Tunde Sulaiman 
The Biden administration was not told for days that US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin had been hospitalised, at least one official has told US media. Austin, 70, was admitted to the Walter Reed Medical Centre on Monday due to complications following surgery.
An official told the BBC’s US partner CBS that the White House was not informed of this until at least Thursday morning. Austin has accepted responsibility for the lack of communication. “I recognise I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed,” he said in a statement. The defence secretary sits just below the president in the chain of command for the US military
