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President Joe Biden has blamed his poor debate performance last week on jet lag, telling reporters that he "wasn't very smart" for "travelling around the world a couple of times" before the debate. "I didn’t listen to my staff... and then I nearly fell asleep on stage,” he said. Mr Biden, 81, last returned from travel on 15 June, nearly two weeks ahead of the 27 June debate. Mr Biden's remarks come amid intra-party panic ahead of November's election over his mental fitness,

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that the U.S. will soon announce an additional $2.3 billion in security assistance for Ukraine, to include anti-tank weapons, interceptors and munitions for Patriot and other air defense systems. Austin’s remarks came as Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov met with him at the Pentagon. And they mark a strong response to pleas from Kyiv for help in battling Russian forces in the Donetsk region. Austin said the aid will come through presidential drawdown authority, which allows the Pentagon to take the weapons from its stocks and send them more quickly to Ukraine.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was in Kyiv on Tuesday for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, his first visit to the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Orbán’s press chief confirmed to Hungarian news agency MTI that the prime minister had arrived in the Ukrainian capital in the morning for the talks. Bertalan Havasi said the main topic of the meeting will be the opportunity for building peace as Ukraine fights off Russia’s invasion. Orbán's visit was a rare gesture in a relationship that long been marred by tensions. Known as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest EU...

Ukraine’s security service said on Monday that it had foiled yet another Russian plot to stir public unrest and then use the ensuing turmoil to topple the government, outlining a familiar tactic that Kyiv claims has been employed in string of coup attempts in recent years. The Ukrainian domestic intelligence agency, the S.B.U., said that it had discovered a “group” of conspirators it accused of planning to spark a riot, seize the Parliament building and replace the nation’s military and civilian leadership. Four people have been arrested and charged, according to the authorities. While offering little detail on how such...

Several U.S. military bases across Europe are now operating under a heightened state of alert, ABC News has confirmed. The alert level of Force Protection Condition (FPCON) "Charlie" was put in place over the weekend, according to two U.S. officials. According to the U.S. Army, Charlie is the second highest state of alert that "applies when an incident occurs or intelligence is received indicating some form of terrorist action or targeting against personnel or facilities is likely." In a statement provided to reporters, U.S. European Command said it's "constantly assessing a variety of factors" on security and safety.

WHCA respectfully requests that CNN grant access to the WH print pool reporter for the duration of the debate. Access matters. Independent observation matters. Precedent matters.

Seeking to capitalize on the voters' response to the primary defeat of Congressman Jamaal Bowman, Republicans across the country launched efforts to raise money to send Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to dance at campaign rallies for all Democratic candidates. Following Bowman's loss, exit polling data indicated voters broke toward his opponent in a stunning indictment of Ocasio-Cortez's dance moves at a campaign event in the Bronx last week, leading to a GOP initiative to replicate the event nationwide. "Having her dance at every Democrat rally could be huge for us," said one Republican insider. "Once the public sees her jumping around...

China’s support for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine through the provision of technology for missiles and other weaponry is a “major mistake,” U.S. Ambassador to Beijing Nicholas Burns said Wednesday. He said that despite its claims of neutrality, China has sided with Russia, providing a range of technologies. “We think it’s a major mistake to allow Chinese companies, by the thousands, to be sending so many components, technology components, microprocessors (and) nitrocellulose to Russia to reinforce and strengthen the defense industrial base of the Russian Federation for this brutal war,” Burns said.

NATO appointed Mark Rutte as its next secretary-general on Wednesday, putting the outgoing Dutch prime minister in charge of the world’s biggest security organization at a critical time for European security as war rages in Ukraine. Rutte’s appointment was sealed by NATO ambassadors during a meeting at the 32-nation alliance’s headquarters in Brussels. U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterparts will formally welcome him to their table at a summit in Washington on July 9-11. The outgoing Dutch premier will take over from the current secretary general, Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg, on Oct. 1.

The Pentagon's second-highest-ranking official outlined a commitment to policies focused on "nonbinary service members" and mandating critical race theory training, claiming those points were keys to national security. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleene Hicks discussed the need to create a cultural change in the military at multiple Pride events, including most recently on June 5. During a DoD Pride event for the Association of LGBTQI+ Service Members in June, Hicks discussed the Pentagon's LGBTQ priorities vis-à-vis military "readiness," a term which refers to the ability to deter potential adversaries, defend national interests and ensure that armed forces can meet their...

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine removed one of his top generals from his post on Monday amid public criticism that the commander’s decisions had led to excessive casualties. The dismissal of the general, Yurii Sodol, as commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces, was a clear indication that the discord that had rankled the army since Mr. Zelensky replaced his commanding general, Valery Zaluzhny, with Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky in February, continued to threaten military cohesion. Mr. Zelensky announced that he was replacing General Sodol with Brig. Gen. Andrii Hnatov. General Sodol was appointed by General Syrsky as part...

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the American ambassador on Monday to protest what it says was the use of U.S.-made advanced missiles in a Ukrainian attack on Russian-annexed Crimea that reportedly killed four people and wounded more than 150. Washington “has effectively become a party” to the war on Ukraine’s side, the ministry said in a statement, adding, “Retaliatory measures will certainly follow.” It did not elaborate. Kyiv’s forces have relied heavily on Western-supplied weaponry since Russia’s invasion more than three years ago.

It seemed like a seismic shift in America’s handling of Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion: National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan announced the Biden administration was relaxing its restrictions on Kyiv’s use of weapons on Kremlin territory. But critics say the change didn’t go nearly far enough — and rather than the US boldly confronting Vladimir Putin, this week’s declaration is another example of the Biden White House restraining Ukraine for fear of “escalating tensions.” Sullivan said that Kyiv may now strike “anywhere that Russian forces are coming across the border from the Russian side to the Ukrainian side to try...

Russia sees a pressing need for security talks with the United States but they must be "comprehensive" and include the subject of Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Friday. "It is impossible to rip out any individual segments from the general complex of accumulated problems, and we will not do this," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked if Moscow was ready to talk to Washington about nuclear risks. "So we are open to dialogue, but to a broad comprehensive dialogue that covers all dimensions, including the current dimension related to the conflict around Ukraine, related to the direct involvement of...

Major weapons exporter South Korea will "reconsider" a longstanding policy that bars it from supplying arms directly to Ukraine, a presidential official said Thursday, after North Korea and Russia signed a defense deal. Russia's President Vladimir Putin was in Pyongyang Wednesday for a high-profile state visit that underscored his growing ties with leader Kim Jong Un, as the two signed a "breakthrough" agreement that included a pledge to come to each other's aid if attacked. Hours later, Seoul said it was "planning to reconsider the issue of providing weapons support to Ukraine," a presidential official told reporters. Seoul has a...

The White House has pushed back against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claims that the US is "withholding" weapons and ammunition from Israel, hours after he lashed out at the Biden administration. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed an ongoing pause remained on one particular shipment of bombs, echoing comments from Secretary of State Antony Blinken hours beforehand, but she insisted no other weapons were being withheld. "We genuinely do not know what he's talking about," Ms Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.

Some 9,000 troops from 20 NATO countries have been participating this month in military exercises in the Baltic Sea region, which has become strategically sensitive following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Sweden, which had joined the drills in the past, took part in the Baltops exercises for the first time in June as a full NATO member after joining the trans-Atlantic military alliance earlier this year. The weeks of training include sea mine sweeps, submarine detection and landings. The exercises by navy, air force and ground troops are being held on the Baltic Sea, as well as in Sweden and its...

The head of Nato has told the BBC that China should face consequences for supporting Russia's war in Ukraine, if it does not change its ways. Jens Stoltenberg said Beijing was "trying to get it both ways" by supporting Russia's war effort, while also trying to maintain relationships with European allies. "This cannot work in the long run," Mr Stoltenberg told BBC News during a visit to Washington. ... When pressed on what Nato members might do about China's support of Russia, Mr Stoltenberg said there was an "ongoing conversation" about possible sanctions.

Russia and Ukraine are set to remain locked in battle for the foreseeable future after an international gathering billed as a first step toward peace delivered no eye-catching diplomatic breakthrough that might suggest a coming end to Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II. The absence of Russia and China from the two-day conference in Switzerland on the weekend and the decision by some key countries — including India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Mexico — not to sign the meeting’s final document Sunday meant that the gathering had little to show beyond some goodwill and pledges to keep working...

The U.S. Navy prepared for decades to potentially fight the Soviet Union, then later Russia and China, on the world's waterways. But instead of a global power, the Navy finds itself locked in combat with a shadowy, Iran-backed rebel group based in Yemen. The U.S.-led campaign against the Houthi rebels, overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, has turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II, its leaders and experts told The Associated Press. The combat pits the Navy's mission to keep international waterways open against a group whose former...