer to challenge Bowman, citing the congressman’s posture on Israel. 

Latimer said he would decide in the coming months. 

Bush calls for ‘pro-peace agenda’

In Missouri, Bush — who has called Israel an “apartheid” state — said she is pushing a “pro-peace agenda.” 

Writing on social media, she said, “Israel’s collective punishment against Palestinians for Hamas’s actions is a war crime. I strongly condemn Hamas & their appalling violations of human rights, but violations of human rights don’t justify more human rights violations in retaliation.” 

Her challenger, Bell, said those types of comments “send the wrong message and we need to be sending to rogue nations and dictators and terrorist groups the message that that they cannot have missiles trained on Israel like we see with Hamas, like we see with Iran.” 
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Ukraine said its forces hit a shipyard in the port city of Kerch in Russian-occupied Crimea on Saturday. 

“The evening of November 4, Armed Forces of Ukraine implemented successful strikes on marine and port infrastructure of the ‘Zalyv’ factory in the temporarily occupied city of Kerch,” the Department for Strategic Communications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a Telegram post without giving further details.  

On Saturday evening, the Russia-appointed governor of the annexed Crimean Peninsula said that air defense missiles were fired in Kerch and that fragments fell on a shipyard, though no further information was provided.  

The reports could not be independently verified. 

Kerch is at the western end of the bridge to the Krasnodar region on the Russian mainland. The bridge, a crucial conduit for food and military supplies, has been hit twice by significant attacks.

Russian attacks injure at least 14

Meanwhile, Russian attacks in Ukraine wounded at least 14 civilians in the past day, officials said Saturday, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen returned to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

Der Leyen’s Saturday visit took place days before the European Union is set to announce Ukraine’s progress in fulfilling necessary steps to begin membership negotiations with the bloc.   

“I must say, you have made excellent progress. This is impressive to see,” von der Leyen said after the meeting with Zelenskyy. “We should never forget you are fighting an existential war and at the same time you are deeply reforming your country.” 

Ukraine applied to become a member of the EU days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

The membership process usually takes years, but Ukraine considers membership vital as it battles Russia’s invasion and wants to join as soon as possible.   

The EU is set to announce on Wednesday whether Ukraine can begin accession talks with the group that would begin in December.    

Zelenskyy denies stalemate

During a press conference with von der Leyen, Zelenskyy denied that the war had reached a stalemate and said Ukraine needed more help from its allies to strengthen its air defenses. 

His comments came days after Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said in an article that the conflict was moving toward a new stage of static and attritional fighting, which could allow Moscow to rebuild its military power. 

Zelenskyy did acknowledge that Ukraine, now in its 21st month in the war, had yet to achieve any major breakthrough in its counteroffensive, but he said Ukrainian troops has no choice but to keep fighting.   

“Just like in the First World War,” Zaluzhnyi told The Economist, “we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate. There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.”        

Moscow also rejected that characterization of the war.  

“Russia is steadily carrying out the special military operation. All the goals that were set should be fulfilled,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.        

Ukraine denied Russia’s claim on Friday that its latest assault in the Donbas town of Avdiivka was successful, saying of the fighting there that Russia’s “large-scale military assault has floundered on strong Ukrainian defenses.” 

U.S. and European officials have spoken to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, NBC reported, quoting an unidentified senior U.S. official and one former U.S. official as saying. 

NBC said the conversations had included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal with Russia. 

Reuters was not able to independently verify those conversations. 

Asked on Saturday about the NBC report, Zelenskyy reaffirmed his stance that this was not the time to negotiate with Russia, and he also denied that any Western leaders were pressuring him to do so. 

“Everyone knows my attitude, which coincides with the attitude of Ukrainian society. … Today, no one is putting pressure [on me to negotiate], not one of the leaders of the EU or the United States,” he told a joint news conference with von der Leyen, in Kyiv. 

“For us now to sit down with Russia and talk and give it something — this will not happen,” he said. 

In his daily address on Friday, Zelenskyy said he is grateful to the United States for “the new and very powerful sanctions” on more than 220 Russian “entities that work on aggression.”    

Some information in this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press, and Agence France-Presse.  
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