miami — A Turkish businessman was arrested Monday in Miami and charged with helping Venezuela’s state-run oil company circumvent U.S. sanctions.

Taskin Torlak, 37, was arrested while attempting to return to Turkey, the Justice Department said in a statement.

According to court documents, Torlak operated several companies involved in the shipment of sanctioned oil. Starting in 2020, he allegedly started working with unnamed co-conspirators and companies from Ukraine, China, Indonesia and elsewhere to transport Venezuela’s crude oil at a time when most Western buyers stayed clear of the South American country for fear of undermining U.S. sanctions aimed at removing President Nicolas Maduro.

Torlak and his associates allegedly hid the identities of transaction beneficiaries to enable U.S. banks to unknowingly process payments related to the illegal oil transports.

“We could use one of the clean names to avoid money getting stuck somewhere,” he allegedly wrote in communications with one of the co-conspirators.

To evade detection, the chartered oil tankers frequently turned off their automated tracking systems, a mandatory safety device, when transporting the illegal Venezuelan crude. They also frequently changed the vessels’ registry to fly so-called flags of convenience. 

It wasn’t immediately possible to locate an attorney for Torlak. 

The U.S. started ratcheting up sanctions on Venezuela following Maduro’s first re-election in 2018, in which several key opponents were barred from running. Since then, the self-declared socialist leader has deepened his grip on power, this year claiming he won a third six-year term in the face of evidence presented by his opponents that the vote was stolen. The U.S. responded with another round of sanctions against officials accused of obstructing the vote and carrying out human rights abuses. 

“The Justice Department will continue to hold accountable those involved in criminal efforts to circumvent sanctions imposed on the Maduro regime,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said in a statement.
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belgrade, serbia — Serbia’s construction minister said Monday he was stepping down days after a concrete canopy collapsed at a railway station, killing 14 people and severely injuring three.

Minister Goran Vesic announced his resignation at a hastily called press conference as anger mounted in the Balkan country over the fatal collapse that happened just before noon on Friday in the northern city of Novi Sad. Vesic’s resignation needs to be confirmed in Serbia’s parliament.

“I would like to inform you that I will formally submit my resignation tomorrow morning,” said Vesic. “Once the parliament accepts it, I will no longer perform this duty.”

Surveillance camera footage showed the massive canopy on the outer wall of the station building crashing down on the people sitting below on benches or going in and out.

The train station has been renovated twice in recent years. Critics of Serbia’s populist government attributed the disaster to rampant corruption, a lack of transparency and sloppy work during the reconstruction. The renovation was part of a wider deal with Chinese construction companies.

Opposition parties have demanded the resignation of top officials, including President Aleksandar Vucic and Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, accusing them of being responsible for the deadly accident.

Opposition groups plan to hold a rally on Tuesday in Novi Sad and more protests later if their demands are not met.

Vesic said that he does not accept any guilt for the deaths of the victims.

“I cannot accept guilt for the death of 14 people because neither I, nor the people who work with me, bear even a shred of responsibility for the tragedy that happened,” he said. “I urge the authorities to determine as soon as possible who was responsible for this tragedy.”

The dead included a 6-year-old girl. The three injured, who are between 18 and 24 years old, all had to have limbs amputated. They were still in serious condition on Monday without improvement, doctors said.

Populist officials have accused opposition parties of using the tragedy for political gains while pledging accountability. Vucic on Monday promised those responsible will be punished.

“I am certain that the state authorities will determine criminal responsibility for the tragedy that happened in our country,” said Vucic.

Serbian prosecutors said they have already questioned more than 40 people — including Vesic — since opening the probe on Saturday. But critics believe that justice is unlikely to be served with the populists in firm control of the judicial system and the police.

Officials have insisted that the canopy had not been part of the renovation work, suggesting this was the reason why it collapsed but giving no explanation for why it was not renovated.

The Novi Sad railway station was originally built in 1964. The renovated station was inaugurated by Vucic and his populist ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, over two years ago as a major stopover for a planned fast train line between Belgrade and Budapest.
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Washington — In the last week of the U.S. presidential campaign, candidate Donald Trump sued CBS News and filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against The Washington Post newspaper.  

The cases are the latest high-profile conflicts between the former president and news outlets that he often accuses of bias.  

Trump sued CBS over an interview of Vice President Kamala Harris on the network’s “60 Minutes” program that aired in early October. Trump had also agreed to give an interview to “60 Minutes” before backing out.

Filed in Texas on Thursday, the lawsuit alleges that the network aired two different responses from Harris about the Israel-Hamas war.

In a statement, CBS said “60 Minutes” gave an excerpt of the interview to the CBS show “Face the Nation” that used a longer section of her answer than what aired on “60 Minutes.”

But Trump’s lawsuit — which calls for a jury trial and $10 billion in damages — alleges that CBS violated a Texas law that prohibits deceptive acts in the conduct of business.

A CBS spokesperson told VOA the interview was not doctored. The lawsuit “is completely without merit and we will vigorously defend against it,” the spokesperson said in an email.

Trump on Thursday also filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that The Washington Post illegally contributed to the Harris campaign.  

The complaint alleges a social media ad campaign highlighting the newspaper’s critical coverage of the former president constituted “illegal corporate in-kind contributions and unreported last-minute independent expenditures.” Trump’s legal representatives allege the ad campaign meant the Post was “acting like any other partisan player in the election process.”  

A Post spokesperson told VOA that promoted posts on social media reflect high-performing content from the newspaper

“We believe allegations suggesting this routine media practice is improper are without merit,” the spokesperson said in an email.

Gabe Rottman, policy director at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, dismissed the case against the Post. 

“Advertising by news organizations is a legitimate, routine press function and receives strong First Amendment protections in the courts,” he told VOA in a text message.  

Trump’s campaign and office did not reply to VOA’s multiple requests for comment on the recent legal actions or the former president’s press freedom record for this story. 

Power to revoke broadcasting licenses

Trump has had a contentious relationship with some news outlets since running for president in 2015. Often referring to journalists as “the enemy of the people,” he has complained on social media and in speeches about ideological bias and unfair treatment of conservative voices, while also championing media that reflect his views. 

He has pledged to jail journalists who do not name confidential sources on stories he believed to have national security implication, and suggested changing First Amendment protections to allow punishing people who burn the American flag or criticize Supreme Court judges.  

Trump had previously threatened to revoke CBS’s broadcast license if elected. On his social media platform, Truth Social, he said “60 Minutes” had “created the Greatest Fraud in Broadcast History” and that CBS should lose its license because it is “corrupt.” 

Following his September debate against Harris on ABC News, Trump called for that network’s broadcasting license to be revoked over what he described as “unfair” fact-checking.

And as president in 2017, Trump threatened to revoke NBC’s broadcasting license after the outlet reported a dispute between the then-president and his military advisers about the size of the nuclear arsenal.

In an October statement, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, which issues licenses, said the FCC “does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage.”  

Many of Trump’s supporters applaud his attacks on the media, reflecting in part the steep erosion of trust in the press that public opinion polls have tracked among many Americans for years.

But media analysts say Trump’s attacks echo how leaders in countries like Hungary have undermined journalistic norms.

Clayton Weimers, the head of the U.S. office of Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, said the lawsuit against CBS “looks like a publicity stunt.”

But, he said, “It reinforces the very real threats that Trump has issued to use the U.S. government to punish media outlets he doesn’t like should he regain the White House.”

Leading up to and during his time as president, Trump published more than 2,000 posts on social media that the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker classified as anti-media. After Trump left the White House, his anti-media rhetoric has continued.

Between September 1 and October 24, Trump verbally insulted, attacked or threatened the media at least 108 times in public, RSF found in a study. RSF has not conducted a similar study about Vice President Harris because she does not make those kinds of anti-media statements, Weimers said.

“By just accepting that as a piece of this political moment, I do think there’s a risk that the American public has grown numb to how serious it is, what an aberration it is, and how dangerous it could be going forward,” Weimers said in a phone interview.  

Trump’s public attacks against the media frequently play well with his supporters. At many of his rallies, the candidate often pauses after criticizing the media to give his supporters a chance to jeer at the reporters who are present.

Last month, Trump’s presidential campaign sent VOA a statement that Republican National Committee spokesperson Taylor Rogers originally provided to the conservative news site The Daily Caller. In it, Rogers described Trump as a “champion for free speech” and said that “everyone was safer under President Trump, including journalists” because of “commonsense law.”

Newspaper endorsements

Record-low distrust in media in the U.S. is what billionaire and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos pointed to in an op-ed last week to explain why the newspaper would not make an endorsement in this year’s presidential election. 

Days before the Post’s announcement, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times said his newspaper would not endorse a candidate so as not to worsen political divisions.

For some media analysts, the decisions by the Post and the Los Angeles Times have only crystallized concerns about what a second Trump presidency would mean for press freedom in the United States.

Marty Baron, the Post’s former executive editor, said he thinks it would have been fine if the Post made this decision a year or two ago. But announcing the decision so close to the election was a “betrayal of core principles of the Post,” Baron told VOA in a phone interview.  

“This is an invitation to further intimidation and bullying, and I think that that’s what we would likely see if Trump were to be back in the White House,” Baron added.

Margaret Sullivan, a media columnist with The Guardian who previously worked as a media columnist at the Post, said the decision does not reflect the newspaper’s ideals.

“This seemed to be a move from above that wasn’t about the content of the endorsement,” she told VOA in a phone interview. 

Baron and Sullivan told VOA they’re concerned that the non-endorsement is a harbinger of what’s to come for press freedom if Trump is re-elected.  

“I’m very concerned about intimidation of the press,” Sullivan said. “And frankly, I’m very concerned about the press preemptively acting like they’ve been intimidated when they have the ability to stand firm.”

Both of Trump’s legal challenges against the Post and CBS are expected to take weeks or months before they reach a resolution.
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Tbilisi, Georgia — Thousands of opposition supporters rallied outside Georgia’s parliament for the second straight Monday to denounce the Oct. 26 election as illegitimate after the ruling party was declared the winner amid allegations of vote-rigging helped by Russia.

The protesters, who waved Georgian and European Union flags, demanded a new parliamentary election under international supervision and an investigation of the alleged ballot irregularities.

Opposition leaders vowed to boycott sessions of parliament and hold regular protests until their demands are met.

The protest took place under the watch of riot police, reflecting the simmering political tensions in the South Caucasus country of 3.7 million that lies between Russia and Turkey.

The Central Election Commission said the ruling Georgian Dream party won about 54% of the vote. Its leaders have rejected the opposition claims of vote fraud.

President Salome Zourabichvili, who has rejected the official results, says Georgia has fallen victim to pressure from Moscow against joining the EU. Zourabichvili, who holds mostly ceremonial position, has urged the United States and EU support the demonstrations.

Officials in Washington and Brussels have urged a full investigation of the election, while the Kremlin has rejected the accusations of interference.

Georgian Dream, which has been in power since 2012, was established by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia.

The opposition has accused it of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow. It has recently adopted laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.

European election observers said the election took place in a “divisive” atmosphere marked by instances of bribery, double voting and physical violence. Observers said instances of intimidation and other violations were particularly prevalent in rural areas.

The EU suspended Georgia’s membership application process indefinitely because of its passage in June of a Russian-style “foreign influence law.” Many Georgians viewed the parliamentary election as a pivotal referendum on the country’s effort to join the EU.

Georgian Dream promised to continue pushing toward EU accession but it also wants to “reset” ties with Russia, the country’s former imperial master. In 2008, Georgia fought and lost a brief war with Moscow, which then recognized the independence of two breakaway Georgian regions and bolstered its military presence there.

Georgia’s prosecutors last week launched an investigation of the alleged vote-rigging. The opposition immediately objected that the Prosecutor’s Office would not conduct an independent investigation because its head was appointed by the Georgian Dream-controlled parliament.
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Seoul, South Korea — South Korea and the European Union on Monday jointly condemned North Korea’s supply of weaponry to Moscow and demanded that it withdraw troops it has sent as Russia wages war against Ukraine.

The EU and South Korea were holding their first “Strategic Dialogue” meeting in Seoul, shortly after Washington and Seoul sounded the alarm about North Korea sending soldiers to help Russia.

In a joint statement, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul condemned the North’s “unlawful arms transfers to the Russian Federation for its use in attacking Ukraine.”

They demanded an end to the “unlawful military cooperation” and a withdrawal of the North Korean forces.  

Borrell also met South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun.

“Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is an existential threat,” Borrell said in a post on X that included a photo of him shaking hands with Kim. “The Republic of Korea is best positioned to understand it. We are united in our support to Ukraine. I encouraged them to step it up.”

The two countries also signed a security and defense partnership covering 15 areas including cyber security and disarmament.

Cho said last week, when asked whether Seoul could send weapons to Ukraine in response to North Korea aiding Russia, that all possible scenarios were under consideration,  

South Korea has provided non-lethal aid to Ukraine, including mine clearance equipment, but rebuffed requests for weapons.

Seoul expects the North to be compensated by Moscow with military and civilian technology, as it races to launch a spy satellite and upgrade its missile capabilities.

North Korea last week flexed its military muscle with the test of a huge new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile dubbed Hwasong-19.

Washington expects the North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region, part of which has been seized by neighboring Ukraine, to enter the fight against Ukrainian forces soon, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week.

At talks in Moscow on Friday, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said her country would back Russia until it achieved victory in Ukraine.
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Paris — The trial of eight people in Paris on terrorism charges started on Monday over the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty, who was killed by an Islamic extremist after showing caricatures of Islam’s prophet to his middle school students for a lesson on freedom of expression.

Paty’s shocking death left an imprint on France, and several schools are now named after him. Paty was killed outside his school near Paris on Oct. 16, 2020, by an 18-year-old Russian of Chechen origin, who was shot to death by police.

Those on trial include friends of assailant Abdoullakh Anzorov who allegedly helped purchase weapons for the attack, as well as people who are accused of spreading false information online about the teacher and his class.

The proceedings started Monday in the presence of members of Paty’s family, including his two sisters.

The trial was held under high security, with many police officers patrolling and making checks outside and inside the courtroom.

Five of the accused, who are currently imprisoned, were seated in a wide glass box. Three others, placed under judicial supervision, sat on the defendants’ benches outside the box.

France’s secularism at stake

The attack occurred against a backdrop of protests in many Muslim countries and calls online for violence targeting France and the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo. The newspaper had republished its caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad a few weeks before Paty’s death to mark the opening of the trial over deadly 2015 attacks on its newsroom by Islamic extremists.

The cartoon images deeply offended many Muslims, who saw them as sacrilegious. But the fallout from Paty’s killing reinforced the French state’s commitment to freedom of expression and its firm attachment to secularism in public life.

“We expect that the justice system will be up to the crime that has been committed,” Francis Szpiner, the lawyer representing Paty’s 9-year-old son, told reporters. “It’s an unheard-of event in the history of the republic. It’s the first time a teacher has been assassinated because he is a teacher.”

Thibault de Montbrial, a lawyer for Paty’s sister, Mickaelle Paty, said the trial “will enable everybody in French society to become aware of the direct link, extremely clear, that exists between fundamentalist Islam … and the violence that can lead to such a terrifying act.”

A student’s father among the accused

Much attention at the trial will focus on Brahim Chnina, the Muslim father of a teenager who was 13 at the time and claimed that she had been excluded from Paty’s class when he showed the caricatures on Oct. 5, 2020.

Chnina, 52, sent a series of messages to his contacts denouncing Paty, saying that “this sick man” needed to be fired, along with the address of the school in the Paris suburb of Conflans Saint-Honorine.

In reality, Chnina’s daughter had lied to him and had never attended the lesson in question.

Paty was giving a lesson mandated by the National Education Ministry on freedom of expression. He discussed the caricatures in this context, saying students who did not wish to see them could temporarily leave the classroom.

An online campaign against Paty snowballed, and 11 days after the lesson, Anzorov attacked the teacher with a knife as he walked home, and displayed the teacher’s head on social media. Police later shot Anzorov as he advanced towards them armed.

Chnina will be tried for alleged association with a terrorist enterprise for targeting the 47-year-old teacher through false information.

His daughter was tried last year in a juvenile court and given an 18-month suspended sentence. Four other students at Paty’s school were found guilty of involvement and given suspended sentences; a fifth, who pointed out Paty to Anzorov in exchange for money, was given a 6-month term with an electronic bracelet.

A figure promoting radical Islam involved

Abdelhakim Sefrioui, 65, is another key figure in the trial opening Monday for the adult suspects. He presented himself as a spokesperson for Imams of France, although he had been dismissed from that role. He filmed a video in front of the school with the father of the student. He referred to the teacher as a “thug” multiple times and sought to pressure the school administration via social media.

Sefrioui founded the pro-Hamas Cheikh Yassine Collective in 2004, which was dissolved a few days after Paty’s killing. Sefrioui had long criticized and threatened Muslims who advocate friendship with Jews, including the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris.

Sefrioui and Chnina face 30 years in prison if convicted.

Chnina denied any incitement to “kill” in his messages and video, claiming he did not intend to incite hatred and violence, according to judicial documents.

Sefrioui’s lawyer, Ouadie Elhamamouchi, said he will seek to prove his client is “innocent” and that the video filmed by Sefrioui in front of the school was not seen by the attacker. “In this case, he is the only one who never had any link with the terrorist,” Elhamamouchi said.

Others face charges of complicity

Anzorov, who had wanted to go to Syria to fight with Islamic extremists there, discovered Paty’s name on jihadist social media channels, according to investigators. Anzorov lived 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Paty’s school and did not know the teacher.

Two of Anzorov’s friends face life imprisonment if convicted on charges of complicity in murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise. Naim Boudaoud, 22, and Azim Epsirkhanov, 23, are accused of helping Anzorov buy a knife and a pellet gun. Boudaoud also drove Anzorov to Paty’s school. They turned themselves in at the police station, and deny being aware of the attacker’s intentions.

The other four individuals are charged with criminal terrorist conspiracy for communicating with the killer on pro-jihad Snapchat groups. They all deny being aware of the intent to kill Paty.

On Oct. 13, 2023, another teacher in France was killed by a radical Islamist from Russia, originally from Ingushetia, a region bordering Chechnya.
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PAIPORTA, Spain — Spain is deploying 7,500 troops to its eastern region hit by devastating floods, the government said on Monday in the face of rising discontent over the response to the catastrophe that has killed at least 217 people.

The army sent about 5,000 soldiers over the weekend to help distribute food and water, clean up streets and protect shops and properties from looters. A further 2,500 would join them, Defense Minister Margarita Robles told state-owned radio RNE.

A warship carrying 104 marine infantry soldiers as well as trucks with food and water was approaching Valencia port even as a strong hailstorm pummeled Barcelona some 300 km to the north.

Rescue teams on Monday were searching for bodies in underground garages including a 5,000-car park at Bonaire shopping mall near Valencia airport as well as river mouths where currents may have deposited bodies.

Fatalities from Spain’s worst flash floods in modern history edged higher to 217 on Sunday – almost all of them in the Valencia region and more than 60 in the suburb of Paiporta.

Local residents’ anger was focused on late alerts from authorities about the dangers of flooding and a perceived delayed response by emergency services.

On Sunday, some residents in Paiporta slung mud at Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and King Felipe and his wife Queen Letizia, chanting: “murderers, murderers!”

Transport Minister Oscar Puente said on Sunday the death toll had stabilized because all victims on the surface had been identified.

The torrential rains on Tuesday and Wednesday caused rivers to swell, engulfing streets and the ground floors of buildings, and sweeping away cars and pieces of masonry in tides of mud.

It was the worst flood-related disaster in Europe in five decades

Even though rainfalls have continued during the rest of the week, there has been no more major flooding in the area. The weather agency issued a warning on Monday morning for Barcelona as hailstorm and heavy rains hit Spain’s second largest city.

Some of Sunday’s protesters wore clothing with the symbols of far-right organizations that often stage protests against the leftist government. Robles said extremist groups were taking advantage of the situation for political gains.
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Paris — French prosecutors on Monday said they had dropped an investigation into sexual and moral harassment allegations against former French Football Federation president Noel Le Graet.

The preliminary inquiry, opened in January 2023, was closed on Oct. 17 due to insufficient evidence, the Paris public prosecution office said in e-mailed comments.

Le Graet, 82, who had led the federation since 2011, resigned in February but denied any wrongdoing. His departure followed a government audit that concluded he no longer had “the necessary legitimacy” to lead French soccer.

French papers L’Equipe and Le Monde first reported that the investigation into Le Graet had been dropped.

“I lived through a nightmare, but being cleared in this affair brings some comfort,” Le Graet told L’Equipe in an interview published on Monday, adding that he felt anger but also relief.
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Quincy Jones, the multi-talented music titan whose vast legacy ranged from producing Michael Jackson’s historic “Thriller” album to writing prize-winning film and television scores and collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and hundreds of other recording artists, has died at 91.

Jones’ publicist, Arnold Robinson, says he died Sunday night at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, surrounded by his family.

“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” the family said in a statement. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”

Jones rose from running with gangs on the South Side of Chicago to the very heights of show business, becoming one of the first Black executives to thrive in Hollywood and amassing an extraordinary musical catalog that includes some of the richest moments of American rhythm and song. For years, it was unlikely to find a music lover who did not own at least one record with his name on it, or a leader in the entertainment industry and beyond who did not have some connection to him.

Jones kept company with presidents and foreign leaders, movie stars and musicians, philanthropists and business leaders. He toured with Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, arranged records for Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, composed the soundtracks for “Roots” and “In the Heat of the Night,” organized President Bill Clinton’s first inaugural celebration and oversaw the all-star recording of “We Are the World,” the 1985 charity record for famine relief in Africa.

Lionel Richie, who co-wrote “We Are the World” and was among the featured singers, would call Jones “the master orchestrator.”

In a career that began when records were still played on vinyl at 78 rpm, top honors likely go to his productions with Jackson: “Off the Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad” were albums near-universal in their style and appeal.

Jones’ versatility and imagination helped set off the explosive talents of Jackson as he transformed from child star to the “King of Pop.”

On such classic tracks as “Billie Jean” and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” Jones and Jackson fashioned a global soundscape out of disco, funk, rock, pop, R&B and jazz and African chants. For “Thriller,” some of the most memorable touches originated with Jones, who recruited Eddie Van Halen for a guitar solo on the genre-fusing “Beat It” and brought in Vincent Price for a ghoulish voiceover on the title track.

“Thriller” sold more than 20 million copies in 1983 alone and has contended with the Eagles’ “Greatest Hits 1971-1975” among others as the best-selling album of all time.

“If an album doesn’t do well, everyone says ‘it was the producers fault’; so if it does well, it should be your ‘fault,’ too,” Jones said in an interview with the Library of Congress in 2016. “The tracks don’t just all of a sudden appear. The producer has to have the skill, experience and ability to guide the vision to completion.”

The list of his honors and awards fills 18 pages in his 2001 autobiography “Q”, including 27 Grammys at the time (now 28), an honorary Academy Award (now two) and an Emmy for “Roots.” He also received France’s Legion d’Honneur, the Rudolph Valentino Award from the Republic of Italy and a Kennedy Center tribute for his contributions to American culture.

He was the subject of a 1990 documentary, “Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones” and a 2018 film by daughter Rashida Jones. His memoir made him a best-selling author.
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Unionized factory workers at Boeing are voting Monday whether to accept a contract offer or to continue their strike, which has lasted more than seven weeks and shut down production of most Boeing passenger planes.

A vote to ratify the contract would clear the way for the aerospace giant to resume airplane production and bring in much-needed cash. If members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers vote for a third time to reject Boeing’s offer, it would plunge the company into further financial peril and uncertainty.

In its latest proposed contract, Boeing is offering pay raises of 38% over four years, as well as ratification and productivity bonuses. IAM District 751, which represents Boeing workers in the Pacific Northwest, endorsed the proposal, which is slightly more generous than one the machinists voted down nearly two weeks ago.

“It is time for our members to lock in these gains and confidently declare victory,” the union district said in scheduling Monday’s vote. “We believe asking members to stay on strike longer wouldn’t be right as we have achieved so much success.”

Union officials said they think they have gotten all they can though negotiations and a strike, and that if the current proposal is rejected, future offers from Boeing might be worse. They expect to announce the result of the vote Monday night.

Boeing has adamantly rejected requests to restore traditional pensions that the company froze nearly a decade ago. Pensions were a key issue for workers who voted down previous offers in September and October.

If machinists ratify the latest offer, they would return to work by Nov. 12, according to the union.

The strike began Sept. 13 with an overwhelming 94.6% rejection of Boeing’s offer to raise pay by 25% over four years — far less than the union’s original demand for 40% wage increases over three years.

Machinists voted down another offer — 35% raises over four years, but still no revival of pensions — on Oct. 23, the same day Boeing reported a third-quarter loss of more than $6 billion. However, the offer received 36% support, up from 5% for the mid-September proposal, making Boeing leaders believe they were close to a deal.

Boeing says average annual pay for machinists is $75,608 and would rise to $119,309 in four years under the current offer.

In addition to a slightly larger pay increases, the proposed contract includes a $12,000 contract ratification bonus, up from $7,000 in the previous offer, and larger company contributions to employees’ 401(k) retirement accounts.

Boeing also promises to build its next airline plane in the Seattle area. Union officials fear the company may withdraw the pledge if workers reject the new offer.

The strike drew the attention of the Biden administration. Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su intervened in the talks several times, including last week.

The labor standoff — the first strike by Boeing machinists since an eight-week walkout in 2008 — is the latest setback in a volatile year for the company.

Boeing came under several federal investigations after a door plug blew off a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. Federal regulators put limits on Boeing airplane production that they said would last until they felt confident about manufacturing safety at the company.

The door plug incident renewed concerns about the safety of the 737 Max. Two of the plane’s crashed less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. The CEO whose effort to fix the company failed announced in March that he would step down. In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud for deceiving regulators who approved the 737 Max.

As the strike dragged on, new CEO Kelly Ortberg announced about 17,000 layoffs and a stock sale to prevent the company’s credit rating from being cut to junk status. S&P and Fitch Ratings said last week that the $24.3 billion in stock and other securities will cover upcoming debt payments and reduce the risk of a credit downgrade.

The strike has created a cash crunch by depriving Boeing of money it gets when delivering new planes to airlines. The walkout at Seattle-area factories stopped production of the 737 Max, Boeing’s best-selling plane, and the 777 or “triple-seven” jet and the cargo-carrying version of its 767 plane.

Ortberg has conceded that trust in Boeing has declined, the company has too much debt, and “serious lapses in our performance” have disappointed many airline customers. But, he says, the company’s strengths include a backlog of airplane orders valued at a half-trillion dollars.
…

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The two parties that have dominated Puerto Rican politics for decades are losing their grip as they face the stiffest competition yet from a younger generation fed up with the island’s corruption, chronic power outages and mismanagement of public funds.

For the first time in the island’s governor’s race, a third-party candidate has a powerful second lead in the polls ahead of the U.S. territory’s election Tuesday — and some experts say there’s a possibility he could win.

“This election is already historic,” said political analyst and university professor Jorge Schmidt Nieto. “It already marks a before and an after.”

Juan Dalmau is running for Puerto Rico’s Independence Party and the Citizen Victory Movement, established in 2019. A Gaither international poll this month shows Dalmau closing in on Jenniffer González, a member of the New Progressive Party and Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress. She beat Gov. Pedro Pierluisi in their party’s primary in June.

Gaither’s poll shows Dalmau with 29% of support versus González’s 31% as he nearly caught up with her since a different poll in July showed him with only 24% compared with González’s 43%. Coming in third was Jesús Manuel Ortiz, of the Popular Democratic Party, followed by Javier Jiménez of Project Dignity, a conservative party created in 2019.

Under pressure

Puerto Rican politics revolve around the island’s status, and up until 2016, the New Progressive Party, which supports statehood, and the Popular Democratic Party, which supports the status quo, would split at least 90% of all votes during general elections, Schmidt said.

But that year, U.S. Congress created a federal control board to oversee Puerto Rico’s finances after the government announced it was unable to pay a more than $70 billion public debt load. In 2017, Puerto Rico filed for the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy in history.

The debt was accrued through decades of corruption, mismanagement and excessive borrowing, with Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority still struggling to restructure its more than $9 billion debt, the largest of any government agency.

Puerto Ricans have largely rejected and resented the board, created a year before Hurricane Maria slammed into the island as a powerful Category 4 storm, razing the electrical grid.

In 2020, Pierluisi won but received only 33% of votes. His opponent from the Popular Democratic Party received 32%. It marked the first time either party failed to reach 40% of votes.

The power outages that have persisted since the elections, coupled with the slow pace of hurricane reconstruction, have frustrated and angered voters.

Under Pierluisi, the government signed contracts with two companies, Luma Energy and Genera PR, which together oversee the generation, transmission and distribution of power. Outages have persisted, with the companies blaming a grid that was already crumbling before the hurricane hit due to a lack of maintenance and investment.

“Disastrous things have occurred during this four-year term, especially with the electric energy,” Schmidt said. “It has affected everyone, regardless of social class.”

Voters, he said, are viewing Tuesday’s elections “as a moment of revenge.”

Dalmau said he would oust both companies in an “organized fashion” within six months if he becomes governor. Ortiz said he would cancel Luma’s contract, while González has called for the creation of an “energy czar” that would review potential Luma contractual breaches while another operator is found.

However, no contract can be canceled without prior approval of the federal control board and Puerto Rico’s Energy Bureau.

The candidates also are under pressure to create affordable housing, lower power bills and the general cost of living, reduce violent crimes, boost Puerto Rico’s economy, with the island locked out of capital markets since 2015, and improve a crumbling health care system as thousands of doctors flock to the U.S. mainland.

Dalmau, who suspended his campaign for two weeks in mid-October after his wife had emergency brain surgery, also has said he would eliminate tax breaks for wealthy U.S. citizens from the mainland.

Apathy dominates

Despite their promises to turn Puerto Rico around, candidates face persistent voter apathy.

In 2008, 1.9 million out of 2.5 million registered voters participated in that year’s election, compared with 1.3 million out of 2.3 million in 2020.

This year, nearly 99,000 new voters registered and more than 87,000 reactivated their status, according to Puerto Rico’s State Elections Commission.

“A much higher number was expected,” Schmidt said.

He noted that those middle age and older favor González and her pro-statehood party, while those younger than 45 “overwhelmingly” favor Dalmau, which means that if a majority of young voters participate on Tuesday and fewer older ones do so, he might have a chance of winning.

The Bad Bunny factor

The months leading up to the Nov. 5 elections have been contentious.

Reggaetón superstar Bad Bunny paid for dozens of billboard ads criticizing Puerto Rico’s two main parties. In response, the governor’s New Progressive Party financed a billboard ad suggesting an obscenity in reference to Bad Bunny.

On Friday, the singer published a page-long letter in a local newspaper deriding González’s pro-statehood party.

While the artist has not endorsed any local officials, the sole person he recently began following on Instagram was Dalmau.

On Sunday, he briefly appeared at Dalmau’s closing campaign. A hush fell over a crowd of tens of thousands of people as Bad Bunny spoke before singing, saying he doesn’t endorse a specific candidate or party.

“My party is the people. … My party is Puerto Rico,” he said as he later praised the alliance between Puerto Rico’s Independence Party and the Citizen Victory Movement.

Meanwhile, a so-called “cemetery of corruption” was set up Thursday in the capital, San Juan, featuring large black-and-white pictures of nearly a dozen politicians from the island’s two main parties who have been charged or sentenced by federal authorities in recent years. It was created by Eva Prados with the Citizen Victory Movement, who is running for Puerto Rico’s House. By Friday, police reported that the pictures were destroyed or stolen.

As the race heats up, the number of formal complaints about alleged electoral crimes also has increased. These include people who say they received confirmations for early voting when they made no such request.

A persistent question

Voters on Tuesday also will be asked for a seventh time what Puerto Rico’s political status should be.

The nonbinding referendum will feature three choices: statehood, independence and independence with free association, under which issues like foreign affairs, U.S. citizenship and use of the U.S. dollar would be negotiated.

Regardless of the outcome, a change in status requires approval from the U.S. Congress.

The push for a change in status doesn’t depend on whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump win in the U.S. mainland.
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BEIJING —  

China has urged France to take on “an active role” to push the European Commission toward a solution acceptable to both the European and Chinese electric vehicle industries, Beijing’s commerce ministry said on Monday, citing its minister.

Wang Wentao, in a meeting with French junior trade minister Sophie Primas in Shanghai on Sunday, reiterated the European Union’s investigation into China’s EVs is a major concern and has “seriously hindered” China-EU auto industry cooperation.

The EU launched an anti-subsidy investigation into imports of Chinese-made battery EVs last year and in October voted for tariffs on those vehicles. China in the past year has launched its own investigations into European pork and dairy, and imposed temporary anti-dumping measures on imports of brandy from the EU early this month.

Primas is on a three-day visit to challenge China over its import duties on brandy, which Paris calls political and unjustified, Reuters reported last week.

Wang told Primas China’s trade remedy investigations on EU brandy, pork and dairy products were in accordance with the domestic industry’s applications and complied with the World Trade Organization rules, “unlike the EU” which was “rash” in launching its EV probe.

“China will continue to conduct investigations in strict accordance with the law, safeguard the legitimate rights of enterprises of EU member states, including France, and make rulings based on facts and evidence,” the ministry statement cited Wang as saying.

But he said China is willing to work with the European Commission towards a “proper solution” as well, without elaborating.

China opened an anti-subsidy probe into imported EU dairy products in August and an investigation focusing on pork intended for human consumption in June.
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Although Halloween has passed, pumpkins are still an indispensable part of the fall season in the United States. Americans are expected to spend nearly $800 million on the decorative gourds this year. For many, heading to a pumpkin patch and picking a pumpkin is an annual tradition. Alexey Gorbachev has the story, narrated by Anna Rice
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Taipei, Taiwan — A second Taiwanese volunteer fighting alongside Ukrainian soldiers against Russia has been killed, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Sunday.

The man was a member of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, the ministry said in a statement, expressing condolences to his family, who did not want him publicly identified.

The ministry said it was informed of the man’s death Saturday and that Taiwan’s representative office in Poland had verified the information with the Ukrainian Foreign Legion.

No further details were released about how he died.

At the start of the invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy openly invited foreigners to come to his country to join a “foreign legion” that would fight alongside Ukrainians against the invading Russians.

Taiwanese media reported that the soldier returned to Ukraine in July after recovering from a leg injury.

There are currently “five to six” Taiwanese fighters in Ukraine, Taiwanese lawmaker Puma Shen, a member of the parliamentary defense committee, told AFP.

The first Taiwanese volunteer died on the battlefield in Ukraine in November 2022.
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Madrid — Five bodies were found floating in the sea Sunday after the inflatable boat they were travelling in punctured around 90 km (56 miles) off the Spanish island of Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, Spanish Sea Rescue services told Reuters.

A spokesperson said a rescue aircraft sighted two inflatable boats heading toward the archipelago, and that one of them had one of its floats deflated.

The aircraft launched two life rafts and was able to rescue 17 people from one vessel and 80 from another, but five bodies were also found.

State agency EFE said the rescue services had rescued more than 1,500 people over the weekend.

It also reported Sunday that at least 48 migrants died trying to reach the Canary Islands in a boat that departed Mauritania three weeks ago. Ten more migrants from the same craft were rescued near the island of El Hierro on Saturday, it said.

Calm seas and gentle winds associated with late summer in the Atlantic Ocean off West Africa have prompted a surge of migrants trying to escape extreme poverty and political instability in Africa’s Sahel region.

The Atlantic route to the Canary Islands has seen the fastest growth in irregular migration in recent years, though numbers remain below those on the Central Mediterranean route toward Italy.

Some 32,878 migrants took the route in boats from West Africa to the Canary Islands between January and Oct. 15, according to government figures, a rise of 39.7% from the same period last year.
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Spain’s government reports more than 200 dead and dozens still missing following the deadliest flash floods in that country’s modern history. Locals say they feel abandoned by their government. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
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New York — Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands won the men’s race at the New York City Marathon on Sunday and Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya took the women’s event.

Both runners pulled away from their closest competitors in the final few hundred meters to come away with their first victories in the race.

Nageeye was step-for-step with 2022 champion Evans Chebet before using a burst heading into Central Park to come away with the win in 2 hours, 7 minutes, 39 seconds. Chebet finished 6 seconds behind.

Chepkirui was running New York for the first time and pulled away from defending champion Hellen Obiri in the women’s race. Chepkirui started to run marathons in 2022. She finished the race in 2:24.35. Obiri finished nearly 15 seconds behind.

Obiri was looking to be the first repeat champion since Mary Keitany of Kenya won three in a row from 2014-16. Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya finished third, giving the African nation the top three spots.

Tamirat Tola, the men’s defending champion and Paris Olympic gold medalist, finished fourth, right behind Albert Korir.

The top Americans finished sixth in both races. Conner Mantz led the men and Sara Vaughn the women. Vaughn was in the lead group heading into Mile 20 when they entered the Bronx before she dropped off the lead pack.

Vaughn was geared up to run Chicago before COVID-19 kept her from competing in that race. She was a late addition to this marathon.

The day got started with an upset in the men’s wheelchair race as three-time defending champion Marcel Hug was beaten by Daniel Romanchuk, who won in 2018 and 2019. Susannah Scaroni won the women’s wheelchair race. It was her second victory in New York, also taking the 2022 race and giving Americans winners in both events — the first time that has happened.

The 26.2-mile course took runners through all five boroughs of New York, starting in Staten Island and ending in Central Park. This is the 48th year the race has been in all five boroughs. Before that, the route was completely in Central Park when it began in 1970. The first race had only 55 finishers while more than 50,000 are expected to compete this year.

The weather was perfect to run in with temperatures in the lower 40s when the race started. Last year, it was 61 degrees when the race started.
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Kyiv, Ukraine — Moscow sent 96 drones and a guided air missile into Ukraine overnight into Sunday, Ukrainian officials said.

According to Ukraine’s Air Force, 66 drones were destroyed during the overnight barrage, along with the missile. A further 27 drones were “lost” over various areas, it said, likely having been electronically jammed, while one drone flew into Belarusian airspace. No casualties were reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russia had launched around 900 guided aerial bombs, 500 drones and 30 missiles against Ukraine over the past week.

Zelenskyy appealed Sunday on X to Ukraine’s allies to provide “long-range capabilities for our security”, saying that these “attacks would have been impossible if we had sufficient support from the world.”

Kyiv is still awaiting word from its Western partners on its repeated requests to use the long-range weapons they provide to hit targets on Russian soil, including for preemptive Ukrainian strikes on camps where North Korean troops are being trained.

The Ukrainian President also urged partners to enact “truly effective sanctions to prevent Russia from importing critical components for drone and missile production”. This appeal followed an address on Saturday, in which he said over 2,000 drones and missiles “still using Western components” were launched against Ukraine in October, and underlined the need for more stringent export controls to prevent sanctions evasion.

In Russia, the Defense Ministry said that 19 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight into Sunday in three regions of Russia: 16 in the Rostov region, two in the Belgorod region and one in the Volgograd region.

A man died Sunday in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Belgorod region, according to regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov.
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BELGRADE — Angry protesters on Sunday left red handprints at the entrances of government buildings in the Serbian capital to demand the arrest of officials, two days after a concrete canopy collapsed at a railway station, killing 14 people and injuring three. 

Police formed a cordon outside the seat of the Ministry of Construction and Infrastructure in central Belgrade as several thousand people called for ranking government ministers, including Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, to immediately step down. 

“Arrest, arrest!” chanted the crowd. They shouted at police officers outside the building that they are “guarding murderers” and that “your hands are bloody,” while holding banners reading “corruption kills” and “we are all under the canopy!” 

“Everywhere you can, leave bloody hands so they know their hands are bloody. In every city in Serbia, everywhere you can,” opposition political activist Nikola Ristic said. 

The concrete canopy that ran along the front of the railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed suddenly on Friday, landing on people who were sitting on benches or passing through the building’s entrance. Surveillance camera footage showed the canopy crashing down in seconds. 

The dead included a 6-year-old girl. The three injured, who are between 18 and 24 years old, all had to have limbs amputated. They were still in serious condition on Sunday, doctors said. 

Funerals for the victims, attended by thousands, have been held in northern Serbia. 

The train station has been renovated twice in recent years, and critics of Serbia’s populist government attributed the disaster to rampant corruption, lack of transparency and sloppy renovations. The renovation was part of a wider deal with Chinese construction companies. 

“Citizens no longer have anything to lose, they are increasingly becoming aware of this,” said liberal politician Biljana Stojkovic. “This is grief combined with anger, despair that is turning into rage.” 

Serbia’s populist government has promised a thorough investigation, with prosecutors saying they already have questioned more than two dozen people. But critics believe that justice is unlikely to be served with the populists in firm control of the judicial system and the police. 

Officials have insisted that the canopy had not been part of the renovation work, suggesting this was the reason why it collapsed but giving no explanation why this wasn’t done. 

The Novi Sad railway station was originally built in 1964, while the renovated station was inaugurated by President Aleksandar Vucic and his populist ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, over two years ago as a major stopover for a planned fast train line between Belgrade and Budapest. 
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VALENCIA, Spain — A crowd of angry survivors of Spain’s floods tossed mud and shouted insults at Spain’s King Felipe VI and government officials when they made their first visit to one of the hardest hit towns on Sunday. 

Government officials accompanied the monarch who tried to talk to locals while others shouted at him in Paiporta, an outskirt of Valencia city that has been devastated. 

Police had to step in with officers on horseback to keep back the crowd of several dozens. 

“Get out! Get out!” and “Killers!” rang out among other insults. 

After being forced to seek protection from the mud, the king remained calm and made several efforts to speak to individual residents. One person appeared to have wept on his shoulder. He shook the hand of a man. 

It was an unprecedented incident for a Royal House that takes great care to craft an image of a monarch who is liked by the nation. 

Queen Letizia and regional Valencia President Carlo Mazón were also in the contingent. 

Over 200 people have died from Tuesday’s floods and thousands have had their homes destroyed by the wall of water and mud. At least 60 of the dead were in Paiporta, an epicenter of suffering. 
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orlando, florida — The news rippled through Treasure Island, Florida, almost like a third storm: The mayor planned to move off the barrier island a month after Hurricane Helene flooded tens of thousands of homes along the Gulf Coast and two weeks after Hurricane Milton also ravaged the state. 

Mayor Tyler Payne’s home had been flooded and damaged beyond repair, he explained in a message to Treasure Island residents, and he and his husband can’t afford to rebuild. He also was stepping down as mayor. 

“While it pains my heart to make this decision in the midst of our recovery from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, this is the best decision for me and my family,” Payne, who had held the office for more than three years and was a fourth-generation Treasure Island resident, said Monday. 

Up and down Florida’s storm-battered Gulf Coast, residents are making the same calculations about whether they should stay or go. Can they afford to rebuild? What will insurance cover? People considering moving to Florida are contemplating whether it’s worth the risk to come to a hurricane-prone state. 

These existential questions about Florida’s appeal are raised regularly after the state experiences a busy hurricane season, such as in 2004, when four hurricanes crossed the Sunshine State. 

If moves into the state offer any answer, then hurricanes have served little as deterrents. Florida’s population has grown by one-third to 23 million residents in the two decades since Charley, Frances, Jeanne and Ivan ravaged the state. Last year, Florida added more than 365,000 residents, second only to Texas among states. 

On the other hand, there are signs that Florida’s white-hot real estate market has cooled. Sales of single-family homes were down 12% in September compared with the same time in the previous year. But interest rates, rising home prices and skyrocketing insurance costs likely played bigger roles than the recent hurricanes. 

“Florida recovers much faster than you think,” said Brad O’Connor, chief economist for Florida Realtors. 

What happens after a storm? 

Studies of hurricanes along the Gulf Coast have shown that any outbound migration tends to be short-lived, and if people do leave, it’s usually a short-distance move, such as from a barrier island to the mainland. Older people with more financial resources are more likely to return to devastated communities. 

When it comes to the housing market, there may be an initial shock to the supply as homeowners wait for reimbursement from insurance companies to fix up their homes or sell them. 

But in the three years after a hurricane, home prices in areas of Florida that were hit by one are 5% higher on average than elsewhere in the state because of smaller supply, according to a study of the impact of hurricanes on Florida’s housing market from 2000 to 2016. New homeowners tend to be richer than previous ones because wealthier buyers can absorb price increases. 

Other factors that determine how quickly communities bounce back include whether homes were insured, the speed of insurance reimbursements, and whether there are enough construction workers. Because of stricter building codes implemented in the years after Hurricane Andrew devastated South Florida in 1992, newer homes withstand hurricanes better than older ones, O’Connor said. 

“If a property is damaged and uninsured, and the homeowner says, ‘I don’t want to deal with this,’ there are always people willing to scoop up that property because it’s valuable land,” he said. “People build new homes under the new codes and there’s less of an impact from hurricanes.” 

Short term and long term 

Recent storms offer examples what happens to communities, both short term and longer term. 

In Lee County, home to Fort Myers, Hurricane Ian made landfall two years ago in what had been one of the fastest growing parts of the United States. Population growth slowed afterward to 1.5% from 4.4% before the storm. The number of households dropped from about 340,000 to about 326,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. 

In 2019, three-quarters of all United Van Lines truck moves were into Lee County and a quarter were outbound, but that dropped to two-thirds inbound and a third outbound in 2023 to 2024, the company told The Associated Press. 

The share of people in their late 20s, 30s and early 40s increased, as did the share of men with no spouse or partner, reflecting an influx of construction and recovery workers. The share of the white population dropped while it increased for the Hispanic community. The percentage of utility and transportation workers in the county jumped, according to the Census Bureau. 

Bay County in the Florida Panhandle, where Michael made landfall as the first Category 5 hurricane on the continental U.S. in a quarter century in 2018, offers a portrait of longer term trends. Four years later, Bay County had recovered its pre-hurricane population, which dropped almost 6% in the year after the storm. 

Since Michael, the county has grown more diverse, wealthier and older, with the median age rising from 39.6 to 41.4 and more people identifying as multiracial or Hispanic. The share of households earning $200,000 or more went from 4.3% before the hurricane to 8.3% in 2022 in a sign that some of the least affluent residents couldn’t afford to rebuild or return. 

Treasure Island’s mayor 

In his message to constituents, Payne said he would still stay connected to the Treasure Island community because his parents plan to rebuild on the barrier island, one of a string of beach towns along the Gulf of Mexico west of St. Petersburg known for motels, restaurants and bars lining the street. Payne, an attorney who also is an executive in his family’s eyeglass-lens manufacturing business, said in his message that his decision to move was “difficult.” 

“I completely empathize with the difficult decisions that are facing so many of our residents,” he said. 
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CHICAGO — Billboards with the words “STOP Child Gender Surgery.” Pamphlets warning about endangering minors. “PROTECT PARENT RIGHTS” plastered on church bulletins.

As voters in nine states determine whether to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitutions, opponents are using parental rights and anti-transgender messages to try to undermine support for the ballot proposals.

The measures do not mention gender-affirming surgeries, and legal experts say changing existing parental notification and consent laws regarding abortions and gender-affirming care for minors would require court action. But anti-abortion groups hoping to end a losing streak at the ballot box have turned to the type of language many Republican candidates nationwide are using in their own campaigns as they seek to rally conservative Christian voters.

“It’s really outlandish to suggest that this amendment relates to things like gender reassignment surgery for minors,” said Matt Harris, an associate professor of political science at Park University in Parkville, Missouri, a state where abortion rights are on the ballot.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated constitutional protections for abortion, voters in seven states, including conservative Kentucky, Montana and Ohio, have either protected abortion rights or defeated attempts to curtail them.

“If you can’t win by telling the truth, you need a better argument, even if that means capitalizing on the demonization of trans children,” said Dr. Alex Dworak, a family medicine physician in Omaha, Nebraska, where anti-abortion groups are using the strategy.

Tying abortion-rights ballot initiatives to parental rights and gender-affirming is a strategy borrowed from playbooks used in Michigan and Ohio, where voters nonetheless enshrined abortion rights in the state constitutions.

Both states still require minors to get parental consent for abortions, and the new amendments have not yet impacted parental involvement or gender-affirming care laws in either state, said David Cohen, a law professor at Drexel University.

“It’s just recycling the same strategies,” Cohen said.

In addition to Missouri and Nebraska, states where voters are considering constitutional amendments this fall are Montana, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and South Dakota.

Missouri’s abortion ballot measure has especially become a target. The amendment would bar the government from infringing on a “person’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom.”

Gov. Mike Parson and U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, both Republicans, have claimed the proposal would allow minors to get abortions and gender-affirming surgeries without parental involvement.

The amendment protects reproductive health services, “including but not limited to” a list of items such as prenatal care, childbirth, birth control and abortion. It does not mention gender-affirming care, but Missouri state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a Republican and lawyer with the conservative Thomas More Society, said it’s possible that could be considered reproductive health services.

Several legal experts told The Associated Press that would require a court ruling that is improbable.

“It would be a real stretch for any court to say that anything connected with gender-affirming care counts as reproductive health care,” said Saint Louis University law and gender studies professor Marcia McCormick. She noted that examples listed as reproductive health care in the Missouri amendment are all directly related to pregnancy.

As for parental consent for minors’ abortions, she pointed to an existing state law that is written similarly to one the U.S. Supreme Court found constitutional, even before Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Most states have parental involvement laws, whether requiring parental consent or notification. Even many Democratic-leaning states with explicit protections for transgender rights require parental involvement before an abortion or gender-affirming care for minors, said Mary Ruth Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law.

A state high court would have to overturn such laws, which is highly unlikely from conservative majorities in many of the states with abortion on the ballot, experts said.

In New York, a proposed amendment to the state constitution would expand antidiscrimination protections to include ethnicity, national origin, age, disability and “sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive health care and autonomy.” The constitution already bans discrimination based on race, color, creed or religion.

The measure does not mention abortion. But because it is broader, it could be easier for opponents to attack it. But legal experts noted that it would also not change existing state laws related to parental involvement in minors getting abortions or gender-affirming care.

The New York City Bar Association released a fact sheet explaining that the measure would not impact parental rights, “which are governed by other developed areas of state and federal law.” Yet the Coalition to Protect Kids-NY calls it the “Parent Replacement Act.”

Rick Weiland, co-founder of Dakotans for Health, the group behind South Dakota’s proposed amendment said it uses the Roe v. Wade framework “almost word for word.”

“All you have to do is look back at what was allowed under Roe, and there were always requirements for parental involvement,” Weiland said.

Caroline Woods, spokesperson for the anti-abortion group Life Defense Fund, said the measure “means loving parents will be completely cut out of the equation.” Weiland said those claims are part of a “constant stream of misinformation” from opponents.

If this campaign strategy failed in Michigan and Ohio, why are anti-abortion groups leaning on it for the November elections?

Ziegler, the University of California, Davis, law professor, said abortion-rights opponents know they may be “playing on more favorable terrain” in more conservative states like Missouri or in states like Florida that have higher thresholds for passing ballot measures.

“Anti-abortion groups are still looking for a winning recipe,” Ziegler said.
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