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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday singled out AIPAC as a 'special interest group pushing a wildly unpopular agenda,' starting a new debate about the pro-Israel organization's involvement in the party

The debate has been simmering since AIPAC's United Democracy Project super PAC spent unprecedented sums to unseat two progressive Democrats in their respective primaries over the summer – largely, but not exclusively, bankrolled by donations from Republican megadonors in an election year that was far and away the most expensive in history.

As internal Democratic debate over the party's ills and its future reached fever pitch in recent days, AIPAC was once again catapulted to the center of the matter.

"Weird to have a whole discourse about 'special interest groups' that completely leaves out corporate and industry lobbies – by far the most influential 'groups' in the Democratic Party," Jeremy Slevin, a senior adviser to AIPAC foe Sen. Bernie Sanders, wrote on Sunday.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the most nationally prominent AIPAC critic despite, ironically, being attacked from the left as an apologist for the group earlier this summer, singled out the pro-Israel organization while echoing Slevin's point. "If people want to talk about members of Congress being overly influenced by a special interest group pushing a wildly unpopular agenda that pushes voters away from Democrats then they should be discussing AIPAC," she tweeted in response.

Nov 19 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden has approved provision of anti-personnel land mines to Ukraine, a U.S. official told Reuters, a step that could help slow Russian advances in its east, especially when used along with other munitions from the United States.

The United States expects Ukraine to use the mines in its own territory, though it has committed not to use them in areas populated with its own civilians, the official said. The Washington Post first reported the development.

The office of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian defence ministry, the Russian defence ministry and the Kremlin did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests to comment.

The United States has provided Ukraine with anti-tank mines throughout its war with Russia, but the addition of anti-personnel mines aims at blunting the advance of Russian ground troops, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The mayor of Amsterdam has taken back comments describing violence that took place following a football match between Israeli and Dutch teams earlier this month as a "pogrom", and has said Israel "bypassed" Dutch authorities regarding the details of the events.

Mayor Femke Halsema was speaking on Sunday evening on Dutch state broadcaster NPO's News Hour programme.

On 6 and 7 November, travelling Maccabi Tel Aviv fans stirred trouble in different parts of the Dutch capital by chanting racist anti-Arab slogans ahead of their Uefa Europa League match against Amsterdam club Ajax.

Pope Francis has said that allegations of a genocide in Gaza should be “carefully investigated” marking some of his strongest criticism yet of Israel’s war with Hamas.

“According to some experts… what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” Vatican News, the Holy See’s official news outlet, cited the pontiff as writing in a forthcoming book. “It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”

A UN Special Committee report released Thursday said Israel’s war conduct in Gaza “is consistent with the characteristics of genocide,” including mass civilian casualties and using starvation as a weapon.

Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass, citing Russia’s ministry of defence, has reported that the debris fell on a military facility in the Bryansk region. It said there was a small fire.

The ministry said it had shot down five of the missiles over the Bryansk region. The attack resulted in no casualties or damage, it said.

The claims have not been independently verified. Ukraine has not commented on the Russian reports, and there has been no confirmation from US or other allied powers

Overnight Ukrainian forces claimed to have successfully targeted a Russian logistics centre near the city of Karachev in Russia’s Bryansk region, causing multiple explosions.

On Wednesday, the US Senate will hold a vote on whether to approve the Pentagon’s request to send another $20bn in armaments to Israel, after a year in which the Biden administration has supplied billions of dollars of arms used in Israel's devastating war on Gaza.

Among the weapons to be approved are 120mm tank rounds, high explosive mortar rounds, F-15IA fighter aircraft, and joint direct attack munitions, known as JDAMs, which are precision systems for otherwise indiscriminate or "dumb" bombs.

Separate resolutions are being brought forward for each weapon type, including its cost to US taxpayers. However, together, the initiative is known as the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRDs).

As a result of intensive lobbying from pro-Israel groups like Aipac and the Democratic Majority For Israel, no arms transfer to Israel has been blocked.

The resolutions likely to gain the highest levels of support are expected to involve the tank rounds, which have been responsible for killing hundreds of civilians in northern Gaza in particular, and the JDAMs, which caused the death of well-known figures such as Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah in southern Lebanon, and six-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza City.

Britain is expected to supply Storm Shadow missiles for use by Ukraine on targets inside Russia, now that the US president, Joe Biden, has agreed to do the same for the similar American long-range Atacms weapon.

Keir Starmer, the prime minister, said at the G20 summit that the UK recognised it needed to “double down” on its support for Ukraine, while diplomatic sources briefed they expected other European countries to follow the US lead.

The prime minister said that, while he was “not going to get into operational details”, he recognised the need to do more to help Ukraine, whose electricity network was seriously damaged by a wave of Russian bombing on Sunday.

“I’ve been really clear for a long time now, we need to double down. We need to make sure Ukraine has what is necessary for as long as necessary, because we cannot allow Putin to win this war,” the prime minister said.

Spirit Airlines, the no-frills US travel pioneer, has filed for bankruptcy protection after struggling with years of losses, failed merger attempts and heavy debt levels, the company said.

The Florida-based airline said on Monday that it had pre-arranged a deal with its bondholders to restructure its debts and raise money to help it operate during the bankruptcy process, which it expects to exit in the first quarter of 2025.

It is the first major United States-based airline to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in more than a decade, after a proposed $3.8bn merger with JetBlue Airways collapsed in January.

The US, on Monday, said it wants Israel to complete its investigation into the killing of Turkish-American activist, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, before determining any potential next steps, Anadolu Agency reports.

“We want to see the end of the (Israeli) investigation before we speak to that, which does not mean that it is an open-ended timeline,” State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said during a daily press briefing.

His remarks came in response to Anadolu’s question about whether the State Department plans to take any action regarding Eygi’s death instead of waiting for Israel to conclude the investigation, which has been ongoing for over 2 months.

A preliminary investigation by Israel found that Eygi was “highly likely” hit “indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli fire that was targeting a “main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks” during the protest.

Video evidence and witness accounts, however, have contradicted Israel’s version of events, with many saying she was directly hit by an Israeli sniper.

Translations credit to Twitter user: ireallyhateyou

Russia has carried out its largest air attack on Ukraine in months, launching 120 missiles and 90 drones that killed several people and caused severe damage to the power system, officials said.

“The enemy’s target was our energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine. Unfortunately, there is damage to objects from hits and falling debris,” Zelenskyy said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

A Russian drone attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv killed at least two people and wounded six others, including children, Zelenskyy said, adding that “all areas” were left without power.

Poland, a NATO member that borders Ukraine to the west, said it had scrambled its air force as a precaution.