Biden's cancer diagnosis prompts new questions about his health while in office

Biden's cancer diagnosis prompts new questions about his health while in office

By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former President Joe Biden's cancer announcement revived questions on Monday about the extent of his health issues during his tenure, with Vice President JD Vance saying Biden should have been more transparent with the public. "Why didn't the American people have a better sense of his health picture? Why didn't the American people have more accurate information about what he was actually dealing with? This is serious stuff," Vance told reporters as he wrapped up a trip to Rome. He wished Biden "the right recovery." The remarks by Vance, a Republican, captured the renewed focus on the health of the 82-year-old Democratic former president with the publication of a book that details widespread concerns about Biden's mental acuity among aides and Democratic insiders as he pursued reelection in 2024. Excerpts from the book have prompted new questions about whether critical information was withheld from the American public about Biden's ability to serve in the White House. Biden's closest aides have dismissed those concerns, saying Biden was fully capable of making important decisions. A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately return a Reuters request for comment. Biden has appeared on television to rebut accusations that his mental capacity had diminished during his 2021-2025 term. "There's nothing to sustain that," he said on ABC's 'The View' on May 8. Biden, the oldest person ever to serve as president, was forced to drop his reelection bid last July after a stumbling debate performance against Republican rival Donald Trump eroded his support among fellow Democrats. Biden's vice president, Kamala Harris, launched a bid of her own but lost to Trump in the November 2024 election. DOCTORS SURPRISED Biden's office said he had been diagnosed on Friday with prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. Several doctors told Reuters that cancers like this are typically diagnosed before they reach such an advanced stage. "I would assume the former president gets a very thorough physical every year," said Dr. Chris George, medical director of the cancer program at Northwestern Health Network. "It's sort of hard for me to believe that he's had a (blood test) within the past year that was normal." Dr. Herbert Lepor, a urologist at NYU Langone Health, said that given the available screening options, "it is a bit unusual in the modern era to detect cancers at this late stage." Some 70% of prostate cancer cases were diagnosed before they spread to other organs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. guidelines do not recommend annual blood screening for men over 70 and it is unclear whether the annual presidential exam would have included those tests. The new book, "Original Sin," by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson put a spotlight on Biden's mental acuity in his final months in office. "It was a mistake for Democrats to not listen to the voters earlier," U.S. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, said on NBC on Sunday. Biden faced no serious challenge for the 2024 Democratic nomination, and party leaders repeatedly vouched for his ability to serve a second four-year term even though 74% of Americans in January 2024 thought he was too old for the job, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. Biden's cancer diagnosis drew an outpouring of sympathy from supporters and rivals alike, including Trump. Biden thanked the public on behalf of his wife and himself for their support in a social media post released early on Monday. "Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support," he said. (Reporting by Andy Sullivan, additional reporting by Kristina Cooke, Nancy Lapid and Steve Holland; Editing by Ross Colvin and Howard Goller)

byDaniel Coleman

in

May 19, 2025

Biden's cancer diagnosis prompts new questions about his health while in office

Biden's cancer diagnosis prompts new questions about his health while in office By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former President ...

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Crunch time in the House as Speaker Johnson aims to deliver on bill to advance Trump's agenda

Crunch time in the House as Speaker Johnson aims to deliver on bill to advance Trump's agenda

It's crunch time in the House, where the next 48 hours will test Speaker Mike Johnson's leadership like never before as he scrambles to secure the needed votes to pass a megabill aimed at advancing President Donald Trump's legislative agenda. AfterSunday night's successful voteto send the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" to the House Rules Committee, there are now two full intervening days for Johnson to put the final touches on the reconciliation bill and rally Republican support. And the pressure is on. Johnson doesn't have the votes at this time, given public concerns from conservatives and moderates alike. He can only lose three Republican members, so changes to the bill text are a certainty. MORE: Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' passes House Budget Committee vote Johnson's effort to unify the conference behind the bill is a major test of his speakership, and his ability to deliver for Trump, who is also encouraging Republicans to support it. Johnson worked over the weekend to sway Republican holdouts on the House Rules Committee to prevent blocking the legislation from moving out of the committeeas they had on Friday. The hard-liners voted present on Sunday night to allow the bill to advance, but still haven't offered full-throated support for the bill. Trump is willing to get involved to help the effort, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday morning. She said the president was in contact with Johnson over the weekend and that Trump is "willing to pick up the phone" to encourage Republicans to fall in line on the bill. Now, the Rules Committee is preparing for its hearing at 1 a.m. Wednesday morning -- and that meeting will set the parameters for floor debate. Meanwhile, negotiations inside the speaker's office will reach a fever pitch Monday and Tuesday as Republicans grapple over the sticking points -- primarily regarding Medicaid work requirements and a cap on state and local tax deductions. "Nothing is final until it's final," a senior House Republican leadership aide told reporters at a briefing Monday morning. "It's a fragile process." Why meet at 1 a.m. on Wednesday? House Rules Chair Virginia Foxx let out a gentle laugh as she walked through the Capitol early Monday morning -- telling ABC News the timing must adhere to the House rules after the House Budget Committee voted late Sunday night to advance the bill. So what is the rule? "Under the rules, Budget Dems get two calendar days to file minority views after [Sunday] night's markup," a Democratic aide explained. "Rules then has a one-hour notice requirement, hence [the hearing] starting at 1 a.m." If the Rules Committee reports the reconciliation package favorably to the floor, that would keep Johnson's plans on schedule to hold a vote on passage on Thursday -- though he has threatened to hold the House in session this weekend if there are any hiccups along the way. Johnson is setting his sights on sending the package to Trump for his signature by the Fourth of July given a mid-July "deadline" to address the debt limit to avoid a default. As negotiations continue behind closed doors, Republican aides stress that "95% of the bill is done" while they scramble to lock down support. A round of changes are anticipated to address technical modifications at the urging of the Senate parliamentarian, who is scrubbing the bill text and signaled some legislative language may be fatal to reconciliation privileges in the Senate. "Everything is on the table," a senior GOP aide said, stressing the fluidity of the overall discussions. House Republicans are still weighing potential changes to implementation dates for Medicaid work requirements, balancing what is "feasible" for states to implement against the angst of Republicans whose patience does not extend to 2029, beyond the Trump presidency, as it's currently written in the bill. MORE: Republican hard-liners defy Trump, Johnson as megabill fails to advance "We want to make sure that what we're intending to do is actually matching an ability to implement," a senior Republican aide said. "And so an exact date is hard to say at this stage because I think we're still working through that." On SALT, aides said a resolution is "not decided yet" -- explaining that members are just returning to town after a three-day weekend and the speaker continues to work through it. Republicans insist they're going to hit at least $1.5 trillion of savings with the bill while also reflecting Trump's agenda -- pointing at Congressional Budget Office's letter confirming that all 11 committees met their reconciliation instruction targets. "This has been a year's worth of work to kind of figure out what are the priorities you want to instill. We started this a long time ago and worked towards it," an aide emphasized. "We'll work through all the changes that we need to make here, and then we'll see where the final exact numbers shake out. But the bottom line is we had a framework set in the budget and we're going to get that." Crunch time in the House as Speaker Johnson aims to deliver on bill to advance Trump's agendaoriginally appeared onabcnews.go.com

byDaniel Coleman

in

May 19, 2025

Crunch time in the House as Speaker Johnson aims to deliver on bill to advance Trump's agenda

Crunch time in the House as Speaker Johnson aims to deliver on bill to advance Trump's agenda It's crunch time in the House, where t...

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$25 Butter and $40 Eggs: The Search for Food in Gaza

$25 Butter and $40 Eggs: The Search for Food in Gaza

Vegetables for sale at a market in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, April 23, 2025. Israel blocked food and fuel deliveries in March, and aid agencies say they are running out of supplies. Credit - Saher Alghorra—The New York Times/Redux When Reham Alkahlout, a mother of four, scours the markets in Al-Nasr, Gaza, she is gripped by a gnawing anxiety spurred by rows of scarce stalls, the acrid scent of burnt wood and plastic, and a scattering of overpriced essentials—if any are available at all. Once vibrant with produce and daily bustle, markets have been hollowed out by months of siege, bombardment, and economic collapse. Since Israeli forces resumed offensive operations on March 18, the price of flour has climbed by 5,000 percent, residents say, and cooking oil by 1,200 percent. "No one can afford to buy," says Alkahlout, 33, a psychological counselor working at a school housing the displaced. "Sometimes we are forced to purchase small amounts just to feed our children."Famine, which has loomed over the enclave for much of the 19-month war, is now imminent, according to international aid groups. The groups, led by the U.N., base their assessment on a complex formula known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. The most recentreport, released May 12, found the whole of Gaza qualified as an "Emergency," or at critical risk of famine. Some 470,000 residents (22 percent) had reached "Catastrophe," defined as "starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels."Food prices tell the same story of scarcity. Residents of Gaza's north say a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rice that cost $3 in February is now $10. A cucumber costs 7 times more. Baby formula has quadrupled and the price of a can of peas is up 1,000 percent. Some items, like fruit and chicken, simply cannot be obtained. Israel controls what enters the Strip, and imposed a total blockade on aid on March 2 with the collapse of a two-month ceasefire.The New York Timesreportedon May 13 that specialists in the Israeli military share the assessment of aid groups that starvation has become an immediate danger." The first symptom of hunger is pain," says Dr. John Kahler, who worked in Gaza last year as co-founder of MedGlobal, a Chicago-based NGO that provides emergency response and health programs to vulnerable communities. "And that pain doesn't go away. It isn't like it gets better or you forget it." Civilians interviewed by TIME from Gaza described an increasingly desperate search for basic necessities. Alwaheidi, who resides in Sheikh Redwan near Gaza City, fears the possibility that, any day now, she may be unable to provide for her children. Nineteen months of war, triggered by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks that killed approximately 1,200 people inside Israel and took some 250 captive, has resulted in over 50,000 Palestiniandeathsand the destruction of much of Gaza—including the systems that fed residents during previous wars. Community kitchens in Gaza, once a critical safety net for thousands of families, have been decimated. The communal spaces offer a hub for volunteers to prepare and distribute free meals, but only a fraction remainoperational, leaving massive gaps in emergency food provision. With cooking gas prices increasing by 2,400% and flour by over 5,600%, according to residents, the facilities can no longer prepare food at scale. "The whole concept of community kitchens that we started during the war is almost entirely going to shut down because there are no supplies anymore," says Juliette Touma, director of communications for UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). "The prices of everything have increased massively." World Central Kitchen (WCK), a nonprofit that provides meals to communities impacted by disasters and humanitarian crises, on May 7announcedit was forced to halt cooking in Gaza. "The borders need to open for World Central Kitchen to be able to feed people in need," said WCK Gaza response director Wadhah Hubaishi. "If given full access to our infrastructure, partnerships, and incoming supplies, we are capable of providing hungry families in Gaza with 500,000 meals a day." Thousands of aid truckswaitat the Gaza border, blocked by Israel, which maintains that Hamas—governing the enclave since its 2007 election win—is diverting much of the aid. "During the war, Israel allowed humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza, and facilitated it,"saidIsraeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar in a statement. "But Hamas stole that aid from the people and earned its money from it." Residents say they fear looting, which tends to worsen with shortages. "About a week ago, vegetable shops in the Al-Nasr, Al-Shati, and Sheikh Radwan areas were robbed," says Reham Alkahlout, a mother and resident of Al-Nasr, also in Gaza's north. "How can a family breadwinner meet the family's needs when there is no monthly income? Some people resort to theft," she says. The Associated Pressreportedthat both armed groups and civilians have participated in looting aid warehouses and shops in northern Gaza. Hamas has acknowledged executing individuals accused of looting and announced a 5,000-member force to combat armed criminals. UNRWA's main complex in Gaza has beentargetedby looters, as have markets and community kitchens. "We've seen individual looters. We've also seen organized crime, and we've lost quite a lot of aid that was taken by the looters," says Touma, the spokesperson. "At the same time, when the ceasefire started and we started seeing more aid coming in, the looting decreased significantly." The impact of Gaza's food shortages falls with particular severity on pregnant women and children. Since the aid blockade began in March, 57 children have reportedlydiedfrom the effects of malnutrition, according to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Health Ministry. A malnourished mother struggles toproducenutritious breast milk. Their diets are extremely limited, consisting mainly of whatever sparse rations they can obtain, often lacking the "very, very specific protein and micronutrients and vitamins for their children to thrive," says Kahler of MedGlobal, which has two nutrition centers still open, supplying caloric dense food to infants to mothers. "Most of these surviving women and children haven't had a real night's sleep in over 18 months. The accumulated effects of sleep deprivation on decision making and metabolic disease are enormous."The same reality confronts every family. "We go to sleep every day fearing that we will lose a member of our family," says Alwaheidi. "And we do not know how long we will be able to provide food for our children." Contact usatletters@time.com.

byDaniel Coleman

in

May 19, 2025

$25 Butter and $40 Eggs: The Search for Food in Gaza

$25 Butter and $40 Eggs: The Search for Food in Gaza Vegetables for sale at a market in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, April 23, 2025. Israe...

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North Carolina governor urges state lawmakers to include more Helene aid in upcoming budget

North Carolina governor urges state lawmakers to include more Helene aid in upcoming budget

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein urged state lawmakers Monday to allocate hundreds of millions more dollars toward western North Carolina's ongoing recovery fromHurricane Heleneinstead of waiting on "uncertain federal assistance." The money requested — $891 million — would go toward critical needs inHelene's aftermath,such as revitalizing local economies, repairing town infrastructure and providing housing assistance, Stein said during a news conference in still-recovering western North Carolina. Stein released the Helene proposal as the GOP-led North Carolina General Assembly prepares to finalize its state budget this summer. More than 100 people died as Helene tore through western North Carolina in September, destroyinghomes,businessesandroadways. The storm's record-breaking devastation totaled $59.6 billion in damages and recovery needs. Recovery has been slow in parts of the region as some hard-hit mountain towns still appear ravaged by the storm nearly eight months later. Navigating Helene recovery is one of the chief issues Stein has been tasked with handling upon his first few months in office.Some of the first actionshis administration took focused on rehabilitating the western part of the state, as well as establishing the Governor's Recovery Office for Western North Carolina. "This recovery is going to take a long time," Stein said Monday. "My administration, though, is in this for the long haul. I know that the legislature is as well." In March, state lawmakers passedanother Helene relief bill for $524 million— significantly less than the$1.07 billionStein had requested the month before. That package added to more than $1.1 billion in Helene recovery activitiesappropriated or made available by the General Assemblythe year prior, according to Stein's office. Last month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved a $1.4 billion grant that would facilitate western North Carolina's long-term recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency — the federal organization responsible for addressing some of the immediate needs in Helene's aftermath — has also provided more than $700 million to state and local governments, as well as directly to North Carolinians. Talks over FEMA's effectiveness have ushered western North Carolina's recovery process into the national spotlight asPresident Donald Trumphas suggested the agency'sdissolution. As a candidate, Trump continually disparaged the agency's work in the region, which garnered support fromthose frustrated with a sometimes slow and complicated recovery process. Just last week, the agency's acting chief David Richardson announcedplans to shift disaster recovery responsibilities to statesfor the upcoming hurricane season. Stein has called on the federal government to reform the agency but not to get rid of it, which he reiterated during his budget proposal announcement Monday. More than a quarter of Stein's proposal would go toward restoring local economies and their tourism industries. Another quarter would fund infrastructure repairs, debris cleanup and resiliency projects to better protect the region from future storms. Other allocations include addressing recovery needs such as housing assistance, fixingwaterwaysandfarmlands, and food insecurity. The state Senate has already approvedits budget proposaland now awaits the House to release its plan this week. Then, state lawmakers can decide whether to incorporate some of Stein's requests on Helene aid as the two chambers work out differences, with the goal of having a final budget enacted by July 1.

byDaniel Coleman

in

May 19, 2025

North Carolina governor urges state lawmakers to include more Helene aid in upcoming budget

North Carolina governor urges state lawmakers to include more Helene aid in upcoming budget RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Josh St...

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Texas Could Blow Its Shot at Leading the AI Revolution

Texas Could Blow Its Shot at Leading the AI Revolution

Texas is built for growth: It's got land, talent, and a deep-seated cultural bias toward building over banning. For this reason, companies like Tesla, Meta, and Nvidia arepouring billions into the state. The state was perfectly positioned to lead America's artificial intelligence (AI) revolution—until lawmakers nearly sent these companiesfleeingto other states. The original text of Texas House Bill 149—theTexas Responsible AI Governance Act (TRAIGA)—was a blueprint for how to kill innovation. Modeled after Europe's AI Act and former President Joe Biden's now-defunctAI Bill of Rights, it proposed audits, sweeping risk classifications, and vague compliance mandates that would've buried startups while big incumbents would not have been significantly hindered. It was regulation based on fear, not facts. But to their credit, Texas lawmakers course-corrected. On March 14, Rep. Giovanni Capriglione (R–Keller)introduced a revised versionof TRAIGA that ditched the open-ended audits, the broad "high-risk AI" definitions, and the compliance hurdles that would've applied equally to spam filters and autonomous vehicles. The new version reflected a growing realization: You can protect consumers without kneecapping innovators.The bill haspassed the Houseand is heading to the Senate—though so far has been left pending in committee.Even the substitute bill isn't perfect. H.B. 149 would create a new state AI council, impose heavy reporting mandates, andopen the door to mission creepwithout a clear limiting principle. It comes with a price tag north of $25 million and carves out roles for 20 new full-time state employees. Not exactly the small-government energy Texas wants to be known for. The Texas Senate has the chance to finish what the House started by tightening the bill's scope and guarding against bureaucratic bloat. Texas can lead in AI by scaling back bureaucracy, not building a regulatory empire. Simple fixes could get this bill across the finish line: sunset the AI Council by 2030 unless renewed by the Texas legislature, cap the budget, exempt open-source and small businesses from enforcement overreach, and tie enforcement to actual consumer harm rather than theoretical risks. Virginia already nailed this. Just 10 days after the revised Texas bill was introduced, RepublicanGov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed H.B. 2094, a similarly heavy-handed AI bill. His message was clear—the legislation would stifle job creation, repel business investment, and punish smaller firms that don't have legal departments on speed dial. It would've cost the state's AI ecosystem nearly $30 million in compliance overhead. Even California got the memo. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoedS.B. 1047, which would have imposed strict liability, mandatory "kill switches," and speculative rules targeting general-purpose AI. Newsomwarned against taking a "California-only"approach that wasn't backed by science or national coordination. When California, of all places, warns against overregulating tech, you know the pendulum is swinging. These three states were being sold the same faulty product. A bipartisan coalition "of over 200 state lawmakers from more than 45 states"called the Multistate AI Policymaker Working Group (MAP-WG) has beenspamming statehouses with copypasta legislationdesigned to look thoughtful, but built on the same anti-tech, anti-growth assumptions. These bills aim to regulate hypothetical risks, not real harms, even though there are existing civil rights and consumer protection laws that already address the latter. Colorado was the test case. It passed one of these bills last year and has been cleaning up the mess ever since. Democratic Gov. Jared Polis had to create an AI task force to deal with concerns from startups and mid-sized companies warning of job losses, capital flight, and regulatory confusion. The task forceoffered little more than vague suggestionsand no real fixes. Meanwhile, the federal stance has shifted hard in the other direction. President Donald Trumprepealed Biden's AI executive order in January, replacing it with a framework focused on tearing down barriers to innovation and maintaining U.S. dominance in the field.Vice President J.D. Vance, speaking in Paris, nailed the problem: "Excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry just as it's taking off."Texas has a chance to lead—not just by avoiding Europe's mistakes, but by setting a national standard for how to do AI regulation right: focused, limited, and innovation-first.Other states,like New York, are still stuck fighting yesterday's fears. Texas is poised to build tomorrow's breakthroughs—if lawmakers finish the job in the Senate. The postTexas Could Blow Its Shot at Leading the AI Revolutionappeared first onReason.com.

byDaniel Coleman

in

May 19, 2025

Texas Could Blow Its Shot at Leading the AI Revolution

Texas Could Blow Its Shot at Leading the AI Revolution Texas is built for growth: It's got land, talent, and a deep-seated cultural bias...

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