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Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis Prompts New Questions About His Health While in Office

Former US President Joe Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden pose for a selfie photo, in this handout social media picture released May 19, 2025. (Joe Biden via X/Handout via Reuters)
Former US President Joe Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden pose for a selfie photo, in this handout social media picture released May 19, 2025. (Joe Biden via X/Handout via Reuters)
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Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis Prompts New Questions About His Health While in Office

Former US President Joe Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden pose for a selfie photo, in this handout social media picture released May 19, 2025. (Joe Biden via X/Handout via Reuters)
Former US President Joe Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden pose for a selfie photo, in this handout social media picture released May 19, 2025. (Joe Biden via X/Handout via Reuters)

Former President Joe Biden's cancer announcement revived questions on Monday about the extent of his health issues during his tenure, with Vice President JD Vance saying Biden should have been more transparent with the public.

"Why didn’t the American people have a better sense of his health picture? Why didn’t the American people have more accurate information about what he was actually dealing with? This is serious stuff," Vance told reporters as he wrapped up a trip to Rome. He wished Biden "the right recovery."

The remarks by Vance, a Republican, captured the renewed focus on the health of the 82-year-old Democratic former president with the publication of a book that details widespread concerns about Biden's mental acuity among aides and Democratic insiders as he pursued reelection in 2024.

Excerpts from the book have prompted new questions about whether critical information was withheld from the American public about Biden's ability to serve in the White House. Biden's closest aides have dismissed those concerns, saying Biden was fully capable of making important decisions.

A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately return a Reuters request for comment. Biden has appeared on television to rebut accusations that his mental capacity had diminished during his 2021-2025 term. "There's nothing to sustain that," he said on ABC's "The View" on May 8.

Biden, the oldest person ever to serve as president, was forced to drop his reelection bid last July after a stumbling debate performance against Republican rival Donald Trump eroded his support among fellow Democrats. Biden's vice president, Kamala Harris, launched a bid of her own but lost to Trump in the November 2024 election.

DOCTORS SURPRISED

Biden's office said he had been diagnosed on Friday with prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. Several doctors told Reuters that cancers like this are typically diagnosed before they reach such an advanced stage.

"I would assume the former president gets a very thorough physical every year," said Dr. Chris George, medical director of the cancer program at Northwestern Health Network. "It's sort of hard for me to believe that he's had a (blood test) within the past year that was normal."

Dr. Herbert Lepor, a urologist at NYU Langone Health, said that given the available screening options, "it is a bit unusual in the modern era to detect cancers at this late stage."

Some 70% of prostate cancer cases were diagnosed before they spread to other organs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

US guidelines do not recommend annual blood screening for men over 70 and it is unclear whether the annual presidential exam would have included those tests.

The new book, "Original Sin," by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson put a spotlight on Biden's mental acuity in his final months in office.

"It was a mistake for Democrats to not listen to the voters earlier," US Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, said on NBC on Sunday.

Biden faced no serious challenge for the 2024 Democratic nomination, and party leaders repeatedly vouched for his ability to serve a second four-year term even though 74% of Americans in January 2024 thought he was too old for the job, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.

Biden's cancer diagnosis drew an outpouring of sympathy from supporters and rivals alike, including Trump. Biden thanked the public on behalf of his wife and himself for their support in a social media post released early on Monday.

"Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support," he said.

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World

Kremlin Rejects Claim it Poisoned Navalny with Dart Frog Toxin, Widow Says Truth is Out

A person lays flowers at the grave of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny while marking the first anniversary of his death at a cemetery in Moscow, Russia, February 16, 2025. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
A person lays flowers at the grave of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny while marking the first anniversary of his death at a cemetery in Moscow, Russia, February 16, 2025. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
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Kremlin Rejects Claim it Poisoned Navalny with Dart Frog Toxin, Widow Says Truth is Out

A person lays flowers at the grave of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny while marking the first anniversary of his death at a cemetery in Moscow, Russia, February 16, 2025. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
A person lays flowers at the grave of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny while marking the first anniversary of his death at a cemetery in Moscow, Russia, February 16, 2025. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

The Kremlin on Monday flatly rejected accusations from five European countries that the Russian state had killed Alexei Navalny two years ago using toxin from poison dart frogs, but his widow said the truth had finally been proven.

Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most prominent domestic critic, died on February 16, 2024, in the "Polar Wolf" penal colony north of the Arctic Circle about 1,900 km (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow. He was 47, Reuters reported.

His death, which the Russian state said was from natural causes, occurred a month before Putin was re-elected for a fifth term in a landslide vote which Western nations said was neither free nor fair due to censorship and a crackdown on opponents.

Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said on Saturday that analyses of samples from Navalny's body had "conclusively" confirmed the presence of epibatidine, a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America and not found naturally in Russia.

"Navalny died while held in prison, meaning Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison to him," they said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the allegations.

"Naturally, we do not accept such accusations. We disagree with them. We consider them biased and not based on anything. And we strongly reject them," Peskov told reporters.

TEST RESULTS?

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, previously said Moscow would provide relevant comment if and when the countries making the allegations released and detailed their test results.

Until then, the state TASS news agency cited her as saying, the allegations were "merely propaganda aimed at diverting attention from pressing Western issues".

The British government on Saturday declined to respond to a Reuters query about how the samples from Navalny's body were obtained or where they were assessed.

The European joint statement referenced the 2018 Novichok poisoning in Salisbury, England, of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, suggesting that Moscow has form when it comes to using deadly poisons against its enemies.

Russia denies involvement in the Salisbury incident. It also rejects British allegations that Moscow killed dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 by lacing his tea with radioactive polonium-210.

A group of 15 mostly European countries - but also including Australia, New Zealand and Canada - issued a fresh statement on Monday, reiterating their demands for Russia to conduct a transparent investigation into Navalny's death.

The statement, published on the German foreign ministry's website, said that Russian human rights defenders were continuing Navalny's legacy and called on Moscow to release "all political prisoners".

The dart frog toxin allegations were made at the Munich Security Conference ahead of the second anniversary of Navalny's death on Monday.

Yulia Navalnaya, his widow - who had alleged from the outset that her husband had been murdered by the Russian state - said on Monday that the findings provided the necessary proof to back her stance.

"Two years. We have attained the truth, and we will also attain justice one day," Navalnaya wrote on X above a photograph of her late husband smiling.

World

EU to Take Part in Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ but Not as Member 

European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica speaks during a debate on the “Situation in Northeast Syria, the violence against civilians and the need to maintain a sustainable ceasefire” as part of the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg, France, 10 February 2026. (EPA) 
European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica speaks during a debate on the “Situation in Northeast Syria, the violence against civilians and the need to maintain a sustainable ceasefire” as part of the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg, France, 10 February 2026. (EPA) 
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EU to Take Part in Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ but Not as Member 

European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica speaks during a debate on the “Situation in Northeast Syria, the violence against civilians and the need to maintain a sustainable ceasefire” as part of the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg, France, 10 February 2026. (EPA) 
European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica speaks during a debate on the “Situation in Northeast Syria, the violence against civilians and the need to maintain a sustainable ceasefire” as part of the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg, France, 10 February 2026. (EPA) 

The European Union will take part in this week's inaugural meeting of US President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace", but a spokesman insisted Monday that Brussels would not be joining as a member.

The European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Suica, will head to Washington to represent the EU at the meeting Thursday.

"She will participate in the meeting of the Board of Peace for the specific part dedicated to Gaza. Let me stress that the European Commission, it's not becoming a member to the Board of Peace," EU spokesman Guillaume Mercier said.

He added the EU executive was participating as part of its "long-standing commitment" to the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire and "to support the reconstruction and the post-recovery in Gaza", he added.

The Board of Peace, of which Trump is the chairman, was initially designed to oversee the Gaza truce and reconstruction after the war between Hamas and Israel.

But its purpose has since morphed into resolving all sorts of international conflicts, triggering fears the US president wants to create a rival to the UN.

Some EU member states have raised concerns about the board.

"We still have a number of questions regarding several elements in the Board of Peace: one concerning its scope, two concerning its governance, and three, its compatibility with the UN Charter," EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni said.

World

Kremlin Rejects European Assessment Navalny Died of Poisoning

People queue to visit the grave of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader, on the second anniversary of his death, at the Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, 16 February 2026. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
People queue to visit the grave of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader, on the second anniversary of his death, at the Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, 16 February 2026. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
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Kremlin Rejects European Assessment Navalny Died of Poisoning

People queue to visit the grave of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader, on the second anniversary of his death, at the Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, 16 February 2026. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
People queue to visit the grave of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader, on the second anniversary of his death, at the Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, 16 February 2026. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV

The Kremlin said Monday that it "strongly rejected" an assessment by five European countries that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died from poisoning two years ago, as his supporters marked the anniversary of his death in prison.

Navalny, a charismatic anti-corruption campaigner who rallied hundreds of thousands to the streets in protest at the Russian leadership, was Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest domestic opponent for years.

He died in an Arctic prison colony in February 2024 while serving a 19-year sentence for "extremism", a charge that he and his supporters say was punishment for his opposition work, said AFP.

Britain, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands issued a joint statement on Saturday saying they believed he had been poisoned with epibatidine -- a toxin found in poison dart frogs -- and that the Russian state had the "means, motive and opportunity" to administer it.

"We naturally do not accept such accusations. We disagree with them. We consider them biased and baseless," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including AFP, during a daily briefing call.

"In fact, we strongly reject them," he added.

Dozens of people visited his grave in Moscow early Monday, among them foreign diplomats, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

Some of those who attended wore masks or scarves over their faces.

Russian authorities designated Navalny and his organization "extremist" before his death, and anyone who mentions him or his exiled anti-corruption foundation are liable for prosecution.

Navalny, a Yale-educated lawyer, was the most widely known Russian opposition figure and galvanized thousands of young people to protest against Putin.

He had already survived a suspected poisoning with the Novichok nerve agent in 2020.

- Ecuadoran dart frog -

Navalny's mother Lyudmila told reporters she felt vindicated by the European statement and called for those responsible to be held accountable.

"This confirms what we knew from the very beginning. We knew that our son did not simply die in prison, he was murdered," she said outside the cemetery where he was buried in Moscow.

"I think it will take some time, but we will find out who did it. Of course, we want this to happen in our country, and we want justice to prevail," she added.

Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnya, said on Saturday it was now "science proven" that her husband had been murdered.

She had previously said in September that laboratory analysis of smuggled biological samples found that her husband was poisoned.

Epibatidine, found in the Ecuadoran dart frog, causes muscle paralysis and eventual asphyxiation.

Experts have said the toxin can also be produced synthetically, instead of extracting it directly from the frog itself.

The European statement did not say how it was administered or by whom.

Britain's foreign office said the poison is not found naturally in Russia and that "only the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin."

Russia's prison service said he died after going for a walk and falling ill.

Since Navalny's death, Russia's opposition has remained largely exiled and fragmented.

Navalny's widow Yulia vowed to take the mantle of Russia's opposition in the wake of his death but has struggled to galvanize widespread support.

Inside Russia, Moscow has intensified a crackdown on anybody who had links with the late opposition leader.

In addition to targeting his allies and backers, photographers who covered his court hearings and lawyers who represented him at trial have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms.