$95-B war chest for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan

The United States House of Representatives on Saturday passed bills arming allies Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan to the teeth with a combined $95 billion in military aid.

Four bills in the package were overwhelmingly approved in quick succession: $61 billion for Kyiv; $26 billion for Tel Aviv, including $9 billion for Gaza humanitarian aid; and $8 billion for Taiwan and Indo-Pacific allies.

The Ukraine bill also allows Biden to confiscate and sell Russian assets and provide the money to Ukraine to finance reconstruction, a move that has been embraced by other G7 nations.

US President Joe Biden said in a statement the legislation also includes humanitarian aid for Haiti and Sudan.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the $61 billion earmarked for his country, saying the military and economic assistance would “save thousands and thousands of lives.”

The Democrats-dominated US Senate will quickly take the bill up on Tuesday, according to Senate leader Chuck Schumer.

The Ukraine bill also allows Biden to confiscate and sell Russian assets and provide the money to Ukraine to finance reconstruction.

Biden spoke with Johnson and his Democratic counterpart Hakeem Jeffries after Saturday’s vote to “thank them for their leadership and putting our national security first,” the White House said.

“To put it bluntly, I’d rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys,” Johnson said.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson may pay a hefty price for finally throwing his support behind the aid package for Ukraine.

The handful of far-right Republicans who had threatened to engineer Johnson’s ouster if he pressed the Ukraine vote appeared to back away Saturday, at least temporarily.

“I’m actually going to let my colleagues go home and hear from their constituents” about their anger over the vote, congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said on CNN.

TikTok ban

Another bill passed by House forces social media platform TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or face a nationwide ban, where it has around 170 million users.

Western officials have voiced alarm over the popularity of TikTok with young people, alleging that it is subservient to Beijing and a conduit to spread propaganda — claims denied by the company.

TikTok sharply denounced the bill, saying it “would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate seven million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the US economy annually,” a TikTok spokesman said.