US President Joe Biden speaks at the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center grand opening ceremony in New York on June 28, 2024. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)
US President Joe Biden will Thursday give his first press conference since his debate disaster against Donald Trump, in a pressure-cooker moment that could seal the fate of his reelection bid.
The eyes of the world will be on the 81-year-old at a NATO summit as he tries to calm growing calls from his Democratic party to step aside over his age and health.
The White House has dubbed it a “big boy” press conference, and Biden will be under severe pressure to show he can handle what has become a rare unscripted moment in his presidency.
Any missteps by Biden at the 5.30 pm (2130 GMT) event at a Washington DC conference centre could turn the trickle of Democrats who have so far urged him to abandon his 2024 election bid into a flood.
The walls closed in further on Wednesday when Hollywood actor and supporter George Clooney called on Biden not to stand, just weeks after holding a glitzy fundraiser for the president.
Party heavyweight and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi also subtly twisted the knife by stopping short of backing Biden, saying only that he should make a decision after the NATO summit.
The first Democratic senator, Peter Welch of Vermont, meanwhile joined at least eight House Democrats in openly urging the man who beat Trump in 2020 not to stand again.
But many Democrats are believed to be waiting to see if Biden pulls off his first solo press conference since November 2023, or whether it will be a repeat of the debate.
Biden has given fewer news conferences than his predecessors. His recent appearances have been joint appearances with foreign leaders restricted to two questions each.
Coupled with a lack of interviews, it has led critics to accuse the White House of shielding the effects of age on America’s oldest president from the public.
– ‘Devastating’ –
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has repeatedly promised Thursday’s “big boy press conference” — a phrase first used by a journalist that she has since adopted — will feature multiple questions.
A poor performance will pour fuel on the flames of the concerns about Biden’s age and health that were sparked when he appeared listless and often incoherent against Republican Trump, 78.
NATO allies have also been seeking reassurance about Biden’s leadership abilities, and over fears that a return of the isolationist Trump could spell trouble for the alliance.
Biden has blamed his debate meltdown on a bad cold and jet lag after two weeks of gruelling foreign travel.
But Clooney said in a coruscating New York Times piece on Wednesday that the signs were already there at a June 15 fundraiser in Los Angeles that he co-hosted with actor Julia Roberts.
“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010,” wrote Clooney.
“He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
Clooney said that Biden would lose the presidential election, and Democrats would also lose both chambers of Congress.
Biden has insisted that he is committed to running in November, and with the Democratic party primary votes under his belt there is no real way of forcing him out.
But the New York Times reported on Wednesday that some Democratic grandees like Pelosi are trying a different tack — appealing to his rational side rather than inflaming the stubbornness that has driven his political career.
Vice President Kamala Harris is widely seen to be the frontrunner to replace Biden if he steps aside, but any move would have to be before the Democratic convention in Chicago in August.
Defence Minister Israel Katz announced on Thursday that an Israeli airstrike had killed Alireza Tangsiri, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ navy.
“Last night, in a precise and lethal operation, the IDF eliminated the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ navy, Tangsiri, along with senior officers of the naval command,” Katz said in a video statement.
“The man who was directly responsible for the terrorist operation of mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz to shipping was blown up and eliminated.”
Since the start of the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28, Israel has announced the killing of several top Iranian officials, including supreme leader Ali Khamenei and the Islamic republic’s powerful security chief, Ali Larijani.
In recent days, Israeli forces have carried out several strikes targeting the naval assets of Iran.
Last week, Israeli airstrikes hit several Iranian naval ships in the Caspian Sea, including ones equipped with missile systems, support vessels and patrol craft.
US President Donald Trump insisted Wednesday that Iran was taking part in peace talks, suggesting Tehran’s denials were because Iranian negotiators fear being killed by their own side.
“They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly. But they’re afraid to say it, because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people,” Trump told a dinner for Republican members of Congress.
“They’re also afraid they’ll be killed by us.”
The US leader’s comments came after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that “we do not intend to negotiate”.
Trump repeated his assertion that Iran was being “decimated” in the conflict now in its fourth week, even though Tehran still maintains an effective stranglehold over the crucial Strait of Hormuz oil route.
Lashing out at his domestic opponents, Trump also claimed Democrats were trying to “deflect from all of the tremendous success that we’re having in this military operation.”
In a mocking reference to calls from Democrats for him to seek the approval of Congress for the conflict, Trump added: “They don’t like the word ‘war,’ because you’re supposed to get approval, so I’ll use the word military operation.”
The White House said earlier that Trump was ready to “unleash hell” if Iran did not admit defeat, while also insisting that Tehran is still taking part in talks.
Iranian state media had earlier cited an unidentified official as saying that the Islamic republic had responded “negatively” to a reported 15-point plan from Washington.
‘Talks continue’
“If Iran fails to accept the reality of the current moment, if they fail to understand that they have been defeated militarily and will continue to be, President Trump will ensure they are hit harder than they have ever been hit before,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
“President Trump does not bluff and he is prepared to unleash hell. Iran should not miscalculate again.”
Asked if negotiations with Iran had stalled, Leavitt replied: “Talks continue. They are productive.”
Leavitt declined to say whom the US was dealing with in Tehran following the assassination of supreme leader Ali Khamenei, whose son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public.
Reports have suggested the Trump administration’s interlocutor is Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s speaker of parliament and one of its most prominent non-clerical figures.
The spokeswoman also declined to confirm reports that top US officials including Vice President JD Vance were set to hold talks with the Iranians in Pakistan, which has emerged as a key mediator.
Trump is moving thousands of airborne troops and extra marines to the Gulf amid speculation that he might order a ground invasion to either seize Iranian oil assets in the Gulf or secure the Strait of Hormuz.
The White House meanwhile appeared to stick to the four to six-week timeline it has previously given for the war.
Trump announced Wednesday that his visit to China to meet Xi Jinping had now been rescheduled for mid-May, having postponed it by six weeks to deal with the conflict.
“We’ve always estimated approximately four to six weeks (for the length of military operations against Iran), so you could do the math on that,” Leavitt added.
Ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro will appear in a New York court on Thursday for the second time since his capture by US forces in an extraordinary nighttime raid.
Maduro, 63, and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been held in a Brooklyn jail for almost three months after American commandos snatched the pair from their compound in Caracas in early January.
The stunning operation deposed the strongman who had led Venezuela since 2013 and has since forced the oil-rich country to largely bend to the will of US President Donald Trump.
Maduro has declared himself a “prisoner of war” and pleaded not guilty to the four counts of “narco-terrorism” conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Security stands outside the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse as ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro awaits his arraignment hearing on January 5, 2026 in New York. Photo by BRYAN R. SMITH / AFP
Thursday’s hearing at 11 a.m. (1500 GMT) will likely see Maduro push for the dismissal of his case as lawyers tussle over who will pay the former leader’s legal fees.
Venezuela’s government is seeking to cover the costs, but because of Washington’s sanctions, his lawyer, Barry Pollack, must obtain a US license that has not been issued.
Pollack argued in a court submission that the license requirement violated Maduro’s constitutional right to legal representation and demanded the case be thrown out on procedural grounds.
Deadly Raid
Detained in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Centre, a federal prison known for unsanitary conditions, Maduro is reportedly alone in a cell with no access to the internet or newspapers.
A source close to the Venezuelan government said the incarcerated Maduro reads the Bible and is referred to as “president” by some of his fellow detainees
This screengrab taken from the X account of Rapid Response 47, the official White House rapid response account, shows Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (C) escorted by DEA agents inside the headquarters of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in lower Manhattan, New York, on January 3, 2026.
He is only allowed to communicate by phone with his family and lawyers for a maximum of 15 minutes per call, the source added.
“The lawyers told us he is strong. He said we must not be sad,” said his son, Nicolas Maduro Guerra, adding his father told him: “We are fine, we are fighters.”
Maduro and his wife were forcibly taken by US commandos in the early hours of January 3 in airstrikes on the Venezuelan capital backed by warplanes and a heavy naval deployment.
At least 83 people died, and more than 112 people were injured in the assault, according to Venezuelan officials.
No US service members were killed.
US Pressure
At his first US court appearance in January, Maduro struck a defiant tone as he identified himself as the president of Venezuela despite being captured.
The South American country is now led by Delcy Rodriguez, who has been Maduro’s vice president since 2018.
This handout picture released by the Miraflores Palace press office shows Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez gesturing during an oath ceremony at the National Assembly in Caracas on January 5, 2026. (Photo by Marcelo Garcia / Miraflores press office / AFP)
Under US pressure, she is grappling with leading a country saddled with the world’s largest proven oil reserves but an economy in shambles.
Rodriguez has since enacted a historic amnesty law to free political prisoners jailed under Maduro and reformed oil and mining regulations in line with US demands for access to her country’s vast natural wealth.
This month, the State Department said it was restoring diplomatic ties with Venezuela in a sign of thawing relations.
Security is expected to be heightened around the New York courthouse for Thursday’s hearing.
Presiding over the case is Alvin Hellerstein, a 92-year-old judge credited with overseeing several high-profile trials during his decades on the bench.
