<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>A sweeping foreign aid package easily passed the US Congress late on Tuesday after months of delay, clearing the way for fresh Ukraine funding amid advances from Russia’s invasion force and Kyiv’s shortages of military supplies.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Senate approved by 79 to 18 four bills passed by the House of Representatives on Saturday, after House Republican leaders abruptly switched course last week and allowed a vote on the $95 billion in mostly military aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and US partners in the Indo-Pacific.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The four bills were combined into one package in the Senate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The largest provides $61 billion in critically needed funding for Ukraine; a second provides $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones around the world, and a third mandates $8.12 billion to “counter communist China” in the Indo-Pacific.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A fourth, which the House added to the package last week, includes a potential ban on the Chinese-controlled social media app TikTok, measures for the transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine and new sanctions on Iran.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Biden has promised to sign the measure into law as soon as it reaches his desk, and his administration is already preparing a $1 billion military aid package for Ukraine, the first to be sourced from the bill, two US officials told Reuters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Senate’s Democratic and Republican leaders predicted that Congress had turned the corner in putting Russian President Vladimir Putin and other foreign adversaries on notice that Washington will continue supporting Ukraine and other foreign partners.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“This is an inflection point in history. Western democracy perhaps faced its greatest threat since the end of the Cold War,” Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in the Senate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The aid package could be the last approved for Ukraine until after elections in November when the White House, House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate are up for grabs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Much of the opposition to the security assistance in both the House and Senate has come from Republicans with close ties to former US President Donald Trump, a Ukraine aid skeptic who has stressed “America First” policies as he seeks a second term.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, a strong advocate for assisting Ukraine, expressed regret about the delay, largely due to hard-line Republicans’ objections to adding more to the $113 billion Washington had authorized for Kyiv since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I think we’ve turned the corner on the isolationist movement,” McConnell told a news conference.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some of the Ukraine money — $10 billion in economic support — comes in the form of a loan, which Trump had suggested. But the bill lets the president forgive the loan starting in 2026. - Reuters</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/fas</div>