WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden signed a hard-fought bill into law on Wednesday that provides billions of dollars of new U.S. aid to Ukraine for its war with Russia, notching a rare bipartisan victory for the president as he seeks reelection and ending months of wrangling with Republicans in Congress.
“It gives vital support to America’s partners so they can defend themselves from threats to their sovereignty,” Biden said.
The bill includes $61 billion in aid to Ukraine and $26 billion for Israel, as well as $1 billion in humanitarian assistance to Gaza and $8 billion to counter China’s military might.
The impact of the legislation was immediate. Biden said he had approved an initial $1 billion in weapons supplies for Ukraine and that the flow of these arms would start within hours.
Biden also signed a separate bill tied to the aid legislation that bans TikTok in the United States if its owner, the Chinese tech firm ByteDance, fails to divest the popular short video app over the next nine months to a year.
The social media platform is particularly popular with left-leaning young Americans, a group crucial to Biden’s victory in November.
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