Biden news live: Approval rating drops to 40 per cent as conspiracy theorists mull ‘new world order’ comment

President Joe Biden would coordinate with allies on military assistance for Ukraine and new sanctions on Russia as he embarks on a four-day trip to Europe, said his national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

The president is working on long-term efforts to boost defenses in Eastern Europe where more countries fear Russian aggression, he added.

Mr Biden would also be aiming to reduce the continent’s reliance on Russian energy.

“This war will not end easily or rapidly,” Mr Sullivan said on Tuesday.

”For the past few months, the West has been united. The president is traveling to Europe to make sure we stay united.”

He said that Vladimir Putin’s references to nuclear weapons at the beginning of the conflict are “something that we do have to be concerned about,” adding that Mr Biden would be talking with allies about “potential responses” if the Russian leader takes that step.

First Lady Jill Biden will meet with four Ukrainian children and their families who have been brought to St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

The State Department worked with St Jude’s to evacuate the children from Ukraine. Secretary Antony Blinken tweeted about the airlift of these vulnerable patients.

Dr Biden will visit on Friday, the East Wing confirms.

Ms Psaki said she had been in “two socially-distanced” meetings with the president on Monday, but that he “is not considered a close contact as defined by CDC guidance.”

The news came just hours before Mr Biden is due to fly to Europe for diplomatic meetings with allied leaders in Brussels and Warsaw.

Graeme Massie has more on Ms Psaki’s second case of Covid.

US president Joe Biden, alongside European leaders, is expected to announce new sanctions against Russia and new measures to tighten existing ones when he visits Brussels this week.

The US is preparing to sanctions more than 300 members of Russia’s lower house of parliament as soon as Thursday, reported the Wall Street Journal citing unnamed officials and internal documents.

“No final decisions have been made about who we will sanction and how many we will sanction,” said a White House spokesperson.

“We will have additional sanctions measures to announce that will be rolled out in conjunction with our allies on Thursday when the President has the opportunity to speak with them.”

Joe Biden’s approval rating fell to a new low of 40 per cent this week with about 54 per cent Americans disapproving his performance as the country struggles with high inflation.

Mr Biden’s approval rating, down three percentage points from the prior week, mirrors that of his predecessor Donald Trump, who also stood at 40 per cent in mid-March during the second year in office.

Poll respondents cited economy as their top concern, followed by war and foreign conflict.

His popularity began dropping in mid-August as Covid-19 deaths began to rise and the US face a chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Biden administration has warned that thanks to Congress’s refusal to pass a $15bn Covid-19 aid package, the government has run out of funds to buy doses for a fourth round of vaccinations against the disease for the under-65s.

Worse still, according to White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients, the administration currently lacks the funding for a future variant-specific vaccine if it’s needed.

The money planned to boost the national Covid response was removed from a $1.5trn spending package that funded the government through September and included aid for Ukraine.

The supposed politicisation of classrooms is a core Republican talking point these days, but parents at a Christian private school in California have voiced their outrage at a video of a teacher encouraging pre-school children in an anti-Biden chant.

As the Russian war in Ukraine rages and a Supreme Court nomination process proceeds, much of the right-wing commentariat remains fixated on what could charitably be called a peripheral issue: the laptop belonging to Hunter Biden that was found in a Delaware repair shop towards the end of the 2020 election.

Here’s a sample of the coverage and commentary that’s circulating in the right-wing media ecosystem…

Joe Biden’s allusion yesterday to the “new world order” offered a shot of adrenaline to a tendency of veteran conspiracy theorists and self-proclaimed “patriots” who for decades have been convinced that the United Nations and other shadowy forces are planning to take over the US and install a transnational authoritarian global government.

Outside of the world of conspiracy theories, of course, the phrase is a perfectly mundane one. Here, Joe Sommerland explains why it nonetheless sets so many people on edge.

The vice president has lost another staffer, this time her national security adviser, Nancy McEldowney, who according to Reuters cited “pressing personal matters” as the reason for her departure.

In response, Ms Harris said Ms McEldowney had provided “invaluable counsel” and that she is grateful for her “service, her exceptional talent, deep expertise, and leadership navigating complex challenges”.

Ms McEldowney’s departure comes as Ms Harris takes an increasingly high-profile diplomatic role in the administration’s response to the Ukrainian invasion.