Ukraine’s president meets with President Joe Biden and Congress to ask for more funding. A former student of the UNLV gunman recalls a disturbing comment. And a sci-fi author is accused of review-bombing fellow writers.
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Ukrainian President Zelenskyy visits Capitol Hill amid stalled funding talks
President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are expected to meet today as Senate negotiations on a package that includes funding for his war against Russia threatens to spill into the next year.
Zelenskyy is also set to speak with U.S. lawmakers, but his pleas for funding will likely be met with resistance from Senate Republicans who are increasingly skeptical about funding Ukraine’s war against Russia and unwilling to debate a bill for foreign aid without immigration restrictions.
“Quite frankly, we’re not going to help other countries and not look at actually what’s happening in the United States,” said Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, who is leading the discussions for Republicans. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said he would hear out Zelenskyy: “I don’t see what the purpose is, but obviously we’d be glad to listen to what he has to say.” Yesterday, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio suggested that Ukraine should give up some of its land to Russia to end the war.
The Senate seems unlikely to reach a deal this week on Biden’s aid package, with Lankford saying “there’s no way to get it done this week” before the Senate adjourns for the holidays. Sources with knowledge of the negotiations say Democrats have been willing to make concessions on tightening asylum rules, but the talks have been stuck over GOP demands to curtail presidential powers to use “parole” to temporarily admit asylum-seekers.
And while Zelenskyy pleads with reluctant senators in Washington to green-light…
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