WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden met with new House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries at the White House on Thursday to discuss his request for nearly $106 billion for Israel, Ukraine and other national security needs.
Johnson, a staunch conservative allied with Donald Trump, has shown little interest in providing additional money from Congress to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Later, the new Republican speaker insisted Congress is “not going to abandon” Ukraine.
Instead, Johnson said House Republicans would first bring a separate bill to provide $14.5 billion in aid to Israel, but they need more information about the Biden administration’s Ukraine strategy.
“We can’t allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don’t believe it would stop there,” Johnson said on Fox News’ “Hannity,” referring to the Russian president. But he said, “We must stand with our important ally in the Middle East and that’s Israel.”
The new Republican leader who swept into office nearly a month after the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker had a busy first full day in office, having inherited many of the same political problems that tormented past GOP leaders and challenged their tenure as speaker.
In the morning, Johnson said “prayer is appropriate” as a response to the mass shootings in Maine.
Johnson, an evangelical Christian from Louisiana, declined to take questions, including about the possibility of any gun violence legislation from Congress.
“Prayer is appropriate at a time like this, that the evil can end and the senseless violence can stop,” he said.
The House convened with a bustle of activity, making up for lost time during the weeks of chaos since McCarthy’s ouster as speaker. But the initial goodwill toward Johnson blurs the political fault lines challenging his ability to lead the GOP majority in the face of daunting issues ahead.
By Nov. 17, the Congress must fund the government again or risk a federal shutdown. Biden wants nearly $106 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Israel and Ukraine. And Republicans are eager to resume their impeachment inquiry into Biden over his son Hunter’s business dealings.
“Enough of the chaos, enough of the dysfunction,” said Jeffries, D-N.Y., adding it was time for Congress to get back to business.
Jeffries said Democrats were “heartbroken” over the latest shootings and stand with the people of Maine in every way possible, including discussing how Congress can address gun violence.
Johnson said he and Biden met together for more than 15 minutes before the other party arrived.
“It was a productive meeting,” Johnson told reporters back at the Capitol. “I enjoyed my visit with the president.”
Biden met with Johnson and Jeffries before the House leaders joined a classified briefing with other congressional lawmakers on the assistance package, according to a White House official.
The briefing in the Situation Room for Johnson and other House leaders on the emergency funding request was the first time the new speaker, who opposes the aid to Ukraine, was getting a close airing from White House officials about Biden’s case for the money. The White House has conducted similar briefings in recent weeks.
Biden had called Johnson to congratulate him after his election Wednesday and said it was “time for all of us to act responsibly” to fund the government and provide that foreign aid. “We need to move swiftly,” the president said in a statement.
Johnson, 51, swept through on the first ballot with support from all Republicans anxious to put weeks of tumult behind and get on with the business of governing. He was quickly sworn as speaker and is now second in line to the presidency, after the vice president.
While not the Republicans’ top choice, Johnson had few foes and an important backer in Donald Trump.
At the Capitol on Thursday, Johnson sat down with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who told reporters afterward that he had a “very good” meeting with the new speaker.
Johnson met later with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who said on social media they had a “great meeting.” He has also heard from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who told the new speaker in a Wednesday call that a bipartisan agreement with Democrats is the only way to avoid a shutdown.
In winning the gavel, Johnson, who has been in the House for less than a decade, drew together fellow Republicans through his faith, conservative roots and Trump’s nod after more seasoned leaders had failed.
“I’m a Bible-believing Christian,” Johnson told Fox’s Sean Hannity.
The speaker said when he’s asked his views on the issues, he advises: “Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it, that’s my worldview. That’s what I believe.”
Democrats said Johnson, a lawyer specializing in constitutional issues, was an extreme conservative, a strict opponent of abortion access and an architect of Trump’s legal effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election he lost to Democrat Biden.
After Johnson’s election, lawmakers approved a resolution Wednesday saying the House “stands with Israel” and “condemns Hamas’ brutal war.” They next turned to a stalled government funding bill.
Rather than take a scheduled work period at home, Republicans rearranged the House calendar to return to Washington next week and keep pushing through the various government funding bills before the Nov. 17 deadline.
In a letter to colleagues, Johnson outlined priorities that include providing a short-term funding bill, into next year, to prevent a November shutdown — almost the same move that led to McCarthy’s ouster.
“Speaker Johnson has been very clear that we’ve got to secure America’s border, we want to support Israel,” said Majority Leader Steve Scalize, who conferred with Johnson ahead of the White House meeting. “But all of the other items that the President is talking about run secondary.”
Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Johnson is thoughtful and smart, and understands that aid for Ukraine is a national security issue, despite opposition from other Republicans in their majority.
“And what I saw in the Situation Room was I thought he was very open to the idea,” said McCaul.
To avoid a shutdown, Johnson will need to balance far-right demands with the realities of keeping the government functioning. Most Republicans voted against the budget deal McCarthy, R-Calif., struck with Biden earlier this year, demanding steeper spending cuts.
Similar Republican infighting has chased three other GOP speakers to early departures. The difference now is that Republican rules allow any single lawmaker to force a vote to remove the speaker from office.
In meeting with Biden, new Speaker Mike Johnson says GOP won’t abandon Ukraine but will aid Israel first
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In meeting with Biden, new Speaker Mike Johnson says GOP won’t abandon Ukraine but will aid Israel first
- While Johnson has spoken of the importance of helping fund Israel in the fight against Hamas, he has shown little interest in providing more money for Ukraine as it battles Russia
- To avoid a government shutdown, Johnson will need to balance far-right demands with the realities of keeping the government functioning.
Strange foam and dead fish wash ashore at 2 Australian beaches as surfers fall sick
- The goverment closed Waitpinga Beach and neighboring Parsons Beach on Monday. Dozens of dead fish have reportedly been washed shore
- Surfers have been complaining since the weekend of getting sore eyes, sore throats and coughing after contact with the water
MELBOURNE: An Australian state closed two beaches after dead fish and an unusual off-white foam washed ashore while surfers reported feeling unwell, officials said on Tuesday.
A microalgal bloom created by unusual weather conditions was suspected to have sickened humans and marine life as well as creating the foam that has covered hundreds of meters (yards) of coastline, South Australian Environment Protection Authority principal scientific officer Sam Gaylard said.
“It is very concerning,” Gaylard told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“It is unusual at this scale. At this time of year, when the weather conditions allow, we do occasionally get isolated blooms, but something of this scale is definitely a little bit unusual,” Gaylard added.
Waitpinga Beach and neighboring Parsons Beach, both south of the South Australia state capital Adelaide, have been closed to the public since Monday in response to a “fish mortality event in the area,” the Department for Environment and Water said in a statement.
“The beaches will be re-opened as soon as possible,” the department said.
Dozens of dead fish have reportedly been washed shore.
Surfers have been complaining since the weekend of getting sore eyes, sore throats and coughing after contact with the water, said local Anthony Rowland, who surfed at Waitpinga on Saturday.
“While we were out there, we started coughing,” Rowland said, refering to his surfing comrads. He said he was overwhelmed by the response from other surfers after posting his experience online.
“Lots of people reached out – so many people have said they’re had exactly the same symptoms,” Rowland said.
Marine scientists took water samples from the foam, which is a byproduct of the toxic organisms’ decay, on Monday, but it could take until the end of the week to identify the organism, Gaylard said.
A bloom of microalgae – microscopic, single-celled organisms – could have been caused by a recent extended period of hot and dry weather with little wind and low tides, Gaylard said.
A swell has picked up in the area since Sunday, and the turbulence could break up the algae while generating more foam, he said.
“At the moment, we’re not sure how long this will last,” Gaylard said.
Turkiye’s Erdogan seeks meeting with Trump, Bloomberg News says
- Erdogan’s office and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comments
ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is working to secure a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, potentially by late April, Bloomberg News said on Tuesday, citing Turkish officials familiar with the matter.
Erdogan sees closer US-Turkiye ties as crucial for regional stability, particularly as Ankara seeks a bigger role in mediating conflicts from Ukraine to Syria, the report added.
Erdogan’s office and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comments.
In the battle against militant group Islamic State in Syria, the United States is allied with a Syrian Kurdish militia that Turkiye regards as a terrorist group. Turkiye has sharply criticized this US stance as a betrayal of a NATO ally.
Turkiye’s 2019 purchase of Russian S-400 missile defense systems also led to US sanctions and the country’s removal from the F-35 fighter jet program.
On Sunday, Erdogan spoke by telephone with Trump, discussing efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and to restore stability in Syria.
He told Trump that Turkiye supported his “decisive and direct initiatives” to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and would continue to strive for a “just and lasting peace,” Erdogan’s office said in a statement.
NASA astronauts head home on SpaceX capsule after drawn-out space station stay
- Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams’ homecoming caps an end to an unusual, drawn-out mission filled with uncertainty and technical troubles
- The astronaut pair had launched into space as Starliner’s first crew in June for what was expected to be an eight-day test mission
WASHINGTON: NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams departed the International Space Station early on Tuesday morning in a SpaceX capsule for a long-awaited trip back to Earth, nine months after their faulty Boeing Starliner craft upended what was to be a roughly week-long test mission.
Wilmore and Williams, two veteran NASA astronauts and retired US Navy test pilots, strapped inside their Crew Dragon spacecraft along with two other astronauts and undocked from the orbiting laboratory at 1.05 a.m. ET (0505 GMT), embarking on a 17-hour trip to Earth.
The four-person crew, formally part of NASA’s Crew-9 astronaut rotation mission, is scheduled for a splashdown off Florida’s coast later on Tuesday at 5:57 p.m. ET.
Wilmore and Williams’ homecoming caps an end to an unusual, drawn-out mission filled with uncertainty and technical troubles that have turned a rare case of NASA’s contingency planning – as well as failures of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft – into a global and political spectacle.
The astronaut pair had launched into space as Starliner’s first crew in June for what was expected to be an eight-day test mission. But issues with Starliner’s propulsion system led to cascading delays in their return home, culminating in a NASA decision last year to have them take a SpaceX craft back this year as part of the agency’s crew rotation schedule.
The mission has captured the attention of US President Donald Trump, who upon taking office in January called for a quicker return of Wilmore and Williams and alleged without evidence that former President Joe Biden “abandoned” them on the ISS for political reasons.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, a close adviser to Trump, echoed his call for an earlier return. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is the United States’ only orbital-class crew spacecraft, which Boeing had hoped its Starliner would compete with before the mission with Wilmore and Williams threw its development future into uncertainty.
The astronauts will be flown to their crew quarters at the space agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for several days of health checks, per routine for astronaut returns, before NASA flight surgeons approve they can go home to their families.
Living in space for months can affect the human body in multiple ways, from muscle atrophy to possible vision impairment.
Upon splashing down, Wilmore and Williams will have logged 286 days in space – longer than the average six-month ISS mission length, but far short of US record holder Frank Rubio. His continuous 371 days in space ending in 2023 was the unexpected result of a coolant leak on a Russian spacecraft.
Williams, capping her third spaceflight, will have tallied 608 cumulative days in space, the second most for any US astronaut after Peggy Whitson’s 675 days. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko set the world record last year at 878 cumulative days.
Replacement crew
Swept up in NASA’s routine astronaut rotation schedule, Wilmore and Williams could not begin their return to Earth until their replacement crew arrived, in order to maintain adequate US staffing levels, according to NASA.
Their replacements arrived on Friday night – four astronauts as part of NASA’s Crew-10 mission briefly put the station’s headcount at 11.
“We came prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short,” Wilmore told reporters from space earlier this month, adding that he did not believe NASA’s decision to keep them on the ISS until Crew-10’s arrival had been affected by politics.
“That’s what your nation’s human spaceflight program’s all about,” he said, “planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that.”
Wilmore and Williams have been doing scientific research and conducting routine maintenance with the station’s other five astronauts. Williams had performed two six-hour spacewalks for maintenance outside the ISS, including one with Wilmore.
The ISS, about 409 kilometers in altitude, is a football field-sized research lab that has been housed continuously by international crews of astronauts for nearly 25 years, a key platform of science diplomacy managed primarily by the US and Russia.
Williams told reporters earlier this month that she was looking forward to returning home to see her two dogs and family. “It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us,” she said.
Canada reviews F-35 fighter jet deal, says it relies on US too much for security
- Canadian PM: ‘It is clear that our security relationship ... is too focused on the United States. We must diversify’
- US President Donald Trump has slapped tariffs on Canada and mused about turning it into the 51st state
OTTAWA: Canada is looking for possible alternatives to its deal to buy US fighter jets in part because it relies too much on the United States for security, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Monday.
Carney made the comments just days after ordering a review of a C$19-billion ($13.29 billion) contract for 88 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin. Canada is locked in a trade war with the United States.
Canada’s defense ministry says the contract remains in place and Ottawa has made a legal commitment of funds for the first 16 F-35 aircraft. Carney made clear Canada would seriously look elsewhere.
“It is clear that our security relationship ... is too focused on the United States. We must diversify,” he told reporters during a visit to London, noting that Canada spent about 80 percent of its defense budget on American weapons.
“Given the need for value for money, given the possibility of having substantial production of alternative aircraft in Canada... it’s prudent and in the interest of Canada to review those options,” he said.
Carney did not mention specific firms. Sweden’s Saab, which lost out on the fighter jet contract to Lockheed Martin, had promised to assemble its planes in Canada.
Canadian firms also benefit from the relationship. Bombardier CEO Eric Martel said he was concerned Washington could target the planemaker’s US contracts if Canada canceled the Lockheed Martin deal.
US President Donald Trump has slapped tariffs on Canada and mused about turning it into the 51st state.
Philippe Lagasse, a professor at Carleton University who specializes in procurement, said buying 16 F-35s and then adding another jet would be expensive.
Canada, pressured by successive US administrations to increase defense spending, last year pledged billions more for the armed forces and said military expenditures would be closer to the NATO target by 2030.
In a statement, Lockheed Martin said it valued its ties with Canada and referred procurement questions to the government.
The US Defense Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Indonesia begins repatriating more than 500 freed Myanmar scam center workers
- Cyberscam operations lure foreign workers with promises of high-paying jobs but hold them hostage and force them to commit online fraud
- Around 7,000 workers from at least two dozen countries have been freed in recent weeks, the majority of them Chinese
JAKARTA: Indonesia on Tuesday began repatriating more than 500 of its nationals freed from online scam centers in Myanmar, officials said, bringing them home from an ordeal where they suffered violence and threats.
Cyberscam operations, which have thrived in Myanmar’s lawless border areas for several years, lure foreign workers with promises of high-paying jobs but hold them hostage and force them to commit online fraud.
Around 7,000 workers from at least two dozen countries have been freed in recent weeks, the majority of them Chinese, but many have been languishing in squalid temporary holding camps on the border between Myanmar and Thailand.
Four-hundred Indonesians were returning from Thailand on Tuesday and at least 154 would follow on Wednesday, according to Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Budi Gunawan.
“The Indonesian government cooperated with the Thailand government and the Chinese government for rescuing and repatriating 554 Indonesians,” he told a press conference at the international airport in capital Jakarta.
The group included 449 men and 105 women who became “victims of large-scale online scamming” in the town of Myawaddy near the Thai border, said Budi.
“The victims... experienced various pressures, physical violence, such as beatings and electrocution, and lastly were threatened with their organs being removed,” he said.
Judha Nugraha, the director of citizen protection at Indonesia’s foreign ministry, earlier said that “around 161” nationals would return Wednesday.
The Indonesians were coming back on three flights from Bangkok after crossing into Thailand from Myanmar, officials said.
The first flight carrying 200 freed Indonesians landed on Tuesday morning.
Judha said the discrepancy in numbers was due to authorities “still processing” the second group, adding final numbers would be released on Wednesday after their transfer was complete.
Indonesian authorities already repatriated 140 nationals from Myanmar via Thailand last month.
Authorities in Myanmar, under pressure from ally China, have cracked down on the scam compounds.
Between 2020 and September last year, Jakarta repatriated more than 4,700 Indonesians entangled in online scam operations from countries including Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, according to foreign ministry data.
The United Nations estimates that as many as 120,000 people – many of them Chinese men – may be working in Myanmar scam centers against their will.
