Politics

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved nearly $40 billion in new aid for Ukraine on Thursday sending the bill to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law as Washington races to keep military assistance flowing nearly three months after Russia’s invasion.

The Senate voted 86-11 in favor of the emergency package of military, economic and humanitarian assistance, by far the largest U.S. aid package for Ukraine to date. All 11 no votes were from Republicans.

The strong bipartisan support underscored the desire from lawmakers – most Republicans as well as Biden’s fellow Democrats – to support Ukraine’s war effort, without sending U.S. troops. It came hours after the Senate confirmed Biden’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, career diplomat Bridget Brink, filling a post that had been vacant for three years.

“This is a large package, and it will meet the large needs of the Ukrainian people as they fight for their survival,” Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, urging support for the emergency supplemental spending bill before the vote.

Biden said the spending bill’s passage ensured there will be no lapse in U.S. funding for Ukraine.

“I applaud the Congress for sending a clear bipartisan message to the world that the people of the United States stand together with the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their democracy and freedom,” Biden said in a statement, noting that he would announce another package of security assistance on Thursday.

A top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked the Senate and said the money would help ensure the defeat of Russia. “We are moving towards victory confidently and strategically,” Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said in an online post minutes after the vote.

DEADLINE LOOMED

The House of Representatives passed the spending bill on May 10, also with every “no” vote from Republicans. It stalled in the Senate after Republican Senator Rand Paul refused to allow a quick vote. Biden’s fellow Democrats narrowly control both the House and Senate, but Senate rules require unanimous consent to move quickly to a final vote on most legislation.

Some of those who voted “no” said they opposed spending so much when the United States has a huge national debt. “I’m always going to ask the question, how are we paying for it?” Senator Mike Braun told reporters at the Capitol.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had urged lawmakers to work quickly, telling congressional leaders in a letter that the military had enough funds to send weapons to Kyiv only until Thursday, May 19, so the bill passed just before that deadline.

When Biden signs the supplemental spending bill into law, it will bring the total amount of U.S. aid approved for Ukraine to well over $50 billion since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24.

Biden had originally asked Congress for $33 billion for Ukraine, but lawmakers increased it to about $40 billion, with an eye toward funding Ukraine for the coming months.

The package includes $6 billion for security assistance, including training, equipment, weapons and support; $8.7 billion to replenish stocks of U.S. equipment sent to Ukraine, and $3.9 billion for European Command operations.

In addition, it authorizes a further $11 billion in Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows Biden to authorize the transfer of articles and services from U.S. stocks without congressional approval in response to an emergency.

And it includes $5 billion to address food insecurity globally due to the conflict, nearly $9 billion for an economic support fund for Ukraine and some $900 million to help Ukrainian refugees.

The war has killed thousands of civilians, forced millions of Ukrainians from their homes and reduced cities to rubble. Moscow has little to show for it beyond a strip of territory in the south and marginal gains in the east.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by David Ljunggren and Steve Holland; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A year after the state of Georgia and local government partners spent $61 million to buy a sprawling tract of land for future industrial development, Gov. Brian Kemp planned to travel to the site Friday for what his office would only describe as a “special economic development announcement.”

A Washington official has previously told The Associated Press the project will be a massive auto plant where Hyundai Motor Group will manufacture electric cars. Expected to cost $7 billion and employ up to 8,500 workers, according to two Georgia officials familiar with the plans, the plant would rank among the largest development deals ever in Georgia.

None of the three officials were authorized to discuss the project publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The announcement comes five days before Kemp faces a contested Republican primary election against former U.S. Sen. David Perdue. It also coincides with President Joe Biden’s visit to South Korea, where Hyundai is headquartered.

State and local officials purchased the 2,200-acre (890-hectare) site a year ago in Bryan County, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) inland from Savannah. The land sits adjacent to Interstate 16 that links Savannah and Macon, not far from its intersection with Interstate 95 that spans the eastern seaboard. It’s also near to the Port of Savannah, the fourth-busiest U.S. seaport.

Bryan County and neighboring Chatham County, which includes Savannah, each chipped in $9 million toward the $61 million purchase price.

Hyundai Motor Group sells cars under the Hyundai and Kia brands. The South Korean automaker already operates two American assembly plants in Montgomery, Alabama, and in West Point, Georgia.

It would be the second huge electric vehicle plant announced in Georgia in less than a year. Rivian Automotive announced in December plans for a $5 billion electric truck plant east of Atlanta that’s expected to employ about 7,500 workers.

In his primary campaign against Kemp, Perdue has attacked the Rivian deal and its promises of $1.5 billion in incentives and tax breaks by Georgia and local governments. Perdue says the deal transfers money to liberal financiers and the state failed to consulted with local residents who fear the plant threatens their rural quality of life.

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Amy reported from Atlanta and Madhani reported from Washington.

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By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. congressional committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol on Thursday said it wants to ask Republican U.S. Representative Barry Loudermilk about a tour it believes he led through the complex the day before the riot.

“Based on our review of evidence in the Select Committee’s possession, we believe you have information regarding a tour you led through parts of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021,” the panel’s leaders told Loudermilk in a publicly released letter.

“Public reporting and witness accounts indicate some individuals and groups engaged in efforts to gather information about the layout of the U.S. Capitol, as well as the House and Senate office buildings, in advance of January 6, 2021,” the committee’s leaders said in the letter.

Loudermilk on Thursday said in a statement that he had been falsely accused.

“A constituent family with young children meeting with their Member of Congress in the House Office Buildings is not a suspicious group or ‘reconnaissance tour,’” Loudermilk said. “The family never entered the Capitol building.”

On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, after the Republican president gave a fiery speech urging them to protest congressional certification of his defeat by Democrat Joe Biden in the November 2020 election.

The committee has conducted hundreds of interviews, including many with close Trump associates and former White House aides, about the Capitol riot and events leading up to it.

It plans to hold public hearings next month.

The Jan. 6 committee last week sent subpoenas to five House Republicans, including Representative Kevin McCarthy, the party’s leader in the House, demanding that they sit for interviews.

All five lawmakers said they believed the committee’s investigation is partisan and illegitimate, but did not directly answer questions about whether they would comply with the subpoenas.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Leslie Adler)

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NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s oldest civil rights organization said it will propose a sweeping plan meant to protect Black Americans from white supremacist violence in response to a hate-fueled massacre that killed 10 Black people in Buffalo, New York, last weekend.

In a plan first shared with The Associated Press, the NAACP suggests a policy approach to stopping future acts of anti-Black domestic terrorism that involves law enforcement, business regulation and gun control. The proposal points to measures that could be taken up immediately by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.

Specifically, the plan calls for holding accountable any corporation that is complicit in the spread of bigotry and racism through news media and on social platforms, for enacting gun violence prevention measures that keep mass-casualty weapons out of the hands of would-be assailants and for reforming police practices so Black Americans experience the same de-escalation tactics often used to peacefully apprehend murderous white supremacists.

Saturday’s premeditated attack by an avowed racist on Black shoppers at the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo made it clear that “democracy and white supremacy cannot co-exist,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said.

He is scheduled to meet with Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday, a spokesperson for the civil rights group said.

The NAACP revealed its proposal as Black leaders across the country fret about inaction on the part of elected leaders to prevent domestic terror attacks by white supremacist against Black Americans. From Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Birmingham, Alabama, to Charleston, South Carolina, and Charlottesville, Virginia, generations of Americans have not seen the rising death toll from such violence met with urgent legislation to prevent or reduce the threat.

The Ku Klux Klan bombing that killed four Black girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham helped spur passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – historic legislation that outlawed segregation. It did not address the Klan’s violence.

Gruesome images of Alabama state troopers and white vigilantes brutally beating voting rights marchers in Selma spurred enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 – landmark legislation that outlawed Black voter suppression. It did not address excessive uses of police force on peaceful demonstrators.

And it had been 67 years after the murder of Emmett Till, a black teen from Chicago who was kidnapped in Mississippi, lynched and dumped in a river after he was falsely accused of whistling at a white woman, before Congress enacted an anti-lynching law. President Joe Biden signed the bill in late March, more than a year after using his inaugural speech to warn of the rise in white supremacist ideology and domestic terrorism.

“White supremacy is a poison,” Biden reiterated Tuesday during a visit to Buffalo. “We need to say as clearly and forcefully as we can that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in America.”

As the coronavirus pandemic gave rise to anti-Asian hate crimes, Congress quickly enacted legislation that encourages reporting of such crimes. It also gave law enforcement more resources to handle increased reporting.

But now, in the wake of the white supremacist attack in Buffalo, Black civil rights advocates are wondering if they’ll see the same haste from lawmakers on anti-Black hate crimes. The House passed legislation late Wednesday night that would bolster federal resources to prevent domestic terrorism in response to the mass shooting. Supporters of the House bill say it will help officials better track and respond to the growing threat of white extremist terrorism. But the bill still has to receive approval from the Senate.

“We need to know that our top leaders in America react and respond when we are hurt, too, like they acted and responded when others were hurt,” said prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family of 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, the eldest victim to die in the Buffalo attack.

Andrea Boyles, an associate professor of sociology and Africana studies at Tulane University, said part of the Black experience in America is seeing racialized violence against Black communities treated as a non-urgent matter.

“The message of it all has consistently been that where there is hate towards Black people, there is least likely to be consequences,” Boyles said. “We should be clear with elected officials, Black and white, Democratic or Republican, that talking points can no longer be the trend.”

The NAACP’s policy proposal seeks systemic and institutional changes that look beyond just punishing racist domestic terrorists after they have carried out mass murder. The civil rights group takes to task Fox News, the cable news channel it accuses of using airtime “to sow bigotry and racism, create dissension, spread misinformation, and promote conspiracy theories that continually encourage violence.”

It also namechecked Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has openly discussed on air the baseless “great replacement” conspiracy theory cited by the Buffalo gunman. The conspiracy is a racist ideology, which has moved from white nationalist circles to mainstream, that says white people and their influence are being “replaced” by people of color.

The NACCP also called on advertisers, including the National Football League, to take a moral stand against the cable news outlet by withholding their ad dollars.

On gun violence prevention, the NAACP prescribes the creation of a “domestic terror watch list” and the banning of those on the list from legally purchasing a firearm. And on police reforms, the proposal calls on Biden to take executive action in lieu of the stalled George Floyd Justice in Policing Act before the two-year anniversary of Floyd’s murder next week.

“All police and law enforcement officers must submit to a thorough review of their affiliations to determine they are not aligned with white supremacist organizations,” the NAACP suggests in its proposal.

Patrice Willoughby, the NAACP’s vice president of policy and legislative affairs, said the federal government already has some of the tools it needs to begin acting on the policy proposals.

“Unless there is sort of a holistic approach to stamping out hatred, we are never going to have the type of society in which people are free to live and work without fear,” she said.

Across the civil rights community, Black activists echoed the NAACP’s call for action to address white supremacy and violence.

Amara Enyia, policy and research coordinator for Movement for Black Lives, said it’s important to acknowledge that the shooting in Buffalo was not an individual act of violence, but instead a symptom and evidence of a systemic problem that has grown significantly in recent years.

“These atrocities that are committed are systems, and they’re systems of a structural and systemic cancer,” Enyia said. “You have this person who is fueled by anti-Black racism and a society whose systems are built on anti-Black racism.

“When we understand that, it can’t come as a surprise that this person would act out in this way, because he reflects a certain worldview that unfortunately undergirded the various systems upon which this society was built. And those of us who are organizers, activists, we’ve been working to try to dismantle these systems because they’ve been harmful.”

Color of Change President Rashad Robinson noted that white supremacists and nationalists have access to wider audiences now and are able to spread hateful and dangerous rhetoric across various online platforms. Robinson has called for stricter regulation of social media platforms to prevent the proliferation of supremacist materials and ideologies.

“What we’re seeing right now, with the dominance of social media platforms, is an unchecked corporate infrastructure whose incentive structures demand a type of engagement that makes going down the rabbit hole of white supremacy way more likely,” Robinson said. “Until we actually have consequences on the 21st century, technological infrastructure, we will be a place where it’s going to be dragging us back to the 18th and 19th century.”

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Stafford reported from Detroit. Morrison and Stafford are members of the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow Morrison on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison. Follow Stafford on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/kat__stafford.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate approved nearly $40 billion in aid for Ukraine on Thursday sending the bill to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law as Washington races to keep military assistance flowing nearly three months after Russia’s invasion.

The Senate voted 86-11 in favor of the package of military, economic and humanitarian assistance, by far the largest U.S. aid package for Ukraine to date. All 11 no votes were from Republicans.

“This is a large package, and it will meet the large needs of the Ukrainian people as they fight for their survival,” Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, urging support for the emergency supplemental spending bill before the vote.

“By passing this emergency aid, the Senate can now say to the Ukrainian people: help is on the way. Real help. Significant help. Help that could make sure that the Ukrainians are victorious,” Schumer said.

The House of Representatives passed the spending bill on May 10, also with every “no” vote from Republicans. It stalled in the Senate after Republican Senator Rand Paul refused to allow a quick vote. Biden’s fellow Democrats narrowly control both the House and Senate, but Senate rules require unanimous consent to move quickly to a final vote on most legislation.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had urged lawmakers to work quickly, telling congressional leaders in a letter that the military had enough funds to send weapons to Kyiv only until Thursday, May 19.

When Biden signs the supplemental spending bill into law, it will bring the total amount of U.S. aid approved for Ukraine to well over $50 billion since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24.

The package includes $6 billion for security assistance, including training, equipment, weapons and support; $8.7 billion to replenish stocks of U.S. equipment sent to Ukraine, and $3.9 billion for European Command operations.

In addition, the legislation authorizes a further $11 billion in Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows Biden to authorize the transfer of articles and services from U.S. stocks without congressional approval in response to an emergency.

It also includes $5 billion to address food insecurity globally due to the conflict and nearly $9 billion for an economic support fund for Ukraine.

The war has killed thousands of civilians, forced millions of Ukrainians from their homes and reduced cities to rubble. Moscow has little to show for it beyond a strip of territory in the south and marginal gains in the east.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Vote counting in Pennsylvania’s Republican primary for the U.S. Senate dragged into a third day as Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund CEO David McCormick remained essentially tied with tens of thousands of ballots left to tally.

Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, led McCormick by 1,240 votes, or 0.09 percentage points, out of 1,334,376 ballots counted as of midday Thursday. The race remained close enough to trigger Pennsylvania’s automatic recount law, with the separation between the candidates inside the law’s 0.5% margin.

Oz’s margin has narrowed in the past day, as county election officials continue to count mail ballots, but election workers still have thousands of ballots left to count in the exceptionally close race. Pennsylvania’s Department of State, which oversees elections, said Thursday that there are about 51,000 mail-in and absentee ballots — 17,000 in the Republican primary — left to be counted.

The hard-fought primary for the Republican nomination to fill retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey’s seat is expected to be among the top races in the country in the November general election. The winner will face Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who won the Democratic nomination just days after suffering a stroke. He said he expects a full recovery, and remained in the hospital Thursday.

Oz and McCormick have said they believe victory is near.

On Thursday, McCormick told a Philadelphia radio show host that “we’re pretty confident that we’re going to end with me in the win column.” On Wednesday night, Oz told Fox News host Sean Hannity that “this election is ours. We have done well.”

Trump has encouraged Oz to preemptively declare victory — much like the former president did in the 2020 election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. But Oz has made no indication of doing so, and McCormick, when asked about it, shrugged it off, saying, “I’ve been rough and tumble before in my life, and I’m ready for it.”

Statewide, McCormick was doing better than Oz among mail ballots, while Oz was doing better among votes cast on election day. Counties also must still count provisional, overseas and military absentee ballots before they certify their results to the state by next Tuesday’s deadline.

County election officials have counted almost all ballots cast in person on election day, with the exception of Allegheny County, according to an Associated Press survey of county election officials.

McCormick leads Oz in Allegheny County among mail ballots and those that were cast on election day.

Delaware County and Philadelphia also have some precinct results from election day still left to be counted, according to the McCormick campaign.

Republican turnout exceeded 38%, the highest midterm primary turnout in at least two decades, boosted by more than $70 million in advertising and other spending in the Senate GOP campaign.

Oz was helped by the endorsement from Trump, while a super PAC backing McCormick weighed in heavily, spending about $20 million, much of it to attack Oz.

Both men spent millions of their own dollars on the campaign, as well, and battled accusations of being carpetbagger s — Oz moved from a mansion in northern New Jersey overlooking Manhattan to run, while McCormick moved from Connecticut’s ritzy Gold Coast.

A rival, conservative activist Kathy Barnette, appeared to be surging in polls in the days leading up to the election, but she finished third.

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Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/timelywriter.

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Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ap_politics.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden departs on a six-day trip to South Korea and Japan aiming to build rapport with the two nations’ leaders while also sending an unmistakable message to China: Russia’s faltering invasion of Ukraine should give Beijing pause about its own saber-rattling in the Pacific.

Biden departs Thursday and is set to meet newly elected South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Their talks will touch on trade, increasing resilience in the global supply chain, growing concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program and the explosive spread of COVID-19 in that country.

While in Japan, Biden will also meet with fellow leaders of the Indo-Pacific strategic alliance known as the Quad, a group that includes Australia, India and Japan.

The U.S. under Biden has forged a united front with democratic allies that has combined their economic heft to make Russia pay a price for its invasion of Ukraine. That alliance includes South Korea and Japan. But even as Biden is to be feted by Yoon at a state dinner and hold intimate conversations with Kishida, the U.S. president knows those relationships need to be deepened if they’re to serve as a counterweight to China’s ambitions.

“We think this trip is going to put on full display President Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy and then it will show in living color, the United States can at once lead the free world in responding to Russia’s war in Ukraine, and that at the same time chart a course for effective, principled American leadership and engagement in a region that will define much of the future of the 21st century,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

The war in eastern Europe has created a sense of urgency about China among major U.S. allies in the Pacific. Many have come to see the moment as their own existential crisis — one in which it’s critical to show China it should not try to seize contested territory through military action.

Biden’s overseas travel comes as he faces strong domestic headwinds: an infant formula shortage, budget-busting inflation, a rising number of COVID-19 infections, and increasing impatience among a Democratic base bracing for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that is likely to result in a roll back of abortion rights.

The conundrums Biden faces in Asia are no less daunting.

China’s military assertiveness has grown over the course of Biden’s presidency, with its provocative actions frequently putting the region on edge.

Last month, China held military drills around Taiwan after a group of U.S. lawmakers arrived for talks on the self-governed island. Late last year China stepped up sorties into Taiwan’s air space. Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state, but Beijing views Taiwan as a breakaway province and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve unification.

Japan has reported frequent intrusions by China’s military vessels into Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The uninhabited islets are controlled by Japan but claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday criticized what he called negative moves by Washington and Tokyo against Beijing during a video call with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.

“What arouses attention and vigilance is the fact that, even before the American leader has set out for the meeting, the so-called joint Japan-U.S. anti-China rhetoric is already kicking up dust,” Wang said, according to China’s Foreign Ministry.

Meanwhile, South Korea could tilt closer to the U.S. under Yoon, who took office last week. The new South Korean president has criticized his predecessor as “subservient” to China by seeking to balance the relationships with Washington and Beijing. To neutralize North Korea’s nuclear threats, Yoon has pledged to seek a stronger U.S. security commitment.

The Biden administration has warned China against assisting Russia in its war with Ukraine. In March, the U.S. informed Asian and European allies that American intelligence determined that China had signaled to Russia a willingness to provide military support and financial backing to reduce the blow of severe sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies.

Biden administration officials say that the Russian invasion has been a clarifying moment for some of the bigger powers in Asia as financial sanctions and export bans have been put in place to check Russia.

U.S. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel, Biden’s top envoy to Japan, said the Japanese have stood out by rallying eight of 10 members of Association of Southeast Nations to back a U.N. vote against the Russian invasion.

“Japan has been a pacesetter that has picked up and set the pace for South Korea, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and others here in the Indo Pacific area,” Emanuel said of Tokyo’s support of Ukraine following the Russian invasion.

Biden, who is making his first presidential trip to Asia, met Kishida briefly on the sidelines of a U.N. climate conference last year shortly after the Japanese prime minister took office. He has yet to meet with Yoon face-to-face. The South Korean leader, a former prosecutor who came to office without political or foreign policy experience, was elected in a closely fought election.

Biden arrives in the midst of an unfolding crisis in North Korea, where a mass COVID-19 outbreak is spreading through its unvaccinated population. North Korea acknowledged domestic COVID-19 infections for the first time last week, ending a widely doubted claim it had been virus-free.

In recent months, North Korea has test-launched a spate of missiles in what experts see as an attempt to modernize its weapons and pressure its rivals to accept the country as a nuclear state and relax their sanctions.

Sullivan said U.S. intelligence officials have determined there’s a “genuine possibility” that North Korea will conduct another ballistic missile test or nuclear test around the time of Biden’s visit to Asia.

To be certain, China will also be carefully watching for “cracks in the relationship” during Biden’s trip, said Scott Kennedy, a China economic analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Sullivan confirmed that Biden will use the trip to launch the long-anticipated Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a proposed pact to set rules for trade and digital standards, ensuring reliable supply chains, worker protections, decarbonization and tax and anticorruption issues. Known as IPEF, it’s a planned substitute for the Trans-Pacific Partnership that President Donald Trump left in 2017 and that the Biden administration has not rejoined.

In terms of economic power, the U.S. slightly lags China in the Pacific, according to the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank. But the institute’s analysis shows the possibility that a trade pact could magnify the combined power of the U.S. and its allies relative to China. Biden’s challenge is that IPEF would not necessarily cut tariff rates or give allied signatories greater access to U.S. markets, something Asian countries seek.

Biden and his fellow leaders also have their own national interests and differences over what it means to strengthen supply chains that have been rattled by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Democratic president says the U.S. must increase computer chip production on American soil. The shortage has fueled inflation by delaying production of autos, life-saving medical devices, smartphones, video game consoles, laptops and other modern conveniences. Yet allies in Asia are talking about the need to expand their capacity for making semiconductors — a valuable export — in their own countries.

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By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) – U.S. Representative Lucy McBath has been a rising Democratic star since 2018, when she ended 40 years of Republican dominance in a suburban Atlanta seat.

Congresswoman Carolyn Bourdeaux staked her own claim to fame in 2020, when she captured the district next door and became the only Democratic House candidate in the country to flip a Republican seat that year.

But a new Republican-drawn congressional map aimed at eliminating one of their seats now has the two women squaring off for their party’s nomination in Georgia’s reconfigured 7th district. That ensures only one will advance from Tuesday’s primary to November’s general election, to the irritation of activists who spent years turning Atlanta’s suburbs Democratic.

“I was really frustrated with the process of redistricting,” said Mary Baron, a retired attorney who volunteered for McBath’s two previous runs and donated to Bourdeaux’s campaign. “It seemed clear to me that they created it to put a Republican into office.”

The race is one of a half-dozen around the United States in which redistricting has pushed incumbents from the same party to run against one other, an awkward result of the once-a-decade process of drawing new congressional lines.

The rare contests often serve as a proxy for the larger tensions roiling each party – which, this time around, means establishment Democrats and Republicans competing against the progressive left and Trump-dominated right.

In New York this week, a court-appointed special master released a draft congressional map, after the state’s top court invalidated a Democratic-drawn plan as an illegal gerrymander.

The new proposal could pit two pairs of Democratic incumbents against one another, including powerful representatives Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, who have each spent three decades in Congress and will face off this August in what will be a massively expensive primary.

INTRAPARTY TENSIONS

In some states, such as Georgia, the intraparty contests stem from a deliberately partisan effort by one party to draw favorable lines.

In other cases, the match-ups are an inevitable outcome of redistricting. West Virginia lost one of its three seats as a result of sluggish population growth, forcing two incumbents to face off. Republican U.S. Representative Alex Mooney defeated fellow Republican congressman David McKinley in last week’s primary election.

In Illinois, Republican first-term U.S. Representative Mary Miller – endorsed by former President Donald Trump – is going after fellow Republican Rodney Davis, who has served a decade in the House.

Miller, a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, has attacked Davis for his vote in favor of a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Davis, who is seen as a more traditional Republican, has the backing of the state’s party infrastructure.

New York’s new map immediately highlighted the antagonism between the Democratic Party’s establishment and left wings. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of the national Democratic Party’s congressional campaign arm, announced within minutes of the map’s release that he would run in a new district made up mostly of liberal Black Democrat Mondaire Jones’ seat.

Jones criticized the decision in an interview with Politico but has not said whether he will challenge Maloney. Jones could also run against Jamaal Bowman, a fellow first-term Black progressive Democrat, who occupies a neighboring district.

The Georgia race has been particularly galling for Democrats, given that McBath and Bourdeaux’s victories were notched in suburban Atlanta – ground zero for President Joe Biden’s surprising statewide win in 2020, as well as for twin Senate runoff elections in 2021 that gave the party control of Congress.

Bourdeaux has attacked McBath for abandoning her district, which was redrawn to be heavily Republican, rather than fighting to keep it.

“Everything that we have been fighting for, you have been undermining by coming and fighting me here,” Bourdeaux said at a recent debate.

McBath has responded by noting that polls suggest she is leading the race, arguing that shows voters know her and the work she has done on their behalf.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Rosalba O’Brien)

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By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden meets the leaders of Sweden and Finland on Thursday after the nations set aside their long-standing neutrality and moved to join the NATO alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Hours before his first trip to Asia as president, Biden will sit down with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish President Sauli Niinistö at the White House to discuss their NATO applications.

“This is a historic event, a watershed moment in European security. Two nations with a long tradition of neutrality will be joining the world’s most powerful defensive alliance,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Biden has made uniting Europe against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a top priority. Turkey has raised questions about including Finland and Sweden in the alliance, asking Sweden halt support for Kurdish militants it considers a terrorist group and both to lift their bans on some sales of arms to Turkey.

Sullivan told reporters on Wednesday that U.S. officials are confident Turkey’s concerns can be addressed. All 30 NATO members need to approve any new entrant.

Biden’s meeting comes as he seeks approval from the U.S. Congress for $40 billion in aid for Ukraine to provide weapons and humanitarian assistance through September.

U.S. officials said Wednesday the United States has collected intelligence showing some Russian officials are aware there are abuses being conducted against Ukrainians in Mariupol.

“Some Russian officials recognize that despite claiming to be ‘liberators’ of the Russian-speaking city of Mariupol, Russian forces are carrying out grievous abuses in the city, including beating and electrocuting city officials and robbing homes,” the official said, citing declassified intelligence.

Russian officials worry these abuses “may further inspire Mariupol residents to resist Russian occupation,” the official said.

The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment and Reuters was unable to verify the intelligence claim.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Heather Timmons and Lincoln Feast.)

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By Jarrett Renshaw and David Morgan

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -Pennsylvania’s hotly contested U.S. Senate Republican primary between TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund executive David McCormick was still undecided on Wednesday and could drag on into next week, with a possible recount looming.

Oz, whose candidacy was propelled by a late endorsement from former President Donald Trump, led McCormick by just over 500 ballots cast on Tuesday out of nearly 1.3 million counted, while conservative political commentator Kathy Barnette trailed at a distant third, according to Edison Research.

Under Pennsylvania law, any margin of 0.5% or less triggers an automatic recount.

A top state election official told CNN that ballot counting would continue in coming days and said authorities should know by the middle of next week whether a recount will be necessary.

Oz and McCormick, who have Pennsylvania roots but only recently moved back to the state, have both struggled with questions about their authenticity and commitment to Trump-style populism.

Either could be at a disadvantage in November against Democratic nominee John Fetterman — the goateed, tattooed lieutenant governor with an “everyman” appeal.

“A lot of Republicans, especially populist Republicans, didn’t find Oz or McCormick to be populist enough. And of course, they’re both seen as carpetbaggers,” said Jeffrey Brauer, a political science professor at Keystone College.

A McCormick adviser estimated there were 30,000 to 50,000 votes still uncounted, with some 23 counties still tallying votes.

The two leading campaigns focused on Lancaster County, where a technical error caused delays.

POLL WATCHING

The Oz and McCormick campaigns have poll watchers in the county and will be also sending people to monitor the processing of provisional and military ballots across Pennsylvania, according to campaign officials.

Trump waded into the contest on Wednesday by saying Oz should “declare victory” and suggesting without evidence that his chosen candidate could lose through voter fraud. Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed that his 2020 defeat was the result of widespread fraud, an allegation refuted by multiple courts, state election officials and members of his own administration.

“It makes it much harder for them to cheat with the ballots that they ‘just happened to find’,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social media platform.

Both Oz and McCormick told supporters late on Tuesday that they wanted all the votes counted, with each predicting ultimate victory.

On the Democratic side, Fetterman defeated moderate U.S. Representative Conor Lamb just hours after having had a pacemaker implanted to address irregular heart rhythms that caused a stroke last week. He has said doctors expect a full recovery.

The contest between Oz and McCormick represents the latest test of Trump’s influence with Republicans, after an election night in which candidates bearing his endorsement won their party’s nominations for governor of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Senate in North Carolina.

Trump has endorsed more than 150 candidates as he tries to solidify his status as his party’s kingmaker, though his picks have not always prevailed.

One such endorsee, U.S. Representative Madison Cawthorn, lost his bid for a second two-year term in North Carolina after a dizzying string of self-inflicted scandals. Trump’s pick for Idaho governor, Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin, failed in her bid to oust the incumbent Republican, Brad Little.

But another Trump-endorsed candidate in North Carolina, U.S. Representative Ted Budd, won the state’s Republican U.S. Senate nomination. He will face Democratic former state Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, who is seeking to become the state’s first Black senator.

The Pennsylvania and North Carolina Senate races are two of the most important midterm contests, as Democrats fight to retain slim majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate. Both seats are held by retiring Republicans: Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania and Richard Burr in North Carolina.

Republicans are well positioned to regain control of the House, which could enable them to stonewall President Biden’s legislative agenda. Biden’s public approval rating is at 42%, with 50% of Americans disapproving of his performance, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed on Tuesday.

Democrats have a better chance of keeping control of the Senate, currently split 50-50 between the parties with Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote.

Trump-endorsed Republican Doug Mastriano, who has amplified Trump’s false claims of voter fraud and who marched on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, will face Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro in a Pennsylvania governor’s race that could have major implications for abortion rights and election integrity.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia, David Morgan in Washington and Joseph Ax in New York; Editing by Scott Malone, Ross Colvin, Will Dunham, Howard Goller and Jonathan Oatis)

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