Former congresswoman urges limits on PAC donations in US elections

Marie Newman, a Democrat who represented the 3rd Congressional District on Chicago’s Southwest Side and suburbs, which was heavily populated by Palestinian American voters, told Arab News she was beaten because of her support for Palestinian, Muslim and Arab causes. (US House of Congress)
Marie Newman, a Democrat who represented the 3rd Congressional District on Chicago’s Southwest Side and suburbs, which was heavily populated by Palestinian American voters, told Arab News she was beaten because of her support for Palestinian, Muslim and Arab causes. (US House of Congress)
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Updated 23 March 2025
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Former congresswoman urges limits on PAC donations in US elections

Former congresswoman urges limits on PAC donations in US elections
  • Marie Newman defeated Democrat Congressman Dan Lipinski — who frequently voted in support of Israel — and rejected overtures from pro-Israel lobbyists to support their causes

CHICAGO: A former congresswoman who represented one of the largest concentrations of Arab and Muslims voters is urging the adoption of laws to limit how much groups with foreign lobbying interests can contribute to candidates in elections.

Marie Newman, a Democrat who represented the 3rd Congressional District on Chicago’s Southwest Side and suburbs, which was heavily populated by Palestinian American voters, told Arab News she was beaten because of her support for Palestinian, Muslim and Arab causes and by enormous donations made to her rival by pro-Israel political action committees (PACs).

In 2017, Newman defeated Democrat Congressman Dan Lipinski — who frequently voted in support of Israel — and rejected overtures from pro-Israel lobbyists to support their causes, but immediately faced opposition from pro-Israel PACs when she rejected conditions they demanded in exchange for their support.

“AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Council) hated me with every ounce of their being and made it very clear to me. I refused in the early days of the campaign in 2017 when I first ran to take their money and I really wouldn’t talk to them because I had no interest in talking to them,” Newman said.

“I knew that they would give me a set of talking points on how to address Israel, Palestine and the Arab world and I wasn’t interested. They spent a million-and-a-half-dollars to get me out of office representing the constituents of that district.”

Newman details her election fight against the money poured into the race by AIPAC and the Democratic Majority for Israel lobbying groups in her new book, “A Life Made from Scratch,” which was released this past week.

She advocates for non-violence between Israelis and Palestinians and supported the two-state solution. During the Gaza war, after leaving office, she was also very clear in her criticism of the use of violence by Hamas and Israel’s government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“It’s important to make that clear, that it’s a genocide in Gaza and they must be stopped. So, this position we (the Democrats) have had, that we are betrothed to the pro-Israel lobby is wrong,” Newman said, arguing that she was in line with the majority of the American Jewish community nationally and with mainstream Americans in the Illinois region.

“By the way, 60 percent of Jewish people support a ceasefire and de-occupying the region. I have been talking about getting rid of the occupation in Palestine for close to 10 years. Most, over half of American Jewish people, believe that there should not be an occupation. It’s not a radical idea.”

Newman was attacked in mailers, paid for by PAC money, which falsely accused her of being anti-Israel and antisemitic. Ironically, Newman’s husband is Jewish.

She called for all PAC money, whether from a foreign lobby like Israel, or from a domestic group lobbying for corporations and specialty industries, to be eliminated or drastically limited in election campaigns. She said the issue is not just about foreign influence, but also the enormous influence PACs have on important domestic issues.

“The reasons we don’t have healthcare is because of corporate PACs. The reason we don’t have solid relationships everywhere in the world is because of these foreign entity PACs like AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel,” Newman said.

“The most egregious corporate players are in health insurance, the pharmaceutical industry, big oil, and the banking industry. Those four industries own Congress. Something over 90 percent of Congress takes corporate PAC money from those entities frequently.”

Newman noted that 12 members of Congress were forced out of office in the last election because of their criticism of Israel’s government.

“There’re 12 of us who are no longer in Congress because (AIPAC uses) the same formula where they either create a scandal, a fake scandal or false accusations, and then they beat you down. They raise millions of dollars against you. They put the money into the election race and they support your opponent,” Newman said, noting that the money is used to make the false accusations believable to voters.

“They make an accusation, and then they raise huge amounts of money, enormous amounts of money, sometimes without limits, and then use that money to push that accusation against you, even if the accusation is false … They used the money to weaponize antisemitism.”

Newman rejected assertions against her of antisemitism or that she is anti-Israel, and emphasized: “At the same time, you want to be fair to people, the Palestinians.”

Election law limits to $6.600 the sum a married couple who are voters can give to a candidate in one election, Newman said.

She said it was unfair to American voters that PACs representing domestic industries such as healthcare, banks or the pharmaceutical industry, or that advocate for policies of foreign countries, can donate unlimited amounts of money to candidates drawing what American voters are allowed to contribute.

“It’s one of the reasons I wrote my book. PAC money drives everything in Washington D.C. and, sadly, what happens when corporations and when politicians are beholden to corporate PACs and foreign entity PACs is that that money takes away the voice of the American people and it is replaced by the ‘talking points’ of those PACs,” Newman said.

While Newman was serving, pro-Israel PACs and political activists lobbied the Illinois legislature to redraw the congressional district maps. Newman’s 3rd District was divided and merged into five other districts to dilute the pro-Arab vote.

She was beaten when in 2022 she was forced into a contest in a newly drawn congressional district with the incumbent, three-term pro-Israel Democratic Congressman Sean Casten.


Pentagon says leak probe may lead to US prosecutions

Pentagon says leak probe may lead to US prosecutions
Updated 2 sec ago
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Pentagon says leak probe may lead to US prosecutions

Pentagon says leak probe may lead to US prosecutions
Hegseth left open the possibility that individuals could be exonerated
“We said enough is enough. We’re going to launch a leak investigation,” he said

WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned on Tuesday of possible prosecutions of former senior advisers who were fired during a probe into leaks of Pentagon information to the media, saying evidence would be handed over to the Department of Justice once the investigation is completed.
Dan Caldwell, who was one of Hegseth’s top advisers, and two other senior officials were fired on Friday after being escorted out of the Pentagon. But they have denied any wrongdoing and said they have been told nothing about any alleged crimes.
Hegseth, who has come under fire for using unclassified messaging system Signal to discuss plans to attack Yemen’s Houthi group, left open the possibility that individuals could be exonerated during the investigation but played down those chances.
“If those people are exonerated, fantastic. We don’t think — based on what we understand — that it’s going to be a good day for a number of those individuals because of what was found in the investigation,” Hegseth told Fox News.
Hegseth said there had been a number of leaks that triggered the investigation, including about military options to ensure US access to the Panama Canal and Elon Musk’s visit to the Pentagon.
“We said enough is enough. We’re going to launch a leak investigation,” Hegseth said.
“We took it seriously. It led to some unfortunate places, people I have known for quite some time. But it’s not my job to protect them. It’s my job to protect national security.”
He said evidence would eventually be handed over to the Department of Justice.
“When that evidence is gathered sufficiently — and this has all happened very quickly — it will be handed over to the DOJ and those people will be prosecuted if necessary,” Hegseth said.
Caldwell had played a critical role as an adviser to Hegseth and his importance was underscored in a leaked text chain on Signal disclosed by The Atlantic last month.
In it, Hegseth named Caldwell as the best staff point of contact for the National Security Council as it prepared for the launch of strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
On Sunday, news emerged of a second Signal chat, a disclosure that Hegseth and other officials have blamed on former Pentagon employees.
Despite growing calls from Democrats for Hegseth to resign, President Donald Trump has stood firmly by his defense secretary.
John Ullyot, who was ousted from his job as a Pentagon spokesperson after two months, said on Sunday that Hegseth’s Defense Department was in “total chaos.”
“The dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership,” Ullyot wrote in an opinion piece in Politico.
Asked about Ullyot’s remarks, Hegseth said: “He’s misrepresented a lot of things in the press. It’s unfortunate.”

Ghana in fresh drive to woo back Sahel states to West African bloc

Ghana in fresh drive to woo back Sahel states to West African bloc
Updated 3 min 17 sec ago
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Ghana in fresh drive to woo back Sahel states to West African bloc

Ghana in fresh drive to woo back Sahel states to West African bloc
  • John Mahama: ‘The recent decision by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to withdraw from ECOWAS is a regrettable development’
  • Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are led by juntas that seized power in coups between 2020 and 2023

ACCRA: Ghana’s new leader said Tuesday he initiated a fresh bid to woo back Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to the west African bloc ECOWAS after the junta-led countries quit earlier this year.
President John Mahama said his government had appointed a special envoy to “initiate high-level conversations” with the three countries after their withdrawal from the political and economic group.
“The recent decision by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to withdraw from ECOWAS is a regrettable development,” said Mahama at the launch of the bloc’s 50th anniversary celebrations in Accra, Ghana’s capital.
“We must respond not with isolation or recrimination, but with understanding, dialogue and a willingness to listen and to engage,” he said.
Before him, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye had initiated similar efforts but said earlier this month he had “done everything possible” to bring the three countries back into the bloc, to no avail.
ECOWAS earlier said it had extended invitations to the junta leaders to attend the event at Accra’s International Conference Center.
Officials acknowledged the presence of representatives of the three countries at the event, but did not specify who they were, with the junta leaders apparently having declined to attend.
Mahama, who took office in January, said he has “prioritized diplomatic re-engagement with our Sahelian neighbors.”
Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are led by juntas that seized power in coups between 2020 and 2023 and have since turned away from former colonial power France and moved closer to Russia.
They lie in the region known as the Sahel, which stretches between the dry Sahara desert in the north and the more humid savannas to the south.
They quit ECOWAS at the beginning of the year, accusing the regional bloc of being subservient to France.
They have joined together in a bloc called the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which was originally set up as a defense pact in 2023 but now seeks closer integration.
Each has been wracked by attacks by extremists allied with either Al-Qaeda or Daesh for a decade — violence that governments have not been able to eradicate despite previous help from French forces.
Together the three countries sprawl over an area of some 2.8 million square kilometers (1.1 million square miles) — roughly four times the size of France — in Africa’s northwest.


Vietnam urges stricter controls on origin of goods after tariff shock

Vietnam urges stricter controls on origin of goods after tariff shock
Updated 22 April 2025
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Vietnam urges stricter controls on origin of goods after tariff shock

Vietnam urges stricter controls on origin of goods after tariff shock
  • The ministry called for stricter controls to avoid “sanctions that countries may apply on goods imported to their countries“
  • “Uniform and determined measures are required... to stop and prevent fraud in the origin of goods”

HANOI: Vietnam’s trade ministry has ordered authorities to tighten control over the origin of goods to avoid sanctions by trading partners in the wake of threatened US tariffs, according to a document seen by AFP on Tuesday.
A document by the ministry dated April 15 said escalating trade tension meant Vietnam was increasingly exposed to trans-shipment fraud.
Less than two weeks earlier, US President Donald Trump had threatened massive 46 percent levies on Vietnam, with Washington accusing the country of facilitating Chinese exports to the United States and allowing Beijing to get around tariffs.
In the document, the ministry called for stricter controls to avoid “sanctions that countries may apply on goods imported to their countries.”
“Uniform and determined measures are required... to stop and prevent fraud in the origin of goods... especially illegal imported raw materials and goods without origin for the production of goods for export,” it added, without naming China.
Hanoi is now trying to negotiate with Trump over the so-called reciprocal tariffs, which have been paused until July.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh urged for “negotiations to promote balanced, stable, sustainable, and effective trade relations with the United States.”
He warned however that the talks were “not to affect another market.”
China on Monday said it “firmly opposes” other countries making trade deals with the United States at Beijing’s expense, warning it would take “countermeasures” against them.
During his visit to Vietnam last week, China’s President Xi Jinping urged the communist neighbor to join forces in upholding free trade.
Trump, however, said the trip was aiming to “screw” the United States.
Vietnam was Southeast Asia’s biggest buyer of Chinese goods in 2024, with a bill of $161.9 billion.
In the first three months of this year, the United States was Hanoi’s biggest export market.
Vietnam has long pursued a “bamboo diplomacy” approach — striving to stay on good terms with both China and the United States.


Many feared dead in gun attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir

Many feared dead in gun attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir
Updated 22 April 2025
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Many feared dead in gun attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir

Many feared dead in gun attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir
  • Initial reports say shots fired at mostly Indian tourists visiting Baisaran meadow
  • Attack much larger than anything directed at civilians in recent years, says official

SRINAGAR, India: Many people are feared to have died after gunmen indiscriminately fired at tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Tuesday, officials said.

Police have described the incident as a “terror attack” and blamed militants fighting against Indian rule.

“This attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years,” Omar Abdullah, the region’s top elected official, wrote on social media.

“The death toll is still being ascertained so I don’t want to get into those details,” he said.

Initial reports said shots were fired at mostly Indian tourists visiting Baisaran meadow, some 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the disputed region’s resort town of Pahalgam.

Police and officials said tourists with gunshot wounds were evacuated to local hospitals.

The scene of the attack was cordoned off as police launched an operation to track down the attackers.

India’s home minister, Amit Shah, is heading to Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where he said he would review the situation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on an official visit in Saudi Arabia, has been briefed about the incident, Shah said.

“We will come down heavily on the perpetrators with the harshest consequences,” Shah wrote in a post on the X social media platform.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a key Kashmiri resistance leader, condemned what he described as a “cowardly attack on tourists.”

“Such violence is unacceptable and against the ethos of Kashmir which welcomes visitors with love and warmth. Condemn it strongly,” he wrote on X.

The attack coincided with the visit to India of US Vice President JD Vance, who is on a largely personal four-day visit.

The meadow in Pahalgam is a popular sightseeing destination, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and dotted with pine forests. It is visited by hundreds of tourists every day.

Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety.

Tuesday’s attack seems to be a major shift in the regional conflict where tourists for many years have largely been spared from violence despite a spate of targeted killings of Hindus, including immigrant workers from Indian states, after New Delhi ended the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019 and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms.

Tensions have been simmering ever since as India has intensified its counterinsurgency operations.

The region, known for rolling Himalayan foothills, exquisitely decorated houseboats and pristine meadows, has also become a major domestic tourist destination, with hotels booked out for months. Kashmir has also drawn millions of visitors, who enjoy a strange peace kept by ubiquitous security checkpoints, armored vehicles and patrolling soldiers.

Although violence has ebbed in recent times in Kashmir Valley, the heart of anti-India rebellion, fighting between government forces and rebels has largely shifted to remote areas of Jammu region including Rajouri, Poonch and Kathua, where Indian troops have faced deadly attacks.

Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored “terrorism.” Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.


Kremlin warns against rushing Ukraine talks

Kremlin warns against rushing Ukraine talks
Updated 22 April 2025
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Kremlin warns against rushing Ukraine talks

Kremlin warns against rushing Ukraine talks
  • “This topic is so complex, connected with a settlement, that, of course, probably it is not worth setting any rigid time frames and trying to get a settlement,” Peskov said
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his team’s “first priority” at the London talks would be the idea of “an unconditional ceasefire“

KYIV: The Kremlin on Tuesday warned against rushing Ukraine peace talks, pushing back on US President Donald Trump’s hopes for a speedy deal the day before Ukraine’s allies are set to meet in London.
Trump, who promised on the campaign trail to strike a deal between Moscow and Kyiv in 24 hours, has in three months failed to wrangle concessions from Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt his invasion.
The Republican had said over the weekend he hoped a peace deal could be struck “this week” despite no signs the two sides are anywhere close to agreeing even a ceasefire, let alone a wider long-term settlement.
Moscow’s forces occupy around a fifth of Ukrainian territory and tens of thousands have been killed since they invaded in February 2022.
“This topic is so complex, connected with a settlement, that, of course, probably it is not worth setting any rigid time frames and trying to get a settlement, a viable settlement, in a short-time frame,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state TV on Tuesday.
After rejecting a US-Ukrainian offer for a full and unconditional ceasefire last month, Putin announced a surprise Easter truce over the weekend.
Fighting dipped during the 30-hour period but Russia launched fresh attacks on residential areas on Monday and Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said.
Kyiv and its allies dismissed the truce as a PR exercise from Putin.
“The Easter truce that he announced somewhat unexpectedly was a marketing operation, a charm operation aimed at preventing President Trump from becoming impatient and angry,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the FranceInfo broadcaster.
Ukraine’s allies will meet in London on Wednesday, a senior Kyiv official told AFP, where they are expected to continue discussions on the contours of a possible deal they could all get behind.
European leaders are scrambling to work out how they can support Ukraine should Trump pull Washington’s vital military and financial backing.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his team’s “first priority” at the London talks would be the idea of “an unconditional ceasefire.”
Zelensky proposed to Russia on Sunday halting missile and drones strikes against civilian facilities for at least 30 days.
While saying he would “analyze” the idea, Putin threw doubt on it 24 hours later by accusing Kyiv of using civilian facilities for military purposes.
He held open the prospect of bilateral talks on the topic, though the Kremlin said there were no fixed plans to engage with Kyiv.
“There are no concrete plans (to talk), there is readiness from Putin to discuss this question,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
“If we are talking about civilian infrastructure, then we need to understand, when is it civilian infrastructure and when is it a military target,” he added.
The talks in London — a follow-up to a meeting in Paris last week — come after Russia resumed its aerial attacks.
Russia hit the southern city of Zaporizhzhia with “two guided aerial bombs” on Tuesday, killing one and wounding 23, the regional head said.
Photos from Ukraine’s emergency services showed the outer walls of an apartment block blown open and a bloodied man being tended to by medics on a stretcher, with bandages around his head and arms.
“One guided aerial bomb hit an infrastructure facility, another one hit a densely populated neighborhood, a residential building directly,” Zaporizhzhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram.
Russian strikes wounded another six in the southern city of Kherson and seven in Kharkiv, in the north east.
Its army also claimed to have captured a small village in the eastern Donetsk region, where its troops are advancing.
In Paris last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio presented Washington’s plan for ending the war, before both he and Trump warned Washington’s patience was running thin and could lead it to withdraw.
Many in Ukraine fear any settlement he brokers could reward Russian aggression.