International
The U.S. Senate approves a military aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan
The United States Senate approved the $95 billion package in military aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, which would give the green light to the sending of the money after months of legislative blockade.
The measure was approved by 75 votes in favor and 20 against.
The Senate has put together in a single text four bills that the House of Representatives approved last Saturday.
On the one hand, $61 billion in military aid for Ukraine, another 26,400 for Israel and 8,100 for Taiwan.
A fourth bill seeks to force the Chinese ownership of TikTok to sell the company in a period of one year if it does not want to face a ban in the United States.
“Finally, tonight, after more than six months of hard work, the United States sends a message to the whole world,” Chuck Schumer, Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate, said after the vote.
According to Schumer, with this vote USA. The United States tells the world that it “will do everything possible to safeguard democracy.”
The White House has been asking the Legislature for months for the joint approval of these military aid packages, but the opposition of Republican sectors to assistance to Ukraine has caused a long blockade.
A minority part of the Democratic group has opposed the aid package to Israel.
Iran’s attack on Israel two Saturdays ago caused the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives to lift its blockade to jointly approve foreign military aid packages.
Now it will only take the sig of the president, Joe Biden, for the money and weapons to begin to flow into the Ukrainian trenches, which have been begging the United States for help for months in the face of the advance of Russian forces.
Biden spoke on the phone on Monday with the president of Ukraine, Volodymir Zelensky, who after the call and in a message on social network X, said that the US president had told him that this assistance will include long-range artillery.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago, the United States has channeled military aid for more than 75 billion dollars.
International
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump criticized what he described as unfair fees imposed on American ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand that Washington take back control of the strategic waterway.
“Our Navy and commerce have been threatened in a very unjust and reckless way. The rates that Panama charges are ridiculous,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The president-elect also denounced the growing influence of China in the canal, a situation he called concerning as U.S. businesses depend on the waterway to transport goods between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
“This complete scam against our country will end immediately,” he stated.
The Panama Canal, completed by the United States in 1914, was handed over to Panama under the 1977 treaty signed by Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Panama took full control of the commercial passage in 1999.
“It was exclusively for Panama to manage, not China or anyone else,” Trump said. “We would never allow it to fall into the wrong hands!”
“If Panama cannot guarantee a ‘safe, efficient, and reliable’ operation of the canal, we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in its entirety, without a doubt,” the Republican added.
Panamanian authorities did not immediately respond to Trump’s statements. While he will assume office on January 20, Trump has been exerting his political influence in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Five percent of global maritime trade passes through the Panama Canal, which allows vessels traveling from Asia to the U.S. East Coast to avoid the long and dangerous route around the southern tip of South America.
The countries that use the Panama Canal the most are the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea.
In October, the Panama Canal Authority reported earnings of nearly $5 billion in the last fiscal year.
International
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised more “destruction” in Ukraine on Sunday, in response to a drone strike that hit a residential building in the city of Kazan, located in central Russia, on Saturday.
Russia accused Ukraine of launching a “massive” drone attack, which struck a luxury apartment block in Kazan, about 1,000 kilometers from the border.
Videos shared on Russian social media show drones hitting a high-rise glass building. No casualties have been reported as a result of the attack.
In his statements, Putin addressed the local leader of Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is located, during a virtual ceremony marking the opening of a road.
The attack in Kazan is the latest in a series of increasingly frequent bombings in this nearly three-year-old conflict. Ukraine has not commented on the attack.
Putin had previously threatened to strike the center of Kyiv with a hypersonic ballistic missile in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the recent Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities were retaliation for Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied missiles to target Russian territory.
International
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
At least nine people were killed on Sunday after a small aircraft crashed in a commercial area of the tourist city of Gramado, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities confirmed.
“There are nine confirmed deaths according to Civil Defense services, and there are no survivors from the plane,” said Cléber dos Santos Lima, director of the Interior Police Department of the Civil Police of the state, in a statement to AFP.
Authorities have not yet confirmed the exact number of passengers and crew aboard the aircraft, a turbo-prop Piper Cheyenne 400. However, Civil Defense had previously stated that “preliminarily, the plane was carrying ten people.”
The plane crashed on Sunday morning “into the chimney of a building, then onto the second floor of a house, and finally fell onto a furniture store,” according to a statement from the Rio Grande do Sul Public Security Secretariat.
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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