Biden's Cancer Announcement Raises Questions about Timing and Transparency
Former President Joe Biden announced late last week that he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has metastasized to his bones. The 82-year-old's cancer carries a Gleason score of 9, indicating it is among the most aggressive forms of the disease. While stage 4 prostate cancer cannot be cured, doctors say it may be manageable with hormone therapy, potentially extending the former president's life by several years.
The timing of the announcement has sparked widespread speculation across both parties. The diagnosis came just days after damaging audio recordings from Biden's 2023 Robert Hur interviews were released, revealing the then-president struggling to recall basic facts, including when his son died and when he left the vice presidency. The recordings vindicated special counsel Hur's earlier assessment of Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
The revelations also came just before the release of Original Sin, a new book by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios's Alex Thompson that claims to expose the elaborate efforts by Biden's inner circle and his administration to conceal his declining health.
Adding fuel to concerns about transparency, oncologist Ezekiel Emanuel, a former Biden COVID adviser, told MSNBC that Biden likely had the cancer “for many years, maybe even a decade.” Emanuel called it "strange" that Biden wouldn't have been regularly screened, given presidential health protocols.
Other News
🇮🇱 Israel launched an “extensive” operation in Gaza, while announcing it would allow basic food supplies into the territory for the first time in 11 weeks, in an effort to put pressure on Hamas during ceasefire negotiations. Meanwhile, two Israeli Embassy staff were fatally shot outside a Jewish museum event in Washington D.C. by a suspect who chanted, "Free Palestine" during his arrest.
🏛️ The House passed Trump's sweeping tax-and-spending bill, dubbed the “big, beautiful bill,” with all but two Republicans supporting it. The legislation extends Trump's 2017 tax cuts and addresses immigration, defense, and energy priorities. The White House Council of Economic Advisers projected that the bill would boost GDP by 4.2% to 5.2% in the short run—a level of growth that goes far beyond the mainstream consensus. The bill aims for at least $1.5 trillion in total spending reductions, but depending on GDP growth and the resulting tax income to the federal government, many project the bill will continue to add to the deficit, albeit at a potentially slower rate than the last few years. The bill now goes to the Senate for a vote and likely further deliberation.
🇿🇦 South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met with President Trump this week in an attempt to improve U.S.-South Africa relations. During the meeting, Trump showed Ramaphosa video footage of South African minority opposition leaders like Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema making statements in support of "white genocide" against Afrikaner farmers. Ramaphosa distanced his government from these remarks, stating they were "not government policy" and that his administration opposed such rhetoric. South Africa's Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen acknowledged the country's safety issues and explained that his Democratic Alliance party partnered with Ramaphosa's party specifically to prevent those opposition voices from gaining power. The diplomatic meeting occurred shortly after 59 white South Africans, whom Ramaphosa had previously called "cowards" for leaving South Africa, were granted refugee status in the U.S.
🪖 President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled plans for a "Golden Dome" missile defense system to be completed by the end of President Trump’s term. Similar to the Iron Dome system Israel has, the “Golden Dome” would detect and track incoming rockets with radar and calculate which ones are likely to reach populated areas. It would then fire missiles at these rockets, leaving the others to fall on open ground.
✈️ The U.S. accepted Qatar's gift of a luxury Boeing 747 to serve as the new Air Force One, although Senate Democrats called it “the largest foreign bribe in modern history.” The two jets currently in use have been in service for nearly 35 years, starting during the term of President George H.W. Bush. Boeing, despite receiving a $3.9 billion contract in 2017 to replace the existing two Air Force One jets with new 747s by 2024, has faced significant delays and has pushed the delivery date into 2027.
🇷🇺 President Trump held a two-hour phone conversation with Vladimir Putin Monday, with both leaders describing the dialogue positively. Putin suggested that “a ceasefire with Ukraine is possible," while Trump indicated Pope Leo XIV could potentially host negotiations at the Vatican. President Trump’s team has signaled that if these negotiations do not lead to a ceasefire directly, the U.S. plans to withdraw entirely from the negotiations and the conflict. During his campaign, President Trump famously said that he could end the Russia/Ukraine conflict in one day with one phone call, but the conflict has proven to be one of his term’s greatest challenges so far, and his efforts have been frustrated by the leaders of both countries.
🌪️ At least 27 people have died from tornadic weather across the Midwest and South, with Kentucky suffering 18 fatalities. The storms are part of a broader pattern of tornado activity shifting from traditional "Tornado Alley" to more densely populated areas of the mid-South.
🐚 8647—Former FBI Director James Comey ignited a political firestorm after posting an Instagram photo last week of seashells arranged as "8647," interpreted by many as a coded threat against the 47th president (since "86" means "get rid of"), leading to Secret Service investigations and the post's deletion, though Comey denied any violent intent and no charges were filed. The former FBI director feigned ignorance as to what “86” stood for, and said it was simply a "cool shell formation” that he saw on the beach and wanted to share. Did he know what he was doing? Probably so. No coincidence that his latest book dropped on Tuesday.
🇲🇽 A Mexican Navy training ship crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge, killing two crew members and injuring 22 others on board. The ship reportedly accelerated suddenly in the wrong direction before impact. The 142-year-old bridge sustained no structural damage and remains open to traffic. Ironically, the ship had been in New York as part of a global goodwill tour . . . .
