Biden news today: The President speaks with Zelensky before keynote speech on the Covid-19 pandemic

Ahead of President Joe Biden’s scheduled statements regarding the Covid-19 virus today, it should be noted that, as expected, the Omicron variant BA.2 is now dominant among American infections.

Biden will provide an update on the state of the country’s fight against the pandemic at 1.30pm, after which he will get his second booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.

The booster injection is now available to all Americans over the age of 50.

President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have just finished a 55-minute call on the latest developments regarding the Russian attack on Ukraine.

Zelensky tweeted: “Just finished an hour long conversation with @Potos. A joint assessment of the situation on the battlefield and at the negotiating table. We talked about specific defense support, a new package of enhanced sanctions, and macro and humanitarian financial aid.”

The FDA’s decision to approve a second booster shot – which Joe Biden is due to receive on camera later today – for those over his 50s comes as a new “brother” for the omicron variant leading to a surge in case numbers in Europe. Numbers in the US are still low, and the standard two-dose and booster model still offers good protection against serious disease, but it’s clear that regulators still tend to be vigilant even as life returns to something like its pre-pandemic nature. .

As Joe Biden prepares to address the United States on the state of the Covid-19 pandemic, he is also preparing to receive his second booster shot — this after the Food and Drug Administration gave the green light for another dose to all Americans over 50.

The White House said Joe Biden will soon speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “to discuss our continued support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.” The two are also supposed to discuss Biden’s remark that Vladimir Putin “cannot stay in power.”

The “kinetic” side of the Ukrainian conflict has so far appeared almost entirely on the Ukrainian territory, but the implications for the global strategic balance remain huge – especially in the nuclear sphere, since Vladimir Putin put his nuclear forces into a “special regime” of combat service “two days later Only from his army’s invasion of the neighboring country.

The Biden administration and other NATO governments are now trying to rework their strategy for a Russian nuclear escalation, or even an accident involving nuclear reactors or waste storage facilities destroyed by invading forces.

Jonathan Tyron has this report.

Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, a hard-right Republican, has put Joe Biden on for his unwritten line declaring that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.”

“I really think it would be best for everyone involved, to include Joe Biden, but especially to the American people, if the president simply stopped speaking out in an offhand manner,” he said in an interview with right-wing radio host Hugh. Hewitt yesterday, adding that he doesn’t think the president should “deliver” or even “answer questions or hold press conferences.”

“If we can get three years of Joe Biden to speak in a deliberate way about words that have been carefully reviewed and vetted… that would be much safer than what has happened over the past five days.”

Cotton’s grandiose proposal contrasts with criticism from many on the right who have long tried to claim that Biden is reluctant to speak to the press or answer questions.

Susan Collins’ office has released a full statement regarding her decision to vote for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. In it, the senator made it clear that she would not agree with all of Brown-Jackson’s votes, but that “this alone, however, does not disqualify eligibility.”

CBS White House correspondent Weijia Jiang has this information on Joe Biden’s upcoming speech on the administration’s response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.