Image source, EPA

We're ending our live coverage of another busy day in politics in Washington DC, as US President Joe Biden hosted world leaders met for the Nato summit - and at the same time Democratic officials debated whether Biden should still be their presidential nominee.

Thank you for joining us as we brought you the news and analysis from all the developments.

You can read more about today's stories below:

Biden's bruising day sinks hopes Democrats will move on

Top Democratic fundraiser Clooney calls on Biden to drop out

What is Nato, which countries are members?

This page was edited by Brandon Livesay, Caitlin Wilson, Laura Blasey, Phil McCausland and Alex Therrien.

Our writers were Max Matza, Ana Faguy, Bernd Debusmann, Gabriela Pomeroy, Yaroslav Lukov, Barbara Tasch, Ben Hatton and Alex Smith.

It's been another big day in Washington DC for US President Joe Biden, as he juggles Nato meetings with concerns from Democrats about his ability to win re-election.

As he greeted world leaders one-by-one, and gathering for the so-called "family photo", news emerged that one of his top donors had published a piece calling for him to step aside.

Actor George Clooney wrote in the New York Times that the Biden he saw at a fundraiser three weeks did not resemble the man of his youth.

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi also did him no favours by refusing to weigh in on Biden's electability, instead telling MSNBC in an interview that the decision to remain in the race was Biden's alone.

Meanwhile, Biden continues to lose support from Democrats in Congress. Multiple lawmakers have now called for him to move aside to be replaced with someone younger.

Every public event Biden participates in has become another crucial test he must pass, as voters and analysts watch to see if he can recover from his widely criticised debate performance last week.

As the Nato summit continues on Thursday, Biden will participate in a rare solo news conference with news media. It is the latest make-or-break moment for the 81-year-old US leader.

Russia reacts to news of fighter jets sent to Ukrainepublished at 00:10 11 July

00:10 11 July

Steven Rosenberg
Moscow correspondent

Earlier, the Nato alliance announced that F-16 fighter jets are being sent to Ukraine.

Predictably, there’s been an angry response in Moscow.

“This is proof that Washington heads the gang of war,” Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told the Tass news agency.

There’s no sense of surprise, though. Russia expected that Nato would agree to provide additional military assistance to Kyiv.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov had already said that the Kremlin would pay “maximum possible attention” to the Nato summit.

That is not because Russia fears that Ukraine will be offered Nato membership; the Russian authorities know that’s not on the table right now. It’s more that Moscow wants to see what kind of pledges and promises will be made to Ukraine and what impact they’re likely to have on Russia’s war there.

Jonny Beale
BBC News, reporting from Washington

Other world leaders are also gathered in Washington for the Nato anniversary summit.

I spoke with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis earlier today.

According to him, Nato needs Britain’s leadership on defence spending. Landsbergis told me that “it’s best to lead by showing a good example”.

Landsbergis sad that if Britain wanted to show leadership, “we need Britain active, we need Britain spending on its own defences”.

Lithuania’s foreign minister hailed Poland as setting a good example - by boosting its defence spending to 4 percent of GDP. “We want to be on a par with them,” he said.

Britain’s defence secretary, John Healey, has said the new government will ensure the UK is the leading European nation in Nato. He said the government would increase defence spending 2.5% of GDP. But he wasn’t able to say by when. In contrast, a number of European nations have already exceeded that target.

Landsbergis said, “the numbers are clear. In order to match Russia’s threat, we need to go beyond 2%, we need to go beyond 3%” of GDP.

Biden welcomed Starmer at the White House Tuesday on the sidelines of the Nato summit, shaking hands with the new British leader and recalling their first phone conversation only days ago.

Biden said the countries were the “best of allies maybe in the whole world”.

"I kinda see you guys as the knot tying the transatlantic alliance together”, he added.

"We really need to cooperate and there’s a lot we can talk about,” he went on.

The president joked about the pair discussing football following England's big win over the Netherlands in the Euros tournament earlier in the day.

Biden then switched topics to discuss the pairs earlier meeting at Nato, saying “things are moving in the right direction, I’m feeling really optimistic".

Starmer echoed the president’s remarks on Nato, saying the alliance is bigger and better than before.

“This special relationship is so important, it’s forged in difficult circumstances." It has "endured for so long and stronger than ever", he added.

Image source, PA Media

Joe Biden and Keir Starmer discussed football, the Nato alliance and their two countries' "special relationship" while meeting at the Oval Office, the stream of which has now ended.

But they did not discuss Biden's difficult few weeks in politics, and the president did not answer reporters' shouted questions about doubts over whether he should continue as the Democratic candidate for president against Donald Trump.

"Is George Clooney wrong?" one journalist asked - referring to the actor's opinion column earlier Wednesday calling on Biden to step aside . Biden did not give a response.

Image source, Getty Images

Biden is hosting the newly-elected British PM Keir Starmer in the Oval Office at the White House for a private one-on-one conversation.

We'll bring you more in the coming moments on what they're saying.

But as you can tell from their smiles, the two leaders appeared to hit it off.

Image source, Getty Images

Joe Biden is meeting the new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House.

You can follow along by clicking the "Watch live" button at the top of this page.

Chris Mason
Political editor, reporting from the White House

As President Biden welcomed Sir Keir Starmer to the Oval Office in the White House, I asked the prime minister, "Is football coming home?"

"It looks like it," Sir Keir told me.

“It’s because of the prime minister”, President Biden added.

The prime minister will be at England's final against Spain in Berlin on Sunday.

Alice Cuddy
BBC News

As new UK PM Keir Starmer meets President Joe Biden in the White House for the first time, lawyers representing migrants stranded on a remote British territory have called on the UK government to intervene after the US blocked a British court hearing there this week.

The supreme court of British Indian Ocean Territory was due to hold a hearing, attended by the BBC, on whether migrants were being unlawfully detained on Diego Garcia, the site of a secretive UK-US military base.

But days before the hearing was due to begin, the US said it was “withdrawing its consent” for lawyers representing the migrants and journalists to access the island. It also said all those arriving with the court, including the judge, would not be permitted to board US military flights and would not be provided with accommodation, transport, or food, until US “security and operational concerns” related to the hearing had been met.

The lawyers have asked new UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who is also in Washington, to “act urgently” to avoid “the potential for a diplomatic row” between the UK and US.

“That the British Indian Ocean Territory Supreme Court has been prevented from sitting in its own territory on Crown land by its rental tenant the United States, is an extraordinary affront to the rule of law,” one of the lawyers said.

Asked by BBC Political Editor Chris Mason about the situation while flying to the summit, Prime Minister Starmer said “there are discussions going on between officials in relation to that as you’d expect,” adding: “We’ll have to see how we get on.”

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the Nato summit

Throughout the course of the day, Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has repeatedly said that he is confident that the US will continue to be a committed member of the Nato alliance - no matter who sits in the White House next year, Biden or Trump.

At a news conference a few moments ago, I asked him whether all 32 members of the Nato alliance share his optimism, despite the fact that domestic concerns about Biden's candidacy have loomed large over the summit.

"Nato is the most successful alliance in history because we have been able to stay out of domestic political debates," he replies. "It's important for me to continue to do what I can to ensure that that continues to be the case."

Stoltenberg also said that the history of Nato is full of examples of elections in which concerns about the alliance have been an issue - including one of his own in Norway - yet Nato survived intact.

"I'm not saying we can always disregard concerns...Nato was not a given in '49, it's not a given now, and it's not a given in the future," he adds. "But the more dangerous the world is, the more obvious it is we need Nato."

"It's a bit like in marriage, you have to commit every day," he says. "But it's proven extremely reliable, this alliance, because it is in the interest of all of us to stand together. That also applies for the United States."

President Biden's team has responded to criticism from George Clooney after the actor wrote in the New York Times that Biden should call off his campaign for re-election due to his age.

Clooney wrote that the Biden he met at a fundraising event three weeks ago was very different than the man that he used to be.

A source familiar with event told the New York Times: “The President stayed for over 3 hours, while Clooney took a photo quickly and left.”

Chris Mason
Political editor, reporting from the White House

Hello from the White House briefing room.

We are heading in shortly to the Oval Office to see President Biden welcome Sir Keir Starmer, who is visiting Washington for the Nato summit.

The big question: is football coming home?

On the latest Newscast episode, Adam is joined by BBC Political Editor Chris Mason and Today programme and Americast presenter Justin Webb to discuss the meeting of world leaders, including the under pressure US President Joe Biden and new British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the NATO summit in Washington.

You can listen on BBC Sounds or your podcast app.

The temperature is rising in Washington DC today, both literally and figuratively: it's a sticky 95F (35C) in the capital as talk of replacing Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate continues to dominate much of the conversation in the city.

But the town is also playing host to a bevy of world leaders at the Nato 75th anniversary summit.

And just as Biden and other politicians have had to juggle the two main topics of the day, we're also managing the best way to bring you the latest on both of these stories.

So far today we've seen powerful Democratic Representative and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi say Biden needs to make a decision soon on whether he's going to stay in the race, despite the president's insistence that he is running. And major Democratic donor and Hollywood star George Clooney wrote in the New York Times that he thinks Biden should step aside so another candidate can take his place.

Meanwhile, Biden has been meeting with world leaders and addressing the Nato summit, as the alliance has confirmed more fighter jets to be sent to Ukraine to assist in their war with Russia.

And in a bit, Biden is expected to meet new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in town for Nato.

Stick with us.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries was pressed on whether he is expressing the growing concerns of the Democratic party directly to Biden, as more members of Jeffries' caucus convey publicly their thoughts.

Jeffries is expected to convey concerns directly to Biden this week, according to CBS, the BBC's American news partner.

"We are continuing to have candid and clear-eyed conversations with the House Democratic Caucus throughout the week, and that is the focus of our activity today, tomorrow and we'll see where we go from there," Jeffries said on Capitol Hill.

Amid questions over Joe Biden's fitness, top White House aides have been subpoenaed by the Republican-led House Oversight Committee to testify about the president's health, Axios reported.

Anthony Bernal, an aide to First Lady Jill Biden, Annie Tomasini, deputy chief of staff to Joe Biden, and Ashley Williams, a senior advisor, were all called to testify. Axios described the aides as "low profile" but "very influential".

The requests - from a House that has been eager to investigate the Biden administration on several issues - come as questions continue to loom over Biden's potential second term in office.

But the White House has already pushed back, described the subpoenas as "a baseless political stunt" done for media attention.

Rebecca Hartmann
BBC News, reporting from Pennsylvania

As Democratic officials grapple with the question of whether they think Joe Biden should continue as their party's nominee for president, regular voters are asking themselves the same question.

We're visiting an area on the outskirts of Harrisburg in the swing state of Pennsylvania, where Biden held a rally over the weekend. It could be key to his victory in 2024.

But voters have mixed feelings about Biden's poor debate performance two weeks ago.

“Neither one of (the candidates) represented themselves very well, but Biden was hard to watch. He embarrassed himself,” Jerry Medvidovich tells us.

Democrat Karren Gillchrist says she is firmly behind Biden. For her, his experience makes him the best candidate.

"You’re talking about a man who has been in politics for how many years. He knows exactly what he’s talking about," she tells us.

Twenty minutes away at a local shop in Elizabethtown, Christina Kyllonen tells us she was "floored" at how Biden came across at the debate.

“He just seems very tired and not very coherent these days," she says.

Kyllonen tells us that while she would love a different Democratic nominee, she still plans to vote for Biden.

"At this point it’s a vote against Trump, not a vote for Biden,” she adds.

Down the road, Democratic voter Melissa Nash is working on her laptop in a café. She thought Biden struggled to be articulate during the debate, and says the performance could influence her decision for November.

“I’m torn because I’m not a fan of Trump, but at the same time you need somebody strong to lead the country," she tells the BBC.