
Biden faces high-stakes test in call with Putin over Ukraine
CNN
President Joe Biden is set for one of the most critical calls of his presidency on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as he gets stark warnings from the US intelligence community that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine as soon as next month.
Amid "deep concern" about Russia's planning for "significant military action against Ukraine," the President will not entertain any of Putin's "red lines" on NATO expansion in Eastern Europe and will make clear that the US is prepared to respond to an invasion with sanctions and -- if needed -- additional troops in Europe to reassure nervous allies, a senior administration official told reporters on Monday.
The call comes nearly six months after Biden met Putin for the first time as president in Geneva, Switzerland, when he hoped to calm tensions by finding areas where the US and Russia could cooperate like cybersecurity and strategic arms control. The two men have a long history, and Biden has said explicitly he does not hold Putin in particularly high regard.

Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani bitterly clashed over age and experience Thursday in the final debate before New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, as Cuomo warned that electing the progressive state assemblyman is unprepared for the job and Mamdani hammered the former governor over scandals during his time in Albany.

On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security posted a striking graphic on its official X account. Uncle Sam, a symbol of American patriotism, is depicted nailing a poster to a wall that reads, “Help your country… and yourself.” Written underneath the poster is the sentence, “REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS,” and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement hot line.