The top U.N. court on Friday

on Sunday, will not arrive in Brussels until Wednesday evening, after the Ukraine Defense Contact Group’s meeting is over.A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss scheduling details, confirmed that Hegseth also will not participate by video conference.

It is the latest in a series of steps that the U.S. has taken to distance itself from the Ukraine war effort. And it comes on the heels of French Presidentwarning at the security conference last weekend that the U.S. and others risk a dangerous double standard if their concentration on a potential conflict with China is done at the cost of abandoning Ukraine.France and other NATO nations are concerned that the U.S. is

to shift them to the Indo-Pacific. Macron said abandoning Ukraine would eventually erode U.S. credibility in deterring any potential conflict with China over Taiwan.Hegseth’s predecessor, Lloyd Austin, created the group after

in 2022. Since then, more than 50 member nations have collectively provided Ukraine with some $126 billion in weapons and military assistance, including

Under Austin’s leadership, the U.S. served as chair of the group, and he and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff attended monthly meetings, which were both in person and by video.“I wasn’t planning on doing this right now but I just can’t sit on the sidelines,” Scholten said in an announcement on social media.

In Parkersburg, Iowa, Ernst on Friday defended the $700 billion in reduced spending, saying it would keep immigrants in the U.S. illegally and those who have access to insurance through their employers off the rolls. She emphasized the message that those changes would sustain the program for vulnerable populations.But when someone in the crowd yelled that people will die without coverage, Ernst responded: “People are not ... well, we all are going to die.”

The retort drew swift condemnation, as did a sarcastic apology video from Ernst released on Saturday.Scholten first ran for Congress in 2018, narrowly losing in the overwhelmingly Republican district to U.S. Rep. Steve King, a Republican who was embroiled in years of controversy involving his previous