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"President Biden today announced an additional $800 million in security assistance to Ukraine, bringing the total U.S. security assistance committed to Ukraine to $1 billion in just the past week, and a total of $2 billion since the start of the Biden Administration. The assistance will take the form of direct transfers of equipment from the Department of Defense to the Ukrainian military to help them defend their country against Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion."The new $800 million assistance package includes:800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems;2,000 Javelin, 1,000 light anti-armor weapons, and 6,000 AT-4 anti-armor systems;100 Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems;100 grenade launchers,...

A former Connecticut state representative pleaded guilty Tuesday in connection with the theft of more than $1.2 million in federal coronavirus relief funds from the city of West Haven, using some of the money for gambling at a casino, according to prosecutors. Michael DiMassa, a West Haven Democrat, appeared in federal court in Hartford and pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud conspiracy. DiMassa's wife and his former business partner also pleaded guilty earlier this year, while a fourth person charged in the scheme awaits trial. At the time of the theft, DiMassa was both a state representative and...

​President Biden lost his temper and raised his voice on the phone with​ Volodymyr Zelensky when the Ukrainian president continued to press for more aid even after Biden signed off on $1 billion worth of military assistance earlier this year, according to a report Monday. ​ The phone call in June, one of many between the two leaders, turned testy when Zelensky began listing what else Kyiv needed and wasn’t getting​ shortly after Biden announced the aid package, NBC News reported.​ The commander-in-chief reportedly blew his stack ​and, with his voice rising, reminded Zelensky of the generosity of the American...

The White House on Tuesday said that U.S. support for Ukraine “will remain strong” until the war with Russia is over, comments that come after the Congressional Progressive Caucus withdrew a letter it sent to President Biden on his Ukraine strategy after sparking backlash. “Our support for Ukraine will remain strong until the end of this war,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, adding that she had no comment on the letter itself.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday vowed more aid for Ukraine when lawmakers wrap up must-pass government funding legislation later this year, the day after a group of House progressives called for a renewed push to find a diplomatic solution to the war there. Pelosi, speaking during a visit to Croatia, pledged more support while touting the aid Congress has allocated for Ukraine so far under the Biden administration.

Amid concerns that a new Congress could take a more skeptical view of aid to Ukraine, lawmakers from both parties are looking to lock in billions of dollars in military assistance to Kyiv before newly elected members are sworn in in January, according to a lawmaker and congressional staffers. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who is poised to take over as speaker if the GOP wins a majority in the House in the November midterm elections, warned this week that his fellow party members are “not going to write a blank check to Ukraine.”The new aid package, which...

President Biden on Thursday said he’s concerned about the fate of aid for Ukraine if Republicans win control of Congress after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) signaled the party would not provide a “blank check” for Ukrainians. “I am worried about it because they said they would cut it,” Biden told reporters during a stop in Pittsburgh. McCarthy told Punchbowl News earlier this week that House Republicans will not write “a blank check” to Ukraine if they take control of the lower chamber next year. “I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going...

Elizabeth McKnight, 26, twice refused to provide a breath sample to police She claims she drunk two bottles of wine on the road after her car broke down She avoided a jail sentence but was given a community corrections order A motorist who refused a breath test when police found her drunk on the side of a busy road has avoided jail after she claimed she didn't start drinking until after her car broke down. Elizabeth McKnight, 26, twice refused to give the sample after police approached her on a grass verge by her stationary Nissan Qashqai in Chester on...

Democrats and Republicans have both been backing Ukraine aid for months now. But there’s a growing sense of unease on Capitol Hill that something could soon happen to disrupt that financial support: Republicans could win the House in November.“I’m absolutely not supporting any further funding for Ukraine,” Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Daily Beast last week.Dozens of Republican members of the House have already sought to throw up roadblocks to Ukraine aid packages. Fifty-seven Republicans tried blocking $40 billion in aid to Ukraine earlier this year, in addition to 11 Republican...

(AFP) — Ukraine on Thursday claimed a military breakthrough in its counter-offensive against Russian invaders as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a surprise visit to Kyiv, unveiled another $2.8 billion in military aid. Ukraine said its forces made gains in the north, the south and the east, prying back land seized by Russia which had hoped for a swift victory when it attacked nearly seven months ago.

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that President Joe Biden has approved additional military aid to Ukraine worth up to $675 million, an announcement that came as he rallied allies to renew their commitment to Ukrainian military support “for the long haul.”

President Joe Biden wants to spend $13.7 billion more in aid to Ukraine as his massive slush fund already approved by Congress earlier this year is running dry. Biden’s request to Congress is part of an overall $47.1 billion emergency spending package of more funds to fight the coronavirus and monkeypox, according to the Associated Press, citing anonymous sources.

New York City is giving more than $6 million in contracts to nonprofits working with “asylum seekers” as migrants arriving on buses from Texas flood the city. NYC’s Immigrant Affairs office announced Saturday it was awarding $6,750,000 in contracts to the organizations that would go toward “case management” and additional “critical services”

"The war in Ukraine is in its sixth month, and there’s no end in sight. Here’s what we know… Almost everything you heard about the war in Ukraine from U.S. media over the course of March, April and May was a lie. **** It’s not that I’m pro-Russian — I’m not. I’m pro-truth. And I don’t defend the Russian invasion in any way (although I do understand it). Even Bloomberg and The New York Times are now starting to admit that the war is a lost cause for Ukraine and the U.S. economy is suffering from sanctions aimed at Russia....

In a striking indication of the American right’s increasingly skeptical view of costly foreign interventionism, the Heritage Foundation took an aggressive stance against the $40 billion aid package approved by Congress earlier this month. In a May 10 statement ahead of the House vote, Heritage executive director Jessica Anderson said, “This proposed Ukraine aid package takes money away from the priorities of the American people and recklessly sends our taxpayer dollars to a foreign nation without any accountability. America is struggling with record-setting inflation, debt, a porous border, crime and energy depletion yet progressives in Washington are prioritizing a $40...

Congress must pass a proposed $40 billion Ukraine supplemental aid package by Thursday to avoid an interruption of U.S. weapons shipments to the embattled country, the Pentagon’s top spokesperson said Friday. “May 19 is the day we really — without additional authorities — we begin to not have the ability to send new stuff in,” press secretary John Kirby told reporters. “It’ll start impacting our ability to provide aid uninterrupted.”

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) blocked the passage of the $39.8 billion House-passed Ukraine aid after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) presented a unanimous consent on behalf of himself and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell today. Schumer urged Paul to pass the bill and claimed that the Senator from Kentucky wanted to add certain changes directly to the bill, which have been opposed by members of both parties. “He is not even asking for an amendment. He is simply saying my way or the highway,” Schumer said. Paul asserted that the aid amount will almost equal the entire military budget of Russia...

President Biden on Monday signed legislation that will make it easier for the U.S. to send military equipment to Ukraine as the Eastern European country battles the ongoing Russian invasion. Biden signed the bill in the Oval Office at a ceremony with Vice President Harris and members of Congress. The bill, formally known as the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022, passed Congress with bipartisan support last month.

Senate Democrats are eyeing linking more assistance for Ukraine to a stalled coronavirus aid package after weeks of privately mulling the path forward. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said folding the two together came up during a closed-door lunch this week. “I know Chuck wants to move a Ukraine package and put COVID in with it,” Durbin said, referring to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) on Sunday said he does not think COVID-19 funding and aid for Ukraine need to be combined in a single piece of legislation, as Congress considers both priorities for the Biden administration. President Biden on Thursday asked Congress to authorize $33 billion in aid to support Ukraine, with some funds going towards security assistance, weapons, military aid, humanitarian assistance and food security funding. The ask also comes as the White House is pushing for additional COVID-19 response funding.