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Biden pushes Republicans on Ukraine, Israel aid bill Trump opposes
© Reuters. U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy shake hands across the table during a meeting in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S. September 21, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/file photo
By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden is pushing Republican lawmakers to back what the White House says is a critically needed funding bill for Ukraine’s war against Russia that is opposed by former President Donald Trump.
Trump’s opposition to the Senate-approved $95.34 billion military aid package for Ukraine and Israel means that it may never be voted on in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
The bill will fund U.S. troops in the Middle East, forces protecting commerce in the Red Sea, humanitarian aid in Gaza, and defense companies and submarine manufacturing in the United States, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at the White House on Wednesday in a rare press conference.
He laid responsibility for the bill’s future entirely on House Speaker Mike Johnson. “If that vote comes to the floor… it will pass on an overwhelming bipartisan basis, just as it did in the Senate,” Sullivan said.
Johnson indicated again on Wednesday he has no immediate plans to allow the chamber to vote on the package, saying “we’re not going to be forced into action by the Senate.”
He would like an in-person, one-on-one meeting with Biden over the bill, NBC News reported.
The U.S. has received reports of Ukrainian troops on the front line already rationing ammunition, Sullivan said. “Each passing day, each passing week the cost of inaction from the United States… is rising,” Sullivan said.
The White House is sending Biden surrogates in coming days to states that benefit from the funding for American defense companies to make the case that the U.S. economy stands to gain if the package is approved, and a flurry of top U.S. officials lobbied for the bill on Wednesday.
Biden national security spokesperson John Kirby (NYSE:) and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pushed for the bill on Wednesday. Current and former national security aides will participate, a senior administration official said.
Vice President Kamala Harris was expected to make the case for the legislation while on a trip to the Munich Security Conference this week.
After the Senate passed the bill early on Tuesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers promptly began urging Johnson to bring it up for a vote in the chamber, which his party narrowly controls. Both houses of Congress must approve the legislation before Biden can sign it into law.
The United States and its allies are worried about how long Ukraine can hold off the Russians if the funding is not approved soon.
Biden, in remarks on Tuesday, said that while the weaponry would help Ukraine, the money would be spent in the United States “in places like Arizona, where the Patriot missiles are built; and Alabama, where the Javelin missiles are built; and Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas, where artillery shells are made.”
The package, which also includes security funding for Israel and Taiwan and humanitarian aid for Palestinians, has faced opposition from Republican hardliners, particularly those most closely aligned with Trump, who is widely expected to be the party’s nominee to face Biden in November.
Biden argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin stands to gain if the money is not approved.
“Supporting this bill is standing up to Putin, opposing it is playing into Putin’s hands,” he said.
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Palantir, Anduril join forces with tech groups to bid for Pentagon contracts, FT reports
(Reuters) – Data analytics firm Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:) and defense tech company Anduril Industries are in talks with about a dozen competitors to form a consortium that will jointly bid for U.S. government work, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
The consortium, which could announce agreements with other tech groups as early as January, is expected to include SpaceX, OpenAI, autonomous shipbuilder Saronic and artificial intelligence data group Scale AI, the newspaper said, citing several people with knowledge of the matter.
“We are working together to provide a new generation of defence contractors,” a person involved in developing the group told the newspaper.
The consortium will bring together the heft of some of Silicon Valley’s most valuable companies and will leverage their products to provide a more efficient way of supplying the U.S. government with cutting-edge defence and weapons capabilities, the newspaper added.
Palantir, Anduril, OpenAI, Scale AI and Saronic did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. SpaceX could not be immediately reached for a comment.
Reuters reported earlier this month that President-elect Donald Trump’s planned U.S. government efficiency drive involving Elon Musk could lead to more joint projects between big defense contractors and smaller tech firms in areas such as artificial intelligence, drones and uncrewed submarines.
Musk, who was named as a co-leader of a government efficiency initiative in the incoming government, has indicated that Pentagon spending and priorities will be a target of the efficiency push, spreading anxiety at defense heavyweights such as Boeing (NYSE:) , Northrop Grumman (NYSE:) , Lockheed Martin (NYSE:) and General Dynamics (NYSE:) .
Musk and many small defense tech firms have been aligned in criticizing legacy defense programs like Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet while calling for mass production of cheaper AI-powered drones, missiles and submarines.
Such views have given major defense contractors more incentive to partner with emerging defense technology players in these areas.
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Weakened Iran could pursue nuclear weapon, White House’s Sullivan says
By Simon Lewis (JO:)
(Reuters) -The Biden administration is concerned that a weakened Iran could build a nuclear weapon, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday, adding that he was briefing President-elect Donald Trump’s team on the risk.
Iran has suffered setbacks to its regional influence after Israel’s assaults on its allies, Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, followed by the fall of Iran-aligned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Israeli strikes on Iranian facilities, including missile factories and air defenses, have reduced Tehran’s conventional military capabilities, Sullivan told CNN.
“It’s no wonder there are voices (in Iran) saying, ‘Hey, maybe we need to go for a nuclear weapon right now … Maybe we have to revisit our nuclear doctrine’,” Sullivan said.
Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful, but it has expanded uranium enrichment since Trump, in his 2017-2021 presidential term, pulled out of a deal between Tehran and world powers that put restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activity in exchange for sanctions relief.
Sullivan said that there was a risk that Iran might abandon its promise not to build nuclear weapons.
“It’s a risk we are trying to be vigilant about now. It’s a risk that I’m personally briefing the incoming team on,” Sullivan said, adding that he had also consulted with U.S. ally Israel.
Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, could return to his hardline Iran policy by stepping up sanctions on Iran’s oil industry.
Sullivan said Trump would have an opportunity to pursue diplomacy with Tehran, given Iran’s “weakened state.”
“Maybe he can come around this time, with the situation Iran finds itself in, and actually deliver a nuclear deal that curbs Iran’s nuclear ambitions for the long term,” he said.
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Ukraine says Russian general deliberately targeted Reuters staff in August missile strike
(Reuters) -Ukraine’s security service has named a Russian general it suspects of ordering a missile strike on a hotel in eastern Ukraine in August and said he acted “with the motive of deliberately killing employees of” Reuters.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a statement on Friday that Colonel General Alexei Kim, a deputy chief of Russia’s General Staff, approved the strike that killed Reuters safety adviser Ryan Evans and wounded two of the agency’s journalists on Aug. 24.
In a statement posted on Telegram messenger the SBU said it was notifying Kim in absentia that he was an official suspect in its investigation into the strike on the Sapphire Hotel in Kramatorsk, a step in Ukrainian criminal proceedings that can later lead to charges.
In a separate, 15-page notice of suspicion, in which the SBU set out findings from its investigation, the agency said that the decision to fire the missile was made “with the motive of deliberately killing employees of the international news agency Reuters who were engaged in journalistic activities in Ukraine”.
The document, which was published on the website of the General Prosecutor’s Office on Friday, said that Kim had received intelligence that Reuters staff were staying in Kramatorsk. It added that Kim would have been “fully aware that the individuals were civilians and not participating in the armed conflict”.
The Russian defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the SBU’s findings and has not replied to previous questions about the attack. The Kremlin also did not respond to a request for comment. Kim did not reply to messages sent by Reuters to his mobile telephone seeking comment about the SBU’s statement and whether the strike deliberately targeted Reuters staff.
The SBU did not provide evidence to support its claims, nor say why Russia targeted Reuters. In response to questions from the news agency, the security agency declined to provide further details, saying its criminal investigation was still under way and it was therefore not able to disclose such information.
Reuters has not independently confirmed any of the SBU’s claims.
Reuters said on Friday: “We note the news today from the Ukrainian security services regarding the missile attack on August 24, 2024, on the Sapphire Hotel in Kramatorsk, a civilian target more than 20 km from Russian-occupied territory.”
“The strike had devastating consequences, killing our safety adviser, Ryan Evans, and injuring members of our editorial team. We continue to seek more information about the attack. It is critically important for journalists to be able to report freely and safely,” the statement said.
Reuters declined to comment further on the allegation that its staff were deliberately targeted.
The SBU statement said Kim had been named a suspect under two articles of the Ukrainian criminal code: waging an aggressive war and violating the laws and customs of war.
“It was Kim who signed the directive and gave the combat order to fire on the hotel, where only civilians were staying,” it said.
Evans, a 38-year-old former British soldier who had worked as a safety adviser for Reuters since 2022, was killed instantly in the strike.
The SBU statement gave some details about how the strike had occurred, according to its investigation.
“To carry out the attack, the Russian colonel general involved one of his subordinate missile forces units,” the Ukrainian agency said, adding that the strike was carried out with an Iskander-M ballistic missile.
The SBU did not identify the specific unit.
Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey, a videographer for the news agency who was in a room across the corridor, was seriously wounded. Kyiv-based text correspondent Dan Peleschuk was also injured.
The remaining three members of the Reuters team escaped with minor cuts and scratches.
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