The weapons consignment, which needs approval from House and Senate committees, includes air-to-air missiles to be used against airborne threats, including drones, the official said.

The move comes just over a fortnight before President Joe Biden leaves office. A source familiar with the sale told the BBC: “The President has made clear Israel has a right to defend its citizens, consistent with international law and international humanitarian law.”

In August, the US approved the sale of $20bn in fighter jets and other military equipment to Israel.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom will be awarded to 19 people this year, spanning cultural icons, politicians and campaigners.

The have been chosen because are they are “good people who have made extraordinary contributions to their country and the world”, the White House said.

Biden will present the medals at the White House in a ceremony on Saturday.

Bono, who’s real name is Paul David Hewson, has already been awarded the highest cultural honour of France and received an honorary knighthood.

He is known for campaigning against poverty and supporting those with HIV/Aids.

Wintour, one of the most significant players in fashion, has been serving as editor-in-chief of Vogue since 1988 and among other charities helped raised more than $20m for Aids research.

She also raised money for UK arts organisations following funding cuts in 2022.

Billionaire philanthropist and major Democrat donor George Soros and US politician Hillary Clinton are also among recipients.

In 2018, Soros, a Hungarian-born financier, was one of the high-profile critics of Donald Trump to be targeted by a mail bomber.

Clinton, the former US secretary of state, will receive the award just weeks before her former political rival is sworn in as president. She lost to Trump in the 2016 election.

Cultural luminaries – including actors Denzel Washington and Michael J Fox – will receive the medal alongside football star Lionel Messi, retired Los Angeles Lakers basketball player Earvin “Magic” Johnson and fashion designer Ralph Lauren.

American Film Institute founder George Stevens Jr and former Kennedy Center chair David Rubinstein are among the cohort receiving medals.

Other recipients include humanitarian and chef José Andrés, whose World Central Kitchen has helped provide food for civilians in war zones and areas hit by natural disasters; acclaimed British conservationist Jane Goodall and science educator Bill Nye.

Former US Attorney General Robert F Kennedy, former Defense Secretary Ash Carter, civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer and former Governor of Michigan George W Romney will receive the award posthumously.

Established under former president John F Kennedy, the medal is awarded at the discretion of the president on the advice of an external advisory panel.

Previous recipients of the award include the most decorated gymnast of all time Simone Biles, Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh and Apple founder Steve Jobs.

A White House announcement of his executive order cited “credible evidence” that the firm “might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States”.

Biden decided to block the deal despite intense efforts to sway him in recent days by some of his senior advisors, who reportedly warned that rejecting a sizable investment from a top Japanese corporation like Nippon Steel could damage Washington’s relations with Tokyo.

BBC News has contacted Nippon Steel and US Steel for comment.

The decision was left with the outgoing President Biden after a US government panel failed to reach a consensus in late December on whether the acquisition by Nippon Steel may threaten Washington’s national security.

Biden was legally required to act within a 15-day deadline, after the deadlock by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

He has repeatedly criticised the deal, joining other US politicians who have called the transaction into question.

They include President-elect Donald Trump and the incoming vice-president, JD Vance.

The deal became caught up in the 2024 US presidential campaign when Pennsylvania emerged as a critical swing state and leaders of the United Steelworkers union loudly opposed it.

Nippon Steel has previously described the transaction as a lifeline to Pennsylvania’s much-diminished steel industry in the past.

The Japanese company and US Steel have also previously suggested they may pursue legal action against the government if the deal did not happen.

The three excluded from the measure include the Boston Marathon bomber and the man who killed Jewish worshippers in 2018.

In a statement, Biden said he was “more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level”. His measure does not include more than 2,000 people convicted to death by State authorities.

Biden’s decision comes before the return of President-elect Donald Trump in January, who resumed federal executions when he was in office.

Among those reprieved by Biden are nine people convicted of murdering fellow prisoners, four for murders committed during bank robberies and one who killed a prison guard.

“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden added.

Disgraced former New Orleans police officer Len Davis, who operated a drug ring involving other officers and arranged a woman’s murder, is among those who have been shown clemency.

The three remaining on death row include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who helped carry out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and avowed white supremacist Dylann Roof who shot and killed nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015.

Robert Bowers, who killed 11 Jewish worshippers during a mass shooting in 2018 at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, will also remain on death row.

Biden has campaigned as an opponent of the death penalty, and the Justice Department issued a moratorium on its use at federal level after he became president.

During his first term in office, Trump oversaw 13 deaths by lethal injection during his final six months in power.There had been no federal inmates put to death in the US since 2003 until Trump resumed federal executions in July 2020.

During his re-election campaign, Trump indicated he would expand the use of capital punishment to include human and drug traffickers, as well as migrants who kill American citizens.

Biden appeared to make reference to Trump’s intentions in his statement by saying he could not “in good conscience – stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted”.

In US law, these clemency decisions cannot be reversed by a president’s successor.Biden’s decision will not impact people sentenced to death in state courts, which is around around 2,250 inmates according to the Death Penalty Information Centre. More than 70 state executions have been carried out during Biden’s presidency.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states. Six other states, including Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, have moratoriums in place.

Earlier this month, Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 more convicted of nonviolent crimes.

He also pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, who was facing sentencing for two criminal cases.

He had pleaded guilty to tax charges earlier in September, and was found guilty of being an illegal drug user in possession of a gun in June – becoming the first child of a sitting president to be a convicted of a crime.

The US Constitution decrees that a president has the broad “power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment”.

In a statement on Thursday, Biden said he chose to pardon 39 people “who have shown successful rehabilitation” as well as a “commitment to making their communities stronger and safer”.

I am also commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 people who are serving long prison sentences – many of whom would receive lower sentences if charged under today’s laws, policies, and practices,” he said.

The commutations were for people who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House said.

Thursday’s announcement came less than two weeks after Biden pardoned his son Hunter for firearms and tax convictions after pledging that he wouldn’t do so.

Republicans seized on that decision, attacking the Democratic president for using his power to shield a family member from legal judgements. They accused Biden of enforcing a separate standard of justice for those with political connections.

The Biden administration rejected those allegations, saying Hunter Biden’s prosecution was political in nature.

The pardon spurred renewed calls for President Biden, who will leave office in January when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated, to pardon and commute the sentences of thousands of people who have submitted clemency petitions.

“Before you leave the White House, you must act on your words that ‘America is a nation founded on the promise of second chances’ by prioritizing an ambitious clemency initiative that pardons or commutes the sentences of the approximately 10,000 pending clemency petitions,” dozens of progressive groups wrote in an open letter to Biden last week.

They called on Biden to use his clemency powers “in a broad sweep of categories of people and cases”, including the elderly and chronically ill, people on death row and those first incarcerated as minors.

“We urge you to take immediate action so that you may leave a more meaningful legacy than the current numbers reflect,” the organisations said.

Those pardoned on Thursday had been convicted of nonviolent crimes such as drug offences and turned their lives around, the White House said.

They include a woman who led emergency response teams during natural disasters, a church deacon who has worked as an addiction counsellor and youth counsellor, a doctoral student in molecular biosciences and a decorated military veteran.

In Thursday’s statement, Biden said he would “take more steps in the weeks ahead” and continue to review clemency petitions.

The president had previously issued 122 commutations and 21 other pardons.

He has also broadly pardoned those convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia and pardoned former US service members convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Sunday that it had struck more than 75 targets, including ISIL (ISIS) leaders, operatives and camps, to ensure that the armed group does not take advantage of the end of al-Assad’s rule.

CENTCOM said it was carrying out damage assessments following the strikes, which involved warplanes including the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress and McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, but there were no indications of civilian casualties.

“There should be no doubt – we will not allow ISIS to reconstitute and take advantage of the current situation in Syria,” CENTCOM Commander General Michael Erik Kurilla said in a statement.

“All organizations in Syria should know that we will hold them accountable if they partner with or support ISIS in any way.”

The strikes came as outgoing US President Joe Biden described al-Assad’s fall as a “moment of risk” and “historic opportunity”.

In a televised address from the White House, Biden said that al-Assad’s fall at the hands of rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was a chance for Syria’s long-suffering people to “build a better future for their proud country”.

“It’s also a moment of risk and uncertainty. As we all turn to the question of what comes next, the United States will work with our partners and the stakeholders in Syria to help them seize an opportunity to manage the risk,” Biden said.

Seeking to claim partial credit for al-Assad’s downfall, Biden said his demise had been made possible by a decline in support for his government from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.

“For years, the main backers of Assad have been Iran, Hezbollah and Russia. But over the last week, their support collapsed – all three of them – because all three of them are far weaker today than they were when I took office,” Biden said.

The sudden end of 53 years of al-Assad family rule has cast a pall of uncertainty over the security situation in the Middle East, including the presence of an estimated 900 US troops in Syria.

US President-elect Donald Trump, who ordered the number of US troops in Syria to be reduced by half during his first term after being dissuaded against a complete withdrawal, on Saturday indicated that his administration would not get involved in any conflict in the country.

“Syria is a mess, but is not our friend,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, before switching to all uppercase letters for emphasis.

“THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!”

In his first public appearance since seizing Damascus, HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Julani, a former leader of the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, described al-Assad’s fall as an opportunity to turn Syria into a “beacon for the Islamic nation” and the beginning of a “new history” for the region.

“God will not fail you,” al-Julani said in a victory speech at the symbolic Umayyad Mosque in the Syrian capital.

“This victory is for all Syrians; they were all part of this victory.”

In unveiling the aid package on Saturday, Austin offered some pointed remarks aimed at the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump.

“The baton will soon be passed,” Austin said. “Others will decide the course ahead. And I hope that they will build on the strength that we have forged over the past four years.”

The package, valued at $988m, comes on the heels of a separate $725m in military assistance announced on December 2.

The latest announcement includes drones and munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARs) that the US has previously provided.

In total, the US has given $62bn in military aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

But the latest rush of funds and supplies to Ukraine arrives in the waning days of President Joe Biden’s administration. His term is set to end on January 20, when Trump takes office.

Under Trump, it is unclear whether the US will continue its support for Ukraine. Trump has threatened to pull funding from Ukraine’s fight and other military alliances, including NATO.

Speaking at a meeting of national security officials at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, Austin briefly addressed the uncertainty ahead.

“This administration has made its choice. So has a bipartisan coalition in Congress. The next administration must make its own choice,” Austin said.

He added that Reagan, a Republican icon, “would have stood on the side of Ukraine, American security and human freedom”.

The Biden administration has largely been using “presidential drawdown authority” to withdraw excess defence materials from US stockpiles and transfer them to Ukraine, without congressional approval.

Approximately $6bn remains in the president’s hands under his drawdown authority.

But Saturday’s $988m package comes instead from the $2.21bn remaining in the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which allows for the purchase of weapons and military supplies.The USAI is designed to supply Ukraine with longer-term weapons systems to bolster its military capabilities.

Trump, meanwhile, participated in a brief, closed-door meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Saturday.

Both were in Paris, France, to celebrate the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral.

When Trump campaigned for re-election earlier this year in Savannah, Georgia, Trump criticised Zelenskyy as the “greatest salesman on Earth” for extracting military aid from the US.

“Every time Zelenskyy comes to the United States, he walks away with $100bn,” Trump said, citing a made-up statistic.

He blamed Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his rival in the presidential race, for enmeshing the US in Ukrainian affairs.

“I will settle the war in Ukraine and end the chaos in the Middle East,” he added. “Biden and Kamala got us into this war in Ukraine, and now they can’t get us out.”

He added, “We’re stuck in that war unless I’m president.”

Trump has made clear he plans to pursue an “America First” policy during his second term.

That is in a bid to shield them from potential retribution after Trump – who has vowed to take revenge against those who have opposed him – takes office.

CBS reports that while Biden is said to have debated the possibility of issuing the pardons with senior White House aides, no specific names had been formally recommended to him.

Sources have told AFP that officials are also considering the message it would send to pardon people who have not committed crimes.

That is in the wake of the controversy surrounding Biden’s unconditional pardoning of his son Hunter, who was set to face sentencing this month on federal felony gun and tax convictions.

Republicans and some Democrats have criticised the move, which came after the president previously said he would not take such a step.

US media reports that those who could be in line for the potential pre-emptive pardons from Biden include Dr Anthony Fauci, who has been critical of Trump’s Covid response, and California’s Senator-elect Adam Schiff, who led the first impeachment effort against Trump.

Other Democrats who, like Schiff, had a role in the Trump impeachment cases, or who investigated the 2021 US Capitol riots, could also be granted them.

In an interview with NPR last month, Schiff said he did not think pre-emptive pardons were a good idea because he believed the courts were capable of withstanding threats from Donald Trump.

“I think this is frankly so implausible as not to be worthy of much consideration,” he said of the reports that such pardons were being considered.

“I would urge the president not to do that. I think it would seem defensive and unnecessary.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier this week that more pardons could be expected from President Biden before the end of his term in January but did not give further details.

“He’s thinking through that process very thoroughly.”

Among those who could be given the more traditional presidential pardons for crimes committed are nonviolent drug offenders or others who’ve served time for various offensives, CBS reports.

Donald Trump is not the only person to threaten retribution against those perceived to have opposed him in the past. His nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, has said he would go after politicians and members of the media who he alleges without evidence helped overturn the 2020 US presidential election results.

“We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly,” Patel said.

“We’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice… We’re actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.

“Democratic Congressman Brendan Boyle said in response that he thought Biden should issue blanket pardons to those targeted on what he called Donald Trump’s “enemies list”.

“By choosing Kash Patel as his FBI Director, Trump has made it clear that he is more focused on settling personal scores than on protecting the American people or upholding the rule of law,” said Boyle.

Discussions at the presidential palace in the capital, Luanda, will be on security and trade.

The US government is backing a new 1,300km (810-mile) railway project linking an Angolan port with mining areas in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia.

The visit to oil-rich Angola is part of a US effort to focus more on trade and investment in Africa, in what some analysts see as a counter to China’s influence on the continent.

In his first and only trip to Africa during his presidency, Biden’s choice of Angola is significant and it signals a dramatic improvement in relations between the two nations.

Welcoming the US president to the country, Lourenço described the visit as a turning point in US-Angola relations.

“I’m deeply proud of everything we have done together to transform our partnership thus far,” Biden said in response.

Angola was firmly in the political orbit of China and Russia after independence from Portuguese colonial rule in 1975, but since taking power in 2017, Lourenço has steered it towards closer relations with the US.

Later on Tuesday Biden is due to visit a slavery museum. More than four million slaves were forcibly sent from this region of Africa to the Americas.

“Together, the United States and Angola acknowledge the past horrors of slavery and its legacy, while looking forward to a bright future of continually deepening collaboration between our nations,” the White House said in a statement on Monday.

The press secretary said Biden had pardoned his son, who was facing sentencing later this month in two federal cases, to shield him from potential persecution by the outgoing president’s political foes.

The sweeping pardon covers any potential federal crimes that 54-year-old Hunter may have committed over the course of a decade.

Republicans have lambasted the move, with President-elect Donald Trump calling it “an abuse and miscarriage of justice”.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday that Biden had “wrestled” over the decision during the family’s Thanksgiving break on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, at the weekend.

The Democratic president issued the pardon on Sunday evening before heading off on an official trip to Africa.

Ms Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One en route to Angola: “He believes in the justice system, but he also believes that the raw politics infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice.”

Ms Jean-Pierre said Biden believed Hunter was “singled out” because of who he is and that “they [the president’s opponents] would continue to go after his son”.

“This is why the president took this action,” she added. As recently as last month, Ms Jean-Pierre was still telling reporters that Biden would not pardon his son.

In June, Hunter Biden became the first child of a sitting US president to be criminally convicted after a jury in Delaware found him guilty of three charges for lying about his drug use on a form when buying a handgun.

In September, he also pleaded guilty to federal tax charges that included failure to file and pay his taxes, tax evasion and filing a false return.

The pardon – which covers any potential federal crimes that he may have committed between January 2014 and December 2024 – spans a period beyond the tax and gun offences.

It dates back to the year in which he became a board member at Ukrainian energy company Burisma – a time when his father, then US vice-president, had a key role in American policy towards Kyiv.

A congressional inquiry this summer accused Biden of lying when he disavowed any involvement in his son’s business dealings, though the impeachment effort by Republican lawmakers fizzled. Biden denied wrongdoing.

The special counsel overseeing both cases, David Weiss, has flatly rejected claims that the younger Biden was singled out because of his family background.

“There was none and never has been any evidence of vindictive or selective prosecution in this case,” Mr Weiss’ team wrote in a court filing on Monday.

US First Lady Jill Biden said on Monday from the White House: “Of course I support the pardon of my son.

”The president’s decision sparked furious reaction from Trump and other top Republicans, who have long accused the Biden administration of “weaponising” the justice department against their enemies.

House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said that “trust in our justice system has almost been irreparably damaged by the Bidens and abuse of it”.

House oversight committee chairman James Comer said Biden had “lied from start to finish about his family’s corrupt influence peddling activities”.

Criticism from Democrats – who have regularly accused Trump of disregarding the rule of law – was more muted.

“President Biden’s decision put personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all,” Colorado Senator Michael Bennet posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Congressman Greg Stanton, an Arizona Democrat, rejected Biden’s claim that the case was unfair.

“This wasn’t a politically motivated prosecution,” he said. “Hunter committed felonies and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”

Others defended the president.Among them was Texas Democrat – and former defence lawyer – Jasmine Crockett said that she believes that “we would be hard pressed” to find prosecutions similar to the younger Biden’s across the US.

“Let me be clear – this is a father and a president who did not only what was right by his son, but also did right to basically correct what I would consider a wrong,” she said.

Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor said that he believed Biden had misled the American people.

“President Biden was disingenuous this entire time when he said that he would not pardon his son,” Mr Rahmani said.

“A pardon was the plan from the beginning, but President Biden misled the American people because he, then Kamala Harris, were in the middle of an election.

“When he takes office in January, Trump will not be able to rescind his predecessor’s pardon, said Mr Rahmani.

The president’s power to pardon people is “absolute”, he said.

“There is nothing Donald Trump or the Republicans can do to stop it,” Mr Rahmani added.