Stories

Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Sep 21, 2026· Updated

Eight Days Before Xi Comes to the White House, His Wife Testifies to Congress That an American Scholar Has Been Held in China Since June — Young Kim Says Beijing "Wanted to Send a Message," Ro Khanna Calls It "Appalling," and a Bipartisan Senate Resolution Demands His Release

Sylvia Zin told the House Foreign Affairs Committee's East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee on September 17 that her husband, Myanmar scholar and UC Berkeley-affiliated researcher Min Zin, has been held by Chinese state security since June 3 on unspecified national-security allegations after arriving in Kunming for an academic workshop. The State Department has formally designated him wrongfully detained. Her testimony, alongside the son of jailed Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai, came eight days before President Trump is scheduled to host Xi Jinping at the White House on September 24. Subcommittee Chairwoman Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) said Beijing "wanted to send a message to those whose research inconvenienced it" by detaining Min Zin ahead of the summit, while voicing confidence Trump would secure his release. The same week, Sens. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ed Markey (D-MA) and Ted Budd (R-NC) introduced a bipartisan resolution condemning China's "repeated pattern" of wrongfully detaining American academics. On Face the Nation the following Sunday, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said he stood with Secretary of State Rubio on the case and called the detention of Americans over what they say or research "appalling" and "unacceptable." The case adds another point of friction to a US-China relationship already strained ahead of the Trump-Xi meeting.

“[In a letter to President Trump urging him to use Xi Jinping's state visit to secure the release of wrongfully detained people, including American citizen Min Zin:] Even a single mention of a detainee's name by a senior U.S. official, let alone by yourself, can significantly increase that individual's chances of clemency or improved treatment.”
Jeff Merkley (D-OR) · Sep 21, 2026

The Same Day the House Clears the Russia Sanctions Bill, Shaheen and Wicker Introduce a Bipartisan Resolution for Russia's Democracy Advocates — "For Nemtsov, for Navalny, and for the Courageous Russians Who Carry Their Torch Today"

On September 16, 2026 — the same day the House passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act 262-159 — Senate Foreign Relations Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) introduced a bipartisan resolution recognizing the US national interest in supporting Russian democracy advocates. The resolution honors Russians imprisoned, exiled or killed for opposing Vladimir Putin's government — Wicker named Boris Nemtsov and Alexei Navalny explicitly — and ties Putin's repression at home to his war abroad. Shaheen argued the invasion of Ukraine was itself rooted in Putin's fear that Russians would want what Ukrainians were building. It is a narrow, symbolic measure, but a notable one: the top Democrat on Foreign Relations and the top Republican on Armed Services jointly rebuking Russia's internal repression, with Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) signing on as co-sponsors.

“My colleague Senator Shaheen and I introduce this resolution for Nemtsov, for Navalny, and for the courageous Russians who carry their torch today. Putin casts a repressive shadow over Russia, but these heroes work toward a bright future they cannot yet see. The U.S. Senate honors their efforts and looks forward to the day when Russia is led by and for its people.”
Roger Wicker (R-MS) · Sep 16, 2026

Aug 28, 2026· Updated

Eleven Senate Democrats Invoke a Cold War-Era Human Rights Law to Force a Floor Vote on Israel — Demanding the State Department Account for Nine Americans Killed in the West Bank

On August 27, 2026, Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced their intent to introduce a privileged resolution under Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act requiring the State Department to report to Congress on escalating violence in the West Bank — including the killings of at least nine American citizens there since 2022, investigations (or the absence of them) into killings by Israeli settlers and security forces, and Israel's detention of Palestinian children. Section 502B(c) lets any senator force a floor vote on a demand for a human rights report about a country receiving U.S. security assistance. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has ten days to act on the resolution; if it does not, the resolution can be brought straight to the floor. If it passes, the administration has 30 days to submit the report or certain security assistance to Israel is cut off. Eight more senators joined as original cosponsors: Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and Peter Welch (D-VT). No Republican senator had publicly responded to the resolution as of the announcement.

“We write to reiterate our alarm about the potential for a dangerous collapse in the West Bank now that the only two Israeli banks providing vital services have indicated difficulties with banking waivers.”
Jack Reed (D-RI) · Aug 28, 2026

Forty Members of Congress, Six of Them Senators, Tell Rubio to Get a 20-Year-Old American Out of an Israeli Military Prison Where She Has Been Held Without Charge Since June

On August 25, 2026, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) led 40 members of Congress — including six senators — in a bicameral letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding the immediate and permanent release of Sama Safi, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen held in Israeli military detention without charge. Safi, an honors psychology student at Birzeit University whose family lives in Florida, was taken from her family's home near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank at about 3 a.m. on June 2, 2026, in a series of Israeli raids targeting Birzeit students. She was moved to Ofer prison and then to the Moscovia interrogation center in Jerusalem. She has never been charged. The letter says Safi "has described horrific conditions and violence by guards in Israeli military detention, including frequent physical assault, gas and stun grenades thrown in overcrowded cells, and lack of food and water." Safi has familial Mediterranean fever, a severe chronic condition requiring daily medication, regular monitoring and recurring specialized biologic treatment abroad — which is why the signers frame the delay itself as the danger. The letter is the escalation point of a campaign that has been building since June. Sen. Chris Van Hollen was among the first to demand her release and has since called for the resignation of U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee over his silence on detained Americans. Rep. Ayanna Pressley pressed the administration publicly in August. On August 18, 102 rights groups including CAIR wrote to Rubio making the same demand. The August 25 letter is the first time the ask has come from both chambers at this scale.

“Every day that Sama remains wrongfully detained in these inhumane conditions, she is at greater risk of irreversible and life-threatening repercussions.”
Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) · Aug 25, 2026

Israel’s National Security Minister Says Israel Should Kill "30 to 40" People in Gaza Every Night Because "There Are People There Who Are Not Worthy of Life" — and Two of the Senate’s Most Reliably Pro-Israel Democrats Tell Him to Resign

In an interview recorded for the debut episode of a podcast hosted by former Hamas hostage Rom Braslavski and aired the weekend of August 15–16, 2026, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Israel should be carrying out "targeted assassinations" in Gaza at a rate of "30 to 40 every night" — and made clear he did not mean only people posing an immediate threat. Ben-Gvir, who was criticizing the reduced tempo of Israeli operations under the armistice, said of Palestinians in Gaza that there are people there "who are not worthy of life." In the same conversation he called for Palestinians to be encouraged to leave Gaza permanently and said he viewed "all of Gaza as ours." The remarks circulated widely on Sunday, August 16, and drew condemnation from a narrow but notable slice of Washington: two Senate Democrats who have consistently voted to keep U.S. weapons flowing to Israel and have resisted party pressure to block arms sales. Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) called the comments "horrific and completely indefensible" and became the first sitting U.S. senator to say outright that Ben-Gvir should leave the Israeli government, urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly disavow him. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), a former CIA analyst and Pentagon official, followed on August 20, calling the remarks "abhorrent and a shameful part of the Netanyahu government." The episode is a marker of where the pro-Israel center of the Senate Democratic caucus has moved: the officials calling for a sitting Israeli cabinet minister's removal are not the caucus's left flank but two of its most dependable supporters of U.S. military aid to Israel. German lawmakers separately called for EU sanctions on Ben-Gvir over the same comments. The Trump administration did not issue a public statement on the remarks in the days that followed.

“Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has once again made violent, dehumanizing comments about innocent civilians in Gaza. It is abhorrent and a shameful part of the Netanyahu government. He should be long gone from any government role and publicly condemned by anyone who claims to care about civilians, Israeli or Palestinian, in the region.”
Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) · Aug 20, 2026