WORLD BRIEFING: April 25, 2024

U.S. President Joe Biden signed legislation Wednesday providing $95 billion in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, saying, “When our allies are stronger. We are stronger.” He said the new assistance, aimed at helping Ukraine fight Russia’s two-year invasion and Israel to fight Hamas militants and fend off airstrikes from Iran, is “going to make America safer. It's going to make the world safer. And it continues America's leadership in the world.” Biden said that within hours, the U.S. would begin shipments of air defense munitions, artillery for rocket systems and armored vehicles into Ukraine to help Kyiv’s fighters in a war with Moscow that has largely stalemated on the eastern Ukraine battlefront. - VOA

The bill closely mirrors the original Senate package, but the House added a requirement for the Biden administration to send more American-made missiles known as long-range ATACMS to Kyiv. The United States previously supplied Ukraine with a cluster-munition version of the missiles, after President Biden overcame his longstanding reluctance to providing the weapons and permitted the Pentagon to deliver them covertly. Another provision included by the House directs the president to seek repayment of $10 billion in economic assistance, a concept supported by former President Donald J. Trump, who has pushed for any aid to Kyiv to be in the form of a loan. But the bill also allows the president to forgive those loans starting in 2026. - NYT

Atacms long-ranges missiles capable of hitting targets 300km away had already arrived in Ukraine this month at the president’s direction, before the US security package was passed by Congress on Wednesday, the state department has said. Vedant Patel, a state department spokesperson, explained that the weapons were part of a March aid package for Ukraine – not the one just approved by Congress and signed by Joe Biden. “We did not announce this at the onset in order to maintain operational security for Ukraine at their request.” Ukraine has begun using the long-range Atacms, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area in recent days, two US officials have told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. One of them said the Biden administration previously warned Russia that if it used long-range ballistic missiles in Ukraine, Washington would provide the same capability to the Ukrainians. Russia has since done so. - Guardian

Separately, Adm Christopher Grady, vice-chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, told the Associated Press that long-range weapons would help Ukraine take out Russian logistics and troop concentrations behind the frontlines. He explained how the decision to supply them was considered carefully and at length. “I think the time is right, and the boss [Biden] made the decision the time is right to provide these based on where the fight is right now.”

A Russian deputy defense minister has been charged with taking a bribe, in the country’s highest-profile corruption scandal since President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago. Timur Ivanov is suspected of accepting a bribe of 1 million rubles (at least $10,800), Russian state media TASS reported. He appeared in a Moscow court Wednesday, dressed in full military garb as he stood in a glass cage, and was accused of receiving a bribe as part of an organized group while performing contracted work for the Defense Ministry. If convicted, he faces 15 years in prison. Ivanov will be held in custody in a pre-trial detention center until at least June 23, Moscow’s court wrote on Telegram. His lawyer, Denis Baluyev, said he is appealing the case and requested that Ivanov be put under house arrest instead, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti. He was later dismissed from his position in the defense ministry, state media TASS reported, citing a source in the ministry. - CNN

The south-Asia correspondent for Australia’s national broadcaster, Avani Dias, has been forced out of India after her reporting fell foul of the Indian government, in a sign of the increasing pressure on journalists in the country under Narendra Modi. Dias, who has been based in Delhi for the ABC since January 2022, said she felt the government had made it “too difficult” for her to continue to do her job, claiming it blocked her from accessing events, issued takedown notices to YouTube for her news stories, and then refused her a standard visa renewal. Dias was told by the Indian government that her visa, which was due for renewal, would be blocked, she says in the final episode of her podcast, Looking for Modi. The decision came after the Indian government issued a takedown notice to YouTube for an episode of Foreign Correspondent, the ABC’s flagship international news program, that she reported.The episode covered the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist, in Canada last year. Canada accused the Indian government of being involved in his murder, straining relations between the two nations. Dias says a ministry official called to inform her of the decision regarding her visa. “He specifically said it was because of my Sikh separatist story, saying it had gone too far,” she said. - Guardian

Former President Trump reiterated his support for Mike Johnson as the House speaker continues to face a threat to his gavel from GOP hardliners. The comments come as vocal Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) threatens Johnson's position despite the former president saying earlier this month he stands by the speaker. "Well, look, we have a majority of one, OK? It's not like he can go and do whatever he wants to do. I think he's a very good person. You know, he stood very strongly with me on NATO," Trump said on Monday, Politico first reported. "I think he's trying very hard." Trump's comments could help stave off a conservative rebellion against Johnson as Greene continues to take aim at the Louisiana Republican's policy decision, accusing him of supporting Democrat priorities. - Axios

President Biden on Wednesday signed a law that would ban Chinese-owned TikTok unless it is sold within a year. It is the most serious threat yet to the video-streaming app's future in the U.S., intensifying America's tech war with China. Still, the law is not expected to cause any immediate disruption to TikTok, as a forthcoming legal challenge, and various hurdles to selling the app, will most likely cause months of delay. The measure was tucked into a bill providing foreign aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. The law stipulates that ByteDance must sell its stake in TikTok in 12 months under the threat of being shut down. - NPR

Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Hungary from May 8 to 10 as part of a trip to Europe, Cabinet Minister Gergely Gulyas said at a briefing on Thursday. Prime Minister Viktor Orban is seeking to expand economic ties with China, including by broadening Hungary’s participation in the Belt and Road Initiative to include further rail modernization projects as well as the financing of a new crude pipeline connecting it with Serbia. Xi is expected to arrive in Hungary after visiting France and Serbia. - Bloomberg

Ukraine has stopped issuing new passports at offices abroad to some military-aged male citizens, according to legislation published on Wednesday, as part of measures to push them to return home amid manpower shortages in the army. The announcement came a day after the suspension of consular services for men aged 18 to 60 living abroad until the new law on mobilisation is implemented. Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the passport suspension applied only to new applications and that any requests previously submitted would be honoured. In Warsaw, Poland, hundreds of Ukrainians crowded outside a closed passport office in a confused scene. There was anger among those who felt they were being unfairly targeted. “This is a fight against people who are fleeing the army,” said Maksym, a 38-year-old truck driver. “We are not asked on what grounds we went abroad … Why am I a draft dodger if I went abroad legally?” Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Zvarych, told AFP that “all applications submitted to the consular offices of Ukraine before April 23 … will be processed in full and passport documents will be issued to such people”. - The Guardian