The FLOTUS is to undergo a “common medical procedure,” the White House says, adding that President Biden will accompany his wife to the medical center. No details have been released about the nature of the procedure.

There are no previous reports about any health issues suffered by 69-year-old Jill Biden. The first lady reportedly took up running in her late 40s and has competed in several Broad Street races and the Philadelphia Half Marathon

Republican House Minority Whip Steve Scalise took a potshot at Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, putting her face on a milk carton accompanied with the message “Missing at the Border” in a throwback to 80s-style ads once used to publicize cases of missing children.

Scalise is the latest Republican to attack Harris. On Tuesday, Chad Wolf, former acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under Donald Trump, suggested that Harris needs to actually go to the border to “understand the conditions that are being experienced, needs to understand and talk to the men and women of the Border Patrol”

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, a Republican, took to Twitter on Wednesday to informally proclaim her state will not be accepting so-called "illegal immigrants that the Biden Administration wants to relocate."

"My message to illegal immigrants... call me when you're an American ", she tweeted

Sen. Lindsey Graham has warned that President Joe Biden’s commitment to fully withdraw American forces from Afghanistan by 11 September is "paving the way" for another 9/11.

"With all due respect to President Biden, you have not ended the war, you've extended it. You have made it bigger, not smaller," said the senior United States Senator from South Carolina during a Capitol Hill press conference.

#URGENT | US Secretary of State Blinken arrives in Kabul

The surprise visit comes less than 24 hours after President Joe Biden's announcement that the United States would be withdrawing its troops from the war-torn country by the upcoming 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

🇷🇺 The United States has been coordinating new anti-Russian measures with its European allies and expects to put them into force as soon as Thursday, one source has told CNN

🔎 The Federal Bureau of Investigation is starting several new China-related investigations every day, agency director Christopher Wray has announced.

“We’re opening a new investigation into China every 10 hours, and I can assure the committee that it’s not because our folks don’t have anything to do with their time,” Wray said, speaking to members of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday during its annual ‘worldwide threats’ hearing.

“We now have over 2,000 investigations that tie back to the Chinese government,” Wray added, noting that the bureau has seen a 1,300 percent jump in cases of China-tied economic espionage cases in recent years.

🚨 #BREAKING | US Slaps New Sanctions on Russia, expels diplomats

#UPDATE | US Treasury to prohibit domestic institutions from buying Russian bonds issued after June 14

🚨 #UPDATE | Biden's executive order allows sanctions on Russian sovereign debt to be expanded

🚨 #BREAKING | Russian Foreign Ministry summons US ambassador John J. Sullivan

According to Politico, the Pentagon’s top brass pushed to keep a small US presence on the ground ahead of President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw its 2,500 troops from Afghanistan from 1 May.

Military chiefs argued that a limited number of special operations forces and paramilitary advisers was needed to keep the Taliban and other terrorist groups in check, writes the outlet.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in response to questions about whether the military supported the withdrawal, said the decision-making had been “inclusive.”

Col. Dave Butler, a spokesperson for Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said “senior officers were afforded ample opportunity to give advice… closely considered as part of a rigorous national security decision-making process”

However, two anonymous former officials are cited by Politico as saying Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan are really “running the Pentagon.”

After the publication of the report in Politico, Emily Horne, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, sent a statement to the outlet, denouncing the storyline as “completely inaccurate and poorly-informed” coming from former officials who were not even part of the policy process the Biden administration ran on Afghanistan

Lately POTUS has announced a spate of executive orders and requests for legislative action to address what he described as “the epidemic” of gun violence in the US.

President Biden has claimed that his administration’s steps related to gun control in the US do not run counter to the Second Amendment, which stipulates that the right of the American people to keep and bear arms will not be infringed.

Are the Biden administration's proposals to an infringement on the Constitution and civil rights? We’ve discussed this with Texas GOP Chairman and NRA board member Allen West

A wave of protests flooded America again after police officer Kim Potter shot and killed a 20-year-old African American.

Demonstrations that escalated into riots forced barricades to be erected outside the Brooklyn Center Minnesota Police Department

Derek Chauvin, the former US police officer currently on trial on murder charges following the killing of George Floyd last May, has announced that he will not testify in his defence, ABC News reports.

According to the media outlet, Chauvin has decided against taking the stand after an "open on-the-record discussion in court" with his defence attorney Eric Nelson, who emphasised it is Chauvin’s "decision alone"

👨‍⚖️ There are "no plans" to bring legislation to the floor of the House of Representatives to expand the US Supreme Court, Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a press conference on Thursday.

"It's not out of the question: It has been done before. ... I don't know if that's a good idea or a bad idea," Pelosi said. "It's a big step: The growth of our country might necessitate such a thing. But I've no plans to bring it to the floor: No."

Instead, Pelosi said she favored President Joe Biden's announced intention to create a Presidential Commission to study the functioning of the Supreme Court and advise and recommend whether any expansion or other changes should be made

#BREAKING | Biden says US could have gone further on anti-Russia sanctions, chose to be proportionate

US President Joe Biden made an address on the anti-Russian sanctions. Here are the main takeaways from the speech:

▪️ Biden is ready to respond to Russia's "inappropriate 'actions' proportionally".

▪️ If Russia continues to interfere with the democracy of the US, the president will be ready to take further measures in response.

▪️ Biden said that he proposed to hold a summit in Europe between him and Putin, and that aides of the two countries are discussing plans.

▪️ Biden noted that the United States does not seek to start a cycle of escalation and conflict with Russia. He wants "a stable, predictable relationship".

▪️ The president mentioned the Nord Stream pipeline, but did not go into detail about the issue.

▪️ The sanctions against Russia were made on the basis of allegations of interference in the US elections and Crimea's reunification with Russia.