The House of Representatives approved a series of foreign aid bills on Saturday that allocate substantial funds, including $60.8 billion for Ukraine’s aid, $26.38 billion for Israel’s assistance, and $8 billion towards the Indo-Pacific region’s support.
One bill, providing $8 billion in military assistance to the Indo-Pacific area, including Taiwan, passed the House with an overwhelming majority of 385-34-1 votes. Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib from Michigan was the sole member who voted present. The Ukraine foreign aid bill secured passage with a 311-112-1 vote.
Iraqi authorities stated they were probing an explosion that struck a base belonging to the Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iran-allied militia coalition, resulting in one fatality and eight injuries.
Militia officials initially described the blast at the Kalsu military base, a former U.S. facility handed over to Iraqi forces in 2011, as an airstrike, attributing it to U.S. forces. However, the U.S. Central Command issued a statement denying any involvement in airstrikes within Iraq.
On Friday, lawyers representing the New York Attorney General urged Judge Arthur Engoron to reject former President Donald Trump’s $175 million bond for his civil judgment and mandate a new one within seven days.
Letitia James contended that the former president failed to demonstrate that Knight Specialty Insurance Company, the firm backing his bond, possessed sufficient resources to pay the bond if Trump’s appeal proved unsuccessful. Trump and his co-defendants had posted a $175 million bond on April 1.
A man who set himself ablaze outside the New York City courthouse where former President Donald Trump is facing criminal charges has succumbed to his injuries, police confirmed on Saturday.
A New York Police Department spokesperson stated that Maxwell Azzarello from St. Augustine, Florida, died from burn injuries sustained after he lit himself on fire in a designated protest area at Collect Pond Park across from Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday afternoon.
The United States will initiate plans to withdraw troops from Niger, according to U.S. officials, a move experts consider a setback for Washington and its allies in the region.
On Friday, the prime minister of Niger, appointed by the ruling military junta, Ali Lamine Zeine, and U.S. deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell, agreed that the two nations would begin planning the withdrawal of American troops, as stated in an email from the U.S. State Department on Saturday.
The House passed legislation Saturday that would ban TikTok in the United States if the popular social media platform’s China-based owner fails to sell its stake within a year, though the app’s removal is unlikely anytime soon.
House Republicans’ decision to incorporate TikTok into a larger foreign aid package, a priority for President Joe Biden with broad congressional backing for Ukraine and Israel, expedited the ban after an earlier version had stalled in the Senate.
In a groundbreaking union election on Friday evening, Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted to join the United Auto Workers Union.
The workers cast 2,628 votes in favor of union representation and 985 against, according to a spokesperson for the National Labor Relations Board. The employer will commence “bargaining in good faith” with the union, with parties having five days to file objections to the election.
Tesla slashed $2,000 off the prices of three of its five models in the United States, another indication of the challenges confronting the electric vehicle maker led by billionaire Elon Musk.
The company reduced the prices of the Model Y, a small SUV which is Tesla’s most popular model and the top-selling electric vehicle in the U.S., as well as the Models X and S, its older and more expensive models. Prices for the Model 3 sedan and the Cybertruck remained unchanged.
