you so much for joining me today. anna very busy saturday. i m fredricka whitfield, the cnn newsroom with alex marquardt, starts right now you are in. the cnn newsroom. i m alex barack board in washington. thank you so much for joining us. we begin with breaking news on capitol hill after months of delays and political turmoil in a rare saturday vote, house lawmakers passed stay billion package of aid for ukraine, for israel and taiwan now the deal heads to the senate for a vote before it can be signed by president joe biden two reporters across washington as well as in kyiv and in jerusalem. let s start with cnn s lauren fox on capitol hill to help break it all down. lauren, what is the latest yeah obviously this vote a long time coming. alex and there s been a lot of questions about whether or not speaker mike johnson was ever going to get to this point, putting this ukraine aid package as well as additional aid for israel and taiwan on the floor of the house of representat
Expecting to see what happens next in the senate. but clearly a win for the white house, which has been asking for this aid for months. yeah, it top intelligence and military officials to your point, they have been essentially begging lawmakers to get ukraine this aid, which is so desperately needed for solvers, great to have you in studio. thanks very much. now to ukraine where the months-long delay in passing, this american aid is being blamed for some recent ukrainian losses and russian gains on the battlefield. following the vote, ukraine s president zelenskyy posted a thank you message to the us for it support we find our senior international correspondent, fred pleitgen in kyiv right now, fred great to have you there. we ve got this. thank you. from president s zelenskyy. it must be a huge feeling of relief where you are yeah, it absolutely is. and you could feel that really reverberate around the city, around kyiv and really around the other the entire country. and also al