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      US Senate close to passing $95bn aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after key vote

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      The US Senate on Tuesday was preparing to give final approval to a $95bn in wartime aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, with a bipartisan coalition eager to send the long-stalled package to Joe Biden’s desk for signature.In a sweeping 80-19 vote, the Senate overwhelmingly voted to advance the measure in a step hailed by the Senate majority leader as “one of the greatest achievements the Senate has faced in years”.“Today the Senate sends a unified message to the entire world: America will always defend democracy in its hour of need,” said Chuck Schumer in a floor speech moments after the Senate moved toward final passage of the bill, possibly as early as Tuesday evening.“Make no mistake, America will deliver on its promise to act like a leader on the world stage, to hold the line against autocratic thugs like Vladimir Putin,” he continued. “We are showing Putin that betting against America is always, always a grave mistake.”After months of delays and setbacks, the House last week approved four bills to rush funding to three American allies while approving a conservative proposal that could lead to a nationwide ban of the social media platform TikTok. The measures were combined into one large package that the Senate will take up on Tuesday.The legislation includes $60.8bn to replenish Ukraine’s war chest as it seeks to repel Russia from its territory; $26.3bn for Israel and humanitarian relief for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza; and $8.1bn for the Indo-Pacific region to bolster its defenses against China.In a call on Monday, Biden informed the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, that he would “move quickly” to send desperately needed military aid, including air defense weaponry, to the country following the bill’s passage by the Senate.In a move to bolster Republican support, the GOP-controlled House added a provision that would see TikTok blocked in the US unless its Chinese-owned parent company divests from the social media platform within a year. Much of the foreign aid section of the bill mirrors what the Senate passed in February, with the addition of a measure mandating the president seek repayment from Kyiv for roughly $10bn in economic assistance in the form of “forgivable loans”, an idea first floated by Donald Trump, who was initially opposed to aiding Ukraine.A vast majority of senators was expected to support the package on final passage. In the test vote earlier on Tuesday, 17 hardline Republican senators opposed moving forward with the measure. Among them was Rick Scott, the Florida senator, who said he supported several provisions in the bill, including the TikTok ban and aid for Israel, but could not endorse sending billions of US taxpayer dollars to Ukraine.Two progressive senators, Democrat Jeff Merkley and independent Bernie Sanders, voted against the procedural rule, saying they could not support providing additional military aid to Israel at a time when its government is waging a war that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza and pushed the territory to the brink of famine.“We are now in the absurd situation where Israel is using US military assistance to block the delivery of US humanitarian aid to Palestinians,” Sanders said in remarks on the Senate floor. “If that is not crazy, I don’t know what is.”The Vermont senator sought to introduce two amendments: one that would end offensive military funding to Israel, citing Americans’ “increasing disgust” for Benjamin Netanyahu’s “war machine”, and another to restore funding to the UN relief agency Unrwa. Both were blocked from consideration, a move he denounced as a “dark day for democracy”.The foreign aid package largely resembles the measure passed by the Senate in February. But several Republican senators who voted against it then reversed course and on Tuesday gave their approval.Among them was Lindsey Graham, a longtime defense hawk who previously opposed the Senate’s foreign aid package because it wasn’t paired with border legislation but on Tuesday voted to advance it. Following a visit to Ukraine earlier this year, Graham endorsed Trump’s loan plan and has since pointed to Iran’s aerial attack on Israel as a reason send aid to the country.“Israel needs the US Senate now. No excuses,” Graham wrote on X before voting to advance the bill.The Senate’s passage of the aid package caps a tortured odyssey on Capitol Hill that began last year with a request for the White House for a fresh round of funding for Ukraine and for Israel, reeling from the 7 October cross-border attack by Hamas.Despite broad congressional support, the effort almost immediately stalled as a faction of Republicans, increasingly skeptical of US involvement in foreign entanglements, resisted sending more aid to Ukraine. Conservatives began insisting that any funding to foreign countries be paired with legislation aimed at stemming the rise of people arriving at the US-Mexico border.When a bipartisan border and national security bill negotiated in the Senate collapsed, Schumer proceeded to move forward with a vote on the foreign aid bill up for a vote. It passed overwhelmingly in a 70-29 vote in February, but had no clear path forward in the Republican-controlled House, where the new speaker, Mike Johnson, dithered as Ukraine suffered battlefield losses.Personal entreaties from Biden, congressional leaders and European heads of state, participation in high-level intelligence briefings as House speaker, and prayer eventually persuaded Johnson to act. The decision may come at a political cost: his job.“History judges us for what we do,” Johnson said at an emotional press conference last week, after a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers passed the aid package by lopsided margins.In remarks on Tuesday, Schumer praised Johnson, who he said “rose to the occasion”, as well as Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader with whom the Democrat said he had worked “hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder to get this bill done”.“A lot of people inside and outside the Congress wanted this package to fail,” Schumer said. “But today those in Congress who stand on the side of democracy are winning the day.”McConnell has made funding Ukraine’s war effort a legacy-building quest, after announcing his decision to step down as the long-serving Senate Republican leader. In a lengthy floor speech ahead of the procedural vote on Tuesday, McConnell confronted the strain of “America first” isolationism favored by Trump and his loyalists in Congress that is rife and growing within the Republican party.“Today’s action is overdue, but our work does not end here,” he said. “Trust in American resolve is not rebuilt overnight. Expanding and restocking the arsenal of democracy doesn’t just happen by magic.” More

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      Senate leader Chuck Schumer hails bipartisanship and thanks Mike Johnson as foreign aid bill heads for passage – as it happened

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      The Senate’s Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, once again spoke from the chamber’s floor after lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to advance the $95b bill authorizing military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.Passing the legislation was a top priority for Joe Biden, his Democratic allies and some Republicans, including the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell. It faced resistance from others in the GOP, among them the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson. But Johnson relented earlier this month, and allowed it to be voted on in the House, where it passed with more Democrats in favor than Republicans.In his remarks, Schumer thanked Johnson and McConnell, while saying the bill’s passage was a sign that bipartisanship is alive and well in a Congress better known for intractable partisan stalemate.“Today’s outcome yet confirms another thing we’ve stressed from the beginning of this Congress. In divided government, the only way to ever get things done is bipartisanship,” Schumer said.“I thank leader McConnell, as I’ve mentioned before, working hand in hand with us, not letting partisanship get in the way. I thank Speaker Johnson, who rose to the occasion, in his own words, that he had to do the right thing, despite the enormous political pressure on him. And I thank leader Jeffries, who worked so well together in his bipartisan way, with Speaker Johnson.” The last name is Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader.The Senate has taken the key step of invoking cloture on the $95b bill that will send military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and could set the stage for social media app TikTok’s ban nationwide. Lawmakers are now debating the legislation, with final passage expected later today or perhaps tomorrow. The chamber earlier in the day rejected an attempt to make amendments to the bill, which already passed the House, thwarting independent Bernie Sanders’s plans to tweak the text to stop weapons shipments to Israel in what he called “a dark day for democracy”. Meanwhile, GOP senators called on the Biden administration to step in to break up pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses, including New York University and Yale University.Here’s what else happened today:
      Joe Biden assailed Donald Trump’s hand in overturning Roe v Wade in a speech in Florida, and mocked his Bible sales.
      The US plans to ship $1b in weapons to Ukraine that can be quickly deployed on the battlefield once the foreign aid bill passes.
      Trump’s trial on charges of falsifying business records is continuing in New York City, with testimony from former Nation Enquirer publisher David Pecker.
      Republican House speaker Mike Johnson took a risk by allowing the chamber to pass the bill funding Ukraine’s defense, but Trump praised him nonetheless.
      Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic leader, thanked Johnson for allowing the House to vote on and pass the foreign aid bill, despite his previous hesitancy towards arming Ukraine.
      Back in the Senate, lawmakers continue to debate the foreign aid bill for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, which appears headed for passage later today.The speeches will probably go on for a few hours. Shortly after the chamber overwhelmingly took the key legislative step of invoking cloture on the bill, CNN reports Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell, an ardent supporter of Ukraine, laid into conservative commentator Tucker Carlson for his support of Vladimir Putin, and the damage it has caused:Carlson traveled to Russia in February for an interview with Putin, which did not appear to go the way the conservative commentator hoped:Much of what Joe Biden told the crowd in Florida was well-trod territory for the president, who has pledged to protect abortion access ever since the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.But he did try out a new line, one inspired by Donald Trump’s foray into theology.“Trump bragged how proud he was to get rid of Roe v Wade … He took credit for it. He said, there has to be punishment for women exercising their reproductive freedom. His words, not mine,” Biden said.Then he teed up a zinger: “He described the Dobbs decision as a miracle. Maybe it’s coming from that Bible he’s trying to sell. I almost wanted to buy one just to see what the hell’s in it.”If you haven’t heard about it, yes, Trump is selling a Bible:Joe Biden vowed to protect abortion access as president, including vetoing any attempt by Congress to pass a nationwide ban on the procedure.But much of his speech was dedicated to reminding voters of Donald Trump’s role in Roe v Wade’s downfall.“It was Donald Trump who ripped away the right to freedom of women in America. It will be all of us who restore those rights for women in America,” Biden said.“When you do that, you’ll teach Donald Trump and extreme Maga Republicans an extremely valuable lesson: don’t mess with the women of America.”Joe Biden has made it to Tampa, where he’s laying into Donald Trump for his role in the supreme court’s overturning of Roe v Wade, which has allowed states to ban abortion.Beginning next week, abortion will be banned in Florida beyond six weeks of pregnancy – a point at which many women are not aware they are pregnant. During his presidency, Trump appointed to the supreme court three conservative justices who would go on to vote to overturn Roe.“For 50 years, the court ruled that there was a fundamental constitutional right to privacy. But two years ago, that was taken away. Let’s be real clear. There was one person responsible for this nightmare, and he’s acknowledged and he brags about it – Donald Trump,” Biden said.“Trump is worried voters are gonna hold him accountable for the cruelty and chaos he created. Folks, the bad news for Trump is we are going to hold them accountable.”Independent senator Bernie Sanders expressed disappointment that the chamber declined to consider amendments to the foreign aid bill he planned to offer that would restore funding to UN relief agency Unrwa and remove weapons shipments to Israel.“I am very disappointed, but not surprised, that my amendment to end offensive military aid to Netanyahu’s war machine – which has killed and wounded over 100,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom are women and children – will not be considered,” the Vermont lawmaker said.“Polls show that a majority of Americans, and a very strong majority of Democrats, want to end US taxpayer support for Netanyahu’s war against the Palestinian people. It is a dark day for democracy when the Senate will not even allow a vote on that issue.”The Senate’s Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, once again spoke from the chamber’s floor after lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to advance the $95b bill authorizing military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.Passing the legislation was a top priority for Joe Biden, his Democratic allies and some Republicans, including the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell. It faced resistance from others in the GOP, among them the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson. But Johnson relented earlier this month, and allowed it to be voted on in the House, where it passed with more Democrats in favor than Republicans.In his remarks, Schumer thanked Johnson and McConnell, while saying the bill’s passage was a sign that bipartisanship is alive and well in a Congress better known for intractable partisan stalemate.“Today’s outcome yet confirms another thing we’ve stressed from the beginning of this Congress. In divided government, the only way to ever get things done is bipartisanship,” Schumer said.“I thank leader McConnell, as I’ve mentioned before, working hand in hand with us, not letting partisanship get in the way. I thank Speaker Johnson, who rose to the occasion, in his own words, that he had to do the right thing, despite the enormous political pressure on him. And I thank leader Jeffries, who worked so well together in his bipartisan way, with Speaker Johnson.” The last name is Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader.The Senate invoked cloture on the $95bn bill to provide military assistance to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, an important procedural step that clears the way for a final vote on its passage later today.The bill advanced with 80 votes in favor, and 19 opposed.The measure has already been approved by the House, and will be signed by Joe Biden after it passes the Senate. Lawmakers are now expected to debate the legislation and offer a limited number of amendments.Back in the Senate, they’re voting on whether to invoke cloture on the foreign aid bill.That will set the stage for its final consideration, after a period of debate.A previous motion by Republican senator Mike Lee that would have blocked the bill’s progress was voted down with 50 senators opposed and 48 in favor.When he speaks in Tampa at 3pm, Joe Biden will press his message that Donald Trump is responsible for the spread of abortion bans across the country, his re-election campaign announced.The president will arrive in Florida one week before a law banning abortions after six weeks – a point at which many women are not yet aware they are pregnant – goes into effect. In a memo, Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chávez Rodriguez, said such laws were out of step with the American public.“Trump is hoping that Americans will somehow forget that he’s responsible for the horror women are facing in this country every single day because of him. It’s a bad bet,” Chávez Rodriguez wrote.Here’s more:
      When President Biden speaks out against attacks on reproductive freedom across the country and yet another extreme Trump abortion ban taking effect in Florida, it will resonate with voters across every battleground state. Women and their families do not want Trump and MAGA Republicans continuing to dismantle their fundamental freedoms. An overwhelming majority of voters have rejected Trump’s abortion bans every time they’ve been on the ballot, and this November, they’ll reject Trump too.
      Joe Biden will shortly arrive in Tampa, where he is scheduled to give an address this afternoon on abortion rights, including attacking Florida’s six-week ban that is set to take effect on 1 May.Reporters on the ground in Tampa say Biden will be faced by several dozen people who have gathered to protest the president’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.The Senate’s procedural vote on the foreign aid bill is being delayed by Republicans complaining they can’t offer amendments to it.Eric Schmitt, of Missouri, and Utah’s Mike Lee are accusing the Democratic majority leader, Chuck Schumer, of effectively railroading through his version of the bill “with minimal debate and perhaps no amendments”, Lee said.He insists, as extremist House Republicans who opposed the bill last week did, that money for Ukraine is unpopular.Bernie Sanders, independent senator for Vermont, says he agrees with Lee.He says he wants to offer two amendments, one to ensure there’s no money for Israel’s “war machine”. The second is removing a block on aid money for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa), which Israel says has been infiltrated by “Hamas terrorists” stealing funds.“Members can agree with me or disagree with me on the issues, but they should be voted upon,” Sanders said.Senators are voting now whether to adopt a motion by Lee to table (kill) Schumer’s motion to move forward with the foreign aid bill.The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will visit Saudi Arabia this weekend in pursuit of the Biden administration’s ambitious goal of helping to restore that nation’s relations with Israel, Axios reports.He’ll be attending the special meeting of the World Economic Forum in Riyadh on Sunday, and meeting the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and other regional leaders, the outlet said.Axios, citing US officials, adds that Blinken “is considering” visiting Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as part of his trip, but has not yet finalized an itinerary.Senators are inching towards a procedural vote on the $95.3bn foreign aid package, expected close to the top of the hour.Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly has just been on the chamber floor, lamenting that it took so long for Congress to pass a bill he said 71% of members ultimately voted for.“Because of delays, Ukraine’s fighters are desperately low [on weapons and ammunition],” he said.“That’s tying the hands of their commanders at the same time Russia is revitalizing its war effort.”But, he says, “Ukraine can win this war. Passing this bill will allow the transfer to them more of what Ukraine needs to turn the tide.”Republican Maine senator Susan Collins concurs. “[This is] a volatile and dangerous time in world history,” she says:
      If [Russia’s president Vladimir] Putin is allowed to succeed in Ukraine, he will continue to pursue his goal of recreating the Soviet Union. He’s made no bones about that.
      She fears Moldova, Georgia, the Baltic nations and Poland are in Putin’s sights.“Then our troops would be involved in a much larger war,” she says.The Senate will soon begin voting on a $95bn foreign aid bill for Israel, Ukraine and other US allies, ending months of negotiations over one of Joe Biden’s top priorities and giving Kyiv another lifeline in its defense against Russia’s invasion. But the drama isn’t over yet. Independent senator Bernie Sanders has vowed to offer amendments stripping from the bill funds to send Israel weapons, while Republicans opposed to arming Ukraine may make their own stand. Voting begins at 1pm with a procedural motion. Meanwhile, GOP senators are calling on the Biden administration to step in to break up pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses, including New York University and Yale University.Here’s what else is going on today:
      The US plans to ship $1b in weapons to Ukraine that can be quickly deployed on the battlefield once the foreign aid bill passes.
      Donald Trump’s trial on charges of falsifying business records is continuing in New York City, with testimony from former Nation Enquirer publisher David Pecker.
      Republican House speaker Mike Johnson took a risk by allowing the chamber to pass the bill funding Ukraine’s defense, but Trump continued to praise him, raising his chances of keeping his job.
      Twenty-five Republican senators have demanded that the Biden administration send federal law enforcement to respond to college campuses where pro-Palestinian protests have occurred, and called the demonstrators “anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist mobs”.“The Department of Education and federal law enforcement must act immediately to restore order, prosecute the mobs who have perpetuated violence and threats against Jewish students, revoke the visas of all foreign nationals (such as exchange students) who have taken part in promoting terrorism, and hold accountable school administrators who have stood by instead of protecting their students,” the group wrote in a letter addressed to the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, and the education secretary, Miguel Cardona.Among the signatories is the party’s Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, and his deputy, John Thune. Josh Hawley, the Missouri senator who separately demanded the president deploy national guard troops to college campuses, also signed the letter.Here’s more on the campus protests: More

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      Tulsi Gabbard repeats false Hillary Clinton ‘grooming’ claim in new book

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      Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman, has repeated a discredited claim about Hillary Clinton that previously saw Gabbard lodge then drop a $50m defamation suit in a new book published as she seeks to be named Donald Trump’s running mate for US president.Accusing Democrats of making up “a conspiracy theory that [Trump] was ‘colluding’ with the Russians to win the election” in 2016, Gabbard claims: “Hillary Clinton used a similar tactic against me when I ran for president in 2020, accusing me of being ‘groomed by the Russians’.”Gabbard ran for the Democratic nomination. Clinton did not accuse her of being “groomed by the Russians”.What Clinton said, in October 2019 and on a podcast hosted by the former Barack Obama adviser David Plouffe, was that she thought Republicans would encourage a third-party bid in 2020, aiming to syphon votes from the Democratic candidate in key states as Jill Stein, the Green candidate, and the Libertarian, Gary Johnson, did four years before.“They are also going to do third-party again,” Clinton said, “and I’m not making any predictions but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate.”Gabbard was then in the Democratic primary, though she never made any impact.Clinton continued: “She is a favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far. And, that’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not because she’s also a Russian asset. Yeah, she’s a Russian asset. Totally. And so they know they can’t win without a third-party candidate. I don’t know who it’s going to be, but I will guarantee they’ll have a vigorous third-party challenge in the key states that they most need it.”Amid uproar, a spokesperson for Clinton said she had been referring to Gabbard and the Russians – saying “If the nesting doll fits”, thereby stoking media coverage in which Clinton’s remarks about “grooming” and “assets” were conflated.Clinton’s meaning was soon cleared up, but Gabbard seized on the “grooming” remark. She penned an op ed in the Wall Street Journal under a headline, I Can Defeat Trump and the Clinton Doctrine, that might now prove an awkward fit with her political ambitions.Later, after dropping out of the Democratic primary and endorsing Joe Biden, who she said had “a good heart” and would “help heal” a badly divided country, Gabbard sued Clinton for $50m over the “Russian asset” comment, rather than the remark about “grooming”. That lawsuit was dropped in May 2020.Four years on, Gabbard has completed a remarkable journey across the political aisle, from being seen as a rising Democratic star in the US House to hosting on Fox News and speaking at events including CPAC, a hard-right annual conference. Her book – For Love of Country: Why I Left the Democratic Party – will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.On the page, Gabbard presents a mix of memoir – from growing up in Hawaii to service in Iraq, from entering Congress to her failed presidential run – and pro-Trump screed. Light on detail and heavy on invective, the book includes excoriations of US support for Ukraine in its war with Russia. It will hit shops, however, in the aftermath of the passage in Congress of billions of dollars in new Ukraine aid.Gabbard is widely reported to be a contender for Trump’s running mate in his rematch with Biden. In her book, she defends the 88-times criminally charged former president on many legal fronts.Her complaint about Clinton’s remarks about Russia seems designed to stir up familiar Trump campaign furies over Clinton and the investigation of Russian election interference in 2016, which US intelligence agreed was carried out in his support but which prompts Gabbard to write: “None of it was true.”She also accuses Democrats of planting evidence and stories with a compliant press, aided by a “deep state” consisting of “active and retired officials from within the justice department and other national security agencies”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe deep state conspiracy theory, which holds that a permanent government of operatives and bureaucrats exists to thwart populist leaders, is popular with Trump and followers notably including Liz Truss, a former UK prime minister. However, one of its chief creators and propagators, the Trump aide and ally Steve Bannon, has said it is “for nut cases”.Gabbard does not only repeat conspiracy theories in her book, but also makes elementary mistakes. In rehashing her inaccurate complaint about Clinton saying she was being “groomed” by Russia, she writes that Clinton was speaking to David Axelrod, also a former Obama advisor but the host of a separate podcast to Plouffe’s.Gabbard also claims that “the propaganda media repeated Clinton’s lies over and over, without ever asking for evidence or fact-checking her themselves”.In fact, Gabbard’s claims against Clinton were widely fact-checked or made the subject of article corrections.In October 2019 – months before Gabbard filed suit – the Washington Post, a leading exponent of the fact-checking form, said: “The initial news reports got it wrong, perhaps fueled by the ‘nesting doll’ comment, with many saying Clinton said the Russians were grooming Gabbard for a third-party bid.”Clinton, the paper added, “certainly said Gabbard was backed by Russian bots and even suggested she was a Russian asset”. But “within a 24-hour news cycle, Clinton’s staff made it clear she was talking about the GOP, not the Russians, eyeing Gabbard as a possible third-party candidate. A simple listen to the podcast confirmed that.“In other words, this was all cleared up 12 days before Gabbard published her [Wall Street Journal] article, making the inaccurate version of [the] ‘grooming’ statement the very first sentence. So there’s little excuse for getting this wrong.”The paper therefore awarded Gabbard three Pinocchios – denoting “significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions” – out of a possible four. More

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      Trump fangirl Liz Truss channels Maga menace at US conservative thinktank

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      Was that Donald Truss? Or Liz Trump? A former British prime minister turned up in Washington on Monday channeling the Maga menace who once lorded it in the Oval Office and now spends his days in a dingy courtroom.Liz Truss was at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative thinktank in Washington, within sight of the US Capitol dome, to promote her grandly titled book Ten Years to Save the West. Why does she keep coming back to America? It was not hard to figure out.Far from the London literary critics sharpening their knives, Heritage offers Truss a happy place, full of gushing sycophancy with an audience hanging on her every word. In this regard the 48-year-old has gone all Trumpy: the ex-president loves to surround himself with oleaginous flatterers who dare not cross him.How divine that the politicians who whine about “groupthink” and “safe spaces” are the ones who cling to groupthink and safe spaces.To illustrate the point, Truss’s war on “the global left” establishment evidently includes the Guardian. Last Friday, this reporter received an email from Heritage about the Truss event that said: “Due to space limitations, we unfortunately must rescind your in-person invite.”Curiously, come Monday morning, Truss posted a tweet encouraging members of the public to register the event and enclosing a link. So much for space limitations. But those who did attend were informed they couldn’t get a signed copy of the book due to “supply chain issues”.Others were still able to watch a live stream on YouTube where, three hours after it ended, the event had just over 700 views. (Heritage’s biggest hit on the site is a Tucker Carlson speech that attracted a million views.)Heritage is the thinktank behind Project 2025, a sprawling plan for a second Trump presidency. Wearing a dark blue jacket and trousers, white blouse and shiny black shoes, Truss noted that when she was first invited to Heritage as environment secretary in 2015, she was warned against not to go by then British ambassador Kim Darroch.“He says to me, ‘You’ve got to be wary of this organisation. They’ve spoken out against President Obama. They’ve even been critical of Prime Minister Cameron. Are you really sure, minister, that you want to go and see them?’” Truss recalled, speaking from a wooden lectern against a backdrop of the Stars and Stripes and a blue wall dotted with Heritage Foundation logos.“And I said, yes, I’m sure because I’m a conservative and they’re a conservative thinktank in the United States of America, our closest ally. So eventually, I prevail because I am a determined person but the car from the embassy dropped me off two blocks away from the Heritage Foundation so that the British flag wouldn’t be sitting outside the building.”Making a lot of sub-Trump hand gestures with open palms, Truss proceeded to deliver her standard speech railing against left-dominated institutions, an anti-growth coalition, the IMF and Conservatives in name only. Naturally there was a swipe at wokery as “another bad neo-Marxist idea developed from Foucault and all those crazy postmodernists in the 1960s, the idea that biological sex is not a reality”.She blamed these forces for making her the shortest serving British prime minister in history (49 days that sparked mayhem on the financial markets). She reeled off a list of foes, foreign and domestic, who joined the “pile on”. Among them was Joe Biden, who had the temerity to criticise her radical mini-budget’s tax plans “from an ice cream parlour in Oregon”. There was some laughter in the auditorium. So vanilla!The Trump fangirl had some advice to impart: “I come today with a warning to the United States of America. I fear the same forces will be coming for President Donald Trump if he wins the election this November.”Truss repeated her plea from the recent Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland for the right to grab a “a bigger bazooka” to combat the activist left with their money and “friends in high places”. She called for a “bonfire of the quangos” and, echoing Trump ally Steve Bannon, declared: “We need to dismantle the administrative state.”In her book, Truss writes that she was an early fan of the reality TV show The Apprentice and “enjoyed the Donald’s catchphrases and sassy business advice”. She also pays little heed to the convention that senior British politicians stay out of US elections.She told the audience on Monday: “I worked in cabinet whilst Donald Trump was president and while President Biden was president and I can assure you the world felt safer when Donald Trump was in office… Getting a conservative back in the White House is critical to taking on the global left.”Praise for Truss was laid on think by Nile Gardiner, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom and a former foreign policy researcher for Thatcher herself. He has been named one of the 50 most influential Britons in the US by the Daily Telegraph.In God we Truss; no lettuce jokes here. The baby-faced, bespectacled Gardiner proclaimed her book “an absolutely tremendous read”, “very robust”, “very gutsy”, “very courageous”, “a wonderful read”, “very powerful”, “a thrilling read”, “a tremendous book” and “a wonderful message”. He speculated that the current prime minister, Rishi Sunak, might be writing memoirs in the near future but “yours are far more conservative and interesting”.Truss and Gardiner sat on plush white armchairs with glasses of water on a table between them. Truss warned that another Biden term would mean “the promotion of leftwing ideology”, girls unable to use bathrooms in privacy and no policy to deal with immigration and the southern border. “Four more years of this would be a disaster for the US internally. I think Bidenomics has been a failure.”Gardiner wondered what a second Trump term would mean for Britain. Truss said free the world needs conservative leadership. “It’s only Britain that has a conservative government. We’ve got Biden in the US, we have Trudeau in Canada, we have Macron in France, we have Scholz in Germany and it’s not working. The west is not winning.”Trump has said he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to any Nato country that doesn’t meet spending guidelines on defence. But Truss echoed Trump’s call for Europe to spend more. “There are too many countries free riding at the moment who are in serious threat. If Putin succeeds in Ukraine, he won’t stop there… Donald Trump is right to say to Europe: you need to pay up.”Elise Stefanik? Kristi Noem? Marjorie Taylor Greene? Forget it. Trump-Truss 2024 would have been unstoppable. If only she had been born in Kansas. More

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      The pro-Israel groups planning to spend millions in US elections

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      A handful of pro-Israel groups fund political campaigns in support of individual candidates in US elections, led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), a powerful force in American politics. Before the 2024 election, Aipac plans to spend tens of millions of dollars against congressional candidates, primarily Democrats, whom it deems insufficiently supportive of Israel.Aipac and other pro-Israel lobby groups have recruited and supported challengers to a number of lawmakers and candidates – most notably members of the Squad, the group of progressive representatives who are particularly vocal in their criticism of Israel’s offensive in Gaza.The 2024 election will be bellwether of the enduring impact of these groups on US politics amid shifting US public opinion on Israel.What is Aipac?Aipac has its roots in the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs, which was founded by a lobbyist for the Israeli government in an attempt to manage the political fallout the Israeli army’s 1953 massacre of dozens of Palestinians, most of them children and women, in the West Bank village of Qibya.The organisation was renamed Aipac in 1959. It was not until financial support surged after the 1973 Yom Kippur war that it began to grow into the powerful Washington lobbyist group it is today.For many years, Aipac’s influence went largely unchallenged on Capitol Hill. The pressure group claimed to voice bipartisan support for Israel in Congress and worked to marginalise the relatively small number of critics there.Aipac’s annual conference typically involved a long rollcall of members of Congress who support the group. It has regularly galvanised almost every member of the US Senate to sign letters in support of Israeli policies, including several wars in Gaza.But the group’s once unchallenged influence in Washington has been diminished by its unwavering backing for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over the past 15 years. It sided with him against President Barack Obama’s opposition to settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories and his nuclear deal with Iran.The liberal Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz has described Aipac as “the pro-Netanyahu, anti-Israel lobby”.“Effectively, the organization has become an operational wing of Netanyahu’s far-right government, one that peddles a false image of a liberal Israel in the United States and sells illusions to members of Congress,” it said.What has changed?Aipac traditionally endorsed candidates sympathetic to Israel as a signal for others to fund their campaigns. But in December 2021, the group for the first time in its 70-year history moved into direct financial support for individual political campaigns by launching a super political action committee, the United Democracy Project (UDP). A Super Pac is permitted to spend without restriction for or against candidates but cannot make direct donations to their campaigns.The move was prompted by alarm at the erosion of longstanding bipartisan support for Israel in the US. Opinion polls show younger Democrats have grown more critical of the deepening oppression of the Palestinians, including Jewish Americans, a trend that has only strengthened with the present war in Gaza.Aipac has grown increasingly concerned that the election of candidates critical of Israel could open the door to the conditioning of the US’s considerable military aid, erosion of Washington’s diplomatic protection on the international stage, and political pressure to establish a Palestinian state.So the UDP is working to block Democratic candidates critical of Israel at the first hurdle – the primaries – in an effort to shore up the claim that there is unswerving support for the Jewish state across Congress. It is also targeting progressive Democratic members of Congress who have pressed for a ceasefire in Gaza.What about other lobby groups?A number of smaller groups are working to the same end, principally the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI). It was founded five years ago by Mark Mellman, a Democratic political consultant. The DMFI’s board of directors includes Archie Gottesman, who also co-founded JewBelong, a group that has posted pink billboards in US cities in support of Israel including one that declared: ‘Trust Me. If Israel Wanted to Commit Genocide in Gaza, It Could’.Notably, the UDP has so far not waded into the campaign against Summer Lee in this year’s primary, despite spending more than $3m to defeat her in 2022. Instead the Republican mega-donor Jeffrey Yass has stepped up as the largest funder of a Pac called Moderate Pac to support Lee’s primary opponent, Bhavini Patel. It is running ads saying that Lee’s criticisms of Biden amount to support for Donald Trump even though Yass himself is a Trump supporter.A more moderate pro-Israel group, J Street, was founded in 2007 to counter Aipac’s unflinching support for rightwing governments. J Street established a Pac to support candidates who back a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. But it has raised only about $4m so far this election cycle.Who are they targeting and how?Aipac plans to spend $100m this year against congressional candidates, primarily Democrats, and members of Congress critical of Israel. So far the UDP has raised more than $49m, according to its most recent Federal Election Commission filings.The bulk of that money has yet to be spent but the UDP has already thrown millions of dollars into political advertising targeted against candidates critical of Israel, but which focuses on other issues and fails to make clear that it is funded by a pro-Israel group. Critics have accused Aipac of attempting to intimidate candidates into avoiding criticism of Israel by implicitly threatening to fund campaigns against them.Among those expected to be targeted by pro-Israel groups are members of the the Squad, including Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, who are thought to be vulnerable to political attacks over issues unrelated to their criticisms of the war in Gaza.Who is funding these campaigns?The leading donors to the UDP are Republicans seeking to influence Democratic primaries.The single largest donor is the conservative Ukrainian American billionaire co-founder of WhatsApp, Jan Koum, who gave $5m. Koum also donated to the Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s Super Pac.Other donors include the financier, Jonathan Jacobson, who gave $2.5m to the UDP toward the end of last year although for many years his political donations were directed to the Republican National Committee and the party’s US Senate campaigns. The Israeli-born entrepreneur David Zalik gave the UDP $2m. He has also donated to Republican campaigns in Georgia.The Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus, who was one of the largest donors to Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and who continues to back him financially, gave $1m to the UDP, as did the hedge fund manager Paul Singer, who has given millions of dollars to Republican political causes over the years.Donations to the UDP are separate from tens of millions of dollars in pledges made directly to Aipac in the wake of the 7 October attacks by Hamas as the public relations battle intensified over Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza and a surging number of Palestinian civilian deaths.Top donors to the DMFI include Deborah Simon, the daughter of the billionaire businessman and movie producer Mel Simon, who gave $1m. She regularly donates to Democratic causes and Jewish organisations such as the Anti-Defamation League.Sam Bankman-Fried, the former cryptocurrency billionaire who is serving 25 years for fraud, gave $250,000 to DMFI during the 2022 midterm elections. The group has been forced to return the money.Other major DMFI donors are closely tied to Aipac such as Stacy Schusterman, who has given more than $1m, and the venture capitalist Gary Lauder.How has the present war in Gaza changed the equation?The conflict has strengthened the hand of Israel’s critics within the Democratic party as polls show rising sympathy for the Palestinians. That in turn has made Aipac’s financial backing a potential liability for some Israel-supporting Democratic candidates.Aipac was already on the defensive after endorsing the 2022 campaigns of dozens of Republican members of Congress who tried to block President Biden’s presidential victory.Aipac defended the move by claiming that backing for the Jewish state overrides other issues and that it was “no moment for the pro-Israel movement to become selective about its friends”.“When we launched our political action committee last year, we decided that we would base decisions about political contributions on only one thing: whether a political candidate supports the US-Israel relationship,” it said. More

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      Marjorie Taylor Greene renews attacks on speaker as House passes Ukraine aid

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      Republican infighting over the US House finally approving $61bn in military aid for Ukraine continued to roil the party on Sunday as the far-right representative Marjorie Taylor Greene renewed attacks on the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson.Johnson had betrayed his party and was working for the Democrats, and his speakership was “over”, the Georgia representative said, although it was not clear if and when Greene would file a motion to try to remove him, which she has threatened to do in recent weeks.The fresh criticism from Greene came after Johnson ended months of stalling on the aid package for Ukraine’s desperate defence against Russia – as well as billions for allies including Israel and Taiwan – and finally forced a vote on it in the House of Representatives on Saturday, defying the far right of his party.In a bipartisan vote, 210 Democrats and 101 Republicans joined to support Ukraine, with 112 Republicans – a majority of the GOP members – voting against.“He is absolutely working for the Democrats. He’s passing the Biden administration’s agenda,” Greene said of Johnson on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo. “Mike Johnson’s speakership is over. He needs to do the right thing to resign and allow us to move forward in a controlled process.“If he doesn’t do so, he will be vacated.”Johnson escalated the most recent turmoil among his GOP colleagues last week after agreeing to the floor vote on the $95bn foreign aid package. The package, green-lighted by the Senate in February, includes $61bn for Ukraine, $14bn for Israel, and lesser sums for Taiwan and other allies in the Pacific.The Senate is expected to start weighing this House bill on Tuesday and it is expected to pass this coming week, which would enable Joe Biden to sign it into law.The speaker’s decision heightened the split in his party, with the right insisting any support for foreign aid had to include concessions to their domestic priorities, including border security. The same ultra-conservatives had orchestrated Johnson’s ascent to speaker in October by ousting his predecessor, the Republican Kevin McCarthy.View image in fullscreenThis group of Republicans have increasingly expressed public antipathy toward helping Ukraine, in keeping with their political leader, Donald Trump, who has long shown admiration toward the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.Johnson on Saturday stood by his decision, saying that the provision of military aid was “critically important”, as well as “the right thing”, even in the face of political risks from his party’s far right.“I really believe the intel and the briefings that we’ve gotten,” Johnson stated. “I believe that Xi and Vladimir Putin and Iran really are an axis of evil. I think they are in coordination on this. I think that Vladimir Putin would continue to march through Europe.“I am going to allow an opportunity for every single member of the House to vote their conscience and their will,” Johnson also said. “I’m willing to take a personal risk for that, because we have to do the right thing. And history will judge us.”In order to even get the floor vote, Johnson had to work with Democrats, whom he earlier needed to advance other legislation, such as a significant government funding bill.The fissure in the party widened in March, when Greene revealed a motion to oust Johnson from the role of speaker. She has not yet tried to force a vote on that issue, but the House Republicans Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, and Paul Gosar, of Arizona, are now co-sponsors.Greene has not filed that motion, however, and any next steps seem vague. Immediately after the House vote on Saturday, Greene said that she wouldn’t take any formal steps to boot Johnson from speaker but, like her colleagues, wanted to hear from constituents first, the Washington Post reported. “I’m looking forward to them hearing from the folks back at home,” Greene said, “but this is a sellout of America today.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionOn Sunday, Fox News’s Bartiromo pushed Greene on the seeming vagaries, saying on the talkshow: “Well, with respect, you didn’t give me a plan for the speaker’s role and again, does this mean you are going to file that motion at some point?”“It’s coming, regardless of what Mike Johnson decides to do,” Greene said. “We have three more Republicans joining us for a special election coming up very soon, so people need to know this can happen.”Not all Republicans are worried about Johnson’s future as House speaker, however.“He will survive,” Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican representative, said on Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “Look, the House is a rough and rowdy place, but Mike Johnson is going to be just fine.”For Gonzales, Johnson’s ushering of this aid package is positive for Congress overall.“I think Mike Johnson is going to avoid the cannibals in his own party here. He stood up to them this weekend and the adults, we took control of the US Congress,” he said. “I think people got sick and tired – he’s one of them – of Marjorie Taylor Greene being in charge of their life and they just finally said ‘no’.”The GOP division on Ukraine is also playing out in the Senate, with pro-aid Republican senator Linsdey Graham slamming Ohio senator JD Vance’s seeming belief that the country can’t win.In a New York Times op-ed last week, Vance wrote: “Ukraine’s challenge is not the GOP; it’s math. Ukraine needs more soldiers than it can field. And it needs more materiel than the United States can provide.”“That is garbage,” Graham said on Fox News Sunday, in response to Vance’s claim about manpower, per the Hill.“Go … I just got back, I was there two weeks ago. They changed their conscription laws. They have all the manpower they need. They need the weapons,” Graham said. “It’s one thing to talk about Ukraine over here; it’s another thing to go.” More

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      Approval of $61bn aid from US shows Ukraine will not be abandoned, says Zelenskiy

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      Ukraine’s president has said the vote by the US House of Representatives to pass a long-delayed $61bn (£49bn) military aid package demonstrated that his country would not be abandoned by the west in its effort to fight the Russian invasion.Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview with US television that Saturday’s vote showed Ukraine would not be “a second Afghanistan”, whose pro-western government collapsed during an US-led pullout in the summer of 2021.The Ukrainian president urged the US Senate to ratify the aid package rapidly and warned that his country was preparing its defences, fearing there could be a large Russian offensive before the fresh supplies reach the frontline.“We really need to get this to the final point. We need to get it approved by the Senate … so that we get some tangible assistance for the soldiers on the frontline as soon as possible, not in another six months,” he said.The Senate is expected to come out of recess on Tuesday to hold its first vote on the package – similar to one it had already voted for in February – with the Joe Biden promising to sign it into law swiftly after it passes Congress.That would end months of wrangling in which House Republicans aligned with Donald Trump had refused to allow Ukraine aid, which was part of a larger package with money for Israel and Taiwan, to be debated in the lower chamber.The US has only been able to commit to $300m of military aid to Ukraine this year, after the budget previously authorised by Congress was spent. This has coincided with a deterioration of the frontline position and the loss of Avdiivka in the eastern Donbas, with a shortage of artillery and other munitions blamed.However, the opposition of Republicans faded after Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel more than a week ago that used similar tactics to Russian attacks on Ukraine. It also underlined – among some rightwing politicians – the need to provide Israel and Ukraine with further support.US officials have signalled that some weapons were in European warehouses, ready to be moved into Ukraine at short notice once Biden decides exactly what to supply in the first round after the overall funding has been approved.Zelenskiy said his immediate priorities were air-defence systems such as the US-made Patriots and long-range missiles such as Atacms, which can travel up to 186 miles (300km) and which the House has called on the Pentagon to provide promptly.“We need long-range weapons to not lose people on the frontline because we have – we have casualties because we cannot reach that far. Our weapons are not that long-range. We need [that] and air defence. Those are our priorities right now,” Zelenskiy said in an interview with NBC News.Ukraine is thought to have only two Patriot anti-missile systems, one of which it uses to defend Kyiv, while the other has been deployed closer to the frontline, in effect leaving large parts of the country exposed.Russia has knocked out several power stations by targeting them with numerous missiles, causing electricity shortages in some parts of Ukraine, including the second city of Kharkiv, home to 1.3 million people. A power station south of Kyiv was destroyed in one night a little more than a week ago in a similar assault.On Sunday, Moscow accused the US of sacrificing Ukrainian lives by forcing the country into a long war that would end in a defeat for both countries.Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry, said the US wanted Ukraine “to fight to the last Ukrainian” as well as making direct attacks into Russian territory. “Washington’s deeper and deeper immersion in the hybrid war against Russia will turn into a loud and humiliating fiasco for United States such as Vietnam and Afghanistan,” she added.Bohdan Krotevych, the chief of staff to Ukraine’s Azov brigade, said he was pleasantly surprised by the result of the House vote and praised the efforts of Zelenskiy in lobbying the US and other countries for military support. But Krotevych warned of a possible response from Moscow in the war. “This doesn’t mean that Russia will not start countermeasures as a reaction,” he said.One expert said he believed the immediate significance of the vote was political, not military. Ben Hodges, a former commanding general of the US army in Europe, said: “The strategic effect will be felt immediately in the Kremlin, where they now realise their plan to wait for us to quit has failed.”Russia might have hoped that Ukraine could be forced to sue for peace, with no US aid forthcoming before November’s presidential election at least. Now the aid should allow Ukraine to “stabilise the front, buy time to grow and rebuild their army and build up their own defence industrial capacity”, Hodges said.Ukrainians out and about on a rainy spring day in Kyiv said they were delighted at the outcome. Pavlo, 44, an IT specialist, said he was very grateful. He said: “The politicians have made the right choice and this shows that the US takes the lead role in world scene; I hope that the aid is already somewhere waiting at the border, ready to be on its way.”Chess-playing Serhii Ivanovich, a retired army colonel, 72, said Ukraine was a peaceful country forced into fighting a war against its larger neighbour. “We have been waiting for this for a very long time. We don’t have enough, we need help. We have the courage, we have the strength but we don’t have the equipment.” More

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      US House to vote on long-delayed foreign aid bills – including Ukraine support

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      The US House of Representatives will finally vote on Saturday on a series of foreign aid bills, bringing an end to a months-long standoff in Congress led mostly by Republicans who refuse to support funding Ukraine’s ongoing military defense against Russia’s invasion.House members will hold separate votes on four bills that represent $95bn in funding altogether – including roughly $26bn in aid for Israel, $61bn for Ukraine, $8bn for US allies in the Indo-Pacific region and $9bn in humanitarian assistance for civilians in war zones, such as Gaza.The package largely mirrors the foreign aid proposal passed by the Senate in February, although the House legislation designates $10bn of the Ukraine funding as a repayable loan to appease some Republican members who are hesitant to approve additional aid.If passed, the legislation will provide a crucial financial lifetime for Ukraine at a time when the country’s military appears at its most vulnerable since the start of the war, due to dwindling supplies of ammunition and air defense missiles.The bills are expected to pass the House, after they easily cleared a key procedural hurdle on Friday before the final vote. Those that pass will be combined into a single package in order to simplify the voting process for the Senate, which will need to reapprove the proposal before it can go to Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.The procedural vote on the House package was 316 to 94, with 165 Democrats and 151 Republicans supporting the motion. The House speaker, Republican Mike Johnson, needed to rely on Democratic votes to pass the procedural motion, and he will almost certainly need to do so again to get the Ukraine aid bill across the finish line.“It’s long past time that we support our democratic allies in Israel, Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific and provide humanitarian assistance to civilians who are in harm’s way in theaters of conflict like Gaza, Haiti and the Sudan,” Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, said on Friday. “House Democrats have once again cleared the way for legislation that is important to the American people.”Much of the House Republican conference remains opposed to sending more money to Kyiv, and Donald Trump once again voiced frustration with approving additional Ukraine aid in a social media post on Thursday. Fifty-five Republicans and 39 Democrats opposed the procedural motion on Friday.Johnson’s reliance on Democratic votes to pass key pieces of legislation, including a major government funding bill that cleared the House last month, has outraged some hard-right Republicans.“What else did Johnson give away while he’s begging Democrats for votes and protection?” Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican representative from Georgia, said on Friday on X. “We do not have a Republican majority anymore, our Republican Speaker is literally controlled by the Democrats and giving them everything they want.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionLast month, Greene unveiled a motion to remove Johnson as speaker, although she has not yet moved to force a vote on the matter. In the past week, two more House Republicans – Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Paul Gosar of Arizona – have signed on as co-sponsors to Greene’s motion, citing their mounting frustration with Johnson’s leadership.“We need a speaker who puts America first rather than bending to the reckless demands of the warmongers, neocons and the military-industrial complex making billions from a costly and endless war half a world away,” Gosar said in a statement on Friday.If Greene moves forward with the motion to vacate, Johnson will once again need to rely on Democratic votes to save him, as Republicans will have just a one-seat majority after Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin resigns in the coming days. Several House Democrats have indicated that they would come to Johnson’s assistance if the motion to vacate is brought up for a vote, and the speaker has appeared undaunted by the threats to his job, which he has held for just six months.“I’m going to do my job, and I’m going to stay dug in,” Johnson told radio host Mark Levin on Thursday. “I’m not changing who I am or what I believe, and I’m going to try to guide this institution.” More