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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) floated a proposal Monday that would include aid to Ukraine and border security reform, while Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) hopes to have a vote on a bill tying Ukraine and the border to aid for Israel as soon as next week. Negotiations around foreign aid continue to unfold on Capitol Hill as bipartisan support for Israel is abundant, but support for a Ukraine package is thin among conservative Republicans. However, Johnson, who oversaw the advancement of a standalone Israel aid bill with cuts to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in early November, indicated...

Hamas says it is delaying the handover of hostages on the second day of its truce with Israel as it disputes the amount of aid being delivered and selection of Palestinian prisoners being released. Diplomatic sources close to the negotiations tell CNN they are not aware that the process of Hamas handing over hostages has begun. These sources contradict what a Hamas and Israeli source earlier told CNN, and what Israeli media had been reporting: that the handover of hostages was underway. Soon after CNN initially reported about the process being underway, Hamas issued a statement saying they were delaying...

President Joe Biden on Friday hinted that he was considering conditioning aid to Israel on its military reducing bombing in Gaza in its offensive against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. During a press conference on Friday, a reporter asked him, “Mr. President, there are members of your party who would like to see conditions placed on aid to Israel. What is your view on that? They would like to see, you know, a reduction in the bombing and that sort of thing.”

Concern is rising for senators in both parties that funding for Ukraine might get left on the cutting room floor this year as Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) “laddered” stopgap spending bill will keep the government open through late January, depriving the supplemental of a potential vehicle. Lawmakers still say the Biden administration’s $105 billion supplemental request, which includes aid for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, the border and other items, remains a priority. But there are serious obstacles standing between it and the finish line. Among them is that despite the urgency of the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, there...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Thursday said the House will consider Ukraine aid “in short order,” while reiterating that he wants to pair funding for Kyiv with U.S. border security. The comment came after Johnson split Ukraine aid from funding for Israel, a move that frustrated lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. He has said Congress “cannot waste any time” moving the $14.3 billion Israel package. The White House unveiled a roughly $100 billion supplemental request last month that includes funding for Ukraine, Israel, border security and allies in the Indo-Pacific, but some Republicans have objected to combining funding...

American public support for the Biden administration’s “as long as it takes” policy on aiding Ukraine is collapsing, according to a new Gallup poll. The poll, released Thursday, showed that a plurality of Americans — 41 percent — say that the U.S. is doing too much to help Ukraine. That is a dramatic rise from just 29 percent in June 2023 and 24 percent in August 2022. In addition, fewer — 33 percent now versus 43 percent in June — say the U.S. is doing the right amount, and only 25 percent say the U.S. is not doing enough.

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink stated that pushing Russia back to its 1991 borders is in America’s strategic interests and is “an existential question for Ukraine,” but dodged on if the money President Joe Biden is asking for for Ukraine will be enough to achieve that goal. Co-host Dana Perino asked, “Is what the President’s asking for for Ukraine, is that enough to help Ukraine finish the job, meaning pushing back Putin’s troops permanently?” Brink responded, “Dana, thanks so much for having me. I would just say that I...

Mounting evidence Taliban benefits from aid dollars. The United States and other international donors pump around $80 million in aid to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan every two weeks, in the face of mounting evidence that the terror group steals this cash through fraudulent nonprofits and other means, according to a government watchdog.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is reportedly planning to appear with Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. at a Monday event in Kentucky as part of his push to reportedly go “all out” on securing $61.4 billion of American taxpayer aid for Ukraine. Politico’s Burgess Everett reported that McConnell will appear with Ambassador Oksana Markarova at the University of Louisville to “again publicly commit the United States to Kyiv’s defense against Russia,” as part of his push. McConnell’s support for Ukraine pits him against some in his own caucus, as well as House Republicans who are refusing to send another...

While Joe Biden was visiting Israel, he announced that his priority was to get aid into Gaza. He barely spoke about the slaughtered and kidnapped Israelis and Americans. He announced that he was going to ship in $100 million in aid to Gaza and fixated on that and Ukraine.While there has been no response from the U.S. for the killings and Americans are still being held hostage, Biden did make sure that aid was shipped into Gaza right away, despite the concerns about Hamas stealing it. How were they going to ensure it wasn't stolen? Secretary of State Antony Blinken...

The United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) on Saturday said they lost contact with their aid teams in Gaza amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. “The silence is deafening,” WFP Chief Cindy McCain posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “As conflict rages on, I am extremely worried for the safety of all humanitarian workers and civilians.” “We are at a tipping point. Humanity must prevail,” she added. Israel launched an expanded ground incursion on Saturday after knocking out communications and essentially creating an information blackout in Gaza overnight. Gaza residents described the...

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on the international community to double down on efforts to provide humanitarian aid for Gaza on Saturday, amid Israel’s war with Hamas. The first aid convoys entered Gaza early Saturday after days of negotiations between Egypt, the U.S. and Israel. Israeli strikes had previously kept Gaza’s only border with Egypt closed

A group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence organized a letter from more than 60 activists, politicians and thought leaders. Advancing American Freedom (AAF) has urged the U.S. House of Representatives to stop sending money to “any Palestinian entity or person, whether government or non-government, whether direct or indirect, and whether military, political or civilian.” In a letter sent on Friday, the 501(c)(4) organization founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, wrote: “We the undersigned demand the immediate and complete defunding of the Palestinians via the appropriations process underway this fiscal year.” The group said that “the language in...

(Exerpt from) Israel urges civilians in northern Gaza to go South Michael Holmes talks with IDF Spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus. ["The problem with the aid that goes in intended for Palestinians is taken by Hamas..."] https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/videos/world/2023/10/14/exp-israel-view-gaza-civilians-conricus-intv-101412aseg2-cnni-world.cnn https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/10/14/exp-israel-view-gaza-civilians-conricus-intv-101412aseg2-cnni-world.cnn

The Biden administration reportedly seeks to tie Israeli aid with more Ukrainian support, reviving hope among establishment lawmakers that Ukraine could receive more taxpayer funds than the previously earmarked $113 billion. The hope of tying the aid together unexpectedly declined Wednesday after key lawmakers signaled opposition to the combined spending packages. “I support both, but I think it’d be a mistake to bundle the two,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told Politico on Wednesday. “But it sounds like the administration wants to put the two together. I think that’d be a mistake.” In turn, Biden administration officials appear to be sweetening...

A senior European source tells The Times of Israel that the decision announced earlier today by European Union Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi to immediately sever all EU aid to the Palestinians will not be implemented, due to opposition from member states. Varhelyi is a diplomat from Hungary, which takes a much more hawkish approach toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than many of the 27 other members of the EU. The senior European source speculates that Varhelyi’s decision will be walked back tomorrow when the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borell meets with European foreign ministers.

As we head into fall and winter, the situation continues to worsen for Ukraine. The biggest developments have happened outside the locus of the conflict itself, but rather in the geopolitical scene where Ukraine is faced with a disastrous loss of financial support. The U.S. House of Representatives has just removed its Speaker for the first time in history, primarily over his secret side deal with Biden to get funding to Ukraine. Some of the current options on the table for his replacement would spell disaster for Ukraine as they are all staunchly anti-funding Republicans. On top of that, there’s...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday he expects Ukraine aid will not be separated from border funding as Congress tried to figure out a path forward after a shutdown bill left Ukraine out. “To those who say we need to fix our border, you’re right,” Graham said on CBS News’s “Face The Nation.” “To those who say we need to help Ukraine, you’re right. To those who say we need to do the border, not Ukraine, you’re wrong.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky left Washington last week with a dire warning, that Russia is counting on eroding U.S. support to win its war against his country. “It’s not about some kind of weapon, or some money, it’s not about it, because… we will have some help,” Zelensky told a small group of news outlets in Washington last week, including The Hill. “But in two or three months, if we will lose some support, it means that we can lose the war.”

American taxpayers will provide an additional $300 million for Ukraine’s war effort if a bill passed late Thursday night by the House becomes law. The bill passed 311-117 after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) stripped the funding from a Pentagon spending bill in favor of a standalone vote. The $826 billion Pentagon spending bill also passed Thursday night after the Ukraine aid was removed. Determining how much more, if any, Congress should send to Ukraine — on top of the $113 billion it has already approved — has been among the most significant challenges for Congress as it works to fund...