North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on his way home after trip to Russia’s Far East

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is on his way home Sunday from Russia, ending a six-day trip that triggered global concerns about weapons transfer deals between the two countries locked in separate standoffs with the West.

Kim’s armored train departed to the sound of the Russian patriotic march song “Farewell of Slavianka” at the end of a farewell ceremony at a railway station in Artyom, a far eastern Russian city about 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the border with North Korea, Russia’s state news agency RIA reported.

Senior officials including Russia’s Minister of Natural Resources Alexander Kozlov and Primorye regional Gov. Oleg Kozhemyako were present at the ceremony, which featured a Russian military band playing both North Korean and Russian national anthems.

Since entering Russia last Tuesday in his first overseas trip in more than four years, Kim had met President Vladimir Putin and visited key military and technology sites, underscoring the countries’ deepening defense cooperation in the face of separate, intensifying confrontations with the West. U.S. and South Korean officials have said North Korea could provide badly needed munitions for Moscow’s war on Ukraine in exchange for sophisticated Russian weapons technology that would advance Kim’s nuclear ambitions.

U.N. Security Council resolutions — which Russia, a permanent member, previously endorsed — ban North Korea from exporting or importing any arms. Observers say Russia’s alleged attempts to receive ammunitions and artillery shells from North Korea suggest Moscow’s desperation to refill its arsenal exhausted in the war with Ukraine.

“Military cooperation between North Korea and Russia is illegal and unjust as it contravenes U.N. Security Council resolutions and various other international sanctions,” South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said in written responses Sunday to questions from The Associated Press. “The international community will unite more tightly in response to such a move.”

In return for supplying conventional arms to Russia, experts say North Korea would seek Russian economic and food aid but also transfers of technologies to build powerful missiles, a nuclear-propelled submarine and a spy satellite. North Korea has publicly sought to introduce such high-tech weapons systems citing what it called intensifying U.S.-led hostilities.

Earlier Sunday, Kim was in a lighter mode, touring a university and watching a walrus show at a Russian aquarium. Russia’s state media released videos of Kim, accompanied by his top officials, talking with Russian officials through translators at the campus of the Far Eastern Federal University in Russky Island.

At the island’s Primorsky Aquarium, Russia’s largest, Kim watched performances featuring beluga whales, bottlenose dolphins, fur seals and “Misha” the walrus, which he seemed to particularly enjoy, according to Russian media.

Kozhemyako, the Primorye governor, said a delegation from Russia’s Far East would visit North Korea. According to Russian state media, Kozhemyako said he’ll be part of the delegation that will travel with specialists from trade, tourism and agricultural sectors. The exact timing for the visit to North Korea hasn’t been announced.

On Saturday, Kim traveled to an airport near Vladivostok, where Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other senior military officials gave him an up-close look at Russia’s strategic bombers and other warplanes. Kim and Shoigu later in the day went to Vladivostok, where they inspected the Admiral Shaposhnikov frigate.

On Friday, Kim visited an aircraft plant in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur that produces Russia’s most powerful fighter jets.

The Russian warplanes shown to Kim on Saturday were among the types that have seen action in Ukraine, including the Tu-160, Tu-95 and Tu-22 bombers that have regularly launched cruise missiles. During Kim’s visit, Shoigu and Lt. Gen. Sergei Kobylash, the commander of the Russian long-range bomber force, confirmed for the first time that the Tu-160 had recently received new cruise missiles with a range of more than 6,500 kilometers (over 4,040 miles).

Shoigu, who had met Kim during a rare visit to North Korea in July, also showed Kim another of Russia’s latest missiles, the hypersonic Kinzhal, carried by the MiG-31 fighter jet, that saw its first combat during the war in Ukraine.

North Korea’s state media reported that Kim and Shoigu talked about the regional security environment and exchanged views on “practical issues arising in further strengthening the strategic and tactical coordination, cooperation and mutual exchange between the armed forces of the two countries.”

Kim’s summit with Putin was held at Russia’s main space launch site, a location that pointed to his desire for Russian assistance in his efforts to acquire space-based reconnaissance assets and missile technologies. In recent months, two North Korean launches to send a spy satellite into space ended in failure, and the North vowed to conduct a third attempt in October.

During the meeting with Putin, Kim said his country would offer its “full and unconditional support” for Russia’s fight to defend its security interests, in an apparent reference to the war in Ukraine. Kim invited Putin to visit North Korea at “a convenient time,” and Putin accepted.

It was Kim’s second meeting with Putin since he took office in late 2011. The previous meeting took place in Vladivostok in April 2019, two months after Kim’s high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with then U.S. President Donald Trump fell apart during their second summit in Vietnam.

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‘A lovely Christian girl’: Scott addresses relationship status at Iowa evangelical forum

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, shortly after taking the stage before a crowd of Iowa evangelicals Saturday night, was immediately hit with a personal question about his love life.

“So other than your mama, is there any special lady in your life?” asked Republican Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird at the Faith and Freedom Coalition in Des Moines, where a number of GOP presidential hopefuls participated in a town hall.

Scott, telling the crowd “yes,” quipped that it’s been “one of the more asked questions recently,” and said he’s surprised if anyone in the room hasn’t read about her yet.

“I’m dating a lovely Christian girl,” Scott said, addressing the question for the first time since a lengthy Washington Post report on his relationship status, and the mystery of it, published earlier this week.

“One of the things I love about the gospel of Jesus Christ is it points us always in the right direction. Proverbs 18:22 says, ‘He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord,’” he added.

Scott, 57, then knelt to the ground, asking the room to please pray for him before quickly rising with a big grin. The audience laughed.

Scott has never been married, drawing questions in GOP circles about the presidential candidate’s relationship status, especially as he looks to court evangelical voters. Though the percentage of adults remaining single later in adulthood has risen in recent years, the Republican Party, particularly the more religious bloc of voters, continues to hold traditional ideas about marriage and family.

“As a guy who was raised in a single-parent household mired in poverty, I understand that devastation when a family breaks up. I live with the consequences of a father who was not there. I made a commitment to make sure that never happened in my life,” Scott said. “I’m so thankful to know a risen savior that has helped guide my way, and I’m so thankful that he’s allowed my life to intersect at the right time with the right person. And I just say, praise the living God.”

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Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs law restricting release of her travel, security records

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law Thursday restricting release of her travel and security records after the Legislature wrapped up a special session marked by a fight to more broadly scale back the state Freedom of Information Act.

The law, which took effect immediately, allows the state to wall off details about the security provided the GOP governor and other constitutional officers, including who travels on the State Police airplane and the cost of individual trips. Proposed changes to the 1967 law protecting the public's access to government records were among several items Sanders had placed on the agenda for a session that met this week.

Sanders has argued the restrictions are needed to protect her and her family, citing threats she's faced since taking office and going back to her time as White House press secretary for former President Donald Trump.

“We protected the police officers who protect our constitutional officers and my family in keeping their security information and tactics exempt from Freedom of Information Act disclosure,” Sanders said before signing the measure, about two hours after lawmakers gave it final it approval.

Sanders and Republicans in the Legislature had initially pushed for more widespread exemptions to the open-records law, but backed off after facing growing criticism that it would erode government transparency.

Some of the opponents of the broader exemptions for other state agencies that had been proposed initially endorsed the legislation after it was pared down to the security measures. But it still faces criticism that it will keep the public in the dark about how taxpayer dollars are being spent.

Democratic Rep. Andrew Collins said protecting the governor and her family is a good reason to exempt some records from release, but it should only be done as narrowly as possible.

“But I don’t think this is drawn as narrowly as possible,” Collins, who voted against the bill, said.

Sanders sought the security exemptions as the State Police was sued by an attorney and blogger who accused the agency of illegally withholding records about the governor’s travel and security. But Matthew Campbell, who runs the Blue Hog Report website, asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit after Campbell said he tested positive for COVID-19 and would be unable to attend a hearing that had been scheduled for Thursday. Campbell posted on X, formerly Twitter, that he may refile the suit.

The new law requires the state to file a quarterly report with the Legislature listing the monthly costs of protecting the governor by category. The law is also retroactive to June 1, 2022, a provision State Police said was needed to protect preparation made for whoever became the next governor after the party primaries that year.

Supporters of the bill said the governor's higher profile has raised the security risk she and her family faces.

“With no offense to any of our previous governors, I can’t think of one at least in recent memory that was a household name the way our current governor is,” Republican Rep. David Ray told House members before the vote.

The broader exemptions originally sought prompted an outcry from media groups, transparency advocates and some conservatives who said it would create massive holes in the state's open records law.

Sanders left open the possibility of later seeking the other changes, which she has said is needed to improve government efficiency.

“We're not going to stop continuing to fight for more government efficiency and effectiveness, and I think this is just the beginning of this process,” Sanders said.

David Couch, an attorney who has spearheaded successful ballot initiatives on medical marijuana and the minimum wage, said he's looking at the possibility of one that would enshrine the state's open-records law in the constitution.

“I think it would be overwhelmingly popular,” Couch said.

Sanders signed other measures from the session, including legislation cutting the state's top individual income tax rate from 4.7% to 4.4% and the corporate rate from 5.1 to 4.8 percent. The legislation also creates a one-time nonrefundable tax credit of up to $150 for individuals and up to $300 for married couples making less than $90,000 a year. The reductions are estimated to cost the state more than $248 million in the first year.

Sanders also signed legislation prohibiting state and local governments from requiring someone to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The measure reinstates a similar 2021 law that expired last month. Any public entities that would require someone to be vaccinated in order to receive federal funding would have to seek approval from the Legislative Council to receive an exemption under the law.

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America’s potential Achilles’ heel in a cyber battle with China: Guam

Chinese hackers have found a dangerous vulnerability in U.S. military computer networks nearly 8,000 miles from the Pentagon — on the serene South Pacific island of Guam.

They attacked essential infrastructure in the military outpost in May, infiltrating networks in the U.S. territory closest to China. Lawmakers and federal officials fear these attacks, which used a new method that allows intruders to linger undetected, could threaten security in the volatile region and sabotage any U.S. response to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

It’s a scenario that has gotten little attention in the media amid Chinese hacks into U.S. government agencies and threats against Taiwan, but one that is becoming increasingly worrying to those in Washington tracking Chinese preparations for conflict.

Chinese state-sponsored hackers “have been slowly testing their limits with Guam,” Del. James Moylan (R-Guam) said in an emailed statement. “These attacks … are clear signs that China wants to gain an edge over the U.S., starting with Guam.”

Residents on the island of 170,000 people, about 20,000 of whom are U.S. military, felt those effects viscerally in May when Guam was hit by two simultaneous gut punches: A Category 4 typhoon made landfall on the island the same day Microsoft warned that Chinese government hackers were infiltrating critical networks, including those used to communicate with the mainland.

The two incidents proved the fallibility of these systems, which are crucial both for those who live in Guam, and for ensuring the U.S. is able to swiftly deploy troops to Taiwan, should that be needed. It was a wake-up call for the island — and the broader U.S. military.

“The storm knocked out power, water, all of our utilities including internet, and it was a double whammy where not only do we have the physical effects of the storm, but we had the cyberattacks,” said Mark Scott, spokesperson for the Guam National Guard. “It was a real eye-opener for us.”

The Microsoft report made clear the serious cyberthreats facing Guam’s networks,detailing how Chinese state-sponsored hacking group Volt Typhoon targeted unnamed critical infrastructure organizations on the island, including those in communications, maritime and government sectors. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the FBI and security agencies in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom issued a joint alert warning of the hacking campaign.

And the targeting has only continued since May. This month, Microsoft detailed how three Chinese government-affiliated hacking groups are working to target the U.S. defense industrial base in Guam, in particular the satellite communications and telecommunications groups housed on the island.

“We see that as very troubling,” Mieke Eoyang, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for cyber policy, told reporters last week. “The living off the land techniques, and what that suggests about where China is prepositioning, suggests a theory of disrupting military mobilization, but also of sowing chaos in the United States.”

Security researchers worry that the attacks on Guam reflect a new tactic by Beijing: break into systems and then hibernate, giving China an opening for cyberattacks on critical systems when conflict with the U.S. erupts.

“It was a fundamental change or shift to their tactics, techniques, procedures,” said Jon Condra, head of the Strategic Persistent Threats team at Massachusetts-based cyber intelligence group Recorded Future. “It makes a lot of sense to go after Guam's networks and try to sever communication lines,” he said, because then it will be harder for the U.S. to deploy troops to respond to incidents in East Asia.

The ballooning threat to Guam has drawn federal officials and lawmakers to the island. A bipartisan group of House members, including the leaders of the House Armed Services Committee, visited Guam this summer as part of an Indo-Pacific trip focused on deterring Chinese aggression. And this month, House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) traveled to the island, saying in a statement during the trip that the China-linked hack “shows that Guam is on the frontlines of the fight against this threat.”

The Guam National Guard convened a cybersecurity conferencein the wake of the attacks, which included a range of officials, from U.S. Cyber Command to the FBI. The island will host a follow-up conference sometime this year, said Scott, and include officials from neighboring areas, such as the Northern Mariana Islands and the Philippines.

The concern over China’s potential cyber inroads in Guam has spurred officials to act. Esther Aguigui, Guam’s homeland security adviser, said the government is “near completion” on creating a cybersecurity strategy focused on creating an “all of Guam” approach to managing cyber risks from nation states and cybercriminals alike. The government is working to bolster local cyber resources and training, and to better shore up infrastructure against natural threats like typhoons.

Guam is aware of “the strategic importance of our location in the Western Pacific,” she said.

But even with the heightened focus on cybersecurity, the island’s infrastructure remains vulnerable to attacks. Experts consider China one of the most advanced nations in cyberspace, and just this year state-sponsored hackers accessed email accounts at the Commerce and State departments. Officials also have raised concerns that the Chinese government can disrupt operations at U.S. ports and other military transport systems.

The attacks caught the attention of the Biden administration, too. The Department of the Interior has awarded $500,000 to Guam’s Office of Technology to create a cyber resiliency program, on top of more than $150,000 given to Guam in 2021 for cybersecurity efforts.

The federal government is still coming to terms with what the recent Chinese activity directed at Guam and other U.S. territories means, particularly these new kinds of attacks.

“I am very concerned, and we are addressing, the issues that we made public in May of this past spring about China living off the land,” Gen. Paul Nakasone, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies earlier this month.

Officials in Guam welcome the help.

“When it comes to not just cyber, but our critical infrastructure as a whole, it's important to realize that we are isolated,” Scott said. “We have proximity to the pacing threats, and we don't have a lot of the resources on our own to self-sustain.”

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‘The military is being held hostage’: Republicans hit GOP hard-liners over defense spending bill

House Republican defense hawks launched a counteroffensive Friday on far-right members of their party in a bid to break the stalemate that stalled annual Pentagon funding legislation this week.

Led by California Reps. Mike Garcia and Ken Calvert, both House appropriators, and several other Republican military veterans, the lawmakers criticized both Democrats and Republicans holding out on the bill.

But the target audience was unmistakably conservative holdouts — whose opposition would tank the bill on a procedural vote, known as a rule. Garcia argued that torpedoing the bill, which contains a number of far-right measures, is effectively an endorsement of President Joe Biden's policies.

"If you oppose a rule, which is effectively preventing this bill from moving forward, and if you oppose the passage of this bill, you are enabling the failed defense policies of this administration and accelerating the downward trajectory of our nation's security," Garcia, a former Navy fighter pilot, told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday yanked the $826 billion spending bill amid a dispute with conservative lawmakers, chiefly the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, which is withholding its votes for the legislation in a bid to force a harder line in a broader spending confrontation with the Senate that may force a government shutdown. Many of those lawmakers have noted that they’re not against the defense bill itself.

Following McCarthy’s move, GOP leaders are now trying to reach an agreement with hard-liners on government-wide spending that would free up the defense bill and allow debate to occur next week. If a deal isn't reached with the rebels, however, Garcia said McCarthy and his team should consider holding a vote on the defense bill and forcing conservatives to block it publicly.

"If we can't get people on board, I think we owe it to our troops to bring the [bill] to a vote. I'm not in leadership. I'll defer that decision to the leader, the whip, the speaker," Garcia said. "But I think the American people deserve to know who is either on board or not on board with this DoD spending bill at some point."

Defense hawks have lamented that their legislation is caught in a dispute that's unrelated to military spending.

"What's happening is the military is being held hostage to these procedural votes, so that can't happen," Calvert said. "Our enemies are looking at us every day. And our friends, too. Where are we when it comes to national security?"

Garcia and Calvert were joined at a press conference by GOP Reps. Rich McCormick of Georgia, a Marine veteran, Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, a retired Navy SEAL, and Brandon Williams of New York, a former Navy submarine officer.

Republicans have little room to maneuver on the defense bill or any of the other annual federal spending legislation. The Pentagon bill includes conservative provisions on the administration’s abortion travel policy, transgender medical treatments and diversity programs. Biden has threatened to veto the legislation.

McCarthy and Republicans who want to pass the spending bills can afford only four GOP defections.

The lawmakers on Friday argued all Republicans want to see overall spending slashed and shouldn't hold up the Pentagon bill over efforts to cut the non-defense side of the budget.

"I'm calling on the people in my party and the other party who are refusing to get on board with this bill … to really think, reflect for a long period of time about what they're doing," Van Orden said. "And if that's not helping, I'd be more than happy to get on a plane with any one of them and fly to one of these conflict zones … and I'll show you what you're mucking about with."

Even if they can pass the defense bill, the right-wing legislation stands no chance of clearing the Democratic Senate.

Conservatives are pressuring McCarthy to take a hard-line approach as part of any stopgap bill to fund the government past Sept. 30, despite the fact that doing so would be rejected by the Senate and heighten the odds of a shutdown. But McCarthy’s detractors could move to strip his gavel if he endorses a clean funding patch.

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U.S. military orders new interviews on the deadly 2021 Afghan airport attack as criticism persists

The Pentagon’s Central Command has decided to interview roughly two dozen service members who were at the Kabul airport when suicide bombers attacked during U.S. forces’ chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal but weren’t included in the military’s initial investigation.

The decision, according to officials, does not reopen the administration’s investigation into the deadly bombing and the withdrawal two years ago. But the interviews are meant to see if any of the service members have new or different information. The new interviews were ordered by Gen. Erik Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, and triggered in part by assertions by at least one service member injured in the blast who said he was never interviewed about it and that he may have been able to stop the attackers.

The additional interviews will likely be seized on by congressional critics, mostly Republican, as proof that the administration bungled the probe into the attack, in addition to mishandling the withdrawal. And it may reopen wounds for families of those killed and injured, particularly those who have complained that the Pentagon hasn’t been transparent enough about the bombing that killed 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. servicemen and women.

U.S. Central Command’s investigation concluded in October 2021 that given the worsening security situation at the airport’s Abbey Gate as Afghans became increasingly desperate to flee, “the attack was not preventable at the tactical level without degrading the mission to maximize the number of evacuees.” And, the Pentagon has said that the review of the suicide attack had turned up neither any advance identification of a possible attacker nor any requests for “an escalation to existing rules of engagement” governing use of force by U.S. troops.

Central Command plans to speak with a number of service members who were severely wounded in the bombing at the Abbey Gate and had to be quickly evacuated from the country for medical care. They represent the bulk of the planned interviews, but a few others who weren’t wounded are also included. Officials also did not rule out that the number of interviews could grow as a result of those initial conversations.

“The purpose of these interviews is to ensure we do our due diligence with the new information that has come to light, that the relevant voices are fully heard and that we take those accounts and examine them seriously and thoroughly so the facts are laid bare,” Central Command spokesperson Michael Lawhorn said in a statement.

“These interviews will seek to determine whether those not previously interviewed due to their immediate medical evacuation possess new information not previously considered, and whether such new information, if any, would affect the results of the investigation, and to ensure their personal accounts are captured for historical documentation,” Lawhorn said.

Officials on Friday began informing family members of those killed in the bombing as well as members of Congress about the latest plan. Lt. Gen. Patrick Frank, head of Army Central Command, is overseeing the team conducting the interviews, which is led by Army Brig. Gen. Lance Curtis. Gen. Kurilla has asked Frank to provide an update in 90 days.

In emotional testimony during a congressional hearing in March, former Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews told lawmakers that he was thwarted in an attempt to stop the suicide bombing . He said Marines and others aiding in the evacuation operation were given descriptions of men believed to be plotting an attack before it occurred.

He said he and others spotted two men matching the descriptions and behaving suspiciously, and eventually had them in their rifle scopes, but never received a response about whether to take action.

“No one was held accountable,” Vargas-Andrews told Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas), the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “No one was, and no one is, to this day.”

The March hearing was set up to examine the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal. Taliban forces seized the Afghan capital, Kabul, far more rapidly than U.S. intelligence had foreseen as American forces pulled out. Kabul’s fall turned the West’s withdrawal into a frenzy, putting the airport at the center of a desperate air evacuation by U.S. troops.

In April, President Joe Biden’s administration laid blame on his predecessor, President Donald Trump, for the deadly withdrawal. A 12-page summary of the results of the “hotwash” of U.S. policies around the ending of the nation’s longest war asserts that Biden was “severely constrained” by Trump’s decisions.

It acknowledges that the evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan should have started sooner, but blames the delays on the Afghan government and military, and on U.S. military and intelligence community assessments.

The administration has refused to release detailed reviews conducted by the State Department and the Pentagon, saying they are highly classified.

The White House summary says that when Biden entered office, “the Taliban were in the strongest military position that they had been in since 2001, controlling or contesting nearly half of the country.”

A review by U.S. Inspector-General for Afghanistan John Sopko concluded that actions taken by both the Trump and Biden administrations were key to the sudden collapse of the Afghan government and military, before U.S. forces completed their withdrawal in August 2021.

That includes Trump’s one-sided withdrawal deal with the Taliban, and the abruptness of Biden’s pullout of both U.S. contractors and troops from Afghanistan, stranding an Afghan air force that previous administrations had failed to make self-supporting, the review concluded.

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UAW calls on Biden to do more, as its leader expresses private frustrations

The self proclaimed most “pro-union president in American history” is under fire from the leader of the most high-profile union in America.

Shawn Fain, head of the United Auto Workers, has privately expressed his frustration with Joe Biden, wanting the president and other Democratic lawmakers to come out more aggressively in support of his union, which launched a strike Friday against the so-called Big Three automakers.

Fain’s frustration was conveyed by five people familiar with his thinking, who were granted anonymity to describe his position. One of those five described him as “not happy” with the situation. And Fain’s not the only person in Michigan who isn’t thrilled with the way Biden and his team have handled the labor dispute.

Fain was also set to put out remarks, which were exclusively obtained by POLITICO, calling on Biden to get involved.

"We agree with Joe Biden when he says ‘record profits mean record contracts.’ We don’t agree when he says negotiations have broken down. Our national elected negotiators and UAW leadership are hard at work at the bargaining table. Our members and allies are standing strong at the picket lines. Anyone who wants to stand with us can grab a sign and hold the line,” he said, as part of a larger statement.

“The companies and the media want to use fear tactics about how we’re going to wreck the economy. We’re not going to wreck the economy. The truth is we are going to wreck the billionaire economy. Working people are not afraid. You know who’s afraid? The corporate media is afraid. The White House is afraid. The companies are afraid."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the statement.

Fain has made positive comments about Biden in the past, saying in August that “we appreciate President Biden’s support for strong contracts that ensure good-paying union jobs” and applauding the administration for “doing its part to reject the false choice between a good job and a green job.”

But the mounting discontent with the administration comes at a delicate time: with the UAW embarking on a walkout that will hit three major U.S. car companies at once. It’s a move aimed at maximizing the union’s negotiating leverage, but one that also threatens to saddle Biden with fresh economic challenges. The union is starting by striking at three plants, but said it will add more if needed as talks drag on.

White House aides spent the last several weeks in close contact with both union leaders and carmaker executives in hopes of brokering a “win-win” deal and avoiding a strike, engaging both parties but being careful not to intervene. Many lawmakers saw that position as reasonable given the economic consequences of such a shutdown. But now that the strike is in motion, the union and its progressive supporters believe Biden needs to play a more assertive role in rallying the public to the workers’ side.

There is also a sense among some Democrats and labor officials that Biden’s team miscalculated the standoff and hasn’t understood the severity of labor’s frustration or concerns. Even the news this week that the Biden administration was considering providing aid to auto suppliers rankled some in the union world, who thought it could undermine the strike and saw it as evidence that there are always funds available for companies, but not workers.

In public remarks on Friday, Biden said that while "no one wants a strike,” he supports collective bargaining and understands “the workers’ frustration.” He stopped short of backing the walkout and argued that the companies have made significant offers.

“I believe they should go further,” said Biden. “Record-setting profits should be shared with record-setting contracts.”

Biden also said he was dispatching acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and White House adviser Gene Sperling, who has been his point person on talks between the UAW and the Big 3, to Detroit to support both sides. On Thursday, Biden talked privately with both Fain and the automaker CEOs.

Biden's speech on Friday won applause from some progressives for offering a measure of support for the autoworkers' position. Faiz Shakir, a longtime adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said in a text on his way to the picket line that it was notable the president appeared to characterize the need for the companies' record profits to translate into a record contract for their workers.

Biden has staked his reelection campaign on his pro-union bonafides, a green energy revolution, and the health of the American economy. Both the strike and the discontent of UAW, a powerful union headquartered in the critical battleground state of Michigan, threatens to put a dent in all of his priorities. Fain announced earlier this year the union was holding off on endorsing Biden, whose administration he has criticized for giving out billions in clean-energy subsidies without demanding higher pay and more protections for workers.

Jennifer Haberkorn and Eugene Daniels contributed to this report.

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