Happy Thursday! New polling data suggests that voters think Donald Trump would outperform Joe Biden in a game of Monopoly and in a fight against a medium-sized dog. Monopoly, we get—that game is essentially based on Trump’s career. But Biden has some hard-earned wisdom and experience when it comes to fighting medium-sized dogs!

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• A Russian missile attack on the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Wednesday morning killed at least 17 people and injured 60 others, including three children, according to state emergency officials. The missiles struck the city’s downtown region around 9 a.m. local time, demolishing numerous civilian buildings, including a hospital and higher education institute. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lamented that the deadly attack could have been thwarted had the country possessed adequate air defenses. One city official said that missile attacks coming from Russia used to be frequently downed, “but not any more, it seems.”
• Hezbollah—the Lebanon-based terrorist organization backed by Iran—carried out a drone and missile assault on a village in northern Israel on Wednesday, injuring 14 Israeli soldiers and four civilians. The attack, which left five people in serious or critical condition, according to the Israeli military, is one of the most significant in the last six months of cross-border exchanges. Hezbollah said the barrage was in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon on Tuesday that killed two Hezbollah commanders.
• The U.S. reinstated sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gas sector on Wednesday after the Biden administration claimed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro failed to stand by an October pledge to conduct free and fair democratic elections. According to the State Department, Maduro has blocked and harassed opposition candidates and unjustly arrested political adversaries and activists. “We again call on Maduro to allow all candidates and parties to participate in the electoral process and release all political prisoners without restrictions or delay,” a State Department spokesperson wrote in a statement. To ensure an “orderly process,” the administration will issue a 45-day “wind-down license,” and then will consider requests for exceptions on a case-by-case basis.
• House Republican leadership on Wednesday released the text of the four separate foreign aid and national security bills that Speaker Mike Johnson announced earlier this week. The bill for Ukraine aid amounts to $61 billion—$10 billion of which will be in the form of a loan. The Israel bill totals $26 billion and includes humanitarian aid for Gaza, while the third bill designates $8.12 billion for Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific countries. The four bills combine for a total of $95 billion in spending, matching the joint aid package passed in the Senate in February before languishing in the House. President Joe Biden endorsed the House legislation in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, calling it a “strong and sensible plan.” Johnson also said the House will vote on a border security bill, as well as a bill to seize Russian sovereign assets and force a TikTok divestment—but the foreign aid legislation is facing steep opposition from hardline House Republicans and could put Johnson’s speakership at risk.
• The Senate voted 51-49 and 51-48 on Wednesday to dismiss the two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that House Republicans delivered on Tuesday without holding a trial. The votes fell strictly along party lines, with the exception of Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who voted “present” on the first article accusing Mayorkas of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law.”

Mike Johnson’s Foreign Aid Dilemma

This week in the House of Representatives was supposed to be all about household appliances. A look at the active legislation from the Rules Committee—a House bill’s springboard onto the House floor—last week would have revealed such courageous and impressive legislative feats as the “Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act,” the “Liberty in Laundry Act,” and the “Refrigerator Freedom Act.” 

Iran’s weekend attack on Israel swept aside concerns about unaffordable dishwasher standards, bringing the question of aid to the U.S. ally back to the fore—and with it, the even thornier issue of military support for Ukraine. Now, House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to thread the needle with an ambitious set of bills—the texts of which were released Wednesday—that would provide funds for Israel, Ukraine, and the Indo-Pacific. At the same time, he’s hoping to assuage the concerns of his right flank, fringe elements of which are threatening to oust him over his support for Ukraine.

After a bruising fight earlier this year, the Senate passed supplemental foreign aid funding stripped of the immigration reform provisions that were originally set to accompany it to appease Republicans skeptical of the aid. The $95 billion package—funds that would resupply U.S. weapons stockpiles to allow the Defense Department to continue sending arms to Ukraine, providing new weapons systems for Israel, and funding to counter China in the Indo-Pacific—has been in never-never land between the Senate and the House ever since. Johnson had for weeks refused to entertain the bill, in part because it didn’t include the border security reforms he himself was instrumental in tanking.