Hello, and a very warm welcome to the program. I'm Sally Bundock. We begin in Washington, where President Biden has launched the NATO summit, marking the 75th anniversary of the Alliance's creation. He promised that the US and four other allies would provide Ukraine with dozens of additional tactical air defense systems. The package will include additional Patriot systems that Kyiv has been seeking to fight off the Russian advance. At the opening of the summit, Biden insisted Ukraine could and would stop Vladimir Putin. He called NATO the single, greatest, and most effective defense alliance in the world and stressed the importance of international stability. Let's take a listen to what he had to say.

Before this war, Putin thought NATO would break.

Today, NATO is stronger than it's ever been in its history. When this census war began, Ukraine was a free country.

Today, it is still a free country, and the war will end with Ukraine remaining a free and independent country.

Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail. Well, Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is at this summit, and he called on the US to be uncompromising in defending freedom and opposing Russian aggression.

It's time to sit out, to step out of the shadows, to make strong decisions, work, to act, and not to wait for November or any other month to this end. We must be strong and uncompromising altogether. First of all, America, and first of all, the leaders of America, and the President of the United States as a leader of the free world, to be uncompromising in defending democracy, uncompromising against his Putin and his coterie, uncompromising to every possible terror.

Well, let's go live to Kyiv now and speak to our correspondence there, Abdu Jalil Abdu-Russellow. Just talk us through the reaction where you are to what's been said so far at this NATO summit?

This announcement is certainly welcomed by many people here in Ukraine because it comes shortly after a powerful air strike that happened on Monday, where at least 43 people were killed and some 200 people were injured. That air strike was so shocking because one of the buildings that were hit by Russian missiles was the main hospital, the main children's hospital of Ukraine. And some small patients who were battling for their lives from cancer, they had to flee from Russian missiles. And those images of children covered with blood and with their drips and then trying to be evacuated. Those images went viral, and that was so shocking about the attack. And of course, this announcement is expected to boost air defense systems for Ukrainian cities. And those four Patriot air defense systems that were promised by Ukraine's allies, they are important because they can intercept the hypersonic ballastic aerial ballastic missiles. So they are very powerful. And those countries are also promising to provide components for these missiles, which include the missiles and other spare parts that are crucial to maintain these systems. And of course, Ukraine hopes that this promise and this pledge will keep on because they're saying they need more and more weapons like this in order to protect their cities.

The attack on the hospital has been condemned globally. President Biden saying it's a horrific reminder of Russia's brutality. Yesterday was a day of morning marked across the country. Today, presumably, it's still about a search and rescue must have finished by now. Talk us through what's happening on the logistical side with regards to that attack on Monday.

Yes, the search and rescue operations are over by now, and the rescue workers, they have found more bodies buried under the rubble. And the number of deaths has gone up to 43 people now. And in Kyiv alone, 33 people were killed during that attack. So most of those casualties came on this city. And that's why this attack was so terrible for the city, which We experienced a lot of similar air strikes in the past, but because of the sheer number, but also because the buildings that were targeted, the children's hospital, there was also a maternity hospital that was hit by Russian missiles. These attacks made people to be so shocked by these strikes. Now, since the search operations are over, there is a funeral that is coming now. One of the doctors that was killed at the site of the hospital, today, she will be buried in the city of Lviv, in western part of Ukraine.

Abdujilal in Kyiv. Thank you very much indeed. Well, one of the comments that President Biden made as he begun the NATO summit was that the alliance is the strongest it's ever been. I spoke to Rose Gautermüller, who's a former Deputy Secretary General of NATO. I asked her if she agreed with that.

I've been watching NATO now since I was Deputy Secretary General from 2016 to '19. Nato was strong then, but it has really pulled together in its support for Ukraine and its really strong assistance to Ukraine, with a lot of resources flowing to providing military assistance as well as humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. Frankly, it was a performance I may not have expected just five short years ago. But clearly, NATO saw that there is a new defense threat to Europe in Russia's aggression against Ukraine and that it needed to pull together.

You're in agreement about that. Despite the The fact that many key European leaders who are at the summit now, I. E. Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz, are much weaker politically at home at the moment, and the situation within Europe itself is changing dramatically, politically. What does that mean, do you think, for NATO?

I actually think it's the strength of NATO, the fact that countries across NATO are democracies. Some are, well, one would say perhaps somewhat questionable democracies, as in the case of Viktor Orbáns, Hungary, where he has shut down some of the democratic practices, and in particular, things like the free press and judiciary. But in other areas, NATO allies are showing that democracy is messy. There's no question about it. And we've seen that in France with the decision of Macron to proceed with snap elections in the last couple of weeks. So, yeah, it's the way things go. I always remember on these occasions, Winston Churchill saying, democracy is the worst government system except for all the others.

Democracy can be messy, that is for sure. Questions over Biden's fitness to govern, is threatening to to dominate the NATO summit as the 81-year-old faces calls to quit the presidential race after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump. Well, let's go live to Washington now. Our correspondent, Carl Nasman, is there. Carl, he can't get away from this, can he, really, President Biden, this conversation that's ongoing and getting louder about whether he should stand again.

The conversation continues, and a lot of that conversation is taking place within his own Democratic Party. We're hearing yet more lawmakers coming forward publicly and expressing their doubts about whether or not President Biden has what it takes to defeat Donald Trump in the ballot box in November. That is a big topic of discussion, obviously, here this week in Washington for this NATO summit. Because as we've been hearing, Donald Trump is a NATO skeptic. He has doubted whether or not the US should play such a big role, whether it should spend so much money on this alliance. Every move, every word from the President President will be judged and monitored and basically under a microscope this week. I think the President knows that. He delivered a very forceful, very energetic speech to open the summit just yesterday. This is going to be a big test for him. He knows that the next one might be on Thursday. The President expected to give one of these press conferences that we really haven't seen that much of. He'll be off prompter unlike he was during that speech. And so that will be a big test, of course, for Joe Biden.

In the meantime, Donald Trump was speaking at a rally at which he suggested the two of them do a live TV debate without moderators. I mean, he's really seeing an opportunity here, isn't he, Donald Trump?

Well, he is. It's actually been interesting more than what Donald Trump said. It's what he hasn't been saying. For the past week or so, we haven't heard much from the former President. I think he's been enjoying being able to sit back and allow the Democratic Party to make the headlines, to allow Joe Biden to make the headlines for once, not Donald Trump. Obviously, now coming out and being very willing to put Joe Biden back under that microscope once again. The Republicans are rejoicing in this. We've seen some polls coming out after that debate performance that show that Trump has gained in several states. He's gained nationally. Of course, it depends on what poll you look at. But right now, the Republican Party, the Trump campaign in a very strong position.

It's really interesting how things have changed because, of course, Trump did point out the fact that within the Republican Party, they're strong, they're united. Of course, that's his view. Whereas on the other side in the Democrats, there's division and there's this internal turmoil.

It's really hard to emphasize just how unprecedented this is. You rarely see a sitting president for a party running for re-election having this level of doubt. But of course, this is US politics. There is still plenty of time to go, several months until November. There is time for either the Democrats to coalesce around President Biden, give him the confidence that he needs to run, or to select another candidate. Of course, that would mean that the President Biden have to drop out himself, and that would be a very complicated process. But there is still some time here. I think the feeling is right now in Washington, the next week or so will be critical to really shake this out and to figure out in which direction the party is going to go and what might see and who will be taking that stage come the Democratic National Convention a little bit later on in Chicago.

Well, Carl, we will be watching very closely. Thank you for now, Carl Nasman in Washington. Well, let's stay with the NATO summit just a little longer because Sakeer Starmer has arrived in Washington for his first international trip as UK Prime Minister. So these are the latest pictures accompanied by his wife, Victoria. They will be visiting the White House later to meet President Biden. Sakeer here, pledged what he called a cast iron commitment to increase the UK's defense spending to 2.5% of national income. But he isn't putting a timetable on when they might reach that figure. Here, he's speaking just before his flight took off. Our political editor, Chris Mason, sent this report when he landed in Washington.

Hello. Welcome to Washington, DC. The Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, arriving here in the last few hours. He's getting some sleep ahead of this summit getting underway in a few hours time. Delegations arriving from around the world. Quite a moment for Keir Starmer. A week ago, the election hadn't even happened. Now he is here on the world stage. He's got the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, with him, the Defense Secretary as well, John Healey. They're trying to introduce themselves to as many of the UK's allies as they can in the next few days to set out who they're about and what the government is about. Then, of course, there is the focus on defense and security. Nato is a defense alliance. That's what it's all about. It's its 75th anniversary summit. There's a recognition from leaders here that the world has not been this dangerous for decades and decades and decades. A real focus, of course, on Ukraine and indeed on the Middle East. Kyri Starmer saying that he wants to spend 2.5% of the UK's national income on defense, but crucially, he is not attaching a time frame to that. It is a promise without a deadline, and so some critics say it isn't quite solid enough.

Plenty then to come in the next few days. As I say, quite a moment for the new Prime Minister.