WASHINGTON: The House approved a nearly $14.5 billion military aid package Thursday for Israel, a muscular US response to the war with Hamas but also a partisan approach by new Speaker Mike Johnson that poses a direct challenge to Democrats and President Joe Biden.
In a departure from norms, Johnson’s package required that the emergency aid be offset with cuts in government spending elsewhere. That tack established the new House GOP’s conservative leadership, but it also turned what would typically be a bipartisan vote into one dividing Democrats and Republicans. Biden has said he would veto the bill, which was approved 226-196, with 12 Democrats joining most Republicans on a largely party-line vote.
Johnson, R-Louisiana, said the Republican package would provide Israel with the assistance needed to defend itself, free hostages held by Hamas and eradicate the militant Palestinian group, accomplishing “all of this while we also work to ensure responsible spending and reduce the size of the federal government.”
Democrats said that approach would only delay help for Israel. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has warned that the “stunningly unserious” bill has no chances in the Senate.
The first substantial legislative effort in Congress to support Israel in the war falls far short of Biden’s request for nearly $106 billion that would also back Ukraine as it fights Russia, along with US efforts to counter China and address security at the border with Mexico.
It is also Johnson’s first big test as House speaker as the Republican majority tries to get back to work after the month of turmoil since ousting Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker. Johnson has said he will turn next to aid for Ukraine along with US border security, preferring to address Biden’s requests separately as GOP lawmakers increasingly oppose aiding Kyiv.
The White House’s veto warning said Johnson’s approach “fails to meet the urgency of the moment” and would set a dangerous precedent by requiring emergency funds to come from cuts elsewhere.
While the amount for Israel in the House bill is similar to what Biden sought, the White House said the Republican plan’s failure to include humanitarian assistance for Gaza is a “grave mistake” as the crisis deepens.
Biden on Wednesday called for a pause in the war to allow for relief efforts.
“This bill would break with the normal, bipartisan approach to providing emergency national security assistance,” the White House wrote in its statement of administration policy on the legislation. It said the GOP stance “would have devastating implications for our safety and alliances in the years ahead.”
It was unclear before voting Thursday how many Democrats would join with Republicans. The White House had been directly appealing to lawmakers, particularly calling Jewish Democrats, urging them to reject the bill.
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti and other senior White House staff have been engaging House Democrats, said a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it.
But the vote was difficult for some lawmakers, particularly Democrats who wanted to support Israel and may have trouble explaining the trade-off to constituents, especially as the large AIPAC lobby and other groups encouraged passage. In all, two Republicans opposed the bill.
Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill, who voted against the package, said: “It was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do.”
To pay for the bill, House Republicans have attached provisions that would cut billions from the IRS that Democrats approved last year and Biden signed into law as a way to go after tax cheats. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says doing that would end up costing the federal government a net $12.5 billion because of lost revenue from tax collections.
Republicans scoffed at that assessment, but the independent budget office is historically seen as a trusted referee.
Backers said the package would provide support for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, procurement of advanced weaponry and other military needs, and help with protection and evacuations of US citizens. CBO pegged the overall package at about $14.3 billion for Israel.
As the floor debate got underway, Democrats pleaded for Republicans to restore the humanitarian aid Biden requested and decried the politicization of typically widely bipartisan Israel support.
“Republicans are leveraging the excruciating pain of an international crisis to help rich people who cheat on their taxes and big corporations who regularly dodge their taxes,” said Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee.
Rep. Dan Goldman of New York described hiding in a stairwell with his wife and children while visiting Israel as rockets fired in what he called the most horrific attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
Nevertheless, Goldman said he opposed the Republican-led bill as a “shameful effort” to turn the situation in Israel and the Jewish people into a political weapon.
“Support for Israel may be a political game for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle,” the Democrat said. “But this is personal for us Jews and it is existential for the one Jewish nation in the world that is a safe haven from the rising tide of antisemitism around the globe.”
The Republicans have been attacking Democrats who raise questions about Israel’s war tactics as antisemitic. The House tried to censure the only Palestinian-American lawmaker in Congress, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, over remarks she made. The censure measure failed.
Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., said he was “so thankful there is no humanitarian aid,” which he argued could fall into the hands of Hamas.
In the Democratic-controlled Senate, Schumer made clear that the House bill would be rejected.
“The Senate will not take up the House GOP’s deeply flawed proposal, and instead we’ll work on our own bipartisan emergency aid package” that includes money for Israel and Ukraine, as well as humanitarian assistance for Gaza and efforts to confront China.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is balancing the need to support his GOP allies in the House while also fighting to keep the aid package more in line with Biden’s broader request, believing all the issues are linked and demand US attention.
McConnell said the aid for Ukraine was “not charity” but was necessary to bolster a Western ally against Russia.
In other action Thursday, the House overwhelmingly approved a Republican-led resolution that focused on college campus activism over the Israel-Hamas war. The nonbinding resolution would condemn support of Hamas, Hezbollah and terrorist organizations at institutions of higher education.
House approves nearly $14.5 billion in US military aid for Israel without humanitarian aid for Gaza
https://arab.news/vsxf5
House approves nearly $14.5 billion in US military aid for Israel without humanitarian aid for Gaza
- President Joe Biden has said he would veto the bill in the event it is also passed by the Senate
- But the Democrat-controlled Senate said the “stunningly unserious” bill has no chances of passing
South Korean opposition leader handed suspended jail term
- Case concerns statements Lee Jae-myung made on the campaign trail, when he narrowly lost to incumbent President Yoon Suk Yeol in 2022
The Seoul Central District Court found Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, guilty and handed him a suspended one-year jail term, a court spokesperson told AFP.
The case concerns statements Lee made on the campaign trail, when he narrowly lost to incumbent President Yoon Suk Yeol in 2022.
Prosecutors had asked for a two-year prison sentence, saying Lee made a false statement in a TV interview in December 2021 that made people think he did not know Kim Moon-ki, a key figure in a controversial development project.
Kim had been found dead days earlier, although police found no evidence of foul play.
Lee was also accused of lying during a parliamentary hearing in 2021 in connection with another controversial development in Seongnam, where he was previously mayor.
The court ruled that the fact Lee made false statements on TV “greatly amplified their impact and reach,” it said in the written verdict.
Supporters wept outside the court after the verdict was announced, and Lee immediately vowed to appeal.
“The verdict is very difficult to accept,” he said.
If it is upheld on appeal, Lee will be stripped of his parliamentary seat and prohibited from running for public office for the next five years — which would include the 2027 presidential election.
Lee is seen as a leading contender in South Korea’s upcoming presidential election, due for early 2027, but the 60-year-old faces a slew of legal cases.
His other trials relate to corruption involving the Seongnam development project, an illegal $8 million cash transfer to North Korea, and pressuring a former mayoral secretary to provide false court testimony in his favor.
A former child factory worker who suffered an industrial accident as a teenage school drop-out, Lee rose to political stardom partly by playing up his rags-to-riches tale.
But his bid for the top office has been overshadowed by a series of scandals. He has also faced scrutiny due to persistent rumors linking him to organized crime.
At least five individuals connected to Lee’s various scandals, including late official Kim, have been found dead, many in what appeared to be suicides.
In January, Lee was stabbed in the neck by an attacker — who said he wanted to prevent him from “becoming president.”
Despite strict legal time limits, Lee’s cases are moving slowly through the courts, and public, acrimonious, drawn-out appeals could cause “considerable chaos in the political landscape,” Shin Yul, professor of political science at Myongji University, said.
“The Democratic Party is set to significantly escalate its attacks on the ruling party,” in a bid to convince the public their leader is not guilty, he said.
“However, it is also probable that the South Korean public will not be entirely supportive of Lee Jae-myung. Once a one-year prison sentence is issued, most people are now likely perceive him as guilty.”
Sri Lankan president’s coalition wins majority in snap election
- Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s National People’s Power coalition won 137 seats of 196 for which direct elections were held
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s leftist coalition won a thumping victory in a snap general election, gaining power to push through his plans to fight poverty in the island nation recovering from a financial meltdown.
Dissanayake’s Marxist-leaning National People’s Power (NPP) coalition won 137 seats of 196 for which direct elections were held, a two-thirds majority, Friday’s ballot counting showed. Local media projected its tally would cross 150 in the 225-member parliament after more seats are distributed under a proportional seat distribution system.
That would give Dissanayake sweeping powers to even abolish the contentious executive presidency as he has planned.
While the clear mandate strengthens political stability in the South Asian country, some uncertainty on policy direction remains due to Dissanayake’s promises to try and tweak the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue program that bailed the country out of its economic crisis, analysts said.
Dissanayake, a political outsider in a country dominated by family parties for decades, comfortably won the island’s presidential election in September.
But his coalition had just three seats in parliament before Thursday’s snap election, prompting him to dissolve it and seek a fresh mandate.
The NPP secured almost 62 percent or almost 7 million votes in Thursday’s election, up from the 42 percent Dissanayake won in September, indicating that he had drawn more widespread support including from minorities and built on his victory.
“We see this as a critical turning point for Sri Lanka. We expect a mandate to form a strong parliament, and we are confident the people will give us this mandate,” Dissanayake said after casting his vote on Thursday.
“There is a change in Sri Lanka’s political culture that started in September, which must continue.”
Voters directly elect 196 members to parliament from 22 constituencies under a proportional representation system. The remaining 29 seats will be distributed according to the island-wide proportional vote obtained by each party.
TENTATIVE ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Celebrations were largely muted, with the exception of a few NPP loyalists who lit fireworks on the outskirts of the capital, Colombo.
The Samagi Jana Balawegaya party of opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, the main challenger to Dissanayake’s coalition, won 35 seats and the New Democratic Front, backed by previous President Ranil Wickremesinghe, won just three seats.
Sri Lanka typically backs the president’s party in general elections, especially if voting is held soon after a presidential vote.
The president wields executive power but Dissanayake still required a parliamentary majority to appoint a fully-fledged cabinet and deliver on key promises to cut taxes, support local businesses, and fight poverty.
A nation of 22 million, Sri Lanka was crushed by a 2022 economic crisis triggered by a severe shortage of foreign currency that pushed it into a sovereign default and caused its economy to shrink by 7.3 percent in 2022 and 2.3 percent last year.
Boosted by a $2.9 billion bailout program from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the economy has begun a tentative recovery, but the high cost of living is still a critical issue for many, especially the poor.
Dissanayake also aims to tweak targets set by the IMF to rein in income tax and free up funds to invest in welfare for the millions hit hardest by the crisis.
But investors worry his desire to revisit the terms of the IMF bailout could delay future disbursements, making it harder for Sri Lanka to hit a key primary surplus target of 2.3 percent of GDP in 2025 set by the IMF.
“The country has given a clear mandate politically. The key question would be if this is at the cost of economic policy,” said Raynal Wickremeratne, co-head of research at Softlogic Stockbrokers in Colombo.
“I think with this majority they may try to negotiate a bit more on the (IMF) targets as well,” he said. “A continuation of the current reform program on a broader extent would be positive for the country.”
Wars, looming Trump reign set to dominate G20 summit
- G20 leaders gather in Brazil on Monday for a G20 summit set to be dominated by differences over wars in the Middle East and UkrainE
Security considerations — always high at such meetings — were elevated further after a failed bomb attack late Wednesday outside Brazil’s Supreme Court in Brasilia.
Police were probing the two blasts as a possible “terrorist act” committed by a Brazilian perpetrator, whose death was the sole casualty.
The summit venue is in Rio de Janeiro, in the city’s stunning bayside museum of modern art, which is the epicenter of a massive police deployment designed to keep the public well away.
Brazil’s leftwing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be using the opportunity to highlight his position as a leader championing Global South issues while also being courted by the West.
That role will be tested in the months and years ahead as Latin America and other regions navigate “America First” policies promised by Donald Trump when he becomes US president in January.
At this G20, it will be outgoing President Joe Biden who will represent the world’s biggest economy, but as a lame duck the other leaders will be looking beyond.
Just before the Rio summit, on Sunday, Biden will make a stop in Brazil’s Amazon to underline the fight against climate change — another issue that Trump is hostile toward.
The G20 meet is happening at the same time as the UN’s COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan — and as the world experiences dramatic climate phenomena, including in Brazil where flooding, drought and forest fires have taken heavy tolls.
At the last G20, in India, the leaders called for a tripling of renewable energy sources by the end of the decade, but without explicitly calling for an end to the use of fossil fuels.
One invited leader who declined to come to Rio is Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said his presence could “wreck” the gathering.
Putin denied an International Criminal Court warrant out against him, for Russia’s actions in Ukraine, was a factor in his decision. His foreign minister will represent Russia in Rio.
China’s President Xi Jinping, however, will be attending, and will even extend his stay after the summit to make an official visit to Brasilia on Wednesday.
China is Brazil’s biggest trading partner, and the two countries have been touting themselves as mediators to help end Russia’s war in Ukraine, so far without success.
That conflict, along with Israel’s offensives in Gaza and Lebanon, will loom large at the summit.
“We are negotiating with all the countries on the final declaration’s passages about geopolitics... so that we can reach consensual language on those two issues,” Brazil’s chief diplomatic official for the G20, Mauricio Lyrio, said.
Those conflicts will be “the elephant in the room,” Flavia Loss, international relations specialist at the School of Sociology and Politics of Sao Paulo (FESPSP), told AFP.
But that should not prevent Brazil from finding consensus on issues that it has made priorities under its G20 presidency, she said, such as the fight against hunger or taxing the world’s super-rich.
Lula, heading up Latin America’s biggest economy, set out his line in May when he said: “A lot of people insist on dividing the world between friends and enemies. But the more vulnerable are not interested in simplist dichotomies.”
The Rio G20 summit will open on Monday with Lula officially launching a “Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty.”
The initiative aims to rally nations and international bodies to free up financing for that campaign, or to replicate programs that have previously had success.
And on the issue of taxing billionaires, the G20 countries already declared a desire to cooperate to bring that about, as set out by their finance ministers who met in Rio in June.
It remained to be seen, though, whether the leaders at the summit would pursue that goal, and on what terms.
Following the summit, Brazil hands over the G20 presidency to South Africa.
Xi, Biden attend Asia-Pacific summit, prepare to meet
- Joe Biden and Xi Jinping are due to hold a face-to-face meeting Saturday
- APEC brings together 21 economies that jointly represent about 60% of world GDP
LIMA: US President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will attend the first day of an Asia-Pacific leaders’ summit Friday ahead of a face-to-face meeting under a cloud of diplomatic uncertainty cast by Donald Trump’s election victory.
Biden and Xi are due to hold talks Saturday, in what a US administration official said will probably be the last meeting between the sitting leaders of the world’s largest economies before Trump is sworn in in January.
With the Republican president-elect having signaled a confrontational approach to Beijing for his second term, the bilateral meeting will be a closely watched affair.
Xi and Biden arrived in Lima Thursday along with other world leaders for a two-day heads-of-state meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping.
APEC, created in 1989 with the goal of regional trade liberalization, brings together 21 economies that jointly represent about 60 percent of world GDP and over 40 percent of global commerce.
The summit program was to focus on trade and investment for what proponents dubbed inclusive growth.
But uncertainty over Trump’s next moves now clouds the agenda — as it does for the COP29 climate talks underway in Azerbaijan, and a G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week.
On Thursday, APEC ministers, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, held their own meeting behind closed doors in Lima to set the tone for the summit to follow.
Trump announced this week he will replace Blinken with Senator Marco Rubio, a China hawk.
The summit will also be attended by Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia and Indonesia, among others.
President Vladimir Putin of APEC member Russia will not be present.
Trump’s “America First” agenda is based on protectionist trade policies, increased domestic fossil fuel extraction, and avoiding foreign conflicts.
It threatens alliances Biden has built on issues ranging from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East to climate change and commerce.
The Republican president-elect has threatened tariffs of up to 60 percent on imports of Chinese goods to even out what he says is an imbalance in bilateral trade.
China is grappling with a prolonged housing crisis and sluggish consumption that can only be made worse by a new trade war with Washington.
But economists say punitive levies would also harm the American economy, and others further afield.
China is an ally of Western pariahs Russia and North Korea, and is building up its own military capacity while ramping up pressure on Taiwan, which it claims as part of its territory.
It is also expanding its reach into Latin America through infrastructure and other projects under its Belt and Road Initiative.
Xi on Thursday inaugurated South America’s first Chinese-funded port, in Chancay, north of Lima, even as a senior US official warned Latin American countries to be vigilant when it comes to Chinese investment.
Biden, meanwhile, will on Friday meet Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol — key US allies in Asia.
Traveling with Biden, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the partner nations will announce the creation of a secretariat to ensure their alliance “will be an enduring feature of American policy.”
China isn’t the only country in Trump’s economic crosshairs.
The incoming US leader has threatened tariffs of 25 percent or more on goods coming from Mexico — another APEC member — unless it stops an “onslaught of criminals and drugs” crossing the border.
Peru has deployed more than 13,000 members of the armed forces to keep the peace in Lima as transport workers and shop owners launched three days of protests against crime and perceived government neglect.
As Philippines picks up from Usagi, a fresh storm bears down
- Typhoon Usagi blew out of the Philippines early Friday as another dangerous storm drew closer
- Scores were killed by flash floods and landslides just weeks ago, the weather service said
MANILA: Typhoon Usagi blew out of the Philippines early Friday as another dangerous storm drew closer, threatening an area where scores were killed by flash floods and landslides just weeks ago, the weather service said.
As Usagi — the archipelago nation’s fifth storm in three weeks — headed north to Taiwan, rescuers worked to reach residents stranded on rooftops in northern Luzon island, where herds of livestock were devastated.
The recent wave of disasters has killed at least 159 people and prompted the United Nations to request $32.9 million in aid for the worst-affected regions.
On Thursday, flash floods driven by Usagi struck 10 largely evacuated villages around the town of Gonzaga in Cagayan province, local rescue official Edward Gaspar told AFP by phone.
“We rescued a number of people who had refused to move to the shelters and got trapped on their rooftops,” Gaspar added.
While the evacuation of more than 5,000 Gonzaga residents ahead of the typhoon saved lives, he said two houses were swept away and many others were damaged while the farming region’s livestock industry took a heavy blow.
“We have yet to account for the exact number of hogs, cattle and poultry lost from the floods, but I can say the losses were huge,” Gaspar said.
Trees uprooted by flooding damaged a major bridge in Gonzaga, isolating nearby Santa Ana, a coastal town of about 36,000 people, Cagayan officials said.
“Most evacuees have returned home, but we held back some of them. We have to check first if their houses are still safe for habitation,” Bonifacio Espiritu, operations chief of the civil defense office in Cagayan, told AFP.
By early Friday, Usagi was over the Luzon Strait with a reduced strength of 120 kilometers (75 miles) an hour as it headed toward southern Taiwan, where authorities had downgraded the typhoon to a tropical storm.
But the streak of violent weather was forecast to continue in the central Philippines, where Severe Tropical Storm Man-yi is set to reach coastal waters by Sunday.
The weather service said it could potentially strike at or near the heavily populated capital Manila.
A UN assessment said the past month’s storms damaged or destroyed 207,000 houses, with 700,000 people forced to seek temporary shelter.
Many families were without essentials like sleeping mats, hygiene kits and cooking supplies, and had limited access to safe drinking water.
Thousands of hectares of farmland were destroyed and persistent flooding was likely to delay replanting efforts and worsen food supply problems, the report added.
About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the Southeast Asian nation or its surrounding waters each year, killing scores of people and keeping millions in enduring poverty, but it is unusual for multiple such weather events to take place in a small window.
The weather service said this tends to happen during seasonal episodes of La Nina, a climatic phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean that pushes more warm water toward Asia, causing heavy rains and flooding in the region and drought in the southern United States.
