DRULAP

Do Manmade Noise, Light Harm Songbirds in New Mexico’s Oil Fields?

A California research team is conducting a five-year ecological study of six songbird species in northwestern New Mexico oil fields to see how sensory intrusions affect the birds’ survival, reproduction and general health.

The Santa Fe New Mexican says the study by avian researchers from California Polytechnic State University will zero in on the specific impacts of noise and light pollution.

As the human population swells and generates more light and sound, researchers are curious about how those multiplying stressors might compound the challenges of climate change in New Mexico’s San Juan Basin, the newspaper reported.

Clint Francis, an ecology professor at California Polytechnic, said early studies that examined whether excessive noise and light decreased bird populations were done in more urban settings, where the birds were threatened by prowling cats, toxic chemicals and speeding cars.

The next step is to isolate either noise or light in a rural area to see how one or the other affects the songbirds, Francis said.

He did such research in this same northwestern New Mexico region in 2005. This time the aim is to observe how the two together affect the birds in a locale where the conditions can be clearly measured in tandem.

“We try to hold everything constant but vary noise and light pollution to try to understand whether there is, perhaps, surprising cumulative effects when you have both of those stimuli together,” Francis told the New Mexican.

The research will focus on six types of songbirds: ash-throated flycatchers, gray flycatchers, mountain bluebirds, Western bluebirds, chipping sparrows and house finches.

Francis hopes the study will uncover information that can help people adjust their noise and light to coexist better with birds.

The study is being funded by a grant of almost $900,000 from the National Science Foundation.
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Hollywood Actors Strike Hits 100 Days; What’s Next?

While screenwriters are busy back at work, film and TV actors remain on picket lines, with the longest strike in their history hitting the 100-day mark Saturday after talks broke off with studios. On the same day, the actors’ union and an alliance representing major studios announced in a joint statement that negotiations will resume next week on Tuesday, with several studio executives expected to join. Here’s a look at where things stand, how their stretched-out standoff compares to past strikes, and what happens next.

Inside the talks that failed

Hopes were high and leaders of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists were cautiously optimistic when they resumed negotiations Oct. 2 for the first time since the strike began 2 1/2 months earlier.

The same group of chief executives from the biggest studios had made a major deal just over a week earlier with striking writers, whose leaders celebrated their gains on many issues actors are also fighting for: long-term pay, consistency of employment and control over the use of artificial intelligence.

But the actors’ talks were tepid, with days off between sessions and no reports of progress. Then studios abruptly ended discussions Oct. 11, saying the actors’ demands were exorbitantly expensive and the two sides were too far apart to continue.

“We only met with them a couple of times, Monday, half a day Wednesday, half a day Friday. That was what they were available for,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher told The Associated Press soon after the talks broke off. “Then this past week, it was Monday and a half a day on Wednesday. And then, ‘Bye-bye.’ I’ve never really met people that actually don’t understand what negotiations mean. Why are you walking away from the table?”

The reasons, according to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, included a union demand for a fee for each subscriber to streaming services.

“SAG-AFTRA gave the member companies an ultimatum: either agree to a proposal for a tax on subscribers as well as all other open items, or else the strike would continue,” the AMPTP said in a statement to the AP. “The member companies responded to SAG-AFTRA’s ultimatum that unfortunately, the tax on subscribers poses an untenable economic burden.”

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, one of the executives in on the bargaining sessions, told investors on an earnings call Wednesday, “This really broke our momentum unfortunately.”

SAG-AFTRA leaders said it was ridiculous to frame this demand as though it were a tax on customers, and said it was the executives themselves who wanted to shift from a model based on a show’s popularity to one based on the number of subscribers.

“We made big moves in their direction that have just been ignored and not responded to,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director and chief negotiator, told the AP. “We made changes to our AI proposal. We made dramatic changes to what used to be our streaming revenue share proposal,” Crabtree-Ireland said.

The studios said just after the talks broke off that the per-subscriber charge would cost them $800 million annually, a figure SAG-AFTRA said was a vast overestimate.

The AMPTP later responded that the number was based on a union request for $1 per customer per year, which was lowered to 57 cents after SAG-AFTRA changed its evaluation to cut out nonrelevant programming like news and sports.

What happens next in the actors strike?

The actors are in unscripted territory. Their union has never been on a strike this long, nor been on strike at all since before many of its members were born. Not even its veteran leaders, like Crabtree-Ireland, with the union for 20 years, have found themselves in quite these circumstances.

SAG-AFTRA says it is willing to resume at any time, but that it won’t change its demands.

“I think that they think that we’re going to cower,” Drescher said. “But that’s never going to happen because this is a crossroads and we must stay on course.”

The writers did have their own false start with studios that may give some reason for optimism. Their union attempted to restart negotiations with studios in mid-August, more than three months into their strike. Those talks went nowhere, breaking off after a few days. A month later, the studio alliance came calling again. Those talks took off, with most of their demands being met after five marathon days that resulted in a tentative deal that its members would vote to approve almost unanimously.

How did previous actors strikes play out?

Hollywood actors strikes have been less frequent and shorter than those by writers. The Screen Actors Guild (they added the “AFTRA” in a 2011 merger) has gone on strike against film and TV studios only three times in its history.

In each case, emerging technology fueled the dispute. In 1960 — the only previous time actors and writers struck simultaneously — the central issue was actors seeking pay for when their work in film was aired on television, compensation the industry calls residuals. The union, headed by future U.S. President Ronald Reagan, was a smaller and much less formal entity then. The vote to strike took place in the home of actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, the parents of current SAG-AFTRA member and vocal striker Jamie Lee Curtis.

Mid-strike, the actors and studios called a truce so all could attend the Academy Awards — a move forbidden under today’s union rules. Host Bob Hope called the gathering “Hollywood’s most glamorous strike meeting.”

In the end, a compromise was reached where SAG dropped demands for residuals from past films in exchange for a donation to their pension fund, along with a formula for payment when future films aired on TV. Their 42-day work stoppage began and ended all within the span of the much longer writers strike.

A 1980 strike would be the actors’ longest for film and television until this year. That time, they were seeking payment for their work when it appeared on home video cassettes and cable TV, along with significant hikes in minimum compensation for roles. A tentative deal was reached with significant gains but major compromises in both areas. Union leadership declared the strike over after 67 days, but many members were unhappy and balked at returning to work. It was nearly a month before leaders could rally enough votes to ratify the deal.

This time, it was the Emmy Awards that fell in the middle of the strike. The Television Academy held a ceremony, but after a boycott was called, only one acting winner, Powers Boothe, was there to accept his trophy.

Other segments of the actors union have gone on strike, too, including several long standoffs over the TV commercials contract. A 2016-2017 strike by the union’s video game voice actors lasted a whopping 11 months. That segment of the union could strike again soon if a new contract deal isn’t reached.

What’s happening to movies and TV shows?

The return of writers has the Hollywood production machine churning again, with rooms full of scribes penning new seasons of shows that had been suspended and film writers finishing scripts. But the finished product will await the end of actors strike, and production will remain suspended on many TV shows and dozens of films, including “Wicked,” “Deadpool 3” and “Mission Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part 2.”

The Emmys, whose nominations were announced the day before the actors strike was called, opted to wait for the stars this time and move their ceremony from September to January — though that date could be threatened, too.

The Oscars are a long way off in March, but the campaigns to win them are usually well underway by now. With some exceptions — non-studio productions approved by the union — performers are prohibited from promoting their films at press junkets or on red carpets. Director Martin Scorsese has been giving interviews about his new Oscar contender ” Killers of the Flower Moon.” Stars and SAG-AFTRA members Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert DeNiro haven’t.
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Nine Republicans Vying for Vacant US House Speaker Post

Nine U.S. Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives – none of them well-known to the American public – announced by the Sunday deadline that they are running to become House speaker, the leader of the lower chamber of Congress.

The House has been without a speaker for nearly three weeks after a hard-right faction of eight Republicans joined with all 212 Democrats in the chamber to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

The small group of Republicans was angered that McCarthy agreed to a government spending deal with Democratic President Joe Biden they felt was too big to avert a partial government shutdown and keep government operations funded through November 17.

Since McCarthy’s ouster, House Republicans have been unsuccessful in coalescing around a replacement. They first nominated Rep. Steve Scalise of the southern state of Louisiana, McCarthy’s No. 2 in the House Republican leadership, as its speaker-designate, but Scalise dropped out of the contest when he realized he could not amass the 217-vote majority he would need in a full House vote.

Republicans hold a narrow majority in the House, but such a small edge that any nominee can only afford to lose four Republican votes to other speaker candidates and still prevail.

The Republican caucus next gave its nod to Rep. Jim Jordan of the midwestern state of Ohio. Jordan is a conservative firebrand and staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump. But Jordan also failed to gain a 217-vote majority in the House, falling well short on a first vote in the full House and then losing ground on two subsequent ballots.

Then, Republican lawmakers in a secret ballot vote within their own caucus decreed that Jordan was no longer their choice for the speakership and opened the contest to anyone who wanted to run for the position.

Nine lawmakers said they are trying to win the speakership, with all of them expected to state their case at a party caucus Monday evening. If the Republicans decide on a choice, the full House could vote again Tuesday.

The nine are Jack Bergman of Michigan, Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Byron Donalds of Florida, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Pete Sessions of Texas, Gary Palmer of Alabama, Austin Scott of Georgia, Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania and Mike Johnson of Louisiana.

There appeared to be no overwhelming immediate favorite although Emmer, the No. 3 Republican in the House, might have a slight edge since McCarthy endorsed his candidacy.

The absence of a House speaker — second in line to the U.S. presidency if vacancies occur — has left the chamber rudderless. The House has been unable to act on any legislation, not even a widely supported resolution supporting Israel after the shocking October 7 Hamas militant attack on the Jewish state.

When the chamber resumes operations, it will have less than a month to agree on a new spending plan to again avert any partial government shutdown. The government’s new fiscal year started October 1, but as is the case almost every year, lawmakers have reached few agreements on spending levels over the next 12 months for individual federal agencies.
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South Korea, US, Japan Hold 1st Trilateral Aerial Drill amid North Korea Threats

The South Korean, U.S. and Japanese militaries conducted their first-ever trilateral aerial exercise Sunday in response to evolving North Korean nuclear threats, South Korea’s air force said.

The training held near the Korean Peninsula was to implement the three countries’ earlier agreement to increase defense cooperation and boost their joint response capabilities against North Korean threats, the air force said in a statement.

The drill involved a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber from the United States and fighter jets from South Korea and Japan, the statement said.

South Korea and Japan are both key U.S. allies in Asia, which together host about 80,000 American troops.

The three countries have occasionally held trilateral maritime drills, such as anti-submarine or missile defense exercises, but Sunday’s training marked the first time for them to perform a trilateral aerial drill.

In South Korea, expanding military drills with Japan is a sensitive issue, because many still harbor strong resentment against Japan’s brutal 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula. But the North’s advancing nuclear program has pushed South Korea’s conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, to move beyond historical disputes with Japan and beef up a trilateral security cooperation with the U.S. and Japan.

In August, Yoon, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met at Camp David in their countries’ first stand-alone trilateral summit and agreed to bolster their defense cooperation to deal with North Korea’s nuclear threats. The three leaders decided to hold annual trilateral exercises and put into operation by year’s end the sharing of real-time missile warning data on North Korea.

Sunday’s drill could draw a furious response from North Korea, which has long bristled at U.S. training exercises with South Korea, calling them an invasion rehearsal and responding with missile tests. The North slammed the Camp David agreement, accusing the U.S., South Korean and Japanese leaders of plotting nuclear war provocations on the Korean Peninsula. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called Yoon, Biden and Kishida “the gang bosses” of the three countries.

Worries about North Korea’s nuclear program have deepened after it enacted a law that authorizes the preemptive use of nuclear weapons last year and has since openly threatened to use them in potential conflicts with the U.S. and South Korea.
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Venezuelans Become Largest Nationality for Illegal US Border Crossings

Venezuelans became the largest nationality arrested for illegally crossing the U.S. border, replacing Mexicans for the first time on record, according to figures released Saturday that show September was the second-highest month for arrests of all nationalities.

Venezuelans were arrested 54,833 times by the Border Patrol after entering from Mexico in September, more than double from 22,090 arrests in August and well above the previous monthly high of 33,749 arrests in September 2022.

Arrests of all nationalities entering from Mexico totaled 218,763 in September, up 21% from 181,084 in August and approaching an all-time high of 222,018 in December 2022, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Arrests for the government’s budget year that ended Sept. 30 topped 2 million for the second year in a row, down 7% from an all-time high of more than 2.2 million arrests in the same period a year earlier.

Venezuela plunged into a political, economic and humanitarian crisis over the last decade, pushing more than 7 million people to leave. They initially settled in nearby countries in Latin America but began coming to the United States in the last three years, settling in New York, Chicago and other major cities.

The Biden administration recently announced temporary legal status for nearly 500,000 Venezuelans who were already in the United States on July 31, while vowing to deport those who come illegally after that date and fail to get asylum. It recently began deportation flights to Venezuela as part of a diplomatic thaw with the government of Nicolás Maduro, a longtime adversary.

The U.S. “surged resources and personnel” to the border in September, said Troy Miller, acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.

“We are continually engaging with domestic and foreign partners to address historic hemispheric migration, including large migrant groups traveling on freight trains, and to enforce consequences including by preparing for direct repatriations to Venezuela,” Miller said.

For decades, Mexicans accounted for the vast majority of illegal crossings but flows shifted over the last decade to Central Americans and, more recently, to people from South America, Africa and Asia.

Mexicans were arrested 39,733 times crossing the border in September, well behind Venezuelans. Guatemalans, Hondurans and Colombians rounded out the top five.

Republicans seized on the latest numbers as its leading presidential candidates have tried to frame the border as a major issue in next year’s elections.

“This fiscal year may have ended, but the historic crisis at our Southwest border sparked by (Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro) Mayorkas’ policies rages on,” said Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee.

The Biden administration proposed about $14 billion for the border in a $106 billion spending package announced Friday and has insisted that any long-term solution requires help from Congress.

The administration has adopted a carrot-and-stick approach of new legal pathways to seek asylum with restrictions on those who don’t adhere to them.

About 43,000 migrants entered the country at land crossings with Mexico in September using a mobile app called CBP One, bringing the total to nearly 278,000 since the online appointment system began in January. Also, more than 265,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela entered through September at airports after applying online with financial sponsors.

Including those legal pathways, the number of crossings hit a new all-time monthly high of 269,735 in September and a new budget-year high of nearly 2.5 million.
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US-Led Troops in Iraq Reportedly Targeted by Suicide Drone

A suicide drone hit an air base in Iraq hosting U.S. troops, Iraqi security sources said Saturday, but the Pentagon said it could not confirm that such an attack took place.

Armed factions close to Iran have threatened to attack U.S. interests in Iraq over Washington’s support for Israel since Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 people in a shock cross-border attack from Gaza on October 7.

Israel’s retaliatory bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 4,300 people, according to its Hamas-controlled health ministry.

“The drone came down inside the (Ain al-Assad) base” in the western province of Anbar, without causing any casualties or damage, a military source told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

A statement issued on Telegram channels used by pro-Iranian armed groups said the attack was carried out by a group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.

A second Iraqi security source told AFP the attack had involved two suicide drones. “The first was intercepted and the second crashed because of a technical problem,” the source said.

The Pentagon, however, said it was unaware of any such attack.

“We have not seen any operational reporting confirming” that an attack occurred Saturday, a U.S. Defense Department official said on the condition of anonymity.

Since Wednesday, three Iraqi bases used by U.S.-led coalition troops have been targeted in five separate attacks — Ain al-Assad, the Al-Harir base in northern Iraq, and a military camp near Baghdad airport.

The United States currently has about 2,500 troops stationed at the three bases, alongside around 1,000 soldiers from other countries in the coalition set up to fight the Islamic State jihadi group.

The attacks came after factions loyal to Iran stepped up threats against the United States.

One of them, the Hezbollah Brigades, demanded that U.S. forces “leave” Iraq, “otherwise they will taste the fires of hell.”
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Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators Flood Streets All Over World

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched Saturday through a rainy London to demand Israel stop its bombardment of Gaza, and similar calls were heard in cities around the world as the Israel-Hamas war entered its third week.

On the day a trickle of aid entered Gaza, where more than 1 million people have left their homes because of the conflict, protesters gathered in at Marble Arch near London’s Hyde Park before marching to the government district, Whitehall.

Police estimated the crowd that wound its way through the city for three hours at “up to 100,000.”

Waving Palestinian flags and chanting “Stop bombing Gaza,” participants called for an end to Israel’s blockade and airstrikes launched in the wake of a brutal incursion into southern Israel by the Hamas militant group that controls Gaza.

Authorities in Gaza say more than 4,300 people have been killed in the territory since the latest war began. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel, mostly civilians slain during Hamas’ attack on October 7.

Israel continued to bombard targets Saturday in Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive. A small measure of relief came when 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid were allowed to enter Gaza across the southern Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

The war has raised tensions around the world, with both Jewish and Muslim communities feeling under threat. The British Transport Police force said it was investigating after footage was posted online that appears to show a London Underground driver leading passengers in a chant of “Free, free Palestine” over the subway intercom.

British authorities urged demonstrators to be mindful of the pain and anxiety felt by the Jewish community. London’s Metropolitan Police force says it has seen a 13-fold upsurge in reports of antisemitic offenses in October compared to last year. Reports of anti-Muslim crimes have more than doubled.

Police said there had been “pockets of disorder and some instances of hate speech” during protests over the war, but “the majority of the protest activity has been lawful and has taken place without incident.”

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters also gathered in Belfast and in Northern Ireland’s second city, Londonderry, where speakers included lawmaker Colum Eastwood of the Irish nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party.

“The murder of children is wrong,” he told the crowd, calling for an immediate cease-fire in the conflict. “I don’t know how that is so difficult for some of our world leaders to actually utter. It doesn’t matter whether they are Israeli children or Palestinian children.”

Across the border in the Republic of Ireland, thousands marched through the capital, Dublin, calling for an end to Israel’s bombardment.

In France, pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in several cities including Rennes, Montpellier, Dijon and Lyon, where thousands of people could be seen chanting “we all are Palestinians” in the central square.

In Marseille, the country’s second-largest city, some people took to the streets, waving Palestinians flags and shouting “Free Gaza,” despite the protest being banned by local police.

A pro-Palestinian gathering scheduled for Sunday in Paris has been allowed by police.

German police said almost 7,000 people took part in a peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstration Saturday in Dusseldorf. The demonstrators carried Palestinian flags or banners calling for an end to “violence and aggression in Gaza.”

Police in Berlin banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration that was scheduled for Sunday in the center of the city, German news agency dpa reported. Police in the German capital have stopped several similar events in recent weeks, citing the potential of violence and antisemitic hate speech. Some pro-Palestinian demonstrators have taken to the streets anyway, resulting in clashes with police.

Authorities allowed a pro-Israel demonstration scheduled for Sunday that was expected to draw together thousands of people in central Berlin.

Elsewhere, several hundred people marched Saturday through Rome, some holding signs saying “Palestine, Rome is with you,” and “No peace until we get freedom.”

“Israel carries out war crimes there, crimes against humanity there, and the international community has never acted,” said Maya Issa, president of the Movement of Palestinian Students in Italy, which organized the demonstration.

In Muslim-majority Kosovo, several hundred people walked from mosques to Pristina’s Zahir Pajaziti square after lunchtime prayers to express support for Palestinians.

In Australia, thousands marched Saturday through central Sydney, shouting “Shame, shame Israel” and “Palestine will never die.”

The war sparked protests across the Arab world and beyond Friday, including in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians burned tires and threw stones at Israeli military checkpoints. Israeli security forces responded firing tear gas and live rounds.

Crowds gathered in Israel’s northern neighbor Lebanon; in Iraq at the country’s border crossing with Jordan; in Jordan itself; in cities and towns across Egypt; in Turkey’s capital Ankara and its most populous city of Istanbul; and in Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Venezuela, and South Africa.

In New York, hundreds of protesters from Muslim, Jewish and other groups marched to U.S. Sen. Kristen Gillibrand’s Manhattan office, many shouting “cease fire now.” Police later arrested dozens of protesters who blocked Third Avenue outside Gillibrand’s office by sitting in the road.

Pro-Israel demonstrations and vigils have also been held around the world, many focused on securing the return of hostages captured by Hamas.

Rome’s Jewish community Friday remembered the more than 200 people believed held by Hamas by setting a long Shabbat table for them outside the capital’s main synagogue and empty chairs for each of the hostages.

On the back of each chair was a flyer featuring the name, age and photo of each missing person. On the table were candles, wine and loaves of challah, the braided bread typically eaten during the Friday night meal.
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California Governor to Visit China Amid Efforts to Stabilize Bilateral Ties

U.S. state of California Governor Gavin Newsom begins his weeklong visit to China Monday, traveling to six Chinese cities and meeting national and provincial officials to talk about climate policies and potential partnerships.

“California and China hold the keys to solving the climate crisis,” Newsom said in a statement released by his office on October 18. “As two of the world’s largest economies, our partnership is essential to delivering climate action for our communities and beyond.”

Some analysts say Newsom’s trip is a continuation of California’s longstanding tradition of collaborating on climate and environment with China. “The trip is part of the [efforts] to push forward some agreements that have already been signed, sign some new agreements and see if there are things California can learn from China,” said Alex Wang, faculty co-director at the Emmett Institute for Climate Change and Environment at the UCLA School of Law.

Newsom is expected to exchange views about shared efforts to combat climate change with Chinese officials and academics, sign new agreements to deepen climate partnership, and visit Tesla’s factory in Shanghai.

Wang said one thing California can learn from China is how it deploys renewable energy resources and products. “One thing that China has done in areas like clean energy and electric vehicles is deployment,” he told VOA by phone. “What California and the rest of the world need to do is to deploy a lot of the things we already have as fast as possible.”

Newsom’s efforts to resume exchanges with China are built on California’s 15-year-long close relationship with Beijing on trade and climate issues. Compared with his predecessors, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown, Newsom has limited experience in international affairs.

The trip to China will be his second overseas trip since he became California governor in 2019. Despite his lack of experience in international affairs, Newsom has sought to revive a partnership with China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, while signing a new climate-related deal with the Chinese province of Hainan last year.

Subnational diplomacy with China

Newsom’s trip comes after a number of U.S. cabinet members, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, visited China and conducted high-level meetings with top Chinese officials in recent months. It also takes place as the U.S. and China try to pave the way for Chinese leader Xi Jinping to attend the APEC Leaders Summit in San Francisco next month.

While tension between the U.S. and China remains high at the national level, some experts say the factors that cause the persistent tension won’t be present when the meeting is between two unequal partners.

“When national-level partners in China meet with Newsom, there won’t be the same fraught politics, and when Newsom meets with subnational governments in China, the interactions have always been friendlier even in the darkest moments of U.S.-China state-to-state interactions,” Wang said.

Other analysts say that in Beijing’s view, restarting cooperation and contact with the U.S. at the subnational level may be less risky than doing the same thing at the national level because the chances of those efforts being derailed by the broader tensions in the U.S.-China relationship are smaller.

“California has been much less hawkish on China than many states, and they have continued to engage in low-level cooperation [with China],” Sara Newland, an expert on local politics in China at Smith College, told VOA by phone. “My guess is that China hopes there will be a bit of lower-stake form of engagement during Newsom’s visit.”

Criticism from human rights groups

Prior to the trip, Newsom’s team emphasized that the visit would be “predominantly focused on climate,” which raises skepticism that he will broach sensitive issues such as human rights abuses in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, China’s aggression against Taiwan and provocation in the South China Sea, as well as Beijing’s intellectual property rights.

Dozens of civil society groups and human rights organizations have criticized Newsom’s attempt to avoid touching on sensitive issues that might irk Beijing and urged him to mention human rights violations when he visits Hong Kong and China.

Family members of a 67-year-old Chinese-American pastor, who has been detained in China since 2006 under fraud-related charges, have urged Newsom to help free the Californian during his trip.

Some observers say Newsom’s strictly focused agenda may prove to be counterproductive. “Climate and human rights are intimately linked as human rights [allows] civil society to protest, monitor the government and make sure they implement clean energy pledges,” said Maya Wang, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “We don’t know why the governor would think that the two things can be separated.”

Potential impact on other states

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic and growing skepticism toward China in the U.S. have stalled bilateral engagement between the two countries in recent years, UCLA’s Wang thinks Newsom could still achieve some positive outcomes through his trip to China.

“He is continuing to build the relationship and having face time,” he said. “A lot of these are simple elements of diplomacy and cooperation, such as sharing ideas, putting things on the agenda and trying to persuade each other of the things they should work on together. These are plausible outcomes of this trip.”

Newland of Smith College said that the outcome of Newsom’s trip could have an impact on governors who may also be contemplating a visit to China. “This trip will be closely watched by other states, and if the trip is seen as successful, it will give ammunition to people who do want to open more channels of communication with China again,” she said.
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California’s Little Arabia Residents Support Palestinians, Condemn Hamas

In Orange County, California, there is a neighborhood that has earned the name Little Arabia because most residents are Palestinians and Afghans. Angelina Bagdasaryan visited the neighborhood and spoke with locals about the situation in the Middle East. Anna Rice narrates her story. Camera — Vazgen Varzhabetian.
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Maui Wildfire Evacuees Live Nomadic Life Amid Housing Shortage

Charles Nahale spent a restless night trying to sleep in the back seat of his pickup truck after a wildfire destroyed his home and the town of Lahaina. The next two nights weren’t much better: The singer and guitarist put his feet on one chair and sat in another as he squatted in an evacuated hotel where he once performed for guests.

“It’s hard to begin the healing process when you’re worried about the essentials,” Nahale said.

It’s unusual for FEMA to put so many people in hotels after a disaster, particularly for months, but Maui had plenty of empty hotel rooms after tourists left in the wake of the fire.

She signed a lease on Wednesday, paying the first month’s rent and a deposit using aid money and $2,000 from a cousin. Catholic Charities is arranging to pay for the next three months.

The cottage belongs to a member of her extended family. She said about 30 others saw the house before her, including families of three, four and even six people.

“These people are desperate too, you know what I’m saying?” said Teruya, who was a restaurant waitress on Lahaina’s famed Front Street before the fire.

Longer term, Maui will need to build more affordable housing, Fenton said, noting some developments are awaiting zoning approval or need to be evaluated for sufficient sources of water.

If other temporary solutions fall short, FEMA is preparing to build up to 500 modular units using prefabricated materials or 3D printing. The agency has identified four sites — three in Lahaina and one in central Maui — near power, water and sewer infrastructure. Utility lines would have to be extended to individual lots, but could then be repurposed for permanent housing after the modular homes are removed.

“Please be careful/ Of the dangers of the world/ Careful not to be afraid/ Of the roads we’ve yet to go,” Nahale sang, first in English and then in Hawaiian.

“That song just came to mind,” he said. “That song can help heal.”
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Mike Pence Faces Cash Shortage, Questions About Campaign’s Future

With three months to go before the Iowa caucuses that he has staked his campaign on, former Vice President Mike Pence faces mounting debt and lagging poll numbers that are forcing questions about not only whether he will qualify for the next debate, but whether it makes sense for him to remain in the race until then.

Pence ended September with just $1.18 million left in his campaign account, a strikingly low number for a presidential contest and far less than his rivals, new filings show. His campaign also has $621,000 in debt — more than half the cash he had remaining — and is scrambling to meet donor thresholds for the Nov. 8 debate. While he would likely meet the debate’s polling requirements, Pence has struggled to gain traction and is polling in the low single digits nationally, with no sign of momentum.

Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, is leading every one of his rivals by at least 40 points in national polls and ended September with $37.5 million on hand.

People close to Pence say he now faces a choice about how long to stay in the race and whether remaining a candidate might potentially diminish his long-term standing in the party, given Trump’s dominating lead. While Pence could stick it out until the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses, visiting the state’s famous Pizza Ranch restaurants and campaigning on a shoestring budget, he must now weigh how that will impact his desire to remain a leading conservative voice, according to the people, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to share their unvarnished views.

“For Pence and many of the others, you gotta start looking and saying, ‘I’m not going to go into substantial debt if I don’t see a pathway forward,'” said former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who ran against Trump in 2016 but abandoned his bid after concluding “the Trump train had left the station.”

Pence, for the moment, is pressing forward. He held a Newsmax town hall in Iowa Tuesday night and fundraisers this week in Cleveland, Philadelphia and Dallas. He was to speak at the Republican National Committee’s fall retreat Friday night and at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Annual Leadership Summit in Las Vegas next week — all opportunities to pitch deep-pocketed donors to keep his campaign afloat.

The super PAC supporting Pence is also continuing its efforts, fundraising and conducting extensive voter outreach, including knocking on nearly 600,000 doors and counting.

The campaign is also working aggressively to reach the 70,000-donor threshold needed to qualify for next month’s debate and expressed confidence they could get there if they try — even as others remain skeptical he can make it.

“I know it’s an uphill climb for a lot of reasons for us, some that I understand, some that I don’t,” Pence acknowledged as he spoke to reporters in New Hampshire last week after formally registering for the state’s first-in-the-nation primary.

Still, some in Pence’s orbit believe he has important contributions left to make in the primary, particularly after the Hamas attack on Israel pushed foreign policy to the forefront. Pence has argued he is the most qualified candidate to deal with issues abroad, saying in the August debate that “now is not the time for on-the-job training.”

Pence, they say, feels a renewed sense of purpose given his warnings throughout the campaign against the growing tide of isolationism in the Republican Party. Pence has used the conflict to decry “voices of appeasement,” which he argues embolden groups like Hamas.

Another person cautioned that Pence, a devout Evangelical Christian who sees the campaign as a calling, may respond differently than other candidates might in his position if he feels called to stay in the race.

If he decides to exit, Pence would have a potential platform in Advancing American Freedom, the conservative think tank he founded after leaving the vice presidency.

In the meantime, the campaign has been working to cut costs, including having fewer staff members travel to events.

Regardless of what he decides, the predicament facing the former vice president underscores just how dramatically Trump has transformed the GOP.

Pence, in many ways, has been running to lead a party that no longer exists.

He has cast himself as the field’s most traditionally conservative candidate in the mold of Ronald Reagan. But many of his positions — from maintaining U.S. support for Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion to proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare — are out of step with much of his party’s base.

He also faces fallout from Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump’s supporters — some chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” — stormed the Capitol building, sending him running for his life. Trump tried to falsely convince Pence and his own followers that the vice president somehow had the power to overturn the results.

Pence has repeatedly been confronted on the campaign trail by people who accuse him of betraying Trump, who still promotes falsehoods about the 2020 election, often several times a day.

But Pence has also faced the same challenge as every candidate in the field not named Trump, a singular figure whose grip on the party has only intensified as he has been charged with dozens of crimes.

“If something big doesn’t happen on Nov. 8, the primary is over. Some would argue it is now,” said Walker, who entered the 2016 Republican primary as a front-runner only to end his campaign in September 2015, months before a single vote was cast, amid mounting debt.

An August AP-NORC poll found Republicans split on Pence: 41% held a favorable view of the candidate and 42% an unfavorable one. Nationally, a majority of U.S. adults — 57% — view him negatively, with only 28% having a positive view.

Some are hoping Pence doesn’t give up. In Iowa, Kelley Koch, chair of the Dallas County Republican Party, said she felt Pence had struggled to define himself beyond Trump and said many remained skeptical of his actions on Jan. 6.

But she said following the attack on Israel, with all eyes now on the Middle East and a new war, that Pence could have a moment to break through.

“He is such a pro on foreign policy. That’s one of his strengths. And he has that over a lot of the new rookie candidates who are in the race. He should run on that,” she said. “I would think that that would be just a major trumpet setting the stage for Mike Pence to step up and take the mic.”
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Judge Fines Trump After Post Ordered Deleted Found on Campaign Website

Former President Donald Trump was fined $5,000 on Friday after his disparaging social media post about a key court staffer in his New York civil fraud trial lingered on his campaign website for weeks after the judge ordered it deleted.

Judge Arthur Engoron did not hold Trump in contempt for now but reserved the right to do so — and possibly even put the 2024 Republican front-runner in jail — if he again violates a limited gag order barring case participants from personal attacks on court staff.

Engoron said in a written ruling that he is “way beyond the ‘warning’ stage,” but that he was only fining Trump a nominal amount because this was a “first time violation” and Trump’s lawyers said the website’s retention of the post had been inadvertent.

“Make no mistake: Future violations, whether intentional or unintentional, will subject the violator to far more severe sanctions, which may include steeper financial penalties, holding Donald Trump in contempt of court, and possibly imprisoning him,” Engoron wrote in a two-page order.

Messages seeking comment on the ruling were left with Trump’s lawyers and a campaign spokesman.

Trump lawyer Christopher Kise earlier blamed the “very large machine” of Trump’s White House campaign for allowing the post to remain on the website after Trump had deleted it from social media, as ordered, calling it an unintentional oversight. It was removed from the website late Thursday after Engoron flagged it to Trump’s lawyers.

Trump wasn’t in court Friday. He’d been at the trial Tuesday and Wednesday after attending the first three days in early October. Outside court this week, he aimed his enmity at Engoron and New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose fraud lawsuit is being decided at the civil trial.

Neither are covered by Engoron’s gag order.

Engoron, however, said the buck ultimately stops with Trump — even if it was someone on his campaign who failed to remove the offending post. He gave Trump 10 days to pay the fine.

“I want to be clear that Donald Trump is still responsible for the large machine even if it’s a large machine,” Engoron said after discussing the matter with Trump’s lawyers before testimony resumed Friday morning.

Engoron issued a limited gag order Oct. 3 barring all participants in the case from smearing his staff after Trump maligned principal law clerk Allison Greenfield in a post on Trump’s Truth Social platform. The post made a baseless insinuation about the clerk’s personal life.

“In the current overheated climate, incendiary untruths can, and in some cases already have, led to serious physical harm, and worse,” Engoron wrote Friday.

Before Trump deleted the post from Truth Social, as ordered, his campaign copied the message into an email blast. That email, with the subject line “ICYMI,” was automatically archived on Trump’s website, Kise said.

The email was sent to about 25,800 recipients on the campaign’s media list and opened by about 6,700 of them, Kise told Engoron after obtaining the statistics at the morning break. In all, only 3,700 people viewed the post on Trump’s campaign website, the lawyer said.

Attorney General James’ lawsuit accuses Trump and his company of duping banks and insurers by giving them heavily inflated statements of Trump’s net worth and asset values. Engoron has already ruled that Trump and his company committed fraud, but the trial involves remaining claims of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records.

Trump denies wrongdoing, arguing that a disclaimer on his financial statements absolves him of any culpability and that some of his assets are worth far more than what’s listed on the documents. He’s called the trial a “sham,” a “scam” and “a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time.”
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Russia Dismisses US Claims of North Korea Supplying Munitions to Moscow

Russia’s top diplomat shrugged off U.S. claims that North Korea transferred munitions to Russia, saying Washington had failed to prove the allegation.

Russian state television broadcast Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s comments on Friday. Lavrov made a two-day trip to Pyongyang this week for talks on ways to boost the two countries’ ties following a September summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The White House said last week that North Korea had delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and weapons to Russia. It released images that it said showed the containers had been loaded onto a Russian-flagged ship before being moved via train to southwestern Russia.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. believed Kim was seeking sophisticated Russian weapons technologies in return for the munitions to boost North Korea’s military and nuclear program.

Lavrov scoffed at the U.S. claims, saying “the Americans keep accusing everyone.”

“I don’t comment on rumors,” he added.

Since last year, the U.S. has accused North Korea of providing ammunition, artillery shells and rockets to Russia for the fighting in Ukraine. North Korea has steadfastly denied it shipped arms to Russia. South Korean officials charged that weapons provided by North Korea have been used in Ukraine.

When Kim visited Russia for six days last month, Russian and North Korean officials said that boosting defense ties between the two countries was discussed but they didn’t disclose specific steps.

On Thursday, Lavrov and Kim exchanged views on joint efforts to expand bilateral ties in all areas and discussed other key issues of mutual concern, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported. It said Kim expressed his resolve to carry out unspecified agreements he had reached with Putin during his Russian visit.

Lavrov described the talks as “comprehensive” and said, “We have an understanding on how to proceed to fulfill the agreements” between Putin and Kim.

After he arrived in Pyongyang, Lavrov gave a speech in which he said that Russia deeply valued North Korea’s “unwavering and principled support” for its military operation in Ukraine. Back in Moscow, he stressed that the effort to deepen the relationship between Russia and North Korea was based on bilateral concerns.

“Our friendship isn’t directed against anyone. It’s intended to help promote mutually beneficial projects,” he said.

Lavrov also told reporters that he supported holding regular talks on security issues on the Korean Peninsula with North Korea and China.
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US Sounds Alarm on Russian Election Efforts

Russia’s efforts to discredit and undermine democratic elections appears to be expanding rapidly, according to newly declassified intelligence, spurred on by what the Kremlin sees as its success in disrupting the past two U.S. presidential elections.

The U.S. intelligence findings, shared in a diplomatic cable sent to more than 100 countries and obtained by VOA, are based on a review of Russian information operations between January 2020 and December 2022 that found Moscow “engaged in a concerted effort … to undermine public confidence in at least 11 elections across nine democracies.”

The review also found what the cable describes as “a less pronounced level of Russian messaging and social media activity” that targeted another 17 democracies.

“These figures represent a snapshot of Russian activities,” the cable warned. “Russia likely has sought to undermine confidence in democratic elections in additional cases that have gone undetected.

“Our information indicates that senior Russian government officials, including in the Kremlin, see value in this type of influence operation and perceive it to be effective,” the cable added.

VOA reached out to the Russian Embassy for comment on the cable warnings but so far has not received a response.

Russia has routinely denied allegations it interferes in foreign elections. However, last November, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared to admit culpability for interfering in U.S. elections in a social media post.

“Gentlemen, we interfered, we interfere and we will interfere,” Prigozhin said.

U.S. officials assess that, in addition to Russia’s efforts to sow doubt surrounding the 2016 and 2020 elections in the United States, Russian campaigns have targeted countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and South America.

The goal, they say, is specifically to erode public confidence in election results and to paint the newly elected governments as illegitimate — using internet trolls, social media influencers, proxy websites linked to Russian intelligence and even Russian state-run media channels like RT and Sputnik.

And even though Russia’s resources have been strained due to its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow election interference efforts do not seem to be slowing down.

It is “a fairly low cost, low barrier to entry operation,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the intelligence assessment.

“In many cases they’re amplifying existing domestic narratives that kind of question the integrity of elections,” the official said. “This is a very efficient use of resources. All they’re doing is magnifying claims that it’s unfair or it didn’t work or it’s chaotic.”

U.S. officials said they have started giving more detailed, confidential briefings to select countries that are being targeted by Russia. Some of the countries, they said, have likewise promised to share intelligence gathered from their own investigations.

Additionally, the cable makes a series of recommendations to counter the threat from the Russian disinformation campaigns, including for countries to expose, sanction and even expel any Russian officials involved in spreading misinformation or disinformation.

The cable also encourages democratic countries to engage in information campaigns to share factual information about their elections and to turn to independent election observers to assess and affirm the integrity of any elections.
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House Again Fails to Elect a Speaker

The third time was not a charm for Ohio Republican Jim Jordan, hoping to become U.S. House speaker.

Twenty-five Republicans voted Friday morning against the arch-conservative congressman, while all Democrats cast voice votes for their party’s leader in the chamber, Hakeem Jeffries of New York — meaning no candidate hit the threshold of 217 votes needed to be elected speaker.

Three more Republicans voted against Jordan in the third round than in the second.

Later in the day, Republicans dropped Jordan as their speaker nominee in a private meeting. Majority Leader Steve Scalise said party members would go home “and start over” on Monday in their search for a candidate.

The House has been paralyzed for more than two weeks since eight Republicans joined with Democrats in a historic vote to remove California Republican Kevin McCarthy as speaker.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday was dispatching to Congress a $106 billion foreign aid request, primarily composed of money to aid Israel and Ukraine in their wars against Hamas and Russia, respectively.

Until the House elects a speaker, the body will not be able to vote on any spending bills. The House faces a November 17 deadline when funding for the entire federal government runs out. If no new funding measure is approved, millions of members of the U.S. military and federal workers will not be paid.

Jordan was a favorite of the Republicans who are closely allied with former President Donald Trump, the party’s leading candidate in next year’s race for the presidency. Other Republicans rebelled against Jordan’s strongarm tactics to get elected speaker, and many expressed that he was not suited to lead, as during his 16 years in Congress he has never sponsored a bill that became law.

“Jim Jordan is an effective legislator,” McCarthy said in his third-round nomination speech in support of his fellow Republican. That remark prompted laughter and jeering from the Democrats, who have not seen a single member of their caucus vote for anyone else except Jeffries in the numerous rounds this year to elect speakers.

Prior to the third round, Republican Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida told reporters Jordan was not going to gather enough votes to be victorious, no matter how many rounds of voting members had to endure.

“There is a time when you have to put country above ego and self,” he said. “It gets to a point where this now becomes just an egofest.”

Jeffries, at a news conference earlier Friday, said Jordan was a “clear and present danger to our democracy” because the Republican attempted to overturn the 2020 election on behalf of Trump.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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Student Clashes on US College Campuses Over the Israel-Hamas War

The Israel-Hamas war has animated students on college campuses across the United States. As young people voice their opinions, there are questions of safety, free speech rights and even future job prospects. VOA’s Tina Trinh reports from New York
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Middle East Crisis Could Disrupt Oil Supplies, Raise Prices

Fifty years after the 1973 Arab oil embargo, the current crisis in the Middle East has the potential to disrupt global oil supplies and push prices higher. But don’t expect a repeat of the catastrophic price hikes and long lines at the gasoline pump, experts say.

The Israel-Hamas war is “definitely not good news” for oil markets already stretched by cutbacks in oil production from Saudi Arabia and Russia and expected stronger demand from China, the head of the International Energy Agency said.

Markets will remain volatile, and the conflict could push oil prices higher, “which is definitely bad news for inflation,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the Paris-based IEA, told The Associated Press. Developing countries that import oil and other fuels would be the most affected by higher prices, he said.

International benchmark Brent crude traded above $91 a barrel on Thursday, up from $85 per barrel on Oct. 6, the day before Hamas attacked Israel, killing hundreds of civilians. Israel immediately launched airstrikes on Gaza, destroying entire neighborhoods and killing hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the days that have followed.

Fluctuations since the attack pushed oil prices as high as $96.

The price of oil depends on how much of it is getting used and how much is available. The latter is under threat because of the Hamas-Israel war, even though the Gaza Strip is not home to major crude production.

One worry is that the fighting could lead to complications with Iran, home of some of the world’s largest oil reserves. Its crude production has been constrained by international sanctions, but oil is still flowing to China and other countries.

“In order to get a sustained move (in prices), we really would need to see a supply disruption,” said Andrew Lipow, president at Lipow Oil Associates, a Houston-based consultant.

Any damage to Iranian oil infrastructure from a military strike by Israel could send prices jumping globally. Even without that, a shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz that lies south of Iran could also shake the oil market because so much of the world’s supplies goes through the waterway.

Until something like that happens, “the oil market is going to be like everyone else, monitoring the events in the Middle East,” Lipow said.

One reason 1970s-style gas lines are unlikely: U.S. oil production is at an all-time high. The U.S. Energy Information Administration, an arm of the Energy Department, reported that American oil production in the first week of October hit 13.2 million barrels per day, passing the previous record set in 2020 by 100,000 barrels. Weekly domestic oil production has doubled from the first week in October 2012 to now.

“The energy crisis of 1973 taught us many things, but in my mind, the most critical is that American energy strength is a tremendous source of security, prosperity and freedom around the world,” said Mike Sommers, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, the U.S. oil industry’s top lobbying group.

In a speech Wednesday marking the 50th anniversary of the 1973 oil embargo, Sommers said current U.S. production contrasts sharply with “America’s weakened position during the Arab oil embargo.” He urged U.S. policymakers to heed what he called the lessons of 1973.

“We cannot squander our strategic advantage and retreat on energy leadership,” said Sommers, who has repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden’s policies restricting restricting new oil leases as part of Biden’s efforts to slow global climate change.

“With an unstable world, war in Europe, war in the Middle East, and energy demand outstripping supply, energy security is on the line,” Sommers said in a speech at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank.

“American oil and gas are needed now more than ever,” Sommers said. “Let’s take to heart the lessons we learned from 1973 and avoid sowing the seeds of the next energy crisis.”

For now, the crisis isn’t a repeat of 1973. Arab countries aren’t attacking Israel in unison, and OPEC+ nations have not moved to restrict supplies or boost prices beyond a few extra dollars.

There are several wild cards in the energy market. One is the supply of Iranian oil. Eager to avoid a spike in gasoline prices and inflation, the U.S. has quietly tolerated some exports of Iranian oil to destinations such as China instead of going all in on sanctions aimed at Iran’s nuclear program.

If Iran, which has warned Israel not to undertake a ground offensive, escalates the Gaza conflict — including a possible attack by Hezbollah militants in Lebanon supported by Iran — that might change the U.S. stance. “If the U.S. were then also to enforce the oil sanctions against Iran more strictly again, the oil market would tighten noticeably,” say commodities analysts at Commerzbank.

Lawmakers from both parties have urged Biden to block Iranian oil sales, seeking to dry up one of the regime’s key sources of funding.

Another wild card is how Saudi Arabia would respond if Iranian oil is restricted. Oil analysts say that while the Saudis may welcome recent oil price hikes, they don’t want a massive price spike that would fuel inflation, higher central bank interest rates and possible recession in oil-consuming countries that ultimately would limit or even kill off demand for oil.

A third unknown is whether more oil will reach the market from Venezuela. The U.S. agreed Wednesday to temporarily suspend some sanctions on the country’s oil, gas and gold sectors after Venezuela’s government and a faction of its opposition formally agreed to work together on election reforms.

Venezuelan production could increase in 2024. In the next six months, however, production could ramp up by some 200,000 barrels a day, a relative drop in the ocean, according to Sofia Guidi Di Sante, senior oil market analyst at Rystad Energy.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, slammed the U.S. action as a “gimmick” that appeases a brutal regime in Venezuela.

“Joe Biden’s energy policies put America last,” Barrasso said, citing the Democratic president’s decisions to kill the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline and sell off significant portions of the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, taking it to its lowest level since the 1980s. The Energy Department said Thursday it will seek offers to start refilling the oil reserve in December, with monthly solicitations expected through May 2024.

“He eased sanctions on Iran, which funds terrorism across the Middle East. Now with Israel under attack, Biden is desperate for anything to mask the consequences of his reckless policies,” Barrasso said. “America should never beg for oil from socialist dictators or terrorists.”

The Treasury Department says it has targeted nearly 1,000 individuals and entities connected to terrorism and terrorist financing by the Iranian regime and its proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah and other groups in the region.

“We will continue to take action as appropriate to counter Iran’s destabilizing activity in the region and around the world,” Treasury said in a statement.
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Biden Equates Hamas with Putin, Asks Americans to Support Israel, Ukraine

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