WASHINGTON: Kevin McCarthy, who could soon be second in line to the White House, startled US allies when he warned that his Republican Party would no longer write a “blank check” to Ukraine.
If the Republicans win either chamber of Congress in the November 8 elections, President Joe Biden’s foreign policy team would face a grueling two years, although any sharp shift in US support for Ukraine looks unlikely.
Republican lawmakers have already made clear they would make full use of their congressional oversight role to scrutinize the Biden administration on topics from immigration to last year’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
But Ukraine could test the united front among Republicans, just as they start gearing up for 2024 presidential elections.
Donald Trump broke with the US mainstream by voicing admiration for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, with the former US president’s first impeachment triggered by his hold-up of military aid for Ukraine.
Some Trump-inspired Republicans have attacked US assistance to Ukraine, which includes $40 billion approved in May on bipartisan lines and a Biden request for another $11.2 billion.
One of the loudest voices has been far-right Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has accused Biden of sending “hard-earned US tax dollars” to help another country “fight a war they cannot possibly win.”
But Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican, has vowed to go beyond Biden and “expedite” weapons including those with a longer range, and Mike Pence, who was Trump’s vice president, recently took direct aim at critics of arming Ukraine.
“There can be no room in the conservative movement for apologists for Putin. There is only room in this movement for champions of freedom,” Pence said.
Colin Dueck, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who has written on conservatives’ foreign policy, saw the comments by McCarthy, the top House Republican, as an effort to accommodate a minority view on Ukraine.
A new survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found widespread US support for Ukraine, with two-thirds of Republicans agreeing on the need to send weapons.
“There’s this perception that the average kind of heartland Republican is against this and that is not true,” Dueck said.
“I’m not sure it would be safe to predict that a House Republican majority is going to turn against Ukraine,” he said.
For Republicans, “anything that’s perceived by voters as a personal attack on Trump is taken as a kind of third rail, but on policy issues people feel free to disagree.”
Biden’s Democratic Party has seen near unanimity for arming Ukraine but some 30 left-wing members on Monday also urged direct diplomacy with Russia to end the war, including on security arrangements acceptable to both sides.
One international issue where Republicans have fiercely criticized Biden has been his effort to restore the Iran nuclear deal, but prospects were already slim even before major protests broke out in September against the nation’s clerical leaders.
On China, the two parties have largely been on the same page — in outlook if not tone — on seeing the rising Asian power as the primary long-range challenger of the United States.
When tensions soared with China in August over Taiwan, it was because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — a Democrat — paid a defiant visit to support the self-governing democracy.
Individual lawmakers could make life much more difficult for the Biden administration.
When Barack Obama was president, Republicans relentlessly questioned his secretary of state Hillary Clinton over the 2012 attack on the US diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the ambassador.
One of the fiercest pursuers of Clinton was Mike Pompeo, then a little-known congressman who was tapped by Trump as CIA director and then secretary of state.
Brian Katulis, vice president of policy at the Middle East Institute and co-editor of “The Liberal Patriot” journal, said the Republicans could use hearings to lead the charge on issues dear to their base, such as speculation over the laptop of Biden’s son Hunter.
On Benghazi, the Obama team “actually engaged in the drip, drip, drip and sat through all the hearings.”
“If they fight it, it does present an opportunity cost for advancing a proactive agenda,” he said of the Biden administration.
But Katulis said it was difficult to predict which direction the Republicans would take their foreign policy, saying its members have been “all over the map.”
“On a number of issues including national security, the GOP could change its party symbol from the elephant to the chameleon.”
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Vote could hobble Biden foreign policy but Ukraine shift seen unlikely
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Vote could hobble Biden foreign policy but Ukraine shift seen unlikely
- If the Republicans win either chamber of Congress in the November 8 elections, President Joe Biden’s foreign policy team would face a grueling two years, although any sharp shift in US support for Ukraine looks unlikely
Afghan mothers seek hospital help for malnourished children
HERAT: Najiba, 24, keeps a constant watch over her baby, Artiya, one of around four million children at risk of dying from malnutrition this year in Afghanistan.
After suffering a bout of pneumonia at three months old, Artiya’s condition deteriorated and his parents went from hospital to hospital trying to find help.
“I did not get proper rest or good food,” affecting her ability to produce breast milk, Najiba said at Herat Regional Hospital in western Afghanistan.
“These days, I do not have enough milk for my baby.”
The distressed mother, who chose not to give her surname for privacy reasons, said the family earns a living from an electric supplies store run by her husband.
Najiba and her husband spent their meagre savings trying to get care for Artiya, before learning that he has a congenital heart defect.
To her, “no one can understand what I’m going through. No one knows how I feel every day, here with my child in this condition.”
“The only thing I have left is to pray that my child gets better,” she said.
John Aylieff, Afghanistan director at the World Food Programme (WFP), said women are “sacrificing their own health and their own nutrition to feed their children.”
Artiya has gained weight after several weeks at the therapeutic nutrition center in the Herat hospital, where colorful drawings of balloons and flowers adorn the walls.
Mothers such as Najiba, who are grappling with the reality of not being able to feed their children, receive psychological support.
Meanwhile, Artiya’s father is “knocking on every door just to borrow money” which could fund an expensive heart operation on another ward, Najiba said.
- ‘Staggering’ scale -
On average, 315 to 320 malnourished children are admitted each month to the center, which is supported by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
The number of cases has steadily increased over the past five years, according to Hamayoun Hemat, MSF’s deputy coordinator in Herat.
Since the Taliban regained power in 2021, low-income families have been hit hard by cuts to international aid, as well as drought and the economic fallout of five million Afghans forced across the border from Iran and Pakistan.
“In 2025, we’d already seen the highest surge in child malnutrition recorded in Afghanistan since the beginning of the 21st century,” Aylieff said in Kabul.
The crisis is only set to worsen this year, he told AFP: “A staggering four million children in this country will be malnourished and will require treatment.”
“These children will die if they’re not treated.”
WFP is seeking $390 million to feed six million Afghans over the next six months, but Aylieff said the chance of getting such funds is “so bleak.”
Pledges of solidarity from around the globe, made after the Taliban government imposed its strict interpretation of Islamic law, have done little to help Afghan women, the WFP director said.
They are now “watching their children succumb to hunger in their arms,” he said.
- ‘No hope’ -
In the country of more than 40 million people, there are relatively few medical centers that can help treat malnutrition.
Some families travel hundreds of kilometers (miles) to reach Herat hospital as they lack health care facilities in their home provinces.
Wranga Niamaty, a nurse team supervisor, said they often receive patients in the “last stage” where there is “no hope” for their survival.
Still, she feels “proud” for those she can rescue from starvation.
In addition to treating the children, the nursing team advises women on breastfeeding, which is a key factor in combating malnutrition.
Single mothers who have to work as cleaners or in agriculture are sometimes unable to produce enough milk, often due to dehydration, nurse Fawzia Azizi said.
The clinic has been a lifesaver for Jamila, a 25-year-old mother who requested her surname not be used out of privacy concerns.
Jamila’s eight-month-old daughter has Down’s syndrome and is also suffering from malnutrition, despite her husband sending money back from Iran where he works.
Wrapped in a floral veil, Jamila said she fears for the future: “If my husband is expelled from Iran, we will die of hunger.”
After suffering a bout of pneumonia at three months old, Artiya’s condition deteriorated and his parents went from hospital to hospital trying to find help.
“I did not get proper rest or good food,” affecting her ability to produce breast milk, Najiba said at Herat Regional Hospital in western Afghanistan.
“These days, I do not have enough milk for my baby.”
The distressed mother, who chose not to give her surname for privacy reasons, said the family earns a living from an electric supplies store run by her husband.
Najiba and her husband spent their meagre savings trying to get care for Artiya, before learning that he has a congenital heart defect.
To her, “no one can understand what I’m going through. No one knows how I feel every day, here with my child in this condition.”
“The only thing I have left is to pray that my child gets better,” she said.
John Aylieff, Afghanistan director at the World Food Programme (WFP), said women are “sacrificing their own health and their own nutrition to feed their children.”
Artiya has gained weight after several weeks at the therapeutic nutrition center in the Herat hospital, where colorful drawings of balloons and flowers adorn the walls.
Mothers such as Najiba, who are grappling with the reality of not being able to feed their children, receive psychological support.
Meanwhile, Artiya’s father is “knocking on every door just to borrow money” which could fund an expensive heart operation on another ward, Najiba said.
- ‘Staggering’ scale -
On average, 315 to 320 malnourished children are admitted each month to the center, which is supported by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
The number of cases has steadily increased over the past five years, according to Hamayoun Hemat, MSF’s deputy coordinator in Herat.
Since the Taliban regained power in 2021, low-income families have been hit hard by cuts to international aid, as well as drought and the economic fallout of five million Afghans forced across the border from Iran and Pakistan.
“In 2025, we’d already seen the highest surge in child malnutrition recorded in Afghanistan since the beginning of the 21st century,” Aylieff said in Kabul.
The crisis is only set to worsen this year, he told AFP: “A staggering four million children in this country will be malnourished and will require treatment.”
“These children will die if they’re not treated.”
WFP is seeking $390 million to feed six million Afghans over the next six months, but Aylieff said the chance of getting such funds is “so bleak.”
Pledges of solidarity from around the globe, made after the Taliban government imposed its strict interpretation of Islamic law, have done little to help Afghan women, the WFP director said.
They are now “watching their children succumb to hunger in their arms,” he said.
- ‘No hope’ -
In the country of more than 40 million people, there are relatively few medical centers that can help treat malnutrition.
Some families travel hundreds of kilometers (miles) to reach Herat hospital as they lack health care facilities in their home provinces.
Wranga Niamaty, a nurse team supervisor, said they often receive patients in the “last stage” where there is “no hope” for their survival.
Still, she feels “proud” for those she can rescue from starvation.
In addition to treating the children, the nursing team advises women on breastfeeding, which is a key factor in combating malnutrition.
Single mothers who have to work as cleaners or in agriculture are sometimes unable to produce enough milk, often due to dehydration, nurse Fawzia Azizi said.
The clinic has been a lifesaver for Jamila, a 25-year-old mother who requested her surname not be used out of privacy concerns.
Jamila’s eight-month-old daughter has Down’s syndrome and is also suffering from malnutrition, despite her husband sending money back from Iran where he works.
Wrapped in a floral veil, Jamila said she fears for the future: “If my husband is expelled from Iran, we will die of hunger.”
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