MINNEAPOLIS, Nov 1 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a "pause" in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip after a heckler pushing for a ceasefire confronted him at a campaign fundraiser.

Biden was speaking to about 200 people when the heckler shouted: "As a rabbi, I need you to call for a ceasefire right now."

Biden responded: "I think we need a pause. A pause means give time to get the prisoners out."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wants Latin America to trade more with the United States as part of an initiative that so far has failed to disrupt China’s dominance in global manufacturing.

Still, U.S. efforts to diversify supply chains with “trusted partners and allies” including select South American nations have “tremendous potential benefits for fueling growth in Latin America and the Caribbean,” Yellen said in a speech delivered Thursday.

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Arab nations that have normalized or are considering improving relations with Israel are coming under growing public pressure to cut those ties because of Israel’s war with Hamas.

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Rabat and other Moroccan cities in support of the Palestinians. In Bahrain — a country that almost never allows protest — police stood by as hundreds of people marched last month, waving flags and gathering in front of the Israeli Embassy in Manama.

WASHINGTON (AP) — To hear Donald Trump tell it, President Joe Biden is so senile that he doesn’t know where he’s speaking and feeble enough that others are making decisions for him.

Yet Trump has made notable flubs of his own. The former president mixed up the city and state where he was campaigning last weekend and had to be corrected by a local official. He recently called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán the leader of Turkey and has repeatedly mispronounced the militant group Hamas as “hummus.”

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Democrats in Michigan have warned the White House that President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict could cost him enough support within the Arab American community to sway the outcome of the 2024 election in a state he almost certainly can’t afford to lose in his bid for reelection.

The situation has prompted the White House to discuss ways to alleviate tensions with some of the state’s prominent Democrats, including several who have been vocal critics of the president about the war.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Vladimir Putin isn’t quite the man he used to be — more than a decade has passed since the Russian president engaged in public stunts to boast of his vigor by hugging a polar bear or riding a horse barechested in the mountains. The war in Ukraine has further dented that strongman image.

Putin is still expected to seek another term when Russia holds presidential elections next March. In fact, he has pushed through changes in the constitution to allow him to run for two more six-year terms.

WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday imposed sweeping new measures against Moscow over the war in Ukraine, targeting Russia's future energy capabilities, sanctions evasion and a suicide drone that has been a menace to Ukrainian troops and equipment, among others, in sanctions on hundreds of people and entities.

WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives plans a vote on Thursday on a Republican plan to provide $14.3 billion in aid to Israel as it fights Hamas, setting up a clash with the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House.

The bill is the first major legislative action under new Republican Speaker Mike Johnson. President Joe Biden has threatened to veto the bill if the House passes it. He is seeking a broader $106 billion package including funding for Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine, as well as humanitarian aid.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The host of a weekend family lunch at her Australian country home was charged with murdering three guests with poisonous mushrooms and attempting to murder a fourth who was left fighting for life, police said on Thursday.

Police arrested Erin Patterson, 49, earlier Thursday at her home in Leongatha in Victoria state where her former husband’s parents Gail and Don Patterson, both aged 70, Gail Patterson’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, and her husband Ian Wilkinson, 68, were invited for lunch on July 29.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Efforts to use the Constitution’s “insurrection” clause to prevent former President Donald Trump from running again for the White House turn to Minnesota on Thursday with oral arguments before the state Supreme Court, a hearing that will unfold as a similar case plays out in Colorado.

TOKYO, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Japan on Thursday started the third round of release of nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean.

Despite concerns and opposition among local fishermen in Fukushima Prefecture as well as other countries, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plant's operator, started discharging the radioactive wastewater at around 10:20 a.m. local time.

MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a bill revoking Russia’s ratification of a global nuclear test ban, a move that Moscow said was needed to establish parity with the United States.

Putin has said that rescinding the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, also known as the CTBT, would “mirror” the stand taken by the U.S., which has signed but not ratified the nuclear test ban.

Both houses of the Russian parliament voted last month to revoke Moscow’s ratification of the bill.