WORLD
U.S. speaker rejects Ukraine aid bill
President Joe Biden’s plea to pass the bill falls on deaf ears
United States House Speaker Mike Johnson has rejected a Senate bill on Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan defense aid, ignoring President Joe Biden’s plea to pass it.
Johnson told reporters Tuesday he has no intention even of allowing a vote on the bill proposing $95 billion funding for allies, including $60 billion for Kyiv.
At the White House, Biden said that helping US allies — and particularly coming to the aid of Ukraine as it struggles to fend off a two-year Russian invasion — is a fundamental responsibility.
“History is watching,” Biden said, repeating the phrase five times in televised remarks. “Supporting this bill is standing up to Putin. Opposing it is playing into Putin’s hands,” the Democrat added.
It was the second Ukraine aid bill that Johnson rejected, heeding likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s call to prevent Biden from dealing with the immigration crisis.
The Senate had already worked with Republicans to craft a joint bill which provided the foreign aid, while at the same time imposing the harshest new US border security measures in decades.
That bill was primed for approval in the Senate when Johnson announced it would be killed in the House, prompting the Senate to ditch that version and switch to Tuesday’s new foreign-aid-only bill.
Meanwhile, North Atlantic Treaty Organization chief Jens Stoltenberg will on Wednesday detail increased defense spending by members of the alliance in reaction to Trump’s threat to encourage Russia to attack countries paying too little.
The Republican White House frontrunner was widely rebuked after saying he would not defend NATO members who had not met their financial obligations, in his most extreme broadside yet against the organization.
Trump’s comments in a Saturday stump speech drew condemnation from leaders including Biden — whom he looks set to face in November’s election — and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
In eastern Ukraine, Russian bombing raids killed three people including a child late Tuesday near the city of Donetsk, local authorities said.
The strikes hit nine apartment blocks and a hospital in Selydove, about 20 kilometers west of the front line, the local council said on Telegram.
Twelve people were also injured in the bombing, including four children, it added.
About 100 patients were evacuated from the damaged hospital to the nearby towns of Pokrovsk and Myrnograd, regional governor Vadym Filachkine said on Telegram.