US Defence Secretary returns to hospital

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin was readmitted to hospital on Sunday “for symptoms suggesting an emergent bladder issue”, the Pentagon said, weeks after a stay for prostate cancer treatment he decided to keep secret.

The Pentagon said Mr Austin was taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland.

That day, he transferred the functions and duties of the office of the secretary of defence to Deputy Secretary of Defence Kathleen Hicks.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was also notified, as well as the White House and some members of Congress.

Mr Austin was scheduled to leave today for Brussels to attend a meeting of the Ukraine contact group, which he established in 2022 to co-ordinate military support for Kyiv after Russia’s invasion.

After that, he was scheduled to attend a regular meeting of Nato defence ministers. It was not clear if his hospital admission would require a change of those plans.

Mr Austin apologised this month after receiving political criticism for keeping the earlier hospital stay out of the headlines.

“I should have told the President [Joe Biden] about my cancer diagnosis,” he said on February 1. At the time, he said he was in recovery, suffering from leg pain and using a golf cart to get around inside the Pentagon.

The undisclosed absences, and this hospital stay, come at a time when the US faces a crisis in the Middle East, with American forces in Iraq and Syria facing near-daily attacks from Iran-backed militants in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel.

Mr Austin is also a leading figure in efforts by the Biden administration to maintain support for Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion, as Republican members of Congress refuse to authorise more funding for military aid to Kyiv.