Building collapses in central Madrid, casualties unknown
Spanish Newspaper El Pais is reporting that a building has collapsed in Madrid, next to the Opera house with the number of casualties unknown....
President Biden announces $5.9B in military aid for Ukraine, boosting support before leaving office as questions loom over future aid under President-elect Trump.
The United States on Monday announced nearly $6 billion in additional military and budget assistance for Ukraine as President Joe Biden uses his final weeks in office to surge aid to Kyiv before President-elect Donald Trump takes power.
Biden announced $2.5 billion in additional security assistance for Ukraine.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the United States has made available $3.4 billion in additional budget aid to Ukraine, giving the war-torn country critical resources amid intensifying Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure.
"At my direction, the United States will continue to work relentlessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in this war over the remainder of my time in office," Biden said in a statement.
Biden's announcement includes $1.25 billion in military aid drawn from U.S. stockpiles and a $1.22 billion Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) package, the final USAI package of Biden's time in office.
Under USAI, military equipment is procured from the defense industry or partners, rather than drawn from American stocks, meaning it can take months or years to arrive on the battlefield.
Yellen said in a statement the direct budget assistance, provided in coordination with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department, marked the final disbursement under the 2024 Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act.
The U.S. Congress has approved $175 billion in total assistance for Ukraine since Russia's invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Recently the Russians have been using North Korean troops to bolster their fighting position.
North Korean forces are experiencing mass casualties on the front lines of Russia's war against Ukraine, with 1,000 of their troops killed or wounded in the last week alone in Russia's Kursk region, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday.
Biden said the new assistance will provide Ukraine with "an immediate influx of capabilities that it continues to use to great effect on the battlefield and longer-term supplies of air defense, artillery, and other critical weapons systems."
Nearly three years into the war, Washington has committed billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine, but it is uncertain if the aid will continue at that pace under Trump, who succeeds Biden on Jan. 20.
Trump has said he wants to bring the war to a swift end.
During the presidential campaign, Trump questioned the level of U.S. involvement in the conflict, suggesting European allies should bear more of the financial burden.
Some of his fellow Republicans - who will control both the House of Representatives and Senate starting next month - have also cooled on sending more aid to Kyiv.
A U.S. official said the $3.4 billion in budget funding brings the total in U.S. budget aid to Ukraine to just over $30 billion since Russia's invasion in February 2022. Most of those funds are used to keep Ukraine's government running by paying salaries to teachers and other state employees.
Washington has separately provided approximately $61.4 billion in security assistance to Kyiv since the start of the war, according to the Pentagon.
Biden said the Defense Department is in the process of delivering hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds, thousands of rockets, and hundreds of armored vehicles "which will strengthen Ukraine’s hand as it heads into the winter."
Yellen said continued economic aid for Ukraine was crucial to allow it to maintain government services and continue to defend its sovereignty, warning against moves to cut funding.
"Ukraine’s success is in America’s core national interest," she said, vowing to continue to pressure Moscow with sanctions and to help position Ukraine to achieve a just peace.
"We must not retreat in this effort."
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
Spanish Newspaper El Pais is reporting that a building has collapsed in Madrid, next to the Opera house with the number of casualties unknown.
Formally known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas was founded in 1987 during the first Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief: here are the top news stories for the 7th of October, covering the latest developments you need to know.
Israelis held a memorial ceremony in Kfar Aza near the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to commemorate those killed and taken hostages by Hamas on 7 October, 2023.
Delegations from Israel and Hamas held their first day of indirect negotiations in Egypt on Monday on U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to halt the war in Gaza, wrestling with contentious issues such as demands that Israel withdraw and Hamas disarm.
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