johnson allowing a vote to take place later on saturday. our north america correspondent will vernon is following the story from washington. the ukraine aid bill isjust one of several packages. they started their life as one bill, but they have been separated off into a number of separate pieces of legislation, basically to make it easier to get through congress. as well as ukraine there are also bills for the indo pacific region, for taiwan, basically, and for israel. of course the most important part of this is ukraine aid. $61 billion of desperately needed assistance to the ukrainians. that includes artillery rounds, air defence systems, and also funds to replenish depleted us military stockpiles that have been emptied out because so much of this kit has been sent off to ukraine. so the chances of this bill passing are pretty good. it cleared two very important procedural votes on thursday and
out any new strike in iraq. after months of delay, the us house of representatives is due to vote on tens of billions of dollars in us military aid for israel and for ukraine to help it fight off the russian invasion. both measures have vocal opponents in congress, and their hopes of passage have hinged on a fragile bipartisan coalition to overcome legislative hurdles. the debate is under way, with the republican speaker mike johnson allowing a vote to take place later on saturday. let s speak to our north america correspondent will vernon. tell us about the aid that will go to ukraine in the end, if this all goes through? to ukraine in the end, if this all goes through? ukraine eight bill is ust one of goes through? ukraine eight bill is just one of several goes through? ukraine eight bill is just one of several packages. - goes through? ukraine eight bill is just one of several packages. they j just one of several packages. they started their life as one bill, but they have bee
way and tonight certainly isn t to make way and tonight certainly isn t to make that conversation any easier to make that conversation any easier. . ., easier. christina ruffini, thank you let s get the latest from our north america correspondent will vernon. will, it s early morning where you are. what are you hearing in relation to these reported explosions in iran? it is late here, it is midnight. what we know so far, mark, is that two us officials have confirmed to the bbc s partner in the us, cbs news, that an israeli missile hit iran. that s about the extent of it so far. we don t have any more details, we don t know the scale of the scope of this response, but we have heard from several iranian sources, local media, several government agencies who say that the air defences have been activated in the country, there have been some sort of explosions in isfahan region and that the airspace is closed over tehran and several other cities.
another conflict here. obviously the hezbollah leader trying to show leadership but at the same time is aware of any kind of misstep could drag this country into another conflict with israel. the un security council has been meeting, to discuss the huge disruption to shipping in the red sea, as houthi rebels from yemen continue to attack ships heading to the suez canal. there are warnings that consumers are going to have to pay more for goods because of the extra cost of re routing container ships. here s our north america correspondent will vernon. the un security council holding a meeting today to discuss the situation in the red sea. and while there were no resolutions or votes taken, i think it s still a sign of the increasing alarm globally at the risk to trade in one of the world s most important shipping routes and one of the us representatives to the un, chris liu, said at that meeting that the situation requires
and the us, keep insisting that they don t want a confrontation between tehran and washington, or israel and iran. but these events are clearly making that harder and harder every day. the un security council has been meeting to discuss the huge disruption to shipping in the red sea, as houthi rebels from yemen continue to attack ships heading to the suez canal. there are warnings that consumers are going to have to pay more for goods because of the extra cost of re routing container ships. here s our north america correspondent will vernon. the un security council holding a meeting today to discuss the situation in the red sea. and whilst there were no resolutions or votes taken, i think it s still a sign of the increasing alarm globally at the risk to trade in one of the world s most important shipping routes and one of the us representatives to the un, chris liu, said at that meeting that the situation requires a global response and is at an inflection point. but not everyone, of