The US Senate passed a foreign aid bill
The US Senate voted overwhelmingly last night to approve a long-stalled $95.3 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sending it to President Biden for his signature and ending months of uncertainty over whether the US would continue supporting Kiev against Russian aggression. .
The legislation had nearly failed due to right-wing opposition. The vast majority of senators from both parties supported the package, and Senate leaders viewed its passage as a triumph, particularly given the opposition to aid to Ukraine that had built up in the House.
Ukraine is running out of ammunition it needs to fight and was desperate for help to come through. My colleague Marc Santora, who has been reporting from Ukraine since the start of the war, told me that “what this aid means, in the simplest terms, is guns and bullets.”
“But beyond that,” he continued, “what this has done is provide a much-needed boost to the morale of both Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines and civilians living under the threat of Russian drone bombing and missiles almost every night.”
Trump’s tough day in court
Donald Trump had a depressing day in court yesterday; The judge presiding over his criminal trial in New York City told a defense attorney that he was “losing all credibility,” and a key witness described what prosecutors called a conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election.
The witness, David Pecker, a longtime editor of The National Enquirer, detailed a crucial 2015 meeting with Trump and Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, during which, prosecutors claimed, they hatched a plot to cover up the scandals. sexual relations that loom over the Trump campaign.
Pecker’s testimony came after a hard-hitting hearing for Trump and his legal team. At the hearing, prosecutors urged the judge to hold Trump in contempt for repeated attacks on witnesses and jurors who they said had violated a gag order. The judge did not issue an immediate ruling.
Here are five takeaways.
The comments were among the first indications of the Israeli military’s plans if it were to carry out a major ground offensive in Rafah. The Biden administration has urged Israel to renounce such action, but Israeli officials have repeatedly said the army will enter Rafah to fight Hamas battalions there.
More news about Gaza:
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Bodies: The UN human rights office called for an independent investigation into two mass graves found after Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza hospitals.
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Loop: Read about two families searching for enough food to keep their children alive.
MORE TOP NEWS
Sometime in the late 18th century, a sign appeared outside a butcher’s cottage in the English town of Stratford-upon-Avon. “The Immortal Shakespeare was born in this house,” he announced, using a common spelling of his name at the time. Today, the town is one of Britain’s most popular tourist destinations, attracting up to three million visitors a year, many of them to see his birthplace.
But it turns out that no one knows exactly where Shakespeare was born.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
SPORT NEWS
Italian Champions: Inter Milan defeated their rival, AC Milan, to win their 20th Serie A title.
Iga Swiatek: The Polish tennis star has been world number one for 100 weeks.
Nothing to lose: Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, knows he can play the waiting game with Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.
ARTS AND IDEAS
For sale: a portrait of Klimt valued at 30 million euros
A European auction house will put a Gustav Klimt painting up for sale today, projecting it to fetch at least 30 million euros, or about $32 million, in its pre-auction estimate.
Whoever buys it will get a portrait whose subject, provenance and current ownership are unknown, not public or the subject of debate.
The mysteries surrounding the portrait have only increased interest in the sale of this work by Klimt, whose highly decorative paintings are now among the most coveted trophies on the art market.