Should the government increase or decrease foreign aid spending?

Republicans Propose Larges Ukraine Aid Package Of The Entire War

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) plans to bring separate bills funding Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan to the House floor, in a maneuver aimed at breaking a monthlong deadlock over a $95 billion foreign-aid package the Senate passed earlier this year.Johnson briefed colleagues on the details of the bills in a closed-door meeting of House Republicans. He has faced intense pressure to pass legislation to help rearm Israel following an attack by Iran and fulfill his long-stalled pledge to further fund Ukraine. He also plans a fourth bill that includes a proposal to use seized Russian assets to help pay for aid to Kyiv. The fourth bill also includes the House legislation that forces a sale or ban of TikTok in the U.S. The legislation won’t have any provisions related to immigration, according to Republicans leaving the meeting. Johnson said he hadn’t determined whether the four bills, if passed, would be sent separately or as a package to the Senate.Ukraine would receive $48.43 billion in the package.

Zelenskyy Calls for House Vote on Ukraine Aid

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the House of Representatives to vote to give more aid to the embattled country, after the Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill that included $60 billion for Ukraine earlier on Tuesday.“I am grateful to every U.S. Senator who made a morally strong choice today. Such a choice matters right now, not just for Ukraine but for every nation whose independence is a target for Russian strikes, current and planned, including those planned for the coming years,” Zelenskyy said on X, formerly known as Twitter.“The next step is a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. We anticipate an equally strong moral choice and a decision that will work for the benefit of our shared security,” he added.McConnell called on House Speaker Mike Johnson to allow a vote on assistance for Ukraine — adding that he wouldn’t be “so presumptuous as to tell him how to do it.”

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Russia has lost 315K troops in Ukraine War

Since the beginning of the war Russia has suffered from a staggeringly high number of losses, according to another newly declassified assessment shared with Congress. At the start of the war the Russian army stood at 360,000 troops. Russia has lost 315,000 of those troops, forcing them to recruit and mobilize new recruits and convicts from their prison system.Moscow’s equipment has also been crushed, according to the assessment. At the start of the war, Russia had 3,500 tanks but has lost 2,200, forcing them to pull 50 year old T-62 tanks from storage.“The war in Ukraine has sharply set back 15 years of Russian effort to modernize its ground force,” the declassified assessment said. “As of late November, Russia had lost over a quarter of its pre-2022 stockpile of ground forces equipment and has suffered casualties among its trained professional army.”In the most recent push, Russia has suffered more than 13,000 people killed and wounded and lost more than 220 combat vehicles while fighting near Avdiivka and other cities, Ms. Watson said.

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