United States President Joe Biden signed into law this Wednesday (24) an aid package that provides crucial military assistance to Ukraine, ending months of negotiations and debates.
The aid package, approved by the Senate on Tuesday night (23) and worth a total of 95 billion dollars, includes almost 61 billion dollars in aid for Ukraine, 26 billion dollars for Israel and 8 billion dollars for the Indo-Pacific.
The package also includes a bill that could eventually lead to a ban on TikTok in the United States — giving Chinese parent company ByteDance about nine months to sell it, otherwise it will be banned from app stores in the country.
The signing of the aid package was the culmination of months of tense negotiations, personal lobbying by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a split in the Republican wing that continues to threaten House Speaker Mike Johnson's leadership position.
Hardline House conservatives opposed more U.S. funding for Kiev and threatened to remove Johnson over his handling of the negotiations. Conservatives in Congress have opposed additional assistance for what they consider an unwinnable war.
Biden spent months pressuring Johnson to move forward with aid to Ukraine, enlisting senior administration officials and CIA Director Bill Burns to define what was at stake for Ukraine — and, ultimately, for democracy in Europe and around the world – if Russia continued to make inroads with its armed forces.
Earlier this year, Biden signaled his intention to make significant immigration-related concessions if Congress moved forward with the relief bill. Republicans in Congress demanded those concessions but backed away from the issue after former President Donald Trump signaled his opposition to allowing Biden to claim victory on an issue that Trump hopes to campaign on.
The final vote in the Senate was 79-18. Fifteen Republicans voted with three Democrats against the bill. Among the Democrats who voted against the bill was Sen. Bernie Sanders, who spent time with Biden earlier this week and said he was against additional U.S. funding for Israel's war in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.
“Enough is enough,” Sanders said in a post on X shortly after the bill passed. “No more money for the war machine of the [primeiro-ministro israelense Benjamin] Netanyahu.”
The bill's effects will be felt most quickly and acutely on the battlefields in Ukraine, whose soldiers have faced ammunition shortages and battlefield losses in the absence of U.S. assistance this year.
Source: CNN Brasil

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