WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Wednesday that Group of Seven allies are moving forward with providing Ukraine with $50 billion in loans for Ukraine backed by frozen Russian assets.
Leaders of the wealthy democracies agreed earlier this year to engineer the mammoth loan to help Ukraine in its fight for survival after Russia's invasion. Interest earned on profits from Russia’s frozen central bank assets would be used as collateral.
Daleep Singh, the White House deputy national security adviser on international economics, said the United States plans to provide a loan of $20 billion. The additional $30 billion will come from the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan. among others.
“To be clear, nothing like this has ever been done before,” Singh said. “Never before has a multilateral coalition frozen the assets of an aggressor country and then harnessed the value of those assets to fund the defense of the aggrieved party all while respecting the rule of law and maintaining solidarity.”
Singh said that the Biden administration intends to divide its share between aiding Ukraine's economy and military. It will require congressional action to send military aid.
“To be clear, either way, the U.S. will provide $20 billion in support for Ukraine in this effort, whether it’s split between economic and military support or provided entirely via economic assistance," Singh said.
Singh said more details about the loan are expected to be ironed out during this week's G-7 finance ministers' meeting in Stresa, Italy.
The G7 announced in June that most of the loan would be backed by profits being earned on roughly $260 billion in immobilized Russian assets. The vast majority of that money is held in European Union nations.
The decision came after months of debate on the legality of confiscating the money and sending it to Ukraine.
The U.S. and its allies immediately froze whatever Russian central bank assets they had access to when Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency workers clear the rubble after Russia attacked the city with guided bombs overnight in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine on Oct. 21, 2024, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, right, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shake hands during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine via AP)
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are courting key constituencies just two weeks before Election Day — and they’re hoping popular public figures will help them make the case.
Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Here’s the latest:
Donald Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff is warning that the Republican presidential nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office, Trump suggested that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “did some good things.”
The comments from John Kelly, the retired Marine general who worked for Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2019, came in interviews with both The New York Times and The Atlantic. They build on a a growing series of warnings from former top Trump officials as the election enters its final weeks.
Kelly has long been critical of Trump and previously accused him of calling veterans killed in combat “suckers” and “losers.” Still, his new warnings came just two weeks before Election Day, as Trump seeks a second term vowing to dramatically expand his use of the military at home and suggesting he would use force to go after Americans he considers “enemies from within.”
“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,’” Kelly recalled to The Times. Kelly said he would usually quash the conversation by saying “nothing (Hitler) did, you could argue, was good,” but that Trump would occasionally bring up the topic again.
In his interview with The Atlantic, Kelly recalled that when Trump raised the idea of needing “German generals,” Kelly would ask if he meant “Bismarck’s generals,” referring to Otto von Bismarck, the former chancellor of the German Reich who oversaw the unification of Germany. “Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals,” Kelly recalled asking Trump. To which the former president responded, “Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.”
Trump’s campaign denied these stories Tuesday, with Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, arguing Kelly has “beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated.”
▶ Read more about John Kelly’s claims
Conservatives already have a supermajority on the Supreme Court as a result of Donald Trump’s presidency. If Trump wins a second term, the right side of the court could retain control for several more decades.
Justices Clarence Thomas, 76, and Samuel Alito, 74, are the two oldest members of the court. Either, or both, could consider stepping down knowing Trump, a Republican, would nominate replacements who might be three decades younger.
“With President Trump and a Republican Senate, we could have a generation of conservative justices on the bench in the Supreme Court,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently wrote on X.
That’s exactly what worries Christina Harvey, executive director of the progressive group Stand Up America. “The real key here is Trump prevention. If Trump wins again, he could solidify right-wing control of the Supreme Court for decades,” Harvey said.
Yet the nation’s highest court has a lower profile than it did in the past two presidential campaigns. That’s despite an early summer ruling on presidential immunity that insured Trump would not have to stand trial before the Nov. 5 election on charges of interference in the 2020 election and other consequential decisions on abortion, guns, affirmative action and the environment.
▶ Read more about the Supreme Court
In battleground Pennsylvania, Kamala Harris warned that democracy and reproductive rights were at stake as she campaigned alongside a former Republican congresswoman.
Going to the same state the day before, Donald Trump served French fries at a closed McDonald’s.
As the 2024 presidential contest speeds to its conclusion on Nov. 5, Harris and Trump are embracing wildly different strategies to energize the coalitions they need to win. Both are making bets that will prove prescient or ill-advised.
Trump’s team has largely abandoned traditional efforts to broaden his message to target moderate voters, focusing instead on energizing his base of fiery partisans and turning out low-propensity voters — especially young men of all races — with tough talk and events aimed at getting attention online.
Harris is leaning into a more traditional all-of-the-above playbook targeting the narrow slice of undecided voters that remain, especially moderates, college-educated suburbanites, and women of all races and education. More than Trump, she’s going after Republican women who may have supported rival Nikki Haley in this year’s GOP primary and are dissatisfied with the former president.
▶ Read more about the candidates’ campaign strategies
A man accused of repeatedly threatening to kill the top elections officials in Colorado and Arizona as well as judges and federal law enforcement agents is expected to plead guilty in federal court Wednesday.
Teak Ty Brockbank, 45, of Cortez, Colorado, has been jailed since his Aug. 23 arrest. Now he’s scheduled to appear in court for a change of plea hearing after previously pleading not guilty to one count of making interstate threats. His lawyer notified the court that Brockbank wanted to change his plea. In federal court, “guilty” is the only other option.
According to a detention motion, Brockbank told investigators he’s not a “vigilante” and that he hoped his posts would simply “wake people up.”
Investigators say Brockbank began to express the view that violence against public officials was necessary in late 2021 and proceeded to make multiple threats against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and former Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, now the state’s governor, and the others.
▶ Read more about the threats against officials
Trump said the Biden administration needs to find out who leaked classified documents detailing Israel’s plans for a potential retaliatory attack on Iran, implying there are “methods” that could be used to learn who was responsible.
“It’s a terrible situation,” Trump said in an interview with radio talk show host Mark Levin. “You’ve got to find out the person that did it.”
Trump said it is easy to find the leakers, “but we don’t use methods anymore where you can do that. We give the criminals such latitude. We are not allowed to find them.”
The former president also criticized the leak of the Supreme Court draft opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“I thought the leaks from the Supreme Court was just a shame,” he said. “I think that’s something that also should be found out.”
A statement Tuesday night on Trump’s website announced an official complaint had been filed with the Federal Election Commission against the Labour Party and the Harris-Walz campaign for “illegal foreign campaign contributions and interference in our elections.”
The complaint referred to media reports about meetings between Labour and Democrat officials, and a now-deleted LinkedIn post in which a Labour staffer said there were “nearly 100 Labour Party staff (current and former) going to the U.S. in the next few weeks” to swing states.
Starmer said any party members in the U.S. were there as volunteers.
“That’s what they’ve done in previous elections, is what they’re doing in this election,” he told reporters as he traveled to Samoa for a meeting of Commonwealth leaders.
Starmer said the kerfuffle would not jeopardize the relationship he’s tried to build with Trump.
“I spent time in New York with President Trump, had dinner with him, and my purpose in doing that was to make sure that between the two of us we established a good relationship, which we did, and I was very grateful to him for making the time,” he said.
This combination of file photos shows Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, left, speaking at a campaign rally, Oct. 18, 2024, in Detroit, and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, right, speaking at a campaign rally in Green Bay, Wis., Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump waves at a campaign rally at Greensboro Coliseum, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Greensboro, N.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The Latest: Trump rallies in North Carolina while Harris makes the cable news rounds
The Latest: Trump rallies in North Carolina while Harris makes the cable news rounds
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., attend a campaign event Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, in Brookfield, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
