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Added on the 23/08/2019 23:37:00 - Copyright : Catalogue ENA
"I can confirm that the United States provided Ukraine with long-range ATACMs at the President's direction," US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel tells reporters. Biden "quietly directed his national security team to send ATACMs to Ukraine for use inside Ukrainian sovereign territory in February. They started moving as part of the military aid package we announced on March 12th," Patel adds. SOUNDBITE
The US Senate approves a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine that had been stalled for months in Congress, with President Joe Biden vowing fresh supplies to be delivered swiftly to the warzone as Russia makes battlefield gains. IMAGES
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says that alliance members must guarantee long-term weapon deliveries for Ukraine, as ministers prepared to discuss a proposal for a 100-billion-euro, five-year fund. Speaking in Brussels, where NATO foreign ministers are meeting to forge a support package by a July summit in Washington, Stoltenberg says "we must ensure reliable and predictable security assistance to Ukraine for the long haul." "We must ensure reliable and predictable security assistance to Ukraine for the long haul so that we rely less on the voluntary contributions and more on NATO commitments, less on short-term offers and more on multi-year pledges," Stoltenberg says as NATO foreign ministers met in Brussels. SOUNDBITE
US President Joe Biden mixes up the current President of France Emmanuel Macron with former French leader Francois Mitterrand who died in 1996. Speaking at a campaign rally in Las Vegas on Sunday, Biden recalled a discussion with other heads of state at the G7 summit held in Cornwall in June 2021, a few months after his inauguration: "I said, 'America is back'". 81 years old Biden then remembers how it elicited a reply from "Mitterrand from Germany" before correcting himself : " I mean, from France". Francois Mitterrand was President of France from 1981 to 1995, serving a record two seven-years terms. SOUNDBITE
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan says "we do not believe that it makes sense for Israel, or is right for Israel, to occupy Gaza, reoccupy Gaza over the long term" during a press conference in Tel Aviv. SOUNDBITE
EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra laments that it has taken "30 years" of UN climate talks for humanity to "arrive at the beginning of the end of fossil fuels," calling a first-ever call for the world to transition away from the top culprit of climate change behind a planetary crisis "long overdue." Following all-night negotiations, the draft deal proposed by the Emirati presidency of the COP28 summit in Dubai would, if adopted, mark the first time that all fossil fuels are addressed in the 28-year history of international climate conferences. SOUNDBITE